President’s Message August 2005 By Judy Haspel

Thanks to all of you who have renewed your membership. It is your dues that enables us to continue our work that is so essential to our profession.

If you think the fight to protect our license is over, you are mistaken. A few years ago our biggest challenge was managed care. Currently it is from other disciplines that seek to limit our scope of practice. During this last year, when there was an attempt exclude us from doing EAP work, our past president, Terry Zenner, and legislative chair, Debbie Fernandez, together with our lobbyist, Maxine Courmier, went into high gear. At this writing, the issue is still unresolved. Among other recent threats was one from LMFT’s who had asked that only they could call themselves marriage and family therapists. This is a national issue: other mental health groups are trying to carve out exclusively for themselves a portion of what is historically and traditionally within Social Workers’ area of practice.

If not for the work that LACSW has been doing for you, your scope of practice would be gradually dwindling. This is not an exaggeration, so again, thank you for renewing your membership and please encourage your friends to do so also.

Our year began July 1, 2005 and already LACSW has been asked to participate on several inter-organizational committees. Together with NASW and a representative from the schools of Social Work, we submitted the names of three candidates for positions on the LABSWE, two for LCSW members and one for the public position. Hopefully we met the requirement that the Board be geographically diverse. There will likely be another vacancy next year, so please let me know if you are interested and would like your name to be submitted. This would be a huge contribution to the profession in the state of Louisiana.

We have also been asked to participate on two committees being put together by the LABSWE. One is regarding continuing education. Some of the criteria and standards being used for approval are dated, and there are additional issues as well. The other is Standards for Technology in Social Work Practice. Among other things, this committee will look at use of the internet and protecting the public. CSWF addresses these complex issue on the website.

Your board is hard at work. This is an amazing group of dedicated professionals from all over the state. I am constantly humbled and impressed by them, and I am honored to serve as president.

  WELCOME NEW AND RETUNING BOARD MEMBERS

We are pleased to announce that Sherry Merritt has recently joined the Board. She has been working in mental health since the mid 1980’s, with diverse experience including work with geriatric, child, adolescent, and adult populations in both private and state mental hospital settings. Her MSW is from USM in Hattiesburg, and she is currently employed at River Oaks. She and her husband have been involved with supporting programs such as Battered Women, Rape Crisis, and Make a Wish Foundation. Despite caring for her three year old son, commuting to Jefferson Parish from Slidell, and continuing with her already numerous community commitments, Sherry has graciously agreed to serve the Social Work profession.

Dayle Malen, a previous board member returns to us from the Baton Rouge area. She plans to serve on the Legislative Committee and has agreed to be a Mentor for new professionals. Dayle is a “seasoned” therapist with much good experience. Lately she has been focused on the scientific aspects of behavior and exploring more experiential ways to “rewire” responses to negative stimuli. LACSW has approved her workshops for CEU’s. Dayle has much to contribute to the profession and we are grateful that she has agreed to resume her position on our Board.

MORE STATES RESIGN FROM CSWF

Although the reasons for withdrawal from the Federation are as diverse as the states resigning, a common theme appears to be the feeling that the national organization does not meet the individual state’s needs. As many of you may know, Colorado resigned from CSWF last March. Reasons for their resignation are as follows:

“1) continuing withdrawal and/or collapse of state societies leading to financial instability of the Federation;

2) the complete demise of a relationship with a professional lobbying firm to represent our legislative agenda at the national level;

3) an increasing number of fees being attached to educational materials and other services which were previously provided as part of our membership dues;

4) an increasing disregard for the input of state boards; and

5) a strategy to recruit unaffiliated members for the Federation, even in states that still have their own societies, instead of working with state societies.”

As of June 7, 2005, the state of New Jersey also withdrew their membership. Part of this was due to the increase in fees remitted to CSWF. They also had a list of concerns:

• “the inability of the Federation to maintain a professional relationship with a national lobbying group;

• the failure of the current leadership to forge a working relationship with the New York State Society for Clinical Social Work in order to keep their membership;

• the inability of the Federation to maintain some form of a relationship with the group it created, the Clinical Social Work Guild;

• The addition of new charges for materials developed by the federation; and

• The fact that the majority of our members have indicated that they would prefer to disaffiliate given the current climate and costs, as indicated by a membership poll.”

Despite our own differences with CSWF, we will remain affiliated with the National Organization.

