Dear Members,

We are praying for everyone affected by the natural disasters. For those who are in the midst of making plane reservations, here is more detailed information on the speakers for our 2017 CSWNA conference (in alphabetical order by speaker). We look forward to seeing you in November. Any questions about the conference, transportation, or hotel accommodations? Call Gracie (703) 477-3058.

Title: A Catholic Approach to the Clinical Treatment of Trauma and Addictions

Gerry Ken Crete, PhD60 minutes

Synopsis:The purpose of this presentation is to explore the principles, concepts and treatment of trauma and addictions as they relate to working with Catholic populations. Special attention will be made to marriage and family life, family systems, family relations, and family development. This presentation will explore specific Catholic-based interventions and approaches.

Learning Objectives:

Attendees will:

  1. Identify specific issues related to the treatment of trauma and addictions when working with Catholic populations
  2. Identify key principles that guide a Catholic approach to the treatment of trauma and addictions
  3. Explore Catholic spiritual interventions that can be integrated with existing approaches (e.g. CBT and EMDR) and used in the treatment of trauma and addictions
  4. Discuss ethical considerations related to the integration of Catholic approaches

Bio: Dr. Gerry Ken Crete earned his Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision with a specialty in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Georgia. He is licensed as a Professional Counselor and Marriage and Family Therapist with additional certifications in treating trauma (EMDR) and sexual addiction (CCSAS). He is currently the Clinical Director at Holy Family Counseling Center in Duluth, Georgia and is an AAMFT clinical fellow and supervisor. He is also an Assistant Professor in the Mental Health Counseling Department at Argosy University’s College of Counseling, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences.

Dr. Crete is committed to the integration of Catholic spirituality with evidence based mental health interventions. His research has focused on resilience of male survivors of childhood trauma. He helps facilitate diocesan retreats for male survivors of childhood abuse in Atlanta and he runs a therapy group for men with sexual addictions.

Title: The Role of “Data + Catholic Social Work” in Shaping the Policy Discourse on the Future Human Capital Prospects of Children

Pat Fagan, PhD90 minutes

Synopsis: The Catholic faith holds that the end of marriage is the procreation of children. The millennia old, natural law, assumption that procreation of children takes place within marriage no longer holds in the post-Christian US. However, its rationale is universally upheld in US federal data. However, our secular culture and our legal culture ignore this and hold otherwise, and this change affects Catholics -- professionals and clients -- as well as everyone else. The life-chances of children are much affected. For inner city poor, but increasingly for working and middle-class children, the weakening of human capital holds -intergenerationally. Despite wide-spread avoidance, all the data, all the time, on all measures, illustrate the effects of being raised outside of marriage and point to the harming of children, most tellingly in the rates of abuse. Furthermore, whenever measured, the harm to children is exacerbated the more that weekly church attendance is neglected.

Learning objectives:

1.The participant will be able to identify the empirical links between the lifelong marriage of the biological parents, frequent worship and optimum child well-being.

2.The participant will be able to articulate the problems of conducting virtue discourse (“Is” vs “Ought”) in welfare policy.

3.The participant will be able to identify the implications for the future human capital of children arising from the significant limitations of this discourse.

Bio: Dr. Pat Fagan has been a grade school teacher, a therapist specializing in child, family and marital issues, executive director of a small think tank, a Senate staffer, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Family and Social Policy at HHS under President George Herbert Bush, a Senior Fellow of Family and Culture at the Heritage Foundation, and is now Director of the Marriage and Religion Research Initiative at The Catholic University of America. The thread of continuity throughout has been a pursuit of ways to help the family thrive. He is publisher and editor of Marripedia.org, and the weekly Faith and Family Findings, has authored over thirty synthesis papers and has commissioned from others dozens of original research projects in marriage, family, child development and religious practice. He and his wife Theresa have eight children and twelve grandchildren.

Title: Creating Caring Organizations

Ken Flanagan, PhD 90 minutes

Synopsis:Organizational leaders are increasingly being confronted with multiple demands. Those charged with ensuring a healthy work environment can neglect tending to the caring dimension of organizations. This workshop will examine characteristics of caring organizations and provide strategies to enhance the caring aspect of organizational operations incorporating a faith perspective.This workshop will examine characteristics associated with caring organizations, identify what types of leadership is needed to engage staff in creating a caring organization and provide concrete strategies to enhance the caring aspect of organizational operations.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this workshop participants will be able to:

  1. Define what is meant by a caring organization and identify characteristics associated with them.
  2. Understand the concepts of organizational healing, empathy and power and how they apply to the development of caring organizations.
  3. Describe strategies that will allow participants to assess and enhance the level of caring in their respective organizations.
  4. Understand how Christian faith principles can be incorporated into organizational practices to enhance the promotion of caring organizations.

