On April 27, 2018, Barbara Nealon and Kimatra Maxwell (NASW board member), both NASW-MA members, were recognized by the Central MA YWCA at the organization's Stand Against Racism event. Barbara was awarded the first Human Rights Award for Leadership. Kimatra was recognized for her Outstanding Community Leadership. Congratulations to both of these outstanding social workers! Barbara and Kimatra are featured in the image below, standing with other award winners.

Thank you to those of you who participated in the Chapter's election for board, committee on chapter nominations and leadership identification (CCNLI), and delegate assembly members. You can see the full line-up of board and CCNLI members, including those newly elected, for the 2018-2019 fiscal year here.

As part of the Chapter's 2018-2020 Strategic Plan, we are forming a Racial Justice Council to ensure that our internal and external work promotes and supports equity, diversity, and inclusion. Are you interested in joining? Please send a one-page letter of interest to Jamie Klufts: [email protected]. Council members will be screened and appointed by the board of directors at the end of September.

You can read the 2018-2020 Strategic Plan here that outlines the NASW-MA Chapter goals for racial justice and the creation of the council.

NASW-MA is seeking members for its Awards Committee. The purpose of the Committee is:

Contact Cassandra Prager with any questions and to learn how to apply. The deadline to put your name forward is early September, so act soon!

NASW-MA is hiring for a Membership and Inclusion Coordinator , a part-time staff person (30 hrs/wk) responsible for coordinating Chapter member recruitment and retention initiatives. This position is also responsible for advancing and monitoring the racial justice component of the NASW-MA strategic plan in coordination with the Executive Director and other staff. Read more .

Are you (or do you know) a second year or advanced standing MSW student looking for a dynamic, exciting placement? If you are seeking a macro-placement for the upcoming school year, please see what types of projects and opportunities we offer our students (subject to change each year). Read more about NASW-MA's internship program and how to apply here .

To be in touch with a staff member about our macro internship placement opportunity, reach out to Sophie Hansen at [email protected] .

The Collaborative, our Chapter's CE program approval program, is seeking NASW members to be reviewers of continuing education programs.

Qualifications: LICSW or LCSW with 5 or more years of experience. Understand professional continuing education and be able to evaluate whether programs meet the needs of licensed social workers. Must be available by email.

Responsibilities: Process 15 to 20 applications a month and return results in 10 business days.

Reviewers earn vouchers to be used in lieu of payment for any NASW CE program! Send resume and a letter of reference to Adam Linn, Collaborative Coordinator, at [email protected].

Love Social Work Voice but miss the continuing education inserts from FOCUS? You should have received a newspaper of four text-based continuing education courses in the mail in early May. Complete some or all of these courses at your leisure to earn up to 6.5 CEUs! Check the image to the right to see what it looks like.

Did not receive the mailing? Contact the Chapter: 617-227-9635 or 

[email protected] and we'd be glad to mail you a copy.

Join the Central Regional Council for a screening of "Being Mortal" and a conversation about end of life care.

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

5:30 - 7:30 pm

34 Pearly Lane, Gardner, MA

The screening will be followed by a discussion led by Chauntelle Carty, RN, BSN, CHPN , Director of Hospice, GVNA Healthcare, Inc, and  Ellen Sparrow, LICSW, ACHP-SW , Social Worker/Co-Director GVNA Fitchburg Adult Day Health Center.

June 7, 2018

8:15 am - 4:30 pm / 6:00 pm

LaCava Center

Bentley University

North Waltham, MA

Join us for the 10th anniversary celebration of the Central Regional Book Club!  Participants will read "Small Great Things" by Jodi Picoult prior to the meeting.

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

6:00 - 8:00 pm

AdCare Outpatient Services

95 Lincoln Street, Worcester, MA

The discussion will be led by  Cardethia Moore-Jenkins, LCSW , Supervisor, Division of Children and Families.

Join us for a screening of  CAREgivers , an award-winning film examining the lives of caregivers and public servants.

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

5:00 - 7:00 pm

Quabbin Valley Adult Day Health

1471 Main Street, Rear

Athol, MA

The screening will be followed by an interactive   group activity and discussion.

Join us for a screening of  CAREgivers , an award-winning film examining the lives of caregivers and public servants.

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

6:00 - 8:00 pm

GVNA Fitchburg Adult Day Health

481 Electric Avenue, Fitchburg, MA

The screening will be followed by an interactive   group activity and discussion.

