Tragedy in Vermont

Our social work colleagues in Vermont experienced a heartbreaking tragedy this weekend with the shooting death of a Department of Children and Families social worker. With very preliminary information, we know that the social worker was shot outside the DCF office, allegedly by a DCF client who lost custody of her child(ren).

The Child Welfare field has always been a challenging one.  Social Workers and other child welfare staff are expected to deal with complex social, environmental, psychological, and mental health issues that affect society’s vulnerable families.  These multifarious problems can be short-lived or chronic, and it is up to the child welfare community to deal with them, address them, solve them.  With this awesome responsibility, society must do its utmost to give child welfare the support, resources and mobilized attention that the job demands. 

For this reason, NASW continually supports manageable caseloads, professional training for staff, and every effort to fully fund and staff child welfare agencies with the necessary resources. 

Please see the statement from our colleague in Vermont below:

  

NASW-VT STATEMENT 

The Vermont Chapter of the National Association for Social Workers (NASW-VT) expresses its heartbreak and sympathies after Friday night's fatal shooting of a Department for Children and Families (DCF) employee.  

Employees of the Department for Children and Families do immensely difficult work with children and families experiencing complicated and often extreme hardship. Every day, these workers do their best to navigate sometimes-impossible challenges in an environment of scarce resources. This work helps ensure the safety and wellbeing of communities throughout Vermont. 

While we know that incidents such as these have been known to occur to child protection workers across the country, it is impossible to prepare for or fathom the devastation that a crime such as this causes. NASW-VT expresses our deepest sympathies to the family of the victim of this crime. We stand in proud solidarity with child protection workers across Vermont and across our country in the wake of this unspeakable violence. 

  

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20150809/THISJUSTIN/708099901

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/local/2015/08/09/vigils-planned-slain-social-worker/31377181/

Eilis O’Herlihy, LICSW

Executive Director, NASW-VT

The DCF Target: It Is Not Over

So much is being written about what is going on at the Department of Children and Families and there is so much finger pointing that the Daily News should really take on a new name - How about the Daily Target?  It is doubtless that a series of tragic events has occurred over the past months:

·         Three children died;

·         The agency charged with protecting these children and strengthening their families did not prevent the deaths;

·         The workers assigned the job of protecting and strengthening failed…the agency failed.

All this was reported from various sources and we all feel so helpless – we being the workers assigned to the cases, the managers assigned to support the workers, the professionals associated with  the child welfare agency (i.e. the police, school systems, community agencies contracted with DCF to provide services).  The list goes on.  And the NASW, the association representing the social work profession is also in the mix, for  the term ‘social worker’ applies to us.

Beyond all the ‘knee jerk’ responses about which I have previously written, I have offered the following to the press:

1.       That the media catch the child welfare community doing something right, rather than looking for what is wrong.  What is right is…

a.       The thousands of children and families that have benefitted from short and long-term supports offered by DCF and its contracted agencies;

b.      The thousands of kids that say that DCF saved them; AND

c.       The thousands of foster families who not only provided valuable assistance to the biological families in need of the positive modeling foster parents supply and the thousands of social workers, including myself as a former DCG worker, who believed in parents intentions to do the right thing, but who just did not know how to do it.

2.       That the DCF training unit be adequately funded to provide the essential professional training needed for individuals going into the field.  It is short-sighted and irresponsible to hire 200 new workers without giving them the tools, the knowledge and the supervised training required to understand and intervene appropriately in the complicated situations into which they thrust.

3.       That the law, regulations and practice require that only individuals with social work degrees from accredited BSW and MSW Schools of Social Work be hired to work with some of the most complex and compromised family and individual cases to which DCF is charged.  There is a place for other professionals to do important case management, coordination and related work but the demanding role of a social worker in DCF requires people who have had several years of supervised experience and course work before they take on the serious work within the child welfare field.

Ms. Trust goes to Washington

Each year the NASW Annual Leadership Meeting (ALM) brings together all the Executive Directors, the Presidents or the President Elects of the Chapters (there are 55 chapters), the National NASW Board of Directors and the National staff to receive training on issues common to the Leadership of the Association.  It is an extraordinary experience being in among all this brain power, exuberance, leadership and passion for the profession. One day is spent on building strong relationships between elected volunteers, leaders and staff so that this team can go home and recreate the powerful voice of social work in its local Chapter.  The training that our President, Betty Morningstar, and I received will be passed on to our Board of Directors and other Committee and Shared Interest Group Chairs as we increase the strength of leadership in the Chapter.

President Morningstar and I had the opportunity to visit the offices of our two Massachusetts Senators, John Kerry and Scott Brown, as well as each of our Congressmen, Barney Frank and Michael Capuano.  Our main objective was to lobby our Congress people to sign on to the Dorothy I. Height and Whitney M. Young Jr. Social Work Reinvestment Act (HR 1106/S.584.  This Act will not only strengthen the social work profession by giving it National Visibility, but it will also provide demonstration grants advancing the implementation of social work practice models in agencies and organizations throughout the country.  Senator Kerry has just signed on as a co-sponsor, as a result of our visit. You can count on President Morningstar and me to lobby the other three Congress people to a favorable decision.

