Hispanic Heritage Celebration 2008
Introduction
We asked several outstanding Hispanic social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and what they see as challenges to serving the Hispanic community today.
Donald Chavez y Gilbert, MSW, LISW
School Social Worker
Belen, New Mexico
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| Mr. Chavez y Gilbert |
Q. What is your area of expertise and where are you currently working?
My area of expertise over the past thirty-four years has simply depended on the particular focus of my work. Undergraduate social work focused on the women's movement and ERA. In graduate school I worked for migrant farm worker champion Cesar Chavez, followed by protective services to children and adults for Hispanic and Indian populations in northern New Mexico, interrupted by a stint on the faculty of the College of Santa Fe School of Social Work.
On my own time serving on various boards and commissions my main focus was during the era of the father's movement. I was the president of the National Congress for Men, Washington DC and founding president of Dads Against Discrimination (New Mexico) which moved the state legislature to make New Mexico the second state to establish a presumption of joint custody for children of divorce. Most recently my focal point has been school social work and behavior therapy to rural populations in central New Mexico.
Q. Why did you choose social work as your profession?
I come from a long line of rescuers and have always experienced a compelling propensity to be a helper of people less fortunate than myself. They taught me all about the origins of social work in the Elizabethan Poor Laws of jolly old England while enrolled at the University Of Michigan School Of Social Work just as they taught my fellow social workers. However, having lived and studied a considerable amount of history since then, it is clear to me that the first social workers date back even further; back to my ancestors of the Knights of the middle Ages in Spain.
In the Middle Ages knighthood was a very high station in society, and required swearing an allegiance, and vows of ethics. By his vows, the knight was required to swear to advocate justice and the protection of women, the innocent, elderly and the weak. He was in modern day lingo, a "change agent." The noble knight was a protector of the common people guided by a code of conduct and etiquette; an interesting parallel to the modern day social worker. As part of the knighthood ceremony, the knight was required to adopt an identifying coat of arms insignia, in ranching culture later evolving into the "brand." He then rode to all villages in the kingdom, and publicly recited his vows of knighthood so that all would witness his devotion to the King and his people. This part of the ceremony was to enable all in the Kingdom to recognize the knight, and if the knight faltered in his duties, he endured public shame and dishonor. A knight's honor was a virtue for which many knights defended to the death.
It should be noted also that the first cowboys/vaqueros and the whole American Western Ranching culture also evolved from the valiant Knights of the Middle Ages, a second interesting parallel to the culture we work with here in rural New Mexico. As a contemporary social worker and sheep rancher myself, it is clear now that these penchants to do social good have had at least a thousand years to work into our DNA. I must say in closing, that my DNA misses the romantic old fashioned version of making things better.
Q. What are the challenges to serving our growing Hispanic population?
Helping people learn to help themselves. Aside from the obvious battles against common foes such as poverty, unemployment, abuse of the innocent and defenseless, my biggest challenge has been to help the community of Hispanics to organize a healthy collective self concept.
Restoring the pride and nobility of our culture, language and family traditions is a monumental task. This goes beyond serving individuals and families one at a time to educating whole communities. I have approached this task via a regular Op Ed column in our local news paper to tying Hispanic history, pride, and tradition in guest appearances on National Geographic.com, the History Channel, and National Public Radio.
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Hispanic Heritage Celebration 2008
Introduction
We asked several outstanding Hispanic social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and what they see as challenges to serving the Hispanic community today.
Sandra A. Lopez, MSW, LMSW-ACP
Clinical Associate Professor
University of Houston
Graduate School of Social Work
Houston, Texas
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Dr. Lopez
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Q. What is your area of expertise and where are you currently working?
I currently serve as Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. I have been part of the faculty within the college for over 15 years. Primarily I teach courses in Grief and Bereavement Therapy, Multicultural Practice, Crisis Intervention, and Clinical Practice. I maintain a part-time clinical practice where I work with individuals and families who are experiencing traumatic grief related to the loss of a loved one. As part of my clinical practice, I also provide consultation, training, and expert witness services.
Q. Why did you choose social work as your profession?
I think it is best to say that the social work profession chose me. I actually began my studies in the field of business, following in the footsteps of my siblings who pursued degrees in that profession. While volunteering at a local crisis hotline setting, I realized that I was more well suited for the helping profession. With the mentorship and modeling of a few social workers at the hotline, they encouraged me to pursue my masters in social work.
Although maybe a dramatic shift from the field of business, it was a decision which lead me to the work I really wanted to do in life. Never in the almost 29 years of social work practice have I regretted this decision and it has been filled with experiences that have clearly gifted my life on a professional and personal basis. Especially in working with traumatic grief, I am continually humbled at the opportunity of listening to the stories of those who have experienced significant losses in their lives. To be part of their process of healing is a meaningful and powerful experience for me.
Q. What are the biggest challenges to helping our growing Hispanic population?
There are so many challenges that I can identify in terms of helping the Hispanic population. However, I want to concentrate on what I consider to be the most central or crucial issue. Growing up as a Mexican-American in the community of Houston, I have been keenly aware of the influence of my culture on my personal and professional life. My culture has truly helped to shape the person I am today. My parents taught me to be proud of who I was as a Mexican American and they nurtured those cultural values and beliefs that were unique to our culture.
I am painfully aware that there are mixed reactions to Hispanics in our general society. For the most part, there is acceptance, sensitivity, and even appreciation of the contributions of the Hispanic community. On the other hand, it is today’s reality that many Hispanics encounter hate, prejudice, discrimination, and intolerance. Thus, I believe the greatest challenge in helping Hispanics is encouraging social workers and other helpers to practice cultural competence in working with diverse others such as Hispanics.
Cultural competence as we all know requires some insightful work to explore our feelings and thoughts about those who are different from us. Further, it requires a commitment to learn knowledge about the culture, their values, beliefs, rituals, practices, and history. Given the recent tension around immigration, many Hispanics who were born here in the United States have encountered anti-immigrant sentiments.
Social workers, as advocates, can be valuable in the process of celebrating the Hispanic culture, acknowledging differences from a strengths perspective, and promoting cultural competence. The key challenge – to advocate, support, and develop respect. If we can accomplish this, we will make significant movement to addressing many other challenges as well.
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Hispanic Heritage Celebration 2008
Introduction
We asked several outstanding Hispanic social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and what they see as challenges to serving the Hispanic community today.
Rosa Jimenez-Vazquez, MSW, ACSW
Complementary Healing Therapies
Teacher and Practitioner
Richmond, Virginia
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Ms. Jimenez-Vazquez
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Q. What is your area of expertise?
I graduated from UCLA in 1967 with a MSW with a macro concentration in Community Intervention. When I came from Cuba in 1961 I already had a bachelors in Diplomatic and Consular Law, and ABD in Social and Political Science from Havana University. I also had served the Cuban Consular Service for 12 years. Also I had a scholarship of the United Nations and the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to study Public Administration with a specialization in Public relations and Personnel Administration.
