$1.2 million gift will boost Dell Medical, UT social work schools

Dell Medical School and the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas have received a $1.2 million gift from John David and Leslie Moritz to provide scholarships for social work students, fund two more social workers at the medical school and help fund the department of health social work at the medical school, which is a joint program between the medical and social work schools.

The $500,000 in scholarships will be matched, making the total impact $1.7 million. The Moritzes own a group of car dealerships in Fort Worth.

Dell Medical School is unusual in that it has a department of social work inside the school, said Barbara Jones, the chair of the department. She splits her time between the medical and social work schools.

The department grew out of an interprofessional class for 250 students from the social, medical, nursing and pharmacy schools at UT. In that class, the students are divided into teams, with each school represented. The team members have to work together to help solve patient scenarios, and no hierarchy is allowed.

"They learn how to do health care with other professionals," Jones said.

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Social workers learn to find their own voice and expertise in health care among their medical colleagues, she said. For the future doctors, "my hope is that all of our medical students, the future physician leaders, insist on interprofessional relationships," Jones said.

The class was so successful that a shared health social work department was created between the medical and social work schools.

The gift will further cement that department with a $100,000 fund.

"This solidifies the relationship between the two schools," she said.

The department is doing a lot of research into how integrated behavioral health affects different health outcomes and which models work best.

Dell Medical School will be able to add two social workers to its clinics with $600,000 of the gift. It already has social workers in clinics that are attached to the medical school. Which clinics will get the two new ones hasn't been decided, Jones said.

Mikaela Frissell serves as a social worker at UT Health Austin's Musculoskeletal Institute. UT Health Austin is the clinical practice of the medical school.

She works with patients who are experiencing chronic pain on how to lessen that pain with psychotherapy. She also helps patients overcome barriers to health care such as transportation or housing by connecting them with resources.

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Often someone on the team will refer a patient to her and then the team will have a conference with her about how to best serve the patient. She'll also work one-on-one with the patient to help improve access to health care and overall health.

Being part of the clinic means that patients aren't as likely to fall through the cracks because they are getting their psychosocial needs met in the same place as their medical needs, Frissell said.

Sometimes her role can be just to translate the doctor's information and help the patient create an action plan for care. Other times it's providing mental health care or connecting the patient to resources.

Her presence has affected how care providers talk to patients and think about their needs, she said.

"They are learning about new approaches in working with patients," she said. "They learn to think about patients more holistically."

Because of the volume of patients in that clinic, not every patient gets to meet with a social worker, but social workers are there if a patient is identified as needing them based on a survey the patient fills out before the first visit or based on information gathered during appointments.

This gift, as well as having a shared department for the schools, Jones said, "lifts up the profession of social work."

"It's unique to have this much money donated to a school of social work," she said.