FALL 2016
School of Social Work
SALEM STATE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK
Celebrating 30 Years!
LETTER FROM ASSOCIATE DEAN CAROL BONNER The School of Social Work celebrated its 30th anniversary on September 24, 2016 at the Salem Visitors Center in Salem, MA. Matthew Desmond, PhD and author of Evicted, Poverty and Profit in the American City, gave a powerful and informative presentation to 100 guests, sharing his ethnographic research and the human stories illustrating one of America’s most serious problems—homelessness. Our celebration was a great success and thanks for all who joined us! Thanks also to those who have given a gift to the School of Social Work to celebrate our 30th. Gifts can be made on line at salemstate.edu/donate. The social work undergraduate major began at Salem State in 1969 and the program became a BSW program in 1979. Thirty years ago, the MSW program was founded as the first public MSW in the Commonwealth of MA and Salem School of Social Work was named in that same year. Dinner at Turners Restaurant followed the event. Those who attended with the faculty and staff of the school were President Patricia Maguire Meservey, Provost David Silva and former faculty and staff from the School of Social Work. Among social work’s former faculty and staff who attended the celebration were Carol Deanow, Carol Owen and Donna Besecker. During our planning, we contacted Faculty Emerita Theresa Bouthot, DSW. Although she was unable to attend the event, at the age of 94, she is doing well! On a very sad note, Professor Emerita Marguerite Rosenthal passed away this past August after a short illness. We remembered her at our celebration by students and faculty and her son, Benjamin Rosenthal, joined us for the celebration. Many of us remember Marguerite as a colleague, advocate, consummate social worker and esteemed faculty member. continued
Transformative Learning for Social Work Practice
1986-2016
We began the year with over 700 students total in both programs. Our MSW Saturday program has just accepted our January 2017 cohort. Recently, we were approved by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to grant the initial School Social Worker/School Adjustment Counselor license upon graduation from the MSW program, passing of the MTEL exam and satisfactory completion of required courses in the MSW and two additional courses in education and psychology. We will hold our Professional Education Program in June, 2017. We now seek proposals from those who are interested in offering a workshop. The Friends of the School of Social Work Professional Development Day this spring is May 25 and our speaker will be Phyllis Solomon, PhD, from the School of Policy and Practice at The University of Pennsylvania. We are always happy to hear from you and post alumni news in this newsletter. If you’d like to submit some news, please send your item to ktraversy@salemstate.edu. Best, Carol
Faculty Publications Driskell, J.D. (2016, April). Creating Context: Cultural Sensitivity in Meeting the Needs of LGBT Older Adults. The New Social Worker Online. Hudson, C.G. (2016). A model of deinstitutionalization of psychiatric care across 161 nations. International Journal of Mental Health 45:2, 135-153. Hudson, C. (2016, June). President’s Column. Diversity and Social Justice. Some Perspectives. NASW Focus. Hudson, C. (2016, April). President’s Column. Social work as a profession. Reflections on its meaning”, NASW Focus. Mirick, R. and Steenrod, S. (2016). Using attachment theory to guide child welfare intervention. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal, (First online) 1-11. Slayter, E. (In Press - 2017) Teaching Note: By Any Means Necessary: Infusing Social Injustice Content into Statistics Courses. Journal of Social Work Education. Volume and Issue to be determined. Slayter, E. (2016). Foster Care Outcomes for Children With Intellectual Disability. Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities, 54(5), 299-315. Slayter, E. (2016). Youth with disabilities in the United States Child Welfare System. Children & Youth Services Review, 64155-165. Steenrod, S. and Mirick, R. (In Press). Substance use disorders within child welfare: Substance use disorders and referral to treatment in substantiated cases of child maltreatment. Child and Family Social Work. Steenrod, S. (2016). [A review of the book: God and Jetfire: Confessions of a Birth Mother] The New Social Worker, 23(3), 34. Steenrod, S. [Editorial] (2016, April 4). Optimism in the chaos of addiction. Salem News, Retrieved 4/4/16 at salemnews.com/heroin_epidemic/ opinion/column-optimism-in-the-chaos-of-addiction/article_a848c8b8b6a7-5e04-a49e-817c54014ca1.html.
