Prison inmates work outside in a chain gang. Photo courtesy of CNN.

A prison inmate with a mental illness is less likely to commit another crime and return to jail than an inmate who does not have a mental illness or one who has a mental illness and also abuses drugs, according to a study from the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University.

Case Western assistant social work professor Amy Hall said researchers took inmates from the Philadelphia jail system, one of the largest in the nation, and divided them into four groups.

The categories were those with severe mental illnesses, those with a substance abuse problem, those with dual problems of mental illness and substance abuse, and those with neither problem.

The study found that at the end of four years, 54 percent of inmates with severe mental illnesses returned to jail,  compared to 66 percent of those with substance abuse problems, 68 percent with mental illness and substance abuse issues, and 60 percent of those who did not have either problem.

More study is needed but the lower recidivism rate for those who are mentally ill could be a sign they can more readily get treatment than those with dual problems, Wilson said.

“These findings point to a possible need for more integrated services for mental and substance abuse, and more attention being paid generally to the ways that substance abuse involvement among people with serious mental illness complicates these individuals involvement with the criminal justice system,” she said.

Click here to read more about the study at NewsRx.com.

To learn more about how social workers help people overcome mental illness and addictions visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Mind and Spirit web site by clicking here.

Mary Walker Baron. Photo courtesy of www.shewrites.com.

Cheers to the National Association of Social Workers member Mary Walker Baron for her blog on Huffington Post about helping her elderly father-in-law age with dignity.

John was 94 years old and blind and almost deaf when he decided to relocate to California from New Jersey to be closer to relatives after his wife died. Baron soon realized their home could not meet John’s disability needs.

So with much angst they decided to put him in a senior citizen community. And to their relief things worked out, although John complains sometimes about things, like being served coffee at the end of his lunch instead of the beginning.

“John is living his life and life lived well is full of challenges and complaints and quiet caring for others. Yes, he is declining. So am I. So are you. But in his full throttle claiming all of life’s vagaries, my father-in-law has forged dignity into his decline and that might truly be the best of all possible worlds.”

To learn more about the services social workers provide the elderly, visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Seniors and Aging web site by clicking here.

Nancy Miller. Screenshot courtesy of NY1.

Cheers to NY1, a 24-hour New York City news program, for this news segment and online article on the city’s first senior citizen center for the blind and visually impaired.

The center in Chelsea, which is run by VISIONS, offers equipment and services specifically for this population, including computers with braille keyboards.

Nancy Miller, secretary of the National Association of Social Workers New York City’s board, said she hopes eventually all senior citizens will have equipment and services to handle elderly people who live with disabilities.

“Our hope is 25 years from now, we will have this center, but blind seniors will be able to go to all the centers in the city because those centers will be universally accessible, regardless of what the disability is,” said Miller, who is CEO and executive director of VISIONS.

The city also plans to open a senior center for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in February.

To learn more about how social workers help the elderly visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Seniors and Aging Website by clicking here.

Experts estimate there are 14,000 homeless people in the Garden State, up from 13,000 in 2009.

To learn more about the services social workers provide clients from all walks of life, visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Website by clicking here.

Tanitsha Bridgers. Photo courtesy of Black Image Magazine.

Cheers to the Black Image magazine in Las Vegas for this feature on National Association of Social Workers member Tanitsha Bridgers, who created a mobile mental healthcare service to reach vulnerable populations in her area.

Bridgers found many people who need services or support, especially African Americans, did not have transportation to get to mental health professionals. So using an inheritance left by her mother who died from breast cancer Bridgers launched Mobile Mental Health Support Services Inc.

“Customarily, African-Americans don’t seek mental health services or therapy,” Bridgers said. “Typically, we deal with our psychological issues by way of Jesus ‘I am going to pray about it.’”

Mobile Mental Health Support Services Inc. now operates in three locations and has more than 100 employees. The company offers family, couple and invidual counseling, rehabilitative mental health services and community give-back programs.

To learn more about the valuable mental health services social workers provide visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Mind & Spirit Website by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Alcohol Abuse Treatment.

