BayLegal Interview Series: Our Social Work Team
At BayLegal, our holistic advocacy model—one that accounts for the legal, medical, civil, and behavioral services necessary to secure safety and stability—demands that we view each client as a whole human, beyond the reductive scope of a legal problem. Given the importance of this approach, our firm has incorporated a team of social workers to embody and enact that service model, and we have committed to finding ways to increase social work staffing and resources within the firm. Social workers bring an invaluable perspective to bear on our work, and on the array of social and legal systems that present major barriers to the health and well-being of the communities we serve.
The dedicated advocacy that social workers perform for our clients illuminates the importance of incorporating clinical and trauma-informed expertise to our practice. Social workers help to unpack the multitude of issues—homelessness, trauma, threats to safety, behavioral health, service disconnection—that can obscure the ability of a client to address the legal issue(s) at hand. They effectively engage clients in crisis, helping them to identify goals for safety and stability, and helping them to remain connected throughout what can often be a prolonged legal process, increasing its likelihood of success. They help clients to effectively use their BayLegal attorney and other resources to achieve their goals.
BayLegal social workers Christian Henricksen, Ursula Hill, and Carrie Banks
The beginning of BayLegal’s social work program
BayLegal’s social work program began in 2015, to address the interplay of legal and non-legal needs in our clients’ lives. It was initially spearheaded by Linnea Forsythe (now the New Mexico state ombudsman for long-term care), who recognized that the incorporation of social workers would enhance BayLegal’s service model and help to provide support at all levels of this very difficult work. Linnea explained that she did not arrive at this recognition alone. It is apparent within the organization, and within the legal aid community at large, that anti-poverty lawyers can “end up playing the role of case manager and counselor.”
“There are non-legal things that we do for our clients out of necessity,” Linnea said, explaining that the response to a client’s legal need is inextricably linked to the non-legal facets of their life. That is where the interdisciplinary partnership between social workers and attorneys blossoms. For example, the partnership has been effective within BayLegal’s Youth Justice practice, she explained, because that unit works with youth who have been failed by so many facets of society—from the foster care system, to the juvenile justice system, to their own families—at an especially formative time in their lives. BayLegal attorneys and social workers collaborate to petition on behalf of those clients to get them the care and protections they need.
Linnea, who worked as a social worker in the Youth Justice unit before her move to New Mexico, said that her work to empower youth was about, “One, understanding [the client] had a legal need and, two, connecting with a lawyer to get them the information they needed to know and, three, getting things in order for them so they were organized enough—by helping them to find time in their very busy and chaotic lives—to make the appointments they needed. That required the assistance of a social worker, someone with a clinical background, to help the youth figure out where they could stay for the night, to help them find shelter, food, and transport. So there is that case management piece, but also it’s about recognizing that even someone who doesn’t have a mental health disability could be experiencing normal reactions to their situation—grief, trauma, depression, anxiety—and social workers can help them work through those feelings.”
BayLegal’s current social work team consists of three social workers: Christian Henricksen, who works with the regional Youth Unit; Ursula Hill, who works in the Housing Preservation Unit in San Francisco; and Carrie Banks, who works in the SSI Unit in San Francisco (a branch of our Economic Justice Unit).
Christian Henricksen on youth empowerment
Christian who joined BayLegal in 2017, explained that BayLegal’s Youth Justice Unit works with clients who are surviving and working through a mix of profound legal and non-legal challenges: “Some of their greatest challenges are extreme poverty, barriers to access, being young and not having the support of adults that can make a difference. Most clients have been victimized from an early age and have endured a laundry list of abuse including sexual exploitation and trafficking. That comes with incarceration, which can lead to all sorts of other traumatic experiences, with law enforcement, housing placements, staff in different juvenile facilities, and very long histories of complex trauma throughout their young lives.”
Christian explained that his social work advocacy with young people often lies outside of the legal system and helps to make the legal outcome successful. It involves “education with partner agencies when it’s possible, explaining why this young person might be reacting a certain way. It can be tricky, for example, if the youth is in a housing program and they don’t want to be there. We can hear their story and try to have another voice in the room when a youth is complaining about how they’re being treated. It’s about having another witness, lending legitimacy to what they’re saying, letting the attorneys know what’s going on. Sometimes we [the attorney and the social worker] don’t get the full story [from the client], and when we come together we get the entire view of what might have happened.”
