June 20, 2018

Thanks to everyone who sent the Legislative Alert and CSWA Position Paper on “Rights of Immigrant Children” to their members of Congress. I know from the almost 100 confirmations I received that we did our part to inform Republican legislators about the harm being done to immigrant children from their parents.

LCSWs have a moral and professional responsibility to insure that any vulnerable people in our country receive the care they deserve. It was stunning to learn that before the terrible “zero tolerance” policy, there were already 10,000 immigrant children being held in custody by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. If one positive thing came out of the misery caused over the last 2-1/2 months, it is the awareness that there are many more children who need to be protected from the ‘shelters’ by untrained people that they are in. The so-called “tender age” shelters for children under 5 are nothing short of child abuse and need to be stopped.

You may have noticed that social workers were named as some of the workers overseeing the welfare of the children in these shelters. I am still trying to get confirmation of what that means. As we know, the term is often used without any social work education behind it or any clinical social work training on human development. Any qualified social worker who is engaging in this work is violating social work codes of ethics.

There are still unsolved problems. There is a law that says children cannot be kept in custody (the recent policy change aside) for more than 20 days. That could lead to further separations as immigrants wait for their court dates. The whole issue of the “Dreamers” and DACA is in need of a plan. CSWA will continue to work on these issues which are so connected to our values and our practices.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

November 15, 2017

As you may have heard, the Senate Finance Committee moved to partially fund the tax reform bill by attaching a repeal of the individual mandate to the tax bill yesterday. The individual mandate – a penalty for mainly healthy people who choose not to get insurance – is a significant part of what makes the Affordable Care Act affordable. Ending the penalty for not having health insurance will disrupt the insurance markets and raise premiums by allowing healthy people to choose not to buy health insurance.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), this proposed policy –the end of individual health coverage requirements – would save the federal government $338 billion by taking health insurance away from 13 million people and raising health care premiums at least 10% higher than they are currently. There have been other estimates that predict higher premiums of as much as 40%.

The House has already agreed to add this repeal to their own tax reform bill.

This development is one that CSWA strongly opposes. Please notify your members of Congress at https://www.house.gov/representatives/ and https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm with the following message: “I am a constituent and a member of the Clinical Social Work Association. I strongly urge you to oppose adding a repeal of the Affordable Care Act individual mandate to the tax reform bill in the Senate Finance Committee. Depriving 13 million citizens of health care they can afford is going to cost all of us more in emergency care and premiums. Tax breaks for the wealthy should not be at the expense of the health of many Americans. Vote against the repeal of the individual mandate.”

As always, let me know when you have sent messages.

- Laura W. Groshong, LICSW, CSWA Director of Policy and Practice

November 12, 2017

CSWA is part of more than 200 Groups Support Alexander-Murray Bipartisan Short-Term Legislation to Stabilize Premiums, Protect Access to Insurance.

View the letter submitted by the Mental Health Liaison Group (MHLG).

October 18, 2017

By Laura Groshong, LICSW, CSWA Director of Policy and Practice

One thing to keep in mind as we try to make sense of the chaotic developments over the past week is that the Affordable Care Act, with President Trump’s help, has become a political football, with winners and losers as to its fate. The real winners and losers will be our patients who may find themselves able to continue to receive mental health services, without plans that cover mental health services, or without insurance at all.

President Trump’s ire at the inability of the Senate – and the specific senators who opposed the three attempts to repeal and replace ACA – has intensified to the point where he decided to issue an executive order last Friday which would undermine the funding of the ACA by removing the subsidies to insurers for ACA plans, i.e., cost-sharing reductions, that make the finances work. Since plans had to announce their rates for 2018 last week, many raised premiums up to 40%, which will price most of the ACA plans out of reach for those who need them. There was no pressure the President to do this; insurers were willing to make the usual 8-10% increases that have funded the ACA until a few weeks ago. The President’s ongoing threats to repeal the ACA himself had an effect on the ACA markets and led to these increases. Some states that saw the possibility premiums would be raised a lot created funds to cover the shortfall. A list of these states is being compiled and will be sent out shortly. There may be more states that choose to protect their citizens by finding a way to fund the ACA plans as well. It may, however, be too late to keep rates affordable in 2018.

