Scope of Practice Protections, Expansion of Service Delivery Opportunities and Addressing Social Work Salaries
Scope of Practice NASW-NYS Policy Staff are very vigilant about protecting your scope of practice as an LMSW or LCSW. With each legislative session, bills are introduced that attempt to encroach, minimize or extinguish the respective social work scopes of practice. NASW-NYS is your first line of defense in such instances.
Social Work Licensure Exemption – In 2002, after at least 28 years of negotiation between the legislature, stakeholder provider groups and trade associations, the practice of social work became one of the state’s licensed professions. In doing so, a minimum standard of education, experience, and exam requirements was established to assure that individuals providing mental health services, specifically, the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness were qualified to do so. Just prior to the passage of such legislation, several state agencies noted they would need time to move their workforce into compliance. They were granted a six-year exemption to do so, and subsequently they were granted another three years, and another three years. Each time the dates of compliance neared, the agencies advocated for extensions, claiming potential workforce disruption and mass firings of unlicensed staff. In 2013, the battle escalated when the Governor included a permanent exemption in his executive budget proposal. Had this come to fruition, untrained, uneducated individuals would be authorized to provide social work services, including diagnosis and treatment of serious mental and emotional disorders and essentially render the need for licensed social workers in settings across the state so insignificant that the profession could have faced extinction. They have had 14 years to comply, and yet again, through the Governors Executive Budget proposal, requested an additional five year exemption.
NASW-NYS strongly advocated that full implementation of licensure finally commence and in an attempt to reach such a point, we worked with impacted agencies, key legislators and their staff, the Executive team and partner organizations to craft clarifying language to mitigate the concerns of impacted agencies while finally implementing the 14 year old statute. Despite intense negotiations, a strong press strategy and membership mobilization, a compromise could not be completed in the context of budget negotiations. As a result, budget language included a two-year language extension, however, an agreement was reached between the two houses, the Executive, and stakeholders (such as NASW-NYS and NASW-NYC) to continue conversations into the post budget session, for the express purpose of identifying a permanent solution by the end of the 2016 session in late June.
Preserving School Social Work Positions and Scope – As in previous years, over the course of the spring (2014), members from numerous school districts reached out to the Chapter to alert us of proposed budget cuts that included cutting school social work positions; and in many instances supplant such positions with guidance counselors. In each case we worked with members to draft memorandum in opposition to such cuts that clearly articulated the value of school social work positions and the difference between guidance counselors and other pupil personnel employees who may be tasked with social work duties in the face of shrinking budgets. Given the fact that this is a recurring annual issue, we are now taking a proactive approach and as such, have created a School Social Work Taskforce. The Work group, comprised of members of the National and State Chapter NASW, the National and State SSW Association, three school social workers (downstate, mid-state and upstate) and a researcher has been meeting throughout the fall to craft an advocacy based School Social Work Toolkit*.
NASW-NYS has engaged in an enormous amount of work on school social work related issues. The range of our work has included the drafting of memorandum in opposition to budget cuts targeting school social work positions, drafting talking points that articulate the value of school social work, and the difference between them and School Guidance Counselors, preparation, and delivery of testimony to the Governor’s Commission on Education, the appointment of a School Social Work Task Force charged with crafting an advocacy tool kit/resource*, advocacy efforts focused on advancing legislation that seeks to mandate school social work positions and spearheading a campaign for such legislation.
*NYS School Social Worker Survival Toolkit: A Self-Advocacy Resource Guide
Throughout the course of such work, we have cultivated a strong collaboration with the New York State School Social Work Association and the New York State Society for Clinical Social Work to examine additional issues impacting the provision of school social work services. Most recently, our work has focused on proposed amendments to regulations that seek to alter the title of School Guidance Counselor to that of a much more generic term of School Counselor and allows such “School Counselors” to provide “individual” and “group” counseling; terms that connote the provision of mental health services. We have submitted comments on such proposed regulations and proposed clarifying language. In addition, we continue to meet with key stakeholders, the appropriate members of the legislature and their staff, and the State Education Department staff. We will be participating in meetings beginning, early May to discuss the trajectory of such regulations.
Limited Liability – NASW-NYS, has for a number of years, worked in collaboration with the New York State Society for Clinical Social Workers to advance legislation to allow licensed mental health professions to form limited liability corporations with other licensed providers. As such, we have become an active member of coalition of Title VIII licensed professions seeking to advance legislation allowing enumerated professions to form LLC’s with physicians. By sessions end in June 2015, we were successful in having an omnibus bill introduced into each house (a major accomplishment for this issue) and we continued to work the issue “off session” and now again in the 2016 session. In addition to the omnibus bill, we have very recently had a bill introduced into the Assembly that would allow for the formation of partnerships between professions of social work, psychology, and psychiatry. We are currently meeting with potential Senate sponsors.