CEAP SAGA

Here is another example of how your LACSW board is working for you. Several of our members received letters from Cigna stating that Social Workers would no longer be permitted to do EAP work for them unless they had the “CEAP” designation. Of course, this is contrary to the Social Work Practice Act and Terry Zenner and Debbie Fernandez moved quickly to so inform Cigna. In consultation with Maxine Courmier, and Sharon Weston Broome, we decided to ask for a ruling as to whether or not other disciplines may limit our right to practice.

Meanwhile, a few days before the end of the legislative session in late June, Maxine alerted us to a bill designed to abolish about 40 boards that had been commissioned but never implemented. That is, the legislature had approved them but they had not actually formed. Terry was able to speak directly to Rep. Sibley. Apparently, the bill was generated from Rep. Sibley’s observation that there was much unfulfilled legislation, so in an attempt to clean this up, he called for an audit of the various state boards. About 40 boards did not comply with the audit, so he introduced a bill to abolish them. One of the boards was the CEAP board. The bill to abolish the boards did pass and we learned that Gov. Blanco had no plans to veto it, so I was hoping to report to you that the above CEAP issue was resolved. However, at the last minute, the CEAP board managed to get itself exempted from the above bill. We are so glad that we had asked for the ruling, which is pending. The CEAP Saga and the efforts to protect our scope of practice continue...

   THE BUDGET 2005-2006

Attorney General Update

According to past president Terry Zenner, the Attorney General has agreed to take on our case. Terry was able to provide some clear examples of insurance companies alleging that since they are located out of state, they don’t have to pay our claims. Look forward to an update regarding this ongoing fight in our next newsletter.

Upcoming Workshop

October 28, 2005

LACSW Presents

A “Mater’s Class” Workshop on Couples Therapy

Presented by Lou Irwin

Hours: 9am—4 pm (6 CEU’s)

At the home of Judy Haspel,

2110 General Pershing St., New Orleans, La. 70115

(504)891-4894

Cost: $75.00

This is the second in a series of workshops geared to an advanced level of practice, to be held in a comfortable setting., thus enabling interested therapists an opportunity to focus more intensely on a specific area. A smaller group is more conducive to this type of experience, so enrollment is limited to members only.

The Workshop theme for 2005 is Children and Families.

Look for 2006 when the theme will be Power Therapies including EMDR and Hypnosis.

The plan for the next Master’s Class is to study Attachment Theory. If there is something in particular you would like to focus on and/ or if you would like to help with the Education Committee, please contact Mimi Jalenak at (504)861-0859.

The Mentorship Committee

Is gearing up for the 2005-06 Academic year, with active groups in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette. If you are interested in this most rewarding experience, please contact Donna Lewis at (504)837-3241.

Our website is www.lacsw.org. Website ID is “LACSW”, and your password is “strength”. If any LACSW member would like to post a short clinical article on our website (no charge), crediting yourself and with a link to your website if you have one, contact Charlene Spears at 337-237-9150.

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Regular Session, 2005

SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 128

BY SENATOR BROOME

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

To urge and request the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare and the House Committee on Health and Welfare to meet and function as a joint committee to study and clarify the issue of whether a social worker licensed under the Social Work Practice Act may continue to provide employee assistance services without additional certification for these services.

WHEREAS, Act 1309 of the 1999 Regular Session, known as the Social Work Practice Act, provides that employee assistance services are a legitimate area of practice for all social workers licensed under the Social Work Practice Act; and

WHEREAS, social workers are licensed and regulated by the Louisiana State Board of Social Work Examiners; and

WHEREAS, social workers licensed under the Social Work Practice Act, are specifically exempted from the Employee Assistance Professional Certification Act as able to provide employee assistance services without the need for additional certification; and

WHEREAS, Act 920 or the 2004 Regular Session established a Board of Employee assistance Professionals to regulate the practice of employee assistants and employee assistance services; and

WHEREAS, the Board of Employee Assistance Professionals has no jurisdiction over social workers; and

WHEREAS, to this date, no Board of Employee Assistance Professionals has been formed.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana hereby urges and requests that the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare and the House committee on Health and Welfare meet and function as a joint committee to study and clarify the issue of whether social workers licensed under the Social Work Practice Act may continue to provide employee assistance services without additional certification for these services.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Senate committee on Health and Welfare and the House Committee on Health and Welfare report to the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives regarding their findings regarding clarification of the requirements on this issue no later than September 15, 2005.

_______________________________________

PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE

_______________________________________

SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Meeting dates 2005-2006

October 14,2005

Dec.2, 2005

Feb.10, 2006

April 21, 2006

June 9, 2006

August 11, 2006

Meetings are at Behavioral Hospital of Baton Rouge. All members are invited to attend.

