Health Practice Tools

The Affordable Care Act, signed into law in 2010, has already made meaningful improvements to the U.S. health care system and has established a number of consumer benefits. The ACA’s most significant feature begins on January 1, 2014, when many uninsured Americans will have access to health insurance, some for the first time. Here’s a primer on how the law might affect you.

Advance care planning is a process that enables individuals to determine and communicate their goals for health care. Clients’ engagement in advance care planning varies widely and may be influenced by multiple factors. Such variation requires reexamination of assumptions underlying the U.S. health care paradigm. To facilitate advance care planning effectively, social workers must understand each client’s values and biopsychosocial context and tailor interventions accordingly.

As the U.S. health care system undergoes rapid change, health care social work is also transforming at a swift pace. Under the auspices of NASW and the Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care (SSWLHC), social work leaders and health experts from around the nation convened in Washington, DC on February 25th 2013, to discuss the current state of health care social work and develop recommendations for strengthening this fundamental area of practice. Meeting participants represented practice settings across the health care continuum including, acute care, behavioral health, oncology, palliative and hospice care, pediatrics, primary care, public health, and veteran’s health.

What should members expect as a result of changes made by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010? This guide lists the key changes that social workers should expect to see.

Though case management has been integral to social work since the founding of the social work profession, the practice of case management has changed greatly over the past century. NASW's standards for social work case management revised in 2013, reflect this evolving context and reinforce the social work profession's leadership role in case management. The practice perspective includes case examples illustrating how the revised standards may be applied with a variety of client populations across practice settings.