Message from the President

By Barbara Brenner, ACSW, Dr. PH
(September 1994)

I want to thank you, the NASW membership, for giving me an opportunity to lead our 9,500 member New York City Chapter for the next two years. I also want to thank Elaine Walsh, immediate past President, for the legacy she left to the Chapter - strong and innovative programs, a growing membership and a very financially stable organization.

I am optimistic that, with your help, our Board, Committees, and staff will be able to actively and publicly address the social policy and social work practice/service delivery issues of concern to you. If enough members become actively involved in Chapter committees and in our social, legislative and political action (PACE) activities, we will be able to influence the policy and practice environments that affect our clients and our work.

Social workers are experts on social policy and service delivery, on how resources and systems can be and should be developed, organized and used to support individual, family and community emotional and social well being. We must build greater public recognition of social workers as experts in human services/health services/State and City budgets, by finding and/or increasing opportunities for NASW members to be spokespersons at hearings, in the media, with the executive branch, legislators, etc.

Last Spring, our Board and Committee Chairs held a retreat to carve out the Chapter's program priorities for the next two years. Priorities we adopted give us broad guidelines to organize our 1994-95 activities - both ongoing and new programs/projects. The areas or themes of priority (in alphabetical order) are:

Cross-cutting themes and strategic goals also emerged and they clarify what we want to achieve across priority areas.

Program planning has begun. I would like to share some of the continuing and new initiatives, by no means a complete list. For example, the City budget and further cuts to HRA and other human service agencies will not escape our scrutiny and opposition.

Families and Children's Services

The Chapter's Committee on Families and Children's Services will continue to track the effects of budget cuts on the NYC Child Welfare Administration (CWA) in addition to continuing work on a paper regarding standards for social work practice in voluntary child welfare agencies. We look forward to a Spring conference for social work students, co-sponsored with the Affirmative Action/Multicultural Affairs Committee and the Hispanic Task Force.

Two important areas related to the welfare of children and families are welfare reform, and social work practice in and with the public schools. A Welfare Reform Task Force will be organized in the Fall. At the same time we plan to establish a new Task Force on the Public Schools that would bring together social workers from the Board of Education, schools of social work, voluntary agencies, and other interested parties to develop an agenda for NASW.

Health/Mental Health

The Chapter will pursue new and continuing initiatives under the umbrella of the Health Care Policy and Practice Network. Managed Care is a major issue and Medicaid Managed Care an initial focus of the Chapter. A Medicaid Managed Care Working Group will continue, led by Esther Chachkes and Grace Christ, to work on legislative/regulatory changes in NYS Medicaid Managed Care that address problems of quality, access, marketing practices, standards for psychosocial care, and recognition of professional social workers as reimbursable providers of health and mental health care.

Support will be given to continued development of a Social Work Practitioners in Health Care group, focused on issues faced by social workers in hospitals and other health care settings. Problems faced by public hospitals (Health and Hospitals Corporation) will be addressed by the Chapter and the Network with activities focused on maintaining and strengthening the public hospital system and its services of the community.

By the time you receive Currents, it is possible that Congress may have passed and the President may have signed a health care reform bill. Many of us believe this legislation will fall short of NASW's goals and we will need to continue to work, in coalition with others, for our principles and for the inclusion of social workers as health and mental health care providers.

Improving the Environment for Social Work Practice

Achieving passage of a Social Work Licensing bill in the next legislative session is a major objective of mine, as it was of Elaine Walsh, our immediate past President. I will be personally involved in working out differences that currently exist between the New York City and New York State Chapters and other social work groups. There will be opportunities for our Chapter's membership to review and comment on any bill being submitted to the State Legislature. I would like to commend the work of our Licensing Task Force and its Chair, Dr. Eda Goldstein, and look forward to continuing to work with them on this important issue.

Another initiative, begun by Elaine Walsh, will be continued work on the agenda of adequate salaries for MSWs and BSWs in New York City. Last year, our Salary Task Force recommended and the Board adopted starting salaries of $28,000 for BSWs and $35,000 for MSWs.

Multicultural Issues

Multicultural issues has been chosen as a major Chapter priority for the first time this year. Planners at the Chapter's retreat offered further guidance and identified the "isms", (racism, homophobia, etc.) cultural competence, and race relations as potential themes that we could develop further. These are issues that we have not focused on as we should. They are difficult and painful. However, our Chapter should be in the forefront of furthering multicultural understanding and reducing barriers between ethnic and racial groups in New York City. Several Chapter committees do focus on issues of culture, race, and discrimination and problem solving around these issues, including the Affirmative Action/Multicultural Affairs Committee, the Hispanic Task Force and the Committee on Gay and Lesbian Concerns. I will be convening a "Think Tank" of Chapter leaders and members with the objective of developing a plan for us to address multicultural issues as a Chapter priority.

In closing, I am looking forward to working with you and with our current Board and Board officers (they have their own chance to speak in this issue of Currents). Our Board now reflects the diversity in our profession - diversity in fields of practice, multicultural diversity, and diversity of opinion.

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