I worked in Los Angeles, California at the International Institute of Los Angeles. This nonprofit organization served recently arrived immigrants and refugees. I worked with Hispanics in general and with Cuban Refugees. I developed the largest organization creating programs that ranged from job findings to social and support activities such as youth programs, dances, festivals, celebration of cultural traditions such as Reyes Magos and celebration of the Independence day among others.
In cooperation with the Adult Education of Los Angeles and Junior Colleges and Universities we created special English classes for Hispanics Professionals who wanted to revalidate their professions including helping them with the application to the programs in those other institutions.
In Miami I organized the first community center “Accion Community Center” to serve the Cubans and other Hispanics in the area and bring the awareness of the needs of Hispanics in the Greater Miami Area. This Center created awareness and opened the opportunities for the Hispanics to be heard and served. This was the beginning of the creation of bilingual programs and services in the area. Programs like “Cross-cultural Training for the Public Education Teachers, cultural awareness of Hispanics needs for secretaries attending telephones, United Way awareness of Cuban and other Hispanics needs.
We created an association of Hispanics social workers of the Greater Miami area. I was actively involved with the national Hispanic movement after the Black Revolution when only men and another woman from Puerto Rico and I were nationally involved. The attended the first meeting with NIH, HEW, Labor Department and Hispanics . We were able to place the Hispanics on the front line.
Since the end of the 1980s I have been interested in complementary therapies, specially in Mind-body therapies. I have completed training with Deepak Chopra, Brian Weiss, Borisensko, Kabat-Zinn, Naparstek, and at Omega and NICABM several years have receive the best training. I became a master Teacher of Reiki, healing energy therapy. I teach and practice mindfulness, relaxation response meditation and imagery. Have done presentations for NASW Virginia Chapter NASW New Jersey Chapter, the NASW National Office. I am currently writing a book for the integration of mind-body therapies for social work practitioners and educators.
Q. Why did you choose social work as your profession?
When I went to Brazil I had several psychological tests done with the primary interest in changing profession. I was not happy with the Consular Career. I went back to Havana University when I returned to Cuba and took the first year of the two years degree in social work. I loved it. However, I wanted to finish my PhD in Social and Political Science first. But the Revolution which I joined became communist so I decided I need to leave Cuba.
I did not finished the social work degree or the PhD. So, when I became an exile I knew I had to change my career path and I knew before I left Cuba that I would become a social worker in the United States. First I had to bring my parents and brothers and their families out of Cuba. Then move to Los Angeles, got a job as a social worker at the International Institute where they gave me half of my salary as a scholarship to attend UCLA.
It is the best decision I made in my life! I have loved my work as a social worker with immigrants, refugees and illegal Hispanics in Los Angeles and Miami and as a professor for 22 years. I retired from the Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Social Work in Richmond, VA. I have worked with individuals with HIV/AIDS and women with breast cancer combining social work with mind-body therapies and energy therapies. It is a very rich, exciting and energizing work. Social work degree prepares people for many other professional activities beyond social work per se. Social work opens up people’s creativity to serve better in whatever position you are.
Q. What do you believer are the greatest challenges to serving our growing Hispanic community?
It is the battle of the languages and culture. We must learn English and at the same time we need bilingual resources to satisfy all the needs of our communities. We need to learn to function in middle America but we don’t have to reject and forget our cultures. We have to celebrate our Hispanidad and become well prepared professionals to be part of the mainstream of the American society. We don’t need to be acculturated but we have to learn to function in a modern world. Modernity not acculturation. They are different. We must learn to be part of and f unction professionally in this great society and maintain our pride of our Hispanidad!
We must also keep the beauty of the love and closeness of our families and maintain professionally our ability to contribute to this society and be part of it. This balance is not easy, there are pieces of our culture that will be transformed by the forces of modernity, wherever we are, even if we were in our countries of origin but there are others pieces culturally essentials that can not be forgotten.
Professional education opportunities, job opportunities, equal treatment, social justice and equality are values that are necessary to maintain our traditions and cultures and still be part of this country. We need to constantly be aware and contribute to maintain both.
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Hispanic Heritage Celebration 2008
Introduction
We asked several outstanding Hispanic social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and what they see as challenges to serving the Hispanic community today.
Marlinda Quintana-Jefferson, MSW, PhD
Broward County Health Department
Patient Care Administrator, HIV/AIDS Office
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Dr. Quintana-Jefferson
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Q. What are your areas of expertise?
My areas of expertise are in the area of mental health and social work administration. Although I do not currently practice as a mental health clinician I have a vast experience working with families, children and adolescents. Areas of expertise include child physical and sexual abuse, domestic violence and cultural adjustment.
Currently, and for the last ten years, public health administration has been my field, specifically focused on HIV/AIDS. My areas of expertise include supervision, budgeting, planning, program evaluation, and development of innovative programs and quality management initiatives.
Q. Why did you become a social worker?
I was born and raised in Santiago, Chile. My mother was a proud and dedicated social worker, and it was she who provided me with a close and personal view of the profession. The Chilean social and political dynamic in the seventies further strengthened my desire to pursue social work. At age 17, I was accepted to the school of social work at the University of Chile, and felt I had begun my journey toward making the ideals of peace, justice and self-determination a reality.
The Chilean coup d'etat abruptly interrupted my studies but not my commitment to pursue social work as a career. The coup changed my life's journey and took me from student to political prisoner to exile. Later, in my new host country, and after an adjustment to a new and strange language, I returned to social work studies at the University of Washington. This time, I juggled motherhood and a job, in addition to my school responsibilities.
While I attended school I worked at the South American Refugee Resettlement organization. My experience as a refugee and my social work background gave me a unique insight into the work. Later I was recognized by the United Nations Chapter in Seattle for work done on behalf of refugees.
My first social work professional job was as director of Mujer, a Chicana-Latina Organization, a grass roots, community based group. This experience convinced me that deciding to resume my social work studies in my new country had been the right choice. I realized that social work has a place in all parts of the world, and that the principles of social justice and self-determination are universal. Five years later, I returned to the University of Washington to pursue an MSW.
While in the program, I was awarded a fellowship in mental health by the National Mental Health Institute to work with minority populations. After graduation, and for the next 20 years, I worked in various positions across the country as a mental health professional, always focused on mental health programs that met the cultural and linguistic needs of Hispanics. (I even managed to return to Chile in the mid-nineties to teach at a University there).
Q. What are the biggest challenges to serving the Hispanic population?
The Hispanic population is diverse in ethnicity, language and culture. Diversity challenges service providers to become culturally competent, and to learn and appreciate the uniqueness of each Latino population group. Other challenges include adjustment issues brought about by acculturation and generational distance from or closeness to, Latino roots.
While some families may struggle to preserve traditional roles and responsibilities, others struggle with issues of adaptation versus adjustment. Another challenge is how to reach out to those who live in fear of deportation and the related loss of access to health care.
