Coping Skills of Military Families Focus of Research
Baylor University
In a case of students inspiring the professors, two faculty members in Baylor University’s School of Social Work came to their latest area of research partially because of how they witnessed graduate students in the program who are military spouses cope with their challenges.

Parenting Questions
Metro Weekly
As early as 2002, the NASW Delegate Assembly adopted a formal policy supporting ”second-parent adoptions in same-sex households” and stating that ”[l]egislation seeking to restrict foster care and adoption by gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people should be vigorously opposed.”

Jay Noren resigns as Wayne State president
Chicago Tribune
School of Social Work Dean Phyllis Vroom will take over as acting president until an interim president is selected. Noren was hired in August 2008 as Wayne State’s 10th president.

For Domestic Violence Victims, a Little Financial Literacy Goes a Long Way
News from Rutgers
Postmus and her colleague Sara Plummer, an instructor in the School of Social Work, examined the impact of a curriculum, Moving Forward Through Money Management, created by The Allstate Foundation’s Economics Against Abuse Program.

University of Houston’s Meghan Baker named Social Work Student of …
EurekAlert
She personifies the core values in the NASW Code of Ethics, with two values in particular standing out. The first is her dedication to service, volunteering and advocating for three distinct service organizations while undertaking a rigorous full-time dual degree and working part time.

Want to keep your child drug-free? Here are five signs of possible trouble
CNN
“I don’t think most parents go running down the path that you have an emerging addict on your hands anytime they try something,” says Jan Ligon, a member of the National Association of Social Workers.

With Help After Storm, a Chance to Give Back
New York Times
Ms. Heintz and the staff — two psychiatrists, two psychologists and a clinical social worker for about 300 clients — are reaching out to the wives of the fishermen, holding focus groups to learn about their needs and teaching them breathing techniques and other coping mechanisms.

UC awarded contract for children’s mental health treatment
The News Record
The University of Cincinnati’s School of Social Work will soon be lending its expertise to Clermont County after being awarded a $1.1 million contract to evaluate a new mental health program in the county.

USC To Study Local Children Of Military Members
KGTV San Diego
According to USC’s School of Social Work, the program will monitor and address the social, academic and emotional challenges faced by children whose parents are deployed.

Column: Health care bill helps, but medical costs are still sickening
MLive.com
That dovetails with another recent survey, this one by the Association of Oncology Social Work. They found that two-thirds of cancer patients experienced financial hardships due to medical bills.

‘Top Ten Myths About Homosexuality’ Is a Huge Homophobic Fraud
Huffington Post
Ten Myths pushes the inaccuracy that a man who molests a boy is automatically gay even though the American Psychological Association, the National Association of Social Workers, the American Academy of Child Psychiatrists and the Child Welfare League of America, all say that the homosexuality and pedophilia are not linked.

Slaying of Citizen of the Year stuns Eastern Shore
The Virginian-Pilot
She received a degree in social work from Norfolk State University and her master’s from Ohio State University.  She was a board member of Eastern Shore Rural Health System and part owner of Therapeutic Intervention, where she worked with at-risk kids.

County Children & Youth ordered to provide info to social workers
York Daily Record
Jenna Mehnert, executive director of the state branch of the National Association of Social Workers, said Pennsylvania’s a bit lax when it comes to standards for social workers.

Social worker sees kids’ stress
Norwich Bulletin
Carolyn Trasko, a social worker in Preston who has spoken about families and stress, said children are reflecting an increased level of stress as their families struggle with issues such as financial problems.

EDITORIAL: Social worker could be influence
The Daily News Journal
With that partly in mind, Murfreesboro City Schools Director Linda Gilbert hired Tonya Hobbs last week as the system’s social worker to focus on the “whole child.”

New VA Rule to Help Vets with PTSD
New America Media
The rule change, which the New York Times reports could take affect as early as Monday, would eliminate the need of returning soldiers diagnosed with PTSD to document specific events, called stressors, in order to receive disability compensation.

House Calls For Elderly Could Relieve Squeezed ‘Sandwich Generation’
NPR
Older folks with lots of chronic illnesses aren’t the only ones who could benefit from a Medicare experiment funded through the new health law that will send doctors and nurse practitioners to visit them in their homes.

Vietnam Child-Abuse Case Exposes Lax Protection Services
TIME
In May, social work was officially recognized as a profession, a vital legal distinction in Vietnam’s communist society, in which nothing can happen without the central government’s assent.

