Panel Urges Overhauling Health Care at End of Life
The New York Times
The country’s system for handling end-of-life care is largely broken and should be overhauled at almost every level, a national panel concluded in a report released on Wednesday.… The 507-page report, “Dying in America,” said its recommendations would improve the quality of care and better satisfy more patients and families. It also said the changes would produce significant savings that would help make health care more affordable. “If you meet their needs, treat their pain, treat their depression, get them some help in the house, your costs plummet,” said Dr. Diane E. Meier, a committee member and the director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care. Fewer patients would end up in emergency rooms getting expensive care they do not want, she said, adding, “It’s a rare example in health policy of doing well by doing good.”

Paula Verrett is a member:
Police crisis system taxes psychiatric resources
USA Today
“This is an enormous issue in our community,” said Beth Clay, executive director of the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “We have people getting shipped all over the place, which is a challenge for family members.” At nearby Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah with 15 psychiatric beds, the facility reported full beds for most of the year, including one month this year when it couldn’t take new admissions on 27 days. A new peer counseling model has slowly taken root nationwide, said Paula Verrett, a NAMI social worker. “I’ve been through this process, it’s traumatizing,” Verrett said. “I’ve been in the place where you’re not sure if your life is worth living, and that’s scary. I’m here to listen and let people know there’s hope even though they may be in the dark place.”

Julie McKelvie is a member:
4th annual Recovery Walk Thursday
Sault Ste. Marie Evening News
With the weatherman promising good weather and an annual program that seems to be building momentum with each passing year, the Sault Ste. Marie Tribal Court and Sault Tribe Behavioral Health are expecting a good turnout for the Fourth Annual Recovery Walk on Thursday. “We just want to spread the message that recovery works,” said Clinical Social Worker Julie McKelvie describing the event as a community celebration. Last year the crowd of participants was estimated at more than 325 people, said McKelvie expressing the belief that it will be even bigger this time around. “The more the merrier,” she said.

Green Bay schools embrace transgender students
Green Bay Press-Gazette
“We know there is bullying and harassment going on, and we want students to know that that is not acceptable,” said Elizabeth Wetzel Gracyalny, a social worker at East High School and the district’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning coordinator. “There wasn’t a special rule for making fun of kids for gender expression, and we wanted it to be in black and white. If we have a rule, we can say ‘This is a rule you are breaking.'”

In troubled world, social workers there to help
Philly.com
This is going to sound like hyperbole to some, but I don’t think it is. The fate of our nation – and even the world – is directly linked to how we think about and treat the people most intimately connected to all of the major cultural concerns and social dilemmas that plague society today: social workers. Whether the issue is domestic violence (even if only because of the NFL’s high-profile perpetrators) or police shootings of unarmed black youth (each new case seemingly more inexplicable than the last), the professionals who are most consistently and unflinchingly on the ground when these and other incidents occur (and who stay long after the news vans have left and the medical doctors have done all they can do) are social workers.

Mark Smith and Marti Anderson are members:
Middle class, rural areas on House Democrats’ agenda
Des Moines Register
Iowa House Democrats are optimistic about winning control of their chamber on Nov. 4 and are proposing a 2015 legislative agenda aimed at bolstering the state’s middle class and revitalizing rural communities, House Minority Leader Mark Smith said Tuesday. Smith, D-Marshalltown, said the House Democratic Caucus also intends to focus on building Iowa’s skilled workforce, preserving the state’s land and water, and protecting seniors, vulnerable Iowans and children.… Smith was joined at a Statehouse news conference by state Rep. Marti Anderson, D-Des Moines, who praised the proposed Democratic agenda, particularly ideas to protect vulnerable Iowans and the environment. “If you don’t have good water, you can’t drink it; you can’t recreate in it; you can’t fish in it,” Anderson said.

Sheheen: Embattled SC agency needs a permanent director
The State (Columbia, SC)
Vincent Sheheen, the Democratic candidate for governor, offered his plan Tuesday to improve the state Department of Social Services, including hiring a new director for the embattled state agency.… “The atmosphere at Gov. Haley’s DSS is toxic,” said Sheheen, who has been endorsed by the S.C. chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. “We need to bring in former professionals to help remedy that problem and push back on that toxic environment.”

Connelly: Social work field is where PUNC student is ‘meant to be’
Post-Tribune (Merrillville, IN)
Purdue University North Central student Courtney Felker looks forward to graduating in December. She is ready to establish herself in her career and anticipates enrolling in graduate school in another year or so. “I graduate in December, and after that, the sky’s the limit,” she said with enthusiasm. Felker is a liberal arts major with a concentration in social work and a minor in sociology. She recently started a job in the social work field as a youth specialist worker at the La Porte County Juvenile Services Center. She explained that she works with children involved in the legal system for one reason or another.