Social workers have a major role in meeting those challenges. Culturally competent practice and advocacy, as well as strength in promoting the betterment of the Hispanic community, should all lead to stronger community and a better overall system of care.
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Hispanic Heritage Celebration 2008
Introduction
We asked several outstanding Hispanic social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and what they see as challenges to serving the Hispanic community today.
Ana M. Leon, PhD, LCSW
Associate Professor, University of Central Florida
Orlando, Florida
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Dr. Leon
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Q. What is your area of expertise?
For the past 30 years I have specialized in the mental health field working with children and families in diverse agency settings and roles. My passion for working with children has led me to various roles as a clinician and administrator, including serving as Executive Director of Psychiatry the Winter Park Memorial Hospital in Winter Park Florida. My work has also included years in private practice, as a program evaluator and a program consultant.
I am currently an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Central Florida where I have the opportunity to teach courses on clinical practice with individuals and children as well as courses in social work documentation and on research. I am passionate about sharing what I have learned as a clinical social worker who has practiced in both New York City and now in Orlando, Florida.
My training and research interests are primarily in the health and mental health issues of young children, specifically in Infant mental health. I also serve as a Vice Chair for the University of Central Florida's Institutional Review Board.
Q. Why did you choose social work as your profession?
Coming from a Latino family that experienced parenting, child abuse and domestic violence challenges, I have always believed that social work chose me. From as far back as I can remember, my role in the family was one that involved problem solving, advocacy and emotional compassion.
As a third grader, I knew that I wanted to help children find hope among the myriad of stressors that this vulnerable population so often experiences. Formal education and training gave me the skills needed as a social worker to use my compassion and drive to help others. Once in the field I realized that social work offered many diverse and stimulating roles and afforded wonderful opportunities using a wide range of modalities and interventions. One example of this has been the opportunity to integrate my clinical and research skills in creating the Collaborative Assessment of Life Functioning (C.A. L. F.). The C.A.L.F. is currently being used in 13 community based sites with various client groups in the Central Florida area.
Q. What challenges do social workers face in serving the Hispanic community?
My own challenges as a Latino child growing up in New York City have influenced my deep compassion and commitment to working with very young children. Children are "under construction" for a long period of time and therefore influenced greatly by their parents, families, communities and society. I feel strongly that children and especially Latino children represent one of the most vulnerable client groups social workers serve.
While my clinical, research and training focus has been directed towards all children, regardless of race or ethnicity, a major interest for me is the mental health of very young Latino children. Latino parents in the United States can sometimes lack the necessary child development knowledge to help their children reach optimal social and emotional potential within the mainstream culture.
The challenges that some Latino parents face are rooted in traditional values and role expectations, the multiple stressors they face related to poverty, immigration/migration experience, difficulties in English language communication and cultural value differences. Despite these obstacles and often with the support of parents finding their own way through the system, many Latino children demonstrate great resilience.
The rapidly increasing population of Latino families with young children across the country requires that more attention be paid to these issues. It will be critically important to conduct research and develop interventions that help parents create environments that are socially and emotionally healthy for the 0-5 year old Latino child population.
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Hispanic Heritage Celebration 2008
Introduction
We asked several outstanding Hispanic social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and what they see as challenges to serving the Hispanic community today.
Aida Rodriguez, MSW, LCSW
Mental Health Social Worker
St. Louis, Missouri
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Ms. Rodriguez and her son Zach
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Q. What is your area of expertise?
My name is Aida Rodriguez, and I am a Cuban-born citizen of the United States. My family emigrated here in 1960, but since then I have lived not only in the United States, but also in Spain for five years, and in Uruguay for two. I have lived in Saint Louis, Missouri, since 1991.
My area of expertise as a social worker is mental health. I currently work as a medical social worker at an inner city clinic, where I also do counseling with patients. In the recent past I worked as a sex offender treatment specialist through the Missouri Sex Offender Treatment Program at Farmington Prison in Missouri, where I was hired because of their need at the time to have a Spanish-speaking therapist who could conduct group therapy in Spanish for a small contingent of incarcerated Hispanics. For two of the three years I worked extensively with English-speaking offenders, and in addition I helped to integrate a small but very diverse group of Spanish-speaking offenders into the therapeutic community environment, and led classes and therapy groups for them in Spanish. I saw significant change occur as those men learned about the many factors which led to their inappropriate behavior, and about the role of personal choice and personal responsibility in all matters. For some, it was the first time they had contemplated such ideas, or developed friendships and dared to tell their stories to anyone. All of them struggled with their demons, and with cultural notions which could only come out into the open by doing therapy in Spanish with a therapist whose native language is the same as their own.
Today, most of my clients are low-income immigrants, and most of them are undocumented but have children who are born in the States. While I do counseling with these clients as well, it is of a different nature, often directed at cultivating self-esteem, improving domestic relations, and at developing parenting skills.
Q. Why did you choose social work as your profession?
I came to social work "later" in life after being a stay-at-home mom for a number of years, and my interest initially was simply to enter the field of mental health and develop a private practice as a psychotherapist. Having experienced the psychological and emotional drama of immigration myself as a child, I had early on developed an intense desire to understand how people think, why cultures are so different, and why folks behave the way they do. Social work seemed to be a great way to scratch that itch, and turned out to lay the perfect groundwork for what I wanted to do professionally.
During my years at George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University I learned that I also had a keen interest in community development studies, and in international social work as well. It was a revelation when a professor said one day that in order to do International Social Work one no longer had to travel, so great was the influx and diversity of immigrants and refugees into the United States. All my interests somehow came together and astoundingly, a path in this career has indeed been unfolding as I put my skills and interests to work. Being a bilingual Hispanic has been key thus far, and I believe it will continue to be so up ahead.
Q. What do you believe are the biggest challenges to serving our growing Hispanic population?
Dealing with the results of a history of trauma is and will be one of the greatest challenges of serving our Hispanic population. While this topic is not often addressed in an open way, it is an important underlying issue for our Hispanic populations. A great many Latin American countries that have experienced devastating political instability, terrorism, extreme poverty, family disruption, and the decay of hope over time. Those places and their bleak realities may seem far away, but the people of those countries are right here among us in the Unites States mowing our lawns and installing our roofs. They hail from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guatemala, Cuba, and Argentina, and more. Besides the anxiety and mood disorders with which much of the general public is now to some extent familiar, many of these people have a history of traumatic stress and PTSD or are strongly impacted by a loved one who suffers from these conditions. Their psychological and emotional experiences are complicated by a wide variety of practical problems, not the least of which have to do with immigration and language, as well as economic factors.
Also, as the newer influx of Hispanics see their children grow up bilingual they will struggle with the cultural gaps that immigrant families experience when the second and third generations come around. There will be great challenges for the aging population, a great many of them who are illegal immigrants, some of them quite uneducated and even illiterate, who worked hard, but were never able to save for retirement or pay into Social Security. They will become dependent on their American-citizen children for their financial support, but it is unclear whether many of these youngsters will have the educational preparation to support them here. Many of the older generation will return to their countries, and hopefully be able to retire on what money they were able to save, if any, and hopefully receive money from their children living abroad.