Join us for a screening of "Being Mortal" and a conversation about end of life care.

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

4:30 - 6:30 pm

GVNA Greenfield Adult Day Health

489 Bernardston Rd., Suite 207

Greenfield, MA

The screening will be followed by a discussion led by Chauntelle Carty, RN, BSN, CHPN , Director of Hospice, GVNA Healthcare, Inc, and  Ellen Sparrow, LICSW, ACHP-SW , Social Worker/Co-Director GVNA Fitchburg Adult Day Health Center.

This Monday, June 4th, Join Sophie at an important forum with Boston Pride & Freedom For MA, “Defending Transgender Equality in Massachusetts – A Public Discussion on the Repeal of the Public Accommodations Ballot Question.” Hear from transgender advocates, family members, and key coalition partners about what’s at stake on the ballot this November and our plan to make Massachusetts the first state to uphold transgender equality at the ballot box. Click here for more event details .

NASW-MA will have a visible presence at this year's PRIDE Parade on Saturday, June 9 ^th from 12:00 - 4:00 pm. We'd love for you to march with us!

If you are interested in marching and holding the NASW banner, please RSVP as this year’s organizers need an approximate head count. We'll have stickers, pride flags, and posters for your to sport. Please RSVP to Sophie Hansen using the form linked in the green "RSVP Today" button below.

Our Chapter, and NASW National ( read statement here ), are horrified with the Trump administration’s new policy to separate young children and babies from their families at the US-Mexico border. Social workers are well aware of the unnecessary harm and trauma being inflicted upon these families and their children. We are reaching out to our local partners in the community – MIRA, ACLU, and others – to learn how we can best support these families on both a systemic and individual level. We will update you with any action items that are created as a result of this outreach and thank you for your calls to action. See Rebekah's opening of this e-news for more on contacting your congress person about this issue.

We were pleased to see Senator Eldridge (a longtime PACE endorsed senator) and his Safe Communities Act amendment #1147 adopted in the Senate budget. This amendment adds four key protections for immigrants to the state budget for FY2019. A conference committee will be appointed in the next couple of weeks to reconcile the House and Senate budgets. We have the support of Senate leadership, but the House is less certain, and certainly not the Governor, who declared already that he would veto these protections.

How you can help:

We've had quite the year legislatively! Here are 5 of the bills from our legislative agenda that we worked on and have now been signed into law:

In addition to this victories, Lifting the Welfare Cap on Kids was included in both the House and Senate budget proposals. The Senate version would lift the cap sooner - by Jan 1, 2019, and appropriate $5.5M to do so. We are urging the conference committee to adopt the Senate version and also thanking our House leaders for their support and action on this critical issue!

In another very positive development, loan forgiveness for social workers and human services workers was included in the House version of the Opioid Bill. We expect the House to take up this bill in the coming weeks. For more information, click here .

We expect the House to release a comprehensive healthcare bill in the coming week or so. We are pushing for inclusion of limiting clawbacks on practitioners in this bill and also addressing provider "ghost networks." We'll keep you posted through legislative alerts about this bill and when we'll need your action!

Want to join the Legislative Alert Network? Click here . Want to help set NASW-MA's legislative agenda for 2018 - 2020? Email Sophie to join the Chapter's Legislative Advocacy Committee (LAC).

Were you impacted by the Beacon/Nokomis audits? As you know, the audit process was halted due to our collective advocacy. Now, Beacon is in the process of issuing reimbursements for previous recoupments to those who were victims of their unfair “clawbacks.”

 

If you are a Beacon provider you should have received communication (a “payment integrity” packet) directly from them about this reimbursement process . You have until September 1, 2018, to complete this paperwork and return it to Beacon.

 

VERY IMPORTANT: If you didn’t receive the “payment integrity” packet in the mail, please let us know. We are in direct communication with Beacon and will share your name and contact information with our contact at Beacon who will then follow-up with you.

 

We’d like to hear from you regarding your experience with Beacon customer service and this recoupment process thus far. Pl ease fill-out this short form so we can stay in-the-loop about which of our members were impacted by the Beacon/Nokomis audit and who did or did not hear from Beacon about the current recoupment process.

