专业描述

Social work is a licensed profession. Only those who have earned social work degrees at the bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral levels—and completed a minimum number of hours in supervised field education—can be professional social workers. Clinical social workers are the nation’s largest group of mental health services providers. There are more clinically trained social workers—over 200,000—than psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychiatric nurses combined. Federal law and the National Institutes of Health recognize social work as one of five core mental health professions. (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) According to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), social work is one of the fastest growing careers in the United States. The profession is expected to grow by almost 20% between 2010 and 2020. The St. Kate's - St. Thomas School of Social Work is ranked in the top 25% of programs nationally by U.S. News & World Report.