Integrating Social Services and Health Care

Jorge Delva, BU School of Social Work dean and CISWH director, and Tamara Cadet, associate professor at Simmons University School of Social Work, led a symposium entitled “Building the evidence to demonstrate social work’s role in the integration of social and health care: Using recommendations from the 2019 NASEM Report and the 2020 Health Affairs Special Issue” at the annual meeting of the Society for Social Work and Research on January 19, 2021.

The purpose of the symposium was to describe the findings of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report and Health Affairs special issue with a focus on highlighting the existing knowledge base on successes and challenges to the integration of the social care/human services and health sectors. Delva and Cadet described national efforts by social work groups to influence policy at the local, state, and federal levels including through congressional briefings and engaged in discussions on how social work researchers can contribute to building the evidence to support the integration of these sectors.

Read the reports:

• Integrating Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care: Moving Upstream to Improve the Nation’s Health
• Health Affairs: Integrating Social Services and Health Special Issue