Social work in the Department of Veterans Affairs: lessons learned.
Health and Social Work › Vol. 31 Nbr. 3, August 2006
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Social work in the Department of Veterans Affairs: lessons learned.
This article provides an overview of the practice of social work in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the role social workers have played in VA's transformation into a leading provider of health care. VA is the nation's largest employer of workers with MSW degrees, with more than 4,400 assigned to VA medical centers and clinics across the country. Social workers in VA provide the full range of psychosocial services, serve as mental health clinicians, and hold leadership roles within and outside social work.
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE The VA has a long history of providing for the psychosocial needs of veterans. In 1926 a Veterans Bureau Order first established social services and resulted in the hiring of 36 social workers from the Civil Service register. These early hospital social workers functioned under the medical officer and assisted veteran inpatients with their social problems. Their duties included securing complete and trustworthy social histories on neuropsychiatric cases; assisting the neuropsychiatrist in affording satisfactory treatment by solving social problems which interfered with such treatment; investigating the home environment and cooperating with the...See the full content of this document
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