Spring, 2004

Inside this Issue:

THE END OF AN ERA  !

  Suzanne L. Pevey, Retiring LABSWE Administrator

I am pleased to have the opportunity to write this article to say farewell to the many professionals that I have interacted with over the years.   I plan to retire on June 30, 2004, and  want to introduce you to my successor, Mr. Richard N. Burtt.   Richard spent many years with the Office of Group Benefits as their General Counsel and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the board office.  His article follows mine and I am sure you will enjoy it.

  In 1973 following the passage of the Louisiana Social Work Practice Act in July 1972, I received a call from Bill Tarver, a social worker with whom I had worked at the Department of Hospitals.  He asked me if I would be interested in a “part-time” job and when I responded, “yes,” he asked me to meet with him and several social workers in Baton Rouge on a Friday morning at the Baton Rouge Mental Health Center on North Fifth Street.  I had my first child in 1971 and planned to stay home and be the perfect mother, however, Bill’s offer turned out to be too good to pass up.  I met with Bill, Ann Woodward, C. B. Roberts, Demetria McJulien and Richard Whitehead (the members on the first Board) on that Friday morning and they offered me the job of Executive Secretary to the Louisiana State Board of Board Certified Social Work Examiners.  The rest as they say is history!

  Within a year of that meeting, the six of us had “grandfathered” 803 BCSWs and developed and administered the first social work licensing exam in the State of Louisiana.  To accomplish that task, the Board developed a list of 24 professionals with expertise in social work practice and requested that they develop items for the first social work exam.   You may know some of those experts:

  They responded and the Board put together the first social work examination.  Board members administered that first exam to 16 MSWs at the Fountainebleu Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 24, 1974.  It was not until 1980 that the Board began contracting with Professional Examination Service for an exam and not until 1983 that the national examination through the American Association of State Social Work Boards was available to Social Work Boards across the country and Louisiana board members and staff quit administering and monitoring the social work examination. What progress!

  The Board’s first office was in my home in Baton Rouge and moved with me to Prairieville in 1978.  The office remained in my home (upstairs in the attic) until 1995 when the Division of Administration mandated that all “state agencies” have public offices.  The first public office was on Perkins Road, but within 5 years we had outgrown that space and are now situated on Highland Road with two conference rooms and 6 employees. 

  During my tenure with the Board, we have processed 8,500 social work credentials, with 6,173 current at this time.  We have gone from a card file system of record keeping to a network computer system that has unlimited capabilities and provides the Board with much more data on their licensees. 

  I have been fortunate to have 39 board members over the past 30 years who have supported me by appropriating the necessary funds for the board office, state of the art computers (except when down with viruses or worms), training, equipment and have allowed me the freedom to hire my own staff.

  In 2003, the Association of Social Work Boards honored me with their Outstanding Administrator Award.  It is rewarding to know that your peers appreciate your work and accomplishments, however, my greatest satisfaction has been from the compliments that I have received over the years from board members, credentialed social workers and the public.

  I have made many friends and have a heart full of memories, some funny and some sad, that I will treasure for the rest of my life.  I want to thank you for your support over the years and the wonderful telephone calls I have received when social workers heard that I am retiring.   It is always fun to reminisce with old friends.  I wish each of you well in your professional endeavors and I hope that you will extend the same support and kindness to Richard Burtt as he takes over as Administrator of the Louisiana State Board of Social Work Examiners on July 1, 2004.

    In the beginning . . . .

Richard N. Burtt

New LABSWE Administrator

July 1, 2004

It is said that “For every door that closes, another one is opened.”  In this case two doors are closing, and two others are opening.  For Suzanne Pevey, her door as Administrator of this Board is closing.  The door that she opened every morning for over 30 years with grace, dignity and energy will be locked by her at the end of the day for the last time in the near future.  As she does so, she will open a new door to retirement, travel and well-deserved relaxation.  In the little time that we have shared together, I am indebted to Ms. Pevey for sharing her knowledge, staff and good humor with me.  She will be missed.  It is with sad eyes that I watch this door close on her, but have a different view altogether of the door that is opening for me.

By way of introduction, my name is Richard Burtt, and I have been selected to become the Administrator to succeed Ms. Pevey.  I, too, am closing a door.  My education and experience includes a B.S. degree from LSU in Business and Public Administration with course work in Management, Economics, Accounting and Government.  After this, I worked for 5 years as a Personnel Technician for the State of Louisiana.  Finally, I persuaded my wife to continue working so that I might attend the LSU Law School.  After three looong years, I left law school with my Juris Doctorate degree, and became licensed to practice law in the State of Louisiana.  My wife was awarded her PHT (Putting Hubby Through).  She was also delighted to have me back among the working.  By this time, we had two children who were equally thrilled to get Daddy out of the house.

