NASW-MA is proud to support the professional development of social work students by offering them a 75% discount on membership dues. Members who join as students are also eligible for reduced, transitional dues post-graduation. Learn more about benefits and programming for our student members!

Career Services: Elyse Pipitone, LCSW, provides free, one-on-one career coaching, including resume and cover letter assistance to members. NASW-MA also keeps an updated list employment opportunities to assist social workers on the hunt for jobs.

Professional Mentoring: NASW-MA's professional mentor program provides early career social workers and social workers returning to the field after taking time off with opportunities to connect with experienced clinical and macro professionals who are committed to fostering their personal and professional growth.

Discounted License Test Prep Course: NASW members receive a significant discount on LTP courses that prepares social workers for the Association of Social Work Board (ASWB) Social Work Licensing Examination. For both clinical and macro social workers, licensure can open up additional career opportunities and enhance your credibility as a social worker.

Graduation Cord Program: NASW-MA student members in the last year of their social work program are eligible to receive a FREE graduation cord to wear at their graduation ceremony.

If you have any additional questions on any of these programs or want to know how to get more involved, contact Noël Schutz, Membership Manager.

G ary Bailey, MSW, ACSW has been a loyal and accomplished member of NASW-MA for nearly 30 years. He just received an impressive promotion so we wanted to spotlight him in this issue. Having taught at Simmons School of Social Work since 1999, in July Gary was promoted to Assistant Dean for Community Engagement and Social Justice in the College of Social Science, Public Policy, and Practice.

Over the course of his career in social work, Gary has received NASW's Social Worker of the Year award in 1998 from both our state chapter and national, he was name d an NASW Social Work Pioneer in 2005, and served as NASW national president from 2003-2005. Gary was also a member of NASW Foundation Board of Directors, NASW-MA's chapter president from 1993-1995, and serves as the current president of NASW Assurance Services.

Just a few of Gary's accomplishments include being named on the GK100 list of Greater Boston’s Most Influential People of Color in 2018, serving as President of the International Federation of Social Workers, and serving on the Council of Social Work Education (CSWE) Global Commission. He is also a member of Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) Board of Ambassadors and the AIDS Action Advisory Council. 

During his time at Simmons University, Gary has taken on many leadership roles, including Director of Urban Leadership Program and coordinator for the Dynamics of Racism and Oppression s equence. Gary has also chaired the Simmons University Black Administrators, Faculty, and Staff Council, the School of Social Work Awards Committee, and co-chaired the Simmons College Initiative on Human Rights and Social Justice. He was also a member of the Simmons Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council, and Simmons Faculty Senate.

We are honored to be able to call Gary Bailey a member. He embodies the core values and ethical principles of our organization. Know of a member you think deserves recognition? Let us know .

We are seeking 1-2 NASW-MA student members from each school of social work in Massachusetts to represent NASW-MA a s Student Ambassadors this upcoming academic year.

Student Ambassador role includes but is not limited to:

Be in touch with Noël Schutz for more information and to get involved today!

Learn more and apply here!

Crisbelly Medina Adames is a graduate student from Clark University where she is pursing her MBA with a concentration in Marketing. As this year's Events and Marketing Intern, she will be supporting Samantha Thompson-Foster, our Events and Program Manager, with sponsors, exhibitors, and advertisers, as NASW-MA prepares for Symposium 2020. In addition, Crisbelly will be working on strategizing and creating content for social media postings related to our chapter events and programs.

Crisbelly's dream is to collaborate on different marketing projects raising brand awareness and working on the inclusion of women of color in the marketing field.

Get in touch with Crisbelly by sending her an email: [email protected]

Last spring we launched a new member benefit: the FOCUS CE Course Mailer. In this booklet, you received several text-based continuing education courses that you could complete and mail-in at your leisure all summer long.

Thi s year's line-up of CE courses (perfect to bring with you anywhere you may be traveling this summer), totaling 7 CEUs, includes:

P.S. We apologize for the small error as we printed an incorrect post-test. For more information and for the correct post, please click here .

Friday, September 13, 2019

9:00 am - 12:30 pm

Sheraton Needham Hotel, Needham

Speaker: Michelle Avigan, PhD

Participants will hear about a powerful evidence based approach to couples therapy and gain insight into responding to relationship distress. Attendees will learn about tracking negative interactional patterns and learn Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) interventions. There will be an opportunity for experimental exercises and observing EFT in action.

