Written by MSCSW Co-President, Monica Sowden
My update begins with a number:
Five hundred.
As of July 31, MSCSW has over 500 members (517, in fact!). This is a huge milestone for our organization, and one to celebrate! Whether you’ve been a member for 40 years or 40 days, we are so grateful to and for each and every one of you!
The growth of MSCSW has been incremental over the past 4 years, and much credit is to be given to former presidents Mitch Leppicello and Shelley Berven for their efforts during their tenures. Mark LaChapelle also contributed hugely to this growth. As Education Chair during COVID, he pivoted gracefully to a webinar format for educational programming, which increased visibility and continues to add value to members’ practices.
Attaining 520 members also affords me a somber moment to reflect on the responsibility MSCSW has to you and to our clients. As always, we continue to strive to provide excellent educational offerings, supervision, peer support and education around private practice, ethical consultation, and more. But a question has been floating around in the back of my mind for the past several months: What are we NOT doing? Who are we NOT serving? It is 100% the goal of the MSCSW Board to welcome all clinicians from all populations, including marginalized communities, and we are taking a hard look at how to more effectively meet the needs of these clinicians. As the Board discusses concrete actions we can take, we welcome all feedback and ideas.
In other news, we continue to advocate for the profession. Many thanks to all of you who responded to our survey about Optum’s supervisory billing policy. We collected your responses and sent them to the Office of Mental Health Parity at the MN Department of Commerce. The Mental Health Legislative Network, the legislative arm of NAMI where MSCSW has a representative, has also opted to look into this policy.
Speaking of legislation, the legislative session ended in June with some wins for clinical social work and clients, including a Medical Assistance reimbursement boost, and an expansion of clinical social work practice to include substance use disorder services.
Earlier this year, the Board decided to make access to MSCSW easier for students by waiving the membership fee. This has resulted in several members of the next generation of clinical social workers joining—we welcome them!
As Co-President, I’ve also been privileged to meet with other presidents of other Minnesota associations of mental health professionals. It has been wonderful to network and exchange ideas with these professionals. In addition, several of them participated in the Optum survey and have pledged to contact the Parity office as well.
We look forward to seeing you at our Annual Meeting on Tuesday, October 28, at the Swedish Institute!
