Social Workers to Offer New Training to Serve Troops, Veterans and Military Families
White House Blog
Earlier today, I was pleased to join the National Association of Social Workers at their national practice conference to announce a new Joining Forces commitment that will help train more than 650,000 social workers to have a better understanding of issues affecting our troops, veterans and military families.

Dr. Jill Biden Joins Leymah Gbowee, Bob and Lee Woodruff, Dr.Kenneth Doka, Donna Brazile and Roberto Pacheco for National Social Work Conference in Washington
MarketWatch
Professional social workers play a critical role in nationwide efforts to support American troops and their families. On Wednesday, July 25, 2012, Dr. Jill Biden will join the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) at their national practice conference, Restoring Hope: The Power of Social Work, to announce a new professional initiative aimed at educating all social workers–regardless of practice area or focus–on the challenges facing the nation’s veterans and military families. Dr. Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, military mom and lifelong educator, started Joining Forces with First Lady Michelle Obama last year to encourage all Americans to support and honor our veterans and military families in their own communities.

America’s Social Workers Join Dr. Jill Biden to Launch “Social Work and Service Members: Joining Forces to Support Veterans and Military Families”
NewsRoom America
National Association of Social Workers urges 650,000 professional social workers to gain education and training on mental and behavioral health, health, economic, and social challenges facing nation’s veterans and military families

Social Workers Join Movement to Support Military Families
U.S. Department of Defense
In a conference call with reporters yesterday, NASW Director Elizabeth Clark said the association will work to train social workers in issues common to veterans and military families, including deployment stress, post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injuries, unemployment, suicide, homelessness, and those specific to female veterans.

Social workers to be trained on needs of troops
ArmyTimes.com (also in Navy Times, Marine Corps Times, and AirForce Times)
Addressing a conference of the National Association of Social Workers on Wednesday, Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, unveiled a new agreement between the White House’s Joining Forces initiative and the association.

Social workers to be trained on aiding Iraq, Afghanistan vets
The Washington Post /AP
A new program is being launched to train thousands of social workers on how to aid troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. First lady Michelle Obama’s “Joining Forces” campaign says the training will help workers spot problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse and the danger signs for homelessness and suicide.

OVERNIGHT CAMPAIGN: Leaks and Sequester
The Hill Blog
Jill Biden will attend the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) conference in Washington to announce a major Joining Forces commitment that will help prepare social workers to help troops.

The Rush to Abandon the Poor
The New York Times
The state with the country’s worst health care record just happens to have a governor who has been the loudest voice against national efforts to improve it.

What A Diaper Means for A Child’s Future
Huffington Post (blog)
In my years working with families as a social worker in New Haven, Connecticut, the most important lesson I learned was that for people struggling with poverty, small things affect big things. It might seem odd to think that something as small as diapers can affect bigger things like education, jobs and child welfare, but it’s true.

Youth summit shows state is fostering success
MetroWest Daily News
Many of the more than 100 foster children and social workers in the room held back tears as Melendez, his voice cracking, described Dec. 10, 2008, the day his mother died at age 39.

Ex-foster children laud experiences
Worcester Telegram
He said the assistance he later received from social workers while in foster care has led him to become an overachiever with a passion for passing on the help he got to other troubled children. “It was an epiphany. My life changed,” the now 22-year-old said of his stint in a DYS facility.

Poverty, not mental illness, leaves moms anxious
Futurity: Research News
In a study published online in the journal Child and Adolescent Social Work, Judith C. Baer, associate professor of social work at Rutgers, argues that although high levels of stress over long periods can lead to psychological problems, there is no evidence that generalized anxiety disorder in poor mothers is because of an “internal malfunction.”

DCF report card: rate of timely adoptions and family reunifications lowest in years
CT Mirror
Eighteen months after new management took over the troubled Department of Children and Families, a report issued Thursday by a federal monitor says the agency still has a long ways to go before he’s convinced that abused and neglected children are in good hands with the state.