Leveraging the Power of Social Work through Interprofessional Education

• Main Authors: Maureen Rubin, Lisa de Saxe Zerden, Lisa E. McGuire
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Indiana University School of Social Work 2020-09-01
• Series: Advances in Social Work
• Subjects: social work; ipe; interprofessional education
• Online Access: http://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/advancesinsocialwork/article/view/24406
• ISSN: 1527-8565; 2331-4125

Interprofessional education (IPE) “occurs when students from two or more professions learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes” (World Health Organization [WHO], 2010). With a commitment to foster collaborative practice, social work faculty have provided leadership in incorporating IPE in social work and other discipline’s curricula and training for more than a decade (Konrad et al., 2017; Nimmagadda & Murphy, 2014; Jones & Phillips, 2016). Yet, now more than ever, as the country and world grapple with responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant deleterious impacts on society, effective collaboration has never been more critical. Likewise, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has impacted the nation as the country reckons with racial and social disparities across every sector of society. The impetus for this special issue pre-dated the COVID-19 and BLM momentum; however, the 19 papers included in this special issue highlight the interconnected nature of social conditions across systems that necessitate interprofessional, coordinated responses. This special issue reinforces the importance of collaboration, teamwork, inclusivity, and diversity. The power of social work, in partnership with other professions and/or disciplines, in communities locally and globally is essential to effectively meeting some of society’s greatest challenges.