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CSWE Full Circle October 2013

Volume 2013, Issue 10

CSWE White House Briefing

CSWE hosted a White House Briefing “Addressing the Social Determinants of Health in a New Era: The Role of Social Work Education.” The discussion focused on preparing the next generation of social work practitioners for the new paradigm in health professional education and collaborative practice to meet the needs of all Americans. Attendees of the event were to come away with a shared understanding of the future of health care in the United States, broadly defined, and identification of a path forward for social work education in this new era.

The briefing featured panels of White House and federal agency officials speaking on the following topics:

  • Shifting U.S. Demographics: Ensuring Care for All highlighted the changes in our population (such as aging, disabilities, veterans, immigrants, and changing racial and ethnic demographics) and how to meet the needs of these various groups (Speakers: Roslyn Holliday Moore and Aaron Bishop)
  • The New Expectations for Health Care addressed what the new era of health care looks like with respect to integrated care, interprofessional health care teams, and consideration of social determinants of health (Speakers: Anand Parekh and Stephane Philogene)
  • A National Dialogue on Mental Health discussed the Obama Administration’s new and ongoing commitments to ensuring access to behavioral health services, enhancing the mental health workforce, and eliminating the stigma around mental illness (Speakers: Brian Altman and Paolo del Vecchio)
  • Building Capacity to Meet the Need addressed building a health care workforce, including social workers, to meet the health care needs addressed by the earlier panels (Speaker: Marcia Brand)