What does this have to do with LCSWs? The main way that the ACA is beneficial to mental health and substance use treatment is that they are one of the ten ‘essential benefits’ which must be covered by all plans. This guarantees a mental health/substance use benefit. Those of us on the younger side of 40 may not remember what plans were like before the ACA. A brief history of those bad old days – there were many plans that simply did not cover mental health because they did not have to; it was perceived as expensive; and there was no accounting for medical cost-offsets when people had access to MH/SA treatment.

So our patients’ ability to get coverage for our services is in peril unless the essential benefits are maintained in some form. This is where the bill being developed by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) comes in. As Chair and Ranking Member of the HELP Committee, they have been looking for a way to tweak the ACA for the past nine months. The Alexander-Murray deal would continue the insurer subsidies for two years, while establishing new flexibility for states in mandating penalties for those who do not have insurance and other parts of the ACA. While it is not a perfect solution, the return to bipartisan process is almost as important as what the bill actually says. Somehow in the course of this unfortunate path we have been on, the President now believes that Congress has failed to do its job in not repealing the ACA and it is up to him to do so in a piecemeal way. This means that the President has become an enemy of bipartisan politics, a method to form compromise that CSWA stands firmly behind.

Whether the Senate can find the will to bring the Alexander-Murray bill to the floor or get a vote on it is unclear at this time. It will take some spine, some luck, and much continued encouragement on our part to get our senators to do the right thing and preserve the ACA.

If you can meet with your senators this week, do so. They are in district. If not, please send them, Sens. McConnell, Alexander, Murray, McCain, Murkowski, and Collins the following message at https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/: “I am an LCSW and a member of the Clinical Social Work Association and [your state society]. Please support the Alexander-Murray bill and encourage Sen. McConnell to schedule it for a vote. Without continuing the Affordable Care Act in some form, our citizens may not have access to the mental health and substance use services that they need. We are in the midst of an opioid crisis; the majority of people affected by it also have mental health problems. Please preserve the ACA and mental health/substance use treatment as an essential benefit.”

As always, let me know when you have sent your messages.

September 26, 2017

I am pleased to report that the Graham-Cassidy bill has been shelved. This is a huge victory for all people in favor of the Affordable Care Act and the way it has helped our country. Please thank Senators McCain, Collins and Paul for standing up to this terrible bill. And thanks to all who have worked with CSWA to make this possible.

September 22, 2017

Sen. John McCain has just joined Sen. Rand Paul to oppose the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act making it almost impossible for the Senate to pass this bill.

Thanks to all CSWA members who sent messages to your Senators. Please write them thank you notes if they are one of the above named group who oppose this terrible bill.

While the Senate has until September 30 to repeal the ACA with only 51 votes, the likelihood of this happening is now slim. I will keep you posted on further developments.

September 19, 2017

You have no doubt heard about the competing bills to revise or repeal the Affordable Care Act. One is the Alexander-Murray bill be reviewed in the Senate HELP Committee which seeks to tweak the ACA but maintain the parts that allow those who have been able to gain insurance to keep it. The other is the Graham-Cassidy bill which will essentially replace the ACA in the way that many previously proposed Republican-driven bills would have with a bill that would cause millions of ACA-covered citizens to lose care.

I know we are all struggling with health care ‘fatigue’ but we need to make one more effort to stop the bill that would severely impact access to health care.

The basic thrust of Graham-Cassidy is to turn everything over to the states for funding health care through block grants, would remove essential benefits. It is similar to the "skinny" version of House American Health Care Act which would likely result in about 22 million people losing insurance as the other Republican bills would have.

