SW 6203 - Integrated Behavioral Health Practice

During the past 3 decades, the provision of health care services in the U.S. has changed dramatically due to many factors, including changes in patients’ health care needs and demographics (e.g., increasingly older patient population with chronic rather than acute illnesses), an increase in the complexity of the psychosocial determinants of health impacting these patients (including disparities), changes in the health care industry as care moves from inpatient to more community-based settings, and the evolution of continuum-based models of payment for health care services. With the bio-psycho-socio-spiritual perspective of the patient and his/her support system, the health care social worker as a member of the medical team is uniquely equipped to address these increasingly complex patient characteristics as the patient moves through an episode of care within the various settings of the health care continuum. This 3-credit practice course will equip 2nd year MSW students with the knowledge, skills and values needed to practice within the changing health care industry, and will prepare students in the competencies which health care settings increasingly require as they themselves adapt to these changing conditions.