OUR CASE FOR SUPPORT
Everyone should have access to Quality Mental Health Care
Help us increase the number and quality of therapists prepared to provide compassionate, in-depth, and relationship grounded mental health care in diverse communities across the nation.
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Community Need
Since our founding in 1981, for over forty years, the Institute for Clinical Social Work’s
graduate programs, continuing education workshops, and community partnerships have
touched more individuals in communities across the nation. Our graduates are working
as community agency leaders, directors in mental health care centers, therapists in
private practice, leaders in government, government, consultants and supervisors, counselors and educators in both
secondary and post-secondary education.
However, our impact could be greater. We need your support to prepare more individuals to plan and care for the mental health needs across the nation, to increase the number of racially and ethnically diverse mental health professionals, and to expand our impact in all communities.
With your support, we know that we can do more.
Our Impact
The Institute for Clinical Social Work is a leader in preparing outstanding clinical counselors and clinical social workers.
“We embraced the unconscious meaning of our patients' dialogue and cultivated patience to listen between the lines. We were encouraged to listen to the unconscious dialogue of the world during social unrest. I remember the times spent with professors with great appreciation. They invested in us by sharing their passion for psychoanalytic theory.
There was an awareness of how our professional communities provide minimal time and space for in-depth discussions on psychoanalytic thinking. The time spent at ICSW was a time of personal and professional liberation and transformation that only those whose paths have crossed with ICSW and what it offers can understand.”
Reflections from Merari Fernandez Castro, PhD, LCSW (Class of 2022)
The leader in psychodynamic graduate studies
The only independent graduate school in the country to focus primarily on psychodynamic graduate training
100% of faculty are full-time practitioners
Intimate student cohorts, small classes, personal attention
100% of master’s alumni report having received licensure on the first attempt
Graduates are working across the nation in the mental health field in diverse and
underserved communities with veterans, in public schools, on college campuses, in
private practices, and with incarcerated clients
Scope of mental health needs is vast.
Mental Health Professional Shortages
Over one-third of Americans live in designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2022)
Increase in prevalence of mental health conditions
The prevalence of anxiety and depression increased 25% worldwide in response to the coronavirus pandemic. (World Health Organization, 2022)
Youth mental health services
Only 27.3% of youth nationally with severe depression receive some consistent treatment. (Access to Care Data 2021, Mental Health America)
Adults experiencing mental illness
Nearly 50 million Americans (9.86% of adults) are experiencing a mental illness. (Access to Care Data 2021, Mental Health America)
Adults lacking access to care
Over 5.1 million Americans (10.8% adults) with a mental illness remain uninsured. (Access to Care Data 2021, Mental Health America)
Adults with a mental illness left untreated
Over 26 million Americans (57% of adults) experiencing a mental illness are going untreated. (Access to Care Data 2021, Mental Health America)
Mental Health Needs
OUR COMMITMENT
The Institute for Clinical Social Work is committed to providing solid clinical training from a psychodynamic perspective that prepares students to work with underserved populations in diverse settings to help decrease the mental health gap in these communities.
For over forty years, in addition to being a leader in psychodynamic graduate studies, the Institute for Clinical Social Work has provided affordable and quality continuing education programming, conferences, and workshops to the community, local agencies, public-school systems, and other colleges and universities. The pandemic has created an overwhelming and unprecedented need for mental health workers. The Institute for Clinical Social Work is uniquely positioned to provide advanced training at the masters and doctoral levels for those interested in providing care to meet this pressing need.