Doctorate Social Work (DSW) Program Accreditation

I was reading about CSWE’s current piloting going on for the accreditation of professional practice doctoral programs. It looks like the piloting will conclude in 2025 and ~5 DSW programs that are undergoing the piloting will either be accredited / not accredited after the piloting phase is complete.

With that being said, I was wondering if the community could help provide any insight / general thoughts regarding following questions:

1) If there are DSW programs that are accredited starting in 2025 and one chooses to attend one of the accredited DSW programs and successfully graduates, do you think the various insurance panels will create any positive changes for DSWs to get a higher payment versus LCSWs?

2) Has anyone started to see DSWs gaining more traction in leadership roles and roles within academia? I understand that a PhD is typically a better route to pursue for those that are heavily interested in teaching / research but I’m interested to see what kinds of changes we may see if DSW programs begin to receive accreditation.

3) I’m not as familiar with the history of degrees within psychology but wouldn’t this be a similar situation to PsyD vs PhD in Psychology? One degree having a focus on clinical practice and the other having a focus on research?

For additional context, I am a LCSW that is currently employed by the U.S Army as a Behavioral Health Officer. I’m hoping to transition out of active duty in 2026 and have been considering what I would like to do next. As of now, I’m thinking about pursuing a job at a VA hospital / clinic to gain experience working with veterans, pay off my MSW loans, and pursue a DSW depending on how the accreditation piloting goes. The DSW would fortunately be free for me because I have full GI bill eligibility. I also plan on transitioning into the Army Reserves or back to the National Guard to continue serving.

If you have any thoughts, I would love to hear them! I truly appreciate your time and thank you all for the great work that you continue to do.