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From January 2002 NASW NEWS Crucial issues of access and extent of treatment must be addressed. By Corinna Vallianatos, NEWS Staff NASW Executive Director Elizabeth Clark in September submitted testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions that gave committee members information about social work's role in disaster relief and warned that the existing mental health care system is not adequate to meet the nation's post-Sept. 11 mental health needs. Clark highlighted as an example of the social work response to the Sept. 11 crisis the work of NASW Hawaii Chapter member Ken Lee. Lee serves as part of the American Red Cross Air Incident Response Team and was deployed to New York City to help survivors, families and friends of victims, as well as fire, law enforcement and emergency personnel, cope with the traumatic event. Clark attached a copy of the journal that Lee kept in New York to her testimony [see "Social Work in the Public Eye"]. Noting that clinical social workers comprise 60 percent of core mental health professionals and that professional social workers constitute 40 percent of the licensed mental health practitioners participating in the American Red Cross Disaster Services Human Resource System, Clark said social workers will be providing "significant portions of both the initial mental health services resulting from the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and long-term, follow-up treatment that will be necessary to restore the ability of many Americans to function on a daily basis." Clark also said that crucial issues of access and extent of treatment must be addressed in order to meet the needs of the number of Americans who will require mental health services due to September's terrorist attacks. She said that there currently exists "inadequate recognition that emotional health is as important as physical health" and that "prevention of emotional dysfunction or breakdown and restoration of individuals to a steady or 'coping' state is as essential to our well-being and productivity and that of our children as early detection or prevention of major physical problems such as heart disease or cancer." To that end, Clark stressed that the business community and government must support adequate access to mental health services provided by qualified professionals. She specifically recommended: new financing and payment methods that recognize and adopt parity between physical health and mental health services; suspension of existing limits on treatment for stress and other anxiety disorders; measures to increase the supply of qualified practitioners through acceptable and efficient training and credentialing; and the continued deliberate inclusion of mental health providers and mental health training within the schema of disaster relief for victims and first responders. Back to NASW NEWS Contents
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