Enhancing Behavioral Health Workforce in Youth Mental Health through Grand Challenges in Social Work

Abstract

This paper identifies as a grand challenge the need to integrate curriculum innovation in social work to the identified need to increase the workforce capacity of behavioral health practitioners competent in inter-professional, best and research informed practice with families of children, adolescents, and transitional age youth. This paper highlights the relevance of the grand challenge paradigm as the context within which social work is best situated to hone its interprofessional curriculum to educate practitioners to meet the behavioral health needs of a children, adolescents, transitional age youth and their families. Within the grand challenges paradigm, this paper further articulates the need for enhanced clarity of competence for MSW and PhD educated social workers, for clear expectations that social work scholars’ research have direct and translational community relevance, and it also presents a few of the advantages and limitations involved in adopting the grand challenge paradigm as a curriculum development and instructional standard in the academy of social work.