A highlight of the 3 day event was the awarding of National Awards to exemplary social workers and public citizens.  The Massachusetts Chapter’s nominee for Public Citizen of the Year, Clementina Chery won the award with her exceptional vision and passion for creating the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute in Dorchester , MA.   In 1993, Ms. Chery’s son, Louse, was shot and killed while on his way to a Christmas party given by a group called Teens Against Gang Violence- a violence prevention, intervention and peer leadership development program. The Institute is dedicated to carrying on their son’s legacy of preventing violence in their community. The audience of National leaders and citizens were spell bound by the work of NASW-MA Chapter’s Ms. Chery.

So that’s a short round up  of what your Executive Director is up to on these yearly trips.  I am proud and grateful to represent the Massachusetts Social Work Community in the Nation’s Capital.

Carol J. Trust

Vote NO on Question 3!!

Hello Everyone,


There has been much discussion lately about the upcoming ballot questions.  NASW-MA has taken a position AGAINST ALL proposed questions.  However, this week I want to highlight Question 3 which would cut state sales tax from 6.25% to 3% creating a $2.5 billion revenue hole on top of a projected $2 billion dollar budget deficit for next year.  As a social worker, this drastic proposal is particularly distressing to me.  If Question 3 passes, local aid and human services programs would need to be slashed and in some cases eliminated altogether.


We simply can't let that happen to our communities.


Toby McGrath, Chair of the VoteNoQuestion3 Campaign said this in response to one of the Boston Globe articles published this week:  (See link http://bit.ly/b22OmJ )

 “In a matter of hours there were over 500 comments on an on-line story about Question 3 in the Boston Globe. Maybe four comments tops were folks saying vote no.  The on-line poll on the article had us losing 62-38 with all most 2,800 votes...”

NASW-MA Chapter has joined the Massachusetts Coalition for Our Communities to oppose Question 3.  It is imperative we build a strong campaign AGAINST the passage of Question 3. 

Please join us in defeating Question 3!! 


http://facebook.com/VoteNoQuestion3

Carol Trust

A SU SERVICIO

I recently came back from a vacation in Mexico, where I was paying close attention to the way other peoples relate to each other.  This is a fascination of mine: watching other people: how they talk to each other; their eye contact; the use of their hand gestures and their body language; observing their eye contact; viewing their physical connections or lack of connectedness..

I want to share three short observances with you and relate them to the world of social work. I was wandering around in Merida, the Capital of the state of Yucatan, studying the architecture of the residential and commercial buildings and working up an appetite. I saw a sign that indicated I was heading in the direction of what looked like a great supermarket.

The first thing I noticed as I walked through the parking lot to reaching the front door of the market was the signs indicating reserved parking spots.  There was the usual sign of a wheel chair which was similar to the sign we have in the states that indicates these spaces are reserved for handicapped folks.  Then right next to the wheel chair sign was a sign indicating “Reservado  Futuros Mamas” featuring a lady with a very big belly. I thought that was really neat.  How thoughtful!  Then just inside the front door was a nice lady wearing an apron and hair net who walked right up to me to inquire,”Puedo ayudarle?”—even before I asked for help.  Lastly, there were all the ‘empleados” in the bakery section who were  wearing hair nets and what looked like surgical masks over their mouths and noses who also stopped what they were doing  to, again ask, “Puedo ayudale?”

Now, you may say, ‘What is so special about all this?  There are folks at Walmart who welcome customers and Home Depot.’

Well, perhaps it is not so distinctive, but rather a reminder to me and the entire NASW staff at the chapter office of our priorities.  First, as a membership organization we are here to serve you, our members. No other organization has the interests of social workers as its primary focus.  At the same time, we are here to advocate for just social and economic programs and policies for all. The Social Work profession has this dual focus. As the Executive Director of  the 4^th largest NASW Chapter in the country, I am reaffirming our Chapter’s commitment to serve you, our members. Please be assured that when you call the Chapter office, you will receive our undivided attention to your issue.  And please call.  Call often. Tell us what you need, what you like, what we could do better, what you would like us to do that we are not now doing.  We take every call seriously.

A SU SERVICIO.

Safety In the Workplace

Hello Everyone,

Since the fall of 2008, a state wide Task Force has been meeting to create a system to maximize the safety of social worker in the workplace.  This group of dedicated social work practitioners, executives, managers, faculty, and researchers will be launching the results of its work at a Safety Summit this fall in the Greater Boston area.  The MA Chapter of NASW and Boston University School of Social Work are heading up the task force which will be releasing a new site on the NASW Home Page that will feature every possible resource for social workers to prevent violence in the workplace, address it in a timely way when it occurs and deal with the aftermath.

Already the group has submitted a new policy statement for the 2011 NASW Delegate Assembly to consider adding to its compendium of policies that appear in “Social Work Speaks”.  In addition it is planning on submitting legislation that will safeguard social workers in the workplace.  Lastly, it has put out a: CALL FOR TRAINERS” to begin the process of training of cadre of social workers that will be available to train worker and administrators on how to keep safe.

This extraordinary group of people is not going to wait for the next tragedy to occur to address the ever present of issue of violence against social workers.  We applaud the members of the Task Force and will be looking for it materials on the NASW website beginning this fall.

Carol Trust