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Anne Moody is a member:
Childhood trauma brings its own health problems for foster families
The Washington Post
The back-and-forth system of reuniting families, separating them again or moving among foster homes further traumatizes the children, adds Anne Moody. In her book “The Children Money Can Buy,” she chronicles her observations of the foster and adoption system based on her career as a social worker and adoption counselor.… “The last thing [child welfare] workers want is to place children with families who didn’t understand what they were taking on,” Moody says. Many people will self-select out of the process.

Samantha Manewitz is a member:
Why Louis C.K.’s return to the stage could be triggering for survivors of sexual assault
Yahoo!
But whether or not coming back into the public sphere was the right decision, the fact that he is back in the spotlight has major implications — not just for his five female victims but also for the millions of survivors of sexual violence nationwide. Samantha Manewitz, LICSW, an educator and AASECT-certified sex therapist, has counseled many patients grappling with these issues in the #MeToo era and says this is another example of the trauma that many wade through on a daily basis.

Sam Hickman is the executive director of NASW-WV:
WV groups sound alarm about Texas lawsuit targeting the ACA
West Virginia News
Sam Hickman, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers’ West Virginia chapter, said that without the ACA and Medicaid expansion, a program like Recovery Point might not have been possible. Recovery Point uses an abstinence-based model that requires participants to completely abstain from substances, unlike some medically assisted treatment programs. “The way Medicaid reimbursement is set up, they don’t consider abstinence-based a reimbursable service. (Recovery Point) has had to be very creative to find ways to work with providing therapeutic services and providing peer recovery support services.”

Rosara Torrisi is a member:
Can We Get Some Relationship Research That Isn’t About Heterosexual Couples, Please?
Brinkwire
Rosara Torrisi, PhD, a licensed clinical social worker with a specialization in sex therapy and founder of the Long Island Institute of Sex Therapy, studies sexuality in lesbian breast cancer survivors. She agrees that, for a long time, the only way to clinch funding was to peg your project to pathology. In 2013, though, the NIH announced the creation of a Sex & Gender Minority Research Coordinating Committee to prioritize LGBTQ research, but as with so many Obama-era endeavors, that one has not enjoyed comparable shine under the Trump administration.

Julie Fleck is a member:
Fun with a purpose
Valley Journal (Ronan, MT)
Julie Fleck, a licensed clinical social worker, said going back to school can be a positive experience for some children wanting to have a safe structured place, but other children might feel a sense of anxiety at the prospect of starting school. She talked to parents about teaching children to breathe through anxiety or focus their attention on counting when they are feeling stressed. Fleck said it gave her a sense of hope that many people were asking about suicide prevention. “They wanted to know how to talk to their kids about it.” She said the fact that people were asking questions about suicide is a good sign that the stigma around the issue is changing.

Heidi Irwin is a member:
DA’s Office hires victim rights coordinator
Daily Comet (Lafourche Parish, LA)
The Lafourche Parish District Attorney’s Office has hired a licensed clinical social worker to help crime victims. Heidi Irwin has been named as the office’s victim rights coordinator. District Attorney Kristine Russell said Irwin brings a new area of expertise to the position. “While prosecuting cases, it can be very easy to overlook the compassion and emotional health side of what we do,” Russell said. “There is no class in law school that teaches emotional support and rehabilitation. I felt it important to bring someone in who can help us provide a quality, more well-rounded service to the victims in our parish.”

Winter Keeler is a member:
Complementary Therapies Provide Opportunity for Fun
The Keene Sentinel (NH)
“A variety of therapies can be enhanced with therapeutic horseback riding,” said Winter Keeler, a therapeutic riding instructor at Touchstone Farm who is also a licensed independent clinical social worker. “If a child is struggling with lower body movement, the horse movement will stimulate that while the warmth of the horse’s body gets into the human to help loosen up the leg muscles.”

Sameeha Jabbar is a member:
Labor Day: Orange County’s Toughest Jobs and the People Who Do Them
Voice of OC
Sameeha Jabbar of Anaheim, 38, clinical social worker with the Orange County Health Care Agency’s Crisis Assessment Team (CAT)… Jabbar is called to mental health emergencies twice a shift on average – normally when someone is a threat to himself or others or refusing to take meds, eat or leave his room for extended periods. Police go in first and if it’s safe, Jabbar enters a home or scene, introducing herself, building trust, and making a risk assessment. She uses active listening and other strategies to stabilize a person and arranges for mental health treatment and medical care if necessary. She always goes back to see a client the next day.

Merle Bombardieri is a member:
Scared to Be a Parent?
The New York Times
“I was having panic attacks, and it was this horrible uncertainty to go through,” Ms. Wilson, now 40, said in a phone interview. To gain some peace of mind, she didn’t seek out traditional one-on-one counseling but instead traveled from Washington, D.C., to Cambridge, Mass., to attend a one-day workshop called the Baby Decision, facilitated by Merle Bombardieri, a clinical social worker in Lexington, Mass., and the author of a book on the subject.