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Scaling up evidence-based treatments in youth behavioral healthcare: Social work licensing influences on task-shifting opportunities.

Cole HooleyGenevieve GraafGeetha Gopalan
Published in: Human service organizations, management, leadership & governance (2021)
Youth behavioral healthcare workforce shortages have inhibited the scale-up of evidence-based treatments to address longstanding unmet needs andinequitable service coverage. Task-shifting is a strategy that could bolster workforce shortages. Legal and regulatory barriers, such as scope of practice licensing regulations, have hampered the use of task-shifting. Social workers make up the majority of the behavioral healthcare workforce in the U.S. and most social workers provide services to children and families. As such, social workers would play a pivotal role in any scale-up effort. In this guest editorial, we discuss the importance of social work licensing and use a case example to illustrate the unintended consequences that certain licensing regulations have on scaling-up evidence-based treatments via task-shifting. We conclude with recommendations on how social workers could be involved in taskshifting efforts to scale-up evidence-based treatments.
Keyphrases
  • healthcare
  • mental health
  • public health
  • young adults
  • physical activity
  • affordable care act
  • quality improvement
  • health insurance
  • health information