6.8 Clinical Social Worker

Minimum Education / Qualifications

All Clinical Social Workers must possess, as a minimum:

1. A Baccalaureate Degree or a Master’s Degree in Social Work (Specialization: Clinical or Mental Health) from a recognized university accredited by Canadian Association for Social Work Education (CASWE)
2. A Certificate of BLS for Healthcare Provider or equivalent such as CPR/AED Level C. Annual recertification is required
3. Unrestricted licence and in “good standing” from the provincial or territorial regulatory body in the province/territory of practice

Minimum Experience

The Clinical Social Worker  must have, as a minimum, one (1) year of full time equivalent experience in the last five (5) years performing clinical social work related activities such as intake and assessment, crisis intervention, outreach, psychosocial assessment and treatment planning in a mental health care environment, using various evidence-based psychosocial counselling approaches, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Solution-focused therapy, and providing psychosocial assessment, therapy and counselling services to clients and their families.

The required services/tasks may include, but are not limited to the following:

• Provide individual, family, and crisis or emergency assessments
• Perform psychosocial and mental health interventions such as individual, family or group assessment, treatment planning and therapy, followed by evaluation of treatment and therapeutic outcome
• Analyze clients’ needs and provide information and advice to them and their families related to access to appropriate services and resources
• Present client’s case with recommendations to the inter-disciplinary health care teams to develop an individualized treatment plan
• Provide advice and support with and on behalf of clients in relation to rights, services and resources to ensure that clients are receiving the full spectrum of care
• Participate in the provision of multi-disciplinary care by ensuring clients receive prescribed treatment and services by the multi-disciplinary team and monitor the clients’ progress
• Facilitate educational activities and group interventions, psychosocial services overview presentations, and group psycho-educational sessions
• Implement new interventions or treatment approaches such as telemedicine and virtual reality therapy
• Document client interactions in accordance with relevant policies and standards and with the provincial regulatory organization’s Standards of Practice for Social worker’s related to documentation
• Distribute local outreach material such as mental health awareness materiel
• Provide clinical advice, within social work scope of practice, to other health care providers
• Other associated tasks relevant to this occupational group