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News Items – January 18, 2017

 

Zander Keig is a member:
The top 50 successful transgender Americans you should know
LGBTQNation
Zander Keig, LCSW, serves the Naval Medical Center San Diego as Clinical Case Manager for Residential Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program and Transgender Care Team. Keig is currently serving his second three year appointed term on the National Association of Social Workers National Committee for LGBT Issues. He holds a B.A. in Speech, M.S. in conflict analysis and resolution, M.T.S. in theology, M.S.W. in clinical social work and was recognized as a “Distinguished Alumnus” in 2016 by his alma mater Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Fearing the Trump era, same-sex couples rush to adopt their own kids
KUOW (Seattle, WA)
So Megan has embarked on a process called second parent adoption. The first step is to hire a social worker to visit your home. Megan called this “deeply painful,” even though she personally really likes the social worker in question. When that’s done, Megan has to hire a lawyer and then head to court to, as she put it, “tell them I understand the right and responsibilities of making this child mine permanently, when the child is already mine permanently.” (In Washington state, both people in a same-sex marriage or domestic partnership are presumed to be parents of children born during the relationship.)

Social worker makes hard choices in ‘Luna Gale’
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Caroline Cox, the fiftysomething veteran social worker at the heart of playwright Rebecca Gilman’s “Luna Gale,” has barely arrived in a hospital waiting room before she looks at 19-year-old parents Karlie and Peter and asks how long they’ve been smoking meth. Just after that, Caroline tells both teens that it’s she herself who decides when they get to see their own daughter.  Soon after that, we see Caroline arrange for their baby girl – Luna Gale – to be placed with Karlie’s mother, Cindy.  Shortly after that, Caroline is trying to return Luna to her birth parents, after convincing herself that Cindy’s religion trumps Cindy’s concern for the baby.

Colleen Galambos is a member:
Nursing homes falling behind with end-of-life directives
Health Medicine Network
Popular medical dramas such as Grey’s Anatomy and Chicago Med often depict the tensions that can arise while making end-of-life medical decisions without “advance directives” on file. Advance directives, or living wills, are the legal documents individuals use to communicate their treatment preferences when faced with serious injuries or illnesses. Following a new study, Colleen Galambos, professor in the University of Missouri School of Social Work, says that more attention to how advance directives are used in nursing homes may reduce unnecessary care and save health care costs, all while respecting residents’ wishes.

Mildred ‘Mit’ Joyner is a member and a social work pioneer:
Joyner: Fake news can set back Civil Rights movement
Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Civil rights could be set back decades unless people start doing their due diligence and check and double-check information they read and pass on, and to not get fooled into believing information from fake news sites. That was the message from Mildred Joyner, recognized nationally for her leadership, especially in gerontology and social work education at the 16th annual MLK CommUNITY breakfast Tuesday morning in Kennett Square, attended by about 400 people, including local lawmakers, county commissioners, municipal leaders and Chester County Sheriff Carolyn “Bunny” Welsh.

Irene Kepler is a member:
Tax for children’s services may be on ballot in 2018
News-Press (Ft. Myers, FL)
Some of the advocates previously asked the Lee commission to back away from a marginal cut in the tax rate last fall in order to improve funding for social service programs. “There will be a large public campaign and pressure on the board of commissioners to put it on to the ballot,” said Irene Kepler, a licensed clinical social worker and employee of Barry University in Fort Myers who is involved in the drive to create the council. Kepler is a member of the grassroots organization Pennies for Community Progress. The group includes people from agencies working to deliver community services to Lee County children.

Anthony ‘Tony’ Owens is a member:
Williamson County program works to set DUI offenders on new course
The Tennessean
Tony Owens, the licensed clinical social worker who treats program participants, said, “I look at it as a triangle. You have the judge’s supervision, probation and drug testing and therapy. We love using the leverage of the courts to help people change. What we’ve found in research is that people who were leveraged to change managed to change as much as someone who entered a program voluntarily.” While program graduates beam as they talk about the program and their thankfulness for getting arrested, the judge’s path to success is not easy, nor is it meant to be.

Bob Blackwood is a member:
Homelessness among veterans declined through Obama administration efforts
Tampa Bay Times
“Committing to housing first is the key to the strategic vision and initiative for ending veteran homelessness,” said Bob Blackwood, social work chief at James A. Haley VA Medical Center. People respond better to help with a roof over their heads, he said.

 

To accomplish this, the Obama administration has used programs including one called HUD/VASH, combining HUD housing vouchers issued through local housing authorities with ongoing support from VA physical and mental health programs. More than 78,000 vouchers were issued nationally through September 2015.

 

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