Gracie Ferretti

I've been in social work for 15 years, beginning my career in 2010 working at group homes. Today, I work with the VA focusing on suicide prevention, where I support veterans who are at high risk for suicide. I help coordinate their care with other services at the VA and conduct outreaches to engage community members and veterans who might not be aware of the services we offer. I work with an incredible all-women team, and we collaborate and support each other really well. If one of us is having a day where we can't handle a particular task, we help each other out. We're all social workers, so we have that base knowledge and insight into the psychological issues that come with dealing with people with mental health challenges, and we're able to spot burnout in each other. Looking ahead, I want to move away from direct client care into more of a policy position, using what I've learned on the micro level to figure out what policies need to be changed so we can better serve our clients and address the root causes of the issues they face.