10 Great Careers for Women Who Want a Life
More Magazine
MORE partnered with the Polling Company/Women Trend for their third annual workplace report. Out of the poll findings they came up with 10 meaningful jobs that offer flexibility, a chance for advancement, and a future.  Social Work was one of 10 careers featured. Mercedes Bern-Klug, PhD, associate professor at the University of Iowa School of Social Work, said “You’re never stuck. Social workers can change their settings every five years, because these core skills translate.”

Human Services By the Batch
Governing
Back in quainter days, human services casework was handled by one person managing the entire process. A staffer would meet prospective clients face-to-face, assess needs versus assets, figure out what benefits that client was eligible for and then manage the case through its lifetime, including tending to changes in income, address or family status. Those days could soon be over, if they’re not gone already.

Gary Sinise On Music, Marriage, and His Work On Behalf Of Our Armed Forces
Parade
Q: Last year you launched your foundation (GarySiniseFoundation.org). What’s going on with it now? A: The University of Southern California has a wonderful social work department, and I was thrilled to find out that they have a whole veterans initiative program there. They approached me, and I set up a scholarship that would go to a military-oriented person, to learn techniques and skills to better help veterans. We hope to do it on a broader scale around the country.

Group asks FirstEnergy for energy-efficiency measures
Charleston Gazette
“Our neighboring states hold companies to more efficient standards,” said Sam Hickman, executive director of the West Virginia chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. “In West Virginia, we have among the highest rates of home ownership. But many elderly and low-income folks have no access to loans or equity” on their homes, Hickman said. “We need a more robust plan.”

Time for West Virginia to Improve Social Workers’ Safety?
Public News Service
Sam Hickman, executive director of the Association’s West Virginia Chapter, says lawmakers should create one central place in state government with the job of protecting the 1000 or so field employees and contractors at the various agencies. He says, without that, the issue falls through the cracks and the people going out in the field will tend to take too many risks.

Bleak Portrait of Poverty Is Off the Mark, Experts Say
The New York Times
“The official measure no longer corresponds to reality,” said Jane Waldfogel, a professor of social work at Columbia University. “It doesn’t get either side of the equation right — how much the poor have or how much they need. No one really trusts the data.”

Aggie soldier dies in combat
Texas A&M The Battalion
The life of David E. Cabrera, class of 1992, was taken on Oct. 29. The Lieutenant Colonel, who was a licensed clinical social worker and assistant professor of family medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, was stationed in Afghanistan’s capitol city, Kabul, when his NATO convoy was attacked.

Wealthier age more slowly, are more mobile
UPI.com
Study co-author Virginia Richardson, a professor of social work at Ohio State University, said the disadvantage for the poor in walking, bathing, eating, dressing and getting in and out of bed snowballs over time and determines when someone elderly needs to be institutionalized.

Victims speak out about North Carolina sterilization program, which targeted women, young girls and blacks
Rock Center
Despite the state social workers who declared Riddick was “mentally retarded” and “promiscuous”, she went to college and raised the son born moments before she was sterilized.  Her son is devoted to his mother and a successful entrepreneur.

Updated Handbook of Health Social Work reflects changes in health care
Washington University in St. Louis News
By Jessica Martin Increased complexity in health care demands a greater body of knowledge for health social workers. The newly released Handbook of Health Social Work, Second Edition is a key resource for social workers, offering a comprehensive and evidence-based overview of social work practice in health care.

Progress, but Still a Race Gap
New York Times
Sandra Edmonds Crewe, a professor of social work at Howard University, is the director of the Multidisciplinary Center for Social Gerontology. There are credible signs that older people are faring better than younger cohorts, in part because the recent recession has often hit young people hardest.

Sandusky case shows where Pa. child protective services law fails
Patriot-News
Today, I am a licensed clinical social worker and also a state-mandated reporter of suspected child abuse. So were/are the staff at Penn State. Pa. law should be changed to require all child abuse allegations to be reported straight to the Department of Public Welfare.

Responsibility means reporting abuse
Lebanon Daily News
While strangers do abduct children, the rate of stranger abductions is only about .0017 per 1,000 children. The real danger for children comes from neighbors, relatives, coaches, priests and teachers.

Penn State scandal triggers worries, numbness
Ventura County Star
The scandal has focused attention on the adequacy of laws protecting children and mandating teachers and others to report the abuse. But that’s not the issue, said Ferol Mennen, a social worker and USC professor who researches child abuse and neglect.