In these dangerous, draining times, you may find the evidence-based self-protection measures offered for social work and mental health colleagues helpful. We must do all possible to remain strong together.

Read the full commentary on socialworker.com

by SaraKay Smullens, MSW, LCSW, DCSW, CGP, CFLE, BCD

First and foremost, happy Social Work Month! We are each deeply fortunate to be part of our proud and historic profession. Our profession is one that asks a great deal of us and often has been labeled as “an impossible” one. A key reason is the resources necessary for our clients are rarely available to the extent they are needed, and far too often those in positions of power are highly insensitive to their importance for a healthy society,

For these reasons, societal burnout permeates, exacerbating other forms of burnout originating from work stress and those that may also exist in our personal relationships. Signs of overload we experience express themselves physically through exhaustion, as well as illness.

To alleviate this overload, through the years, I’ve researched key ways to provide relief in preserving and protecting strength, leading to more productive and attuned relationships with our clients. One direction of study relates specifically to our Social Work Month theme this year—Compassion and Action—where findings point to the relationship between compassion, empathy, and action. Before my investigation, I saw the concepts of empathy and compassion as one in the same. However, research led to understanding key differences, ones that understanding can help us to preserve energy…

March 28, 2025: I am grateful that The Philadelphia Inquirer posted the following letter today.

To the Editor:

When my 6-year-old granddaughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, making her dependent on injected insulin to live, the singer-songwriter Nick Jonas, who also has Type 1, became her hero. If he could handle this evil disease, she figured, so could she. Two years later, she testified before the Food and Drug Administration about the necessity of research into creating an artificial pancreas to save the lives of children, and quoted a line from one of Jonas’ songs, “A Little Bit Longer”: You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Shortly after, the FDA stepped up its work to develop a system to automatically supply insulin to the body. Today, facing devastating and haphazard cuts, it probably could not.

Surely, most people who support our 47th president do not do so with the intention of injuring vulnerable children or adults in crisis. They support him because he has skillfully convinced them he cares about them. Surely also, the ultimate threat of isolating us from our allies while praising despots has not sunk in. Supporters don’t yet realize that they, too — that all of us — are in grave danger because Donald Trump’s ultimate dream is to divide the world with the tyrants he respects and wishes to emulate.

History validates that a nation’s power begins to unravel as leaders encourage a violation of the boundaries of decency, and when concern for the well-being of others is ignored. Let’s fight Trump with a passionate defense of truth — in every possible way. In addition to our courts, each member of Congress who cherishes America’s founding principles must call town halls to motivate purposeful choices for action and involvement. Outreach to the White House and Republican elected officials must unceasingly convey that we are not afraid — that we refuse to be cowed, fooled, or pitted against each other. Because, as my granddaughter warned: You don’t know what you have till it’s gone.

Sarakay Smullens, Philadelphia Inquirer

Like an abusive family member, the father of our country violates those who depend on him. His dangers must be recognized.

I’ve worked in the field of domestic violence for over 25 years, seeing horrific violations of the vulnerable. The violations by those their family relies upon and the violations of our 47th president, Donald J. Trump, are parallel in their inordinate need for domination, power, and control.

Please read on.

When domestic abuse within a family is suspected, the most urgent challenge in family therapy is for the consulted clinician to determine if a powerful family member is putting those who rely on them in harm’s way. When so, the abusive family member is often charismatic and appealing, and those who depend on their presence fear him deeply. With a carefully determined identification, even if this individual resists treatment (which is common) a healthy process can progress toward marginalizing ruthless power and control by strengthening other family members. When therapy is effective, family members face the truth, and the tyrant is left alone — isolated and powerless. But make no mistake, abusive family members do all possible to protect their power through all means possible to sabotage healing and maintain control.

What tactics are used to threaten the health of a family and society? In healthy family and societal systems, anxiety flows upward through questions and expressed concerns, always responded to. In dysfunctional systems anxieties are constantly imposed from the top, pitting individuals against each other, leading to animosity, angry division, and isolation from trusted friends and colleagues. In this way, mature problem-solving is thwarted, as individuals seek refuge in silent withdrawal. In these pathologic settings lies become truths through hypnotic repetition. Ridicule of others is used as entertainment to divert ultimate goals. Money for sustenance withers.

Without intervention, in both families and societies, there is submission to a violator’s will through a reign of terror. In societies, this includes the destruction of a free press and military control, with accompanying murder, arrest, and torture. In a family’s parallel, if not death itself, there is the imprisonment of the spirit and the soul.

What clearer evidence than our 47th president is a tyrannical lover of autocracy, devoid of concern for the well-being of those who rely on him, than what recently occurred in the Oval Office? In a scene beyond belief, our president and vice-president did all in their power to humiliate Volodymyr Zelenskyy, employing their well-honed pattern of lies — telling him and expecting us to believe that Zelenskyy was the one standing in the way of peace, not Vladimir Putin. This surreal exchange proved the tipping point for our long-time European colleagues, forced to confront the painful truth that America is no longer their trusted friend and ally.

Donald Trump’s long-range goals? The pieces of seeming ludicrous statements now fit. Our president’s plan, as is true of other dictators, is to slice and dice the world as we know it. Putin and Xi Jinping’s yearnings regarding Europe and Taiwan are clear. With the tyrants who attacked our Capitol on January 6th, 2020, whom he calls patriots, under his beck and call, and a replaced loyal Joint Chief of Staff at his side, Donald Trump’s endgame has become a possibility. His stated wish is to annex Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal. He also has spoken of invading Venezuela, annexing Mexico, and taking over the Gaza Strip. The painting of our 11th president, James K. Polk, who oversaw America’s greatest territorial expansion to date is now in Donald Trump’s Oval Office.

If Donald Trump’s grandiose statements and goals alarm you, your fears are well placed. Our president suffers from a dangerous, volatile psychiatric condition, megalomania. He believes and is ardently attempting to convince all that God saved him from assassination so that his wishes become reality and in this way, America will be great again.

As our 47th president moves forward to do all possible to meet his goals, through his saccharine voice, he will continue to present himself as a magnificent Father of our Country, diverting attention from his true nature with “good television” — such as the release of a long-imprisoned hostage or a child with cancer receiving a “Make-A-Wish” moment, as well as the humiliation of decent, ethical people.

Both our president’s illness and intent must be bravely confronted and halted. To survive, family members must face truths about the violation of body, spirit, and soul, and set themselves free from a tyrannical hold. In like manner, We the People are the only ones who can end the despotic violation that threatens all we hold dear. The first step is to recognize its disastrous intent and then, with deft precision, we must passionately, ardently confront lies with truth.

Justices must continue to speak out, even more vehemently than Justice Roberts’s recent rebuke when Donald Trump disrespected the court order to return two flights of men denied due process, sent to an inhuman Venezuelan prison. In addition to our courts, each member of Congress who cherishes democracy must call town halls to point to America’s menacing “enemy within” as prep not only for our next election but beyond.

Further, never in our lifetimes has a free press been more essential. While other newspapers have caved, the March 20th, 2025 editorial warning of my hometown Philadelphia Inquirer was fearless: “Donald Trump continues to trample the Constitution with reckless abandon, while sadly most other Republican and Democratic leaders do nothing.”

It is up to We the People to act. Outreach to the White House and Republican elected officials must unceasingly convey our president’s malevolence. We must demonstrate that we are not afraid to call out lies and destruction — that we refuse to continue to be pitted against each other or terrified into retreat. We must do so as if our very lives and the lives of our loved ones depend on it. For most assuredly, they do.

Originally Published on Medium March 20, 2025