Pathways to Potential puts 23 social workers in 13 Saginaw schools
The Saginaw News
Rick Snyder mentioned in his State of the State address in January, will place social workers were clients can most easily access them to identify a problem before it becomes a crisis, said Sheryl Thompson, DHS field operations deputy director. The social workers will meet individually with students and their families to address safety, education, self-sufficiency truancy and health.

Lee High School Social Worker Named Virginia’s 2012 Outstanding Mentor
Patch.com
When she started at Robert E. Lee High School as a social worker ten years ago, Marcella Fulmore probably didn’t know the impact she would have on many of her students. After speaking with African-American males about their plans for college and finding that they could use a little direction, Fulmore started the mentoring program Powerful African-American Males About Success (PAAMAS).

School of Social Work collaborates with Chilean university on grief facility
CU Columbia Spectator
Published February 6, 2013. CHILE COLLAB | Katherine Shear, a professor at the School of Social Work, delivered a lecture in Chile about complicated grief and agreed to a collaboration with the Universidad Católica.

GSA receives grant to strengthen social work practice for older adults
Phys.Org (press release)
The new money will be used to establish a Hartford/GSA National Center on Gerontological Social Work Excellence, which will focus on three major objectives: a collaboration with the U.S. Veterans Administration (VA) to develop social work research leaders to help advance evidence-based knowledge related to VA practice in aging; the mobilization of the current HGSWI Alumni Network using their expertise to impact practice and policy; and the creation of five Hartford Academic Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Social Work at institutions of higher education.

Eula M. Cousins, 110, pioneering black social worker and educator
Philadelphia Inquirer
Eula M. Cousins, 110, a pioneering black social worker and educator who lived to be one of the oldest Americans, died Wednesday, Jan. 30, at the Cathedral Village retirement community in Philadelphia’s Andorra section. Despite her age, Mrs. Cousins, an avid reader, remained sharp-minded and quick-witted, able to discuss any contemporary issue in detail.

Cary social worker named among most dedicated
Cary News
CARY – As a Cary social worker and founder and executive director of COPE Eldercare, Laurie Ray helps seniors navigate the changes they face as they get older. Ray was recently named one of the nation’s 10 Dedicated and Deserving Social Workers by Social Work Today magazine.

Yamada Assembly bill would protect social work title
Daily Democrat
“Social work is both a calling and a profession,” Yamada said in a news release. “The title ‘social worker’ presumes a high standard of education, a solid grounding in professional ethics, and rigorous real-world training. A consumer has the right to assume that a person with the title meets a high standard of competency and integrity, which cannot be guaranteed when services are provided without a social work degree.”

Post-Newtown, mental health services considered
Yale News
Christine Limone, director of political advocacy for the Connecticut chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, said that once patients emerge from hospitals, the recovery model relies on three prongs of treatment.

Florabel Kinsler dies at 83; social worker aided Holocaust survivors
Los Angeles Times
After World War II, social workers typically urged Holocaust survivors to forget their horrific wartime experiences and get on with their lives. That struck Florabel Kinsler as a foolish and impossible order. During a decades-long career, the Los Angeles social worker and psychologist encouraged survivors to speak up about their traumatic experiences.

In Blended Families, Responsibility Blurs
NYT Blogs
It was that group’s leader, Moira Keller, who e-mailed me to suggest this topic. A clinical social worker with the Sixty Plus program at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital, she wrote that “one of the biggest challenges I have is blended families in later life.”

State official investigating incident between deputy, social worker
Omaha World-Herald
She said she will check into allegations of misconduct by the social worker, as well as look at whether the situation holds broader lessons about Nebraska’s child welfare system. “Child welfare system improvement will be a focus,” Rogers said.