The author, Kristina Whiton-O’Brien, is VP of NASW-MA:
DCF workers ought to get specialized training
The Boston Globe
As described in “Child services fires 10 who failed to obtain social work licenses” (Metro, Dec. 17), state law enacted last year requires all Department of Children and Families workers to pass a licensing test within nine months of employment. Yet as Maria Mossaides, head of the state Office of the Child Advocate, says, “there’s a larger discussion around what are the core competencies needed to do this work.” Per current law, to be a social worker in Massachusetts, one does not need to attend an accredited school of social work or to take classes in human behavior, assessment, or cultural competency. One just has to pass a test. Yet DCF workers must ensure the safety, permanency, and well-being of vulnerable at-risk children.

David Deutsch is a member:
Sheriff labels shooting ‘suicide by cop’
Thousand Oaks Acorn [Ventura County, CA]
David Deutsch is the executive director of the Ventura County affiliate of the National Alliance of Mental Illness, an organization that aims to help families, individuals and educators get the support and information they need to respond to those with mental illness. NAMI also works to eliminate the stigma and misinformation surrounding those with mental health issues. The agency’s toll-free hotline offers help to those in crisis. Deutsch said that, because the investigation into the shooting is ongoing, he would not speak to whether the officer-involved shooting could be considered a “suicide by cop.” The licensed clinical social worker, who declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding Duncan’s death due to the continuing investigation, said public and facilitated forms of suicide are far rarer than other forms of suicide. They are also less thought-out. “It would be impossible for me to say why someone would take that approach,” he said. “In some cases, people might think they will get notoriety for it. In other cases, it might be that they can’t imagine how they would do it on their own.”

Ruth W. Messinger is a member:
Thirty years of tikkun olam
JUF News
Tikkun olam—repairing the world. For American Jewish World Service President and CEO Ruth Messinger, this core Jewish value resides deep within her DNA-and tikkun olam is the force that created and has driven AJWS for the past 30 years. AJWS, a grantee of JUF, focuses on aiding vulnerable populations suffering from pressing human rights violations, ranging from the genocide in Darfur to the fight against anti-homosexuality laws in Uganda. … “I’m trained as a social worker. I worked briefly in casework and social work research [on] communities organizing for social change,” she said. “I went into politics because after 15 years of doing community work, education, and organizing, I decided it would be interesting. I loved it.”

Sen. Barbara Mikulski

Marylander of the Year: Barbara Mikulski
The Baltimore Sun
Barbara Mikulski probably should have been named Marylander of the Year back in the late 1960s when she was a social worker and community activist who helped lead the hugely improbable fight against a plan to pave over much of Baltimore with a giant interstate highway. But The Sun didn’t come up with the idea for the award for another 20 or so years, and anyway it is only in retrospect that we can fully appreciate how insane the idea of plowing Canton, Fells Point and the Inner Harbor would have been.

Joan Levy is a member:
Getting through the holidays
The Garden Island [Hawaii]
Joan Levy, a licensed clinical social worker on Kauai, said psychiatrists get busy over the holiday season as well. “There’s so much stress around Christmas. It’s economical, social, family, psychological; lots of stress that happens for people around Christmastime,” Levy said. “It’s sort of like tax time for some therapists.” The holiday season has been hailed the most wonderful time of the year by many songs and stories, but it’s not always the case in the real world. That dichotomy is one of the triggers for crisis, according to Levy.