This chapter offers practical utility to help expand rehabilitation counselors’ (RCs) and other mental health professionals’ thinking about the various considerations that underlie a culturally competent social justice approach to rehabilitation counseling practice. Rehabilitation counseling has demonstrated its commitment to the importance of cultural competency in improving the quality and availability of counseling and rehabilitation services to clients from traditionally under represented racial/ethnic groups. The chapter describes the multicultural and social justice counseling competencies (MSJCC), with particular attention directed to the social justice framework and how it may be used to assist in working toward equity in the context of changing demographics in American society. It then explains how individual and group racial, sexual identity, cultural, and identity development may impact the counseling process. The counseling literature recognizes LGBTQ individuals as inclusive under the umbrella of multicultural populations, as well as intersecting with other groups because of multiple identities.

The aging population is at a state of development that is not as focused on employment, and thus has difficulty finding its place in a society that defines people by their careers. Research is needed on the issues of aging workers, such as training needs, career transition issues, and retirement planning. Research is also needed on which accommodations, workplace modifications, and changes to policies and practices positively impact the retention and continued productivity of an aging workforce. Counselor practitioners are in a unique position to contribute to needed research design conceptualization, metrics, and analyses to test the multiplicity of interventions we will be exploring in the coming years to keep our aging workforce healthy and intellectually engaged in the employment environment. Counselors are experientially qualified to provide the needed services to keep this population productive and more fully engaged in their communities and continuing employment.

This chapter introduces the field of school social work, exploring the history of public education in the United States as well as the development of school social work as a field of practice. It provides a description of the school environment as a host setting, which requires a clarity of roles, an ability to describe one’s roles and function to others in the school, and collaboration across disciplines. The chapter introduces how school social workers operate across multiple system levels, including direct practice with students and their families, work with small groups or entire classrooms, consultation or collaboration with teachers and other school staff, participation in district and schoolwide matters, and connecting the school with community resources. The chapter also presents information on school social work models. Finally, it introduces both the Council on Social Work Education’s competencies for practice, growing out of its Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) as well as the Grand Challenges for Social Work.

This chapter presents specific issues faced by older adults in response to adaptations to chronic illness and disability. Some individuals have congenital disabilities and others acquire a disability early in life and are able to adjust fairly easily, aging with their disability. On the other hand, some individuals acquire a disability later in life and may experience great difficulty making the adjustments to their condition. The chapter presents information on the age-related concerns of older adults, components and perceptions of aging, assessment issues associated with older adults, vocational interests, and death and dying perspectives. It also discusses the implications for service delivery in the context in which older adults are served along with laws and regulations that apply to the population. Aging and geriatric persons often utilize a variety of services from multiple entities (e.g., social, legal, medical, financial, and counseling).

This chapter begins with a review of constitutional amendments that pertain to student rights and demonstrates how public schools operate as governmental agencies. The authors also provide an overview of policy practice in social work before reviewing specific policies related to education, such as the Individuals with Disability Education Act, the Every Student Succeeds Act, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, Erin’s law, McKinney-Vento, and policy related to immigration and undocumented status of students, and give attention to the topic of bullying and LGBTQ+ students and policy.

Ethics refer to a standard that guides a professional’s behavior and practice in the performance of their duties or delivery of services. The standard is expected by all members of an organization or profession that is entrusted to serve. In addition, ethical standards are a minimum threshold that associations envision members must meet to ensure both credibility and safety to the public. It is equally important to understand what ethics is not. Although ethics informs laws and legal systems, ethics differ from laws, even though both are created by a society and are codified. This chapter addresses basic ethical principles that most professional fields espouse while integrating and connecting ethics, the active fiber connecting these disciplines, and acknowledging the intersectionality of both ethical behavior and several human services professional disciplines.

This chapter introduces the engagement phase of social work practice as it is applied to the school setting. The authors highlight the importance of school practice, the tasks of engagement, and the preparatory work completed by the social worker that can make this phase more effective. The chapter also includes content on initial meetings with students and families, as well as adaptations for working with children and adolescents. Additionally, a basic review of interviewing skills used in the engagement phase is provided. Included in this chapter is a focus on working with client systems of different sizes, including classrooms, schools, and communities. Finally, the chapter introduces motivational interviewing skills and the techniques and applications of motivational interviewing with children, youth, parents, and teachers.