Behavioral Health Practice Tools

Excessive drinking includes heavy drinking (eight or more drinks a week for women, and 15 or more a week for men) and binge drinking (four or more drinks on one occasion for women, and five or more for men). In addition, there is no known safe amount of alcohol use or safe time to drink during pregnancy. There is also no safe type of alcohol to drink while pregnant, since all types of alcohol can be harmful, including wine, beer, and liquor.

NASW is developing a task force for the revision of the 2013 Guidelines for Social Work Safety in the Workplace. The guidelines were created to establish safety measures and protocols for social workers within the workplace. Social workers utilize these guidelines as a resource to help create, develop, and assist communities, private and public agencies, local, state, and federal policymakers to create a safe working environment in areas where social workers are employed.

On December 2, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights released for public comments the Notice for Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) regarding the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Patient Records.

Effective January 1, 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), implemented the 2023 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS). The 2953 page rule includes updates to policies and payments that are applicable to clinical social workers (CSWs) and other Medicare providers. The following is a summary of the provisions and their implications for CSWs.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)  is seeking feedback from clinical social workers and other providers about how they should provide estimates for costs of services for patients who use their insurance to pay for health and mental health services.  Your feedback would be helpful in providing information to CMS who may create a proposed rule for preparing national standards in this area.

Many tobacco users indicate they started smoking at a very young age. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, 80 to 90 percent of adult smokers began smoking during adolescence and two-thirds became regular, daily smokers before they reached 19 years of age.