| Frequently
Asked Questions for Students
What is ABE?
What is ABE's Connection to the Center for Clinical
Social Work?
What do students need to know about advanced certification?
What is the BCD certification?
How is the BCD earned and retained?
What are the benefits of the BCD?
Why is the BCD preferable to other certifications/credentials?
Why does a state-licensed clinician need the BCD?
What are ABE's information services?
What is ABE?
The American Board of Examiners in Clinical
Social Work (ABE) is the national standard-setting and credentialing
organization for the field of clinical social work. ABE's chief
mission is to conduct clinical social work certification at the
advanced level and to set uniform national practice standards. It
is best-known as the issuer of the Board Certified Diplomate in
Clinical Social Work (BCD) certification.
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What is ABE's Connection to the Center for
Clinical Social Work?
ABE is a unit of the Center for Clinical Social Work, a not-for-profit
organization. ABE's focus is on certification, at the advanced-generalist
and specialist levels. The Center's main purposes are to promote
clinical social work as a profession, starting at the graduate school
level, and to advance it in all settings by developing practice
standards and credentials, advocating for practitioners and their
clients, and enhancing opportunities for research, education, and
training.
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What do students need to know about advanced
certification?
Students planning a career in clinical social work should know that, at
the point that they may wish to become board certified (five years'
post-graduate), master's-level academics are included in the certification
criteria. ABE requires that a candidate hold a master's degree in social
work including master's-level courses focused on direct practice and field
practice focused on the same.
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What is the BCD certification?
The Board Certified Diplomate in Clinical Social Work (BCD) is issued
by ABE to those who have achieved competency in the advanced general
practice of clinical social work. BCD clinicians eligibility criteria can be found here.
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How is the BCD earned and retained?
The BCD candidate fills out an application, provides graduate transcripts
and copies of license(s), and is evaluated in terms of practice competency
by two colleagues who each complete an evaluation form. Once board-certified,
the practitioner recertifies annually based on compliance with ABE ethical
standards, 20 hours of clinical continuing education, currency of practice,
and licensure in good standing.
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What are the benefits of the BCD?
The holder of the BCD benefits from preference, prestige, and support,
as the Board conducts a variety of outreach activities, including
the following:
- intervening with healthcare systems, regulators,
and court (including briefs submitted in landmark wins in the
U.S. Supreme Court and the Maryland Court of Appeals)
- marketing to care-delivery systems nationwide
- Professional liability insurance at a preferred rate
- offering a specialty credential in Practice with Children and Their Families
- offering a specialty certification in psychoanalysis
- lobbying the U.S. Congress through the Mental
Health Liaison Group
- verifying BCD status to payor systems
- providing testimony at the state level and
federal level in support of clinical social work initiatives
- earning BCD practitioners up to $5000 extra
in annual specialty pay in branches of the U.S. uniformed services
- conducting an awards program to recognize student
achievement
- maintaining ABE's website, www.abecsw.org,
with updated On-Line BCD Directory, access to position statements,
opportunities for continuing education and jobs, etc.
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Why is the BCD preferable to other certifications/credentials?
The BCD certification is the gold standard in clinical social work: it
has the most rigorous criteria, and is the most intensely promoted
and widely recognized. For its insistence on advanced clinical competence,
for its unique requirement of annual re-certification, and for primary-source
verification of the qualifications of all Diplomates, the BCD certification is
highly valued by referral-makers, including payor systems, to which it has
been professionally marketed since 1990. Knowing that BCD clinicians are
annually verified by ABE to be current in practice at the advanced level,
payors tend to give them preference when filling provider panels and offering
other opportunities for reimbursable practice. ABE also promotes its directory
to payor systems nationwide, which gives BCD clinicians the opportunity for
many referrals.
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Why does a state-licensed clinician need the
BCD?
Extra referrals and recognition can come to those who hold the BCD,
which crosses all state lines with a fixed set of advanced criteria.
Many payor systems prefer to offer opportunities to BCD practitioners,
who meet much higher practice criteria than those who only hold
licenses. Some employers (including the Department of Defense) award
extra pay to BCD clinicians. Licensure, pitched at the entry level,
is intended to protect the public from fraudulent practice rather
than (as with the BCD) to distinguish those who have advanced practice
competency. No state regulatory board markets their licensees' services,
whereas ABE aggressively promotes the BCD Directory and the practice
qualifications of its BCD-holders.
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What are ABE's information services?
ABE maintains many website information services: BCD OnLine Directory that displays the profiles of each BCD clinician, in terms of education, training, experience, practice characteristics and practice specialty areas; Updates to BCD Directory listings; BCD Recertification; Jobs Center; Continuing-education Center; and links to other Partner sites, including a Professional Liability Insurance site.
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