My brother Joe has now been awarded two separate Lifetime Achievement Awards! The first was from the Virginia chapter of the National Association of Social Workers,. The second, March, 2011, is from VSCSW, The Virginia Society for Clinical Social Work, Inc. In fact, VSCSW has named their award after Joe!

National Association of Social Workers, Virginia chapter

VSCSW - The Virginia Society for Clinical Social Work, Inc.

Here's a picture of Joe with his award, and one of Joe and his wife Trish. [Below is Joe's acceptance speech] Thank you, It is an honor to be selected for this award by my peers. I would like to thank Debra Riggs, executive director, and Kim Kuhn, President of our Chapter and the committee for their support. I would like to recognize the social workers who sent in letters of support and made the effort to pull the packet together to submit my name for the award: Jeffrey Landis Ann Myers JMU, director of the Social Work program. I have taught part time at JMU for 23 years- two courses- Working with Teenagers and Violence in Families-focused on the treatment of the perpetrators of violence. Frances Goddard, former president of VA NASW, Former chair of VBSW and former executive director of ASWB. Bill Russell, former chair of the VBSW and former president of NASW VA. Pat Conklin, former chair of the VBSW and former president of NASW VA. Between Frances, Bill, Pat and myself we represent 29 years of VBSW history. Carolyn Bing and my partners from our practice Newman Avenue Associates. I also want to recognize my family: My wife Trish, LCSW with residential program for CSB. Not able to be here today my son Nathan- who has a job that every one I tell what he does says they want his job- VA state park ranger with New River Trails park near Galax VA. His wife Jamie, an elementary school teacher and mother to my wonderful grandson Brady and about to be mother to a new grandson in July. And my daughter Emily, who is to graduate in May from Emory University in Atlanta, with an MPH, specializing in Global health, specifically HIV AIDS , and is planning to spend the year after she graduates in Rwanda working with a program that has shown great effectiveness in reducing the number of new AIDS cases in married couples where one partner has previously been diagnosed with AIDS. Elsie Price, my mother in law, who is very supportive of me. Helen Hudson, social work colleague of many years from Harrisonburg. One of my first thoughts that came to mind when I was informed about being selected for lifetime achievement award was Wait a minute, I am not done yet! But Debra assured me that receiving the award would not stop NASW from tapping me to be on committees and advocating for social work. I can’t tell you the number of times I have called the chapter office over the years with an idea for a bill on some social work matter, only to find out that I just volunteered for a committee assignment. One of those times was back in the day before we had privileged communication for social work in Virginia. A man was referred to me by DSS having a founded child sexual abuse complaint for molesting his 13 yr old stepdaughter. Early in the initial session the client asked me was everything he said to me kept private. At that point in time the answer to that question was sort of private . I explained my commitment to confidentiality and my code of ethics but if the Court ordered me to talk about him I had to obey the court. He said it was nice to meet you Mr. Lynch but I need to leave now. I said wait is that your final answer, let's call your attorney and see if what his advice is. We called the attorney and the attorney advised my client that if he told me what he had told the attorney he was looking at 5 to 20 years in the state penitentiary and to get out of my office. I thought this is ridiculous, DSS already had a founded complaint, they referred him to me- there ought to be a way for this man to receive services. I called up my House of Delegates representative, Clint Miller and he and I met and he agreed that privilege communication was necessary for social workers. He was willing to patron a bill and asked me to gather support. So I called NASW VA to gather support and- you guessed it- I found out I just volunteered for the legislative committee. This effort was successful and today social work has privileged communication Code of Virginia 8.01-400.2 . After Debra informed me I was to receive the award I began to ponder what are the characteristics that have led me to keep pushing for improvements in the social work profession over all of these years. Two characteristics stand out for me: Persistence and Spirituality. Now my father was from Ireland, and so instead of being labeled persistent, I usually was labeled as stubborn and hard headed. A friend gave me a button one time that said: You can always tell an Irishman, you just can’t tell him much! One of my projects that I have remained stubborn and hard headed about is connected to my recent efforts with the