What group of binge drinkers  overindulges  most often? You may be surprised to learn it’s the elderly and not college students, according to this article in Florida’s Sun Sentinel.

According to an annual report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seniors who indulge to the extreme with alcohol do so on average 5.5 times a month, compared to four times a month for people under age 45.

In the article National Association of Social Workers member Stephen Ferrante explained why. Ferrante is coordinator of a social work program on aging issues at Florida Atlantic University.

“They are typically alone and in isolation, often drinking in response to some problem in their lives,” he said.

However, Ferrante said seniors citizens in treatment have more success overcoming drug and alcohol problems than other groups.

To learn more about social workers help the elderly visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Seniors and Aging Website by clicking here. Social workers also help clients overcome drug and alcohol addictions. To learn more click here.

Anita Barbee. Photo courtesy of the Courier-Journal.

Budget cuts, staff reductions and heavy caseloads are hampering the ability of Kentucky social service workers to protect children, according to this article in the Courier-Journal.

Kentucky has about 1,300 social service workers, down from 2,000 a decade ago. At the same time workers are under increasing scrutiny over recent child death cases.

The situation has gotten so bad some workers are breaking down on the job, suffering from health problems or just quitting, observers said.

“It is a crisis,” said Anita Barbee, a professor at the University of Louisville’s Kent School of Social Work and a National Association of Social Workers member. ”It’s the constant erosion of the workforce, and cuts in services that have gotten us to this crisis.”

To learn more about how social workers help young people in crisis, visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Kids & Families Website by clicking here.

Johns Hopkins University and the University of Minnesota are helping the agency create the screening tool.

Ten to 20 percent of the nation’s children are exposed to domestic violence, according to researchers. Information social workers gather through the questionnaire could be used in court to help judges decide whether families need counseling or other treatment.

“There is no specific protocol, and particularly for the really young kids, on how you assess the level of domestic violence,” said Kathleen King, a supervisor with Child Protective Services. “Social workers now get bits and pieces of that information, but it’s not all pulled together.”

Social workers help young people overcome life’s hurdles. To learn more visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Kids & Families Website by clicking here.

Social worker Bridgette Baker. Photo courtesy of the Deseret News.

Cheers to the Deseret News in Utah for this article about the assistance hospital social workers provide to the injured, sick, dying and their loved ones.

The article was written after a six police officers who were serving a drug-related search warrant in Ogden were shot by a former U.S. soldier. One of the officers died.

The news article covers how the team of social workers at McKay-Dee Hospital Center sprang into action to provide support the families. The team is led by Bridgette Baker, who is listed as a National Association of Social Workers member.

“Especially in a traumatic situation, sometimes the social workers are the ones trying to find the families to let them know that their loved ones are here,” Baker said. “And then they’re the ones that are greeting them at the door in the emergency department a lot of times to say ‘come with me, everything’s going to be OK.’”

To learn more about how social workers help people from all walks of life, visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Website by clicking here.

"Gen Silent" follow the problems faced by aging LGBT people as they seek care. Photo courtesy of official Website.

Lawrence Johnson cared for his ailing partner Alexandre Rheume for years but the burden became too much.

Still the decision to put Rheume in a nursing home after the interracial couple had lived together for 38 years was heartbreaking for Johnson, who worried his partner would get inferior care because he is gay.

In fact, the staff at some facilities had made Johnson feel uncomfortable when he held Rheume’s hand or fed him. 

“It’s bad enough that you have to put someone in a nursing home,” said Johnson, who in his early 60s is more than 20 years younger than Rheume. “Then to compound the fact there may be prejudices, and the person going into the nursing home might not be treated as well — not in overt ways, but all these subtle things that let you know you’re not wanted.”

Documentary producer and director Stu Maddox and his team looked at the plight of aging LGBT people in their film, “Gen Silent.” The film follows a year in the life of Johnson, Rheume and other aging LGBT people in the Boston area.

Some had been active in the gay community for years but decided to go back into the closet in old age to avoid discrimination or bullying from caregivers or other nursing home residents.

