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Private Practice Social Workers’ Commitment to Social Justice

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Abstract

The privatization of mental healthcare among social workers has situated them under scrutiny by others in the profession who question private practice clinicians’ commitment to social justice. Some social workers accuse colleagues in private practice of a dereliction of duty, while others in the profession contend that the entrepreneurship of mental healthcare is the only way to freely realize real-world social justice change. Hence, this qualitative research study explores how clinical social workers define social justice as well as if and how they integrate it in a private practice setting. This small qualitative research study was designed to begin to illuminate strengths and gaps regarding how clinical social workers define as well as if and how they integrate social justice in a private practice setting.

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Acknowledgements

This is dedicated to the clients, families, and clinicians who have informed my work. I am grateful to John and to Marilyn whose unwavering encouragement and love made this possible. A special thanks to my mentor Joan Shapiro and the anonymous reviewers who contributed to the development of this journal article. Thank you.

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Correspondence to Edith L. Slater.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Slater, E.L. Private Practice Social Workers’ Commitment to Social Justice. Clin Soc Work J 48, 360–368 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-020-00746-z

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