 

Thank you! Please let Jonas, or Sophie know if you have any questions:

 

Jonas: [email protected]

Sophie: [email protected]

It is June 1, and the MassHealth Continuity of Care period is officially over. During the past 90 days, all therapists were allowed to bill the insurance programs to which their MassHealth clients were transferred, whether or not the therapist was a provider for the new insurance.

 

As of today, a therapist is supposed to have applied to be on the new insurance and been accepted, arranged for a single case agreement, or arranged to transfer their out-of-network client; HOWEVER, there have been many glitches, and MassHealth has negotiated the following with each of the insurance companies covering their clients:

 

Keep reading to learn more.

The Social Work Therapy Referral Service (SWTRS) is now Therapy Matcher! With a new name and a new logo comes a new tier of membership. Now non-NASW members can join! Know a social worker in private practice who is not an NASW member and looking to expand their referral base? Connect them to Barbara Burka, Therapy Matcher Director. We're offering a $20 CE Credit for those who make a successful referral to a new member!

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.

An Hour With Private Practice: Questions & Answers is a free question and answer session for NASW members. The monthly call-in sessions focus on a specific private practice subject and are led by Mirean Coleman, LICSW, Clinical Manager at NASW National. There is no registration and members can join in the discussion, ask questions, and make comments.These sessions provide members with important clinical social work updates impacting the delivery of mental health services.

There is one session left for the spring: June 20, 2018 - What to Expect From an Audit: Tips to Prepare

Details and spring 2018 schedule are available here: https://tinyurl.com/HOPPspring2018

Thank you to the 100+ of you who attended NASW MA's Health Care Transformation and the Future of Social Work conference on Friday, May 18. Our keynote speaker Stephanie Brown clarified all of the changes happening at MassHealth as they continue to transition into an Accountable Care Organization-based health care delivery system. You can read more about the conference and its takeaways in the upcoming issue of Social Work Voice.

We want to also thank our panelists and workshop leaders for lending their expertise, wisdom, and collective knowledge to this transformative day. Thank you to Stephanie Brown, Sally Bachman, Kate Audette, Marie Pierre-Victor, Melissa Canuto, Mike Langlois, and Erica Kirsners.

Save the Date and sign-up to volunteer at Visioning Day 2018, the annual needs assessment / policy advocacy convening hosted by one of our community/coalition partners, Homes for Families.

This year's event will be on Tuesday 8/14/2018 at the DCU Center in Worcester, MA, and will continue HFF's ongoing work of collective systems change through consumers, providers, and government stakeholders involved with family homelessness across the state.

Many social workers from across the state will be advocate participants at the event; it would also be great for the children's programming to have volunteer support from folks experienced with children already in the Central MA area, or those who are able to come in for a day of service from elsewhere in the Commonwealth.

Learn more here.

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 .

All Licensed Independent Clinical Social Workers (LICSWs) in Massachusetts are required to register with MassHealth as either billing or non-billing providers. This requirement was put in place to ensure that MassHealth is complying with the Affordable Care Act. 

The MA Board of Registration of Social Work REQUIRES ALL LICSWs to meet this requirement by September 30, 2018! Failure to do so could result in the suspension or loss of your license.

If you are a QMB (Qualified Medicare Beneficiary) provider, and can receive payment from MassHealth for the copay for your Medicare clients, you are already registered with MassHealth and do not need to do anything; however, if you are seeing MassHealth beneficiaries and billing their insurance (MBHP, Beacon, THPP, or Celticare), this does NOT make you a MassHealth billing provider. You must complete the form and register as a MassHealth Non-Billing Provider.

Read more and access step-by-step instructions here .

The required training on Domestic & Sexual Violence* for all licensed social workers is POSTPONED until 2020.The 2020 requirement for all licensed social workers (LICSWs, LCSWs, LSWs, and LSWAs) is to participate in an  approved Domestic and Sexual Violence training program.  This training was originally to be completed in 2018, but the MA Board of Registration of Social Workers extended the deadline to September 30, 2020. 

NASW MA will develop an approved training to meet this requirement. Stay tuned for more information in the coming months. For more information on this requirement see: Acts of 2014, Chapter 260, “ An Act Relative to Domestic Violence ,” Section 9.

Questions? Contact Jonas Goldenberg: [email protected].

NASW-MA Licensing Test Prep courses include:

Upcoming exam dates and locations:

The 2018 NASW National Conference will be held June 20-23, 2018, at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. Join more than 2000 social workers and like-minded professionals for the national meeting of the profession. 



Learn more and register here.