Faculty Presentations, Keynotes Driskell, J.D. (2016, April). DSM-5: Making the Transition. NASW Symposium, Framingham, MA Mirick, R.G. & Davis, A.D. (2016, November). Statistical Ability and MSW Students’Anxiety, Confidence, and Avoidance of Statistics, poster presentation at the 2016 Annual Council on Social Work Education Program Meeting, Atlanta, GA. Mirick, R. & Steenrod, S. (2016). The Epidemic of Opiate Addiction: Implications for Social Workers’ Work with Opiate Addicted Parents. Center for Professional Innovation, June 30, Chelmsford, MA. Mirick, R. & Steenrod, S. (2016). The Epidemic of Opiate Addiction: Implications for Child Welfare. NASW-MA Symposium, April 8, Framingham, MA. Slayter, E. (2016). Keynote Presentation: Weaving together addictions anddevelopmental disabilities: The “other” dual diagnosis. 33rd Annual Conference of the National Association of Dual Diagnosis (NADD). Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. thenadd.org/33rd/ Slayter, E. and Copersino, M. (2016). Substance use disorder among people withdevelopmental disabilities. North Shore Link 10th Annual Conference. Danvers, MA. Steenrod, S. & Mirick, R. (2016). The Epidemic of Opiate Addiction: Implications for Social Workers’ Work with Opiate Addicted Parents. Center for Professional Innovation, October 7, Peabody, MA. Steenrod, S. (2016). What’s the buzz? Treating substance use disorders in youth. Youth at Risk Conference, Endicott College, June 1, Beverly, MA. Steenrod, S. (2016). An interdisciplinary approach to opiate addiction. Panelist. Schools of Human Services Retreat, Salem State University, May 25, Salem, MA. Steenrod, S. & Goldman, S. (2016). Effective supervision in the education of humanservice workers. NASW-MA Symposiwwwum, April 7, Framingham, MA. Wladkowski, S.P. & Mirick, R.G. (2016, November). Pregnancy and Doctoral Education in Social Work and Other HealthCare Fields, paper presentation at the 2016 Annual Council on Social Work Education Program Meeting, Atlanta, GA.
Faculty Activities Elspeth Slayter, PhD, was awarded a grant from the Eurasia Foundation (Social Support and Protection of Citizens: Youth with Disabilities in the Child Welfare System in the United States and the Russian Federation) to consult with Russian colleagues about best practices to support youth with disabilities in the child welfare system. The overarching goal of this project is to improve the lives of youth with disabilities involved in the child welfare systems in the Russian Federation and the United States. This population is marginalized in both countries, and social service professionals are often ill-equipped to support such youth. Social service professionals in both the United States and the Russian Federation will be provided with presentations, trainings and resources for engaging in best practices with youth with disabilities in the child welfare system. This will improve service delivery to these youth, which will in turn improve their potential life outcomes. Jeff Driskell, PhD, Received $1,000 Grant from SSU’s Council on Teaching and Learning Grant for Psychopathology: The Integration of Neuroscience and Mental Illness Congratulations to Lisa Johnson, PhD, and Melissa Thayer (MSW Alum) for their work on the First Year Experience “project” and for being acknowledged as an official recipient of the 2015-2016 Outstanding First Year Advocate Awards— by the students with whom they work! Thanks for taking such great care of first year students (and many others, I’m sure).
Staff Arrival – New Field Specialist for the Saturday MSW Program Jennifer Traficanti is an LICSW clinician. Prior to coming to Salem State University to become the full time MSW Saturday Field Education Specialist, she was working as the Director of Child Services at Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange (MARE), helping to facilitate the process of waiting children in foster care to be adopted. Her post-graduate experience over the past 15 years has ranged from direct child and family services to managing programs and supervising staff/ students.
On September 19, 2016, The Friends of the School of Social Work (FSSW) and NASW-MA co-sponsored a Professional Development Workshop titled “Suicide Prevention through Relational Connections.” Rebecca G. Mirick, PhD, LICSW and Associate Professor of the School of Social Work facilitated the workshop that demonstrated new approaches toward understanding and preventing suicide.
In 2002 out of graduate school from Simmons College in Boston, MA Jennifer worked for Neighborhood Health Plan at their pilot program MHSPY (mental health service program for youth), which was a Wraparound system of care for low income and high risk children and families. In 2006 she decided to move overseas and spent over a year living and serving in Thailand as the Director of Aftercare for a human rights organization to combat child sexual exploitation and trafficking. After returning home in 2007 she had direct working experience within the MA adoption/foster care system preparing and creating forever families as a Family Services Coordinator at Communities For People, Inc. She also worked as an In-Home Therapist for children and families with emotional and behavioral issues before being promoted to Program Manager for the children’s behavioral health initiative services (CBHI) at Children’s Friend and Family Services in Salem, MA.
Rebecca Mirick, PhD, was a guest and presenter on the inSocialWork® Podcast Series around suicide prevention training. She was part of the podcast entitled, “I Think I Want to Die...” Training Practitioners to Work with People Considering Suicide” which was published to the inSocialWork® Podcast Series website as of 03/28/2016. The podcast can be accessed at website (insocialwork.org/episode.asp?ep=188)
Today, Jennifer also continues to write child adoption assessments as well as utilize her therapeutic skills in private practice as a clinician, working with all ages and varying degrees of trauma and mental health struggles.