Pressing for the passage of the Massachusetts Transgender Civil Rights Bill
Bay Windows
Rebekah Gewirtz of the National Association of Social Workers, Massachusetts Chapter, spoke after Springer. Gewirtz described the roll of social workers in the fight for transgender rights, explaining that social workers often work with transgender people, and they understand the difficulty that transgender people experience in their lives every day.

CPS To Review Decision On Hero Social Worker
CBS2 Chicago
Chicago Public Schools chief executive officer Ron Huberman says he will personally review a decision to fire a hero social worker if he continues to live outside the city.

Relief for the Spirit: A Lay Mental Health Worker Project in Post-Earthquake Haiti
Huffington Post (blog)
After all, as good social workers know, mental health intervention is most likely to succeed when the entire family, if not the whole community, is targeted.

Spill Takes Toll on Gulf Workers’ Psyches
New York Times
Beyond the environmental and economic damage, the toll of the mammoth spill in the Gulf of  Mexico is being measured in hopelessness, anxiety, stress, anger, depression and even suicidal thoughts among those most affected, social workers say.

Economy has Dad in transition
Elmira Star-Gazette
Whether caused by economic forces or personal decisions, the phenomenon is a growing trend, said George Tomaras, a licensed clinical social worker who has been practicing in Binghamton for 30 years.

USC deploys military social work program
San Diego Union Tribune
RANCHO BERNARDO — USC has opened an academic center in San Diego that is offering a military social-work program — the first of its kind in the nation.

USC San Diego Academic Center even features “Lt. Rocco,” a virtual-reality hologramlike patient to help train students to treat post traumatic stress disorder, the article said.

“Someone needed to step forward and develop a social-work program to address the needs of military personnel, vets and their families,” said Jose Coll, the center’s director. “Why not us?”

To learn more about how social workers help the military and veterans vist the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Veterans Affairs Web page by clicking here.

Sapphire photo courtesy of the University of Minnesota.

Social workers are divided over pop diva Mariah Carey’s portrayal of social worker Ms. Weiss in “Precious,” a movie about an abused, pregnant, overweight teen girl who finds hope through literacy.

Director Lee Daniels said he closely followed the book on which the movie is based — “Push” by Sapphire.

Sapphire (Ramona Lofton),  59, was born in California to a military family. According to Wikipedia, Sapphire’s mother “kind of abandoned the family.” Sapphire dropped out of high school but eventually made her way to New York City where she got a master’s degree and worked as an exotic dancer and reading and writing teacher before launching a writing career.

Social Workers Speak! asked Sapphire about the portrayal of social workers in “Precious.” She agreed to answer our questions by email. Here is her response:

Q: Your novel “Push,” has been turned into a very powerful and moving movie “Precious.” Are you pleased with the results? What experiences in your life inspired this story? Did you meet children such as Claireece?

A: I am very pleased with the movie “Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire.” I think it is a movie that makes a powerful statement about a forgotten segment of society and at the same time is a wonderful work of art. I knew many children like the main character in the book and movie. They inspired me to write the novel Push.

Q: Social workers deal on a day to day basis with many issues addressed in your book — illiteracy, child abuse, rape etc. Did you know social workers and did that influence the creation of the character Miss Weiss in your book?

A: I know many social workers and that influenced the creation of my character Ms Weiss. Two social workers and a social work student read the book in manuscript form before it was published and felt the portrayal of Ms Weiss was insightful and compelling.

Q: Some social workers who have read the book and seen the movie said they could have been represented more fairly. Some say they could have provided the services Miss Rain helped arrange for Claireece. Do you think their criticism of the book and movie are fair?

A: Some research on your part will uncover a lawsuit brought by eligible welfare recipients (who were) kicked off welfare and people who were eligible for but were denied welfare by the (New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani) administration. Who do you think those people turned to (as Giuliani grandstanded about reducing the welfare roles!) after social services were instructed by the Mayor’s office to deny them welfare benefits? They turned to us, their teachers, churches, and neighbors. The unlucky had no one to turn to and some of them died on the street, starved, or committed suicide. I don’t know how many of the people you mention (who feel I created an unfair portrait of a social worker) were working in the social service system in New York in the 1980′s but the failures of the system at that time are documented and the casualties were legion.

