South Carolina Board of Social Work Examiners

LMSWs may engaged in supervised clinical or advanced practice only in social, medical or governmental agencies and may not practice privately or independently. An LMSW providing clinical services must be clinically supervised by a South Carolina licensed LISW-CP, psychologist, psychiatrist, LPC, LMFT or LAC, who is employed by the agency where the LMSW provides these services.

A governmental agency is an organization or entity established by federal, state or local government.

A medical agency is an organization, entity, or practice that provides health care, including mental health services, to the public and to the community, including but not limited to hospitals, clinics, doctor's offices, hospice.

A social agency is an organization, entity or practice that may or may not be funded all or in part by public funding, donations, grants or the like, that provides health, welfare, rehabilitative or other social services to the public and to the community, and may bill a client or a third party for the provision for those services. A social agency may also provide these services without regard to the client's ability to pay.

An LMSW seeking LISW licensure must be supervised by a Board approved advanced practice supervisor or a Board approved clinical practice supervisor, for the purpose of obtaining supervision hours required for LISW licensure. The contract supervisor does not necessarily have to be employed by the agency where the LMSW is working. However, regardless of whether an LMSW is under a contract of supervision or not, if the LMSW is providing clinical services in an agency they must be supervised as provided above. The contract supervisor, if employed by the agency with the LMSW is working, can serve as contract and as workplace supervisor.

The LMSW may accept additional or changed duties so long as those duties fall within the defined scope of the practice for which supervision was approved. Supervision is required for both LISW-CP and LISW-AP. Supervision of clinical practice does not qualify an applicant for LISW-AP. Similarly supervision of advanced practice does not qualify an applicant for LISW-CP. However, the applicant may take on a variety clinical or advance practice duties during the time of supervision.

No. In SC, an LMSW cannot practice in a private or independent practice setting but can only practice in settings such as social, medical or governmental agencies. All clinical services in independent or private practice must be provided by LISW-CPs (those social workers who have met the education, supervision and examination licensure requirements of the Board for the LISW-CP.)

Yes. Graduation from an accredited program in Social Work with a BSW, MSW or DSW is a requirement for licensure. Persons who have bachelor degrees in sociology, psychology or related disciplines and who are interested in practice as a Social Worker are encouraged to contact one of the accredited programs in this state. Many courses from those degree programs may transfer to a Social Work degree.

To become an approved supervisor, one must first be a Licensed Independent Social Worker, CP or AP and have a minimum of 4500 hours of clinical/advanced practice earned over a period of not less than 3 years beyond receipt of LISW CP/AP and have obtained 45 academic coursework hours or continuing education hours in supervision.

Yes. You can obtain C.E. credit from home study courses via the Internet. There are many excellent Board approved home study courses available to licensees that can be taken in the comfort of their homes. Some of these include www.medicalupdate.com, www.aswb.org, www.nasw.org, or prsinfo.net, just to name a few or you may contact the Board office for more home study options.

First check to see if the flyer denotes approval by the S.C. Board, ASWB or NASW. If the flyer does not indicate this, check your guidelines to see if the sponsor falls under the pre-approved sponsor list. If you're still unsure if the workshop/seminar is approved, contact the sponsor of the workshop/seminar. The sponsor will know if the South Carolina Board has approved the workshop for Continuing Education.

The hours would count as non-social work hours, unless the presenter's degree was a BSW, MSW or DSW. If the Ph.D. is in social work, the CEU's would then count towards your social work hours.