WISCONSIN CHAPTER:
SOCIETY FOR SOCIAL WORK LEADERSHIP
IN HEALTH CARE

Chapter Meeting Minutes
Thursday, June 5, 2003
Quality Inn South
Madison, WI

Meeting called to order by President Sharon Winter. Welcome and introductions were made.

NASW UPDATE

Marc Herstand discussed the status of Outpatient Mental Health Services and the role of Licensed Clinical Social Workers. The new licensure of Clinical Social Workers was to have “guaranteed” LCSWs to practice independently. As of now, LCSWs must still be supervised by a Psychologist or Psychiatrist and receive a Physician’s referral.

Marc encouraged members to contact their state representative and ask them to support a waiver of supervision. They could also contact H. Nelson who is the current Chair of Health and Human Services and advocate for this waiver. Benefits of this action would be cost savings and better services to clients, especially in rural areas where finding psychologists or psychiatrists to supervise is difficult and/or are often new graduates with no experience.

The Social Work Chapter has asked Dept. of Regulation and Licensing to give them a report about discipline action regarding “adequate records on clients”. If this were a source of discipline for Social Workers, how would they define adequate records?

NASW has requested that AODA licensing be done by Regulation and Licensing and not a special body. WAADAC is campaigning against this and working at mobilizing their members to fight this change.

There is a bill currently being drafted that would give MSSWs some recourse if they did not take a clinical track and/or field placement in graduate school and wanted to do clinical practice. One possibility might be for them to go back and get coursework and or supervision that they are deficient in.

There is a bill pending that would make clergy mandatory reporters for sexual abuse. NASW has concerns about the broadness of the bill and a number of loopholes.

The 2004 NASW annual conference will be May 19-21 and be held in Milwaukee.

TREASURER’S REPORT

The treasure’s report was available for anyone who wanted to see a breakdown of revenues and expenses for the second quarter. Our current balance is $5,603.94

WEB-SITE UPDATE

Comments were invited about the changes in the web-site. People shared that they thought it was attractive, user friendly and easy to link to national. Our goal is to transition from snail mail to e-mail to notify members about meetings and distribute information.

LIAISON REPORTS

WHA (Wisconsin Hospital Association): Mike St. John will give an update at next chapter meeting.

COP (Community Options Program): Pat Anderson distributed a report from the 2/4/03 COP meeting. Highlights included: 1. The costs of keeping people in the community on the average were 13% lower than the costs of keeping the same individuals in nursing homes. (Results from study with 154 individuals in 46 different WI counties). 2. Two ICFs MR in Milwaukee have/ are going to close. Jackson Center with 80 residents closed in December 2002 and Hearthside with 183 residents is scheduled to close in 2004. 3. Recommendations will be made to Secretary Nelson about the practice of nursing homes moving residents to other nursing homes or banking beds, which prevents CIP II slots from being created. They will suggest that counties need more authority to prevent facilities from doing this. If nursing homes got a fixed amount for each occupied bed and were not penalized for unoccupied beds, this would not be necessary. 4. Things are somewhat still in limbo with the new governor and budget uncertainties.

ACMA UPDATE

Mary Jo Walsh is working on putting together a joint meeting, possibly for November on Case Management with the Illinois chapter. Members are encouraged to let Mary Jo know what they would like covered in such a program, including the collaborative role of Nurses with Social Workers in case management.

NATIONAL SSWLHC CONFERENCE REPORT

Sharon Winter and Deb. Huff attended the meeting in Atlanta. Sharon also attended the Chapter President’s Meeting. There are some strong state chapters and then some that are probably going to discontinue because of low membership. Many state chapters give out recognition award(s) such as Social Work Leader of the Year. This might be something we’d want to look at.

Discussed the word leadership in state chapters’ titles. Does this keep people away because “front line workers” don’t consider themselves that way? They think the organization is only for managers and supervisors.

Discussed the small attendance at chapter meetings. There is a smaller pool of participants who are interested in becoming officers in state organizations and the work that this requires. This also impacts the chapter strength and future.

The conference had about 250 attendees. This is less than last year. There were fewer venders than usual. There were many presentations/sessions on end of life, palliative care and case management.

The conference next year will be in Las Vegas, probably in April. If anyone is interested in presenting they should go to the national web-site.

INDUSTRY UPDATE AND MEMBER SHARING

Recent JACHO visit stressed safety in all aspects. They looked at the building for security, handling and locking up of all medications, safety education for employees and competencies. They also emphasized advance directives, pain management and patient rights.

Minnesota study that looked at decreased hospital beds and the impacts on nursing homes and emergency rooms was identified as a possible future program that would be of interest to our membership.

The formalization of Volunteers Services in hospitals was discussed. There is now a Certification for Volunteer Managers and increased demands for competency for managers and volunteers.

There is increased interest in learning about a certification/specialization in medical or health care social work. NASW is in the process of doing this.

New Hospital in Tomahawk and Rhinelander will be opening a new facility in 2004. Internship experiences reinforce the need for practitioners to talk to schools about the curriculum and preparation of Social Workers who want to work in a hospital and/or medical setting.

A review of the magnitude of child abuse and the pervasiveness of sexual and child pornography in the area.

Every county is getting money to set up bio-terrorism programs. Hospitals need to be involved and this effort.

LaCrosse County has Family Care (only about 5 counties in the state do). They might be doing a pilot project to restructure AODA services along with Family Care.

Gunderson is now doing off site dialysis. They have been contacting nursing homes and doing some planning about the upcoming flu season and the possibility of SARS.

ALLTEX-Medicare allows a select specialty classification for long term acute term.

New CEO at Adams County Memorial Hospital. Construction on new building/expansion is progressing. They are developing customer focused training and performance standards. New half time social worker.

Monroe Clinic Hospice preparing for JACHO visit in the fall. Prenatal Loss Program has obtained a cemetery plot, monument, etc. and will be offering memorial service and group burial for stillbirths and miscarriages twice a year. Free Grief Counseling available to anyone in their 5 county service area.

HIPPA is fun and challenging for everyone. There appears to be a variety of interpretations and applications.

NEXT CHAPTER MEETING WILL BE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 AT QUALITY INN SOUTH IN MADISON. BUSINESS MEETING WILL BE FROM 9:00 to N00N AND THE EDUCATION OFFERING AT 1:00 PM. LOOK AT WEB-SITE FOR INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER.

Respectfully Submitted,

Linda Rasmussen, Chapter Secretary