Friday, September 27, 2019

8:30 am - 3:15 pm

Sheraton Needham Hotel, Needham

Keynote: Commissioner Jennifer Flanagan , Cannabis Control Commissioner; former state senator and mental health clinician

This full day conference will address the timely topic of marijuana legalization in Massachusetts and the role of social workers in the state’s evolving landscape. The conference will cover topics of interest to social workers across a variety of settings and populations. The keynote will provide an overview of current regulations and their impact on clinicians and clients. Speakers will then focus on a variety of clinical and policy topics, including racial equity in marijuana implementation with Commissioner Shaleen Title , assessment in practice, youth issues, and others.

Sunday, October 6, 2019

2:00 - 5:30 pm

The Studio Cinema, 376 Trapelo Road, Belmont

Join us for a screening of the 2018 film Can You Ever Forgive Me? starring Melissa McCarthy, followed by a discussion with experts in substance use disorder treatment from McLean Hospital. Discussants: Karen Kantor, LICSW , McLean Hospital, and Monika Kolodziej, PhD , Director of Psychological Services at the Ambulatory Treatment Center at Naukeag, a residential treatment program in the Substance Use Disorders Division at McLean Hospital.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

6:00 - 8:00 pm

AdCare Outpatient Services

95 Lincoln Street, Worcester

Join the Central Region Book Club for "Homer & Langley" by E. L. Doctorow. The discussion will be facilitated by Michael Nowicki, LICSW , Clinician, Community Healthlink, Elder Services of Worcester. Registration will begin at 5:45 pm.

This annual conference brings together school social workers and school adjustment counselors from across the state who work with youth in all levels of schools.

Keynote: Elizabeth Englander, PhD, Founder and Director of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center (MARC) at Bridgewater State University. Her keynote, " Life Online: Social Media Use and Social Development in Children and Adolescents," offers a deep-dive into the myriad issues facing school-aged youth with the growing considerations of social media.

Morning Workshops:

Afternoon Workshops:

Sunday, November 3, 2019

2:00 - 5:30 pm

The Studio Cinema, 376 Trapelo Road, Belmont

Join us for a screening of the 2018 Japanese drama film Shoplifters , following a "non-biological family that relies on shoplifting to cope with a life of poverty." Our discussant will be Charles Glazier, LICSW, CGP , a psychotherapist in private practice specializing in work with children, teens, and families.

Friday, November 22, 2019

9:00 am - 12:30 pm

Grand View Farm, Burlington

Speaker: Dr. Patricia Papernow , one of the world’s foremost experts on blended families. She is the Director of the Institute for Stepfamily Education and the author of  Surviving and Thriving in Stepfamily Relationships: What Works and What Doesn’t . 

The term “blended family” captures the fervent wishes step couples often bring for connection and a fresh start. The realities often involve “resistant” children and anxious, confused adults struggling with intense feelings of “insiderness” and “outsiderness,” questions about discipline, “appropriate” rules, and ever-present ex-spouse relationships.

Whether working with individuals or kids, couples or families, Dr. Patricia Papernow will help participants recognize the five major predictable challenges stepfamilies face. She will provide psychoeducational, interpersonal, and individual interventions for successfully navigating these often intense and divisive forces.

On July 31, Governor Charlie Baker signed the fiscal year 2020 budget into law, choosing not to cut any spending. This is a huge win for social workers across Massachusetts! The following items passed into law:

Limiting Clawbacks: Prohibits retroactive claims denial (also known as "clawbacks") for behavioral health insurance claims more than 12 months after submission, without written explanation, or without corrective instructions. When providers deliver a service in good faith and in compliance with eligibility rules, they should be compensated without fear of insurance companies taking back these payments years after the services were provided. With passage of this bill into law, social workers will now have much more predictability in payment and rest assured that after 12 months they will not get a retroactive claims denial/clawback!

Closing the SNAP Gap: The “SNAP Gap” refers to the more than 700,000 people who are enrolled in MassHealth and likely eligible for SNAP (food assistance), but are not receiving these benefits. This language appropriates $1M to the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) to establish a pilot for a common application that would allow residents to apply for SNAP automatically when applying for or renewing MassHealth or Medicare Savings Program benefit s. In the face of unparalleled attacks on the SNAP program by the federal administration, this is a hugely important win on the state level in our fight to reduce hunger and ease access statewide. 

Expanding Older Adult Behavioral Health Services: Comprehensive services for behavioral health through the Executive Office of Elder Affairs have been sustained at $500,000. We advocated to increase this funding by an additional $300,000, bringing funding to a total of $800,000.

