DONNA SHANOR, LCSW, LCDC
From a first-of-its-kind department embedded in a medical school, a cure for modern medicine: social work.
Only about 16% of people in Travis County eat the recommended five or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily, while about 65% of people report spending at least 30% of their monthly income on housing. Nearly a fifth of people spend at least half their income on it.
An estimated — an astonishing — 80% of the factors that drive health are so-called social determinants like these. Along with mental health care — a third of Travis County adults ages 18 to 44 said they were experiencing poor mental health when surveyed in 2020 — they are the focus for Donna Shanor, LCSW, LCDC, associate chair for clinical integration and director of clinical social work and integrated behavioral health in the Department of Health Social Work. A collaboration of Dell Med and UT’s Steve Hicks School of Social Work, where she’s an assistant professor of practice, it’s the first department dedicated to social work at a U.S. medical school — and a tacit acknowledgement of the sea change needed in how we think about health and health equity as a biological, psychological and social consideration.
Better, More Comprehensive Teams
Shanor’s leadership is twofold, teaching social workers who are increasingly a part of interdisciplinary teams alongside doctors and nurses how to improve their skills as clinicians and scientists, analyzing the efficacy of solutions. At the same time, she’s integrally involved in designing systems that support such teams.
In Shanor’s estimation, social workers are the linchpin that has been missing from the health care system all along. “It’s not just a shoulder or a knee that hurts,” she says. “That whole person is sitting in the exam room. That person has a story and a community. If we don’t address that shoulder or knee in the context of those things, they’re not going to get better, and we’re not doing the work we’re supposed to be doing in health care.”