Social Work Excellence Fellowship

Merika Hawes, MSW, LMSW, is the Hemophilia Social Worker at the Augusta University Pediatric Hemophilia Treatment Center at the Children’s Hospital of Georgia in Augusta, Georgia. Since 2021, she has worked with children, teens, and families who have bleeding and clotting disorders. She earned her Master of Social Work degree from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. The “Emergency Preparedness of Bleeding Disorders” research is designed to help patients get ready for natural disasters. It aims to lower anxiety during emergencies, reduce PTSD symptoms after disasters, and decrease depression following natural disasters.

CC is a Hematology Social Worker & Health Equity Specialist at the Utah Center for Bleeding and Clotting Disorders at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, UT. She works primarily with children and adolescents with bleeding disorders, and she has a special interest in the sickle cell disease population. In May 2024, CC obtained a master's degree in both Social Work and Public Health from the University of Utah. In her current position, she is looking to strengthen her clinical skills, learn about her patients' needs, and advocate for better health outcomes for the most vulnerable members of the community.

The purpose of this project, "Identifying and Addressing Gaps in Care Among Menstruating Individuals in Utah," is to better understand the gaps that exist in caring for individuals in Utah with heavy or prolonged menstrual bleeding, as well as implement interventions to address these gaps. Such interventions may include working with primary care providers to screen for individuals with heavy periods, educating medical professionals on the treatment that is available for the management of heavy or prolonged periods, and ensuring that referrals made to specialists by primary care physicians are efficient and appropriate. 

Dr. Sara L. Schwartz, PhD, MSW is an Associate Teaching Professor in The University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. In this role, Dr. Schwartz teaches across the master and doctoral programs and recently founded the Visual Social Work Certificate Program. Her scholarship focuses on the experiences of aging with hemophilia and HIV/AIDS from a tauma informed perspective; the intersectional experiences of religion, race and history; and building a visual social work methodology. For the past five years, Dr. Schwartz has served on the Board of the Directors for the National AIDS Memorial and previously served on the Board of The HIV Story Project in San Francisco.

Dr. Tam E. Perry is an associate professor at Wayne State University School of Social Work.  Her research addresses urban aging from a life course perspective, focusing on how underserved older adults navigate their social and built environments in times of instability and change. She is co-director of the NIH funded Community Liaison and Recruitment Core of the Michigan Center for African American Aging Research. She also currently serves as research chair for a multi-agency coalition, Senior Housing Preservation Detroit. She has recently been selected to be a fellow in the Gerontological Society of America and is the past-president of the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work (AGESW).

She became interested in the hemophilia community as she learned more its history, resilence and advocacy and vulnerability. She is excited that she is meeting more individuals touched by this research topic and has enjoyed sharing the work in a variety of venues.

Ellen Kachalsky has served the hemophilia community for many decades.  Previously received funding from NHF with Dr. Karen Allen, in the area of aging and hemophilia from the practitioner context and we co-authored an article on "Aging with Hemophilia - Implications for Social Work Practice." Also published a number of articles on related topics such as pain management with her HTC colleagues at Henry Ford Health in collaboration with Munson Medical Center, as well as actual and ideal roles of practitioners in hemophilia treatment centers with a group of HTC Social Workers from across the United States.

Ellen has her Masters of Social Work degree from Adelphi University in New York, but then moved to Michigan, with her husband.  Ellen has worked at Henry Ford Hospital for over 25 years, including Bone Marrow Transplant and Hem-Onc, the Multi-Disciplinary Clinics for Breast Cancer, Head and Neck Cancer, and Brain Tumors.  She has worked in Hemophilia since 1999, with prior experience also in Family Practice, ICU and Step-Down units at other hospitals in the metropolitan Detroit area. She also worked for 3 years as the Resident Service Coordinator at HUD-subsidized Senior congregate living, where she helped residents maintain their independence by linking them with community resources and providing support, counseling and programs.
 
She enjoys helping clients with learning and growing with their conditions, as well as teaching about the ins and outs of insurance so that they can get the maximum benefit from their insurance plans, financial and work/career considerations.  Her goals include helping clients realize their full potential in education and employment so that they may lead happier and productive lives, in spite of issues related to bleeding disorders, and to help them adapt to changes as they mature and change

Katie Klütz, MSW, LCSW is the social worker for pediatric patients at Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children’s HTC in Orlando, Florida. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Social Work with a double major in Psychology from Florida State University in 2005 and earned a master’s degree in Social Work in 2006 from the same institution. Katie began working with inpatient Hematology/Oncology pediatric patients and their families in 2017 and transitioned to working exclusively with the HTC full time in January 2021.

Amanda Stahl, MSW, LICSW is the social worker for adult patients at the Boston Hemophilia Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she has been providing clinical services to patients with bleeding disorders since 2015. She participates in multiple national committees, joining the NHF Social Work Working Group in 2019, and the ATHN Access to Care Working Group also in 2019. For the past 2 years she has been a speaker at the NHF Bleeding Disorders Conference presenting on her research and information about Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms for patients with acute and chronic illness. Amanda is a “double eagle” graduating with both her BA in 2006, and MSW in 2010, from Boston College.

