NASW Social Work Talks - EP9: Social Workers and Advocacy

Episode Date: June 19, 2018

Our guests in this episode are Heidi McIntosh, Deputy Director of Programs at NASW; and Julie E. Shroyer, MSW, Senior Policy Advisor at Polsinelli, a top Washington, DC law firm. We talk about the skills that social workers bring to the table, the importance of social workers participating in the 2018 mid-term elections; and the challenges of advocating for the disadvantage in the current political climate.

Welcome to NASW Social Work Talks. The National Association of Social Workers is one of the largest membership organizations of professional social workers in the world. NASW works to enhance the professional growth and development of its members, to create and maintain professional standards, and to advance sound social policies. With our mission in mind, the purpose of NASW Social Work Talks is to inform, educate, and inspire. We encourage you to learn more about NASW by visiting www.socialworkers.org.

And we thank you for joining us for this episode of NASW Social Work Talks. Hi, this is Greg Wright, Public Relations Manager at the National Association of Social Workers. NASW is involved in a lot of advocacy efforts and one of our partners on it is the Polsinelli firm our guests are Julie Schroyer senior policy advisor at Polsinelli and NASW's Heidi McIntosh she is our deputy director of programming what is the role of Polsinelli helping us out on the Hill. What is it exactly that your firm does for us, Julie? So we've been hired to work as strategic policy advisors and government relations advocates. One of the things that we did when we first engaged with NASW, which was going back to 2014,

July, I believe, was we did an assessment of the association. We talked with the board, We talked with the membership. We talked with experts, policymakers on Capitol Hill. But we wanted to help NASW hone in on its priorities, its legislative and policy priorities, and get a sense of the direction that your leadership wanted to take. And then after we did that, we reported back, and we essentially helped you focus your goals so that we could have more of an impact. I think NASW is such a massive organization, and there are so many issues critical to your members, and sometimes it's hard to be effective if you're working in so many different areas.

And while all of the areas that NASW members care about, myself included, are important to really hone in on some top areas was really the purpose. And what we continue to do is really be almost an adjunct to your staff in terms of helping keep our ear to the ground and find opportunities for NASW to advance its goals. Heidi, I was wondering if you could add on to that and also say what are the benefits Pulsanelli is also bringing to NASW. You know, one of the things our membership asked for was for us to reinvigorate our advocacy and our public policy efforts. I'm really so grateful to Polsinelli for really partnering with us to do that.

You know, over the course of four years, I believe we've really done that. They've helped us focus our efforts on what are the key policy efforts that we need to be doing on the Hill. They've helped us focus on those key critical areas. So we have our public policy efforts as well as our social justice priorities that we've been able to focus while also being nimble. Because as you know, every day there's something happening both globally and domestically that we need to respond to almost immediately. So while we're organized and focused, we have to be nimble and be responsive to the world events. And I think Pulsinelli has allowed us to have the right facts, get the information out quickly to our membership, to the larger field at large. And so I think we've benefited a great deal.

Julie, you're also a social worker. So how does being a social worker actually add to the job that you're doing now with Pulsinelli? Being a social worker is really my first and foremost identity. I got my bachelor's in social work, and I also have a master's in social work, and I really utilize all of the skills that I learned and developed both in school and through working every day. I really believe that it's helped me understand the complexity of our profession and our world and being able to listen to others is a critical factor when you're dealing with elected officials and congressional staff and that they are so busy and they have so many different priorities that they're working on. And so being able to help them and to listen what their concerns are and to try to find ways where we can find common ground. So I really, it's just, I don't even know how to imagine my life not as a social worker because it's just a part of my core and it's a part of my daily life, both in the advocacy work that I do and also, you know, I'm a part of a national law firm and I use these skills in every interaction I have in every setting.

Thank you. Heidi, you're also a social worker as well. So I was wondering if you could also answer that, how social work lends itself to doing public policy. Well, I think, you know, practice and advocacy go hand in hand. I think one informs the other. So my social work degree has really helped, one, the content, having the content expertise. So when you go on the Hill, providing technical assistance in terms of our subject knowledge, so around aging, child welfare, mental health, the list goes on and on. Many folks on the Hill and in federal agencies really look to us to help them understand the barriers, the challenges, what our consumers or clients really suffer from or need, what are some of the access issues, what communities are really, how they're impacted, what they need. So I would say our content expertise is absolutely necessary and needed. And I think, as Julie mentioned, it's the skill set we have been taught around negotiation, mediation, but also understanding the client and its environment.

