Increasing Disability Content in Social Work Education: An Introduction to Traumatic Brain Injury

Overview: Social workers in school and agencies or working with military or veteran populations may encounter individuals and families who have experienced a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Presenters will discuss the inclusion of TBI content in social work education and our role in addressing health disparities among marginalized populations.Proposal text: It is estimated that nearly 2.8 million adults sustain a brain injury each year with research showing evidence of not only physical affects, but also the emergency of co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders (Coxe, Lee, Kagotho & Eads, 2021). Despite these statistics, individualized psychiatric treatment as well as trained mental health professionals who can conduct evidence-based assessments and treatment protocols are lacking (Coxe, et. al., 2021). Training for social workers on the complexity of TBI, the impact on the individual and family, and diagnosing co-occurring disorders is essential as they can play a key role in all phases of the treatment process (Coxe, et. al., 2021). Social workers can also be of service in other areas such as connecting people with transportation, creating family-professional partnerships, obtaining financial aid, and health insurance which are areas that the TBI population needs, especially in marginalized communities (Coxe, et.al., 2021).

There has been a strong call for interdisciplinary training for social workers providing care within the disability community. To truly engage in interdisciplinary education, courses ought to be developed through interdisciplinary teaming. Therefore, an interdisciplinary team comprised of a licensed marriage and family therapist, a speech and language pathologist, a special educator, and a social work doctoral student, created a syllabus for a fully developed 16-week course on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) for educators working with children who are affected. In addition, a presentation for a 3-hour training/class was created that explains in detail the causes and symptoms, prevalence, and assessment/treatment protocols for the types of TBI. The focus of the readings, course discussions and learning activities were then further aligned to social work education. Utilizing a social justice framework, information on health disparities and COVID-19 were included to construct course work and discussions about inequities and equip social workers with practical tools. A final project was included where students identify how they will use their social work education to best support those affected by TBI. There are also case studies of children and a couple on YouTube detailing their honest journey with TBI and how it affects both the individual and the family.

In addition the content of a 3-hour training/presentation will be provided that could be used to train social work field coordinators, or included in an pre-existing social work course, if it is not possible to have a full 3 credit course implemented into the curriculum. The training could also be used at schools and agencies within communities to train social workers who may encounter this population.