New Beginnings

By Shirley Gentilini, MSW, LCSW

Thanks to all members who voted for the election of open leadership positions. Congratulations to those who will be officially welcomed at the June Leadership Retreat in San Francisco. At this retreat we will recognize those dedicated board members leaving and acknowledge their services and support for the California Chapter of NASW. They are:

• Patrick Mace, LCSW, ACSW, DCSW, Vice President of Legislative and Political Affairs
• Jennifer Parga, MSW, Secretary
• Natasha Paddock, MSW, Region C Director
• Jennifer Tinsley, MSW, Region E Director
• Jerry Lawrie, MSW, Region G Director
• L. Jeannette Davis, LCSW, DSW, Vice President of Membership
• Kurt Wellman, Student Director South
• Nalleli Sandoval, Student Director North

I want to thank them for their dedication and service to our chapter. However, on a positive note good leaders often assume other leadership positions.

For example, our newly elected President Elect, Catharine J. Ralph, MSW, LCSW, has served as a Region C director for two terms, and has been on the National Board as California Representative for three years. She is currently on the National Child Welfare Section Committee. I look forward to working with her and value the vast experience she will bring to our board.

Joni Diamond, LCSW, BCD, DCSW, ACSW, will join us as the new Vice President of Membership. She has many years of experience with our California chapter and we look forward to her joining us. In addition to serving as a former board member she is credited for establishing the Red Cross Council for our California chapter.

Jennifer Tinsley, LCSW, currently Region E director will assume her new role as secretary. I would also like to welcome our newly elected Vice President of Legislative and Political Affairs, Martha Guerrero, LCSW. We also welcome to Region C director Debbie Son, MSW; Jose Ramos Jr., MSW, Region G director; and our newly elected student directors B. Maria Waters BSW, North, and Christa Tipton, MSW, South. Paul McDonough, MSW, LCSW, will continue as Region I director.

June is also the time we welcome our newly graduated BSW and MSW students to their chosen profession — social work. You are now a professional social worker who has graduated from an educational program accredited by the Council of Social Work Education (CSWE) with at least a bachelor’s degree in social work. You possess those social work skills such as biopsychosocial assessment, treatment planning, interviewing, discharge planning and others that are very essential to social services delivery. Skills needed to best serve your clients. Social work focuses on the intra and interpersonal aspects of the clients’ lives.

As you enter the workplace you will be competing with other paraprofessionals, counselors or human services personnel, often considered as trained “social workers” and at times sanctioned to perform their work under the title “social worker.” These noncredentialed personnel are held responsible for delivery of social services although they do not have the social work knowledge base, skills and values necessary to perform such tasks. You recently graduated social workers entering your workplace, can work toward increasing your client’s awareness and perception of what a professional social worker does. This will also further educate the public about professionalization in social work.

In 2001, NASW established the NASW Foundation, with the following goals:

• To identify, develop and respond to social work policy and practice issues.
• To assist with rapid response to social crises.
• To support practice-based research, so that practice and research are directly linked.
• To raise the visibility of social work and enhance public esteem for the profession.
• To support the development of cutting edge continuing education that addresses critical issues.
• To promote the appropriate application of new technology to the practice of social work.

 As part of the NASW Foundation’s work, in 2004, NASW created “Help Starts Here,” a public education campaign geared toward changing the public perceptions of social work and improving the profession (Social Work Speaks, 2012-2104, p. 79).

Another way to change public awareness of what the term social work refers to is that it should be applied to those who have appropriate training and licensing. The term social worker should not be used unless the person in the position has had at least a minimal social work education and is licensed at that level. Title Protection remains an avenue to assure that only those with the social work education and licensing be called social workers. To better serve clients, qualified social workers should fill positions and provide services they are trained to do.

The mission of the social work profession is rooted in a set of core values. These core values, embraced by social workers throughout the profession’s history, are the foundation of social work’s unique purpose and perspective (Social Work Speaks, p. 377):

• Service
• Social justice
• Dignity and worth of the person
• Importance of human relationships
• Integrity
• Competence 

Another vital quality for the social work profession is the NASW Code of Ethics, whichsets forth the values, principles, and standards to guide social workers’ conduct. I encourage you to let your clients, colleagues and others know that you have a BSW or MSW or DSW degree and that means they will receive help from a professional social worker.