UB Offers First-ever Regional Wellness Conference on Better Health Care for …
UB News Center
In collaboration with UB’s Native American Center for Wellness Research in the School of Social Work, the conference is the first of its kind to be held in the Haudenosaunee territory, for Native Americans residing and working in the Western New York and Southern Ontario area.

Iowa National Guard: Big age difference, but similar goal for 2 Iowa medics
DesMoinesRegister.com (blog)
Grinstead went into social work, beginning his career as a psychiatric social worker at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, where he still works in the in-patient psychiatric unit.

New Orleans called family back home
Montgomery Advertiser
Today, five years after the storm, Watson, 59, is back in New Orleans, trying to help her fellow residents in her job as a social worker.

Healing of students all in a day’s work
Albany Times Union
The job of the school psychologist, social worker and guidance counselor has grown more demanding as student needs have changed.

As unemployed lose benefits, more seek welfare benefits
Philadelphia Inquirer
Out of a strip mall in South Camden, county and state social workers operate a virtual fix-it shop for displaced workers on welfare.

The 1999-2001 ABC series featured Saturday Night Live alum Norm Macdonald as “Norm Henderson,” a hockey player who is sentenced to become a social worker to make amends for gambling debts and tax evasion.

This premise upset a lot of social workers because it defied reality – social work is a specialized profession that requires much education and training.

Q: “The Norm Show” premiered more than a decade ago. In hindsight do you think social workers took the comedy too seriously? Or were they correct to call for its cancellation?

“Contemporary characterizations and depictions suggest that African American males harbor a lifelong disregard for their own personal development, and a lack of commitment to their loved ones and society in general,” a societal attitude that keeps them from being helped, said National Association of Social Workers member Waldo E. Johnson.

Johnson, MSW, PhD,  is an associate professor at the school editor of the book, “Social Work With African American Males.” He challenged social workers to use their expertise to target this neglected demographic group.

African Americans have made great strides in the social work profession. To learn more, visit the National Association of Social Workers’ Help Starts Here 2010 Black History Month Celebration by clicking here.

Jane Addams with young people at Hull House in Chicago. Photo by the Associated Press.

Chicago this year will celebrate the 150th birthday of social work legend Jane Addams with a block party and other events, according to this report in the Chicago Tribune.

Addams, who died in 1935, scored many firsts. She used her inheritance to open Hull House, likely the first community center in the nation. She also created the first public kindergarten, the first playground and the first homeless shelter for women in Chicago, the article said.

“She believed in a common good, in which we all had a stake in each other’s future,” said Lisa Lee, director of the Hull House Museum. “No one is more relevant than Jane Addams.”

You can read more about Jane Addams at the National Association of Social Workers’ Web site by clicking here and at the NASW Foundation Web site by clicking here.

The Philadelphia Inquirer recently ran this story mentioning social workers who have clients who have exhausted unemployment benefits and are using welfare. Social worker Nidia Sinclair said her job has never been harder.

“It’s a work-first program, but the problem is, with the economy the way it is, there’s no work,” she said. “The frustration level is very high right now.”

Q: Social workers, how are you helping long-term unemployed clients stay positive and find new job opportunities?

Caitlin Uze. Photo courtesy of Wendi Gruninger.

Uze, who is majoring in social work, is using her new position to help children accept themselves and others. When she was a child Uze wore braces and glasses, was chubby, and spoke with a lisp.

She shows a childhood picture of herself when she makes school appearances. Students are surprised the awkward girl grew up to become a pageant winner. Uze uses that to prove the point children should accept those who are different and young people should celebrate their uniqueness.

“In order to be successful, you don’t need to be perfect,” she says.

To learn more about how social workers help young people develop, visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Schools and Communities Web page by clicking here.

Katrina Five Years After: Hurricane Left a Legacy of Health Concerns
FOXNews
Although the study authors were astonished, Vic Sims, a social worker at West Jefferson Medical Center in Louisiana, said these types of issues aren’t unusual — particularly in children, because they don’t have the coping mechanisms adults do – especially after experiencing a life-altering event like Katrina.

Karate champ merges martial arts, business, social work
The Post-Standard – Syracuse.com (blog)
At SU, he earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and psychology, and a master’s in social work. After college, Abdul-Qadir worked as a mental health therapist at various nonprofit agencies and even sat on the boards of a number of agencies in the community.

Black men need special attention from social workers to deal with their needs
PhysOrg.com
The book is a collection of studies, which details the disadvantages that black men face and suggests ways they can be helped. The contributors are leading scholars in social work and other related fields from around the country.