I became a trial attorney for the State Department of Transportation and Development trying cases all across the state.  After approximately 5 years, I left DOTD to become General Counsel to the State Office of Group Benefits.  This was a position that I held for a little over twenty years.  In this capacity, I gained experience with the Open Meeting law, Administrative Procedures Act, administrative adjudications, additional trial work, budget responsibilities, supervisory responsibilities, civil service regulations, rule-making regulations and much more.

I look forward to the new opportunities offered by this position, and to meeting each of you.  If you have time when passing through Baton Rouge, be sure to stop by the office and introduce yourself.  The staff and I hope to continue to offer the same friendly and courteous treatment to which you have become accustomed.

LICENSE COUNT BY CREDENTIAL

(as of February, 2004)

Pevey Receives Outstanding Administrator Award

Suzanne Pevey received the ASWB’s award of Outstanding Administrator from Bruce Buchanan, President of the Association of Social Work Boards, at the Fall Delegate Assembly in November 2003, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Mrs. Pevey was described as someone who is “very, very, very good at her job.”  She began working in her home, and since that time Louisiana “has grown into one of the most cohesive and effective regulatory boards in the country.”  In introducing Pevey, Bruce Buchanan, President of the Association, also said that she has “been able to do something else that’s not quite so easy to describe: It’s a rare thing, but it does happen - boards can have a personality,” The award winner, he added, has managed to maintain her board’s personality in the face of appointment changes over the years. 

She has also found the “balance between continuity and a willingness to do and try new things, and a complete lack of fear of hard work,” according to Mr. Buchanan.  He said the nominating forms for Pevey used words like “creative,” “judicious,” “compassionate,”  “efficient,” and “poised.”   She has managed to be all those things while overseeing two other boards too!

 On Wednesday, March 24, 2004, Ms. Pevey was awarded the Public Citizen of the Year Award by the Louisiana Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.  Dr. Lacey Tillotson, LCSW and former member of the Louisiana State Board of Social Work Examiners presented the award to Ms. Pevey on behalf of the Association.

Suzanne Pevey, Ann Woodward -NASW Interim Executive Director, E. Taylor Aultman- Chairman of LABSWE, Lacey Tillotson-presenter 

ASWB ANNUAL ELECTIONS

  The Association held annual elections for officers at the Fall Delegate Assembly in November 2003, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  Taylor Aultman, LCSW and Chair of the Louisiana Board, was elected to serve on the 2004 Nominating Committee along with M. Jenise Comer of Missouri and France Daigle of New Brunswick.  As a member of the Nominating Committee,

Taylor will play a vital role in selecting candidates for leadership positions in the Association. 

COMMITTEE SERVICE

Position:   Program Manager

Department Status:  LABSWE Impaired Professionals Program,  Part Time Contracted Position

Responsibilities:  This individual provides case management/case monitoring services to Social Work practitioners participating I  LABSWE Impaired Professionals Program.  Responsibilities include completion of initial assessments, case plans and formalizing recommendations for   successful completion of the program.  Liaison with clinical service and other program providers is a key component of the incumbents role.  Participants enter this program either by self referral or upon direction/requirement of the board.

Requirements:  LCSW with a minimum of 5 years experience in addictive disorders and/or programming for clinically impaired persons.  Excellence in conducting clinical assessments and in written and verbal communications required.

Application Deadline: June 15, 2004.  Please submit a current resume and letter of interest to the board office.

Board Meeting Dates for 2004

LABSWE falls under the Louisiana Open Meetings Act.  This law specifies that every meeting shall be open to the public, unless the subject of the meeting relates to the character and professional competence of a person, or to the investigation of a complaint or negotiation of litigation.  Compliance Hearings (to ensure people comply with the licensing law) and Disciplinary Hearings (to address public complaints about professional practice) fall under the open meeting law.  The schedule for each LABSWE meeting is posted 24 hours ahead of the scheduled meeting.  Any member of the public who wishes to address the board may submit a request in writing at least 24 hours before a public meeting to be included on the agenda.  All votes are public, as are all minutes of the meeting.  Contact the board office concerning meeting times and locations.

All meetings begin at 9:00 AM and are scheduled to be held in the LABSWE office in Baton Rouge.  Meetings carry over into Saturday if necessary.