Human Services By the Batch
Governing
Back in quainter days, human services casework was handled by one person managing the entire process. A staffer would meet prospective clients face-to-face, assess needs versus assets, figure out what benefits that client was eligible for and then manage the case through its lifetime, including tending to changes in income, address or family status. Those days could soon be over, if they’re not gone already.

Gary Sinise On Music, Marriage, and His Work On Behalf Of Our Armed Forces
Parade
Q: Last year you launched your foundation (GarySiniseFoundation.org). What’s going on with it now? A: The University of Southern California has a wonderful social work department, and I was thrilled to find out that they have a whole veterans initiative program there. They approached me, and I set up a scholarship that would go to a military-oriented person, to learn techniques and skills to better help veterans. We hope to do it on a broader scale around the country.

Group asks FirstEnergy for energy-efficiency measures
Charleston Gazette
“Our neighboring states hold companies to more efficient standards,” said Sam Hickman, executive director of the West Virginia chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. “In West Virginia, we have among the highest rates of home ownership. But many elderly and low-income folks have no access to loans or equity” on their homes, Hickman said. “We need a more robust plan.”

Time for West Virginia to Improve Social Workers’ Safety?
Public News Service
Sam Hickman, executive director of the Association’s West Virginia Chapter, says lawmakers should create one central place in state government with the job of protecting the 1000 or so field employees and contractors at the various agencies. He says, without that, the issue falls through the cracks and the people going out in the field will tend to take too many risks.

Bleak Portrait of Poverty Is Off the Mark, Experts Say
The New York Times
“The official measure no longer corresponds to reality,” said Jane Waldfogel, a professor of social work at Columbia University. “It doesn’t get either side of the equation right — how much the poor have or how much they need. No one really trusts the data.”

Aggie soldier dies in combat
Texas A&M The Battalion
The life of David E. Cabrera, class of 1992, was taken on Oct. 29. The Lieutenant Colonel, who was a licensed clinical social worker and assistant professor of family medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, was stationed in Afghanistan’s capitol city, Kabul, when his NATO convoy was attacked.

Wealthier age more slowly, are more mobile
UPI.com
Study co-author Virginia Richardson, a professor of social work at Ohio State University, said the disadvantage for the poor in walking, bathing, eating, dressing and getting in and out of bed snowballs over time and determines when someone elderly needs to be institutionalized.

Victims speak out about North Carolina sterilization program, which targeted women, young girls and blacks
Rock Center
Despite the state social workers who declared Riddick was “mentally retarded” and “promiscuous”, she went to college and raised the son born moments before she was sterilized.  Her son is devoted to his mother and a successful entrepreneur.

Updated Handbook of Health Social Work reflects changes in health care
Washington University in St. Louis News
By Jessica Martin Increased complexity in health care demands a greater body of knowledge for health social workers. The newly released Handbook of Health Social Work, Second Edition is a key resource for social workers, offering a comprehensive and evidence-based overview of social work practice in health care.

Progress, but Still a Race Gap
New York Times
Sandra Edmonds Crewe, a professor of social work at Howard University, is the director of the Multidisciplinary Center for Social Gerontology. There are credible signs that older people are faring better than younger cohorts, in part because the recent recession has often hit young people hardest.

Sandusky case shows where Pa. child protective services law fails
Patriot-News
Today, I am a licensed clinical social worker and also a state-mandated reporter of suspected child abuse. So were/are the staff at Penn State. Pa. law should be changed to require all child abuse allegations to be reported straight to the Department of Public Welfare.

Responsibility means reporting abuse
Lebanon Daily News
While strangers do abduct children, the rate of stranger abductions is only about .0017 per 1,000 children. The real danger for children comes from neighbors, relatives, coaches, priests and teachers.

Penn State scandal triggers worries, numbness
Ventura County Star
The scandal has focused attention on the adequacy of laws protecting children and mandating teachers and others to report the abuse. But that’s not the issue, said Ferol Mennen, a social worker and USC professor who researches child abuse and neglect.

Talking to Kids about Cancer
Newark Post
By Elizabeth Wood, LCSW, ACSW [Editor's note: Elizabeth Wood is a Clinical Social Worker for the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/BBMT at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children.] Chances are you know someone who has had cancer, but when your own family is affected, the word cancer takes on a new meaning — one that can feel personal and frightening. Cancer can be especially confusing to children who may be coping with a family member’s diagnosis or their own. 

