‘Bullying may not be only cause of suicide’
The Korea Times
Jae Kim, a clinical social worker who works for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, said that though bullying may seem like the main cause behind teen suicide, there often are a number of other contributing factors.

NMSU School Of Social Work Partners With Agency To Help Community
KRWG
The School of Social Work in NMSU’s College of Health and Social Services teaches programs such as transition services for independent living for teenagers aging out of foster care. The programs exist because of a partnership with the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) as part of the Family and Child Welfare Training Project.

North Carolina County Invests in Social Work App
govtech.com
Social workers in Cabarrus County, N.C., will have a new tool to use to help manage child protection cases – Compass CoPilot. The mobile app gives mobile access to Compass Pilot, a program county employees already use that stores client data and documents. The change eliminates some paperwork, and the application automatically links any new information taken in the field with data back at the office.

Exhibit to Capture Social Worker’s Contributions in Public Policy
Social Justice Solutions
As part of an ongoing commitment to capture the historical and present-day contribution’s social workers have made to public policy, a collection of Congressional Social Work Caucus and Congressional Research Institute for Social Work and Policy photographs and documents will be placed on display for public viewing on Capitol Hill.

State anti-poverty coalition finalizes legislative agenda
The Register-Herald
After months of meetings and discussions, the “Our Children, Our Future Campaign to End Child Poverty” coalition’s approved 2014 state legislative agenda focuses on issues ranging from increasing the minimum wage to adding 30 minutes of physical activity to each school day.

Lynne Spevack is a member:
Beating ‘winter blues’ a walk in the park
The Columbus Dispatch
“If you come here in the snow, it’s delightful,” said Lynne Spevack, a licensed social worker and psychotherapist who leads an annual effort to help people fend off the “winter blues.” In its worst form, the malady is recognized by medical professionals as seasonal affective disorder. The disorder is triggered by shorter days — cold and snowy or not.

Navigators take edge off insurance hunt
Times-Union
Choosing health insurance can be emotional. Just ask graduate students at the University at Albany’s School of Social Welfare who have taken jobs as “navigators,” helping to steer people with modest incomes through the process of enrolling in health plans under Obama care.

Senior widows seek support during holidays in Connecticut’s Northwest Corner
The Register Citizen
Nobody wants to spend the holidays old and alone, but that’s the reality for many people in Connecticut’s Northwest Corner. Holidays have become difficult for seniors who have lost their spouses. Catherine Vlasto, a licensed clinical social worker at the New Milford Visiting Nurse Association, hosted a support group on Christmas Eve to gather seniors together to share how tough it was to spend the holiday without their loved ones and learn how to honor them in the special day.

Choosing Social Work as a Transgender Career
The Huffington Post
I am about to enter into the last semester of my Bachelor of Social Work program at Washburn University in Topeka. My focus is increasingly toward my future. As a soon-to-be, 56-year-old college graduate, there are many choices available to me; including entering the seminary, entering law school, pursuing an MSW and working for an MBA.

More School Mental Health Professionals Needed
The Courant
The focus has been on state legislative initiatives; however, local school board action is needed, too. The National Association of Social Workers calls for one school social worker for every 250 students. Yet in Connecticut approximately 17 percent of school districts have no school social workers, and those with social workers typically have a ratio of 400 or more students per social worker.

Damron: Homeless shelter’s best may not be good enough
The State
I was concerned that Columbia City Council would force people experiencing homelessness to come to its new emergency shelter, make it difficult for them to leave and isolate them from the rest of downtown. So I visited the shelter and was pleased to see that this is not how it operates.