Supreme Court Rules That Same-Sex Couples Can Now Get Married Nationwide

On Friday, June 26, 2015, a huge step towards equality was made with its  same-sex freedom to marry decision. Before the decision, a majority of the American public already believed that same-sex marriage was a right and more than 70% of Americans lived in a place where same-sex marriage was legal.

We are thrilled that this decision had its origins in Massachusetts where 7 brave and bold couples brought the issue to the Massachusetts Courts.  These very couples were early recognized for their bravery by the Massachusetts Chapter when they received the 2005 Public Citizen of the Year Award.  This is a wonderful example of true activism which is totally aligned with Social Work’s tradition.

A Day at the State House: giving and hearing testimony

Wednesday, June 24, hearing room B2 was filled with mental health clinicians and advocates.  Two bills of specific interest to the social work community were being heard.  The first bill was one filled by SEIU Local 509 on behalf of Clinicians United.  The bill would create state action immunity for providers (Private Practice Mental Health Clinicians), who choose to engage in joint negotiations with insurance providers on issues such as: reimbursement rates; determination of medical necessity; and other conditions of coverage.  NASW testified in favor of this bill.  We are working on several levels  (locally and nationally) to increase the reimbursement rates of clinical social workers  and this bill is in line with NASW’s goals.

The second bill,  SB578 - An act relative to mental health certified peer specialists would direct MassHealth to cover mental health services provided by certified peer specialist. The testimony given by people who have experienced mental illness in their own lives and got better with the help of peer specialists (along with different forms of therapy) was compelling and substantive. What eye opening experiences they shared!  The social work community would certainly agree with the findings that the use of peer specialists has become an accepted and proven practice in the provision of mental health services in many states which also reimburse for their services.

Keeping mental health issues in the conversations, hearings and testimonies at the State House is clearly alive and well.

Guest Blogger Gary Bailey: "Black Like Me... NOT! Rachel Dolezal and the Myth of (Her) Blackness"

Written by guest blogger Gary Bailey, MSW, ACSW
Reprinted with permission from The Huffington Post. 

Earlier this month I watched with shock and dismay as what has now come to be referred to as the "Pool Party Brawl" which occurred in McKinney, Texas. The video that went viral shows Officer David Eric Casebolt briefly waving his handgun at young partygoers who approached him as he tried to subdue a bikini-clad 15-year-old African-American girl, Miss Dajerria Becton. The officer ultimately immobilized her by putting her face down on the ground whilst straddling her and ultimately placing a knee on her back. Playing out before my very eyes was a collision of racism and sexism.

This week has brought another collision of sorts that is playing out in the media and involves both innate racial identity and the co-opting of a racial identity. Ms. Rachel Dolezal, the former president of the Spokane branch of the NAACP, was outed in the media by her parents and adopted siblings as someone who was passing as an African-American woman, but who, in fact, was White. Certainly, many young White people identify strongly with African Americans and African-American culture. A White person running a chapter of the NAACP is not a problem either; the history of the NAACP itself is that the majority of the original founders of the NAACP over a century ago were actually White people.

The issue at hand is that a White person who is pretending to be Black, and is running a branch of the NAACP is indeed the problem. Of more concern is Ms. Dolezal's lack of honesty and integrity, and the collateral damage she has done to the community she claims to want to be a part of.

The incident in McKinney, Texas for many people, was yet another example of the ways in which young African-American children are viewed as "older" and in the eyes of many and as less than. Watching the images of that scantily clad young African-American girl, with an older white male astride her, was startling and had deep historical connotations that hard as she may will never be the lived reality of Ms. Dolezal. Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart quotes Dolezal's brother Ezra saying, "Back in the early 1900s, what she did would be considered highly racist." Capehart goes on to say, "Blackface remains highly racist, no matter how down with the cause a white person is."

In her book "Killing Rage: Ending Racism," scholar, feminist, and social activist bell hooks states "Whether they are able to enact it as lived practice or not, many white folks active in anti-racist struggle today are able to acknowledge that all whites (as well as everyone else within white supremacist culture) have learned to overvalue "whiteness" even as they simultaneously learn to devalue blackness."

As a clinical social work practitioner for more than 35 years, the complexity of family dynamics is very seldom lost upon me and indeed what we are seeing with the Dolezals are some deeply rooted family issues. After watching the abuse and humiliation of that young African-American teenager last week, I would say to Ms. Dolezal that though she might have compassion and empathy for what it means to be Black in America, that her 15-year-old self would not have suffered the indignities as were meted out to Dajerria Becton in McKinney, Texas. No way, no how. And that is the major difference between a truly lived experience and the co-option of a people's experience.


Gary Bailey, MSW, ACSW, is a Professor of Practice at Simmons College School of Social Work, as well as former president of the NASW-DC Chapter and former president of the NASW-MA Chapter.

Calling All DCF Alumnae Staff

Calling All DCF Alumnae Staff,

It was several decades ago that I was hired as a “child welfare worker” with DCF, formerly known as the Division of Child Guardianship (DCG).  I was recruited right out of undergraduate school, with excitement and trepidation under my belt.  I was going to do good work for kids.  I was going to save them from sadness, badness, and madness.  I was going to make my parents proud of me and I was going to buy my first car with my new salary.