Christian explained that, sometimes, “social work advocacy is raising awareness of legitimate safety concerns that people might be taking lightly. That can be one of the most important things we do, because social workers and therapists are trained in safety assessments and safety planning, and we can make sure people understand how serious some of these life circumstances can be. We want to be sure that anybody working with one of our clients outside of our doors are taking all the steps they can to keep the youth safe—that’s anywhere the youth is spending their time, from the youth center, to the job site, to the housing program.” Christian explained that social work advocacy can be especially helpful for youth entering independent living placements under extended foster care, because “that program contains rules and restrictions that kids haven’t had to deal with,” he said. “They go into these more restricted settings that appear to be their own apartment but are actually a housing program, and they can struggle with a lot of the things that come with that.”
He recalled one former client who was resistant to getting help at first, but knew she needed assistance with social security benefits and extended foster care. “When it was first proposed to her to have a social worker, she said yes, but that she wasn’t going to trust anyone she talked to,” Christian recounted. “She had had a long history of ACE [adverse childhood experiences], had been in foster care from a pretty young age, had been eligible for extended foster care but never placed. Through tag-teaming between myself and BayLegal we got her placed. She had never experienced getting her own place in her whole life at that point. She kind of couldn’t believe it was happening. She could be a challenge to work with, had a pretty quick temper with all the people she knew. But she treated us like she treated her family and friends, so that’s how we knew we were in with her. I remember she couldn’t believe that something she had been working for came to fruition.”
Ursula Hill on understanding and addressing housing instability
Ursula, who works within the San Francisco housing team, explains that the close collaboration between herself and the attorneys in her unit means that, sometimes, it can be hard to tell where social work ends and lawyering begins. “I think that we [social workers and attorneys] are both really passionate about helping people and about social justice and about people having rights that they should be able to enjoy. We all think that people should have housing! But I think that we see different elements of those things, so I think that collaboration broadens our lens about what someone deserves and what’s realistic for them, and what we can do for them.”
Ursula recalled that she recently attended a court hearing with a BayLegal attorney on behalf of a client who had been threatened with eviction because of habitability issues and excessive belongings in the apartment. In court, the attorney asked opposing counsel for time to consult Ursula about the terms of the settlement, to assess whether they were reasonable for the client. “Opposing counsel wanted our client to agree to a quick clean-out plan,” Ursula explained. “But our attorney stopped and said, ‘I have someone on the team who helps clients with clean-outs all the time, and I have a feeling she’s going to say that coordinating clean-out services in two weeks is not realistic.’ So it’s helpful to have someone with different expertise and experience.”
Like Christian, Ursula works to educate community partners about the needs of our clients, and to remind stakeholders of the larger social forces and barriers at play in their lives. For example, “we’ve learned that a huge number of clients in public housing have some sort of past due rent,” she said. “One of the things I’ve been working on… is changing the way we talk to outside stakeholders about why our clients are not paying rent, by explaining that they are choosing between paying rent and buying food, keeping their phone turned on, getting clothing for their children, or paying aggressive creditors. I’m explaining that they don’t just ‘not want to pay rent.’” Ursula said that she also turns the tables on herself to understand the “how and why” with our clients, in order to help them find services: “For example, I’ve been working with one family who was behind on rent and found that they spend a big chunk of their monthly budget on Ubers and Lyfts to get to medical appointments. I’ve worked on connecting them to paratransit so they can get to their doctors’ offices without spending rent money on transportation.”
Carrie Banks on homelessness intervention through SSI
Carrie explained that, in the San Francisco Economic Justice Unit, lawyers and social workers “intersect because we all believe that people are entitled to healthcare and a basic income, and without this healthcare they’re not going to be able to make their case for social security.” By serving as an empathic link to services, Carrie plays an important role in getting people connected to social security benefits and healthcare services. She is quick to note that “the clients are the ones doing the work in the end,” because the long bureaucratic process to get benefits can be an endurance test—especially for people who are unsheltered or living in unstable housing.
She explained, “For people who are homeless, it’s a lot to have to go into a tiny doctor’s exam room and follow up and talk about your health or why you’re homeless. I help the client to get through the process by building rapport and checking in with them every week, or every other week. I let people know that we’re working on their case. For some people, it’s the first relationship they’ve had with someone for a long time within a system, and the first time they’ve started to trust someone in a system. Some people might have lived in the park for 20 years, and they’re doing fine, but they never got benefits or never thought about getting social security and moving into a navigation center. But not everyone wants that stuff…. I remind people that I’m here to support them, that I’m not forcing them to have a case manager.”
Carrie recently worked with one client, “Rachel,” who had been homeless for 14 years before moving into housing in San Francisco. When she was referred to BayLegal she had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. She had been avoiding a biopsy that would help diagnose the stage of her cancer because she was afraid of the biopsy needle. Carrie accompanied Rachel to her medical appointment and successfully advocated with Rachel for an alternate test. She accompanied Rachel to various scans and tests so that her medical providers could determine the severity of her cancer and treatment regimen. Rachel was eventually diagnosed with stage four breast cancer, after which her BayLegal attorney requested that Social Security expedite her claim.
