ADVANCED PRACTITIONERS IN CLINICAL SOCIAL-WORK - A PROFILE

Concerned about the lack of information about clinical social workers and their practices, the authors used data from a larger study to anal yze four dimensions of the self-reported clinical practices of a natio nal random sample of experienced clinical social workers having state licensure and certification credentials at the advanced practice level and providing clinical services in public, nonprofit, and for-profit settings. This sample of 2,640 advanced practitioners in clinical soci al work was predominantly female (69 percent) and white (94 percent) a nd had a median of 22 years post-MSW practice experience. Multiple reg ression analyses of factors including number and types of clients in c aseload, date of MSW degree, service hours per targeted client system, and restrictive mental health insurance coverage yielded statisticall y significant correlations and accounted for significant portions of t he variance in respondents' use of time-framed practice models. The st udy profile depicts the resondents' practices as diverse in terms of s etting, clients, theoretical frameworks, and practice models and their basic professional orientation as including a person-in-society view practice.