Concept

Clinical social work

Summary
Clinical social work is a specialty within the broader profession of social work. The American Board of Clinical Social Work (ABCSW) defines clinical social work as "a healthcare profession based on theories and methods of prevention and treatment in providing mental-health/healthcare services, with special focus on behavioral and bio-psychosocial problems and disorders". The National Association of Social Workers defines clinical social work as "a specialty practice area of social work which focuses on the assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental illness, emotional, and other behavioral disturbances. Individual, group and family therapy are common treatment modalities". Clinical social work applies social work theory and knowledge drawn from human biology, the social sciences, and the behavioral sciences. Many suggest that the roots of clinical social work began with the social casework methods used by Charity Organization Societies around 1877 to 1883. In 1898, the first U.S. social work class was offered at Columbia University by the New York Charity Organization Society. In 1904 Simmons College, in collaboration with Harvard University, established the Boston School for Social Workers. Also, in 1904, Columbia University offered the first graduate program in social work, although it was not named the New York School of Social Work until 1917. In 1917 Mary E. Richmond conceptualized social casework in her text Social Diagnosis. The term social casework began to fade from use after 1920 and the term psychiatric social work became more in common as well as the application of psychoanalytic theory. Ehrenkranz reported that the first use of the term clinical social work was in 1940 at the Louisiana State University School of Social Work which offered a clinical curriculum. The National Federation of Societies for Clinical Social Work was established in 1971, which later became the Clinical Social Work Association in 2006. The Clinical Social Work Journal began in 1973 shortly after founding of the National Federation of Societies for Clinical Social Work.
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