Alabama Administrative Code › Title 850 - ALABAMA STATE BOARD OF SOCIAL WORK EXAMINERS › Chapter 850-X-2 - DEFINITIONS › Section 850-X-2-.01 - Definitions Of Terms

Current through Register Vol. 42, No. 9, June 28, 2024
(1) To
			 the extent not defined within these rules and regulations,
Code of
			 Ala. 1975
, §
								34-30-1 (1991) also provides for
			 definitions of the following terms: Board; Social Work; Social Work Practice;
			 Social Work Specialty; Social Work Method; Full-Time Social Work; Part-Time
			 Social Work.
(2)
Social Work
			 Practice.
The Board defines social work practice as including both
			 direct and indirect practice. Direct practice includes the delivery of services
			 to individuals, families, groups, and communities. Indirect practice includes
			 conducting research into problems of human behavior and conflict, and applying
			 principles and techniques of consultation, social planning, administration, and
			 supervision. The teaching of social work by an individual employed in social
			 work education and presenting him/herself to the public as a social worker is
			 considered social work practice.
(3)
Social Work Method.
Areas of
			 practice methods include the following:
(a)
Social Casework.
A method of helping people based on knowledge,
			 understanding, and the use of techniques skillfully applied to helping
			 individuals solve and manage problems. It is individualized and although
			 scientific, i.e., derives its understanding from the disciplines of science,
			 also includes artistic effort. It helps individuals with personal as well as
			 external environmental difficulties. It is a matter of helping through a
			 relationship that taps personal and other resources for coping with problems.
Interviewing is a major tool of social casework.
(b)
Clinical Social Work
			 Practice.
1. Clinical social work
			 shares with all social work practice the goal of enhancement and maintenance of
			 psychosocial functioning of individuals, families, and small groups. Clinical
			 social work practice is the professional application of social work theory and
			 methods to the treatment and prevention of psychosocial dysfunction,
			 disability, or impairment, including emotional and mental disorders. It is
			 based on knowledge of one or more theories of human development within a
			 psychosocial context. The perspective of person-in-situation is central to
			 clinical social work practice. Clinical social work includes interventions
			 directed to interpersonal interactions, intrapsychic dynamics, and life-support
			 and management issues.
2. Clinical
			 social work is a specialized area of social work practice that includes
			 assessment, diagnosis, treatment, client centered advocacy, evaluation and
			 treatment of behavioral, mental, developmental or emotional disorders;
			 including psychotherapy and counseling; client-centered advocacy; and
			 evaluation. It includes direct client intervention, client centered supervision
			 and client centered consultation. It involves the scientific, artful, ethical
			 application of social work theories and methods of assessment, opinions,
			 diagnosis, prevention and treatment. Assessment of interpersonal relationships,
			 mental health status, family dynamics, environmental stresses and supports,
			 social systems and the impact of physical, emotional and mental illness and
			 disability on functioning are the emphasis of clinical social work
			 practice.
3. Clinical social
			 workers cannot practice outside their scope of practice. The scope of practice
			 does not include the diagnosis, treatment, or provision of advice to a client
			 for problems or complaints relating to conditions outside the boundaries of the
			 practice of social work. For the purposes of this section, the terms diagnose
			 and treatment, whether considered in isolation or in conjunction with the rules
			 of the board, may not be construed to permit the performance of any act which a
			 licensed clinical social worker is not educated or trained to perform
			 including, but not limited to, any of the following:
(1) Administering and interpreting
			 psychological tests for intellectual, neuropsychological, personality, or
			 projective instruments.
(2)
			 Admitting any individual to a hospital for treatment of any condition that is
			 outside the boundaries of the practice of social work, as provided in
			 subsection (b). Treating any individual in a hospital setting without medical
			 supervision.
(4) Prescribing
			 medicinal drugs.
(5) Authorizing
			 clinical laboratory procedures or radiological procedures.
(6) Using electroconvulsive therapy. Nothing
			 in this section shall be construed to create a requirement that any health
			 benefit plan, group insurance plan, policy, or contract for health care
			 services that covers hospital, medical, or surgical expenses, health
			 maintenance organizations, preferred provider organizations, medical service
			 organizations, physician-hospital organizations, or any other individual, firm,
			 corporation, joint venture, or other similar business entity that pays for,
			 purchases, or furnishes group health care services to patients, insureds, or
			 beneficiaries in this state, including entities created pursuant to Article 6,
			 commencing with Section
			 10A-20-6.01 of Chapter 20, Title
			 10A,
Code of Ala. 1975
, provide coverage or
			 reimbursement for the services described or authorized in this
			 section."
4. Clinical
			 social work also includes crisis intervention, case management and client
			 centered advocacy. Treatment methods are designed to provide the client and
			 opportunity to express himself or herself, and foster an atmosphere of candid
			 self observation, expectations of change and amenability to the social worker's
			 efforts to facilitate such change.
5. The primary focus of the clinical social
			 worker is on the needs, interests and welfare of the client. The goal of
			 clinical social work practice is to relieve a client's psychosocial distress;
			 to help the client to modify barriers that are preventing the client from
			 realizing his or her human potential or enjoying rewarding interpersonal
			 relationships; and to improve the overall functioning of the client. The basic
			 value postulates of social work practice are essential to the
			 process.
(c)
Community Organization
. A conscious process of social interaction
			 and method of social work concerned with bringing about and maintaining
			 adjustment between needs and resources in a community or other areas; helping
			 people to deal more effectively with their problems and objectives by helping
			 them develop, strengthen and maintain qualities of participation,
			 self-direction and cooperation, and bringing about changes in community and
			 group relationships and in the distribution of decision-making power. The
			 community is the primary client in community organizations. The community may
			 be an organization, neighborhood, city, county, state or national
			 entity.