Why don’t women have more rights in Muslim countries?
Washington Post (blog)
The growing empowerment of women is reflected in increased educational and professional opportunities (physicians, journalists, lawyers, engineers, social workers, university professors, and entrepreneurs), legal reforms and voting rights.

Elder abuse the subject of research
Ventura County Star
By Kathleen Wilson Armed with one of the largest federal awards ever made to combat elder abuse, Ventura County social workers are joining with researchers  to test ways to reduce its impact.

How to Help Your Child Get Control of Their Attention Deficit Disorder
Associated Content
An Interview with Therapist William Shryer DCSW, LCSW: Do you feel frustrated because you’re unsure on what to do about your child who has attention deficit disorder (ADD)? If so you’re not alone.

LA County’s leak investigation is about the law, not publicity
Los Angeles Times
When incomplete confidential case information is selectively leaked, both the public and my social workers are disadvantaged because there is no legal for us to correct inaccurate or misleading information.

Chasity Davis and newborn son Devin. Photo by Jared Hamilton of the Saginaw News.

Cheers to Michigan Live for this article  mentioning Stacy Farrell, who has a social work degree.

Farrell was shopping with her children at Fashion Square Mall in Saginaw Turnpike when she came across Chasity Davis, 19, who was in labor.

Farrell ended up  helping Davis deliver her six-pound son Devin in front of the mall. An emergency medical dispatcher guided Farrell by telephone. After it was over Farrell realized what a heroic task she had done.

“Then you get shaky. You were hugging people you never met before because of what you went through,” she said. “It’s amazing what people can do when they work together.”

Social workers will go out with researchers to test ways to reduce the impact of elder abuse, the article said. Preliminary results of the $654,000 study will be available by January.

Although the study is being done in California, the results are expected to have  a nationwide impact on preventing elder abuse.

To learn more about how social workers help older clients, visit the National Association of Social Workers’ Help Starts Here “Seniors & Aging” Web page by clicking here.

Parents should be open to ideas when dealing with teachers
LATimes
“Most schools have a back-to-school night at the beginning of the year,” says Jennifer Kogan, social worker and therapist in private practice from Washington, D.C.

More Houston seniors are seeking help in hard times
Houston Chronicle
Social workers say the influx of seniors is the result of a combination of factors, with the economy as the leader. The recession has made it difficult for many seniors to stretch their fixed incomes.

The Problem of Women’s Self-Expression: A Scientific Perspective
Huffington Post (blog)
I spoke recently on this topic with Marcy Cole, Ph.D., a licensed clinical social worker in private practice in Los Angeles. Marcy is also the Executive Director of First Tuesday USA, a women’s group dedicated to creating a community of extraordinary women through social connectivity, professional networking and social service.

Teachers Forced to Fill Role of School Social Workers
Public News Service
National Association of Social Workers-Michigan Chapter Executive Director Maxine Thome says the added responsibility comes at a time when the economy is causing more stress within families.

Grant money will fund Weston school social worker position
Weston Forum
Money the Weston school district didn’t know it was getting will be used to fund a newly created social worker position in the upcoming school year.

Crime issues still vex library
San Francisco Examiner
A full-time social worker is stationed in the Main Library in order to do outreach with homeless people, and there’s a homeless outreach team that goes to the site.

Myth Of The Well-Adjusted Asian-American Challenged By Researchers
Biomed Middle East
In their paper, “Barriers to Health Care Among Asian Americans,” UB School of Social Work professors Wooksoo Kim and Robert H. Keefe write that Asian Americans cannot be carelessly lumped together with such easy stereotypes as “well adjusted” or “successful.”

One person’s clutter is another’s disorder
Boston Herald
By Tenley Woodman Childhood trauma is common among hoarders, according to Boston University School of Social Work’s Compulsive Hoarding Research Project.

Thousands strain Fort Hood’s mental health system
USA Today
Chaplains provide marriage counseling, but for soldiers who want to see a licensed marriage counselor, the base’s social work department has two, each with a caseload of 60 couples, says Lt. Col. Nancy Ruffin, department director.

5 Ways to Get Kids’ Butts Outta Bed
Momlogic.com
Momlogic friend and parent educator Jill Spivack, LCSW, tells us that the key to establishing bedtime again actually starts in the morning: Wake your kids earlier so they’ll be tired earlier at night.

