My work is more than my job
I recently retired after more than 30 years of working for the Office of Mental Health of the State of New York. During the first 8 years I was a Therapy Aide, a Psychology Assistant, and a Rehab Counselor, before graduating social work school and beginning my official social work career. Except for some social work education, my career has been devoted to adult mental health. I am an LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) licensed through the year 2014 by the New York State Department of Education.
CREEDMOOR: I most recently worked at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens Village, NY. As a Social Work Supervisor, I worked directly under the Director of the Social Work Department. Here I supervised social workers assigned to inpatient, outpatient, residential, and support services. Besides giving clinical and administrative supervision, I wrote their evaluations and probation reports. As the unofficial "tech support" of the Social Work department, I created many interactive forms, which had to be approved by the hospital Health Information Management Committee, on which I served. I served on, and wrote several newsletter articles for, the Healthy Living Committee (no, really!). I also did chart reviews of all disciplines, not just Social Work, under the QI (Quality Improvement) department.
SOUTH BEACH: I worked for the longest stretch of my career for South Beach Psychiatric Center at the Baltic Street Center, a community mental health center for adults in Brooklyn, NY. No, sorry, not the Miami Beach South Beach ... but Brooklyn is way cool. Besides doing therapy with adults with a wide range of issues, I also taught MS Word, Excel, and Access to clients interested in returning to (or first entering) the world of work, in Baltic Street's Computer Skills Center. My partner here also taught 3 other skills: how to look for a job, how to land one, and how to keep it. I've also trained front-line staff and hospital administrators in computer use, especially in Excel & Access, and I was a trainer in the NYS proprietary charting and billing program, MHARS - the Mental Health Automated Record System.
I was Education Coordinator here, and have supervised BSW and MSW Social Work students in field placements from Long Island University, York College, College of Staten Island, Columbia University, Fordham University, New York University (NYU), and Hunter College (CUNY) schools of Social Work. I ran a weekly seminar for students of all disciplines in placement with us, which included art therapy, drama therapy, music therapy and rehab students, both at the Bachelors and Masters levels.
The International Federation of Social Workers
HUNTER COLLEGE: For 2 years during my Baltic Street job, I also worked very part-time for the Hunter College School of Social Work, as an Adjunct Professor/Faculty Advisor. I met with my MSW students and their Field Instructors, made sure that they were performing well, that their supervision and education needs were being met (and did trouble-shooting if not), and submitted their Field Placement grade to the school. My students' placements were in agencies in adult mental health, mental retardation, residences, gerontology, K-12 schools, battered women's shelters, victims' services, family services, EAP programs, and more. I was lucky to see Social Work practiced in so many more settings than I had ever had the chance to work in.
BROOKLYN'S COMMUNITY BOARD 6: I volunteered to supervise BSW students for a placement in CB6. Their main project was to revamp a long-outdated list of social service agencies that served all or part of the CB6 area. They contacted those agencies, sought out "new" ones (if an agency operating in the area for 13 years can be called "new"), and conducted a structured phone interview to outline the services offered.
