Researchers at the University of Utah’s College of Social Work and Department of Population Health Sciences are harnessing artificial intelligence to train social workers.
“We are helping people do their jobs more efficiently and empowering them to get more done,” said Chad McDonald, director of the Social Research Institute. “We hope to help people better develop their skills in a way they may not have had time to before.”
McDonald and his colleagues Matt Davis, Cole Benson and Chris Cajski are developing a suite of software tools to help social work students and professionals develop the skills they need to excel at their jobs. The software has been developed in partnership with the Software Development and Systems Design Core, SD2C, under the leadership of Roger Altizer.
The Virtual Social Work Trainer, VSWT, is a project seven years in the making and includes trainings for learning things like how to complete home environment assessments, create safety plans, complete structured decision-making assessments, assess for risk of suicide, and improve Motivational Interviewing skills.
Motivational Interviewing is a technique commonly used by clinicians to strengthen an individual’s desire for and dedication to personal change. Typically, social work students and professionals practice these skills through role-play.
However, according to Davis, a research associate professor in Population Health Sciences, studies show feedback during these sessions is almost exclusively praise, leaving participants needing guidance on how specifically to improve.
“Practice doesn’t make perfect,” McDonald said. “It’s that perfect practice makes perfect and that is one of the problems we are trying to address.”
Over the years, the VSWT has leveraged cutting-edge technology to provide essential skills practice opportunities. Now the suite is utilizing AI to further support the learning needs of child welfare workers and address barriers to skill development. The VSWT suite uses AI to help develop content and power the Virtual Motivational Interviewing, VMI, chatbot where users can practice motivational interviewing skills and receive feedback on their performance.
While there are other digital tools for practicing Motivational Interviewing, the use of AI sets the VMI apart. Rather than relying on a set of pre-determined answers, the VMI chatbot can provide unlimited unique responses grounded in learning theory and guided by Motivational Interviewing experts. It also provides users with real-time feedback based on their performance.
“It’s not using technology for the sake of technology,” Benson said. “It’s using technology as a vehicle to address some barriers faced in this kind of training, whether it’s scalability, access, repeated practice, a safe environment, or consistency.”
Before coming to the U, McDonald worked as a trainer and administrator for Utah’s Division of Child and Family Services, giving him an important perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of the current workforce training model for social workers.
“Social work agencies and jurisdictions often lack the resources necessary to provide adequate training opportunities to develop the core skills central to effective casework or social work in general,” he said.
The goal of the VSWT suite is to make it easier for social workers to continue to practice and develop essential skills throughout their careers.
Currently, social work jurisdictions and schools across the United States are using or implementing aspects of the VSWT software suite to train students and employees. The team is working to develop a service center to better support development, implementation and outcome evaluation for partners and collaborators across the country.
Adding to the high demand of the VSWT software suite is the fact that at the recently held National Staff Development Training Association conference in Albuquerque, the team was awarded the 2024 Technology Innovation Award.