Bio: Kenneth Flanagan, Ph.D. is currently an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of North Dakota and serves as the BSSW Program Director and Coordinator of the Gerontology Minor. He has over 30 years of professional social work experience. Prior to his present position he was Director of Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Gary and has held numerous administrative and clinical positions in the health and human services field. His areas of research interests are gerontology, spirituality and practice, entrepreneurial social work and implementation science. He received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. He and his wife had been actively involved with Marriage & Family Life Office in the Diocese of Columbus presenting on a range of issues related to marriage relationship enhancement, parenting and marriage and society.

Title:“Go in peace to love and serve the Lord”: Macro Practice for Catholic Social WorkersDavid Kondrat, MSW, PhD 45 minutes

Synopsis: As Catholics social workers, we are called to live a life serving the Lord by helping others and creating a just society. With deep partisan divides that separate members of our Church and citizens of our country, little progress has been made at promoting life. We need to find ways to come together and fight for life. This presentation will focus on the multiple ways that Catholic social workers can engage secular society in a way that advances life and describe how Catholic Social Workers can create macro interventions and policies that are in keeping with the totality of Catholic Doctrine. This presentation will cover a host of topics including: the right to life, death penalty, poverty, immigration, international social development, human trafficking, environmental degradation, and racial justice.

Learning Objectives:

1.Participants will understand the breadth Understand Catholic Social Teaching, which focuses on life.

2.Participants will grow in understanding of how the Church empowers social workers to work for life.

3.Participants will develop an appreciation for Catholic, social work, macro practice

Bio: Dr. David C. Kondrat is an associate professor at Indiana University. Dr. Kondrat is a life-long Catholic who sees social work as one of his two vocations(the other being a father). His research interests include ending the stigma of mental illness and expanding social workers’ engagement in macro practice. He sees his research as an extension of the Church’s call toward creating a justice society, centered on the right to life.

Title: Prudential Consent to Treatment: Guiding Patients and Families To Make Ethical Health Care Decisions

Andrew S. Kubick, MA 90 minutes1.5 ceus in ethics

Synopsis: This presentation will focus on ordinary and extraordinary means of preserving life, specifically its study through modern history and its prudential application in a clinical setting. The US Bishops’ Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services and the Prudential Consent to Treatment Tool will be discussed. The presentation will conclude with participants forming small groups to evaluate ordinary and extraordinary means of preserving life in various case studies.

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will familiarize themselves with the rich Catholic moral tradition concerning ordinary and extraordinary means of preserving life.

2. Participants will appraise theEthical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services,specifically articles 32 and 56-59, and the Prudential Consent to Treatment Tool.

3. Participants will apply the content of the presentation and their professional/personal experiences to various case studies thereby demonstrating comprehension of the content.

Bio:Andrew Kubick holds aBachelor’sdegree from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania in Education as well as both a Master’s degree and a Post Master’s Certificate from Holy Apostles College & Seminary in Theology, concentrating in Bioethics. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Bioethics at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum.

Andrew is a teacher of bioethics and religion at Saint John Paul the Great Catholic High School and serves as a research associate to Fr. Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, OP, Ph.D., S.T.D.. He has published essays in Ethics & Medics and the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly and has presented scholarly work at the Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity’s annual conference and the Catholic Medical Association’s annual education conference.

Title: Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child: Helping Faithful Parents Discipline Without Violence

Sister Salvatrice Murphy, DC, LCSW-C and Kristina Gibson 45 minutes

Synopsis: With reference to current events, this workshop examines cultural norms for the discipline of children and the challenges of working with parents who are accustomed to harsh discipline strategies. Participants will reflect on Scripture passages about discipline and the role that a parent’s faith plays in determining how the parent disciplines.

Learning objectives:

  1. The participants will become familiar with current events that exemplify cultural norms about discipline.
  1. The participants will be able to identify three primary styles of parenting.
  1. The participants will be able to identify benefits of alternatives to violence and how to address the main causes of resistance among parents.
  1. The participants will be able to identify and reflect upon relevant Scripture passages.
  1. The participants will gain practical tools for engaging parents in learning and using non-violent discipline.

