Social Work Program
Greater Boston Legal Services - 030186
Abstract Number: 030186
November 2003
Greater Boston Legal Services launched a social work program to provide clients with access to social work services while also receiving legal assistance from GBLS. GBLS established the Social Work Program by offering internships to Boston University School of Social Work graduate students and placing them in GBLS' Welfare Law Unit (WLU) to provide social services to clients referred internally through the WLU. GBLS typically uses two graduate students at a time who work 16 hours per week during the academic year. The social work students are supervised by the GBLS lawyer or paralegal who is handling the client's case and by a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) who works part-time for GBLS.
The social work interns provide a wide range of direct services to clients including work needed as part of his/her welfare case which includes gathering information about a client's disability and ensuring a client is able to access service providers as well as education and job training programs. If a client needs assistance in locating a mental health provider, social work interns would aid the client in accessing an appropriate provider as well as help make any needed changes in health insurance to ensure the client would not be denied services. Social work interns would also assist in resolving issues that are not at all related to their case such as ensuring that a client's utilities are not shut off. Social work interns only provide assistance to clients who have ongoing cases with the WLU.
GBLS's social work program has impacted GBLS as a whole and it is now better equipped to accommodate the holistic needs of many clients, especially clients with mental health problems. GBLS' LICSW has given program wide trainings to GBLS staff members as well as to local homeless shelters to provide guidance and information on how staff can best meet the needs of these clients. In addition to training staff and supervising the social work interns, GBLS' LICSW also makes herself available for individual consultations with advocates who have questions regarding the individual needs of specific clients.
For programs interested in implementing a social work program, GBLS has gone to great lengths to ensure their clients are aware of the differing professional standards of confidentiality required of GBLS attorneys and of GBLS social workers. Specifically, social workers are mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect to the Massachusetts Department of Social Services. To inform their clients of these requirements, GBLS developed a social work retainer which details confidentiality issues and nature of services that will be provided to the client by the social work interns. GBLS also trained WLU staff and social work interns on how to discuss these issues with clients as well as developed a protocol in the event that a social work intern has concerns about a possible situation of abuse or neglect. To learn more about this project, access the GBLS' project description, "Social Work Retainer Agreement", and the "Protocol for Providing Social Work Services to GBLS Clients" below as PDF documents.
Contact Information:
Sarah Levy
Greater Boston Legal Services
197 Friend Street
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: (617) 603-1619
slevy@gbls.org
Additional Information:
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