Stu Maddox

Maddox, whose work has appeared on Showtime, BBC and The Learning Channel, said social workers were some of the first to be aware of this dilemma. In fact, “Gen Silent” won the Audience Choice Award at the Council on Social Work Education Gero-Ed Film Festival in 2010 (to read more about that click here).

“We feel like social workers are not only catching up to this but can also make the change for the better, probably more than any other group,” Maddox said.

WATCH “GEN SILENT” THIS WEEKEND!

The makers of “Gen Silent” are offering a special promotion to allow social workers to watch the film for free online this weekend. To learn more click here. You can also learn more about the film and get information on arranging private viewings by visiting the official Website by clicking here.

Social workers are committed to equal treatment for all, including LGBT individuals. To learn more visit the National Association of Social Workers’ Diversity & Equity Website by clicking here. And to find out more about how social workers help the elderly, visit NASW’s “Help Starts Here” Seniors and Aging Website by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of the Jewish Daily Forward.

Social worker Dianne Matthew goes to senior citizen centers and country clubs throughout south Florida, preaching about the value of safer sex to the elderly. Her campaign was recently covered in this article in the Sun Sentinel.

Americans over the age of 50 are one of the fastest growing demographics for new HIV infections. That age group is also experiencing higher infection rates of other venereal diseases such as syphilis, the article said.

Elderly Americans are getting more chances to have sex because they are living longer and drugs such as Cialis improve sexual performance in men. However, Matthew said many have missed the lessons on safer sex practices that younger people received.

“You think you’re not going to get pregnant, so why do you need to use condoms?” said Matthew, who is clinical director at Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service west of Boca Raton. ”After 50 years of marriage, you’re not used to this.”

To learn more about how social workers help improve the lifestyles of elderly Americans visit the National Association of Social Workers “Help Starts Here” Seniors and Aging Website by clicking here.

Matthew MaGuire. Photo courtesy of the Detroit Free Press.

Cheers to the Detroit Free Press for this article on Seita Scholars, a Western Michigan University program that provides support for former foster children who are in college.

WMU social work professor Yvonne Unrau, DSW, was one of the creators of the program. Some of the services Seita provides is keeping dorms open so foster children who do not have family homes to go to during winter break can have a place to stay.

“What they need is someone to help them fill in the gaps,”  Unrau said.

Matthew MaGuire, 21, who was put into foster care at age 14 due to parental neglect, said the program is helping him stay focused on his goals. “This is a chance to start fresh,” he said.

To learn more about how social workers help young people overcome life’s challenges visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Kids & Families Website by clicking here.

Book Cover

Josi was born 16 weeks prematurely to immigrants from Mexico who did not know much English. The scrawny infant was blind and had to wear an apnea monitor the size of a small laptop to monitor her breathing.

To Sue Hall, a social worker who became a doctor to help address biological problems that caused later developmental problems in children, Josi could not be saved. So she recommended her parents pull Josi off baby life support.

But her parents, despite their lack of income and English skills, decided to continue care and slowly but surely the little girl began to thrive. Three years later she was attending a school for the blind, walking, and exuberantly singing “Old MacDonald had a Farm” in Hall’s office.

“It was then I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had been 100 percent wrong about Josi’s prognosis,” Hall said. “I could not have been happier.”

Hall writes about her experiences in the neonatal intensive care unit in “For the Love of Babies” ($8.95 at WorldMakerMedia). SocialWorkersSpeak.org talked to Hall about why she wrote the book, why social workers should read it, and the role of social workers in the healthcare profession:

Q: Why did you decide to write “For the Love of Babies”?

Hall: First, I wanted to honor the strength, courage, devotion, and resilience of the many parents I’ve had the chance to interact with.  I have learned so much about life from them.  Secondly, I wanted to focus on the emotional aspects of what has become a very technology-driven field.  At its core, medicine is about connecting with our patients and recognizing their humanity; sometimes we lose sight of this basic notion.  And finally, I wanted to draw attention to the social ills that contribute to our country’s disgraceful performance on measures such as our rates of prematurity and infant mortality, both of which are way too high.  I wanted to change the conversation from “Isn’t neonatal intensive care marvelous, the way we save all those babies?” to “What is it about our social systems that leads to our very high rates of prematurity and infant mortality, and how can we go about things differently to achieve better outcomes for all?”