NASW Insurance Trust . This effort has its roots starting in 1986 when I was made chair of the Discipline committee of the VBSW. At first I was a bit perplexed at the number of discipline cases involving social workers violating sexual boundaries with clients. I started reading the literature and going to workshops focused on regulatory boards dealing with social workers who violated boundaries. I found out that sexual boundary violations were the: number one complaint to licensing boards, the number one complaint to the NASW committee on Inquiry, and the number one complaint to malpractice insurance companies. Now if I were to ask all the social workers in this audience to raise your hand if you think it is OK to have any kind of sexual contact or romantic relationship with your current clients- I don’t think anyone would raise their hand. I have asked students, and groups of social workers this question and so far I find 100% no one raises their hand. So I wondered how do we go from 100% of our profession knowing it is unethical to do this behavior to it being our number one complaint.? Somehow we must have not screened or tested well enough to screen out of the profession people who would do this behavior. As I looked closer at the characteristics of those social workers who violate boundaries I was surprised to learn that most of them were not that different than you and I. In a way that was even more frightening. So I began to develop a instrument -a questionnaire- that would ask behaviorally based questions about a social workers practice that might identify those social workers who might be on the “slippery slope” headed toward a boundary violation. So for the last 20 years I have had times where I pull this project out and work on it, put it away for a while and then pull it back out again and again to try to tweak and focus this tool. Frederick Reamer- ethics expert in social work, says that 40% of social work malpractice is preventable. I began to think my tool might help prevent social workers from violating boundaries with clients and help save clients from the trauma of betrayal of trust by social workers. Last year I began discussions with the NASW insurance trust to see if we could find a way to work together to make this tool available to the profession at large and gather some data to help improve the tool even more. We are in the process now and hope when you check the NASW insurance trust web site next year at this time you will see the result of our efforts. In conclusion I want to mention the other important characteristic that has shaped my commitment over the years. That is the spiritual side of my process. All of us have experiences that sharpen our spiritual growth. For me one was September a year ago I was in UVA hospital, undergoing surgery from a UVA Cancer Center thoracic surgeon to remove a large mass and most of my left lung. I believe some miracles happened that day. One is I am alive.. Another is I did not have cancer but a fungal mass that is extremely rare to find in the lung of an immunocompetent person. I did the literature search, three patients since 1965, one in Spain, one in Japan and me. The surgery was to take 3 hours. After 5 hours the surgeon came out to my wife and daughter and reported that he had removed the calcified part of the mass from around my aortic artery but in the process he believed he had severed the nerve endings to my lung and that the lung would not re - inflate. Also he had severed the nerve ending to my vocal chords and I would never speak again. My lung re inflated and as you can tell I am able to speak, to me, two more miracles. I believe God is not done with using my voice to continue to advocate for our social work profession. Thank you.

Joseph George Lynch, LC.S.W. The Lifetime Achievement Award by the Virginia Society for Clinical Social Work Joseph George Lynch, LC.S.W., is a man for all seasons...and for many reasons. He is an ultimate man of conscience, remaining true to his principles under all circumstances at all times. He is a clinical social worker par excellence and a model man: devoted son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, clinician, churchman, entrepreneur, teacher, consultant, author, civic leader, social and political pioneer, volunteer, community activist, minority spokesman, public servant and defender of human rights. FAMILY MAN Joe, as he is affectionately known, is the son of the late Mary Pat and Kevin Lynch, an Irish immigrant to the Harrisonburg, Virginia area, and brother of four siblings, Kevin, Jerry, Mike and Margie. His beloved wife, Trish, children, Nathan and Emily, and grandsons, Brady and Ryan, are the joys of his life. Nathan, a Virginia State Park Ranger, presented the grandsons, for whom Joe hand made red truck and boat shaped beds, respectively. Daughter, Emily, is an International Public Health Administrator, currently serving in Haiti. CHURCHMAN Joe has long been an active member of Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Harrisonburg. He