When a patient enters a hospital, medical treatment may be only one part of the challenge. Families can suddenly face questions about caregiving, mental health, transportation, finances, rehabilitation and what happens after the patient returns home. Increasingly, social workers help families navigate those difficult moments.
Loma Linda University is preparing future professionals for that role through its School of Behavioral Health. On August 17, the university is hosting a virtual information session for its Master of Social Work program, which is now in its third decade. Students can pursue traditional on-campus, online and advanced-standing pathways.
LLU's program emphasizes a biopsychosocial-spiritual approach to clinical social work and provides training in trauma and resiliency-informed interventions. Career pathways include medical and psychiatric social work, hospice care, geriatrics, behavioral health, public health and healthcare administration.
Loma Linda's influence on the profession was also recognized nationally this summer. Beverly Buckles, DSW, dean of the School of Behavioral Health, was one of only 10 leaders inducted into the National Association of Social Workers Foundation's 2026 class of Social Work Pioneers. Her career includes more than four decades of leadership and the creation of Loma Linda University's International Behavioral Health Trauma Team, which has served in more than 100 crisis situations across more than 65 countries.
For patients, however, social work often becomes personal rather than academic. A social worker may help a family understand available resources, prepare for life after hospitalization or cope with a life-changing diagnosis.
Modern healthcare is increasingly recognizing that treating illness means understanding the person experiencing it. In that environment, social workers have become an important bridge between medical treatment and the complicated realities patients face when they return to everyday life.