Category: Licensure & Workforce
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Collective Bargaining Can Protect the Conditions of Ethical Social Work
Social work routinely asks practitioners to exercise independent judgment within organizations that control their time, compensation, workload, and access to resources. That arrangement creates a persistent professional tension. An employee may recognize what responsible practice requires while lacking the institutional power to obtain it. Collective bargaining deserves consideration within that tension. It can provide a…
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When a Social Worker Becomes Unavailable, Clients Still Need a Continuity Plan
A social worker’s sudden illness can become a client’s unexpected loss of support. A missed appointment may be followed by unanswered messages, uncertainty about records, and no clear explanation of who has assumed responsibility. The profession should treat preparation for that possibility as part of competent service delivery rather than a private administrative matter. This…
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When Agencies Count Cases Instead of Capacity: The Case for Responsible Social Work Caseloads
An agency can report a growing number of people served while giving each person less meaningful attention. A social worker can carry a caseload that looks manageable on a spreadsheet while spending the week arranging transportation, locating treatment, responding to emergencies, documenting decisions, and covering a vacant position. Counting assigned cases reveals only part of…
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Supervision Is Part of the Service: Social Work Agencies Must Budget for Professional Judgment
An agency can schedule every hour of a social worker’s day and still leave out one of the activities that makes the work responsible. When supervision is repeatedly postponed because appointments, documentation, and immediate demands take priority, the organization is making a decision about service quality. It is asking workers to carry professional responsibility without…
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Medicare Will Pay for Care Coordination. Social Work Agencies Should Build the Workflow Before October 1
Medicare has created a specific payment for care coordination in the ACCESS Model, and clinical social workers should pay close attention. Licensed clinical social workers who are enrolled in Medicare Part B have been eligible to bill the ACCESS Co Management Payment since July 5, 2026. Federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics become…
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UnitedHealthcare’s Coaching Model Challenges Social Work to Explain Its Value
UnitedHealthcare’s use of behavioral coaches raises a serious question for social work: what happens when an insurer can offer practical emotional support through a shorter and potentially less expensive route than licensed clinical treatment? The answer could affect clinical referrals, wages, professional responsibilities, and the case that universities make for a social work degree. It…
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Social Work Agencies Should Give Peer Recovery Workers Authority, Support, and Fair Pay
Recovery Month offers social work agencies an opportunity to examine how they employ people with lived experience of substance use disorders. Inviting a peer worker to a meeting can signal inclusion, but the more revealing questions concern pay, supervision, decision making, and working conditions. Agencies that value this contribution should show it in the structure…
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The AmeriCorps Settlement Gives Social Work Agencies a Reason to Plan for Service Continuity
A funding dispute can become a service problem long before a community organization closes its doors. Staff must decide whether to recruit, supervisors must plan assignments, and residents need to know whether the help they depend on will remain available. The AmeriCorps settlement announced September 10 offers a timely reason for social work agencies to…
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Vermont’s $11.7 Million Rural Care Investment Needs Social Workers at the Center
On September 10, 2026, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced $11.7 million for rural health care in Vermont. The investment could expand access and strengthen fragile services. It will fall short, however, if workforce planning treats social workers as peripheral to rural care. The initiative includes $9 million in tuition benefits for health…
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How Psychotherapy Became a Center of Social Work, and What That Shift Can Leave Behind
Social work should be able to relieve emotional suffering and help change the conditions producing it. The danger arises when the profession’s educational priorities, career incentives, and available jobs make treatment of individuals more attainable than sustained work on housing, income, services, and community power. This first article in The Social Work Reformer’s three part…