The Mpawenayo children and social worker Angel Katona (inset). Photo courtesy of Fox 8.

Fox 8 television in North Carolina ran a heartwarming story on a social worker who helped reunite African refugee children with their father.

School social worker Angel Katona met Noel, Eveline, Juliely and Ive at the Doris Henderson Newcomers School in Greensboro. The children from the civil war torn nation of Burundi were sad every day and sometimes came to her office crying.

Katona discovered their father was not allowed to immigrate to the United States with his family from a Tanzanian refugee camp due to spelling inconsistencies in his documents. Katona worked for three years to get the documents in order so Aniceth Mpawenayo could come to the United States.

“We spent a couple years watching them be very sad every day, but it was Noel that said, ‘Don’t worry Ms. Angel you will never see us cry again.’”Katona said.

To read the news article and watch the television news clip click here.

To learn more about how social workers such as Angel Kat0na help children in schools thrive and learn visit the National Association of Social Workers “Help Starts Here” Schools and Communities Web site by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of HITN.

National Association of Social Workers member Brenda Shepherd-Vernon, LICSW, will appear on HITN public television tonight to discuss childhood obesity in the Latino community.

She will be a guest on “Destination Casa Blanca,”  a weekly panel discussion hosted by Ray Suarez. HITN is the first public television network for Latinos in the United States.

The discussion will air on HITN tonight at 9 p.m. and midnight Eastern Time. It will be rebroadcast on Sunday March 14 at 11:30 a.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern Time. You can also click here for video highlights.

Childhood obesity is a major problem in the United States and First Lady Michelle Obama is spearheading a campaign to combat it. The NASW supports these efforts. In fact, the association monitored a recent Senate hearing on the issue. To learn more click here.

Steven Edwards.

The deep recession has increased the need for social workers to help people who are having a difficult time paying bills, putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their heads. However, state budget cuts have discouraged many states from hiring more social workers and caseworkers or replacing those who have left.

In fact, some states are furloughing or laying off workers.

“I’ve worked in this [profession] for over 30 years, and the need for our services is unbelievable. I have never seen it like this before,” said Steven Edwards, director of Cherokee County Human Services.

 “It’s a wheel, and we’re at the bottom,” he continued. “But it will turn, and we will be okay again.”

The awards honor film and television writers and producers who create “dignified, respectful and accurate” potrayals of people with mental illness. The award is also given to mental health consumers who have given a voice to other people with mental illnesses.

Did you see a television show or program that portrayed mental illness well? Or do you know a person with mental illness who has been a champion of the community?

Send your entertainment industry nominations to SAMHSA by April 30 and your mental health consumer nominations by May 14.  For more information on how to do nominations click here.

The Voice Awards will be present at a gala ceremony in Los Angeles on Oct. 13.

Ronnie Walker. Photo courtesy of Huffington Post.

Thanks to Huffington Post for carrying this article on Ronnie Walker, a homeless 14-year-old girl in Illinois who needs a lung transplant. Hopefully running the story will get Ronnie the help she needs.

The article mentions the work of social worker Carolyn Taren, LCSW, to find a permanent home for Ronnie.  Ronnie will need a stable environment after surgery, said Taren, who works for Loyola University Health System and is a National Association of Social Workers member.

“What keeps people alive is how they take care of themselves afterward,” Taren said.

And the more these men overestimated how common violence against women is the more likely they were to abuse their partners in the previous 90 days, the study said.

“Men who engage in violent behavior justify it in their mind by thinking it is more common and saying, ‘Most guys slap their women around so it is OK to engage in it.’ Or it could be that misperceptions about violence cause the behavior,” said Clayton Neighbors, lead author of the study.

Neighbors is  a University of Washington affiliate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a professor of psychology at the University of Houston.

Co-authors of the study include Lyungai Mbilinyi, a research assistant professor of social work at the University of Washington; Joan Zegree, an adjunct assistant professor of social work at the University of Washington; Jeffrey Edleson, a social work professor at the University of Minnesota; and Roger Roffman, University of Washington emeritus social work professor.

To learn more about the study click here. And to find out how social workers help stop domestic violence visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Web section on domestic violence by clicking here.

Downtown Amherst, MA. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.com.

Social workers do many things, including helping families in crisis.

But could social workers help the nation conserve energy, too?

