Dr Ludmilla

When I first knew that I would be coming to Armenia for a stay, my colleagues at NASW arranged for me to talk with Dr. Nancy Humphreys at the University of Connecticut. Nancy has coordinated a joint policy course with Yerevan State University's Department of Social Work and Social Technologies for several years. The program involves an online comparative policy course and an exchange program for students.

Dr. Ludmilla Harutunyan 

Her first partner in this (which started after the disastrous earthquake in 1988) was Dr. Ludmilla Harutunyan, who seems to have had several lives and careers in one. At this time she is perhaps most famous as a sociologist and the "mother" of social work in Armenia.But she has been a leader here for decades, serving as the Deputy (Scientist) Chair of the Women's Committee [the Chair was always a Party member], a State Minister, founder of the YSU Department of Sociology, and not insignificantly, a wife and mother.

Thanks to one of Dr. H's doctoral students, Marine Yarmaloyan,  whom I met on a visit to YSU, I was actually able to meet with her yesterday in her flat on one of the loveliest streets in Yerevan.

Something that is fascinating to me in this very foreign (to me) post-Soviet culture is that each conversation is like a twist of my beautiful wooden kaleidoscope.  I get a different take on the same phenomena. And this conversation was rich with new takes, or I should say, very informed takes from a very intelligent and well-educated woman who has lived through and been a leader during and post-Soviet governance.

I cannot say I came away cheered, even though I desperately wanted to feel that "things" are better (I mean, I grew up in the Cold War Era). In fact, I have new ideas to chew on. One is that when the Soviets left, they took with them ideology that included "state feminism," which was at the very least a formalized equality between men and women. In Dr.H's view in the place of ideology is nationalism, or as she said, "I am Armenian."

It's not enough to sustain a new democracy. In her view, the family is being destroyed by economic factors that force men to migrate for work, leaving women to take on father-mother-bread winner roles (not unlike the spouses of the US military personnel who are in Afghanistan, etc.). In the view of many Armenians this is not the way things should be.

(WONK ALERT) I have become aware of a big change that is coming toward "integrated social services" here in Armenia. This is what Americans might imagine, or maybe not. It is a one-front-door or one-stop shopping kind of approach, based in towns. In many ways this is what we did in the US in reconciling Medicaid and the children's health insurance program in the 1990s. But the motivation for this is efficiency. Not that efficiency is a bad thing.

But aside from the obvious reasons, why is automating eligibility and reducing human contact useful for people? Well, it turns out that the more face-to-face contacts applicants have for assistance, the more likely it is--ready? this is painful--that they pay bribes to the staffers known as "social workers," but not trained as professional social workers. In other words, "If you approve me, I will give you one month's benefits." Honestly, I felt sick when I heard that.

Ludmilla and Rilla

Dr H and I found a great area for agreement in "what comes next" for social work and social welfare policy here. We call it Back to the Roots, a la Jane Addams and the early community and systems social work from over 100 years ago. Frankly, this is my view of what social workers in the US need to do too. More social workers in public office, more focus on making systems work for everyone. I do not, by any means, disparage the services to individuals, but my perspective has always been a big view of systems and policy.

Ludmilla and I agree. We might be right or we might not.