UP THE RIVER
Jack Carney has been a practicing social worker for over forty years. His recent retirement from FEGS, a large New York social welfare agency where he served as director of the agency’s case management programs in New York City for many years, has allowed him to play the role he did when he first entered the field: that of an Alinsky-trained organizer, advocate and, politely, provocateur. He writes of how and why he has come to view the public mental health system as oppressive, and hopes to tell a wide audience why and how.
In his prior life, he was institute-trained in Bowen Family Systems theory and trained in Linehan’s Dialectical Behavior Therapy. He received his MSW from UCLA in 1969 and his DSW from CUNY in 1991. At present, his professional activities revolve around his private psychotherapy and consultation practice, and writing projects. He has begun writing a memoir which he has titled, at least for now, Good-bye to Mental Health: A Not So Fond Farewell.
He lives in Brooklyn with his wife of thirty years, and spends his summers in their Adirondack camp in Long Lake, New York. Personal e-mail communications to [email protected] are appreciated, and responded to quickly and often at great length.
