SOCIETY FOR SOCIAL WORK LEADERSHIP IN HEALTH CARE

Chapter Meeting Minutes

March 1, 2002

Quality Inn South, Madison, WI

Meeting called to order by President Mary Jo Walsh.

Welcome and introductions.

Membership Sharing Highlights

Sandra Stephens reported that Mendota is fully staffed with social workers.

Brian Theiler reported he has two social work positions open.

Neil O'Connor will be sending out notes from last meeting's presentation.

He reported that the CDC is releasing millions of dollars to each state for mental health preparedness in the context of bio-terrorism. We are to keep our ears open for opportunities. The main contact for WI is Orin Thomas. WI has been granted ~$19 million.

Mary Jo Walsh wished us all a happy social work month.

NASW Update - Marc Herstand

The state licensure bill (Assembly Bill 206) passed the senate with a 31:1 margin. It is in on the governor's desk - he has a May 8^th deadline to sign the bill. We are encouraged to write the governor to support his signing: Governor Scott McCallum, PO Box 7863, Madison, WI 53707-7863. The WI Hospital Association was the only organization on record against the bill.

Mental Health AODA Parity: There has been a hearing and attempt to reach a "compromise". This will be voted on March 12^th. If it doesn't pass, the NASW will make this a campaign issue.

Pace committee: Anyone interested is invited to join. They endorse candidates, distribute money, call members, etc.

SW Section of Department of Regulation and Licensing: There are two new members on the board. Mary Jo Walsh is running as a new member.

The NASW web-site and newsletter can be used to advertise jobs.

There is a new 1/2 time continuing education coordinator. There was previously a full-time coordinator.

NASW SW Month Celebration will be March 20^th at the Alliant Energy Center, Madison.

The Annual Conference will be held May 29-31^st in WI Dells.

There are two upcoming day-long conferences: Treating Depression (April 9^th, Madison, WI) and The Other Ground Zero: Violent Neighborhoods and the Children who Live there (April 17^th, Milwaukee, WI).

Treasurers Report - Amy Passow

Balance as of 3/1/02: $6,469.86

Web-Site - Neil O'Connor

@ Home went under - our web-site has been down. One solution is to use doteasy.com, which will cost $25/year. We would have our own domain name. It would not involve banner ads, but one registered e-mail address would get daily advertising. Concerns include making sure we can update easily, which Neil will check on.

Neil will check with our national contact Sonya, to see if there is a space on national's server for our web-site.

Update on National Organization - Mary Jo Walsh

Mary Jo has been unable to get in touch with our liaison, Sonya.

National will be held in Albuquerque the last week in April. Next year it will be in Atlanta.

The board has approved $750 stipends each for Mary Jo Walsh and Sharon Winter to attend. If anyone else is interested in attending conference, let the board know. In the past, it was felt other money was best spent bringing in a well-known speaker to one of our meetings to benefit our entire group, plus we have had trouble finding people that were able to go.

They will be taking national a $500 check for contribution depending on clear answers as to how we will benefit from a relationship with national. Questions include: 1) budget numbers 2) who they perceive as their constituency 3) how they will advocate for us 4) what their strategic plan for building membership is 5) how do they plan on improving their publication.

They have put out a call for nominations for national board, and have indicated they would like someone from the Midwest. Are willing to cover travel and accommodation expenses. Pat Anderson nominated Brenda Nelson, who declined. Mary Jo Walsh said she has spoken to Mike St. John about it, and he also declined.

Committee Reports

Membership - Dean Feldman and Cindy Koehn plan on making calls to members that didn't renew this year.

Nominating - Let Mary Jo Walsh know if you would like to nominate someone to be a board member.

Programs - Our next meeting will be Thursday, June 6^th. We are to get Mary Jo Walsh ideas on programs we would like to see.

Let Mary Jo Walsh know if you would like to join a committee.

Liaison Reports

WHA - Sandra Stephens

The Office of Workforce Development would like to lead the focus on the health care shortage.

The WI Dept of Health & Family Services/Bureau of Health Info will be releasing quality information to the public. WHA has made recommendations on quality indicators, and have recommended that reporting should be done on an aggregate basis, with individual hospital reports not being released to the public.

There has also been a suggestion that ER physicians may be responsible for arranging appropriate transportation when patients leave the ER. A discussion ensued on the barriers to arranging appropriate transportation. Dean Feldman suggested that SSWLHC could advocate for raising MA reimbursement for transportation. Dave Schmidt shared that a transport company in Green Bay has switched a policy to no longer delivering door to door but driveway to driveway.

COP - Pat Anderson

Their role has diminished because of Family Care. They are working to expand their role as advocates and to develop sub-committees to do more in-depth work.

COP is now under the Bureau of Aging and Long Term Care.

They will be moving from quarterly to monthly meetings.

More Membership Sharing Highlights

How do we draw in more northern members? Discussion was held about whether we should consider having an extra meeting in the northern part of the state to attract members up there. Amy will plot our current membership on a WI map and bring to next board meeting. Amy will e-mail Marc to find out how many NASW members live in the northern part of the state.

Brian Theiler shared that at his institution, there is a switch to move care management from inpatient to outpatient.

It was suggested that we should look into whether the WI NASW site would have room for our web-site. Amy Passow will ask Neil O'Connor to speak with Marc Herstand about this.

Next Meetings: Board Meeting May 2^nd, 2002. Chapter Meeting June 6^th, 2002.

Respectfully Submitted,

Amy Passow, Chapter Treasurer, filling in for Chapter Secretary