Thank you to all of our member's whose advocacy efforts made these victories possible!

On July 25, the State Senate passed one of our priority bills to eliminate insurance company ghost networks. On July 31, 2019, the House too passed the bill.

This bill would r equire all insurers to provide updated provider directories to consumers to increase access to mental health services and expand the pool of qualified clinicians to provide these services by opening up "full" panels.

Next stop for the bill is a conference committee as other important child wellness initiatives were included in that version of the bill. Once the conference committee finishes its work the bill will need to be approved again in the House and Senate and then sent to the Governor's desk. Stay tuned for more!

On July 23, NASW-MA Executive Director Rebekah Gewirtz testified in support of legislation that would create a behavioral health workforce commission. The work of this commission would help identify and create systemic solutions to issues related to high student loan debt and low salaries, which contribute to burnout and high turn over for social workers and other behavioral health providers. If established, NASW-MA would be one of the 23 commission members, as written into the law.

For more information, feel free to reach out to Rebekah Gewirtz.

The July - December 2019 schedule for An Hour with Private Practice programs (hosted by NASW National) has just been released. Visit this link to review the schedule and plan to participate in these important discussions.

Are you looking to start or expand your private practice? NASW-MA's Therapy Matcher network needs you!

Our call volume is higher than ever, especially with recent media attention from the Boston Globe .

With our new membership cycle underway, now is the perfect time to join Therapy Matcher! Joining now gains you access to up to a free month of referrals. Learn more about Therapy Matcher here or contact Barbara Burka, Therapy Matcher Director: [email protected].

The Private Practice Google Group is an exclusive member benefit powered by social work colleagues from across the state and NASW-MA. By signing up you'll receive timely updates from your colleagues about ethics, billing and insurance, and other critical private practice issues. You can also pose your own questions to the group to crowd source answers from colleagues. NASW-MA also uses this platform to send important clinical alerts to members.

Sign up to join the group by sending an email to [email protected] with "Join Google Group" in the subject line.

There will be a new requirement for all licensed social workers to complete an approved training on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault , as required by MA law Chapter 260. This is a one-time requirement, to be completed for the next renewal cycle. 

The only approved training currently is an online course through DPH, available here . The course is free, and has been approved for 2 CEs by the MA Board of Registration of Social Workers. It can be completed now, or anytime before your renewal date. Print out the certificate of completion and save with other CE records. The certificate will not indicate anything about CEs, but it will count as such.

And a reminder that the renewal cycle is changing . Your license now expires on your birthday. The next renewal date will be your birthday, following October 1, 2020. For some of you, that means that you could have close to 3 years between renewals. The number of CE's will remain the same. All LICSWs will still need 30 CE's at the time of renewal, no matter the length of time since last renewing. 

Please be in touch with Barbara Burka with any questions.

Thanks to a partnership between the Boston Bar Association and GBLS-New England Law, a new walk-in CORI (Criminal Record Offender Information) Sealing Clinic helps low-income individuals obtain a copy of their record and, if possible, seal, or expunge their record.

The Boston Bar Association’s CORI Sealing Clinic will take place the 1st Wednesday of each month from 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM at the Boston Municipal Court – Central Division.

CLINIC LOCATION

Boston Municipal Court – Central Division, Edward W. Brooke Courthouse, 24 New Chardon Street, 2nd Floor, Boston, MA 02114

WALK-IN CLINIC DATES

SWAN is a free, confidential colleague assistance program sponsored by the Massachusetts Chapter of NASW. SWAN assists social workers with consultation regarding personal and professional issues, which may be having an impact on their ability to practice in an optimal manner. Learn more about this service and member benefit here .

NASW-MA hosts Licensing Test Prep courses each month in various parts of the state. Upcoming courses include:

Be in touch with Adam Linn or Samantha Thompson-Foster for more information.

NASW and the NASW Foundation will accept nominations for the 2019 National Recognition Awards through September 10, 2019. These awards honor social workers and other individuals and/or groups who have, through their work and/or advocacy, advanced the principles and vision of the social work profession.

NASW National Awards

For additional information or to submit a nomination for the NASW National Awards, visit this link . Inquiries may be emailed or submitted by direct dial to 202-336-8270.

NASW Foundation Awards

For additional information or to submit a nomination for the NASW Foundation Awards, visit this link . Please send related inquiries by email or call 202-408-8600, ext. 484.



The deadline for submitting a complete nomination package is Tuesday, September 10, 2019 by 6:00 pm EDT.