by Elaine Congress, DSW
(November/December 1999)
This is the last issue of Currents in the 20th century. The end of the year has often leads to thoughts about where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. This process seems especially timely as we begin the new century.
Where have we been? I think about how at the beginning of this century our profession first moved from friendly visiting to the formal study of knowledge, values, and skills which we have come to know as professional social work. I think about our work in settlement houses when million of new Americans were helped to adjust to a new country. In the beginning of my social work career we studied a particular model of treatment - the psychodynamic approach- that was thought to work ideally with all clients in all situations. Clients were seen long term. Either the client' s pathology or our own inadequacy was blamed for "premature termination." AIDS was unknown and we wrote lengthy case notes by hand. We became psychiatric social workers or medical social workers or community organizers or administrators. We who were most likely to be white studied how to work with black clients. We learned that confidentiality meant not leaving case records open on our desks.
I first became active in NASW through the women' s issue committee and committee membership still continues as an important way for members to become involved with NASW. I remember how little I knew about the larger organization when I was a new committee member. Now I hope through Currents and our many diverse programs committee members are well informed and participate more regularly in all of our chapter activities.
Where are we now? We now know and use other models like cognitive-behavioral, family, group, and brief treatment in working with clients. Short term treatment has become the norm in an era of managed care.
As professional social workers, we are very concerned that managed care challenges our professional judgement, our clients' rights to service, as well as confidentiality. Yet we acknowledge that sometimes less treatment is better when it empowers and promotes clients' strengths. We also can applaud managed care focus on prevention that has always been a professional concern.
When I first began in social work, we were very concerned about individual rights. This was the era of civil rights, students rights, welfare client rights, mental patients and prisoners rights. Currently we have seen increased focus on societal rights such as the Megan law that protect children against sex offenders, the Kendra law that attempts to protect the public from violent mental health patients, and mandatory HIV testing of newborns legislation designed to protect society from the spread of AIDS.
Our Code of Ethics has grown from a one page document in 1960 that listed fourteen general aspirations to our current 27 page Code of Ethics with 51 specific areas such as dual relationships and cultural competency. Our society has become increasingly litigious and the number of ethical as well as legal charges against social workers have also grown.
It is well known that New York City has become more diverse. We recognize that diversity involves not only differences of color, but also ethnicity, gender, age, disability, and sexual orientation. We are also aware that promoting a discrimination free society begins with ourselves. To work toward this goal the chapter has hosted a Roundtable and will continue to focus on addressing bias and prejudice within the profession.
When I reflect upon the most striking of changes since I became a professional social worker, I think about computers and technology. First, the good news -- the Internet enables us to have the latest information about any micro or macro social work concern. With the advent of email we can easily communicate with colleagues nationally and internationally. Our own NYC NASW chapter has a web site (www.naswnyc.org) where social workers can learn about our most recent activities. Both myself and the executive director are easily accessible by email.
What are some of the challenges? In terms of micro practice, clinical treatment has already begun to be offered on the Internet. Computer therapy sessions raises new concerns about the need to protect the public from non-credentialed therapists, limitations in clinicians' capacity to assess nonverbal cues, as well as legal and ethical liability with suicide and homicidal risk. Even with passwords and firewalls information previously considered private becomes more public and confidentiality as we have known it is changed forever. Developing appropriate computer safeguards to protect information that must remain confidential may be a new emerging area for social workers.
Since I entered the profession, a major change has been the rapid expansion of knowledge. The Code of Ethics now requires that social workers seek the most effective treatment for their clients, as well as provide services only in their areas of competence. To help social workers keep abreast of many new areas, NYC NASW has developed an extensive continuing education program. Our profession increasingly stresses the need for research to learn what works and does not work. Furthermore, the production and dissemination of research findings was adopted as a priority goal for NASW at the last Delegate Assembly. In the NYC chapter we have witnessed how research we have undertaken in the Critical Incidents Report is having far reaching political effects. We are hopeful that our newest research initiative on Welfare Reform will also have positive consequences.
Where are we going? Where will NASW go in the 21st century?.
In recent years I have become increasingly aware of the need for social workers to collaborate and form coalitions. Building on our strengths social workers' understanding of systems and group dynamics helps us assume leadership positions in forming coalitions. For some time I have observed that recent graduates who can collaborate positively with others are often more successful than those who insist on defining their roles very narrowly and think only about their work with individual clients. In NASW we have tried to promote collaboration between committees through the creation of the Council on Equity Committees and the TIE (Trauma, International, and Ethics committee) that jointly sponsored an event about refugees. We have tried to build collaborations with the schools through our Faculty Liaison Committee, our student recruitment efforts, and joint program activities such as the annual NYC MSW student conference and the post master education fair. We have collaborated with the state NASW chapter on licensing and legislative issues and plan to work in coalitions with other groups on mutual social and political agendas. Most recently we have been involved in planning to bring together exemplary administrators from different agencies. I see collaborative activities as expanding in the future and NASW taking a leadership role in this area.
What else do I predict for the next century? At this time over 40 states have licensing and I hope that New York State will be included in this list in the near future. Licensing professional social workers in NYS will delineate and protect the scope of our work, especially as we move toward greater collaboration with other professions. As we enter the 21st century, it is planned that NYC NASW will continue to strengthen its leadership role for the profession through research that focus on clients' needs and can be used politically to advance our objectives and through collaborations that foster and increase our strength in meeting professional challenges in the new millennium.