The White House Office on National AIDS Policy (ONAP) will be releasing the updated National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) on July 30. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) has long been a supporter of this strategy and looks forward to the updates.
Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, professional social workers have worked in communities across the United States to identify and respond to the complex psychosocial and environmental issues of persons living with and/or affected by HIV/AIDS.
Social workers are committed to promoting skilled integrated care to address the myriad of complex health, mental health and behavioral health, and socio-economic issues associated with HIV/AIDS. In addition, working within multi-disciplinary settings, social workers are on the front lines of HIV prevention, early intervention, and on-going treatment and care.
NASW supports the profession’s commitment to help end AIDS through addressing HIV/AIDS policy and practice-related issues, and providing workforce development through the federally funded NASW HIV/AIDS Spectrum Project.
NASW has outlined the role of social workers in a document entitled, “Social Work Practice: Engaging Individuals, Community, and Systems in Support of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy.”
Posted by: Evelyn P. Tomaszewski, MSW
