Susan Casias is a member:
Choosing life: Native American youth face higher suicide risk
The Daily Times (NM)
Like most young people, Coloradas Mangas wonders about his future.… It’s clear from the [Office of the Medical Investigator] records that investigators consider social and family strife as common precipitating events for youth suicide. Those triggers can include a romantic break-up or an argument with parents or siblings. But those triggers don’t tell the entire story, says Susan Casias, a social worker who has worked in suicide prevention for more than a decade. “What was going on earlier?” asks Albuquerque resident Casias, a member of the Jicarilla Apache tribe in Northwestern New Mexico. “There are always additional issues: Was he in school? Did his family support him? And there are additional issues: domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, rapes, alcohol and drugs?”

Laura Discipio is a member:
[Video] California Woman’s Shocking Descent Into Anorexia, in Her Own Words
ABC News
Laura Discipio, a licensed clinical social worker and executive director of the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, said such attitudes are unfortunate because anorexics are suffering from a mental illness. “Something shifts in their brain … and we are just now working on the resources to really get the research to figure that out,” she said. “Just as you are compelled to go off your diet, they are just compelled to stay on it. Just as you are compelled to eat, they are compelled to restrict. It is a psychiatric, biological illness. It is totally not a choice. Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.”

Trician Lizama is a member:
Documentary focuses on traditional healers
GuamPDN.com
To learn more about the traditional healing practices of the Chamorro people, check out a local documentary featuring interviews with practitioners. The University of Guam divisions of Social Work and Chamorro Studies are cosponsoring two screenings and panel discussion of “I Yo’åmte Siha” (Traditional Healers) by Tricia Lizama. “Essentially, the documentary is about traditional healers and preserving traditional healers in our Chamorro culture,” Lizama, a social work professor at UOG, says. “It really is significant in terms of our culture to have traditional healers interviewed.”

When Parents Can’t Care for Their Children
The New York Times
If you suddenly couldn’t care for your children, what would you want for them? That’s the question asked by Rob Geen, director of policy reform and advocacy at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private charity “devoted to developing a brighter future for millions of children at risk of poor educational, economic, social and health outcomes.”

Brittany Ohman is a member:
[Audio] ‘How Could You Not Know You Were Pregnant?’
NPR
Brittany Ohman is a 41-year-old mother of two and a licensed social worker in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Ohman and NPR’s Rachel Martin grew up together and were good friends through high school. When they were seniors, Ohman got pregnant and no one knew. She didn’t even know — and she knows that sounds crazy. She has heard the question for years.