Alumni All-Star: Brenda Graves-Croom, MSW, LSW Journey

Brenda Graves-Croom, MSW, LSW

Family & Social Services Administration, Division of Mental Health & Addiction (DMHA) and Private Practice 2019, IUSSW Mental Health & Addiction Graduate

Both my mother and aunt are social workers (LCSWs), and when I heard them talk about their work challenges I would say that I couldn’t ever become a social worker. I didn’t think that I was capable. But, then I became interested in therapy through my work as a bilingual community health worker implementing the Bienvenido program, a mental health wellness curriculum for Spanish-speaking immigrants. I started three Bienvenido support groups for Mexican immigrants. It was successful, and I really enjoyed it. I found my niche. Then, I had a conversation with a social worker about my interest in social work, and he told me that I was already doing social work! He said I just needed to get a social work degree so that it could be official! At the same time, I was struggling to know how to support immediate family members with serious mental illnesses, and one family member who had attempted more than once to take their life by suicide.

Since acquiring my social work degree, I have used my degree in many different ways on micro, mezzo, and macro levels. I utilize social work values, ethics, and social justice principles to help determine where I stand and how to address social problems. For example, I stand for marginalized and oppressed people in my State position and as a private practitioner. In my State position, I utilize and promote social work theories, frameworks, best practices, and culturally adapted evidence-based practices in trainings and education that I coordinate for providers. I coordinate and collaborate with community partners, represent DMHA on committees and councils, and promote cultural competency/cultural humility and data in addressing disparities. In my private practice, I also use many of the previously mentioned resources, and I utilize strengths-based perspective and trauma-informed care in assisting with substance use disorder and mental/behavioral health recovery. I have found that the benefits of our profession are based on how well organized politically we are as a profession, how compassionate and passionate we are as a profession, and the inclusive culture that we have created in our profession.

My accomplishments so far for my State position include over 100 trainings I have conducted across the State. I have been able to influence opinions on social determinants of health like bias, racism and other –Ism’s, and poverty. As a private practitioner, I have helped clients to reduce traumatic stress, cope, and adjust to whatever difficulties they are experiencing in life and to learn strategies for change and self-growth. I have assisted Hispanic/Latino/x immigrant women, youth and adolescents who have experienced trauma and adjustment difficulties.

A challenge in our profession I think is that most social workers strive for cultural competency and cultural humility, but I’m not sure if many know how to truly operationalize them in their work. In addition, I’m not sure if social work policy makers and social work educators really know how to operationalize principles of race equity (racial/ethnic) and antiracist, intersectional frameworks. Not that I’m an expert, but I strive to always learn more and grow and apply what I do know.

Here are some words of wisdom to my fellow and aspiring social workers, as we react to stressors such as toxic political rhetoric, the pandemic, racial injustice and more common stressors in life. It’s important to acknowledge how we react and to gauge our “emotional inflammation” (an expression coined by authors, L.V. Susteren and S. Colino). We need to find ways to counteract the effects of emotional inflammation with self-care that is in proportion to the amount of emotional inflammation we are experiencing. The more emotional inflammation we experience, the more self-care we need.

Favorite Humorous Quote from my Dad:
Be good. If you can’t be good, be careful. If you can’t be careful, watch out!