Guest Post by Samantha Elliott (Dec '17)

Samantha Elliott, MSW/MPH student (Dec '18)

In December of 2017, I plan on officially embarking into the life of a dual professional. In this inter-professional field I will identify myself as both a professional social worker, as well as a professional public health practitioner. In brief, I intend on using the title social work and public health practitioner. To the common bystander this may sound like a mouthful of jargon. In that case, I will proceed to discuss the unique lens through which social work and public health practitioners tackle problems and engage clients.

Listed in the Handbook for Public Health Social Work by Robert Keefe, PhD, ACSW and Elaine Jurkowski, PhD, MSW are the competencies and guidelines directing field practitioners. One such competency shows the intertwined values and beliefs shared between the social work and public health fields. Under the theoretical competencies it states that public health social workers “recognize various strengths, needs, values, and practices of diverse cultural, racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups to determine how these factors affect health status, health behaviors, and program design” (p.366 Keefe, 2012). This competency reveals the social work skill to operate in cultural humility with clients of all backgrounds, while also utilizing the ability to understand how social determinants of health affect those populations. Having that understanding only builds upon the expertise social work and public health practitioners have in creating or evaluating programs for these vulnerable populations.

Because this is a relatively uncommon interdisciplinary skill set, one necessary attribute of social work and public health practitioners is to engage in the collaborative leadership process. Collaborative leadership is the process through which professionals from various disciplines gather and engage in open discussion over a problem with the collaborative leader facilitating the conversation (Community Toolbox, 2014). This competency of the field is also labeled as, “networking inter-multidisciplinary team building and group processes” in the Public Health Social Work Handbook (Keefe, 2012). The uniqueness of this skill is in high demand because the work between professions can quickly come to a standstill due to competing values if the skilled facilitation of the collaborative leader is not present. Social work and public health practitioners excel at these skills and are an asset to all interdisciplinary teams.

Another primary foundation of interdisciplinary social work and public health practitioners is taking the socio-epidemiological approach to prevention and management of health issues (Jackson, 2015). When taking the socio-epidemiological approach, it means asking the question, “What effect do social factors have on individual and population health?” (Honjo, 2004). This is the perfect blend as an interdisciplinary worker because it looks at a client through the lens of a whole-person approach, also known as person-in-environment. Socio-epidemiology also considers the systems approach, taking note of the policies, environmental circumstances, and economics at play affecting the individual and population. This approach is increasingly necessary as culture continues to shift and grow.

In summary, being an interdisciplinary social work and public health practitioner is a wonderful gift. It encourages humility, constant learning, honor for all professions and the engagement of colleagues around you who might not see the world the same way you do. These differences are not to be squandered, but uplifted and brought together by interdisciplinary workers in all fields.

- Samantha Elliott, MSW/MPH Candidate, December 2017
Graduate Research Assistant, Economic Evaluation Research Group, College of Public Health

Visit Samantha's LinkedIn Profile.

References
Community Toolbox. (2014). Chapter 13-Section 11: Collaborative Leadership. Community Toolbox. Retrieved from http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/leadership/leadership-ideas/collaborative-leadership/main
Honjo, K. (2004). Social epidemiology: Definition, history, and research examples. Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, 9(5), 193-199. doi:10.1007/BF02898100
Jackson, K. (2015). Public Health Social Work: Now More Than Ever. Social Work Today, 15(6), 12.
Keefe, R. (2012). Handbook for public health social work: Springer Publishing Company.