Stories of Change: NASW-NJ Launches the Social Work Oral History Institute
Insider NJ
This Social Work Month, the National Association of Social Workers – NJ Chapter (NASW-NJ) launches the Institute of Oral History for Social Work in collaboration with StoryCorps. Debuting with the stories of more than a dozen prominent social workers from the state of New Jersey, the Institute will grow to encompass the stories of social workers from across our nation—stories that will be preserved for posterity in the American Folklife Center at the U.S. Library of Congress.

John Cosgrove is a member:
The social welfare of children and finding natural helpers to sustain a community: John Cosgrove
StoryCorps | Social Work Oral History Institute
For many years, John Cosgrove, MSW, P.H. D, has been a trailblazer in the social work profession. His reach impacted Fordham GSS students’ professional lives for over 30 years. With international social work and partnership with the United Nations, Dr. Cosgrove displays the true definition of our children are the future.

Angelo McClain is executive director of NASW:
Social workers crucial to navigating our COVID mental-health crisis. But they need help, too | Opinion
Miami Herald
COVID-19 appears to be on the wane. But a crisis may fill the void left by the virus. Some experts say the damage could last a generation. Since the earliest days of the pandemic, social workers have served on the front lines, providing essential mental-health services to those in need. As lockdowns hit and deaths multiplied, social workers helped individuals and families cope with anxiety, depression, grief and isolation. These professionals possess the distinct expertise to treat the social, emotional and economic forces that have made the pandemic’s toll on our collective mental health so steep.

March Is National Social Work Month
Cobb County Courier
In March we recognize social workers for the hard work they do every day to help our communities – and the people that reside there – be the best they can be. Sponsored by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), the theme of the 2022 National Social Work Month is The Time is Right for Social Work. As the head of an agency that employs dozens of professional social workers, I agree wholeheartedly.

Agency, professional groups blame lawmakers for licensing backlog
Wisconsin Examiner
Marc Herstand has been the executive director for the National Association of Social Workers Wisconsin chapter since 1993. “In my 29 years, I’ve never seen the backlog as bad as it is now,” Herstand testified. “I’ve had members that have lost jobs they wanted to apply for because they couldn’t get their license quick enough.”

Daniel Olavarria is a member:
Unlearning anti-Blackness in therapy: ‘The Buck Stops Here’
Code Switch | NPR
But Daniel Olavarria says it won’t fix everything. “Therapy cannot go back in history and change what people may have said or done to you,” says Olavarría, who is a licensed clinical social worker with a practice in New York. “Therapy can’t erase what you will experience today and what you will experience tomorrow. Therapy will not change what your parents said or did to you when you were younger.”

[Video] Helping children heal from the mental scars of COVID
CBS Sunday Morning

Unresolved grief is just one aspect of how COVID-19 has created widespread mental health suffering – a second pandemic, as it were. Particularly affected are children: More than 140,000 of them have lost a parent or a caregiver. Correspondent Susan Spencer looks at some of the psychological scars from COVID, and what steps are being taken to address them.

Steve Wanczyk-Karp is executive director of NASW-CT:
Mental health providers need support, too
CT Mirror
The legislature is to be applauded for their attention to the state’s mental health workforce. Senate bills SB1 and SB2, plus House Bill 5001 all offer positive incentives, programs, and funding meant to attract the next generation of mental health providers. Ideas such as loan forgiveness, grants to pay for licensing fees, grants for hiring of social workers, and assistance paying for license preparation courses are all wonderful ideas. The only problem is that we are not offering anything to the current mental health workforce to keep them in place.

Three bills deal with children’s mental health. Here’s what they would do.
CT Mirror
“There is a shortage of bilingual social workers and male social workers, but it is not clear to what degree there is a shortage of licensed social workers,” wrote Stephen Wanczyk-Karp, the executive director. “What there is a shortage of is adequate compensation, especially in the non-profit sector, which has led to difficulties in attracting licensed social workers for those employers who are unable to pay adequate salaries.”

Rosalie Calarco is a member, and president-elect of NASW-NC:
Restoring the American Dream: A Simple Savings Plan Can Go a Long Way to Help Retirement Savings
WilmingtonBiz
North Carolina is facing a retirement savings crisis that will leave far too many residents barely able to afford their basic needs in their later years. Today, roughly half of private-sector workers in the state do not have access to a retirement savings plan at work. And if you work for a small business, you are even less likely to have a plan. About 53 percent of North Carolina’s private sector employees—roughly 1,716,000—work for an employer that does not offer a retirement plan. For these workers, each passing day means less time to grow the savings they need to cover expenses and provide for their families in retirement.

The time is right for social work at JBLM, and that time is now
The U.S. Army
There are nearly 700,000 social workers employed in the United States. The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics has identified social work as one of the fastest-growing professions in the nation. For a nation dealing with stressors from economic downturns to a global pandemic to world conflicts, social workers are ideally suited to help people overcome these challenges and do so every day at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.

Social workers recognized in March
Tribune-Star (IN)
March marks National Social Work Month, and this year’s theme is “The Time is Right for Social Work.” Led by the National Association of Social Workers, the theme underscores the contributions social workers have made to the nation for more than a century and how the services they provide are needed more than ever. Emily Owens, deputy chief clinical officer at Hamilton Center Inc., says having a dedicated month to social work helps people better understand the field.

Lorraine Lazarus-Morley is a member:
Feeling Stressed Out In Ridgefield? You’re Not Alone
Ridgefield CT Patch
Marking the second anniversary of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., the American Psychological Association partnered with The Harris Poll to gauge national anxiety levels over the past two years. The “Stress in America” survey found that your countrymen’s nerves were already stretched tighter than piano wires by the pandemic and record-high inflation when the threat of a third world war began streaming across their smartphones. Lorraine Lazarus Morley, a clinical social worker with a residence and practice in Ridgefield, is not surprised.