Social workers and substance-abusing clients: Caseload composition and competency self-ratings

Past research and reports from the field have described social workers as h aving a host of negative responses to alcohol- and drug-abusing clients. So me found that substance abuse training increased social workers' sense of s ecurity and legitimacy in the therapeutic role with such clients. We report on 23 master's level social workers (MSWs) who completed an intensive g-mo nth substance abuse training program (trainees) and 22 MSW comparison subje cts (comparisons). Both trainees and comparisons completed caseload forms i dentifying their clients by diagnosis and self-rated their competence to as sess and treat each client. We predicted that workers trained in substance abuse, when compared with workers who lacked such intensive training, would (a) assess and treat more substance-abusing clients, (b) work with more co mplex substance-abusing clients (i.e., dually diagnosed clients), and (c) p erceive themselves to be more competent to assess and treat substance-abusi ng clients. No significant differences were found between trainees and comp arisons on relevant background variables. Using the t-test statistic to com pare groups, we found that social workers trained in substance abuse had mo re substance abuse cases, with and without additional diagnoses, and rated themselves higher on two of six competency measures: in intervening with cl ients when all diagnoses were combined and in intervening when substance ab use only diagnoses were combined. This study takes the work a step further in demonstrating how social workers translate substance abuse training into practice. However, findings must be interpreted cautiously since training participants were not assigned randomly and selection bias may have been op erating. The study is relevant for other health, mental health, and human s ervice professionals for whom negative attitudes and behavior toward substa nce-abusing clients may be influenced by education and training.