Preparing Military Social Workers for Interprofessional Practice: Aligning Military
Abstract
This article conceptualizes interprofessionality through the integration of the Air Force’s Resilience Initiative Comprehensive Airman Fitness (CAF) with the Council on Social Work Education’s Advanced Social Work Practice in Military Social Work Standards. CAF, a holistic philosophy, is congruent with social work values, perspectives, practice modalities, and skills. Interprofessionality in this context is working collaboratively to build positive capacity and connections across disciplines to promote overall health and resilience of service members and their families. Social workers working within military environments can optimize practice efficacy in military contexts by actively participating with CAF and other established resiliency -based initiatives. Reciprocally, the military can enhance resilience efforts by utilizing the knowledge and experience of social workers. Establishing a collaborative response to the pervasive needs of military members that aligns with the established DoD resilience initiatives has substantial implications for fostering advanced military social work practice and improved outcomes for service members.