The situation has changed and hopefully it will continue to do so.

Q: There has been much fuss made in the media about actress Mariah Carey deglamorizing her look to play Miss Weiss? Do you think too much fuss was made about that? And does her portrayal send the message that social workers are dowdy people?

A: Mariah Carey is a fine actress and played the role of Ms. Weiss with wisdom, soul, and grace. I will be forever grateful to her for her fine performance.

Q: What projects are you working on now?

A: I’m working on a new novel and a book of poetry. I am also taking some graduate classes in literature in hopes of getting into a PhD program. All best, Sapphire.

Readers can also watch Katie Couric’s interview with Sapphire on CBS by clicking here. And to find out more about how social workers help children and teens visit the National Association of Social Workers Children and Families Web page and “Help Starts Here” Kids and Families Web page.

Director Oren Moverman, center, with "The Messenger" actors Ben Foster, left, and Woody Harrelson. Photo courtesy of Imdb.com.

Oren Moverman is director and co-writer of the newly released “The Messenger,” an emotionally stirring film  about soldiers who must inform families a servicemember has died.

The movie touches on issues social workers help people handle, including death, grief, and post traumatic stress disorder. The military is also an area where social workers have a lot of expertise — the Department of Veterans Affairs employs more master’s level social workers than any other organization.

Moverman gave the National Association of Social Workers an advanced copy of the film and agreed to answer questions about the movie from the Social Workers Speak! staff and Web site and the NASW Facebook page. Here they are:

Q: Oren, what made you want to get involved in filmmaking and screenwriting?

A: I’m almost embarrassed to admit it, but I wanted to be involved in filmmaking from an early age, very early, I was nine when I started dreaming about it.  Of course, I knew nothing about what it meant. It was something I felt I had to pursue.  I came to live in the States in 1988 with filmmaking in mind and I started writing scripts while attending Brooklyn College. My goal was to direct. I was very lucky to get financing for my first film as a director in 2000, but the financiers pulled out three days before shooting and I was left with a writing sample I sent around. I started getting hired as a screenwriter, and suddenly that was my profession. But the goal was to direct. It took awhile. And here we are.

 
Q:  Most Americans avoid issues such as death and grief – issues that you addressed head-on in the movie “The Messenger.” What made you want to tackle these issues? Do you think Americans are too squeamish about death?

A: I think Western Civilization in general is squeamish on subjects like death and other “dark” issues as well – aging, hospitalization, illness and more.  We don’t like talking about these things. So much is devoted to this imaginary pursuit of eternal youth and happiness. But death is so central to life, so important. Alessandro Camon, my co-writer on “The Messenger,”  and I wanted to take the subject on from the military perspective because it is so immediate and dramatic; we wanted to contribute to the dialogue about war from a human perspective, i.e. life and death. It’s really a powerful tool. But the issue of death, specifically notification of death, which means dealing with the reality that people die, clearly goes beyond the military context. We all get notified of the death of a loved one. I suppose we felt ready and mature enough to put these themes out there, to not be too squeamish about it. It’s reality after all.

Q: One social worker who viewed the film liked it because it was a “war movie yet it addressed the after effects of war.” Do you think too many war movies focus on heroism and not enough are like “Born on the 4th of July” and the “Deer Hunter” and focus on troops after they come home?

A: We wanted to show, in a small, intimate way, the lives of people who have to deal with the consequences of the decision to go to war.  That was our first impulse that gave birth to this movie.  I think there’s a cycle to these things, and it has to do more with movie economics than the war. Don’t forget, a movie gets made because someone somewhere thinks he or she can make money by appealing directly to what they think interests the public. Of course, movies are a lot more than that, but we can’t make them without financiers.  So it depends on the time, the mood of a country, the war itself, the financial instincts of certain entities. I think there are plenty of movies coming out of the last two wars dealing with the aftermath. But these movies have not done well in the box office and there’s a hesitancy to make too many of them right now. But that’s not to say that once these wars are over, hopefully soon, and our soldiers are back, there won’t be more. I believe there will be. There are many stories to tell and many issues to cover.

Q: The Department of Veterans Affairs employs more master’s degree level social workers than any other agency. Social workers also provide services such as grief counseling to armed services families. I know “The Messenger” is in the can but if you could have done it again would you have included a military social worker who came in after the news of death was delivered?

