Lydia Crafts, LCSW

Representative for Maine House District 46, Maine House of Representatives

Backstory

By Sue Coyle

In 2018, during a conversation about wait times for children’s behavioral health services, Lydia Crafts, LCSW, was told that for things to really change, many of the issues impacting services needed to be addressed by the state legislature, and in that moment, a seed was planted. That night, Crafts began talking with her family about running for office. Two years later, in 2020, Crafts was elected to the Maine House of Representatives, serving the 46th district.

Since being elected, Crafts has learned that “so much about governing and politics really comes down to human behavior and relationships. People really want to be heard and be able to trust and have confidence in you as a leader. It is based and grounded in so much social work.”

As a representative, Crafts was integral in passing the Social Work Licensure Compact bill, helped expand the state’s Good Samaritan law, and has served on the Maine Recovery Council, among other accomplishments. “The main focus of the work I’ve done has been around drug policy and helping our state shift to a public health response,” she explains.

In addition to her work in office, Crafts is an outpatient therapist. She finds the balance of clinical work with macro to be incredibly rewarding. “Every day my brain is doing very different work, which I love. I can be talking one-on-one with someone experiencing a substance use disorder and then later in that same day I can be talking about policies to decriminalize felony drug charges. Each [position] informs the other.”

The interplay and span of work that Crafts experiences now is a part of why she entered social work. “It’s the kind of career where there’s so many possibilities. I didn’t feel like I was locked into one type of work for the rest of my adult life. I’ve had so much flexibility and at the end of each day, I feel really accomplished,” she says.

With such a packed schedule, it can be difficult for Crafts to carve out time for herself, but she recognizes the value in doing so. “Sometimes, I don’t know that it exists, [but] I’ve seen over the last few years my ability to show up for my community is always greater when I’m taking good care of myself,” she says, adding “I’m really lucky to have a family that supports the work I do.”

Crafts is the 2024 recipient of NASW's Social Worker of the Year award.