Louisville Courier-Journal Headline Inaccurate
Jeers to the Louisville Courier-Journal for using the inaccurate headline “The brutal death of Amy Dye: Kentucky social workers ignored months of abuse, records show” on this article.
The article says state social service officials ignored abuse and neglect reports concerning nine-year-old Amy, who was allegedly killed by her 17-year-old cousin.
Officials at the NASW Kentucky Chapter said caseworkers — not social workers — handled Amy’s case. The chapter is asking the newspaper to retract the headline.
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This is another example of Social Workers being blamed and held in a bad light by the public. The Social Work community faces many problems and concerns; this is one of the most damning–that so many people who are not trained and not licensed nor supervised in their activities–are doing essentially social work–without a license. Why is the Social Work Board not addressing this huge and damaging problem–damaging to the public and to the Social Work Profession.
I am the executive director of the Kentucky Chapter of NASW and I contacted the reporter. Her response to me was that she did not agree in the differentiating of titles because it was confusing to the public and that my issue was broader than terminology. I sent her a response informing her of the Social Work Practice Act in Kentucky and that the issue begins with terminology. She was very demeaning of social workers and it is now clear that we are fighting the media moreso than legislators. We are using this to contact everyone we know and try to get the word out. An educational campaign will be in the future.
I’m very grateful to my WA State Legislature for making Social Worker a professional title that can only be used by those with a BSW or MSW from an accredited social work school, as well as having a level of social work licensure. Kudos to the Kentucky NASW for asking the newspaper to correct the headline.