Louise Chadez

National Association of Social Workers member Louise Chadez, MSW, recently lost her bid to win a seat in the Washington State House of Representatives.

In this column in the Spokesman-Review Chadez talks about what she thinks is wrong with the election process. She also learned something about what voters think of social workers.

“I learned that we really don’t value social workers as competent beyond our role of do-gooders,” she said. “I can think of no other work more complicated than salvaging lives and finding resources for those in need.”

Q: There are many social workers in politics — Congressman Eldophus Towns and Arizona House Rep. Kyrsten Sinema to name a few. But do you agree with Chadez that the many in the public view social workers as “do-gooders” and not able politicians?

Campos-Waite emigrated to the United States from Costa Rica not knowing English. However, her English skills improved dramatically after she enrolled in programs at the Carlsbad Literacy Center.

She went on to earn associate’s and bachelor’s degrees in social work and got a license in social work, the article said.

“I knew that I would have to understand the English language and speak it very well if I was going to succeed,” Campos-Waite said. “Fortunately, I love to study. I didn’t want to stay in this country the rest of my life unable to speak English.

Bassick High School students pray before meeting with the school superintendent to protest the transfer of assistant principal and social worker Joyce Diaz-Hennessey.

Bassick High School assistant principal and social worker Joyce Diaz-Hennessey must have made a very positive impression on the students at the Bridgeport, CT, school.

It was so positive that students held a peaceful demonstration, petition drive and Facebook campaign to protest her transfer to another school, according to this article on the ctpost.com.

Angel Marcial, a teen father, said Diaz-Hennessey encouraged him to go back to school after dropping out and getting a job. ”She said give him another chance. He can do it,” Marcial said.

Diaz-Hennessey, who worked at the school for 20 years, said she had no idea the students would hold a protest. I’m going to miss them too,” she said.

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

Alcohol and Depression: Which Came First the Chicken or the Egg?
Beliefnet.com (blog)
Sherry Gaba, LCSW, is a Psychotherapist and Life Coach in private practice and for Celebrity Rehab. She is a frequent contributor to anthologies, blogs, and newsletters, is a sought after speaker and has developed recovery and life coaching packages for anyone who is ready to move forward in their life. 

 Social worker losses may hurt attendance
Long Beach Press-Telegram
But Cox and the other social worker members of the “Attendance Recruitment Team” launched just last school year won’t be at LBUSD this fall to make such house calls.

Judge hears testimony against Kentucky worker furloughs
Louisville Courier-Journal
Louisville social worker Rebecca Harbin testified that she and two other social workers are already carrying the caseload of five social workers because of a staffing shortage.

A Report from Gaza
Boston Globe
A social worker, Fuller is especially interested and trained in using specially designed play routines to help heal and build resiliency in children who have experienced trauma.

Social Worker Incentive Legislation Passed by California State
California Newswire
Said Rebecca Gonzales, Director of Government Relations for the National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter, “We are very pleased that this measure passed this important hurdle.

Ted Bogosian. Photo courtesy of Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

Award-winning television director, producer and writer Ted Bogosian has worked on some of the most popular programs on television.

He wrote, produced and directed “Anatomy of a Homicide: Life on the Street,” an Emmy-nominated police drama that ran for seven seasons on NBC. He directed an episode of “Oz,” HBO’s gritty prison drama. And Bogosian has produced several major series for PBS, including “Running Mate” and “War in the Wind.”

However, he said his recent work on the 55-minute documentary “What Love Is: Pathfinders” has a special place in his heart. The documentary follows Pathfinders, an organization partly founded by social worker and National Association of Social Workers member Tina Staley that provides holistic, compassionate care to people grappling with cancer and other serious illnesses.

“Well, my mother (Natalie Bogosian) died from lung cancer a long time ago,” Bogosian said in an interview with SocialWorkersSpeak.org. “And I would say this became a movie that I made for her so the aspects of this production are very personal.”

Staley, MSW, LCSW, started an organization in 2000 to provide more hands-on, caring services to people suffering from cancer and other conditions after observing the care her brother received for cancer. She later teamed up with marriage and family counselor Kristin MacDermott and changed the national organization’s name to Pathfinders.

“(My brother) experienced the best of medicine, the best of buildings,” Staley said in an interview with the Aspen Times. But when I looked in people’s eyes, I saw fear, disconnect, separation. I thought, ‘How can you have the best of everything and still have so much suffering?’ It’s because their psychosocial needs aren’t being met.”

