The Pedagogical Application of the Biopsychosocial Assessment Model in School of Social Work Programs

The use of the Biopsychosocial assessment model in Bachelor of social work programs has become a vital tool to assist students, future social workers, with identifying a holistic understanding of their own needs as they engage and assess the needs of their potential clients. This powerful tool aids the future clinician with evaluation skills that are unique to their own understanding bringing inclusive spaces that promote diversity and difference biologically, psychologically and socially. The prospect of creating equitable and inclusive spaces will influence the student’s understanding of the complex interactions and multiple factors that address the health and well-being of the population that they will serve. This multidisciplinary approach aids the student with understanding predisposing and protective factors that will trigger or affect certain behaviors in individuals that will aid in supporting their assessments (Figure 1).

The biopsychological assessment model was developed over four decades ago by Dr. George Engel and Dr. John Romano. To this day, it is still an approach used in understanding mental and physical health through a multi-systems lens, understanding the influence of biology, psychology, and the social environment [2]. It focuses on the acknowledgment of the interconnectedness of biological, psychological, and social environments’ impact and contribution to wellbeing. The basic principles of the model using the biological, psychological, and social dimensions of the person’s life add to the perception that the person suffers as a whole organism and not an isolated one [3]. It has been researched in healthcare fields and for years and has made its way into the classroom [4], with its content easily connecting to social work courses. The biopsychosocial model also aims to provide a holistic understanding of a person’s strengths, challenges, and needs, equipping clinicians with the tools to tailor treatment plans and interventions.

Figure 1:Biopsychosocial model.

Every year, Bachelor of Social Work professors in schools of social work, are charged with assigning and grading the infamous biopsychosocial self-assessment assignment. In this assignment, the student delves into their own experiences taking an introspective dive into their own biopsychosocial development using themselves as the client. This is an assignment that many schools of social work offer to help the student with identifying and conducting a thorough assessment of their own histories and experiences. Yet, in this writer’s experience, faculty have found that social work students are challenged with completing the biopsychosocial model assignment. Students have begrudgingly completed this assignment each year with the complaint of feeling uncomfortable in being vulnerable, assessing, and writing about themselves on a biological, psychological, social, and spiritual level. Initially, they were afraid of how they would be viewed by the instructor after divulging their personal challenges, strengths, family issues, and failures. However, in completion of the assignment, this powerful tool can enhance evaluation skills and foster the application of the key assessment concepts that were learned in the classroom integrating them into their self-assessment.

Core to social work practice is self-awareness which is considered effective in social work education and practice [5]. Selfawareness assists the future clinician in their assessment of others in addition to themselves. The future social worker can use this assignment of student self-introspection using the biopsychosocial assessment to self-reflect on their meaning, context, bias, human agency, value, behavior, position, and perspective.

Although they are initially challenged with the idea of selfreflecting, it enables them to also reflect on social work practice and their own assumptions in a thought-provoking way. Social work pedagogy that fosters competence in self -awareness is an important tool for professional practice [6]. It assists the student with the motivation to provide an adequate evaluation of their own problems for practice to eventually be prepared to assess clients’ problems. As self- awareness is developed, it is also nurtured in the classroom resulting in an opportunity for students to become aware of their own feelings, attitudes, behaviors and relationships [7]. The development of self, coupled with building empathic responses, and understanding genuineness are also reinforced in social work classrooms as a result of using the biopsychosocial assessment model.

In developing future clinicians, educators understand that there are many benefits in implementing the biopsychosocial model in social work curricula. It builds and enhances self-awareness in the student, assisting the future clinician in their assessment of others in addition to themselves. Additionally, the student’s selfassessment promotes equity, maintains awareness of diversity and enhances inclusive pedagogical practices in the classroom.

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4. Fava GA, Sonino N (2017) From the lesson of George Engel to current knowledge: The biopsychosocial model 40 years later. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 86(5): 257-259.
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