has served on numerous committees and projects and currently serves on the Vestry, the Church leadership body. CLINICIAN As a clinical social worker, Joe has practiced his profession for over 35 years since receiving the Master of Social Work in 1976 from The University of Maryland School of Social Work and Community Planning. Immediately, he entered public service direct practice as outpatient therapist and Director of Crisis Intervention/Outreach Program, Staunton, Virginia. He has remained in continuous direct clinical social work practice, all the while becoming a community leader and social work pioneer. In 1979, moving into the private nonprofit arena, Joe continued as a clinician while serving as Director, Community Counseling Center, Inc., Harrisonburg, Virginia. There he initiated a program for men who batter and coled and adults molested as children group, demonstrating an early commitment to underserved people. ENTREPRENEUR Advancing clinical social work into the free enterprise system, in 1985 Joe cofounded the Shenandoah Valley Sex Offenders Treatment Program, P.C, in Harrisonburg. Concurrently, he formed a solo private practice providing clinical services, training, education and consultation to community groups. In 1996, he was founding partner of Newman Avenue Associates, P.C. in Harrisonburg, a mental health group practice where he currently serves as the treasurer. Joe also is managing partner of a Limited Liability Company that owns the practice property. PUBLIC SERVANT Joe was among the primary movers who achieved Virginia social work licensure and clinical social work vendorship in the 1970's. Later, he served on the Virginia Board of Social Work - the licensing board for the Commonwealth of Virginia, appointed by Governor Gerald L. Baliles June 29,1987, reappointed by Governor Baliles, July 1,1989 and reappointed by Governor L. Douglas Wilder, July 16,1993. He served as Board Chair, 1991-1993 and 1996-1997 and Discipline Committee Chair, 1987-1996. James Madison University - Social Work Advisory Board 1980-1982 First Step: A Response to Domestic Violence, Board of Directors 1981-1984 Chair 1982 National Association of Social Workers, Virginia Chapter, Board of Directors, 1978-1981 Community Mediation Center, Founding member of the Board of Directors, 1981-1982 Citizens Against Sexual Assault (CASA), Founding member of the Board of Directors, 1988-1991, Chair 1990 Human Rights Committee for Harrisonburg Rockingham Community Services Board 1994 To 2002, Chair 1997-2002 Industrial and Commercial Ministers, Board of Directors, 1994 To 2010 Sex Offender Treatment Provider Certification Advisory Committee, Virginia Board of Psychology, Committee member 1996-1997 Eastern Mennonite University, Social Work Advisory Board, 1996-97, 2004-2005 Supreme Court of Virginia Medical Malpractice Review Panel, Appointed 1997 Health Practitioners Intervention Program Intervention Committee, for the Department of Health Professions, Appointed 2003-2010, Chair 2004-2005 State Human Rights Committee, Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, Appointed October 2006-present TEACHER Eastern Mennonite College, Department of Social Work 1979-1983 Instructor (part time) - for introductory practice and continuing education courses. James Madison University, Department of Social Work 1983-2003 Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work- Developed elective courses in: Social Work and the Law, Violence in Families, Working with Adolescents Virginia Commonwealth University 1985 Off Campus faculty instructor (part time) - for introductory course for MSW students in off campus program at James Madison University Mary Baldwin College 1980 Department of Continuing Education and Adult Degree Program (part time). Instructor for course in mediation-conflict resolution. AUTHOR "Vicarious Liability for Social Work Supervisors", Administration in Social Work. Volume 27, Number 2 2003 pp. 57-72 "Social Work Intervention with Sex Offenders", PROFESSIONAL FORUM, published by the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, July 1,1990, Volume 4, #3 "Working with Abusers: A Resource Handbook", Co-author, published by Virginia Department of Social Services 1982. "Group Work in a Hospital Waiting Room", Health and Social Work Journal, August 1979 (4) (3), pp.480-63. LIFFETIME ACHIEVER Joseph George Lynch, L.C.S.W. is the first person granted The Lifetime Achievement Award by the Virginia Society for Clinical Social Work. Hereafter, The Award shall be known as THE JOSEPH GEORGE LYNCH, LC.S.W. LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD and shall be granted from time to time by The Virginia Society for Clinical Social Work to persons recognized by The Society as having made outstanding contributions to human welfare, service to others and advancement of the field of clinical social work. Adopted by the Virginia Society for Clinical Work and affirmed this day, March 26, 2011 by: Peggy S. Holland, L.C.S.W., President