Juliano-Bult has worn many hats during her 40-year career - social worker, researcher, counsel, case manager, psychotherapist, and adjunct professor. The Bethesda, MD resident earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Honors College, and her MSW in 1984 from The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. We are proud that she was the 2022 recipient of the Knee/Wittman Lifetime Achievement Award awarded by the NASW Foundation which recognizes social workers who have made exemplary contributions to health and mental health practice. The Knee/Wittman Award Program was established in 1990 to recognize those who represent the values, ethics, and approaches exemplified by two dedicated social work pioneers, Ruth Knee (1920-2008) and Milton Wittman (1915-1994).
Congratulations on the new Whitman Lifetime Achievement Award! What does the award represent?
Denise Juliano-Bult: Thank you. It was such a great honor and so flattered and touched to receive it. It's probably the case for most people that you spend your career working and trying to do a good job at what you do. And people may receive different types of recognition along the way, or they may not be receiving the appreciation they are due. But to have the main organization for the social work profession recognizes my work. It's such an honor and it's so flattering. And it's not something I was striving for. You're just trying to do a good job.
For 36 years you worked for the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). What type of work were you doing there?
Denise Juliano-Bult: When I started there, I was a social worker in one of the research units where they were studying schizophrenia. And NIMH occupied a building on the campus of Saint Elizabeth's Hospital, where they had three units and it was about 30 patients per unit if it was full. And they had three social workers there, and I was one of them.
You got your master's in 1984 from NCSSS. What was the culture like here at that time?
Denise Juliano-Bult: When I was going to school there I was working and supporting myself and going to school full time. So I didn't have a lot of time to experience the culture there. I mean, I would say I knew the people in my class and I'm still to some degree friends with people in my class.
What brought you to Catholic to pursue your M.S.W.degree at NCSSS?
Denise Juliano-Bult: At the time, I wanted to be a private practitioner doing psychotherapy. Catholic was one of the places that were oriented toward psychotherapy, so that was what I was interested in. And I also was living in D.C., and I didn't want to relocate at the time, so I applied and got in. I never became a social worker in private practice, but that's what brought me there.
How did your experience at NCSSS prepare you for the next phase of your career?
Denise Juliano-Bult: My second year of field placement was at the D.C. Institute of Mental Health, and we did psychotherapy there. It was people with all kinds of disorders and concerns. And I worked in the office they had in Anacostia. So I worked a lot with families that had multiple challenges and multiple family members facing mental health issues. So that was where I did my training, and when I graduated, I continued to work there part-time. It was through working there in Anacostia that I met one of the psychiatrists who was moonlighting from the research program at Saint Elizabeth's Hospital, and he told me they were looking for a social worker and I should do an interview. And I did. And I got the job and I thought I would stay there for a year.
What perspective should social work students know about the profession? Do you have any advice?
Denise Juliano-Bult: Having an MSW is a very versatile degree. There are a lot of things you can do with an MSW. Aside from my early days of working in that outpatient mental health clinic, I've worked for the federal government, but that is an opportunity for people. You can be part of a treatment team if you're interested in still remaining in clinical practice. There are lots of things people can do in policy. I've never gotten involved in that, but that's another angle because states are funders and providers of mental health services. My perspective is on mental health because that's all I ever did. That was all I was interested in. And I've been lucky enough to do that in my career. But there are hospitals, social work, child protective services, and elder care services. There are a lot of opportunities.
The social worker’s perspective is important. A lot of times social workers might work in settings where they're psychiatrists, or administrators, who have their own agenda. And that's not to say that that's not important, but the social work perspective is a very important perspective to improve the lives of people with mental illnesses.