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News Items – May 9, 2018

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Reeta Wolfsohn is a member:
How to Practice Financial Self-Care
U.S. News & World Report
Unfortunately, many Americans do not view money positively. On the contrary, 62 percent count it as a source of stress, according to the American Psychological Association’s 2017 Stress in America Survey, the second most common stressor behind only “the future of our nation.” So one important step in practicing financial self-care is to work on changing that way of thinking and “reframe a negative thought into a positive thought,” says Reeta Wolfsohn, president of the Center for Financial Social Work, based in Asheville, North Carolina. “A lot of people get stuck because they’ve made really poor financial decisions. We work on forgiveness and seeing that they’re deserving of better.”

Stephen Karp is executive director of NASW-CT:
Advocates press lawmakers to restore Medicaid funding
CT Mirror
Social services advocates brought their clients to the State Capitol on Saturday to make the case for lawmakers, now considering final revisions to the second year of the state’s biennial budget, to reverse cuts that could leave 13,200 poor adults without coverage in January.… “We know that if parents don’t get care, their children don’t get care,” said Stephen Karp, executive director of the Connecticut chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, who then cited the projected reserve. “I say, ‘Really? We can’t do this?’”

Listless And Lonely In Puerto Rico, Some Older Storm Survivors Consider Suicide
NPR
A social worker, Lisel Vargas, has come to visit Don Gregorio at his storm-damaged home on the steep hillsides of Humacao, a city on Puerto Rico’s eastern coast near where Hurricane Maria first made landfall. Gregorio, a 62-year-old former carpenter who lives alone, looks haggard. He stopped taking his medication for depression more than a week ago, and he says he hasn’t slept in four days. He feels anxious and nervous, he says, rubbing his bald head and fidgeting with the silver watch on his wrist. His voice monotone and barely audible, he tells Vargas that he has recently had thoughts of suicide.

Brian Kaufman is a member:
May Day protesters march through downtown L.A. amid gloomy skies and drizzle
Los Angeles Times
Brian Kaufman, 40, of Norwalk attended his first May Day march last year, when the crowd was larger and electric. It was just a few months after Trump’s inauguration, and the fear of his policies gave way to action in the street, he said. “There was a feeling in the air that we had to stand up and say something,” Kaufman said. He guessed the weather could have contributed to this year’s thinner crowd. “But it’s just as loud and just as passionate,” he said.

Gazette editorial: Praise for West Virginia social workers
Charleston Gazette-Mail
Congratulations, to Jennifer Wells, named by her colleagues this week as West Virginia’s Social Worker of the Year. Wells came to West Virginia displaced by Hurricane Katrina, Debra Hunt Young, vice president of the West Virginia Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, said during the group’s annual conference in Charleston on Thursday.

Parents Offered Tips on Bridging Social-Media Rift with Kids
Public News Service
Tips for parents trying to bridge the modern media gap with their children – that will be one topic of Thursday night’s keynote address at the spring conference of the National Association of Social Workers, West Virginia. Licensed social worker and consultant Marcus Stallworth said it’s worth remembering young people’s minds are still developing, and they’re under a lot of outside influence. But he said parents and caregivers still should have the last word on what children decide. “How they choose to dress and decision making, or how to approach the opposite sex – Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram – those things didn’t exist when we were growing up,” Stallworth said. “And the kids will say, ‘These are mine, these are private.’ Remember that you are the parent.”

Ellen Brezovsky is a member:
Narcan 101: How to save a life
HAN Network
Through a grant from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Save a Life program aims to train Connecticut residents in the administration of Narcan. Workshop attendees get a complimentary Narcan nasal-spray kit. Narcan is also available as an injectable medication. Workshop leader Ellen Brezovsky LCSW, director of community relations for Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, noted that the opioid epidemic has affected people from every ethnic, income and age category. That owes in part to the willingness of the medical community to prescribe potentially addictive painkillers — such as oxycodone, vicodin and Percocet — for both acute and chronic conditions.

Misericordia University students travel to Harrisburg
The Dallas Post (Wilkes-Barre, PA)
Students in the social welfare policy class at Misericordia University recently traveled to Harrisburg to participate in the National Association of Social Workers Pennsylvania Legislative Education and Advocacy Day. The students, accompanied by David Hage, director of field education at Misericordia University, met with state Sen. Lisa Baker (R-20, Lehman Township) and attended a Pennsylvania Senate legislative session. The students were among more than 700 social work students and professionals from across the state who gathered to advocate for legislation relevant to the social work profession.

Michael Bayda is a member:
Kevin Love’s essay spotlights mental health issues in men
The Columbus Dispatch
Michael Bayda, a clinical social worker for 31 years who now works for Directions Counseling in Worthington, said that in his experience, he doesn’t see much difference between men and women in terms of willingness to seek help. For men, he said, it typically depends on how closely they conform to the traditional masculine stereotype. “There are certain aspects of that: self-reliant, always stoic, heterosexuality,” Bayda said. “In mini-cultures like sports, most folks probably agree that there is more of a tendency to reinforce” the stereotypes.

Lynn R. Zakeri is a member:
Interestingly, These Are The 8 Biggest Secrets Men Hide From Their Partners
Romper
Unfortunately, men also keep secrets regarding family member’s mental health issues, money problems, and the like from the past. “Any mental health issues, suicides, financial troubles can be sources of shame for them and therefore they don’t talk about it, but it can lead to problems if the wife feels the husband is being protective,” Lynn R. Zakeri, LCSW, a licensed clinical social worker, tells Romper in an email.

Dwayne Walker is a member:
Sending out a lifeline
Bolivar Herald-Free Press (MO)
That’s why he’s working with Dwayne Walker, a licensed clinical social worker and professor at Southwest Baptist University, and the health center’s Sandra Zanaboni to form a new support group for retired and current first responders, including emergency medical technicians, firefighters, dispatchers and law enforcement officers.…  “The group is open to any first responder who would like to attend,” Walker said. “It is an opportunity to share their experiences with others who know what it is like being a first responder.”

Caitlin Ryan is a member:
Mormon Secret Holy War: Mormons Flailing in a Modern World
Logo Network
“Family rejection is the most important factor in lowering suicide risks to our youth,” says Dr. Caitlyn Ryan, a clinical social worker and director of the San Francisco–based Family Acceptance Project. In an interview with NewNowNext, she notes that up to 40% of homeless youth are LGBT, their challenges compounded by family rejection and that LGBT youth between the ages of 15 and 24 are eight times as likely to attempt suicide as heterosexual youth.

Janelle Stauffer is a member:
Nampa suicide prevention panel pushes for open discourse
The Idaho Press-Tribune
Many agreed youth suicide prevention must be handled by the whole community. Clinical social worker and therapist Janelle Stauffer, a Nampa school board member, urged that the issue needs to be handled by the whole community. “In any community, the school district has the greatest access to kids and their families and so can serve as a screening mechanism and provide all the education we’re talking about. But it’s not enough, it’s a limited resource,” Stauffer said, adding later, “This can’t be a K-12 issue. It has to be a community issue.”

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