Florida suspends social worker George B. Perlin for substance abuse

December 4, 2008

On December 4, 2008, the Board issued a Final Order suspending clinical social worker George Benjamin Perlin until such time as he petitions the Board for reinstatement and demonstrates that he can counsel or treat clients with reasonable skill and safety. According to the Board’s documents, Mr. Perlin had been terminated from the Physician’s Resource Network (PRN), a rehabilitative program for impaired health practitioners. Mr. Perlin had been arrested in May 2007 for possession of marijuana and cocaine, lost his job and began to drink alcohol. He then spent six months in a residential treatment program. Perlin was discharged from the in-patient program on December 20, 2007 as a result of successful completion but eight days later tested positive for the presence of alcohol, a low specific gravity and low creatine. On January 9, 2008, Perlin contacted PRN and advised he had relapsed into alcohol use. He was instructed to attend his PRN facilitated group and discuss his relapse. On January 15, 2008, he entered into a five-year monitoring contract with PRN, which required him to participate in random drug testing; report to a weekly monitored professional group; abstain from the use of alcohol, medications and mood-altering substances under order by a primary physician; attend a self-help group three times a week and other conditions. Perlin missed several group meetings and admitted to drinking and was thus terminated from the program and determined by the program’s medical director to be unable to practice with reasonable skill and safety.

(Final Order, Dept. of Health v. George Benjamin Perlin, L.C.S.W., Case No. 2008-04961, December 4, 2008.)