Here’s How to Know If You Need a Financial Therapist
Time Magazine
To find a therapist, start with the FTA’s member directory (financialtherapyassociation.org). Practitioners tend to be mental-health professionals, social workers, or financial planners. Ask potential therapists about their approach and their training. Those who aren’t financial planners should have some kind of therapeutic licensure, such as an advanced degree in marriage and family therapy, psychology, or social work. If you’re talking to a financial planner and not a counseling professional, look for a willingness to refer you to such a therapist if your problems are beyond her area of expertise.

USC Social Work commits to virtual parent education
USC News
Family educational support will soon go mobile thanks to a groundbreaking Commitment to Action announced at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) America. Just as technology has transformed most aspects of American life, it will soon have the potential to transform the health and literacy of children by engaging and mentoring parents and caregivers in the first home visit program to be delivered in a live format entirely online. Parents as Teachers, one of the nation’s most respected family support organizations impacting nearly 250,000 families annually in all 50 states, and the USC School of Social Work unveiled a multiyear CGI Commitment to Action to make “virtual parent education” a reality.

Mark Smith is a member:
O’Malley fires up progressives in Marshalltown
The Iowa Daily Democrat
[Martin O’Malley’s] latest swing opened at the home of state Rep. Mark Smith, a social worker. While he hasn’t settled on a candidate, Smith said there’s a lot about O’Malley which appeals, including his experience as a the governor of a big and diverse state. “He is a governor with a history of governing one of the largest populated states in the United States for eight years and had an excellent progressive history,” Smith said. “He strikes me as a ‘bring us together’ type person.”

How same-sex couples got the right to adopt in Massachusetts
The Boston Globe
The debate about whether openly gay couples were fit to raise children whose birth families weren’t available, or fit to raise any children at all, raged across the state, dividing politicians and stoking fears about nontraditional families. “It was all about gay men as predators, as people who sexually abuse children,” says Sue Hyde, who organized grass-roots supporters of same-sex parents to protest the state’s action and today is a staff member of the National LGBTQ Task Force. “It was seen as both an attack on people’s right to be foster parents but, a much bigger thing, as their right to be parents,” says Kevin Cathcart, a lawyer from GLAD, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, who was co-counsel on Babets and Jean’s case challenging the state’s policy. On GLAD’s side were child welfare advocates and professional associations, including the National Association of Social Workers and the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society. Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of Boston weighed in against them. The Dukakis administration held firm.

Marilyn Ladin is a member:
Palliative care offers key support, eases suffering
Houston Chronicle
“Health care professionals needed in palliative care include physicians (internal medicine, family practice medicine, pediatric medicine, psychiatry, neurology, geriatric medicine, for example), who are boarded in hospice and palliative care, nurse practitioners (with either an adult or a pediatrics specialty, with experience in oncology, heart failure, neurology, critical care medicine and/or other such specialties, with end-of-life-care experience), licensed clinical social workers (with specialized training/certifications in relevant fields, such as end-of-life-care plus gerontology, thanatology, oncology, heart failure, emergency medicine, neurology, etc.),” said Marilyn Ladin, clinical social worker, palliative care department, Houston Methodist Hospital.

Randall Edwards is a member:
Emily Eisner’s Play It Forward gives sports equipment, support to schools
Los Angeles Daily News
[Emily] Eisner began with a year-long grass-roots campaign to collect new and gently used sports equipment in 2012, raising more than $1,000 for equipment that first year. She organized a walk-relay at Sierra Canyon, accepting sports equipment in lieu of a registration fee. “It was creative and genius of her to come up with this overall plan,” said Randall Edwards, a social worker at Haddon Avenue Elementary. “I know our budget for equipment was very limited. Budget cuts have affected everything from personnel to materials. When she brought in those hula hoops, those jump-ropes and balls, it meant a lot to the kids. It’s really remarkable that it was not just a one-shot deal. It’s a credit to her that she wanted to keep it going and expand to other schools.”

Stephen Karp is the ED of NASW-CT:
Avon Parents Criticize Plan To Cut School Social Workers
Hartford Courant
The plan to eliminate social workers has drawn attention from outside the district. The state chapter of the National Association of Social Workers has sent letters to the board and Superintendent Gary Mala asked that the three social workers be kept. Stephen Karp, director of the state chapter of the association, said that social workers bring a broader perspective to their work than psychologists. He said that includes issues beyond school that may impact students’ performance, including troubles at home. “I am afraid that the school board’s approach is very focused on the classroom and takes away focus on what is happening outside the classroom that affects students,” Karp said.

April Steen is a member:
Children of fallen commandos pay tribute during college program
The Tampa Tribune
Operation EPIC — which stands for Educational Preparedness Informational Conference — is a four-day program to get the prospective freshman used to college life, says April Steen, the foundation’s licensed clinical social worker. This is the second time Operation EPIC was held, says Steen. Last year’s event, at Wake Forest University, was a pilot program. This year, the University of Tampa is co-hosting, with the students staying in a dorm on campus. “They have already agreed to do it again next year,” says Steen. Having the program at UT allowed the foundation to expand it, she says.

