Hawaii has a severe demand for social workers.
The Healthcare Association of Hawaii reported in November there were 3,873 health care job openings throughout the state, and social workers were near the top of the list.
“There’s a shortage of mental health care workers everywhere,” said Michael McGee, East Hawaii representative of the National Association of Social Workers, or NASW. “I like to think of mental health issues as infections — the longer they go without proper treatment, the worse the outcomes.”
The report found 126 job openings for social workers statewide between February and December, an increase of 110% since 2019.
Social workers are a specific group of mental health professionals incorporating social and emotional elements into treatment. They can be therapists, counselors, parole officers, assist with schools, veterans, health care and other fields.
“Social workers look at the whole person,” McGee said. “At the community, the individual, their background — all those socioeconomic and racial pieces.”
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in 2021 that most Hawaii social workers were employed in the “Child, Family, and School” category, accounting for 45% of total social worker positions.
Eric Wolf of Hilo, a licensed clinical social worker, or LCSW, believes the openings are due to low-paying job offers.
“The pay rates aren’t reflective of what an LCSW can earn,” said Wolf. “(Social workers) have student debt, expenses, they’re in their forties and fifties, they can’t afford to work for right-out-of-college wages.”
To address educational, financial and bureaucratic barriers to hiring social workers, the NASW is proposing legislative actions.
“In order to become an LCSW, you need 3,000 hours of an unpaid internship at an organization,” said McGee. “Which is a huge economic barrier for folks in Hawaii, especially neighbor islands.”
A new bill would allow those completing the required hours to be compensated.
“That will allow unlicensed social workers to work in private practice under licensed social workers,” he said. “That would also open up channels to agencies and organizations to provide clinical experience.”
Another bill would define telehealth services to ensure coverage.
“We’ve got another bill to define telephone-based therapy and have it considered the same as virtual therapy,” said Sonja Bigalke-Bannan, executive director for NASW-Hawaii. “We have a lot of kupuna who struggle with smartphones, so we’d like to do talk therapy with them over the phone if necessary.”
A third bill proposes a preceptor tax credit for professionals who train students.
“This would give a tax break to those who are willing to take on these students,” said Bigalke-Bannan. “Right now, there’s no compensation for that. It’s something we do out of the goodness of our hearts to try to elevate and bring about the next generation in the profession.”
Issues with licensing like wait times and testing delays also can hinder local graduates and those transferring social worker credentials into Hawaii.
“Hawaii was the last state to get licensure, so we got to shape ours based on a higher standard,” said Bigalke-Bannan, who noted the Department of Defense and the NASW are working together to create a potential interstate license. “Because we have a higher standard here, it’s pretty easy to take your Hawaii license and go somewhere else, but it’s more challenging to come into the state.”
Wolf added it’s difficult getting referrals from the Hawaii Medical Service Association.
“It is not possible, in my experience, for an individual to enter into a relationship with an insurance provider in Hawaii,” he said.
Wolf joined a group of licensed social workers and therapists in Hilo to help him through the process.
“In order to get HMSA Quest and HMSA PPO as a provider, I joined a private group of therapists, 14 or 15 of us, all with different credentials,” he said. “As a group, we have more influence with insurance companies.”
In 30 days, Wolf said the group helped him with licensing, referrals, the website and meeting other state requirements.
“That is my experience of Hawaii in general,” Wolf said. “The bureaucracy is unnecessarily difficult.”
Email Grant Phillips at gphillips@hawaiitribune-herald.com.