The separation of families due to labor immigration has impacted the cohesion of Hispanic families profoundly, and we are seeing and will continue to see the burgeoning phenomenon of the single Hispanic mother, and the need for Hispanic men to find meaning to their lives in a culture where marriage and family cohesion are not the norm. This will impact the new generation too, and hopefully it will result in children who will grasp the opportunity to become self-made individuals, taking the best that their backgrounds offer, and discarding the rest.
I believe that the social work principle of EMPOWERMENT will play a key role in our work with Hispanic individuals and those of other cultures. As social workers we should strive to reassure our clients that healing is theirs to have if only they reach for it. We must work to remind our clients that they can learn to dream again – or perhaps, learn to dream for the first time, ever.
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Hispanic Heritage Celebration 2008
Introduction
We asked several outstanding Hispanic social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and what they see as challenges to serving the Hispanic community today.
Evelyn M. Goris, MSW, LCSW
Psychotherapist
New York, NewYork
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Ms. Goris
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Q. What is your area of expertise?
I am a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) in New York City. I graduated from Columbia University in 1979 as a clinical social worker with a specialization in Health/Mental Health. In 1989, completed a three-year Post-Masters program in Clinical Family Therapy at the Hunter School of Social Work. For almost thirty years, I have worked in hospitals, community health centers, as an administrator in higher education, and as a private practitioner.
Currently, I am working in a community mental health clinic where I am the only Spanish speaking therapist, providing clinical services to children and their parents, adolescents, adults and the elderly. I have a general private practice, and my area of specialization is providing mental health services to clients with chronic illness such as anxiety and mood disorders, and medical illness including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, asthma, and HIV/AIDS etc.
Q. Why did you choose social work as your profession?
I began volunteering at an early age. In high school, I started tutoring children in the elementary school I attended and volunteered at a nursing home in my community. Service to others became an important aspect of my life.
While my college friends chose more lucrative professions, I decided to get a Masters in Social Work. I choose social work because I wanted to make a difference in the lives of others, especially new immigrants to New York City. As immigrants, my family and I struggled to adjust and acculturate to a new society.
From my experience and in treating immigrants, I have first hand knowledge that the loss of country, separation from family, and the adjustment to a new culture can be painful and traumatic. Throughout my career, I have worked with diverse populations and people of many ages, races, ethnic and religious backgrounds, and sexual orientations.
Q. What do you think are the greatest challenges to serving our growing Hispanic population?
- Many Latinos go undiagnosed and untreated for mental health disorders due to a misunderstanding that unless one is "crazy" no treatment is needed.
- Misunderstanding by American healthcare professionals of Latinos' various native spiritual belief systems can lead to misdiagnosis and over-pathologizing.
- There is stigma and shame related to receiving mental health care.
- Due to fear of addiction, some Latinos refuse recommended psychopharmacological interventions, such as anti-depressants.
- Language barriers impede efficient communication with healthcare providers; add to non-compliance and lead to dropout rates.
- Difficulties in accessing care (lack of transportation, insurance and funds) can contribute to clients waiting until an emergency occurs to receive care.
- Insufficient supply of competent bilingual professionals.
- Financial barriers impede many Latinos from obtaining higher education in order to service others in their communities.
- Illegal immigrants are frequently uninsured and do not seek treatment for fear of deportation.
- Immigration policies frequently result in the separation of families, leading to unnecessary trauma.
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Hispanic Heritage Celebration 2008
Introduction
We asked several outstanding Hispanic social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and what they see as challenges to serving the Hispanic community today.
Ditmara Tamayo , LCSW,CH.t., M.Div.
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
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Ms. Tamayo
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Q. What is your area of expertise?
I have had the wonderful honor of being a social worker since 1988. I began my career as a medical social worker with a focus on working with the elderly as well as people dealing with cancer and HIV/AIDS. Although, I found this area of work both challenging and rewarding, I received the opportunity of working as a multicultural social worker with children and families in the schools system in Broward County, Florida.
My love for children and my desire to help immigrant families entering the educational system in this country led me to remain in this area of social work practice. I am currently working as a family counselor serving children and families at Broward County Schools. My work has expanded beyond the schools to include diversity presentations and team building activities with international students at the Armand Hammer United World College and at various professional organizations.
For the last few years I have also been confronted with the needs of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) youth in our schools and have advocated for gay, straight alliance clubs in our schools. In the recent years I have also explored the area of mind-body connection and have provided stress management trainings and incorporated music as a form of healing in my practice.
Q. Why did you choose social work as your profession?
I began my interest in the field of social work since I was a teenager. I grew up as a teenager helping in various social projects started by my father's church in Nicaragua. Growing up in a country that was poverty stricken and in political and financial turmoil moved me to seek action to be a part of the change, part of the solution. I have always felt that we are one world, one community, and that we are responsible for one another. I have also believed strongly that as social workers we empower others to rise above their challenges and that crisis can be an opportunity to grow. I am honored to be a part of a profession that seeks to make this world a better place for everyone and that seeks to enhance the dignity of every human being.
Q. What are the challenges in serving our growing Hispanic population?
One of the greatest challenges still facing our Hispanic Community is lack of knowledge by the greater society about the financial, educational and cultural barriers that impact many families in our community. The lack of awareness by many providers who are not culturally sensitive to the needs of many families coming from diverse educational, financial, political and cultural backgrounds. Many providers are still not aware of the sacrifices made by many families to arrive in this country to provide a better education for their children. For many immigrant families the language barrier has an impact on education and job opportunities. Services and resources that draw on the strengths of Hispanic families could potentially have a greater impact in the future.
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Category(s):
About Social Workers, Hispanic Heritage Profiles 2010
Tags: tags: Ditmara Tamayo, Hispanic, Hispanic heritage month, profile, social worker, social workers, spanish
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Hispanic Heritage Celebration 2008
Introduction
We asked several outstanding Hispanic social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and what they see as challenges to serving the Hispanic community today.
Mrs. Lissette Herrera, LMSW-2, CASAC
Admission’s Coordinator
Manhattan Addiction Treatment Center
Wards Island, New York
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Ms. Gonzalez-Herrera
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Q. What is your area of expertise?
I am a psychiatric social worker and admission's coordinator for the NYS Office of Alcohol & Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) at the Manhattan Addiction Treatment Center (MATC) on Wards Island , NY. MATC is a 52 bed, 28-day inpatient mental health and substance abuse rehabilitation center that offers services to adults only via the following treatment programs – men, women, Spanish monolinguals and Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender persons.
