What roles do social workers play in primary health care? A new Ontario study takes a closer look
Categories: Faculty, Rachelle Ashcroft, ResearchA new study highlights the roles social workers play in supporting patients as key members of primary health care teams in Ontario — knowledge that can ultimately help optimize the quality of patient care.
The research, led by University of Toronto professor Rachelle Ashcroft and published in BMC Primary Care, surveyed 159 social workers working in team based primary care settings across Ontario, including Family Health Teams, Community Health Centres, and Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinics. The goal: to better understand social workers’ scope of practice, how they collaborate with other health professionals, and the key structures and processes that guide their work.
Dr. Rachelle Ashcroft, shown here, welcoming participants to the National Summit on Social Work in Primary Care in October 2025, led a survey of primary care social workers in Ontario. the research was recently published in BMC Primary Care.
“Enhancing comprehensiveness of care is a key benefit of adding social workers to team-based primary care,” says Ashcroft, and Associate Professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work . “With the expansion of interprofessional team-based care, the number of social workers in primary care is projected to increase substantively.”
Rising demands for mental health care services as well as increasing social, environmental, and economic pressures that affect patient health (social determinants of health, such as housing and food insecurity, and employment) add to the complexity of care that is increasingly required.
The study’s findings show that, in primary health care settings, providing mental health care is a core focus of social work practice. Nearly all respondents reported that they address mental health concerns daily through the delivery of assessments, counselling, and therapeutic interventions to patients across the lifespan.
Beyond counselling, social workers also address a wide range of social and health-related challenges, including financial stress, housing insecurity, addiction, grief, chronic illness, parenting concerns, and social isolation. They conduct psychosocial assessments, help patients navigate health and social systems, connect people to community resources, and manage ongoing care for patients with complex needs.
Social workers are highly collaborative with a range of different types of healthcare providers working in primary care teams. Many also collaborate with community-based professionals and services outside their teams, helping bridge gaps between health care and social services.
At the same time, respondents pointed to system-level challenges. Many said current performance metrics used to assess their work focus mainly on counting patient visits, failing to capture the time spent on care coordination, documentation, and addressing the social complexity of patient needs. Nearly half reported that referral processes could be improved to increase access, and several noted long wait times for nonurgent care.
The study underscores social workers’ role as vital contributors to comprehensive, team-based primary care. Based on the results of their survey, the authors recommend examining retention challenges and increasing the capacity for collaboration. They also stressed the need for primary health care teams to better understand how social workers deliver and evolve the complex care required to address the social and economic factors that affect patient health. The authors argue that involving social workers as leaders in shaping best practices and how care is organized will help patients receive more effective, accessible, and people-centred care.
Read the full article “Enhancing comprehensive in primary care: results of a cross-sectional survey of primary care social workers in Ontario, Canada,” published in BMC Primary Care.
Led by Associate Professor Rachelle Ashcroft, co-authors of this study include FIFSW alumni Simon Lam and Amina Hussain, PhD students Rumia Owaisi and Peter Sheffield, and Associate Professor Keith Adamson. Nele Feryn, Deepy Sur, Jennifer Rayner, Catherine Donnelly, and Judith Belle Brown are also co-authors.
Citation: Ashcroft, R., Feryn, N., Lam, S. et al. Enhancing comprehensive in primary care: results of a cross-sectional survey of primary care social workers in Ontario, Canada. BMC Prim. Care27, 116 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-026-03226-4