The hemophilia and thrombosis centers in Tucson and Phoenix would like to join efforts to make a meaningful contribution to our understanding of the mental health profile of our pediatric population. This knowledge could contribute to a more tailored approach when designing clinics and programming, and, by identifying mental health issues, inform the development of targeted interventions. We hope to look at the prevalence of depression and anxiety in children with bleeding disorders including hemophilia, von Willebrand disease, and other congenital coagulopathies. We expect that the existence of a chronic health condition could affect a child's psychological development. We're also aware of the critical impact of family culture so our survey will include data on the mental health of the participants’ primary caretakers as well as other significant socioeconomic markers.

Social workers have been active members of the multidisciplinary teams of hemophilia treatment centers for many years, but the roles of these social workers may differ greatly from center to center. Social workers are often the advocate for patients and a primary source of assistance, information and referral. In many HTCs, they also provide counseling and therapy services to patients and consultation to staff. Indeed, these social workers appear to provide a wide variety of psychosocial and case management services to patients with bleeding disorders and their families. This research project will attempt to describe the various role tasks of hemophilia treatment center social workers, describe these tasks and identify the influences of the role in each HTC. An online survey will be developed and emailed to the approximately 135 HTC social workers across the nation. Data will be analyzed and shared with the social worker community through sessions and posters and the NHF annual meeting.

Individuals with hemophilia are living longer than previously expected because of advances in treatment, including the development of clotting factor replacement. However, we do not understand the psychological and emotional impact of aging with hemophilia, how this affects quality of life, and how resilience and healthy coping skills are developed and maintained. For example, we do not know if persons with hemophilia: (a) retire early because of having a disability, although this may be a reasonable assumption; (b) if they are financially secure; and (c) how much joint damage impacts the ability to move, walk, and perform everyday activities. We also do not know what special challenges arise from aging with hemophilia, and if this leads to more divorces, an increase in living alone, and a greater need for help to remain independent. There is little research showing which traits help persons with hemophilia continue to mature, and keep an emotional balance while dealing with a lifelong, chronic condition and how all these traits improve or reduce quality of life.

As a social worker at Gulf States Hemophilia & Thrombophilia Treatment Center, I have the privilege of serving patients across their lifespan. I would like to initiate grass roots education about hemophilia in Houston, Texas, by offering educational programming to specialized health care professionals who work directly with the aging population in nursing homes and assisted living communities. This would include executive directors and administrators of these facilities as well as direct clinical staff.

It is unknown if there are differences in attitudes and behaviors between mothers of sons with hemophilia who have a known family history of hemophilia compared to mothers without a known family history. To capture these differences, this study will measure mothers' perceived vulnerability of their sons, protective behaviors toward their sons and reported stress in the mother-son relationship. Sixty mothers will complete the following surveys: Parent Protection Scale, Child Vulnerability Scale and Parenting Stress Index/Short Form. The results of this data will influence clinic social work practice in the comprehensive care model at hemophilia treatment centers.

Hemophilia is a rare lifelong condition which can be potentially life-threatening. Parents bare a significant responsibility for delivery of medical care because the treatment for hemophilia begins early in life for children within the home setting. As a result, parents frequently exhibit a heightened level of stress, anxiety, and subsequent trauma around the acceptance of the illness and the administration of medication management. To address the multifaceted nature of chronic illness for patients and their families, the ideal treatment utilizes a multidisciplinary team. Our proposed 3P Patient Parent Power Program aims to standardize care for families with patients of hemophilia using a tiered approach of psychosocial support. The necessary level of support will be provided to parents in order for them to successfully provide in-home prophylactic factor treatment. The goal of the program is to reduce parental stress and anxiety related to this chronic illness and increase feelings of empowerment for the parent and child.

This study explores perceptions among adolescent aged patients with inherited bleeding disorders regarding religiosity/spirituality and whether their beliefs have an impact on the pain they experience. Subjects participating will be assessed in regards to the type, frequency and intensity of pain experienced and measures used to cope with the pain. Finally, we will measure patient self reports of disease self efficacy. To further assess the impact of religiosity/spirituality on the family system, we will be measuring parental perceptions of religiosity/spirituality with parents of the participating adolescents.

The purpose of this pilot study is to characterize social integration of persons with congenital bleeding disorders (PWCBD), specifically adult males with hemophilia A or B. Due to early onset of bleeding symptoms, they are predisposed to acute, life-threatening bleeding, bleeding complications, risk for long-term disabling hemophilic arthropathy, and blood-borne infections. A European study has shown that adult males with hemophilia have inferior socialization as measured by work, work disability and health-related quality of life when compared to adult men in the general population. We hypothesize that a broader view of socialization components also contribute to quality of life. We also propose that the role of the spouse or significant other may have relevance for current social work goals in providing comprehensive care for adult PWCBD.

Swimming is an important life skill that benefits hemophilia patients medically and psychosocially. The goal of this project is to provide inner city children and teenagers the opportunity to learn how to swim. The swim program will be held at the Detroit Medical Center, where a team of professionals will teach the basics of swimming with the goal of independent swimming by the end of the program. The team will measure the children's progress medically and psychosocially throughout the program. This program will provide children and teenagers at our HTC with an amazing opportunity and also a very important life skill. We will also be using adult hemophilia patients to teach the children how to swim, which will provide them with work experience and community involvement.