News Items – December 15, 2022

The First National US White Ribbon Day Against Gender Based Violence Launched On Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.
Financial Content
White Ribbon USA is delighted to announce the launch of the first official US National White Ribbon Day on Capitol Hill, Washington D.C. The event organized by Dr.Angelo McClain, CEO National Association of Social Workers (NASW), supported by the US Department of VA and attended by top government officials and other dignitaries who showed solidarity in the fight to end gender-based violence and discrimination towards women.

Caitlin Cantor is a member of NASW-NJ:
How to Handle the Uncertainty That Comes With Relationships
Psychology Today
Everything except this very moment is uncertain. When you go to bed at night, you expect your car to be where you parked in the morning. In reality, you don’t know that it will be there until the morning comes and you find it in the same place. Most people don’t acknowledge all of the uncertainties that truly exist. If your car isn’t there in the morning, you deal with it then, rather than worrying all night about whether or not it will be there.

Susan Mah is a member of NASW-MS:
Finding a needle in the haystack
The Oxford Eagle
In the days that followed, one of my new neighbors gave me salsa and chips and homemade chocolate chip cookies, another gave me a bouquet of flowers, while yet another made me a coffee cake. I had found that needle in the haystack! In my work as a psychotherapist, I often share a pie chart with my patients that illustrates six vital elements of wellness: health, relationships, security, purpose, environment, and community.

Brayn Mares is government relations director for NASW-TX:
Texas fights federal rule that would outlaw LGBTQ discrimination in state adoptions and foster care
The Texas Tribune
Bryan Mares, the government relations director at the National Association of Social Workers Texas, said the state law allowing religious providers to refuse services to LGBTQ couples creates a supply issue for the LGBTQ children in the foster system who need affirming homes. “It makes it much more difficult to find families who might already identify as part of the LGBTQ community to bring children that are in the system into their home,” Mares said of the law. “It really just impedes our ability to prioritize LGBTQ youth placements into homes where they are being supported in a way that they need.”

Annette Ferrigno is a member of NASW-NJ:
Union County Moms Launch Nonprofit to Address Childhood Sexual Abuse
TAPinto Cranford
“I have seen tremendous suffering because of this,” said Annette Ferrigno, a licensed clinical social worker and Scotch Plains mom, who has been providing services to families for over 20 years. “Trauma doesn’t allow us to look because it freezes us, it overwhelms us. It is so important to be mindful when addressing this,” she told TAPinto. Ferrigno founded Mindfully Aware with the help of fellow clinical social worker and Cranford mom, Jenn Carroll. Mindfully Aware aims to empower communities by educating them on ways to prevent childhood sexual abuse. 

Brent Metcalf is a member of NASW-TN:
Scientists Say Mindfulness Can Work Just as Well as Anxiety Medication (If You Do It Right)
Yahoo
“During the therapy process, the client and therapist will learn what triggers the client’s anxiety,” says Brent Metcalf, a licensed clinical social worker at Tri Star Counseling. “The client will hopefully be able to identify and cope with the triggers during the therapeutic process and learn coping skills to decrease the anxiety. If the anxiety is severe enough or bothers the client enough, medication can also be used to treat anxiety along with therapy.”

Edward Harper is a member of NASW-TN:
BMH: The aftermath of caregiving can bring range of emotions
The Daily Times
“The aftermath of caregiving is a chaos of moods and emotions,” said Blount Memorial Senior Services coordinator and licensed clinical social worker Edward Harper. “It is a sense of urgency with no direction. These are the ‘ghosts’ of caregiving – the feeling of needing to be someplace doing something other than where you are or doing what you are doing. These caregiving ‘ghosts’ also are memory robbers. Former caregivers often report a brain fog and a disruption in sequencing of tasks, as well as completing of affairs at hand,” Harper said.

Jennifer Christensen is a member of NASW-UT:
The future of teen centers in Utah
The Utah Statesman
Mountain High School also has the district’s young parent program. They have a mother’s room in the Teen Center, which includes breast pumps and a recliner to assist the moms at the school. “We’re bringing the resources to the students here, so they can come to school,” said Jennifer Christensen, a licensed clinical social worker at Mountain High School and the coordinator of the teen center. “The reason for that is because their best chance is education.” Christensen received her bachelor’s and master’s from Utah State University. Her first clinical internship was at Adams Elementary School in Logan.   

Laura Gomez-Horton is a member of NASW-TX:
Travis County commissioners approve contracts for behavioral health services
Community Impact
The YWCA will provide mental health services, such as talk therapy, yoga therapy, somatic experiencing therapy, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing—a type of psychotherapy used to treat PTSD. The YWCA’s goal is to provide services to 200 people, said Laura Gomez-Horton, a licensed clinical social worker at the YWCA. “We address behavioral health through a trauma-informed lens that asks not what is wrong with this person, but what has happened or is happening to them,” Gomez-Horton said at the meeting.

Michelle Felder is a member of NASW-NYC:
How to talk to boys about their siblings’ periods: Experts explain how to have the conversation
Yahoo
Michelle Felder, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist from Parenting Pathfinders, says it’s important to have an open and honest conversation with your son about what a period is and why it happens. “I encourage parents to be clear, factual and honest about the changes that can happen to all bodies as they develop,” says Felder, “and then talk specifically about the changes that typically occur to a person assigned female at birth and to a person assigned male at birth.”

As student mental health needs soar, schools turn to telehealth
The Washington Post
A growing number of public schools across the country are following the same path — turning to remote health care when the demand for aid has spiked and the supply of practitioners has not. To pay for it, some school districts are using federal covid relief money, as studies show rising depression, anxiety and suspected suicide attempts among adolescents.

How social workers have become a ‘game-changer’ for CT police departments
CT Post
The mission and goals of police social workers are included in the Social Work Law Enforcement project. The project network has over 80 members and is steadily growing, leaders say. Project goals include combating disparate minority contacts in the justice system and addressing mental health needs. Police across the nation say calls from “emotionally disturbed persons” have increased dramatically over the past several years.

Misplaced Efforts on Racial Equity Put Children’s Lives in Danger
American Enterprise Institute
Two weeks after three-year-old Shaquan Butler was found dead at a homeless shelter in Queens, two more young children were fatally stabbed by their mother inside a family shelter in the Bronx. There were plenty of warning signs in both cases, and even worse the, Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) had already been investigating the families prior to the murders. What keeps social workers from rescuing children in unsafe homes and how can child welfare agencies start putting kids’ safety first?

|   Leave A Comment