clinical social work

Clinical social work is a healthcare profession based on theories and methods of prevention and treatment in providing behavioral healthcare (mental health and substance use disorder) services, with special focus on bio-psycho-social-spiritual problems and disorders. Clinical social work’s unique attributes include use of the person-in-environment perspective, strengths perspective,systems theory, respect for the privacy of client rights, and strong therapeutic alliance between client and practitioner, using evidenced based best practices. With 200,000 practitioners serving millions of client consumers, clinical social workers constitute the largest group of behavioral healthcare providers in the nation.