Being a Dual Professional - Guest Blog Post Julianne Blackburn - (Dec 20')

Juliann Blackburn LMSW, MPH
 (Dec '20)

Being a dual professional means being able to look at problems from multiple lenses. It means incorporating knowledge and skills from multiple disciplines to develop innovative programs that address a need at multiple levels. Before coming into this program, my roles in many of my jobs were limited to addressing a problem from only one viewpoint. The agencies I worked for had limited types of assistance they could provide, and they evaluated outcomes based on the symptoms of the specific problems they were able to address. While these services benefitted clients, I often found myself frustrated with the small amount of progress we were able to make. I felt like we were simply putting a band-aid on a larger problem and were not using resources in a way that maximized benefit to the community. Often, many of the challenges clients faced could have been prevented if programs and policies had been implemented to address the issue. There were many times when the root cause of a client's problem was beyond the scope of services that agencies could provide. Yes, some of their immediate needs were met, but these services were not sustainable long term. The clients were entering a cycle of dependency, and agencies were not able to provide services in a way that helped to empower their clients. Even with an awareness of this challenge, there was little that could be done in many positions to change it. So often the solutions that we were working towards failed to consider a holistic perspective of the issue. As dual degree professionals, we are trained in both the prevention and treatment of problems at multiple levels. The dual degree professional can look at problems and consider ideas and solutions that combine core tenants of both fields. They can understand how to effectively plan, implement, and evaluate prevention interventions. At the same time, they understand the person-in-environment perspective of causes of problems and effective treatment options at both the micro and macro levels.

Both social work and public health are grounded in the idea that inequalities in society are the result of systematic disadvantages (Jackson, 2015). They work to promote social justice by considering the social determinants of health at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, community, and policy levels (Bachman, 2017). These professionals understand that many of the problems that people face are not the fault of the individual but are instead a result of broken systems and structures that prevent individuals from having access to the resources and services needed to reduce these disparities. These are problems that have been around for decades and require the integration of ideas from different disciplines to tackle effectively. The strengths of both social workers and public health practitioners are crucial to the creation and implementation of innovative programs to meet the diverse needs of our communities. Public Health practitioners understand the process for analyzing the needs of a population and using evidence-based practices to tailor an intervention to a specific population. Likewise, social workers can use a strengths-based approach to capitalize on the existing resources in individuals and communities. They are then able to mobilize those resources to address the short, medium, and long-term needs of the community. Competencies of these professions, specifically the emphasis on both problem solving and prevention, used in a transdisciplinary environment can lead to some of the most effective and innovative solutions to the most significant challenges in both social work and public health. The ability to address these issues from multiple perspectives in a way that incorporates ideas from both disciplines into one idea is a growing need that is vital in our fight to achieve social justice and reduce health disparities in our society.

- Julianne Blackburn graduated from the MSW/MPH program in December 2020. Julianne is currently working at Mercy Health Center. 

View Julianne's LinkedIn Profile. 


References

• Bachman, S.S. (2017). Social Work and Public Health: Charting the Course for Innovation. American Journal of Public Health, 107 (S3), S220.
• Jackson, K. (2015). Public Health Social Work: Now more than ever. Social Work Today, 15 (6), 12.