How do you Become an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker?

Welcome back to the Social Work Café blog, where this week we unpack episode 14: How do you Become an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker?

I had the great pleasure of getting to know social work consultant Ashton Hayes, who also has a podcast.

I was made aware of Ashton’s work via my dear colleague, Dr. Belinda Cash (who you will meet very soon as well).

In episode 12, you will recall my conversation with the fabulous Cass Fletcher, who has made the transition into private practice in recent years.

An important part of her journey was becoming an accredited mental health social worker.

Considering the time and energy it takes to go through the accreditation process, I wanted to speak with someone like Ashton to demystify the process.

Ashton has enjoyed a very interesting career that has included working in the legal field, with a focus on domestic and family violence and child protection, and then changing careers to become a social worker.

With that kind of background, I am not surprised Ashton transitioned into social work and really enjoyed the experience of “finding her people”.

As a qualified social worker, Ashton worked on the frontline for several years and gained quite a lot of experience.

However, when she started looking at the accreditation requirements, she released that despite her experience, she did not have the therapeutic runs on the board that are set out by the Medicare system.

This is not an uncommon experience for social workers and Ashton later explains how important it is to become familiar with the Medicare requirements so you can plan early.

Over time Ashton gained therapeutic experience in sexual assault and progressively made the transition into private practice while gaining accreditation.

I can see some lovely parallels between her journey and Cass’s when it came to taking incremental steps into private practice.

So why become an accredited mental health social worker?

Ashton gives two important reasons:

1.       Flexibility and accessibility

2.       Employability

In relation to the first, becoming a Medicare provider gives you flexibility in your career and fee schedule.

The second reason is that employers are increasingly expecting practitioners to be accredited, which means you also gain recognition as a specialist.

Ashton dishes out a lot of great advice around career planning and tackling the process and application for accreditation.  

Some of you may shudder at the thought of keeping a reflective journal after having to do it throughout your social work studies.

But Ashton makes a great point about how a reflective journal can really help you track your learning and development over time, plus you can practice writing for the accreditation application.

What I also took from her advice was the importance of being humble about the process and the experience you need to gain to be eligible for accreditation.

Another highlight is how Ashton explains the support and resources that are out there in our social work community.

She mentions looking out for all kinds of free resources online or investing a small amount of money.

I’m reminded of Cass saying during our episode how she talked about business coaches and mentors as well.

In short, there is all kinds of support out there now that we can utilise for our professional development and career goals!

Finally, we turn to Ashton’s definition of social work:

Holistic support for the human condition

I think this is another great example of a concise definition that has a lot of depth.

There is so much we can unpack from the words ‘holistic’, ‘support’, and ‘human condition’.

What do you think?

I’m very grateful for Ashton’s time and contribution to our conversation.

I’m particularly thrilled about her passion and advocacy for social work within the Medicare system.

I look forward to hearing more about where the profession can go in the mental health space.

Stay passionate social work.

Dr. B