RAMPING UP

Today, Chapter President Chris Hudson and I meet with staff of the Attorney General’s office to discuss the Chapter’s major professional legislative priority: Revision of the Social Work Licensing Law.  Since this bill specifically focuses on consumer protection, we knew the A.G.’s office would be interested.  The public hearing for the bill is November 10th, and we are rounding up folks to give oral and written testimony.  Just to summarize, the bill would revise the present Social Work Licensing Law such that anyone calling him/herself a social worker would need to have graduated from an accredited BSW or MSW School of Social Work.  This means that when someone knocks on a client’s door and identifies him/herself as a social worker, the client has the assurance that this person is truly a professional with training, credentials, and supervision to back up his/her title.

If you are interested in joining the Chapter in seeing that this crucial consumer protection bill gets passed, let me know.  I’ll be waiting for you!

The Conversion Therapy Ban

Yesterday, MA Chapter testified at a State House hearing to support House bill 97, A Bill to Ban Conversion and Reparative Therapy.  I was joined by President-Elect Allison Scobie-Carroll, LICSW and Francie Mandel, LICSW, both of Children's Hospital Boston.  The bill is a first step toward preventing the use of abusive conversion therapies on minors. The hearing room was filled with proponents and opponents who often gave contradictory interpretations of the same statements from the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association. The phenomenon is a universal one: something is said and the listeners or readers give that something their own interpretation.  Join the human experience.  Below, please see the entire NASW-MA testimony:

"Dear Senate Co-Chair Jennifer Flanagan, House Co-Chair Kay Khan and Honorable Members of the Committee,

Thank you for this opportunity to testify before you on HB 97 The Conversion Therapy Ban, an Act relative to abusive practices to change sexual orientation and gender identity in minors.

My name is Carol Trust.  I am the Executive Director of the National Association of Social Workers-MA Chapter (NASW-MA), the largest professional social work organization in the state and the country.

NASW unequivocally opposes the practice of any forms of conversion or reparative therapy, along with the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and the Pan American Health Association. Services that purport to "cure" people with non-heterosexual sexual orientation lack medical justification and represent a serious threat to the health and well-being of affected people. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), issued a statement calling on governments, academic institutions, professional associations and the media to expose practices known as "reparative therapy" or "conversion therapy" and to promote respect for diversity. The statement asserted that "Since homosexuality is not a disorder or a disease, it does not require a cure."

At its Annual Convention in 2009, the American Psychological Association adopted a resolution that mental health professionals should avoid telling clients they can change their sexual orientation through therapy or other treatments.  The resolution was based on the APA’s Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation, which reviewed decades of research and found insufficient evidence that such treatments work.

Instead of telling clients that they can change, therapists should help them find ways to become more comfortable with their sexual orientation. It also advises parents and guardians to avoid treatments that portray homosexuality as a mental illness or developmental disorder.

It is sometimes remarkable to sit back and think about all of the changes and developments that have occurred in the medical world.  The treatment for heart disease, for example, has evolved over the past 30 years.  And so has our understanding of GLBT development.  It was in 1973 that homosexuality was eliminated by the American Psychiatric Association as a mental disorder.  Just like one does not choose to be straight, one does not choose to be gay, lesbian, or transgender.

What these teens need is understanding and acceptance. And real therapy, particularly by social workers. One of the things that make social workers unique is that we work so closely with families and have the pulse of what is going on in the client’s home.  We work with clients who have histories of all kinds of trauma and abuse.  We know the damage that can be done when anyone, but particularly an adolescent, whose developmental task is to figure out who he or she is in the world and gain comfort with that role, is expected to be someone that he or she is not.  GLBT youth are more vulnerable to bullying, depression, and suicide.  Many of these GLBT young people feel isolated, and receive messages about their sexuality that creates self-loathing.  This might manifest itself by the young person having anger outbursts, flunking out in school, or cutting herself on the back of  her legs so no one can see. (I should point out that this is not a suicide attempt, but a way to release stress.)   Therefore, the thought of an already vulnerable teen being put into the hostile environment of conversion therapy whose goal is to force him or her to be someone they are not is a recipe for disaster.  And it is ironic to call such an experience therapy.

Treatment by social workers involves starting where the teens are at and helping them accept themselves and eliminate shame and self-loathing.  Part of therapy means being empathic and non-judgmental and working on the goals that the client wants to work on.  We do not persuade people to be someone or something that they are not, which is what is practiced by conversion therapy. Licensed Independent Clinical Social workers establish a therapeutic contract with the teen in which it is clear that we are equal partners in reaching the goals. 

Another factor that makes social workers unique as therapists is that we are mindful of cultural differences.  We honor and respect the values of different cultural and racial groups and try to understand the perspective of people who do not come from mainstream culture.

I want to close my testimony with the following quote from the Family Acceptance Project:

“When we hold our baby in the nursery for the first time, no one tells us that our baby might be gay. By the time we know who our children are, we may have hurt them in many ways. No one teaches us how to help and protect our gay … children. We may think we can help by trying to change them – but we need to love them for who they are.”

      (From Family Acceptance Project, Dr. Caitlin Ryan, San Francisco State University, 2009)

Massachusetts has always been in the forefront – in education, healthcare, and high technology.  I urge you to make Massachusetts among the leaders of the states that repeal conversion therapy.

Thank you very much for your time.

Respectfully submitted,

Carol J. Trust, LICSW

Executive Director

NASW-MA Chapter"

#stopracism Twitter chat

The issue of racism, racial disparities and police treatment of individuals who come under their watch is a highly relevant issue.  On Thursday, July 16th at noon, NASW will hold a lunchtime Twitter chat to discuss how the association and social workers are working to address racism in the United States, especially after the June 17th mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. The chat will feature NASW South Carolina Executive Director Carla Damron, MSW, ACSW, and NASW Social Justice and Human Rights Manager Mel Wilson, MBA, LCSWC. Damron and Wilson will discuss how social workers in South Carolina responded to the shooting and what NASW is doing on a national level to address racism. We also want to hear what social workers are doing in their communities. Use the hashtag ‪#‎stopracism to join the Twitter conversation.  We hope you can join!

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.