Pioneering Contributions
Enrico De Gironimo, MSW, has brought great vision to his roles on the NASW Board as well as his work on the modernization of the NASW as an organization. He is a dedicated advocate to his chosen profession and the individuals, families, groups and communities he has supported. He is at his core, a true community organizer with a genuine commitment to empowering others.
De Gironimo’s work started in the late 1970s when he was assistant director for the Community Outreach Program for Senior Adults (COPSA). COPSA was a program operated by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), now Rutgers Medical School. It was a time of change. It was the time of the Community Mental Health Act and social workers were taking the lead in community outreach, home visits, and raising the bar for clinical excellence. Local community needs assessments drove services at the Rutgers Community Mental Health Center and were key to De Gironimo’s work with COPSA. Ranging from advocacy for nursing home reform to breaking down barriers to shared living arrangements and affordable housing to family support and clinical services for individuals struggling to care for elderly parents, Mr. De Gironimo was working for his own community. In that effort, COPSA developed a day hospital focused on actively treating individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders, believed to be only the third such program in the country at the time.
At the Day Hospital, De Gironimo helped lead group therapy sessions using what we know as reminiscence therapy today. He participated in the development of many interventions and strategies still used in memory care facilities across the country such as predictable environments and memory strategies. He played a key role in training and orientation for medical students in working with people with dementia and their families. He also led multidisciplinary team meetings where practitioners from psychiatry, geriatrics, social work and psychology came together to present treatment plans for approval. De Gironimo crafted many treatment plans and recalls his work at COPSA as having been truly pioneering in its efforts to support individuals with dementia.
The COPSA team was instrumental in developing strategies for families to use to structure the environment for maximum independence and safety for their loved ones. The team also organized and facilitated family support groups throughout the state. Hundreds of medical and allied professions students came through COPSA and trained with the team. In addition to helping to create a solid model program for support and treatment of individuals with dementia for the country at COPSA, De Gironimo was successful in winning a National Institute for Mental Health grant to hold a national conference on aging and dementia entitled, “Living as an Older Adult in the 1980’s.”
Following his work with COPSA, De Gironimo became the assistant director at the Center for Cognitive Rehabilitation (CCR) at the Rutgers Medical School Department of Psychiatry. Under the direction of Irwin Pollack, MD, a leader in traumatic brain injury (TBI) rehabilitation, the team opened the first community-based residential treatment program in New Jersey for survivors of TBI, at a time when there were only a few in the country. De Gironimo was instrumental in opening Rally House - within the Center for Cognitive Rehabilitation while at the same time becoming an early expert and advocate for cognitive rehabilitation in the treatment of TBI. As part of a multidisciplinary team that included including psychiatry, psychology, physical, occupational, and speech therapies, De Gironimo and the CCR team developed specialized assessments, and individualized strategies and interventions addressing everything from Activities of Daily Living to employment.
Practitioners from around the state and the country came for training. These were the early days of cognitive rehabilitation, and training was very much in demand. As both a community organizer and trained family therapist, De Gironimo was well-versed in systems theory and the person-in-the-environment brining those perspectives to his work with families in need.
At the same time De Gironimo was working at the Rutgers Medical School, he was active in community organizations and health planning groups. As he tried to establish a shared living arrangement for older adults, he experienced significant anti-group-home and NIMBY sentiment. His community organizing training and background propelled him to help found the Central Jersey Housing Coalition – a fair housing agency where he served as a founding board member and a volunteer tester for housing discrimination. These tests were regularly held up in court as evidence of discrimination.
Career Highlights
A review of De Gironimo’s CV details a professional life of committed to community mental health, community organization and planning. His expertise included not only clinical expertise but also the ability to strengthen organizations and to increase their funding streams. One common thread throughout Mr. De Gironimo’s career is one that he learned at the Rutgers School of Social Work – the role of a community organizer is to work him or herself out of a job. Strengthen those around you to stand.
• State Director - Mentor Clinical Care: Developed model treatment foster care programs supporting individuals with TBI and other intellectual disabilities in New Jersey.
• Executive Director – Community Hope: Professionalized and strengthened struggling residential program supporting individuals with serious mental illness
• Executive Director – Developmental Resources Corporation: Turned around large multi-service organization supporting individuals with intellectual disabilities.
• Chief Executive Officer: Ocean Partnership for Children: Started one of fifteen Care Management Organizations in New Jersey as part of the first statewide System of Care supporting children and adolescents with mental health challenges and their families.
He retired in 2014 as the Chief Executive Officer of Ocean Partnerships for Children, in Toms River, New Jersey.
Biographic Data
De Gironimo is the son of Domenico and Valeria De Gironimo. He grew up in Palisades Park, New Jersey in a large extended Italian American family consisting of his parents, grandparents and five siblings: Anna, Frank, Phyllis, Jean and Joseph. He and his wife, Leslie currently reside in Lewes, Delaware. They are the proud parents of two daughters Carla Pastore and Lisa De Gironimo and one granddaughter Ava Pastore.
In retirement, Rick continues to follow his social work roots. He currently volunteers to staff a local homeless shelter during the winter months, conducts fund raising for the local Habitat for Humanity, does outreach home visits to older adults and is a member of the Delaware Medical Reserve Corps. And in between, Rick loves to travel and spend time outdoors.
He received his BA (1976) and his MSW (1979) from Rutgers University.
Significant Achievements and Awards
De Gironimohas been recognized on many occasions throughout his career. He has been the recipient of the President’s Award of from the Housing Coalition of Middlesex County New Jersey as well as the President’s Award from NASW New Jersey. He has also served as a treasurer of the NASW National Board.
Significant Publications
De Gironimo, E. & O’Connor, J. M. (1992). Real life rehabilitation: Mentoring individuals with closed head injury. Community Alternatives: International Journal of Family, 4(2), 239-249.