Clinical Social Work Federation becomes

Clinical Social Work Association!!

  Arlington, VA (May 22, 2006) - After more than 30 years as a federation of state clinical social work societies, the Clinical Social Work Federation transformed itself into an individual membership association and adopted the name the Clinical Social Work Association at its meeting of the Board of Directors on Friday, May 19.
  Following a full day's discussion of the committee report covering everything from the name, mission, governance structure, dues levels, services and benefits of membership, and more, the Federation's Board, consisting of representatives of the state societies, adopted the report by a unanimous vote and completed the work of transformation that began more than eight months ago.
  For more than a decade the Federation has struggled with declining membership, dropping from a peak of about 12,000 in the early 1990s to 3,500 today.   Efforts to stem the loss of membership by the Board over the years involved a number of changes including many addressing its original structure.   In the last four years it became increasing clear that if the Federation was to continue to serve the clinical social work profession in the future a complete change of its governance structure was required.
  "We actually started looking at alternatives to the Federation in the early 1990s," Abbie Grant, Federation President, said. "We've had several restructurings over the past decade, but nothing has proven successful.  The new association will be a traditional membership organization, receiving dues from individual clinical social workers and will have the ability to communicate directly with its members, something that hasn't been true for the Federation.
  As a federation of state societies the organization was dependent on the societies for its dues, membership recruitment, and communication to the members.  In a facilitated session last year, the Federation Board members recognized that the increased demands of their profession and the societies they led made it increasingly difficult to attend to the business of the Federation.
  "We are very excited by this change and confident that it is the right move at the right time," stated Kevin Host, the recently elected President of the new association.  "This structural change will allow us to provide better, more effective services, communicate more efficiently with our members, and directly develop membership in the organization.  We couldn't be happier or more optimistic."
  Host added that all existing services and benefits which its members are now receiving will continue without interruption.  Products such as the malpractice insurance program, subscriptions to the CSW Journal, the "800" hotline telephone number, and more, will seamlessly continue as part of the new association.
  Host also remarked that the new association will be able to build on the rich and successful 30 year history of the Federation.  He pointed out that it was the leadership of the Federation that:  brought licensing for clinical social workers to all 50 states; that led to the development of the national credentialing organization, ABE, a collaborative effort led by the Federation working with NASW (National Association of Social Workers); and
spun-off of a national psychoanalytic organization, NMCOP (National Membership Committee on Psychoanalysis), which began life as a Federation committee, as a few examples of that history.
  In addition, the Federation has developed standards of practice in a variety of areas, provided national training on federal regulations affecting clinical social workers, and developed a code of ethics regularly cited as the standard throughout the profession.  Through its newsletter, access, the Federation distributed clinical articles, provided financial advice directly related to clinical social workers, and connected clinicians to the trends and developments in mental health service.  Most recently the Federation developed national guidelines for child custody evaluations which was published in the CSW Journal last September and the soon to be published paper on social work education and clinical learning.
  The new association will also continue to provide its members with national advocacy in the Congress and the Administration, provide state-level licensing and regulatory advocacy, distribute the latest in studies from government organizations such as the NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health), and SAMHSA (Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration), as well as the research conducted by universities, private foundations, and national mental health organizations.

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Magellan Update

I wanted to summarize the information I received at the last Magellan/IBX meeting that I attended (this time on a conference call).  Click here for the summary.