Kevin Collins, a music teacher in Amherst, MA, is petitioning the town to spend $55,000 to hire a social worker to help residents and businesses cut energy consumption and reduce utility bills.

 Such a move would also help residents absorb an expected increase in property taxes and make the town of 36,000 a more affordable place to live, Collins said.

“This will pay for itself in the first year,” he said.

To read the full article about Collins’ petition in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, click here.

Q: President Obama has made energy efficiency a priority and supports developing sustainable energy. Do you believe social workers should help lead the push to persuade Americans to reduce energy and adopt alternative fuel?

Gail Arbarbanel. Photo by Brandon Wise.

Kudos to the Santa Monica Daily Press in California for this profile of National Association of Social Workers member Gail Arbarbanel, DSW.

Arbarbanel created the Rape Treatment Center in 1974 to help victims of that crime. The public attitude toward rape was different then, with many victims being disbelieved or blamed for being raped. 

Arbarbanel, a former hospital social worker, said she was inspired by a young woman who was raped while walking on the beach in Santa Monica. She had nowhere to go for help and ended up in the emergency room after an attempted suicide.

“I decided that would be the last time there was no place to go,” Abarbanel said. “The Rape Treatment Center started with one victim.”

Social workers often help clients recover from sexual abuse. To learn more ,visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Web page on Family Safety – Your Options: Teens and Rape by clicking here.

Artist Kevin Malcolm Jones. Photo by Jeff Hinckley of the Columbus Dispatch.

There are many stories that show the power of social work. They include this one in Ohio’s Columbus Dispatch newspaper about a social worker who helped a homeless man pursue a long deferred dream to become an artist.

Cameron Holm, a social worker at Southeast Inc., noticed Kevin Malcolm Jones was a good sketch artist. So he got him counseling and connected him to an art workshop and gallery.

Now Jones’ work is being displayed in local galleries and being nominated for and winning awards. “This is my livelihood,” said Jones, who now lives in a subsidized apartment.

The article featured National Association of Social Workers member Colleen Fisher, MSW. Fisher was named the social worker of the year for the Phoenix area for 2010 and juggles a busy schedule, husband, teenagers, and pet dogs.

So keeping her home clear of clutter has not been a top priority. “My house and car can be a mess,” she said. “I miss appointments at times and feel that things are getting out of my grasp.”

Charlotte Steill  of Simply Put Organizing came in to help Fisher get her house in order. To read the tips Steill gave Fisher click here.

Liz Tigelaar

One aim of SocialWorkersSpeak.org is to engage social workers with people who make film and television programs.

That mission appears to be yielding some results.

We asked Liz Tigelaar, creator of the CW’s critically acclaimed series “Life Unexpected,” to endorse an unfinished documentary from National Association of Social Workers member Matt Anderson. Matt is working on “From Place to Place,” a film that follows aged out foster children in Montana.

Some of these young people are grappling with unemployment, mental illness and drugs and reconnecting with birth families.

The issue of foster care resonates with Tigelaar. She was adopted and her program ”Life Unexpected” is about Lux, a foster child who reconnects with her birth parents.

Tigelaar said she was “tearing up” just reading our interview about Matt’s film. When asked her to watch a 12-minute excerpt of the film. When asked if she would endorse the documentary she said through Twitter, “Of course!”

Thanks for your endorsement Liz! We hope it will help Matt get the funds to complete his work.

Photo by Chris Connor/WENN.com.

Singer and actress Marie Osmond has announced she will return to work immediately after the March 8 funeral of her son Michael Blosil, 18, who committed suicide on Feb. 26.

In this Hollywood Life article LeslieBeth Wish, Ed. D., MSS, says returning to work soon may benefit Osmond and other people. Working can provide comfort, she said:

 “For some, going back to work serves as scaffolding, and keeps them in order. Work helps them mourn and they are stronger and able to deal because they don’t fear as much that the painful feeling will completely overwhelm them.”

To learn more about how social workers help people deal with grief visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Grief and Loss Web page by clicking here.

Mark holds a ghoulish group session in "Ugly Americans." Photo courtesy of Comedy Central.

Okay so you think you have a tough client load?

Meet “Mark Lilly,” the social worker in Comedy Central’s upcoming animated series “Ugly Americans.” Mark works for the New York City ”Department of Integration.” He helps immigrants, vampires, ghouls and assorted other monsters adjust to life in the big city.

