Midlife Musings and my Second Career

The past few days it's been looking like my second career might have been a big mistake.

I was connected with some very disturbing information regarding trading in a LMSW for a LCSW a few years down the road. There's been some vehement venting from the newly graduated or to be graduated as well as long time graduates of schools of social work --though primarily NYU. Seems a message went out from the alumni association letting others know that their ability to acquire a LCSW can be in jeopardy for a number of reasons including the location of employment.

Apparently there's been a reinterpretation of the rules and regs as written by the OP (Office of Professions) which comes under the Dept. of Education for NYS. You no longer can become a clinical social worker without working in a strictly 45min. session type of agency licensed under the Office of Mental health, OASAS and a couple more. Hospitals and Schools no longer count. In fact it seems difficult to determine for certain what type of agency does count. Obviously this severely restricts the type of work one does, if one is hoping to obtain a LCSW.

The discussion on the has been focusing on doing private practice as a LMSW with paid supervision from a LCSW. This type of work, in the past, has been acceptable work toward obtaining a "C." Apparently this is not so any longer. Most social workers I know have private practices "on the side" in order to supplement their poor pay. This would be virtually impossible under this interpretation. Or at least very difficult. And for me, since deciding to go into the field, one of the ideas in the back of my head, was to someday during "retirement" have a small practice for monetary, mental health and helping reasons. I'm not sure now if that will happen. Everyone talked about how flexible the MSW degree was and how it can be used in so many places doing so many different things. My heart has always been in doing community/policy/advocacy work and in truth I might have attempted to acquire a MPH or even a law degree, were I to know this would face me down the road. But one year away from the end I'm not about to give up. But I'm very disappointed with this discovery.

I urge readers to join the list serve group I mentioned above to keep informed of this ongoing issue. Being selfish here, at this stage in my life any wrench thrown into "my system" and slowing my progress down is difficult to manage.

Deirdre

It's over. The summer semester that is. It was really hard. Social work with children and Research 2. Five books, 5 papers/projects, and a myriad of relevant (or not so relevant depending how you feel) academic articles all within 7 weeks both courses twice a week, and all the while working a full time demanding job. I was never so happy to have a semester end. But it's bittersweet. It also means I'll be leaving the Sarah Lawrence Campus and heading down to Washington Sq. Most of the students I worked with are heading to the STAQ campus, otherwise known as St. Thomas Aquinas in Rockland County. I loved Sarah Lawrence despite the fact that we had less of a choice in courses, even electives were mapped out for us because of the limited amount of students they can't offer the variety you get elsewhere though I managed to take three mini courses of my own choosing over the past 2 years.

I spent my first semester at Washington Square. For some reason I thought it would be easier taking one course a night 2 nights a week instead of 2 courses a night, once a week. The travel and travel time was difficult but it became more of a struggle when faced with sitting in a room for 2 to 3 hours made for 8 to 10 people and stuffed with 20. I never thought I was claustrophobic until taking class in those small rooms. The other classroom was actually not too bad except for the fact that the chair/desks were bolted to the floor and all right on top of one another. I managed to always confiscate an extra chair without bolts and pull it to the side of the room for some extra leg and wiggle room instead. That classroom I believe was 24 students. I must admit I was surprised to be so uncomfortable in an expensive private school. I thought that's why the school got the big bucks--better seating and smaller classes--guess I was wrong.

At Sarah Lawrence we had "real" seminars with 8 to 15 people sitting around large round tables with professors lecturing and students sharing thoughts. The only thing I missed from downtown was the library. Sarah Lawrence, for all its reputation as an expensive womens college with a penchant for writing, had a rather small inadequate library. So I do look forward for that reason to be going back downtown. And yet my primary reason for the move was to cut down on the travel time. I live in Westchester. Sarah Lawrence was on my way home; Washington Sq. was the opposite direction. When class ended at SL it was a 10 minute ride home. When they ended at Washington Sq. it was more like 80 mins. as I would leave my car at work (98th St. and Madison) and take the 6 down to Astor Place and with my schedule, that was 2 nights a week! For Sept. I'll be doing it 1 night a week and I'm thinking of driving down to school and pay the discounted garage fee which would cut about 40mins from my commute. But that's 6 weeks from now--it's time to take some deep breaths and enjoy NOT having to worry about such things for the moment.

I hope some other bloggers join soon. I feel like the lone voice ...

More to come

Deirdre