CSWF supports Death With Dignity Act

CSWF joined the Coalition of Mental Health Professionals in support of the Amicus Curae Brief regarding the Oregon Death With Dignity Act .The question before the court is whether adequate diagnostic tools exist to determine the absence or presence of mental capacity and of impaired judgment, and whether terminally ill patients who make a request can be capable of making a reasoned decision based on judgment that is unimpaired y a psychiatric or psychological disorder. The Brief states that such tools and protocols are available to assess the mental capacity of a terminally ill patient who desires to hasten death. CSWF has taken the position that the rights of an individual must be upheld.

Clin-Pac Needs Help

Clin-Pac is the political action committee of LACSW, formed in 1991 to:

A. Endorse and make financial contributions to political candidates and/or legislators for the purpose of advancing, promoting, and protecting the goals and concerns of Louisiana Clinical Social Workers, including but not limited to licensure and vendor ship matters.

B. To support legislation and policies consistent with the goals and concerns of social work profession and the needs of those who are served by our profession in the State of Louisiana.

C. To promote political education and full participation in the political process within the clinical social work community

D. To fund the Organization so that it may realize and further its stated purposes.

Our thanks go to Justin Schleis for his major contributions to these efforts in the last few years. He has steered us through some difficult times to make sure we are in compliance with the Ethics Committee, and now he is ready to resign. Clin-Pac is in excellent shape financially, with over $2,000.00 in the bank. In the last year we made a $500.00 donation to Sharon Weston Broome in recognition of all the work she has done for us.

The position of committee chair involves keeping track of donations and expenditures, and filing a monthly report to the state. There were no formal meetings last year, but the committee consulted by telephone. If you are interested in either being on the committee or serving as chair, please contact Judy Haspel (504) 891-5807 or Justin Schleis (225)767-7731.

CSWF NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

There are three bills currently being supported by CSWF, all having to do with Medicare.

1. The Clinical Social Work Medicare Equity Act of 2005 (S. 1148 and H.R. 2736)

The primary goal is to reinstate the ability of Licensed Social Workers to independently provide mental health treatment in skilled nursing facilities and hospitals.

2. Medicare Mental Health Equity Act of 2005 (S.1152 and H.R. 1125) Since Medicare was created in 1965, there has been a higher co-pay (50%) for mental health treatment than for the treatment of physical conditions (20%). This bill seeks to remedy this.

3.Equity for Clinical Social Workers Act of 2005(S. 61) This bill would allow licensed clinical social workers to receive payment at the equivalent rate of reimbursement for the same work done by psychologists and psychiatrists.

LACSW
P.O. Box 14153
Baton Rouge, LA 70808
Phone: 225-761-1668
Fax: 337-989-8458
Email: LACSW2@hotmail.com

Reminder: Please go to our website, www.lacsw.org to update your data. This is free publicity for your practice.

Our Special Thanks to Behavioral Hospital of Baton Rouge for hosting LACSW's meetings.

Behavioral Hospital of Baton Rouge
440 North Blvd.
Baton Rouge, LA 70806

Inpatient Admissions: 225-343-1994 or 800-215-0108

Moving? Missed an Issue?

Please contact us at:

LACSW P.O. Box 14153 Baton Rouge, LA 70808
or
lacsw2@hotmail.com

To Contact Your Licensing Board:

Send $5.00 to the board for a copy of “The Rules, Standards, and Procedures of the Louisiana Social Work Practice Act– amended Oct.24, 2003.

Louisiana State Board of Social Work Examiners 18550 Highland Road—Suite B Baton Rouge, LA 70809 Phone: (225) 756-3470 or 800-521-1941 (LA only) email: socialwork@labswe.org Website: http://www.labswe.org

Contact Information:

LACSW Officers:

President– Judy Haspel 504-891-5807

President Elect— Carol Miles 985-893-1248

Secretary— Marjorie Roniger 504-818-2886

Treasurer— Charlene Spears 337-237-9150

Regional Board

Baton Rouge - Anita Evans, Deborah Fernandez, Maureen Powell, Justin Schleis, Larry Gooch, Dayle Malen

Covington— Carol Miles

Lafayette - Connie Konikoff

New Orleans– Anne Heard, Mimi Jalenak, Donna Lewis, George Morlier, Laura Myers

Shreveport—  Maria Klette-Ketchum, Sherry Merritt

Slidell— Maria Klette-Ketchum