Current through Register Vol. 42, No. 5, February 29, 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.
(4)
Psychosocial Assessment. The determination of psychosocial
functioning involves a comprehensive process, assessment and evaluation
conducted by the social worker in order to learn about the client. It includes
four levels of analysis: the individual; the interpersonal system; the family
unit and the family's interchange with its social network; and other
environmental or ecological factors. Interviewing is the major tool of
psychosocial assessment. Psychosocial assessment does not include making
diagnoses, nor interpreting of psychological tests.
(5)
Psychotherapy. A
specialized, formal interaction between a social worker and a client
(individual, couple, family or group) in which a therapeutic relationship is
established to help resolve symptoms of mental disorder, psychosocial stress,
relationship problems and difficulties in coping in the social
environment.
(6)
Counseling. Counseling is to render evaluation and therapy that
includes, but is not limited to, providing individual counseling, family
counseling, martial counseling, group therapy, group counseling, play therapy,
rehabilitation counseling, art therapy, human growth and development
counseling, couples counseling, chemical abuse or dependency counseling, career
counseling, and vocational disability counseling utilizing specific methods,
techniques, or modalities.
(7)
Telehealth. Telehealth is a mode of providing social work services
through interactive audio, video or electronic communication occurring between
a licensed social worker and the client, including any electronic communication
for evaluation, assessment, treatment, and management of confidential
information and case records in a secure platform.
(8) Independent Practice. The practice of
social work outside of an organized setting, such as a social, medical, or
governmental agency, in which the social worker assumes responsibility and
accountability for services provided.
(9) Private Practice. The practice of Social
Work by a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker who assumes
responsibility and accountability for the nature and quality of the services
provided to the Client in exchange for direct payment or third-party
reimbursement.
(10) LBSW. Licensed
Bachelor Social Work.
(11) LMSW.
Licensed Master Social Work.
(12)
LICSW. Licensed Independent Clinical Social Work.
(13) Practice of Clinical Social Work.
Subject to the limitations set forth in Section
34-30-22(c), the
practice of Clinical Social Work is a specialty within the practice of Master's
Social Work and requires the application of social work theory, knowledge,
methods, ethics, and the professional use of self to restore or enhance social,
psychosocial, or biopsychosocial functioning of individuals, couples, families,
groups, organizations and communities. The practice of Clinical Social Work
requires the application of specialized clinical knowledge and advanced
clinical skills in the areas of assessment, and treatment of mental, emotional,
and behavioral disorders, conditions and addictions. Treatment methods include
the provision of individual, marital, couple, family and group Counseling and
Psychotherapy. The practice of Clinical Social Work may include Private
Practice and the provision of Clinical Supervision. The practice of clinical
social work is restricted to either a Licensed Independent Clinical Social
Worker, or a Licensed Master Social Worker under clinical supervision in
employment or under a clinical supervision plan.
(14) Practice of Non-Clinical Social Work.
The practice of non-clinical social work incorporates non-clinical work with
individuals, families, groups, communities, and social systems which may
involve locating resources, negotiating and advocating on behalf of clients or
client groups, administering programs and agencies, community organizing,
teaching, researching, providing employment or professional development
non-clinical supervision, developing and analyzing policy, fund-raising, and
other non-clinical activities.
(15)
Supervision for Licensure. The professional relationship between a supervisee
and an Approved Supervisor who provides oversight, direction, and evaluation
over the services provided by the supervisee and promotes continued development
of the supervisee's knowledge, skills, and abilities to provide social work
services in an ethical and competent manner.
(a) Clinical Supervision. The interactional
professional relationship between an Approved Clinical Supervisor and a
licensed master social worker that provides evaluation and direction over the
supervisee's practice of clinical social work and promotes continued
development of the social worker's knowledge, skills, and abilities to engage
in the practice of clinical social work in an ethical and competent
manner.
(b) Non-Clinical
Supervision. The interactional professional relationship between an Approved
Supervisor and a licensed master social worker or licensed bachelor social
worker that provides evaluation and direction over the supervisee's practice of
non-clinical social work and promotes continued development of the social
worker's knowledge, skills and abilities to engage in the practice of
non-clinical social work in an ethical competent manner.
Author: Alabama Board of Social Work
Examiners
Statutory Authority:
Code of Ala.
1975, §
34-30-1; §
34-30-57(6).