I am a 2004 graduate from Fordham University Graduate School of Social Services, received my license in 2005 and obtained my CASAC (credentialed alcoholism & substance abuse counselor) in 2006. I have been working at MATC since 2001, first as contract interpreter and then in various positions while still attending school. After graduating I was promoted to my current position. I am also married and have two beautiful children, Elise 4 and Joel 2 years of age.
Q. Why did you choose social work as your profession?
Interestingly enough however, this is my second career. I was employed as a police officer in New York City from 1991-1993, then moved to Virginia and was employed as a police officer from 1994-2000. I enjoyed my career as a police officer and it is here that I found my calling to become a social worker. Working on the "streets" I came across many different people in various situations. I encountered death, illness and levels of victimization that can't even be put into words.
From an enforcement point of view my focus was more on preventing and solving criminal activities. "Proactive Patrol" was the terminology utilized during my time as an officer and this gave me the opportunity to become more involved with my community and the specific area of the city in which I patrolled. I started going to school and taking my first classes at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. I was very interested in examining people's behaviors and quickly discovered that incarceration alone was not sufficient.
People needed access to services and people working for them to help obtain these services to prevent recidivism. Initially, my thought was to work with women and children in abuse, however my work and subsequent internship has driven me in the direction of the addiction field. I have found however that the addiction and mental health field encompasses many different aspects of the social work field. I am fortunate enough to work in an agency that gives me exposure to a varied client population and allows me to fine tune all of my skills, especially those around trauma and recovery. I work directly with the staff psychiatrist and consider myself a "practicing clinician" learning every day.
Q. What are the challenges to serving the growing Hispanic community?
One of the challenges I face every day is accessing services for persons who do not speak English, are undocumented and/or have a severe or persistent mental illness. Services are extremely limited for monolingual clients. Finding after care for persons with these obstacles is very difficult and proves to be the biggest challenge for me in my field at this time.
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Category(s):
About Social Workers, Hispanic Heritage Profiles 2010
Tags: tags: Hispanic, Hispanic heritage month, Lissette Gonzalez-Herrera, profile, social worker, social workers, spanish
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Hispanic Heritage Celebration 2008
Introduction
We asked several outstanding Hispanic social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and what they see as challenges to serving the Hispanic community today.
R. Patricia Abatayo, MSW, LCSW-R
Ulster County Mental Health
Kingston, New York
Q. What is your area of expertise and where are you working?
My area of expertise is Mental Health. I work at The Ulster County Mental Health Center in Kingston, NY. There is a growing Spanish speaking population in the county but there were not many referrals. Through educational work in the community we have been able to get more a more people interested in mental health treatment. The need for treatment exist and there are many issues such as domestic violence, post traumatic stress disorders, depression, adjustment disorders and anxiety– to mention just a few–that remain untreated for lack of understanding of mental health.
Q. Why did you choose the social work profession?
I became a Social Worker after a long journey. Lived in many places and travel extensively. Became quite aware of the adaptation /acculturation challenges that foreigners encounter in other countries. It was a personal search and a willingness to connect and help others to thrive and achieve their greatest potential that inspired me the most. One degree let to another and personal experiences have led my way to where I actually practice Social Work. My AA, BA degrees in Human Services/Child Development with a minor in Psychology were obtained in Los Angeles City College and California State University Northridge. I had great and inspiring teachers there. I obtained my MSW at New York University, NY. NYU had an outstanding faculty that truly inspired me. I mentioned that I travel extensively, it was important to me to get fulfillment from a career and not be bored…well Social Work has never been boring and at times I’ve had more “excitement” that I bargain for… but that have been fine, I love my profession..
Q. What are the greatest challenges facing the Hispanic community and how can social workers help?
The greatest challenge to serving the growing Hispanic population for me has been to remove the stigma that “Mental Health” counseling is only for crazy people. There is a deep sense of shame in asking for help because they say “I know I’m not crazy, but…” or family members tell clients “you go there because you are crazy but I don’t need help…”.
There is a great need of educational workshops, explaining the symptoms of Post Traumatic stress Disorders, Anxiety, Bipolar Disorders,depression, etc. that lead to use of substances as a mean to alleviate the emotional pain. Sometimes I wonder how people go on, there are so many acculturation issues, stigmas and pain within the Hispanic population that do not get addressed… unless they take the steps to seek help and, those are just a few…At present time most of the Hispanic population I serve has been referred by other clients, or friends of clients, that is “word of mouth”.
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Category(s):
About Social Workers, Hispanic Heritage Profiles 2010
Tags: tags: Hispanic, Hispanic heritage month, Patricia Abatayo, profile, R. Patricia Abatayo, social worker, social workers, spanish
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Hispanic Heritage Celebration 2008
Introduction
We asked several outstanding Hispanic social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and what they see as challenges to serving the Hispanic community today.
Samira Lopez-Johnson, MSW, CSW
Suffolk County Department of Health Services
Brentwood, New York
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Ms. Lopez-Johnson
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Q. What is your area of expertise?
I believe my area of expertise lies within the work that I have done for the past 16 yeas within an immigrant community that faces on a daily basis difficulties such as police persecution, the inability to access resources, inadequate housing, and a dilapidated educational system.
I am not sure this experience makes me an expert on the issue, but I can openly discuss their fears and dreams as immigrants in this country. There is a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment in the small things many of us have taken for granted such as being able to register your child in a school setting, obtaining a decent place to call “home”, and despite their “undocumented status” being able to obtain work allowing them to sustain their families with some dignity.
Q. Why did you become a social worker?
By chance; I started as a student teacher in a relatively poor migrant community that at the time was inundated with an influx of new Hispanic immigrants. At the time I found myself involved in the process of helping parents organize their lives instead of teaching their children. Suddenly, I realized the little knowledge I had about navigating the system was vital information to these parents. As time went on and guided by my school counselor I changed my major from teaching to social work and for the first time I understood the power of advocacy and the difference that it can make in a person’s life. That is why I became a social worker.
Q. What do you think are the greatest challenges to serving the Hispanic community?
Many. . . However, one of the greatest challenges I have encountered when helping the Hispanic community is encouraging the young people to sustain their educational dreams and aspirations. Even though there is a genuine attempt by many Hispanic adolescents to stay within the educational system, the barriers can appear impenetrable. I sincerely believe that as leaders in our communities, we must spring into action and take the responsibility for safeguarding or improving policies within our education and governmental systems thus ensuring the availability of resources that will secure a better future for our children.
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Category(s):
About Social Workers, Hispanic Heritage Profiles 2010
Tags: tags: Hispanic, Hispanic heritage month, profile, Samira Lopez, Samira Lopez-Johnson, social worker, social workers, spanish
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Hispanic Heritage Celebration 2008
Introduction
We asked several outstanding Hispanic social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and what they see as challenges to serving the Hispanic community today.
Daniel V. Carballeira, LCSW, CSAT
Boynton Beach, Florida
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Mr. Carballeira
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Q. What is your area of expertise and where are you currently working?
