Guest Post by Mary Bills (Dec '18)

Mary Bills, MSW/MPH Student (Dec '18)

In my opinion, being a dual professional and being able to work inter-disciplinarily are two different things but compliment each other. Working inter-professionally to me means being able to represent your discipline at a table full of professionals from other disciplines, and collaborate effectively on issues by approaching them from the different disciplines. As dual degree professionals, we have a unique perspective that allows us to incorporate multiple disciplines to our inter-professional work. Being able to wear two “different hats” and represent both social work and public health in an interdisciplinary setting is a unique skill set specifically dual degree professionals can supply. This unique perspective we are gaining through the University of Georgia’s MSW/MPH program became more apparent through out the semester in our inter-professional identity development, as well through the progression of the program as a whole. 

I often find myself using my social work lens in my public health classes, to bring up issues of marginalization or gaps in services more traditionally thought of in social work, such as mental health services or case management. One of the things I have enjoyed a lot about the dual program thus far is the way that the two lenses overlap to create new opportunities for research and interventions. An example of this is the Sexual Health Education Program that I designed for my resource development and program implementation class. I was able to design what would be traditionally thought of as a public health intervention, for my social work field placement agency, which serves youth in foster care. Throughout my research in developing this intervention, I was able to learn more about the population I was serving every week, assess gaps in social services, and create a health education program for a vulnerable population. This kind of overlap was the reason that I chose the MSW/MPH program, so that I would develop skill sets to serve marginalized populations through clinical and larger scale interventions.

Although the overlap is great, there is always a sense of differentiation between public health and social work that students of the program are constantly trying to navigate. This is not a unique problem for dual degree students, as it was explored in the McCelland (1985) article, Joint Degrees: Do They Strengthen or Weaken the Profession?, which found that students in dual degree programs often over identify with one profession over the other.  While I do feel that I identify more as a social worker, I don’t feel that this in any way devalues my interest or passion for public health. I have wanted to become a therapist for years, so an MSW was a natural path for me to obtain that goal. When I first applied to the dual program, I knew I would be attending the University’s MSW regardless of my acceptance into the MPH program. However, as I get further into my MPH course work, my appreciation for program interventions and serving population groups over individual clients has grown greatly, and often balances out the frustrations of working with individuals.  I look forward to working at both micro and macro levels in the future, and am only able to do this because of the dual degree program.

Interdisciplinary work is a growing trend as professionals try to tackle population level issues the Grand Challenges of Social Work to “ensure healthy development for all youths” and “stop family violence”  (Williams, 2016). Social workers alone cannot eradicate these issues on our own, and it will take effective collaboration between social workers, medical professionals, law enforcement, and other professions to effectively address multifaceted issues to create a healthier society. As dual degree professionals, we can offer a dual perspective in an interdisciplinary team, and continue to serve vulnerable populations through our interdisciplinary skill sets.

- Mary Bills, MSW/MPH Student, expected graduation December 2018

Visit Mary Bills' LinkedIn profile.

References

Williams, J. H. (2016). Grand challenges for social work: Research, practice and education. NASW

McCelland, R. (1985). Joint degrees: Do they strengthen or weaken the profession? Journal of social work education 21(1), 20-26.