 Q: Why do you think this is a good book for social workers to read?

 Hall: I think social workers can gain a broad perspective from reading my book:  They will be challenged to think about the social determinants of health including the factors creating a high risk pregnancy, the emotional trauma faced by parents whose babies are in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and some of the ethical issues that the medical team may need to discuss with parents.  I think social workers can do their best to support parents of hospitalized infants when they have  the big picture in mind, and they can also be quite helpful in interpreting parents’ behavior and responses to medical team members who don’t have the social work perspective.  The challenge for social workers is to help parents cope with the enormous stresses they encounter, using their understanding of each parent’s underlying psychological make-up as well as the realities of their social situations.  I tried to interweave all these threads into each of the stories. I also believe that social workers are integral and valued members of the hospital team, and I hope I was successful in portraying them in this light.

Q: You mentioned the role of social workers such as “Janice” several times in the book. Do you think the role social workers play in medicine has been largely overlooked, particularly in the entertainment industry that seems to focus more on doing dramas about doctors and nurses?

Hall: The role of social workers has been minimized by the entertainment industry, or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that the entertainment industry doesn’t even have a good handle on how social workers function in a medical setting.  The public needs to see social workers as being right there in the middle of things, taking the time to develop relationships with patients and families and to support them through both short-term crises and long-term, complicated hospital stays.  Doctors and nurses may breeze in and out of the picture, but it’s the social workers who are often left helping parents make sense of it all once the doctors and nurses have left the room.

Q:  What are the biggest challenges you see in the healthcare profession in years ahead? Can social workers help address any of these issues?

Hall: There are several big challenges in healthcare in the coming years.  One is that healthcare is hopefully moving more towards preventive care, with interventions to be increasingly focused on the social determinants of health.  Social workers need to be active voices in their communities, helping to identify how improving access to jobs, finding safer housing, offering better nutritional choices, and increasing access to care can be accomplished on behalf of their patients and clients.  I would also like to see social workers advocate for ensuring that healthcare is delivered in a culturally sensitive manner to all their clients.  And, as the push continues to make healthcare delivery increasingly efficient, social workers can perhaps spend time that physicians don’t have, to support patients and families and encourage their follow-through with care plans that doctors prescribe.  Social workers can bring attention to the issues of the “whole patient,” broadening the focus from simply the medical aspects of a person’s illness.

Q: Do you plan to write more books?

Hall: I hope to break into fiction with my next book, which is a novel exploring several emotional themes in the context of a medical drama, naturally centered on the topic of babies!  In this story, a delivery room disaster rips a family apart, as a woman serving as a surrogate mother to her sister’s baby gives birth.  Those left grieving struggle to come to terms with what happened, to resolve their guilt, and to heal their wounded spirits.  “Such a Special Gift” is a story of love, of loss, and of gratitude for the gifts we’ve been given.

Dr. Sue Hall

Dr. Hall earned a bachelors degree in psychology from Stanford University, a masters degree in social work from Boston University, and an M.D. degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She was a practicing social worker before beginning a 25-year career as a neonatologist. She was formerly associate clinical professor of pediatrics at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine and is now in private practice in neonatology in the Midwest.

To learn more about how social workers help clients lead healthier lives visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Health and Wellness Website by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Mobiledia.

Homeless teenagers value having a cellphone as much as having food or drugs, according to a study from the USC School of Social Work.

The study raises the potential use of mobile technology to communicate with this vulnerable group and provide them with services, researchers said. In fact, social service agencies should offer homeless teens help in getting cellphones and paying cellphone bills, they said.

“It is a relatively easy structural way to get them off the streets,” said Eric Rice, lead author of the study.

The study was published in the December issue of the Journal of Urban Health. You can also click here to read an article about the study at Mobiledia.

To learn more about the valuable services social workers provide people from all walks of life, visit the National Association of Social Workers “Help Starts Here” consumer Website by clicking here.

Women look through boxes of donated Christmas gifts at the Stark Social Workers Network. Photo courtesy of the Akron Beacon Journal.

