Social Worker Integrated Care Competencies Scale (SWICCS): Assessing social worker clinical competencies for health care settings.

Integrating physical and behavioral health services has the potential to reduce health disparities and service inequities among persons most at risk. However, clinical social workers in integrated health settings must possess relevant knowledge and skills to provide quality care to diverse populations. The Social Worker Integrated Care Competency Scale (SWICCS), developed to complement the Integrated and Culturally Relevant Care (ICRC) field education curriculum, measures students' self-perceptions of knowledge and skills associated with providing behavioral health care.

Integrated and Culturally Relevant Care: A Model to Prepare Social Workers for Primary Care Behavioral Health Practice.

Policymakers and researchers emphasize needs for an integrated, effective, and efficient health care system to address well-documented disparities and inequities in care experienced by diverse populations. The Affordable Care Act, through its support of integrated health care, addresses social determinants of health with a goal of increasing access to care. Social work is poised to assume a central position in health care reform and integrated behavioral health, but must prepare practitioners to work alongside medical providers in health care settings.