Social Work Blog Social work updates from NASW
Golda Edinburg, NASW Social Work Pioneer®, passed away February 9, 2012.
Former President, Department of Mental Health and Retardation Area Board of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Director, Social Work Department, McLean Hospital.
Golda Edinburg will be missed by the entire social work community. She will be remembered for her unwavering dedication to providing quality care and improving the quality of life for persons with mental illness and their families. Read more.
Golda Edinburg was a pioneer mental hospital social work director, serving for many years as the head of the social work department at McClean Hospital in Belmont, MA. She developed and implemented a comprehensive role for social work in the setting, assuring the profession’s place as a central member of the treatment team and contributing to almost all areas of the hospital’s functioning.
Golda was a dedicated volunteer for the Massachusetts NASW chapter, working in the “halls of power” for critical legislation and regulation concerning the profession. She was an effective advocate, comfortable with the “pols” and unstinting in her efforts. She was such a well recognized part of Massachusetts’ mental health advocacy and oversight that she was assigned and proudly drove her car with its Mass license plate number 258 (or something close to that).
Golda’s assistance and efforts on behalf of a comprehensive outpatient program for the serious mentally ill in Waltham, MA resulted in the naming of the center [The Edinburg Center] in her honor.
She was a joyous and positive presence, who loved to laugh, but never avoided an important fight.