NASW News

From the Director Recently, three events occurred that seemed to be linked across a 25-year time span. These were the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in South Africa, the remake of the musical recording “We Are the World,” and the beginning of the 21st Winter Olympics in Canada. In 1985, five years before Mandela’s release, the first version of the charity anthem was sung by 40 recording artists with the proceeds going to help Africa deal with famine. The current version included more than 80 artists. Many of them, like Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand and Gladys Knight, have careers that ha...

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The U.S. government’s failure to fulfill its obligations under human rights treaties “has a particularly profound effect on certain groups of people,” especially children, immigrants, detainees and minorities, NASW said in testimony for the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. NASW’s remarks, prepared by the association’s Division for Human Rights and International Affairs, were submitted for the subcommittee’s December hearing titled “The Law of the Land: U.S. Implementation of Human Rights Treaties.” It was the first-ever congressional hearing on U.S. compliance with its...

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Clinical social workers agree it is past time to increase the work and practice values of the Current Procedural Terminology code set for psychotherapy services, a NASW practice update released in January. said The CPT codes are a set of medical nomenclature maintained by the American Medical Association that report procedures and services under public and private health insurance programs. They reflect the value of work and practice expenses. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reviews requests to resurvey CPT codes during its five-year review process, and NASW sought from members compelling evidence as to why the committees s...

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Five new social work practice updates, covering such topics as the recession’s implications for school social workers and delivering culturally appropriate care for older adults, are available for members to view on the NASW Web site. Undoubtedly, the economic downturn has affected school social workers’ roles both personally and professionally. And it continues to do so, prompting NASW to prepare “The Economic Downturn: Implications for School Social Work,” a timely resource with suggested methods for addressing the effects of the recession in the school setting. To ensure that students and families receive the su...

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As a co-sponsor of the third annual National Healthcare Decisions Day, NASW is asking everyone: “Do you have an advance directive?” Observed April 16, National Healthcare Decisions Day is an initiative to encourage all adults to express their medical treatment preferences, particularly concerning end-of-life care, and for health care providers to respect those preferences, whatever they may be. “No one likes to discuss their own mortality, but everyone, including social workers, really ought to seriously consider communicating and documenting their advance care wishes in an advance directive,” said Karyn Walsh, NASW...

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NASW thanked Adm. Michael G. Mullen for his congressional testimony about the military’s ban on gay men and lesbians. Photo: Nancy A. Youssef/MCT NASW participated in advocacy efforts in February regarding jobless benefits, the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and a call for comments for the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). The association sent a letter to lawmakers Feb. 18, urging them to act immediately to continue the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009’s aid to the unemployed as a standalone measure through 2010. The lett...

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New regulations implementing the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, or MHPAEA, were released in February. According to NASW lobbyist James Finley, the final rules were based on a review of more than 400 comments, including those made by NASW as a member of a coalition of mental health groups. The rules require that group health plans that offer mental health and addiction benefits along with medical and surgical benefits “must treat them equally in terms of out-of-pocket costs, benefit limits and practices, such as prior authorization and utilization review,” Finley said in a Februar...

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New procedures that address automatic revocation of NASW membership have been approved by the NASW National Board of Directors. The new rules aim to streamline the process of removing membership for those with a felony conviction or who have had a state social work license revoked. Dawn Hobdy, manager of NASW’s Office of Ethics and Professional Review, said the change is a result of removing the surrogate complaint process from the NASW Procedures for Professional Review. A surrogate complaint is a grievance submitted by a chapter based on information in the public domain. Such cases will no longer be reviewed by the National Ethics...

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Title Consistency I am in full agreement with the letter to the editor by Michelle Lind in the March 2010 edition of the NASW News, advocating that social workers should have consistent title protection throughout the nation. However, I do not believe we will achieve consistent title protection until such time as we agree upon a consistent professional identification. Ms. Lind identifies herself with the initials DHSc, LCSW, and M-RAS. The candidates for election to the NASW Board use an alphabet soup of credentials including ACSW, CADC, DCSW, EdD, LCSW, LCSW-R, LMSW, MS, MSSW, MSW, and PhD. Compare that to some of our fellow professions wh...

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With more than $400 billion at stake, and just 10 questions, the 2010 U.S. Census makes the cash prize on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” seem a tad trifling. That’s why social workers in communities nationwide are helping census takers connect with hard-to-enumerate populations such as immigrants and non-English speakers. The U.S. Constitution requires the federal government to take a headcount every 10 years of each person living in the U.S., regardless of residency status. In turn, Census data help determine the apportionment to localities of federal funding for such things as hospitals, emergency services and schools, ...

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