I divide my practice between my private office where I help mostly men with devastating sexually based issues and hospice work. Currently, I am looking to expand support services for male survivors of early sexual abuse. The shame associated with male sexual abuse keeps this early trauma hidden and more so in the Latino population where machismo is considered a Hispanic male right of passage to be defended.
My work with hospice began when my agency launched a focus program to provide services for the undeserved Latino community. This work became a banner to educate our community on the repertoire of services for Latino families to assist in care for the ill loved one while respecting cultural differences and even over coming prejudices within the Hispanic community. Today the dedicated program has been integrated with the other hospice teams. Today Latino hospice cases are served by a multicultural team.
Q. Why did you decide to become a social worker?
I would love to say that I was inspired to be a social worker to serve the needs of Latinos. In truth it began because I wanted to learn to be a better counselor to a youth group I was working with. In graduate school I learned the diversity a social work education in serving all communities.
At first my focus was to work with adolescents and families. Latino families in Palm Beach County are found in every economic strata and victim to every possible social stressor. I my practice as a bi-lingual social worker I have served victims of domestic violence, substance abusers, child custody cases, and families meeting a loved ones end of life. What more privilege can a social worker receive than to stand by a family as they prepare to loose a loved one?
Q. What are the challenges for social workers serving our growing Hispanic population?
The many challenges facing social workers working with Latino families include the ongoing integration of Latinos into the mainstream where fidelity to the old and adaptation to the present provide family conflict for cultural unity. Even though immigration is tightening, Latinos continue to make it through seeking life improvement meeting political resistance and possible abandonment by the Latinos who have integrated.
The Hispanic immigrant moves through a loose chain of connections for work and shelter and legal trepidation avoiding health services until desperate and victim to legal abuses. Local, state and national public agencies will be needing culturally educated social workers as advocates and clinicians for this diversified Latino community.
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Category(s):
About Social Workers, Hispanic Heritage Profiles 2010
Tags: tags: Dan Carballeira, Daniel Carballeira, Daniel V. Carballeira, Hispanic, Hispanic heritage month, profile, social worker, social workers, spanish
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Hispanic Heritage Celebration 2008
Introduction
We asked several outstanding Hispanic social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and what they see as challenges to serving the Hispanic community today.
Madeline Maldonado, MSW, LCSW
Yonkers, New York
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Ms. Maldonado
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Q. What is your area of expertise?
I am a licensed clinical social worker, LCSW. My R privilege (LCSW-R) is in process pending approval from Albany this month. I have over eight years of experience in in social services with a strong clinical background counseling individual clients, families and working with emotionally disturbed youth, depressed persons, and chronically mentally ill populations.
My social work style focuses on my empowering clients via empathy and support to better manage their personal problems and/or mental illness by utilizing their strengths and support systems and by teaching clients life skills.
I have a strong administrative background in supervising both clinical staff and case managers in different settings: outpatient mental health clinic, ACS funded Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Program. My supervisory style is also based on the social worker’s strengths, emphasizing cultural sensitivity, continuous learning and teamwork. I also continue to see clients part time three evenings per week for psychotherapy.
My areas of expertise include clinical supervision of staff with an emphasis on cultural competence, clinical knowledge and treatment skills, administrative program management resulting in successful re-certifications from funding agencies, individual, family and group work with adults and adolescents. I have a sound understanding of both clinical social work including diagnosing and treating mental disorders, and the multiple systems that directly affect the clients and families we treat (i.e. medical, school, child welfare, housing, public assistance, and the legal systems).
I have spoken at Fordham University on "Latino Grandparents Raising Grandchildren" and on "Effects of Bullying on Children's Mental Health". I also have worked with Spanish television network Telemundo/ Channel 47 on multiple news segments addressing children's mental health issues in efforts to decrease the stigma in the Latino community around mental illness.
Q. Why did you become a social worker?
Social work has been a “calling” for me since I can remember as young as 8-years-old. I have always had a keen interest in helping people and in working to correct the imbalances that I saw everywhere in society as I was growing up in Washington Heights, NYC and later the Bronx, NY.
I am the child of two immigrants from Dominican Republic and my parents are what I call “social workers without LCSW’s”. They instilled in me the work ethic and drive that it has taken to work in social work for eight years. They also instilled in me a pride for my Latino heritage and a desire to help uplift the Latino community. They showed me that when you are blessed with economic stability, education and talent, you MUST give back to others. I was raised believing in the power of people changing their lives and circumstances with a little help from others. My parents raised me with a sense of responsibility to my community and “neighbors”.
I absolutely believe in social work and have always wanted to use social work programs to be agents of change for the clients that we serve. I wanted to see the results of child welfare programs and mental health clinics changing the way we traditionally worked with the clients to their benefit. I believe that I as one person can make a difference in the lives of many. I believe that when people with similar mindsets and work ethics work together to uplift and empower communities, miracles do happen. I have a passion to be a part of making those miracles happen. This is why I became a social worker.
Q. What do you think are the greatest challenges to serving our growing Hispanic population?
Latinos face many challenges that are specific to being Latino. In my opinion the greatest challenges affecting the NYC Latino population are:
- Poor educational opportunities,especially for those Latinos that are primarily Spanish speaking. The schools in NYC are not able to address the needs of these children and their families. This leads to school failure, high drop out rates, teen pregnancies and difficulty attaining employment in later years.
- Lack of access to healthcare, mental health and educational services due to language barriers and lack of availability. Lack of providers in these programs that are culturally competent and sensitive to the needs of the client. This is even true in agencies with Spanish speaking staff.
- Poverty and the need to depend on social services for financial assistance, healthcare insurance, and housing assistance for survival. Poverty and financial dependence keep Latinos marginalized and fearful of mobilizing for change due to the fear of deportation, losing benefits and entitlements.
- There is still a different expectation and treatment of Latina girls vs. boys within the Latino community. The Latino family is also sometimes at odds with Americanized ideals and cultural values. The parents may be immigrants who have not acculturated well, and the children are 1st generation immigrants and they are very “Americanized”, resulting in breakdown in family communication and conflicts in values. This results in tremendous pressure being placed on young women and young men to fit in somewhere between the Latino family and US values and expectations.
- Differences in culture and class and even racism amongst the different Latino groups in NYC. This hinders the Latino community’s progress in unifying and working together to address the problems within the community. The reality is that there is a difference between a Spanish speaking Dominican, NYC born social worker and a Spanish Speaking social worker born in South America from another Latin American background. There are differences to the language and the words used for specific things. There is also a lot of discrimination and racism within Latino groups where certain Latinos are singled out and identified negatively with stereotypes- even by Latino professionals.
- There is still a lot of stigma in the Latino community around mental illness and getting treatment. There is also a lack of awareness around how the severe stressors that Latinos face are a trigger for mental illness and substance abuse (i.e.-depression, anxiety)
- Latinos generally prefer to NOT seek help from social work providers for problems. Therefore, social workers need to be keen on engaging these clients and their families.
