Waco social worker reports for duty, knowing West relatives might show up
Fort Worth Star Telegram
WACO – Social worker Melissa James, like 284 of her fellow doctors, nurses and other caregivers, answered the call for reinforcements at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center on Wednesday night. Unlike most of them, however, James, a 15-year employee of the hospital, went about her duties even as relatives from West were arriving for treatment.

Balancing work and life is everyone’s problem
Globe and Mail
Nonsense, says Dana Becker, a professor in the graduate school of social work and social research at Bryn Mawr College just outside of Philadelphia, and a psychotherapist. That advice can be pernicious, because it diverts us from looking at the sources of stress, which are social and cultural.

Social gaming promotes healthy behavior, new USC research finds
HealthCanal.com
Gotsis led the research study in collaboration with Donna Spruijt-Metz and Thomas Valente of the Keck School, Maryalice Jordan-Marsh of the School of Social Work and Hua Wang, who at the time of study was a doctoral student at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and is now at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. John Gaspari, director of the USC Center for Work and Family Life, provided support for recruitment and data collection resources.

Videoconferencing makes caregivers a part of hospice planning
FierceHealthIT
Such meetings typically include representatives of medicine, nursing, social work, and spiritual care offered to hospice patients. Family members and caregivers often are absent, though, due to distance, the frail condition of the patient and caregiving demands.

Cherokees plan to create their own DSS agency – Huffington Post
Huffington Post
BRYSON CITY, N.C. — Angry over the way Swain County social services workers handled a child abuse case in which a 15-month old girl died, a Native American tribe is planning to form its own agency to protect children on a North Carolina reservation. A special committee of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians will appoint a board for the proposed social services agency, said Ruth McCoy, a committee member, told The Associated Press. Once the board is appointed, it will hire a director, she said.

Experts: Limit kids’ exposure to tragedies
Winston-Salem Journal
Maintaining a normal routine “helps kids learn that safety and security are still there,” said Register, a licensed social worker and a member of the National Association of Social Workers. “And a routine allows them to trust that mom and dad will take care of them.”

‘Last 5’ event in Fort Myers honors Boston Marathon bombing victims, runners …
The News-Press
Dr. Cindy Matthes is clinical social worker based in Fort Myers specializing in traumatic stress and critical incident management. Because of the chaos and disturbing scenes surrounding the events in Boston this week, whether witnessed in person or through repeated images from the media, Matthes is offering a free debriefing group meeting for local runners and their families who experienced the Boston tragedy in some way.