All of those are very helpful in terms of advocacy, kind of getting bills pushed through. I think all of that is helpful. Now, there are a lot of social workers up on Capitol Hill now that you are working with. I was wondering if either you or Julie can name a few of the senators and lawmakers who are also social workers that we are working with up there on Capitol Hill. I'd be glad to, Greg. We are so fortunate. At the present time, we have one United States Senator, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, who's a huge champion for mental health issues. And also on the House side, we have seven current members that are social workers.

And I'm happy to list them if you'd like. By all means. We have Congresswoman Karen Bass from California. In fact, she recently got her MSW while she was an elected official. And Angela McClain and Heidi and I were able to welcome her into the profession, which was really exciting. And I know you were there to capture it as well, Greg. Also, Congresswoman Susan Davis from California, Congressman Louis Gutierrez from Illinois, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, also from California, Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter from New Hampshire.

We have a retiring member of the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Kristen Sinema, who has spoken before the NASW membership, a Democrat for Arizona, and she is actually in the Senate race. She's running for the United States Senate from Arizona. So we may have a second senator that's a social worker. And then also we have Congresswoman Nikki Zongas from Massachusetts. So all of these members are a part of the Social Work Caucus on the Hill, correct? But it also has more members than just social workers in it, correct? That's correct.

The beauty is we have members of Congress that are married to social workers or have social workers as children or in their family. and also because our issues cut across so many areas, there are members that have just wanted to be a part of this caucus because they care deeply about some of the social justice issues we work on. Now I want to delve a bit into the bills that we are at this point working on. There's the Improving Access to Mental Health Care Act, but there's a lot of other things happening. So I was wondering if you and Heidi can actually give us an overview of what's going on out there legislatively.

So one of our bills, the Social Worker Safety Act of 2017, it's one of our bipartisan bills. The co-sponsors are Representative Kristen Sinema and Representative Elise Stefanik. So we're really proud of this bill. And this bill allows the Department of Health and Human Services to award grants to states for providing safety measures to social workers and other similar professionals working with violent and other at-risk populations. The issue is social work. We're always at risk when we go into communities to support families. Families, you know, we don't know the risks that we're facing as we go into homes and into communities. And so this really would look at providing safeguards for social workers across the continuum,

whether you're in mental health, child welfare, across the board. Any other bills? Yes, you mentioned the Improving Access to Mental Health Act, so I'll go with that one, because it's a bill that was introduced in the previous Congress, but we had a really positive development in the last month in that the Senate bill was introduced in a bipartisan fashion by Senators Debbie Stabenow and Jay Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, and we're just thrilled to have that. And that bill really was an outreach of the assessment I had referred to earlier.

One of the pieces of this bill would be to ensure that social workers are paid in the Medicare program at 85 percent of the physician fee schedule, which we're currently reimbursed at 75 percent. And this would put us on par with some of our other non-physician practitioners. And this is something that was really important to the membership, particularly as we have an aging population and more and more people in Medicare. We need social workers able to be a part of that program and reimbursed at an appropriate level, on par with our other colleagues. Would you like – I can talk – there's another bill that I think has been a huge bill for NASW, and maybe, Heidi, you can tag-team this one with me, but this is the Dorothy Hite and Whitney Young Social Work Reinvestment Act. This has been around for several Congresses. It is a really important social justice, social workforce bill that would also create some grants through the Department of Health and Human Services that would address getting more workplace improvement programs.

Also, it would support postdoctoral research in social work, And it would also support the recruitment and education of social work students in advanced degree programs, as well as the professional development of social work faculty and the testing and replication of effective social work interventions. Yeah, so on this last bill, we're really focusing on the social work workforce. And we really understand that the role of social work is important and will always continue to kind of highlight and represent the field and our role. And this bill really highlights the importance of us as advocates for our profession and our role. Right now, we're in a difficult political environment. Our president has not been that amenable to social issues. We have actually done several statements on immigration policy, et cetera, which are at odds with it.

Is it a more difficult environment now for you, pushing for legislation which actually benefits social workers and the people that they serve? I'll take the first stab at that one, Heidi. Thank you. You know, these are really challenging times, Greg, as we all know. Not only are we faced with an administration that isn't always in sync with some of the goals of our profession, however, also resources are particularly scarce. You know, one issue that we didn't mention in the legislative realm is the huge opioid epidemic. And that is really a place where I'd say we see eye to eye with this administration. In fact, there have been a lot of investments, just billions of dollars put into the last spending bill and into the president's budget.