A: Honestly, no.  I have the utmost respect for social workers; they are out there in the trenches every day doing great work. But this movie is just an entry point into the current military world. It’s an introduction to most people. It starts a dialogue; it cannot cover every aspect of the war. We just wanted people to become aware that these people, returning soldiers, families, are dealing with tremendous  issues that demand our attention. It’s all we could do with this one. Social workers deserve a film of their own.

Q: Social workers who saw the film thought the acting was great and you handle the issues in a realistic way. They also realize this is a movie. But they saw a missed opportunity. Could you have focused more on social and psychological treatment soldiers can receive when they get home?

A: I’m sorry that they see it as a missed opportunity.  But I also understand their perspective. Social workers are dealing with huge, complicated problems and they are rarely acknowledged for their enormous contribution. So the frustration is clear. But you have to understand that this, as you say, is only a movie. It gives a spotlight for a brief moment and then it’s gone. The reality stays. And we were trying to introduce audiences to the reality. There are so many good people involved in the aftermath. We don’t even show the Casualty Assistance Officer the Army sends to help the families. We don’t go into the healing process, really. Maybe there’s a sequel there.

Q: One social worker wrote: “Based on my proximity to military bases and installations, I’ve had some limited experience with military families on my case roster. Did you use a consultant to help you portray the military ‘culture’ accurately?”

A: The Army fully supported our movie and we have a technical advisor on set every day, Lt. Col. Paul Sinor, a great guy and a great help to us.

Q:  Did you know actress Samantha Morton in your film is part of a campaign to recruit more social workers in the Great Britain? How do you feel about Samantha’s efforts?

A: Sam is a remarkable women and a sublime actress. I knew she was active in social workers issues and I know that it come from her childhood. I applaud her efforts and I know they come from a genuine place.  Sam doesn’t do anything she doesn’t believe in.

Q: Another social worker asked: “Do you feel that social workers are generally misrepresented as unskilled professionals? After directing this film, has your view of social workers’ role and impact change at all?”
A: I grew up in Israel where the role of the social worker is integral to society. I do think there’s a misperception in the U.S. as to what a social worker does. Unless you know one or you’re interacting with one, there’s no real model for people to look at and learn from. Social workers have not gotten their fair share of public attention, and their role has not been publicly acknowledged on a large scale. But that’s not to say that they are not being appreciated and admired by so many for whom social workers dedicate their lives and time.  To me there is something heroic about it. Not in a clichéd, Hollywood way. There’s something heroic about a life of giving, a life of service to social justice and bettering people’s quality of life.

Q: What projects are you working on next?

A: There are a few things I’m looking at, nothing solid yet. I’ll let you know as soon as I find out.  It sounds like your members have some ideas for me. And I appreciate it.

Ben Foster, left, and Woody Harrelson star in "The Messenger." Photo courtesy of "Moving Pictures."

Director Oren Moverman offered NASW a chance to do an advance viewing of his film “The Messenger” at NASW offices this afternoon. The movie is about soldiers who must deliver news of a death to families.

Most of the audience members were social workers. How did they feel about the film?

They thought the acting by Woody Harrelson, Ben Foster and Samantha Morton was spot on. It is also a good and timely message movie, considering the United States is still losing soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and troops are returning injured and suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. For more information on how social workers are helping the military click here to vist the NASW’s “Help Starts Here” section on Veterans Affairs.

“I enjoyed it — I thought the acting was phenomenal,” said Sharon Issurdatt, LCSW. “It’s a war movie but different. It shows the after effects.”

However, other social workers in the review audience said the film should have given more attention to the services provided to grieving families after the “messengers” deliver their grim news. The Department of Veterans Affairs hires more masters level social workers than any other industry, and many of these social workers provide guidance to soldiers and their families.

The movie mentioned casualty assistance officers several times but where were the military social workers, several audience members said?

“The Messenger” opened in limited theaters on Veterans Day.

Woody Harrelson. Photo courtesy of Film Festival Ticker.

The soon-be-released movie “The Messenger” handles two topics many people would rather avoid — death and grief. Actors Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster play soldiers who must tell families their loved ones died in service to their country. This issue resonates with social workers who provide services to the military and grieving families. To read more about the role of social workers click here to visit the Grief and Loss section of NASW’s “Help Starts Here” Web site.

QUESTION: Do you think the process of death and grieving is handled accurately in the news, television and movies? Leave a comment!