Cheers to the Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio for this article on the Stark Social Workers Network, a nonprofit organization that helps people who are the hardest to help.

Beverly Jordan, a former social worker at the Department of Jobs and Family Services, started the network in 1989 to help people who fell through the cracks at traditional social service agencies. Jordan said these are usually people who “have hard luck all their lives.”

The network’s clients have included a woman who was illiterate and could not fill out a job applications so came to the network for reading classes. Another client was an African American man who had been in prison most of his life and had developed an intense dislike of white people.

After six months of taking classes to help him live outside of prison this man realized his anger was keeping him from getting employed. He also learned to overcome his mistrust of white people.

A factory in Canton hired him and he is now one of the company’s most valued employees.

To learn more about how social workers help people from all walks of life overcome life’s challenges, visit the National Association of Social Workers “Help Starts Here” Website by clicking here.

Graham Danzer

There are many stereotypes about girls who grow up in the inner city.

However social worker Graham Danzer broke through these misconceptions when he began working with young women from the inner city. He found the girls had feelings and experiences that could give valuable lessons to other social workers, policymakers and the general public.

So Danzer decided to write “My Girls: A Story of Survival and Togetherness in the Inner City,” which is available on NASW Press (click here to learn more).

SocialWorkersSpeak.org talked to Danzer about the book:

Q: Why did you decide to become a social worker and where did you study?

Danzer: I became a social worker because I wanted to influence social policy. I received my masters degree in social work San Francisco State University, completed a three-year doctoral level certificate program in clinical social work at The Sanville Institute, and am currently pursuing a PsyD through California School for Professional Psychology – Alliant University.

Q: How did you come to work with inner city youth, particularly the group of young women in “My Girls”?

Danzer: I came to work with inner city youth through my experience of being one. When I was the same age as the girls who are the subject of my book, I got into some trouble and was involuntarily referred to a couple of different community-based programs not far from where the girls grew up. One program I was in was a non-public school in which there was strict discipline and coordination with juvenile justice providers. I resented the stricter boundaries and direction, though I graduated from that school, transferred back into a public school, received B’s, got into sports, and dated a cheerleader at a private school. In short, that program threw me a life raft, and that life raft showed me that change is possible. After being accepted to social work school some years later, I interviewed for an internship that was not far from where I grew up and I was thrilled to have the chance to give back to a community so close to home and close to the heart. I remember there being a lot of young women, like the girls in the story, who were loud, energetic, defensive, and sometimes chaotic, though only to mask and externalize dying on the inside; which I got to know in my own adolescence by talking to girls who were going through it. I particularly felt this intuition about the young African-American women I knew when I was a teenager. I guess you could say this lead to the development of a soft spot for them. 

Q: What prompted you to write the book?

Danzer: What inspired me to write this book was my experience of bearing witness to what the girls in the story were up against. I found the totality of their suffering to be overwhelming and their stories to be moving. In the end, I just needed to tell someone.

Q: What is it that you came to admire most about the young women in the book? Do you think some of them have good futures despite the hardships they face?

Danzer: What I admired the most about the girls was that they each had their own individual way of keeping their heads up through dark times. They had every excuse to complain and play the victim and yet didn’t. In a way, they could be role models for us all.

Book Cover

Q: What do you hope this book will teach other social workers and policymakers?

 Danzer: The main thing I hope to inform social workers and policymakers about is that, in my experience, these girls suffer immensely and are at-risk for having major problems down the road, including substance abuse, school failure, and criminal justice involvement. These are problems that will affect at-risk teenagers as individuals and are also problems that the larger society will have to deal with, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. My hope was that the girls’ stories would raise awareness of what is really happening in their lives and what little we can do to help that may go a long way. In essence, many hardened teenagers survive by depending on themselves and each other and it will take a lot of persistence and reassurance for them to trust us enough to let us in. My experience was that this happened to a degree with me and the girls, though I had to be very persistent, visible, and involved in the surrounding community. Ultimately, we in the helping professions will need to find the resolve to go get them, particularly the girls that are the hardest to reach. 

Q: Is this a book the general public would enjoy reading and learn from?

