An Open Letter to the National Association of Social Workers

[Help_I_Live_In_Idaho]

Dear Colleagues,

I find it interesting that the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) does numerous articles and trainings on poverty, but nobody is more unwilling to deal with the poverty of its own
professionals than the NASW. The low pay, the billable hour wages that
allow employers to work us for 40 hours a week and pay us only for the 20
we spend face-to-face with clients. No benefits, no health care, not even
office furniture (I have to buy my own), and no possibility of retirement.

Yes, I'm angry.I have been starving and my family has been suffering in
Idaho for 15 years as a social worker on the billable hour. I'm an MSW,
LCSW since 2000. I have tried to raise awareness and get something done
about this for 10 years and I can only conclude nobody, especially the
NASW, gives a damn.

I leaving the profession and my job as a therapist and clinical supervisor
to buy a convenience store. It will be more money and far less heartache.

I intend to encourage every social worker I know to get out of the
profession and I intend to use mass media to get this across. Maybe I can
save a few social workers from a lifetime of poverty.

Thanks for all the compassion and help. Thanks for nothing. You should
publish this. But, you won't because you don't care about poverty. You
only care about the "Status of the Social Work Profession." Social Work has status
like slaves have status.

Mark Rist MSW, LCSW

[Political Heretic]

1. State workers have benefits, health care and office supplies

You apparently are talking about a private company - which can pretty much pay you whatever they want.

I find the letter, honestly to be confusing and convulsed. Not to mention your affect, which is less than steady. I'm not sure why exactly you think that the NASW is the body that ought to be forcing the private organization you work for to pay you better and give you better benefits, or how you think they could even do that... ?

NASW (and other organizations) have long advocated for more government funding and government positions for social workers, as opposed to the privatization of social work that is the norm today. This is what happens when social work is privatized. But I'm not sure how NASW is to blame for this.

Finally, I'm not sure how you think attacking a national organization is going to help conditions in Idaho. Being a social work in Idaho, the #2 most unfriendly state for social work in the Union, is going to be nothing but rough. But that's not representative of conditions in every state. So saying "the NASW sucks because I wasn't paid well" is kind of strange... better to say that Idaho has a real problem with recognizing the critical importance of social workers and compensating them fairly.

[Help_I_Live_In_Idaho]

2. Response

"Confused and convulsed" is exactly how I feel. I spent $60,000 and still owe close to that. I put my faith and 15 years in the social work profession. I no longer have faith in anything. I have a solution. Replace NASW with a social workers UNION. I can't save my financial situation because I majored in a the fast-food industry of social work and I live in an area where the state only hires insiders and good-old-boys.

And, you are right. It is not the fault of NASW. It is the fault of good men, like you, standing on the sidelines, doing nothing but telling us to get our companies to pay us a livable wage. Then you remind us that they can't pay more and suggest no solutions. This is the typical cult "double bind" situation. Are you LDS?

Now, you say you are a "political heretic." Frankly your words betray that you are a "political sell out." And, as you sit in your comfortable chair, I'm quite sure you are not concerned about the welfare of anyone but yourself.

Finally, attacking a national organization is a time tested way to create discomfort and to relieve them of their credibility - which they don't deserve, because they allow their members to fall into poverty and do nothing but advertise for more suckers.Your letter only increases my resolve to expose this profession for what it is. A big fat lie, a fraud, a rip off and a system of social slavery

[Political Heretic]

3. Now I am all for a union. We don't even have to discuss other technicalities

As far as it goes, Social workers need a union. They would need a lobbying wing of their activities too, which could be what the NASW becomes. Because part of social workers getting what they need will come from appropriate state and federal funding of human social services. So we'd need that part. But then yes, we need a national social workers union with state chapters. It still wouldn't do anything in Idaho, a right-to-work state and full of tons of other anti-union law. However, it would help a lot of people.

