Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Martha Larson, Primary Care Social Worker at NYC Health and Hospitals
2:44:07
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97 sec
Martha Larson, a primary care social worker at NYC Health and Hospitals, testified about the needs of social workers in the city hospital system and their union's contract demands. She emphasized the importance of addressing social worker turnover and retention issues.
- Highlighted the need for increased longevity differentials and new licensing differentials for clinical social work licenses
- Advocated for a language differential for bilingual staff to improve recruitment and retention of social workers who speak patients' languages
- Stressed the importance of these measures to retain quality workers and prevent them from seeking employment elsewhere
Martha Larson
2:44:07
Hi, I'm Martha.
2:44:09
I'm a primary care social worker Hospital.
2:44:13
I've been here for five years.
2:44:16
I'm here because I'm active in my union, local TC37, local seven sixty eight, and I wanna talk about some of the needs of the members of my local.
2:44:25
I also want to speak to some of the things that we're hoping to get in our contract, just like Whitney was talking about.
2:44:32
We did a survey of the membership last year and we found that the most important economic demands for members are for longevity and licensing differentials.
2:44:40
City hospital social worker turnover is a problem, and certain areas struggle more than others with retention.
2:44:46
We need ongoing differentials for longevity.
2:44:49
We do currently have them in our contract, but they're low, so we need to match inflation.
2:44:54
And we need differentials for licensing, something that, Whitney was talking about.
2:44:59
There's currently no differential for people to get their clinical social work license, which takes time and money to prepare for.
2:45:06
And city hospitals are now billing more for social work services.
2:45:09
It's really important to retain quality workers.
2:45:12
Otherwise, social workers will go work elsewhere.
2:45:16
I also want to speak to, demand for a language differential.
2:45:20
As you all know, we see a very diverse population that speak many different languages.
2:45:25
Currently bilingual staff do not get any salary differential and bilingual social workers are often given differentials in different places, you know, other jobs.
2:45:37
So it'd be hard to recruit and retain social workers that speak languages that our patients speak.
2:45:43
Thank you so much.