The Dell School of Medicine and the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas received a $1.2 million gift from John David and Leslie Moritz to provide scholarships to social work students, fund two more social workers at the medical school, and help fund the department. medical social work at the medical school, which is a joint program between the medical school and the school of social work.
Scholarships of $500,000 will be equalized, bringing the total to $1.7 million. The Moritzes own a group of car dealerships in Fort Worth.
Dell School of Medicine is unusual in that it has a department of social work, said Barbara Jones, chair of the department. She divides her time between medical and social schools.
The department grew out of an interprofessional class for 250 students from UT’s social, medical, nursing, and pharmaceutical schools. In this class, students are divided into teams, each school is represented. Team members must work together to help solve patient scenarios and no hierarchy is allowed.
“They are learning how to take care of their health along with other professionals,” Jones said.
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Social workers are learning to find their own voice and health expertise among their medical colleagues, she says. As for future doctors, “I hope that all of our medical students, future medical leaders, will push for interprofessional relationships,” Jones said.
The class was so successful that a common department of health social work was created between the medical school and the school of social work.
The gift will further strengthen this department with a $100,000 fund.
“It strengthens the relationship between the two schools,” she said.
The Department does a lot of research on how integrated behavioral health affects different health outcomes and which models work best.
Dell Medical School will be able to add two social workers to their clinics with a $600,000 gift. The clinics attached to the medical school already have social workers. Which clinics will get the two new ones is yet to be decided, Jones said.
Mikaela Frissel is a social worker at the UT Health Austin Musculoskeletal Institute. UT Health Austin is a medical school clinical practice.
She works with patients who experience chronic pain on how to reduce that pain through psychotherapy. It also helps patients overcome barriers to health care, such as transportation or housing, by linking them to resources.
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Often someone on the team will refer the patient to her, and then the team will have a conference call with her about how best to serve the patient. She will also work one-on-one with the patient to help improve access to healthcare and overall health.
Participating in a clinic means patients are less likely to fail because their psychosocial needs are met where their medical needs are, Frissell said.
Sometimes her role may only be to translate the doctor’s information and help the patient develop a care plan. In other cases, it is providing mental health care or connecting the patient to resources.
Her presence has affected the way medical professionals talk to patients and think about their needs, she says.
“They are learning about new approaches to working with patients,” she said. “They learn to think about patients more holistically.”
Due to the high volume of patients at this clinic, not every patient can meet with a social worker, but social workers are present if a patient is identified as needing them based on a survey the patient completes before the first visit or based on information gathered during visits .
This gift, as well as the existence of a common department for schools, according to Jones, “elevates the social work profession.”
“It is unique that such a large amount of money was donated to a social work school,” she said.
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