What is an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker?
Accredited Mental Health Social Workers are Allied Health Professionals who have specialised in Clinical Mental Health practice. They are registered as AMHSW with the Australian Association of Social Workers, and have to meet strict registration requirements, and engage in annual supervision and professional development requirements to maintain this registration.
They have undertaken either a four year undergraduate university degree in social work or a post graduate qualifying qualification in the discipline of social work. They are trained to think about individual psychology as well as relational and contextual factors that may be intersecting to contribute to people's life struggles. In addition to this, in order to obtain the additional mental health accreditation, they must have demonstrated at least 2 years of supervised mental health clinical practice experience, additional training in the assessment and treatment of mental health conditions. They have obtained a specialist registration through the AASW as AMHSW, and are able to register as medicare providers under the Better Access to Mental Health Scheme. They must have demonstrated proficiency in the delivery of focussed psychological strategies, as per the requirements of medicare.
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Social Workers have often spent many years working in the public sector, often in places like Community Mental Health Teams, Hospitals, Child Protection and Community Counselling organisations, and often have undertaken many additional professional development courses in order to be effective in working with people who have complex life circumstances and complex trauma which intersect with their mental health.
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Social Workers are trained to work collaboratively with their clients and the system of professionals/community who support them. They are trained to identify people's strengths and resilience, and to see people not just as individuals with a problem, but to consider the context of people's lives, families and communities, and the relevance of this to their mental health recovery.
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Accredited Mental Health Social Workers are required to maintain regular clinical supervision and professional development, and must meet requirements set out by the Australian Association of Social Workers to maintain this registration.