Danzer: The public would appreciate the straightforward, raw emotion and action of this story. There is no rhetoric, no happy ending, no censorship – just the truth. My hope is that my readers will feel this inside when they read and get a little sense of what these girls are up against and maybe even consider responding a little more gently and sensitively to young and suffering African American women in the future. In particular, I have attempted to show that their acting out behavior may suggest that we find a way to take care of them as if they are physically sick rather than scolding them as if they are choosing to behave badly. As demonstrated in the text, this did not lead to a happy ending as is typical in big screen movies. However, competent adult responses to children’s behavior may leave at-risk girls with a positive experience of mental health professionals, which may help them be open to intervention in the future when they might be in need of more help. Furthermore, this positive experience is likely to be shared with their peers and others in the community, as will help social policy and reconstruction efforts operate within the community rather than as outsiders.

NASW Press offers a variety of publications of interest to social workers, including books, journals, brochures and NASW News. To learn more click here. And to find out more about how social workers such as Danzer help young people overcome life’s hurdles visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Kids & Families Website by clicking here.

Julie de Azevedo Hanks. Image courtesy of Sharecare.

Congratulations to National Association of Social Workers member Julie de Azevedo Hanks, MSW, LCSW, for being named the No. 1 online influencer when it comes to the issue of depression on Sharecare.

Sharecare (www.sharecare.com) is an interactive, social question-and-answer platform that simplifies the search for quality healthcare information. It was created by in 2007 by Jeff Arnold, founder of WebMD, and Emmy—award winning host, Dr. Mehmet Oz, in partnership with Harpo Studios, Sony Pictures Television and Discovery Communications.

To read about Julie on Sharecare, click here.

And to learn more about how social workers help clients overcome depression and other mental health issues visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Mind and Spirit Website by clicking here.

Aaron Alvin Sr. Photo courtesy of WALB 10.

Cheers to WALB 10 for this article on Aaron Alvin Sr., who recovered from homelessness and drug addiction to receive a master’s degree in social work from Florida International University in Miami.

“I wanted to make sure I was in a position to help people and so I went ahead and got my master’s,” said Alvin, 50, who graduated with a 3.73 grade point average. The audience at the graduation ceremony gave him a standing ovation.

Alvin said a judge helped him by putting him in a drug treatment program. He wants to return that favor to others.

Alvin currently works with the homeless and hopes to one day open his own clinic to help people with drug addictions.

To learn more about how social workers help people overcome addictions visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Addictions Website by clicking here.

Instead the NASW Kentucky Chapter said in this article that the public should focus on the factors that led to the childrens’ injuries or deaths.

“Our response should target what we already know — frontline workers in Kentucky carry caseloads well above the national recommended number, have low salaries and high turnover rates, and are not required to be degreed or licensed social workers,” the chapter said in statement. 

The full NASW Kentucky Chapter press release is available at the chapter’s Website. Go there by clicking here.

Gov. Steve Beshear announced in November the state would release records of children who have been killed or nearly killed due to abuse or neglect. However the records that were released were heavily censored, with the names of children who were killed redacted and the names of counties where incidents occurred deleted.

The National Association of Social Workers is part of the National Coalition to End Child Abuse Deaths. The coalition supports new bicameral legislation from Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) that could make significant impact toward reducing fatalities from child abuse and neglect. To learn more about the coalition click here. You can also learn more about how social workers protect children by visiting NASW’s “Help Starts Here” Kids & Families Web page by clicking here.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said the 1974 Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act may have to be changed to prevent more Penn State scandals from occurring, according to this article in the Baltimore Sun.

The law provides federal funding to states that enact procedures for responding to allegations of child abuse and neglect and define who must report abuse, said Mikulski. The reporting requirements may need updating, said Mikuski, a social worker who worked on child neglect cases.

For instance, Maryland has mandatory reporting requirements for all adults but no criminal penalties for those who fail to report abuse or neglect. This makes reporting laws “essentially unenforceable,” the senator said.

In the Penn State case police claim former football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky molested 10 boys over a 10-year period. Two college administrators have also been accused of being told about the alleged abuse but not reporting it to authorities.

To learn more about how social workers protect children visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Kids & Families Website by clicking here.