Pathfinders does address more than the medical needs of patients. The program is designed to meet the mind, body and spiritual needs of clients. Patients are matched with a “Pathfinder,” a trained professional with an advanced degree in social work, family counseling or therapy. Pathfinders act as patient advocates.

A recent study indicated  most patients believe Pathfinders is helpful and the program  improves quality of life and self-efficacy and helps ease distress and despair.

Tina Staley. Photo courtesy of Duke University.

Staley and Bogosian met through a mutual friend. They also both have ties to Duke University in North Carolina. Staley is an integrative oncology instructor at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center and Bogosian, a Duke alumni, was a visiting filmmaker at the university.

Bogosian has finished filming the documentary and will soon have a series of special screenings of the film for hospitals and for social workers at Duke University and around the nation. He will also enter “What Love Is: Pathfinders” into film festivals.

Bogosian already had ties to social work because his wife, Lily Gulian-Bogosian, earned a degree in social work from the University of New Hampshire.

“I knew a little about it from her experience,” he said. “I really had not worked carefully in a professional setting with social workers before.”

However, he said his experience filming “What is Love: Pathfinders” made him realize social workers could go beyond working on a case-by-case basis in hospital settings and create a program that could benefit cancer patients and their families throughout the country.

And he said filming the 50 cancer patients for his documentary was also an uncertain journey because, unlike filming a drama such as “Anatomy of a Homicide,” you have no script to follow. You merely have to record life as it is lived, both positives and negatives.

“Documentaries and drama are a search for truth,” Bogosian said. “Dramas are looking for emotional truth. Documentaries are looking for truth in words.”

To learn how social workers such as Tina Staley help people deal with illness visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Health & Wellness Web page by clicking here.

NASW has other information about cancer. You can find out how social workers conduct cancer research by clicking here and get additional resources for cancer survivors and caregivers by clicking here.

Renee Zellweger and Bradley Cooper in "Case 39." Photo courtesy of ACESHOWBIZ.com.

Actress Renee Zellweger plays a social worker who rescues a child who may be evil incarnate in the horror film “Case 39.”

The 2006 movie got bad reviews in New Zealand and other countries and has still not been released in the United States, not even on DVD, according to IMDb.com. 

But Zellweger got at least one perk from playing a social worker. She is now dating “Case 39″ co-star Bradley Cooper, according to this article on Monsters and Critics.com.

In December SocialWorkersSpeak interviewed movie critic Forrest Hartman about the impact of “Case 39″ on the public perception of social workers. To read that interview click here.

Language and culture, health literacy, health insurance and immigrant status create vast differences in the quality of health care among Asian Americans, according to social work professors Wooksoo Kim and Robert H. Keefe.

“Asian Americans are considered a ‘model minority,’ which prevents many Asian Americans from getting help when they need it, and this study addresses that issue,” Kim said. “There is a dire need to expand our knowledge regarding better health care services for Asian Americans.”

To learn more about the study, read this article at sify.com or this article at the University at Buffalo news center.

To find out more about how social workers help clients get better health care, visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Health & Wellness Web page by clicking there.

The social workers investigated chronically absent children. Often they found the families of these children were homeless or in danger of being homeless. Or low-income parents had to travel long distances to work and their offspring were taking advantage of their absence.

Although other school staff can knock on doors to let parents know children are absent, social workers have skills to help families find housing, health care and other services they need to keep children in school, laid off social worker Tory Cox said. Cox is  a National Association of Social Workers member.

“There’s a difference between relaying a message and helping solve problems that contribute to the underlying reason that the problem exists,” Cox said.

To learn more about the role of social workers in schools, visit NASW’s “Help Starts Here” Schools and Communities Web page by clicking here.

Sister Mary Alice Murphy. Photo courtesy of the Fort Collins Coloradoan.

Cheers to the Fort Collins Coloradoan for this article on social worker Sister Mary Alice Murphy, a one-woman wrecking crew against homelessness.

Murphy says she is fighting to end homelessness in the Fort Collins area and  is active with several organizations, including one named in honor of her — the Sister Mary Alice Murphy Center of Hope.

Murphy said she was inspired by her parents. “Both Mother and Dad believed you should help other people,” she said. “I think a lot of who you are is what your parents instill in you.”

To learn more about how social workers help the homeless check out the resources available at the National Association of Social Workers’ Homelessness Web page section by clicking here. NASW’s “Help Starts Here” also features the ”Family Safety Real Life Stories – From Homelessness to Independent Living.”  To read it click here.