Whistle-Blower #9

    About ten social services directors of the various cities and counties in Tidewater Virginia (southeast Virginia) were having a bi-monthly meeting. At one point, we all had lunch at one table. Paula Kreschin, the State Regional Director, was not there. None of her minions were either. So we local directors felt more freedom to be practical. We handled social services; the state employees - Paula and her minions- pontificated from the clouds how we locals, we practitioners, should handle social services. Maybe I should say I felt more free to be practical. Betty Copland was not there either.
    Betty's use of her social workers to give therapy (and not to know who their foster children were in the meantime) was attracting great recognition. Mary Quinn Sale-Gunther had partnered with a gentleman from Colorado to give several days of training in the family therapy techniques they had learned from Salvador Minuchin at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic and were being practiced by the social workers at York County Social Services. Mary Quinn and her partner from Colorado had started their own business teaching these techniques. I went over to York County to see Mary Quinn train the York County Social Workers and later my agency paid several hundred dollars so I could attend the two days of formal training offered by Mary Quinn's business. The training was riveting. Besides that, many of the people attending the training were very worried about lack of confidentiality for the U.S. Navy officers shown in the training films. Peter Nickerson, MS. MSW. Former Director, Williamsburg (Virginia) Social Services Bureau.