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Category(s):
About Social Workers, Hispanic Heritage Profiles 2010
Tags: tags: Hispanic, Hispanic heritage month, Madeline Maldonado, profile, social worker, social workers, spanish
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Hispanic Heritage Celebration 2008
Introduction
We asked several outstanding Hispanic social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and what they see as challenges to serving the Hispanic community today.
Sandra Yudilevich, PhD, MSW, LCSW
Mental Health Social Worker
Athens, Georgia
Q. What is your area of expertise?
My areas of expertise are medical and mental health with diverse populations (I have a Certificate in Minority Mental Health), and particular expertise in working with Latino clients. I have also developed expertise in translating for patients and their medical care providers given that in many places, at the time of my employment, I was the only staff member who spoke Spanish.
Specifically, I have worked in hospice, home health, a community health clinic (which specialized in Hispanic migrant health) where I managed a small mental health center for Hispanics within a larger Hispanic social service organization, in both adult and pediatric emergency rooms, in a pediatric hospital, which included work with liver transplant patients, and in an adult hospital with heart transplant patients. Currently, I am teaching social work to undergraduates as part of a PhD program in which I am participating.
Q. Why did you choose social work as your profession?
Social work is my third career (Bilingual Education and Waitressing were the first two). I have been a volunteer throughout my life, and have always worked for social justice causes. Becoming a social worker, therefore, was not at all "out of character." However, I was catapulted into becoming a professional social worker by the HIV/AIDS epidemic beginning in 1980-1981.
I moved from being a volunteer with the Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York, to taking care of a friend who had AIDS, and then to volunteering at AID Atlanta. A strong interest in social justice, and in health, as well as a desire to "do something," about AIDS, led me to change tracks and become a licensed, clinical social worker. After 15+ years of practice, I am now preparing to enter academia to train new social workers and do social work research—contribute at another level. My dissertation is in HIV/AIDS and Latino women.
Q. What are the challenges to serving the Hispanic population?
The challenges to serving Latinos with whom I have come into contact stem from their socioeconomic, sociocultural, and sociopolitical circumstances. Many are poor, lack education, and, fall prey to violence of various types, often due to uncertain immigrant statuses. At times the issues seem insurmountable, though their strength, work ethic, and incredible resilience, faith, and love of family, somehow keeps Latinos afloat. What makes the work with Latinos most difficult or challenging though, is the lack of resources with which to help them. This includes an insufficient number of bilingual staff that has a comprehensive understanding of the complex cultural context of Latinos' lives and can appreciate all that Latinos bring with them. Lastly, the hostile social and political environment towards Latino immigration and immigrants makes it difficult to advocate successfully on Latinos' behalf.
If the circumstances facing Latinos in present day had been the ones facing my mother when she came to the United States from Chile, with my me, my brother, and my sister in tow, my life might have turned out very different than it has.
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Category(s):
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Tags: tags: Hispanic, Hispanic heritage month, profile, Sandra Yudilevich, social worker, social workers, spanish
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Hispanic Heritage Celebration 2008
Introduction
We asked several outstanding Hispanic social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and what they see as challenges to serving the Hispanic community today.
Mario R. Lopez, LMSW
Mental Health Social Worker
Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center
Topeka, Kansas
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Mr. Lopez
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Q. What is your area expertise?
I am currently employed as a social worker in the mental health clinic at the Colmery-O’Neil Veterans Administration Medical Center in Topeka, Kansas. I bring a wealth of experience and knowledge in working with individuals afflicted with severe and persistent mental health disorders in both institutional and community based settings. In addition, I am adept at working with troubled adolescents, children, and their families.
Q. Why did you choose social work as your career?
Many years ago, my grandparents and parents migrated to the heartland of the United States from Mexico following the Santa Fe railroad in search for work. I can remember my mother telling stories of her childhood entailing living in metal train boxcars with dirt floors. It is through my parent's life experiences they instilled in me the value of family, a strong work ethic, self-efficacy, and compassion for those less fortunate.
By growing up in a lower economic inner city neighborhood in Kansas, I witnessed the devastating effects of poverty, substance abuse, criminal activity, and the profound lack of opportunities as many urban communities across America experience. It is through these experiences and my hunger for answers that led me to pursue a bachelor's degree in human services.
I have always been a nontraditional college student and often worked to pay my way through college. Although my parents supported my college education endeavors, they were unable to provide financial support. Plus, my parents have always educated me to be a responsible and self-sufficient adult.
As I reflect back, I think they were successful. As a first generation Hispanic college graduate in my family, I obtained my first career employment opportunity working in a state juvenile correctional facility.
During my work with violent juvenile offenders, I was often reminded of my old neighborhood and the similar social problems the incarcerated adolescents had also experienced. This is when my true passion for social work developed and my commitment of obtaining an advanced degree in social work began. I eventually obtained a MSW degree and went on to work in adult and adolescent psychiatric hospitals, community mental health centers, and state foster care.
Q. What are important issues affecting our Hispanic population and how will social workers help?
Some of the current challenges to serving Hispanic populations for social services in America are the need to provide services in a manner that consistently acknowledges the Hispanic experience, culture, attitudes, and values. To that end, more diverse or Hispanic social workers are needed to accurately reflect the populations being served. For the most part, people from all walks of life are inherently more comfortable around people who look like, act like, and have similar interests and life experiences as them. This is even more important for Hispanics who may have experienced alienation, racism, or feel disenfranchised. Seeing a familiar looking face across the desk, in a social service agency, just may create that edge needed to develop a trusting relationship. It is this relationship that social workers often use as a catalyst in the change process.
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Category(s):
About Social Workers, Hispanic Heritage Profiles 2010
Tags: tags: Hispanic, Hispanic heritage month, Mario Lopez, Mario R. Lopez, profile, social worker, social workers, spanish
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Hispanic Heritage Celebration 2008
Introduction
We asked several outstanding Hispanic social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and what they see as challenges to serving the Hispanic community today.
María P. Aranda, PhD, LCSW
Associate Professor
School of Social Work
University of Southern California, Los Angeles
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Dr. Aranda
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Q. Why did you choose to be a social worker?
I was brought up in a family with many "social workers" without the degrees. I learned at a very young age how to treat people with respect which meant not only seeing them as deserving individuals for who they are, but also recognizing the environmental contexts that influenced their daily lives.
During my early school years in Catholic schools, I learned the lessons of love, forgiveness, social justice, and giving without expecting something in return from the nuns and lay teachers who were quite progressive in their thinking at that time. Later in college, I "stumbled" across a social work program at a time of great challenges in my life. Applying social work principles and knowledge was appealing to me, and for the first time I could put words to the work that my ancestors had done in their small towns and barrios.
Being a social worker is a calling, a responsibility, and a creative outlet in the service of solving complex human conditions. Given my current position as an Associate Professor at a major research university in the Los Angeles area, I have the opportunity to continue this work through my teaching, scholarship, and service to the community and the profession. I'm proud to call myself a trabajadora social.
