Dear Dr. Shane:

Your article, “Board Favors Bylaw Change Extending Membership to CNMCT Graduates”, which appeared in the Newsletter (Summer 1988), has just come to my attention.

In this regard I wish to clarify some distortions about clinical social workers. To begin with, the highest clinical degree for social worker is not at the master's level. I, like many other clinical social workers, hold a Ph.D. in Clinical Social Work. While it has been true in the past most doctorate level social work degrees were in administration, education, and research, that is not the case today and hasn't been for some years. Not only are doctorate level clinical social work programs offered in schools of social work, but there are at least two institutions that I know of which only offer clinical doctorate degrees in social work. They are the California and the Illinois Institutes for Clinical Social Work.

Furthermore, master's level clinical programs are usually 60-credit, two-year graduate programs, seldom 18 months, as you have stated. Those schools that offer an 18-month program have the student in training continuously for that period of time. Thus it is equivalent to a four-semester (two-year), 60-credit program. Therefore, your remark that, “To receive a master's degree in social work often requires only 18 months of formal education …”, is inaccurate and misleading.

Sincerely,

Louis C. Mone, Ph.D.

Sacramento, California