Web therapy reaches out to patients near and far
Journal and Courier
Buck Black, a licensed clinical social worker with the Heartland Clinic, has a session with a patient via Skype in his office, in Lafayette. / By Brent Drinkut/Journal & Courier • Are you looking for ways to improve anger, stress or relationships?

Neb. coalition files petition to force state action on treatment …
The Republic
Terry Werner, who heads the Nebraska chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, says the rule already exists in the code of ethics that governs each profession in the group.

Occupy camps don’t create social ills, they showcase them
San Francisco Bay Guardian
But rather than seeing the squalor that has been highlighted by city officials and the media, I saw it as a place of real possibilities, particularly from my perspective as a social worker

Incentives And Cultural Bias Fuel Foster System
NPR
It was a social worker from the Department of Social Services. She said her daughter Erin Yellow Robe was going to be arrested for drugs. Howe couldn’t believe it. She had never seen any sign of drugs or any other problems. And then the social worker changed Howe’s life. She said she was coming to take Howe’s grandchildren away.

Tribes Question Foster Group’s Power And Influence
NPR
“They make a living off of our children,” says Juanita Sherick, the tribal social worker on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge reservation. She says the state pushes aggressively in her cases to place kids in Children’s Home who, she says, should be placed with their grandmothers, aunts and uncles — family members who are often desperate to take them in.

Native Survivors Of Foster Care Return Home
NPR
Years later, he was told by a state worker that his mother drank too much. But he doesn’t recall any bad memories. He knows she loved him. When he closed his eyes, he could see it in her face. He says he doesn’t understand why he wasn’t sent to live with one of his relatives. He had hundreds of them. Instead he was sent to a white foster home.

Report details inequities for kids of gay parents
The Associated Press
The other groups are the liberal Center for American Progress and the Movement Advancement Project, a gay-rights think tank. Among other participants in the project were the National Association of Social Workers and the Child Welfare League of America.

Report: 2 Million Children Living In LGBT Households Face Legal …
ThinkProgress
Today, a coalition of LGBT organizations in partnership with social welfare and child advocacy groups released the most comprehensive report to date analyzing how public policies impact children with LGBT parents.

Why Kids with Same-Sex Parents Need Legal Protections
Slate Magazine
A coalition of child-welfare groups released a report on Tuesday showing that children of gay and lesbian parents in the U.S. face serious disadvantages not experienced by their opposite-sex-parented peers.

Report: 2 millions kids ‘collateral damage’ of laws against LGBT people
LGBTQNation
A groundbreaking new report released Tuesday reveals that nearly two million children have become collateral damage of decades of ideology, laws and policies designed to marginalize lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans.

The Geography of Inequality
The Advocate
As social science research over the past three decades confirms, children of same-sex parents are as healthy and well-adjusted as those raised by opposite-sex parents.

Making Public Policy Work for All Households
Center for American Progress
Public discussion about American families often assumes the nation is largely made up of married heterosexual couples raising their biological children. Yet less than a quarter of all U.S. households fall into this category.

President Obama during TMJ4 Interview.

Reporter Charles Benson from Wisconsin’s TMJ4 recently interviewed President Obama about the budget deficit, union protests in Wisconsin and other issues.

Obama gave social workers a positive plug during the interview when Benson asked him about the protests against Wisconsin’s Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Here’s what he said:

“I think it’s very important for us to understand that public employees they’re our neighbors, they’re our friends.  These are folks who are teachers, they’re firefighters, they’re social workers, they’re police officers. They make a lot of sacrifices and make a big contribution. And  think it’s important not to vilify them or to suggest all these budget problems are due to public employees.”

To listen to Obama’s interview in full, click here.

To learn more about the various services social workers provide, visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” consumer Web site by clicking here.

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama attend the January 12 memorial for Arizona shooting victims. At their left is Daniel Hernandez, a Congressional aide who helped save the life of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. To their right is Gifford's husband Mark Kelly and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Photo courtesy of the White House.

President Obama on Wednesday spoke at a memorial services for the victims of the Arizona shooting, including social worker and Congressional aide Gabe Zimmerman.

Zimmerman was an aide to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), who is still recovering from her injuries.

Gabe Zimmerman

“He died doing what he loved -— talking with people and seeing how he could help,” Obama said of Zimmerman.