In Idaho our best hope is federal legislation and funding changes that force our state to do things that it otherwise would refuse to do. That means federal intervention in the form of legislation.... which, as much as this sucks and I'm sure is unpleasant to hear... actually makes NASW our current best best for improving social worker's quality of life in Idaho. At least in the sense that they have active lobbying presence in the halls of congress, and a democratic congress to maybe listen.

Did you here they are pushing a proposal to pay off social workers student loans if they agree to continue to work in high-risk areas? I believe its currently in house committee. It's a start. Not being saddled with so much debt (I have nearly the same) would help.

I don't disagree that challenging the "establishment" of our profession is an important thing, that sometimes needs to be done. I wouldn't say don't write, and write often, all sorts of concerns and critiques of the NASW, the Federal Government and everyone else who often lets the hard workers of the profession down.

But THIS particular letter will, I think, simply get blown off. If it were me, I'd wait until I had a small amount of emotional separation from the topic. UNLESS your objective is just to vent. If your goal is change, then you should probably wait and revise. If your goal is just to get something off your chest, which is totally fine, then SEND IT NOW and maybe you will be able to feel some peace about it! :)

EDIT - whatever you decide, don't forget to sent to local Idaho Chapter of NASW - look up Delmar Stone. One way or the other, he should hear your voice.

[Help_I_Live_In_Idaho]

4. I appreciate this...

I apologize for being so ill of affect... But "I get pissed you know!!!" LOL

I really am done with social work because by the time a Union is established in this hillbilly state I will be dead. But thank you and I really mean it.

As far as getting "blown off" - I want to get "blown off" and then I want them to get "blown off." You see I'm the kind of Union advocate that raises hell and burns in it while people watch; all to set an example for future generations - just a metaphor just a metaphor. But I am willing to go down with the ship. The last thing they see will be my middle finger and that will be satisfaction enough.

[Political Heretic]

5. Fair enough. Do send to local Idaho NASW too though.

Best of luck in both this and your future endeavors. Most importantly, best wishes on finding some peace and the chance to recharge from years of exhausting sacrifice!

[Help_I_Live_In_Idaho]

6. With all due respect my friend...

The NASW has never done anything in 15 years to help people in this profession. I have dealt with them several times over the years and all they ever do is send you out without their support, slap you on the back and say "good luck." I could not believe that I was paying the dues for them just sitting there. They take your money and that is all. They have no help, no solutions, no concern except for their status and position.

I call that the "Ring of Power." Once you give it away it does nothing but feed itself more power and it loses touch with humanity and finally sells humanity out. What did the NASW do for us during the Bush Administration, when this country was on its way to a police state they sat on their hands and took the money.

Brother,I don't intend to send any chapter anything. All they will do is, in their cult mentality, attack the messenger, destroy the message, and repeat the status quo. To say they are a radical group is a joke. They are nothing more than a for profit, non profit run by goof balls who don't even remember and aren't old enough to remember what this country was like before the right took over the congress and the white house.

They apparently never saw blacks being beaten with clubs, they didn't see the Nixon administration, they didn't notice our freedoms being eroded and our government spying on us through our telephones and computers, and our bloody wars for resources. That is humanity? Those days are over and the NASW is over as far as I'm concerned. And, if you don't think it is that bad, come to Idaho and see the republicans operate through the Mormon church like the KGB. I have seen falsehood, cruelty, coldness and tyranny in the name of this so called Social Justice organization and I am done. It is another false cause in a false country full of fake people with fake ideas who talk the talk, but walking the walk amounts to holding their hand out and asking for more money. If I send them anything, I will send them a hearty fuck you. Also thanks for the union info. Unions and Obama are our only hope at this point. We should all, on a national level, walk off the job. Solidarity!!!!!

[Help_I_Live_In_Idaho]

7. I'll bet they have already read it - dozens of em

I hope they took some reality out of it, because, to be honest they are so politically correct in their culture, nobody tells them how they really feel - except me. But There are thousands who feel just like me and they don't want to offend. I don't either, but I'm done with them anyway So I will keep talking and get blackballed from a profession that is good to get blackballed from LOL :argh: