CHaSCI’s Year in Review: 2025

Throughout 2025, our team continued to advance access to social care through training, policy, research, and collaborations with wonderful partners and institutions. In the face of the many political hurdles and injustices our country faced last year, our work supporting social care providers feels more urgent than ever. We remain committed to strengthening the systems that help people access the resources they need, no matter how this next year evolves.  

As we look ahead to 2026, we’re taking a moment to reflect on key milestones—and to celebrate the shared achievements of our network of dedicated social care providers and advocates. 

We’ll summarize our work in four main categories:  

Staff and infrastructure:  

We had several exciting staff-related developments in 2025:  

• CHaSCI’s Director of Policy and Partnerships Robyn Golden was honored with the 2025 Knee/Wittman Outstanding Achievement Award at the NASW National Conference in June.  
• In the spring of 2025, Eve Escalante joined the CHaSCI team, working closely with the training team to develop, improve, and facilitate CHaSCI care model and other training and technical assistance offerings. 
• Despite the Trump Administration’s sudden termination of AmeriCorps grants nationwide in the spring of 2025, our AmeriCorps program was reinstated and renewed for the 2025-2026 year. In September, we launched the 7^th cohort of our AmeriCorps program! 

We also were proud to launch the new CHaSCI website in November of 2025, which was created by our partners at Slightly Happy marketing agency! The new website includes updated photos of our team, improved functionality, clearer organization, and a more intuitive user experience to help our partners and clients easily find the information and resources they need.    

Training and Technical Assistance (TA) 

CHaSCI engaged in 3 types of live training projects in 2025: (1) CHaSCI Care Model training and technical assistance, (2) Community Health Worker (CHW) training, and (3) Interdisciplinary training & technical assistance. Across those 3 categories, here’s a summary of what we accomplished in 2025:

Here’s a breakdown of our work in each of the 3 main types of training:

CHaSCI Care Model training and technical assistance

We delivered 2 CHaSCI Care Model trainings to external partners BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois and Summit County Public Health in November and December of 2025, including a half-day of technical assistance for implementation of the CHaSCI Care Model.

Community Health Worker (CHW) training:

• In October 2025, we delivered our CHW Core Competencies training at RUSH University Medical Center for new community health workers, AmeriCorps Members, and social work interns.
• Through a continued partnership with IPHA, we collaborated with other RUSH colleagues to deliver a Dementia Care Webinar for CHWs to Illinois Public Health Association (IPHA)
• We participated in the third and final year of CHW CONNECT, a HRSA-funded training program run by the University of Illinois at Chicago, Office of Community Engagement and Neighborhood Health Partnerships (OCEAN-HP). We delivered three training modules this year, which were developed and tailored specifically for a CHW audience:
  • Motivational Interviewing
  • Facilitating Groups to Support Positive Lifestyle Changes
  • Health Policy & Advocacy

Interdisciplinary training & technical assistance:

We provided ongoing training consultation for local nonprofit organization Chicago House, specifically focusing on process assessment improvements for older adults living with HIV 

Continuing Education 

In addition to live training and technical assistance, CHaSCI’s continuing education projects in included:  

• Hosting a bimonthly CHaSCI Clinical Hour, a follow-up consultation space for CHaSCI care model trainees 
• Hosting 6 CHaSCI + Social Work Grand Rounds webinars, including:  
  • Patient Priorities Care in Chronic Conditions, with speakers Jen Ouellet, MD and Lisa Bodenheimer, LCSW 
  • Data as Activism and Advocacy, with speaker Jess Erwin, LCSW 
  • Social Work Advocacy: Navigating Change and Preparing for the Future, with speaker Dr. Princess Currence 
  • Shaping Policy & Politics: Opportunities for Social Work Advocacy Today, with speaker Ryann Hill, MPH 
  • Navigating Medicare Part B Social Care Codes, with speakers Bonnie Ewald, MA and Akane Kumagai, MSW, LCSW 
  • Pain Reprocessing Therapy Use in a Chronic Migraine Support Group Program, with speaker Kate Schwab, LCSW 

Policy 

In 2025, CHaSCI’s policy work spanned 3 main areas:  

The Coalition for Social Work and Health 

The Coalition for Social Work and Health (CSWH) is a national network of leaders in social work practice, education, research, and policy to advance social work’s role and value in improving our nation’s health. CSWH has representation from over 50 social work professional organizations, academic and research programs, and individual members. Our work is focused on amplifying social work’s impact in transforming healthcare, improving health, and advancing health equity  

In 2025, the Coalition for Social Work and Health…  

• January: Met with leaders from Congressional Research Institute for Social Work & Policy (CRISP) to discuss their work within Congress and avenues for advocacy and policy strategy 
• February: 
  • Began working with Indigo Hill Strategies, a new lobbyist, to advance legislation to advance access to social work services for Medicare beneficiaries. Over the course of 2025, Indigo Hill Strategies made and helped organize over 475 direct advocacy contacts with policy-makers on behalf of CSWH.  
  • Met with legislators (Rep. Kiggans-R; Rep. Evans-D; Senator Whitehouse-D) on the Hill in February to advocate for reintroduction of the Integrating Social Workers Across Healthcare Settings Act 
  • Convened that CSWH steering committee in Baltimore, MD to facilitate board development and strategic planning 
  • Hosted an in-person policy strategy meeting in Baltimore, MD with their lobbyists, steering committee members, and key players in their policy workgroup to discuss navigating the current political administration. 
• April: Held the first CSWH meeting of new workgroup on Professional Education and Training 
• May:  
  • Held the first CSWH meeting of the new workgroup on Research & Evaluation   
  • In partnership with Indigo Hill Strategies, facilitated two Hill days to meet with 8 different federal legislators to discuss the importance and value of social work in healthcare 
• July: House of Representatives reintroduced CSWH’s bill, H.R. 4185, the Integrating Social Workers Across Care Settings Act (press release here) 
• September: Hosted a virtual hill briefing on the reintroduction of the Integrating Social Workers Across Care Settings Act, with approx. 70 attendees across the Hill and from supporting organizations. 
• October: Launched new guide for dissemination, Billing Medicare Part B for Social Workers: An Open-Access Guide.

Interested in learning more or joining the Coalition? Reach out to us! 

National Coalition on Care Coordination (N3C) 

Formed in 2008 as a partnership between the New York Academy of Medicine’s Social Work Leadership institute and the American Society on Aging, the National Coalition on Care Coordination (N3C) convenes advocates and leaders within health and social care that are committed to advancing public policies and programs that support coordinated and integrated care.  

In 2025, the National Coalition on Care Coordination continued to lead calls for thought leaders in cross-sector care coordination and complex care, reducing call cadence to once per quarter (4 occurrences in 2025).  

Interested in learning more or joining N3C? Reach out to us! 

Workforce development and other policy efforts 

Through several different avenues, CHaSCI provides thought leadership on social care and care coordination practice change, financing, and workforce development.  

In 2025, CHaSCI’s workforce development & other policy efforts included: 

• Continuing to co-chair Partnership to Align Social Care‘s Billing/Coding Workgroup 
• Continued editing a textbook chapter on care coordination and community-based care for the 9^th edition of Policy and Politics in Nursing and Health Care textbook, to be published in early 2026  
• Continuing a 3-year partnership with Illinois Department on Aging on direct care workforce development via the Rush Center for Excellence in Aging 
• Continued active participation in:  
  • Partnership to Align Social Care, including co-chairing the Billing and Coding workgroup 
  • Complex Care in Complex Times (3CT), a community of leaders in systems-level initiatives in complex care 
  • Eldercare Workforce Alliance 
  • American Society on Aging Policy Committee 
  • American Cancer Society National Navigation Roundtable 
  • Rush BMO Institute for Health Equity Policy Subcommittee 
  • Chicago Public Health Workforce Collaborative 
  • Putting Care at the Center conference advisory committee 

Research and dissemination 

In 2025, CHaSCI’s research & dissemination included both research & publications and presentations.

Publications  

In 2025, CHaSCI publications included:  

• Teresa Moro, Jacqueline McGinley, Bonnie Ewald, From the 4Ms to a Disability-Friendly Healthcare System, The Gerontologist, Volume 65, Issue 5, May 2025, gnaf060, https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnaf060 
  • And associated, Teresa Moro published article in the Helen journal, New Study Calls for Age-Friendly Health Systems to Include Adults with Disabilities (link here) 
• Eve Escalante, Rachel Smith, Alyssa McFadden, Elizabeth Chandler, Robin L Jones, Promoting Birth Equity with Team-Based Health and Social Care, Health & Social Work, Volume 50, Issue 3, August 2025, Pages 247–250, https://doi.org/10.1093/hsw/hlaf018  

In 2025, we also advanced several ongoing research and writing projects: 

• Our Oak Street Health RE-AIM evaluation is further underway (preliminary data analysis). This research project is evaluating the impact of social workers and CHWs being involved across Oak Street Health clinics  
• Scoping review about social work’s impact in care coordination, which describes and evaluates the state of the evidence on social work interventions on health and economic outcomes since passage of the Affordable Care Act and identifies and highlights knowledge gaps in these areas 
• Internal pilot award to explore the use of standardized and informal measurement in the therapeutic relationship in our community psychotherapy clinic 
• Utilizing feedback of the Social Work in Healthcare – Training Program to edit content and prepare for the launch of the social work in healthcare certificate in 2026 

Presentations:  

In 2025, CHaSCI presented at seven conferences and events, including:  

• Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) conference (January) 
  • Presentation titles: Social Workers & Community Health Workers in Primary Care; Advanced care planning for people with IDD   
• SIREN 2025 National Research Meeting (February) 
  • Poster title: “Expanding Access to Comprehensive and Quality Social Care Within and Beyond An Urban Medical Center” 
• American Society on Aging On Aging conference (April) 
  • Workshop titles: Integrating Whole-Person Care into Social Care and Health Care Systems; Building and Integrating a Diverse Social Care Workforce in Healthcare 
• America’s Physicians Group Spring Conference (May)  
  • Presentation title: How Accountable Care Providers Are Integrating Social Care with Health Care 
• 2025 NASW National Conference (June) 
  • Poster title: Social Work in Healthcare – Training Program (SWIHC-TP): Findings & Implications 
• LeadingAge Illinois 2025 Annual Conference (July) 
  • Presentation title: “Professionalizing the direct care workforce with standardized training and career pathways”   
• Putting Care at the Center conference (October) 
  • 2-minute Buzz presentation: “But you don’t do it for the money…”: Social Care billing, Complex care, & LCSWs”   
  • Hosted a table in the Beehive 
• APHA 2025 Annual Meeting and Expo (November) 
  • Panel presentation title: “Social Worker and Community Health Worker Collaboration in Perinatal Health: The Birth Equity Initiative at Rush University” 
• Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics virtual forum (November) 
  • Presentation topic: 4Ms and the utility for people with IDD 

Looking forward