Accredited Mental Health Social Workers (AMHSWs) are highly trained and educated mental health professionals, meeting some of the highest standards of professional regulation in Australia. AMHSWs are one of the few designated allied health professional groups eligible to provide private mental health services to people with diagnosable mental health conditions or people ‘at risk’ of developing mental health conditions under the Commonwealth Medicare initiative. There are currently more than 2,200 AMHSWs working across major cities, regional, rural and remote regions. As a group of providers, AMHSWs are the second largest after the combined group of Clinical Psychologists and Registered Psychologists.

 

Social work is a tertiary-qualified profession recognised nationally and internationally. Social work undergraduate and postgraduate education provides graduates with a focus on holistic, whole-of-person and life-course approach, and as such social workers are skilled at providing assessments and interventions for people with complex presentations. Built on these foundations is the further credentialing of AMHSWs, equipping highly skilled mental health clinicians in assessment, treatment planning, complex case formulation, and the delivery of evidence-based therapeutic interventions across formative and life stages in collaboration with clients, where duty of care factors do not inhibit this process.

 

AMHSWs work from a biopsychosocial, whole-of-person perspective and their training provides an appreciation of the impact that social, environmental and cultural factors have on total health and wellbeing. Their person-in-environment approach (that is the bedrock of all social work education) makes AMHSWs experts in dealing with complexity. This is also akin to the National Disability Insurance Scheme framework of client-centered capacity-building therapeutic inputs that AMHSWs also provide. AMHSWs work with people across the lifespan (including children, young people and adults) and provide a unique contribution to the mental health space in their holistic approach to working with a person. The advanced training that is expected of an AMHSW prepares and provides them with the skills for working with people with very complex presentations and comorbidities. They have the skills and knowledge to assess and intervene around the impact of physical illness, specifically chronic and advanced chronic or terminal illness has on a person’s psychological wellbeing.

 

The Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW)is responsible for the accreditation of AMHSWs and is committed to maintaining the high standard of practice of the profession in this sector. The AASW is an Accrediting Authority recognised by the Federal Government.

​

Will my information be kept confidential ?

​

Accredited Mental Health Social Workers are bound by a code of ethics, which includes maintaining confidentiality about what you discuss with them. However, there may be exceptional circumstances where an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker may need to discuss your information with others, such as when there is concern about your safety or another's safety or legal requirement. You can talk to your local Accredited Mental Health Social Worker about the situations in which your information might be shared.

​            ​