For the first week, I shadowed several veteran child welfare workers, none of whom had social work degrees.  I was supervised by several different supervisors, all of whom had MSWs and who patiently explained how to take a history, be nonjudgmental, and complete my paperwork as soon as I got back to the office.  There was Jim Pisciotta and Joe Pare and several other MSW supervisors and managers who helped us inexperienced, uncredentialed, and skill-free recruits keep kids safe.  I was clueless, thinking all I needed was good intentions and a big heart. The supervisors were more intentional, attempting to help us non-social workers understand that it takes much more than a big heart to address the problems that our families faced.  There were histories of alcoholism, poverty, domestic violence, and birth defects- none of which I had experienced growing up or even faced in my later teen years.  I was, indeed, a greenhorn, in foreign territory.

And almost 50 years later, we have pretty much the same situation, with folks coming into the child welfare work world with good intentions and hopes to “do good.”  Many do have social work degrees, and, for these folks, the work is a professional challenge.  For those who have no social work background (where one learns about the complex environmental, social, and biological variables that influence a family’s inability to keep their kids safe and happy), well, they totally struggle even with highly trained social work supervisors.

Child welfare is very serious work.  It is just the kind of work that calls upon one’s social work training, education, and field work.  And that is why NASW-MA has filed legislation that requires anyone who calls themselves a social worker to have a social work background- a BSW or an MSW.  I know how I and my fellow “unprepared recruits” struggled to do the best we could with our variety of non-social work undergraduate backgrounds.  Even with the talent of our social work supervisors, we still had little to offer our families and kids.  NASW-MA will be working with DCF and other child welfare advocates and educators to bring the best trained social work staff to a most valuable human resource: the children and their families.

Honoring Marylou Sudders, NASW-MA member

This week included one of those celebratory events that live on in social workers’ minds as one of many successes. This week, we celebrated the appointment of the first social worker to become the Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services.  It was the profession’s time to shine as we acknowledged Marylou Sudders.  For those of you who were not present at the happening, I am posting my remarks so that you get a flavor of how wonderful Governor Baker’s appointment is to all of us.

“Good afternoon – social workers, friends of social work, legislators, and Madam Secretary, Marylou Sudders. My name is Carol Trust and I welcome you to an Oscar-level event.  The winner?  Our own Marylou – Secretary of Health and Human Services.  Who is this Marylou?  NASW member, model of inspiration to social workers, exceptional tennis player, and lady who needs little sleep to make big things happen.  Your extended family, the National Association of Social Workers and the MA Chapter of NASW (the 3^rd largest chapter in the country, out of 55) is beaming over your appointment as Secretary, not only because you’re one of us, a proud social worker, but because you are an extraordinary example of how social workers display that winning combination of clinical savvy, organizational acumen, and strategic muscle. You know well how public policy issues effect people’s private, personal problems.  You know well that social work requires more than a big heart.  It requires intuitive qualities, diplomatic presence, unstoppable advocacy, and statesmanship tenacity.  You are all of those and more.  Your outstanding achievements and skills are remarkable.  Your positive “can do” attitude, professionally and personally, is memorable.  As an innovator, and tireless advocate, you are respected by peers and legislators.  In short, Marylou, you dazzle all of us in this room and beyond.  The MA Chapter is thrilled to have you in its family of distinguished members.”

What Are We Celebrating?

It seems like this year’s month of March is number one on the hit parade for events to don your party wear.  The celebrations are continual.  First, we have March, which has been designated as Social Work Month.  March is also the beginning of the celebration of the 60^th anniversary of the establishment of the National Association of Social Workers.  Closer to home, the Chapter is celebrating Massachusetts-specific events: the Annual Awards Celebration, where extraordinary social workers and public citizens are recognized for their outstanding contributions to clients, the profession, and to social and economic justice campaigns; the appointment of Marylou Sudders, NASW member, as the Secretary of Health and Human Services.  NASW, along with Boston College’s and Boston University’s Schools of Social Work, are hosting a reception at the State House, to acknowledge our champion of social work values in her new position; and at the end of the month, LEAD, the MA chapter’s annual Legislative Education and Advocacy Day, where social work students and professionals roll up their sleeves to lobby on the Chapter’s priority legislation.

Traditionally, I am not enthusiastic about celebrating many national holidays: Mother’s Day?  My birthday?  Valentine’s Day?  I say, “Be nice to me every day, and I will return by appreciation every day as well.”  As for celebrating social work, I share the same sentiment.  I do cherish the profession I chose.  I celebrate every day, in quiet and expressed ways, that social work is a marvelous career.  It connects me to people regardless of my mood or my daily assignments: my staff, the NASW members who call for advice, to share a problem or complaint, or a non-social worker who is looking for information and direction.  On certain quiet days, I look at my phone and say, “Ring, ring, will you?!” if the phone has been too silent.

Thank you, social work, for this great gift of involvement, satisfaction, and challenge.

Bother me!

I recently received a phone call from a long time (30+ years) NASW-MA member who was surprised that I answered my phone with the usual “Hi, this is Carol.”  “Is this really Carol or her voice mail?” she asked.  I had the sense that getting directly through to me was like calling the White House and having the President answer the phone.

I was surprised at first, and then wondered if one of the reasons I don't get as many phone calls as I used to when I was a staff person might be because members may feel that they won’t get me directly, or they don't want to bother me with what they may consider a simple or silly question, or that maybe they should know the answer and don't want to appear uninformed or dumb.

Hogwash to all those reasons, I say.  I (and my entire staff) want to hear all of your concerns, every question, even if you feel they may be dumb, and we want you to call, email, and fax.  And if you insist on feeling that you might be bothering us, then bother away.

All of the staff at the chapter office, as well as our four wonderful Regional staff persons, are waiting for your calls, your questions, your comments.  We are here to serve you.  So call away.  And I, especially, expect to hear more from you.