CSWE Awarded $500K SAMHSA Grant for Practitioner Education in Substance Use Disorders

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) has been awarded a grant of nearly $500,000 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to expand substance use disorder (SUD) practitioner education in social work. The 2-year project will implement a high-quality standardized SUD curriculum, which will strengthen the preparation of future social work practitioners to deliver effective, evidence-based SUD prevention, treatment, and recovery services.
 
The standardized SUD curriculum will align with the social work competencies the social work competencies identified in the 2015 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards and CSWE’s substance use curricular guide, currently in development. The project will also include a field education component, which will allow students to gain experience with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities affected by an SUD.
 
CSWE hosted a meeting November 6–8 with 22 schools and partner organizations to assist in the development of the SUD curriculum. These programs are committed to piloting the curriculum, collecting data through the student competency assessment matrix, and supporting programs that implement the SUD curriculum in the second year of the program.

During the 3-day meeting, participants determined substance use competencies and drafted curricular components mapped to each competency of the 2015 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards. They also determined assessment measures, developed an implementation plan, and discussed supports needed.
 
CSWE thanks the following partner schools and organizations for their time, effort, and participation: Albany State University, Augsburg University, Boston University, Cleveland State University, East Carolina University, Eastern Washington University, Fayetteville State University, Howard University, Indiana State University, Marshall University, Monmouth University, Morgan State University, Norfolk State University, Southern Connecticut State University, The College of St. Scholastica, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Maryland, Baltimore, University of Nevada Las Vegas, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, University of Utah, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Yeshiva University.