it, but a real recognition that this is an epidemic that cuts across all communities and really requires a national response. And so there is legislation right now pending before the Senate Health, Education, and Labor and Pensions Committee, and also that's going to be taken up next week, and also before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, also taken up next week. And NESW has been a part of that discussion. In fact, Angela McClain, our CEO, is going to be on a panel in June that's being led by a federal agency. And so I think these are challenging times given many variables,

but the important thing is to try to find areas that we can work together on. And some of these things, like the opioid epidemic, it's a bipartisan issue. This is a public health crisis that the whole nation has to address, and we really do have bipartisan support for some of these solutions. And that's a really great thing for NASW to have a hand in. I think the only thing I would add is, although it's challenging, I think it pushes us to continue to utilize our social work skills in terms of bringing people together. I mean, I think that's one of our strengths as social workers,

is how we really are able to bring people together, a cross-section of people together. And so it's important for us to utilize that skill set. And so our values, the things that are important to us, the things that are important to our clients, It is important for us to bring bipartisan support. People that represent both aisles, I think, are important to discuss issues that impact their families as well as ours. I mean, so I think social work is I think we can be that change agent in this kind of political climate. So, I mean, I think this is an opportunity for social work to rise up to this occasion and show what we can do in this type of climate. so a final question for you is if i'm a social worker and i want to get involved in our public policy efforts what are things that i'm able to do obviously one of them is join us but are there

like other things happening so 2018 is going to be really critical for our social workers And I think this is an opportunity to really talk about what the political landscape is going to look like for the 2018 elections and then talk about how social workers can really rise up to the occasion. You know, we are in the 2018 midterm elections. This is a huge, huge election year where we really need social workers on the front lines at the local level participating in the process. This is really a chance for our members or our non-members, frankly, to get involved at the local level and at the national level to make sure that we are putting in elected officials that share our values and share our priorities. If you want to just look at the United States Senate, this is a huge Senate election year.

Senators only serve six-year terms, and they're staggered. So for the 2018 midterm, there are 33 seats that are up for re-election. And two of those were in special circumstances where we had members retiring for health care reasons or other reasons. But there are currently 23 Democratic Senate seats up and eight Republican seats. There are two independent seats. And then there was recently two special elections for Mississippi and Minnesota. and those seats will still also be up in November. So a really critical time to have an impact on the makeup of the United States Senate.

And then obviously with the House of Representatives, members serve two-year terms, so that every single member, all 435, are up for reelection in this coming election year. And then finally I'll just mention that there are 36 states that have gubernational elections this year, three territories and one in the federal district. So it's a huge, huge year, and we really need for our members to get involved and go to town hall meetings and ask questions and make sure that the officials that they're putting in office share their views. I think that's one way.

My sense is that you were looking for other ways, And I know NASW puts out regular membership updates and alerts. Heidi can probably speak to those better than I can. But also when there is major legislation pending or even introduced, we need help to build co-sponsors, and we put those alerts out and urge the members to get involved from a grassroots way. I also need to mention, before I promise I'll let you talk, Heidi, Another critical way to impact the process is through the PACE, and that's NASW's Political Action for Candidate Election.

It's the political action arm of the association. It's something that every year when you renew your membership or if you're a new member, you have the opportunity to contribute to the PACE. And this is a critical place where NASW can have a seat at the table, if you will, not just during the policymaking and the bill drafting, but also in the reelections or the actual elections of candidates, being that supporter. So it's really an effective way for us to build relationships and build bridges. And one of the things that we've been trying to do in the recent years is to build more partners, find more common ground, so that our PACE is supporting candidates in both parties that share our values.

And even if we don't agree on every issue, if we can find an issue that we're in sync on, let's support those members too so that we have more champions in Congress. Additionally, one of the ways social workers can really get involved in advocacy is around voter registration, voter drives, community organizing. We are community organizers, so this is how we can really get involved. NASW will be doing a series of webinars around voter engagement and education. So what do we mean when we talk about redistricting? All of this information is really critical for us to understand and know so that we can get involved in voter engagement.

So that's an additional way where social workers can be advocates and grassroots organizers. Thank you. Well, it's been a pleasure. And we also hope to have you back because we're going to need updates on it, you know, all throughout the year. Also, during the election like season, it would be a pleasure having both of you back in here. So I thank you for your time. I know that you're very, very busy ladies, so it's a pleasure having you. And thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you. You have been listening to NASW Social Work Talks, a production of the National Association of Social Workers. We encourage you to visit NASW's website for more information about our efforts to enhance the professional growth and development of our members, to create and maintain professional standards, and to advance sound social policies. You can learn more at www.socialworkers.org. Don't forget to subscribe to NASW Social Work Talks wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for joining us. We look forward to seeing you next episode.