Carrie developed a collaborative relationship with Rachel’s case manager at the navigation center and the SFGH Patient Navigator so that they could all coordinate outreach and support, and help Rachel manage her appointments and chemotherapy. Carrie successfully advocated for Rachel to be given taxi vouchers to go to chemotherapy and for a visiting home health nurse because Rachel was confusing her medications, which led to a hospitalization. Carrie eventually helped Rachel to receive permanent supportive housing, which she received the same month that her Social Security application was granted.
The advocacy performed by our social work team reminds us of the power of partnership, and that partnership is especially powerful when used, in the words of Linnea, “to tackle really difficult issues like poverty and trauma.” “We can’t work in silos,” Linnea says. “We can’t work in isolation.” Working across disciplines has such an impact on our cases, she explains, because “it brings not only a different skillset and companionship, but it helps you to see things in a different way. I think we are better for it, and our clients are better served for it.”
Perspectives on working through the COVID-19 crisis
We asked our social workers to provide their perspectives on their work during this time of deepening public health and economic crisis. The answers they offered were so thoughtful and gracious, and so representative of the collaborative spirit that is essential to our work, that we offer them to you below (condensed and edited):
Ursula: This is a really challenging time. As in any big crisis, the people who are hardest hit are the people who are already struggling the most and our clients are among them. We are working with many people who have lost their jobs in the past few weeks and are worried about how they’ll pay their rent in the next months. We are working with people who need to see a doctor, and can’t because appointments have been postponed; we are working with people who may not necessarily be safe in their homes, so sheltering there may be increasing their risk of danger; we are working with people who depend on school for more than education (school meals, access to technology). There are so many challenges people are facing immediately. I think it’s also a scary time for the future—both the fear of becoming ill and a fear that comes with the uncertainty about the long-term impact of a huge health crisis and how we handle it.
Regarding caring for clients, I’m trying to still provide as much normal service as possible. This has meant talking with people on the phone and by text. It has meant reassuring, educating, reminding them about staying at home and washing hands, and connecting them with some of the other services that are running, either remotely like ours, or places like food pantries that are still providing in-person services. I’m hoping that phone check-ins help people feel connected and cared for.
Carrie: It’s hard not to stop thinking about our clients who are homeless, living outside or isolated in Single Room Occupancy Units, or living in navigation centers and shelters. And it’s hard not to stop thinking of those who experience serious behavioral health issues and may not know what is happening. I am contacting our clients by both phone and text to ensure they know our offices are closed, but we continue to work on their cases. I remind clients to call or text with any problems as well as problems with their General Assistance, CalFesh or Medi-Cal and am providing information about changes in certification for benefits. Clients are appreciative for the calls and take time to talk about their feelings and concerns for their safety and those around them.
Our clients’ needs have not changed since the Pandemic, they have increased. Clients are more isolated, trying to get by on the little money they have and managing decreased support services, shortages of food and chronic housing shortages. This week I have worked on moving clients into housing, restoring people’s benefits, linking people to healthcare, talking with their healthcare providers to ensure medications refills are ordered, and rescheduling appointments.
We are keeping on top of all the moving parts: changes in the courts, hearings, benefits and resources. Everyone is sending out notices about changes in systems and writing advocacy letters. BayLegal has been working hard and with patience to work remotely. Everyone is so supportive and kind, offering advice on setting up our remote work stations and understanding that everything is not going to work right away. I feel very supported by my team right now. We meet via video conference call weekly, which is a great way to see each other, have a few laughs and work on our clients’ goals.
The social work team is hoping to expand our services to help all the units at Bay Legal during this crisis. We realize that many clients will benefit from links to new food resources, information about their benefits and help with calling local government agencies if they experience reductions in their benefits and more. We hope we can be a meaningful and critical part of our agency to help clients and staff get through this together.
Christian: I echo what my colleagues have said (and stated far better than I could). I’m still able to do a little direct service with my active clients but most of it has been limited to text and phone calls. A majority of that contact has been checking in on the day-to-day ability of my clients to cope with uncertainty and the constantly changing information during the pandemic. I’ve had a few clients lose jobs already, but there’s also been one who got a new job just as this was all going down and attended orientation in San Jose last week. She was totally nervous about exposure and I would describe our daily interaction as constant safety planning.
I have tried to maintain a positive outlook with all my interactions while understanding not many of us are feeling super optimistic these days. I hope that I can continue to be a resource for my team in any way possible and I’m looking forward to the ongoing effort of our team to be available to the entire organization.