Other News SITTING IN: A new look at social work Carol E. Bonner, MSW, MBA, Ed.D. danvers.wickedlocal.com/news/20161017/sitting-in-new-look-at-social-work
It’s time to change the narrative about professional social work. Despite the seemingly continual media focus on the painful and tragic stories related to child protective services and domestic violence, the social work profession I know attracts champions, each of whom works to address society’s most challenging problems. For every negative story, there are multiple stories of social workers improving lives, especially the lives of society’s most vulnerable. We can also find heroism and bravery, even in the face of tragedies. Unfortunately, good news doesn’t always draw attention. For this social worker, it is time to change the dialogue. Without social workers, families and communities would endure greater suffering and human potentials would remain unrealized. Social worker Kimberly White of the Marshall University counseling center described our profession best when she noted that, “Social workers help keep the fabric of life from fraying, regardless of what caused the damage. We help patch the holes and mend the tears, and we do so with a profound respect for human dignity and in the belief that things can get better.” Yes, lives can and do improve, and across our nation a significant percentage of the over 650,000 who hold social work degrees work with and on behalf of others. With a passion for restoring the human quality of life and a commitment to work toward solutions, social workers make a difference. Like other professionals who sometimes deal in life and death, we can do our best and still, at times, have painful outcomes. Despite the challenging and high-risk circumstances, we remain committed to our profession. In addition to assisting children and families in a variety of settings, we serve the nation’s veterans, providing assistance with benefits, housing, mental health assessment and counseling, and continuity of care. In July, Veterans Administration social workers celebrated 90 years of service to our service men and women and their families. We also serve older adults and their families. The number of those practicing with the older adult population and their families is growing as we address aging, supportive housing, elder abuse, and work with clients facing both chronic illness and death.
Those impacted by the epidemic of opioid addiction, depression, and serious mental health issues are also treated by social workers. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), “professional social workers are the nation’s largest group of mental health services providers.” In fact, there are more clinically trained social workers—over 200,000—than psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychiatric nurses combined. In national disasters, social workers assist survivors and families. When the American Red Cross is deployed, social workers are among the first responders. In public housing facilities across the country, social workers toil tirelessly to provide support, hope and much-needed services to struggling families. Social workers can increasingly be found among our U.S. senators and representatives, policy makers, commissioners, CEOs, and as key members of inter-professional health and behavioral health teams. We are in cities, suburbs, and rural areas. We provide services in schools, hospitals, courts, health and behavioral health practice settings, and private practice. We understand that high-risk, challenging situations can result in negative outcomes. But we are not deterred and continue to step up to provide desperately needed services. Many among us are touched by professional social workers. Within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Salem State has educated bachelor’s degree social workers for 47 years. When the master’s degree (MSW) program began in 1986—and Salem State’s School of Social Work was founded—they were the first at a public institution of higher education in Massachusetts. Students wanting to enter our profession in the commonwealth finally had an affordable public university option committed to public service, civic engagement and preparation for workforce needs. Celebrating the Salem State University School of Social Work’s 30th anniversary this September was a moment of tremendous pride. The Commonwealth is fortunate to have a large pool of wellprepared professional social workers educated in our private and public social work programs. So, too, are the citizens of Massachusetts and the nation, for they are the beneficiaries of our services. Professional social workers are compassionate and competent mental health service providers, inspired daily by the resilience of their clients. If your life has been touched by a professional social worker, help spread the good word.
Accolades For Our Alumni Congratulations to Marnie M Matthews who is employed by North Shore Elder Services and she received her BSW and MSW degrees from Salem State University. She used the experience she had during graduate internship to establish and lead the North Shore Center for Hoarding and Cluttering. North Shore Elder Service was recently honored by the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a) that the Center for Hoarding and Cluttering will be the recipient of a 2016 n4a Aging Achievement Award in the Home &
Alum Elected to Massachusetts Electoral College
Community-Based Services category as an Innovative Service.
Nazda Alam, MSW ‘04 was elected to represent the state of Massachusetts as a member of its Electoral College. As a voters’ rights advocate and politically active in the state Democratic party, Nazda has held a number of respected leadership positions including member of Massachusetts’
Student Accomplishments
Treasurer’s Diversity Council, member of the Democratic State Committee, delegate for President Obama at the Democratic National Convention in 2012, Chairwoman for the Muslim Voter
Adjunct faculty member Judith Baldwin
Registration Project in MA 2015-2016 and the national Muslim
submitted that Julie Adams,
Voter Registration Project this year. Last Spring Nazda was
Molly Maher and Kerry Wood, students
honored by being named into the Salem State University Civic
in SWK 855-856 worked last spring
Engagement Hall of Fame 2016.
on studying the relationship between use of Adult Day Health and caregiver
With the retirement of long time Executive Director Carla
burden. They were asked to present
Saccone, MSW, Salem State University graduate Stephanie
at the Adult Day Health Rate Hearing
Sladen has been named Executive Director of Children’s Friends
on March 21, 2016. After the hearing, a
and Family, with programs throughout the North Shore and
Mass Health representative approached
Merrimack Valley. Stephanie has been a field instructor for
them and asked if he might have a copy
SSW for many years and she is an outstanding young leader on
of the summary of their study findings!
the North Shore and in the statewide in Children’s Behavioral
They did a good job in highlighting the
Health Networks. The agency is merging with Justice Resource
downstream effects of caregiver burden
Institute as of January, 2017. Congratulations Stephanie! We
which does translate into higher costs
are very glad that Carla will stay on as a member of our School’s
and the potential for adult day health to
Advisory Board.
mitigate some of this burden.