Field Agency Policy Analysis and Advocacy PowerPoint: Populations, Barriers, ADEI and Policy (Social Work Example)

Assignment: Field agency policy analysis and advocacy (PowerPoint)

Imagine that you are a social worker treating an LGBTQ couple who live in a state with few protections against discrimination. Or maybe you are working with a single dad whose children are frequently sent home from school for behavioral issues, an action that then jeopardizes his employment. Policies—on the federal, state, local, or even school and organization level—affect clients’ lives in large ways. What types of clients do you see in your field agency, and what laws and policies create barriers for them? In this Assignment, you analyze such policies and consider your advocacy efforts currently and in the future.

Using the PowerPoint template:

• Describe your field agency.
• Define the characteristics of the populations served by the agency.
• Identify the key issues, barriers and challenges experienced by clients.
• Explain how you and the agency apply concepts of ADEI with clients to address these issues.
• Analyze how local, state and federal policies, legislation and regulations impact these issues.
• Explain the extent to which the agency is involved in policy advocacy efforts. Describe how you, as an intern, are involved, with specific examples.

Original example for study purposes (10 slides).

Slide 1: Title

On slide: Policy, Barriers and Advocacy at Riverbend Community Behavioral Health · [Name] · [Course] · [Date]

Slide 2: My Field Agency

On slide: Nonprofit community behavioral health center · Outpatient therapy, psychiatry, case management, peer support, substance use treatment · Mobile crisis team · Medicaid and sliding-scale funding

Speaker notes: Riverbend Community Behavioral Health is a nonprofit community mental health center serving a mid-sized city and two surrounding rural counties. Its mission is to provide recovery-oriented, accessible behavioral health care regardless of ability to pay. Services include individual and group therapy, psychiatric evaluation and medication management, targeted case management, peer recovery support, outpatient substance use treatment including medication for opioid use disorder and a 24/7 mobile crisis team linked to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. It is funded mainly by Medicaid, state behavioral health grants, county funds and federal block grants. I am placed with the adult case management team, where social workers connect clients with housing, benefits and health care.

Slide 3: Populations Served

On slide: Adults 18+ with serious mental illness and co-occurring substance use · Mostly low-income and Medicaid-enrolled · Racially and ethnically diverse · Many unhoused or unstably housed · Rural and urban residents

Speaker notes: Most clients are adults living with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression, and many also have substance use disorders. The majority have incomes below 138% of the federal poverty level and rely on Medicaid. Clients reflect the community’s racial and ethnic diversity, including Black, Latino and immigrant clients, as well as LGBTQ+ clients and veterans. Many have histories of trauma, incarceration or homelessness, and rural clients often live far from services.

Slide 4: Key Issues, Barriers and Challenges

• Housing instability: rising rents and long waiting lists for subsidized housing.
• Insurance churn: clients lose Medicaid during renewals because of paperwork, mail problems or missed deadlines.
• Transportation: rural clients miss appointments without reliable rides.
• Stigma and discrimination: related to mental illness, race, sexual orientation and criminal records.
• Workforce shortages: waiting lists for psychiatry and therapy.
• Criminal legal involvement: people in crisis are sometimes met by police rather than clinicians.

Slide 5: Applying ADEI

On slide: Anti-racism · Diversity · Equity · Inclusion

Speaker notes: The agency applies anti-racism, diversity, equity and inclusion (ADEI) principles in several ways. Anti-racism: the agency reviews data on who is involuntarily hospitalized or discharged for missed appointments, by race, to identify inequities, and staff complete training on racial trauma. Diversity: it hires bilingual staff and peer specialists with lived experience, and it offers interpreters at no cost. Equity: it provides bus passes, telehealth and evening hours so access does not depend on transportation or job schedules. Inclusion: clients serve on a consumer advisory board, intake forms ask for chosen names and pronouns, and LGBTQ+ affirming groups are offered. As an intern, I use cultural humility in assessments, ask clients how their identities and experiences of discrimination affect their goals and advocate for them when systems treat them unfairly.

Slides 6–7: Policy Analysis

Speaker notes: These policies interact. For example, a client who loses Medicaid because of work requirement paperwork may also lose access to medication, become unstable, lose housing and end up in jail or the emergency room, which costs the public more. Policies that simplify enrollment and fund community crisis services, by contrast, help clients maintain recovery.

Slide 8: Agency Involvement in Policy Advocacy

On slide: Member of state behavioral health coalition · Testimony to legislature · Data sharing · Client voter registration · Medicaid enrollment support

Speaker notes: The agency is moderately involved in advocacy. As a nonprofit, it cannot endorse candidates but can educate lawmakers. Its executive director belongs to the state community behavioral health association, which lobbies for Medicaid rates and crisis funding. Staff have testified before the legislature about workforce shortages, and the agency shares de-identified data showing how Medicaid gaps lead to crises. It also hosts nonpartisan voter registration and runs a benefits enrollment clinic.

Slide 9: My Role as an Intern

• Case advocacy: I help clients complete Medicaid renewals and prepare documentation for work-requirement exemptions, such as letters confirming medical frailty.
• Data: I tracked how many of my caseload’s clients lost coverage at renewal over three months and shared the findings with my supervisor for the coalition’s policy brief.
• Legislative advocacy: I participated in my state NASW chapter’s advocacy day and met with a legislative aide about 988 funding.
• Client empowerment: I helped two clients write personal statements describing how losing coverage affected their recovery, shared with permission in public comments.

Slide 10: Conclusion and References

Speaker notes: Policies at every level shape whether my clients can stay housed, insured and well. Social workers have an ethical responsibility under the NASW Code of Ethics (2021) to engage in social and political action, and this placement has shown me how case advocacy and policy advocacy reinforce each other. In my future practice, I plan to continue tracking how policies affect clients and to bring those stories to decision-makers.

Ballotpedia News. (2026, June 12). CMS releases interim final rule for Medicaid work requirements, defines medical frailty exemption. https://news.ballotpedia.org/2026/06/12/cms-releases-interim-final-rule-for-medicaid-work-requirements-defines-medical-frailty-exempt/

National Association of Social Workers. (2021). Code of ethics of the National Association of Social Workers. https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics

Reed Smith. (2025, May 19). MHPAEA final rule inches closer to chopping block. https://www.reedsmith.com/articles/mhpaea-final-rule-inches-closer-to-chopping-block/

[Add your agency’s website, your state policy sources and your course readings.]