Oh, and before we forget to tell you his roommate “Randall” is a brain-eating zombie and girlfriend “Callie” is a demon.

Okay, don’t ask whether this makes sense. If you like irreverent, adult-themed cartoons start watching it Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. Eastern  beginning March 17.

SocialWorkersSpeak Exclusive: Matt Oberg, the actor who provides the voice of social worker Mark, has agreed to talk to us about playing a social worker in an animated series. We’ll post it as soon as we can.

Photo courtesy of AP

Do you want to kick your marijuana habit?

The University of Washington School of Social Work is looking for 70 marijuana-dependent adults to take part in a clinical research trial. Researchers will test treatment approaches to help people stop using the psychoactive drug.

“When people smoke marijuana they don’t intend to become dependent on it, but marijuana becomes pervasive over time,” said Cynthia Shaw, project director of the Marijuana Counseling Project.

To take part in the study contact Shaw at (206) 616-3235 or mcpsvcs@uw.edu.

To learn more about how social workers help people fight drug and alcohol dependency visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Addictions Web site by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Jeers to the Georgia state government for considering $600 million in budget cuts that some students said could force public colleges and universities to cut social work and other course offerings.

About three dozen students held a protest at the state capitol on Wednesday to protest the cuts. About a third came from Dalton State College. Many of the Dalton State students study at the School of Social Work and are afraid budget cuts could force the school to close the program.

“If they cut the program, then everything I’ve done this far won’t matter,” Dalton State sophomore Benji Parker, 22, said. “Hopefully the credits transfer, but who knows?”

Students plan larger protests later this month. Read the full story in the Atlanta Journal Constitution by clicking here.

Mary Larscheid. Photo courtesy of Albert Lea Tribune.

Cheers to the Albert Lea Tribune in Minnesota for this article on National Association of Social Workers member Mary Larscheid, PhD.

Larscheid was surprised when her doctoral thesis on anger among children was noticed and published by Lambert Academic Publishing. Click here to buy the book on Amazon.com.

Larscheid has been a school social worker for 15  years. She decided to study anger because it is a big issue for children.

“One of the symptoms of depression in children is anger,” she said.

To learn more about how social workers such as Larscheid help children in schools visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Schools and Communities Web page by clicking here.

Myrna Miller Wellons. Photo courtesy of the News & Observer.

The social work community has lost a hero — Myrna Miller Wellons.

Wellons, 40, who was president-elect of the board for the National Association of Social Workers North Carolina Chapter, died of a stroke on Monday. She leaves behind husband Robert Shawn Wellons and  infant son Christopher of Cary, N.C.

This article in the News & Observer described Wellons as a “North Carolina women’s rights and social welfare champion.” That description is right on.

Known by friends as “Mama Myrna,” Wellons lobbied hard for causes she cared about and worked on issues including title protection for social workers, women’s rights, child welfare, and public funding for diabetes.

She  served as director of government relations for the NASW North Carolina chapter and at the time of her death worked in corporate affairs for Lilly USA . In addition, she was vice-chair of the North Carolina Diabetes Advisory Council, a board member of the Mental Health Association of North Carolina, and mentored and trained social workers around the state.

A celebration of Wellons’ life will be held Saturday, March 6 at 1 p.m. at the White Memorial Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, N.C. Memorial gifts can also be made to the Christopher Wellons Fund, c/o Capital Community Foundation, P.O. Box. 18902, Raleigh, N.C., 27619.

SocialWorkersSpeak.org would like to extend its condolescences to Robert and Christopher Wellons and to Mrs. Wellon’s colleagues and friends.

Why social workers?

“We are looking for individuals who have the potential to inspire others, who are people oriented, and have outgoing personalities,” student producer Jennifer Bowman told SocialWorkersSpeak.org. “We feel social workers fit this category.”

Producers of the program also believe that tracing one’s ancestry can help people understand why they behave the way they do today. Jennifer invited social workers to apply for the show by emailing her at jennifer@thegenerationsproject.com.

Photo courtesy of momlogic.com

If you want your child to do better in math you might want to open up a savings account for them, according to recent study from the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work.

Children with savings accounts score on average almost nine percent higher in math that those who do not, the study said. The study was published in the Journal of Family and Economic Issues.

Click here to read the abstract.