Q. Please tell us about your areas of expertise.
My teaching and research interests are in the area of human behavior and the social environment, mental health intervention and services research for underrepresented populations, psychosocial care of late-life psychiatric disorders, and sociocultural adaptations to evidence-based mental health care. I have experience in the ethnographic study of adherence factors in clinical trials as well as clinical and epidemiological research examining the relationship among health, stress, psychosocial resources, and mental health and service use outcomes.
I have worked specifically on psychosocial interventions with elderly and middle-aged Latinos and its efficacy as treatment for depression and cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. I have over 25 years of clinical experience providing direct mental health services to middle-aged and older adults and their caregivers. I have served on local and national boards and committees dedicated to the enhancement of practice, policy, research, and advocacy related to underserved populations.
Q. What challenges do social workers face in serving the Hispanic community?
There is an old saying by the journalist and novelist Jean-Baptiste Alphose Karr, "The more things change, the more they remain the same." The major challenges facing our community have been studied, assessed, evaluated, and so forth: education, poverty, health, substance abuse, immigration, service use, etc. Yes, we can do better in evaluating and figuring out solutions to these large-scale issues. Yet, we tend to reinvent the wheel every time as if the problems and challenges facing the community are new. They are not new. It is frustrating to hear about new discoveries in our community when in fact they are the same ones but dressed in different clothing, so to speak. When I return to the communities that I served while doing home visits as a social work practitioner, I realize that very little has changed. Thus, we need to be careful with how we approach problems by taking a critical look at why our prior strategies have worked or not worked for our communities. Strategies that build on our strengths and preferences are the most promising.
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Category(s):
About Social Workers, Hispanic Heritage Profiles 2010
Tags: tags: Hispanic, Hispanic heritage month, Maria Aranda, profile, social worker, social workers, spanish
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Hispanic Heritage Celebration 2008
Introduction
We asked several outstanding Hispanic social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and what they see as challenges to serving the Hispanic community today.
Ricardo “Ricky” Fernandez, GSW
Tulane Medical Center
New Orleans, Louisiana
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Mr. Fernandez
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Q. What is your area of expertise?
I am an Abdominal Transplant Social Worker for Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. Our patient population includes all pediatric patients and families and adult patients seeking evaluations for placement on the kidney transplant waiting list. Tulane also serves adults and performs liver, heart, and pancreas transplants as well.
Q. Why did I become a social worker?
Having two congenital developmental disabilities has resulted in my association with the profession for many years. I have come to appreciate all the social work profession has to offer client systems as an adult due to receiving services as a child. I have been practicing social work for 17 years in different areas including academics, case management, medical and the non-profit setting. Serving underserved populations while simultaneously representing the social work profession in a caring fashion is of the utmost importance in my career.
Q. What are the challenges to serving the growing Hispanic populations?
The strongest obstacle to serving the Hispanic community is the language barrier associated with attempting to make appropriate referrals. Social Services agencies are experiencing difficulties with recruiting qualified bilingual staff which directly hinders the provision of care. There are communities in California and Texas that serve large Hispanic populations that would serve as role models for other cities faced with these challenges. New Orleans is a good example of having to adjust and accommodate social services provision as the post-Katrina era has increased the population of Hispanic residents. Three years later has my community as a work-in-progress and the community has responded well to working with all families in need.
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Hispanic Heritage Celebration 2008
Introduction
We asked several outstanding Hispanic social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and what they see as challenges to serving the Hispanic community today.
Herman Curiel, PhD, MSW
Hispanic Aging and HIV/AIDS Expert
Norman, Oklahoma
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Dr. Curiel
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Q. Why did you choose social work as your career?
I believe my encounter with a kind male child welfare worker at age of 12 led to my interest in social work. I was reported to Child Welfare by my sixth grade elementary school teacher after repeat times of falling asleep in class. I worked nights in a laundry since age 9 to help my grandmother with household expenses. My social worker helped me obtain a job working fewer hours at a hotel restaurant.
I suppose my being raised by my loving non-English speaking grandmother led to my interest in bilingual education and aging. I developed good social work broker skills language interpreting for my grandmother. In early 1960s, as a family counselor at a Family Service agency in Houston, Texas my English-Spanish bilingual skills proved helpful in my role as counselor and as a family life education and community organization Leader in Project Enable (Education, Neighborhood Action for a Better Living Environment), a War on Poverty Program. It was through this program that I was a community organization trainee under the late NASW President Whitney Young.
That group leadership experience increased my appreciation for my dual cultural heritage and the coping strengths of poor Mexican origin families whose life experience differed only because of my education and their limited English proficiency. It was through use of gifted trained case aides that I was able to actualize the goals of Project ENABLE.
The case aides with a high school education recruited neighborhood groups and visited families between group meetings. These bilingual case aides used their life experience and ongoing close supervision to extend my professional social work education skills. The case aides were able to bridge social distance cultural gaps between group members and my leadership occasioned by gender & educational differences. Many poor individuals are uncomfortable in the presence of professionals like social workers, teachers, physicians or public officials which explains in part why few Latinos make use of our services.
Q. What are important issues in the Hispanic community and how can social workers can help?
Since 2000 I have been involved in conducting research on HIV/AIDS on the U.S.-Mexico border. That experience plus the Centers for Disease Control (2006) report that Hispanics account for 19% of new AIDS diagnoses and 19% of persons living with AIDS and is fourth leading cause of death among Hispanic/Latino men and women aged 35 to 44. HIV/AIDS is a serious threat to our Hispanic community. Social workers can help by increasing HIV prevention education efforts that lead to increased awareness of safe sex practices and need for HIV/AIDS testing. Source: www.CDC.gov/hiv/hispanics/index.htm retrieved 8-15-08.
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To find a spanish-speaking social worker in your area please click here and select the Advanced Search function.
Dr. Curiel is a Professor of Social Work at the University of Oklahoma.
Category(s):
About Social Workers, Hispanic Heritage Profiles 2010
Tags: tags: Herman Curiel, Hispanic, Hispanic heritage month, profile, social worker, social workers, spanish
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Elena R Gonzalez 
mickey branca
Hi, A dear friend of mine at work has quite a large issue w/ finding a social worker that is willing to listen to her story and provide service and expertise in the field. She has two daughters and recently learned that her husband has raped one of them, possibly both of them! Upon this news, she has been speaking w/ a detective and a social worker provided by the state. She is having nothing but problems w/ this lady provided, and is constantly speaking of her and how she “treats” her and her daughters unkind and rude! I wasn’t sure who to send this to, so i thought i would reach out to “someone” and see if there was anything/one that could help her! Please feel free to email me w/ any suggestions/phone numbers/ representatives… etc. She is at her wit’s end, and only wants to take care of her and her 2 girls! Please respond w/ ANYTHING! Thank you Kindly! Tiffany
Good information, very useful. Thank you for sharing