THE ROLES AND FUNCTIONS OF SOCIAL WORKERS WITHIN INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAMS IN SPECIAL SCHOOLS

Abstract

Given that not all students with special needs and their families require social work services, there is a need to look into how relevant social work is in special schools. This paper aims to provide insight on the roles and functions of social work within interdisciplinary teams in Singapore special schools. It also examines how roles may overlap between different professionals, as well as the benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration. A mixed methods evaluation was undertaken in this study. Twenty-seven professionals working within interdisciplinary teams in special schools participated in this study. All twenty-seven professionals responded to a survey, and seven professionals were interviewed. Interview and survey data were grouped into themes and descriptive statistics respectively. Analysis was done by comparing themes across different professionals, and triangulated with survey data. It was found that social workers play a key role in supporting caregivers of students with special needs. However, many social workers also reported having role overlaps with psychologists in the psychological domain. On a whole, interdisciplinary collaboration was perceived as positive by professionals. The discussion highlights how interdisciplinary collaboration in special schools parallels the five core elements of interdisciplinary collaboration described by Bronstein's model (2003). The use of this model can be used to guide interdisciplinary collaboration in special schools and other social work settings in Singapore, by looking into the unique roles of different professionals, and the synergy of these roles.