Bios: Sister Salvatrice Murphy, DC is a clinical social worker with Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans. She earned her BA in Religion and Social Work at the Catholic University of America (CUA). After completing a year of volunteer service at HogarInfantil orphanage in Mexico, she earned her MSW at CUA. She spent six years with Boys Town of Washington, DC where she worked as a therapeutic consultant and trainer for parents fostering children with emotional and behavioral challenges. After joining the Daughters of Charity, Sister Salvatrice ran Seton Center outreach programs in Emmitsburg, MD. In 2013, she was missioned to Louisiana where she currently serves as the Family Resources Coordinator for Isaiah 43 parenting and mentoring programs.

Kristina Gibson is the Director of the Isaiah 43 programs at Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans, a special initiative of Archbishop Gregory Aymond. Under her direction, Isaiah 43 has implemented faith-based parenting and mentoring support programs in multiple parishes throughout the Archdiocese. She earned her MS in Health Care Management from Xavier University and has worked in the human services field serving children, youth, and families for over 13 years. Kristina has also been a contributor with Active Parenting Publishers in the development of the Christian Active Parenting series.

Title: Who We Are: Restoring a Sense of Ministry to Our Care of Others

Mark Rohlena, JD 1 hour

Synopsis: The Catholic Church’s exercise of charity is “one of her essential activities, along with the administration of the sacraments and the proclamation of the word: love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind, is as essential to her as the ministry of the sacraments and preaching of the Gospel. The Church “cannot neglect the service of charity any more than she can neglect the Sacraments and the Word” (Deus Caritas Est,no. 22). Somehow, this work in the name of our faith, and on behalf of those most in need, has come to be regarded as something else in modern society – simply nonprofit work, mere business, etc. Core to the identity of the Christian, and his or her hope for salvation, is a deep calling to the heart-to-heart encounters that come through the exercise of charity. For Catholic charitable enterprises in general and for Catholics working for secular organizations but living out their Gospel call to charity as their livelihood, a reminder that our activities are rooted in ministry and are part of our very identity is critical to how we approach our work. This presentation will briefly explore: teaching concerning Catholic ministry for those most in need; current perceptions of and challenges to living out this gospel call; and a sense that Catholic social workers can engage in useful ways in this new environment on many levels.

Learning objectives:

1. Participants will learn more about the historical and theological roots for their work for those most in need.

2. Participants will learn more about modern attitudes toward the Church’s ministry for the poor, and how these attitudes are misaligned with the Church’s teaching which animates its work.

3. Participants will hear practical strategies for addressing challenges to their work, as well as explore areas of possible engagement – individual and community, structural and political.

Bio: Mark Rohlena is the Director of the Office of Domestic Social Development in the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He serves as a resource to the bishops on domestic social policy, and works to advance Catholic social teaching in federal policymaking on a host of issues. He regularly speaks and writes on these matters. Before joining the USCCB, Rohlena served as the President and CEO of Catholic Charities of Central Colorado in the Diocese of Colorado Springs, CO. He is an attorney who previously practiced in the area of legal ethics. Rohlena lives in Virginia with his wife Danielle and their six children.

Title: Developmental Outcomes with Same-Sex Parents: The Irreplaceable Advantage of Heterosexual Marriage

Fr. Paul Sullins90 minutes

Synopsis: The question of whether same-sex parenting harms children is at the center of two fundamental cultural debates: 1) whether marriage is essentially related to sexuality, and 2) whether children’s needs and rights, or parents' needs and rights, are more important. The Catholic faith holds that sex is essential to marriage, and children's needs come before parents'; today's elite secular and legal culture holds otherwise.Despite ideological claims of an overwhelming research consensus of over 70 studies favoring no child disadvantage with same-sex parents, when we demand a genuine random sample, only 3 questionable studies remain, while a larger number of strong studies reveal emotional and developmental problems for such children.Three possible causes of the harm observed are: 1) the parenting or partnership arrangements involved, 2) homosexual orientation as distinct from partnership, and 3) the array of gender distinctions that come with same-sex parent families.By rejecting a false consciousness that devalues sex and flattens gender, we are able to explore how the gender differences involved in same-sex parenting powerfully shape child well-being, illustrating how men and women are, in fundamental ways, made for each other, and jointly provide the best possible context for children to flourish.

Learning objectives:

1. The student will be able to articulate the difference between the Catholic definition of marriage and the current legal definition, or broad cultural understanding, of marriage.

2. The student will be able to identify the two major flaws in the research that denies any child harm with same-sex parents.

3. The student will be able to explain the theoretical and empirical links between lifelong heterosexual marriage and optimum child well-being.