Judith Josiah-Martin is a member:
Embracing diversity stressed at Maine Child Welfare Conference
Bangor Daily News
The keynote speaker at the 21st annual Maine Child Welfare Conference told the story of how well-meaning and loving relatives didn’t accept that her child, who is half black and half white, needed to be treated differently when it came to her hair care. “They were treating Nicky as if she were white,” said Judith Josiah-Martin, Office of Multicultural Programs director at the University of Maine and a doctoral student at the Smith College School of Social Work, recalling her daughter’s first camping trip decades ago with her white in-laws. “They washed her hair every day. It frizzed. It frizzed every day.”… Diversity matters because it affects how people seek health care services, she said. Josiah-Martin has more than 25 years of experience working as a clinical social worker and is a former director of clinical services at substance abuse and mental health programs in Antigua. Diversity, whether it be race, sexuality, social or economic factors, should be embraced in order to provide the best care, she said.

Bette Freedson is a member:
[Audio] The modern family
Maine Public Broadcasting Network
What are the challenges to the modern family?  Learn where to turn for help when blending families, facing divorce or trying to co-parent. Guests: Terri DeCoster, MS, CPP, Board Chair, KidsFirst; Bette J. Freedson, clinical social worker and author of “Soul Mothers’ Wisdom: Seven Insights For The Single Mother”; Ray Amidon, LCPC, LMFT, clinician who continues to work on a daily basis with parents, children and families.

Sandra Edmonds Crewe is a member:
What’s the right reaction when a white stranger walks into a black church?
The Washington Post
The idea that open doors might become closed doors struck some parishioners as unthinkable. “We have to be open,” said Sandra Edmonds Crewe, a professor of social work at Howard University and a member of the First Baptist Church of Highland Park in Landover, Md. “It doesn’t matter what you wear, it doesn’t matter what you look like, doesn’t matter even what’s in your heart, because we believe that when we have an opportunity, we can make a difference,” Crewe said.

Stephen Gorin is the ED of NASW-NH:
[Audio] 10-Year Look Ahead on Aging: Retirement Security “Key”
Public News Service
It’s a ten-year look ahead on aging issues, and New Hampshire advocates expect retirement security to be key at next month’s White House Conference on Aging. Stephen Gorin, executive director, New Hampshire Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, took part in a regional meeting in Boston where advocates traded ideas in preparation for the White House Conference. He says there was overwhelming agreement that Social Security plays a critical role in keeping older Americans afloat financially. “Social Security is particularly important for people with the lowest incomes in the aging population,” says Gorin. “But we need to increase Social Security benefits across the board.”

Jill Levenson is a member:
[Audio] For Registered Sex Offenders, An Uphill Civil Rights Battle
NPR
Policy research, however, indicates that registries may foster a false sense of security. “The consensus of that research does not point in the direction of registries reducing sexual crimes or sexual recidivism,” says Jill Levenson, a clinical social worker and associate professor at Barry University in Florida, who studies the way society monitors and treats sexual criminals. Employment, stable housing and good social support are the most important factors that help sex offenders reintegrate into the community, Levenson says. But policies like the public registry and residency restrictions make it very difficult for offenders to find work and housing. “When you create a situation where people believe they have nothing to lose, they’re more likely to act accordingly,” Levenson notes.

The writer, Carla Damron, is the ED of NASW-SC:
Damron: We will work together to remove Confederate flag
The State (Columbia, SC)
The S.C. chapter of the National Association of Social Workers is committed to honoring the memory of the lives we lost through our prayers, our thoughts and our actions. We will vehemently support the bill to remove the Confederate flag. Just as we did for the rally on Saturday, in which 1,500 people protested the flag, we will mobilize membership to attend rallies and contact legislators for its removal. We will not stop until this battle is won.

Keith Anderson is a member:
Pet ownership and its potential benefits for older adults
Science Daily
When asked about what sparked the study, author Keith Anderson from the University of Montana commented “As a geriatric social work researcher, I’ve always been interested in finding creative, cost effective ways to improve the lives and well-being of older adults…My co-authors direct the Veterinary Outreach Program, affiliated with The Ohio State University, which provides mobile wellness care for the pets of older adults and/or homebound residents. Our interests overlapped and we began to discuss ways in which we could link pets in shelters with older adults who may benefit from pet ownership.” The study was funded by the WALTHAM Foundation.

Geography of Poverty: A journey through forgotten America
MSNBC
The Geography of Poverty is a project decades in the making for Matt Black. For nearly 20 years he has chronicled life in California’s Central Valley, a vast agricultural area that draws a steady flow of migrant workers hoping to dredge some semblance of a living from the soil. The region’s recent drought, along with hostile immigration policy and untenable working conditions, have kept these workers shackled to hard labor, low wages and uncertain futures. Because many of these workers are undocumented they’re often not afforded access to social programs like public colleges, housing or food stamps. Many are forced to sleep in cramped quarters, sometimes paying twice as much for rent than the going rate.