Please go to https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/ and send the following message to your senators.

"I am a licensed clinical social worker and a member of the Clinical Social Work Association [and/or your Society]. I have serious concerns about the way that my patients will be affected by the Graham-Cassidy bill that will repeal the Affordable Care Act. The elimination of the essential health benefits, which include mental health and substance use treatment, will surely severely limit access to care for these life-threatening conditions to millions of Americans. The opioid crisis we face requires more, not less, funding. Before the Affordable Care Act went into effect, many desperate individuals and families went bankrupt trying to pay for the costs associated with chronic emotional disorders. No matter what you may have heard, the costs associated with these conditions have been LOWERED over the past six years; the proposed changes to Medicaid and the elimination of universal inclusion of mental health treatment as a benefit, will be devastating to millions of Americans. If we do not care for the most vulnerable among us, we have lost that compass. The bill being considered by the HELP Committee will be much more reasonable. Please vote for the Alexander-Murray bill, not the Graham-Cassidy bill."

As always, let me know when your messages have been sent.

September 7, 2017

With all the environmental challenges we are facing – flooding in Texas, fires and smoke in the Northwest and California, anticipated hurricanes in Florida, South Carolina and up the east coast – it may be hard to think about something as mundane as how to transfer our licenses when we move to a different state. But this is a situation I have had many people tell me they struggled with so I urge everyone to look at this post in case you have been in this situation.

The Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) is launching an effort to make transferring an LCSW easier by creating more reciprocity between state boards. This will not be easy as state boards have vested interests in their own laws and rules. Nonetheless, I hope who has an experience to share will go to http://movingsocialwork.org/take-action/share-your-story/.

This will be used as the base for making the case to the boards that this is an important issue for LCSWs and should be made easier than it is.

Thanks for your help. I hope everyone gets through this weekend as well as possible.

August 29, 2017

The Red Cross IT system is down. They hope to have it back up by the end of the day. In the meantime, fill out the form at http://www.redcross.org/volunteer-interest-form and you will be contacted. Keep trying the link below as well. ~LWG

Red Cross has initiated a direct deployment for Hurricane Harvey. This program is for those who are not currently a Red Cross volunteer. I have attached a document with two versions regarding the Direct Deployment program that you can use to share this information far and wide and get the word out.

These Event Based Volunteers (EBVs) will be 'screened' and followed by a mental health volunteer to guide and support them thru the process. The process has been streamlined and formalized since it was developed last year. To check it out yourself click on the link: http://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/lp/hurricane-harvey-health-professionals . They must deploy for 9 days which includes 1 day on each end for travel, plus take a few classes online and other paperwork. Important to note that eligibility now includes retirees and out of state licenses.

Please post this on your respective websites, Facebook, LinkedIn, emails, listservs etc. It is anticipated that this will be a long haul with a great need for mental health.

Current volunteers are encouraged to note their availability in Volunteer Connection contact their local Staffing person. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at vicky.powell@redcross.org.

August 13, 2017

The Clinical Social Work Association is stunned and outraged at the violence by white supremacists that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, yesterday. CSWA sends our best wishes and prayers to the families of those who injured and killed in Charlottesville. We oppose bigotry in any form and encourage all Americans to make it clear that our country will not stand for ‘internal’ terrorism based on prejudice.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are now 917 hate groups in the United State (www.splcenter.org) . There has been a 67% increase in hate crimes (from 2014) as of 2015, the latest data available, according to the FBI (https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2015) .

CSWA is disturbed by the fact that President Trump’s original statement about the incidents in Charlottesville was such a weak condemnation of the clear bigotry that led to the deaths of three people. His support of actions based on discrimination during his campaign paved the way for white extremist groups to act destructively toward those that they see as their enemies.

We call upon President Trump to speak out against this rage that has been simmering in some of our citizens and stop this dangerous trend. It is time for all Americans to take a stand against those of us whose racist anger is turning into actions that hurt or destroy those they hate.