To watch Obama’s speech at the White House Web site click here. Or you can read a transcript of his remarks by clicking here. The National Association of Social Workers also released a statement about Gabe Zimmerman that you can read by clicking here.

Barbara White to Step Down in August As Dean of the School of Social Work
University of Texas at Austin News
She is a former president of the 155000-member National Association of Social Workers, and was a member of the board of directors of the International Association of Schools of Social Work.

A generation gap in understanding porn of today
Mormon Times
Dan Gray, a licensed clinical social worker and director of the LifeSTAR Network based in Salt Lake City, said 40 years ago when he was in high school, a person wanting to access pornography “really had to go looking for it.”

The National Coalition to End Child Abuse Deaths Endorses Second Edition of We Can Do Better: Child Abuse and Neglect Deaths in America
DigitalJournal.com
The Coalition is comprised of five national organizations — the Every Child Matters Education Fund, the National Center for Child Death Review, National Children’s Alliance, the National District Attorneys Association, and the National Association of Social Workers.

Adolescent Girls Especially Susceptible To Cutting
W*USA 9
“It’s becoming more and more common,” said Gwen Corley, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Virginia. Corley says cutting actually releases endorphins into the body, giving a temporary sense of relief.

Food stamp eligibility expands
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
“We’re happy this is finally coming into play,” said Debbie Shimizu, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers-Hawaii chapter.

‘Economic Control’ Up 40 Percent As Local Domestic Violence Cause
Falls Church News Press
Eighty percent of domestic violence victims using the Women’s Center in Vienna are now citing “financial changes” during as a key issue between them and their abuser, a number that’s risen from 40 percent in the last 18 months, said Women’s Center Psychotherapist Susan Folwell, LCSW.

Schools add healthy eating as key to student success
The Herald-Mail
Superintendent David Banks and the schools’ social worker, Gary McDaniel, have designed a strategic plan for addressing Morgan County students’ challenges.

Texas Dad Accused of Killing His 3 Kids Had History of Abuse
AOL News
A Texas man accused of shooting and killing his three children while they slept had a history of domestic violence and for years had allegedly threatened to kill himself and his wife, a social worker involved in the family’s case said.

Ella Mae Johnson. Photo by Mark Duncan of the Associated Press.

When Ella Mae Johnson got her master’s degree in social work more than 80 years ago, she was not allowed to stay on the present-day Case Western Reserve University campus in Cleveland because she was black.

Johnson went on to have a long career in social work. She also got noticed by National Public Radio when at age 105 she braved the cold to attend President Obama’s Inauguration. The determined Johnson wore a stylish jacket and pearls under the sleeping bag her nurse covered her with.

 ”My hope for him is my hope for the country,” she explained. “If he fails, the country fails. He knows, and he says, ‘Not me, but you. Not us, but all of us.’ ”

Johnson died March 22 at age 106, not long after finishing her soon-to-be-published memoir “It Is Well With My Soul: The Extraordinary Life Of A 106-Year-Old Woman.”

 To read and listen to the NPR stories about her click here. And also read this tribute to Johnson from Gwen Ifill from PBS Newshour.

National Association of Social Workers

Brooks, who is vice president of the Justice Resource Institute in Boston, is a well known activist who has been HIV positive for 20 years. As a member of the council Brooks will give President Obama advice and recomendations to reduce the HIV infection rate and increase access to care.

Click here to read the full Boston Globe article on Brooks.

To learn more about how social workers help people living with HIV/AIDS click here to visit NASW’s “Help Starts Here” HIV/AIDS Web page.

Obama speaks at job summit. Photo by Dennis Brack/UPI.

During his Dec. 3 jobs summit President Obama said unemployed Americans are missing out on more than a paycheck. “They are losing the sense of identity and dignity that they get from having a job,” he said.

So Christian Science Monitor reporter David Grant decided to identify seven purpose-driven jobs. Its no surprise to us that one of them – a youth development supervisor in New York – requires a masters degree in social work.

Which leads to our questions:

Q: Do you  think  social work is a purpose-driven career that provides more benefits than a paycheck? What makes your job fulfilling or frustrates you? Let us know by leaving comments below.

And to find out more about how the National Association of Social Workers is working to promote social work careers read about the  Dorothy I. Height and Whitney M. Young Jr. Social Work Reinvestment Act (H.R. 795 and S. 686). NASW supports the legislation, which would help prevent a pending shortage of trained social workers.