Local district talks about bullying
WANE
On Friday, NewsChannel 15 spoke with a social worker for Southwest Allen County Schools about how that district is handling the issue. Anita Gross, a social worker for the district for 22 years, said she hasn’t seen a dramatic increase in bullying over the past few years.

Statehouse Live; About 250 people rally against Brownback policies
Lawrence Journal World
McComas, a social worker, and Tamara Werth, a psychologist from Lawrence, organized the event to protest recent Brownback decisions. They formed a group called Kansans United in Voice & Spirit and said they hoped the rally would initiate local chapters across the state.

Separated in Foster Care, Siblings Reunite in Camp
NYTimes
Camp to Belong, a nonprofit organization that reunites siblings separated in foster care, recently opened its first camp in New York on the grounds of YMCA Camp Chingachgook in Kattskill Bay. The organization was founded in 1995 in Las Vegas by Lynn Price, a former foster child who was separated from her sister growing up. It seeks to create healthy sibling relationships for foster children, who often have difficult family lives.

Snyder’s Health Goals Hard to Swallow for Michiganders Struggling …
WILX-TV
“It’s a well-intended vision. it’s missing guts and substance,” said Maxine Thome, executive director of Michigan’s National Association of Social Workers. “Everyday, we have people living in the woods behind us. We have people going though the trash here to find food, do those people have time to go to the gym to work out or to lose weight or to get healthy nutrition?” she asked.

Behind the poverty numbers: real lives, real pain
The Associated Press
Instead, she was standing in line at a Manhattan food pantry, where hundreds of people waited patiently to fill suitcases with groceries or meet with a social worker. Going on a year without a job, Gray likes to rise early and ride the subway down from the Bronx to visit the West Side Campaign Against Hunger, New York’s largest food pantry, which is tucked inside a church basement.

Fire victims face tough emotions
Austin American-Statesman
The coming weeks, months and even years will be an emotional struggle for many people, said Michael Gianotti, branch chair of the National Association of Social Workers-Texas Chapter. Gianotti, who has helped coordinate social workers volunteering in Bastrop County, said that right now, people are dealing with a range of emotions: anger, sadness, fear, anxiety.

WorkWise: Button-pushing and responsibility at work
The Modesto Bee
Work that brings stress, impossible demands, anxiety over job security and poor management creates a negative environment, even when co-workers are well-intentioned, according to Karol Ward, a licensed clinical social worker in private practice in New York City.

Mariah Carey visited by social worker, Nick Cannon says
Washington Post (blog)
(Frazer Harrison – Getty Images) Nick Cannon said a social worker visited new mom Mariah Carey in the hospital this week over allegations of drug use and drinking. On Thursday’s “Piers Morgan Tonight ,” Cannon said someone called child protective services after Carey followed a nurse’s suggestion to drink a small amount of dark beer to help with breast-feeding.

Dad gets college degree to help soldiers after his son dies in Iraq
KWCH
What made sense was to go back to school full time and get a master’s degree in social work. “The first month my brain almost exploded because I hadn’t studied or read that much in a number of years.”

For House Speaker Boehner at commencement address, scrutiny of Catholic charity
Washington Post
Doing so defied the Catholic church’s teachings, she said, and will hurt the people she hopes to help with her newly minted master’s degree in social work. “His policies reflect different values than the values of social work professionals, which are to help people who are poor, vulnerable and repressed,” Jamison said.

Phoenix VA Medical Center aide counsels sexually abused
Arizona Republic
15, 2011 12:00 AM For the past four years, a full-time social worker at Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in Phoenix has been helping men and women who were sexually abused, harassed or assaulted in the armed forces.

Troops seek help for military sexual trauma
USA Today
The problem is so large that the Phoenix VA Medical Center has hired a full-time social worker who does nothing but provide individual counseling and support groups for sexual trauma victims. Social worker Judith Orosz said anger, anxiety, depression and an inability to hold a job are typical among those who seek help.

New ‘Bridges Out of Poverty’ program to help Poconos poor
Pocono Record
Keith R. Stevenson/Pocono Record Monroe County social workers hope a new program will help the area’s poor cross over to a better lifestyle. “Bridges Out of Poverty,” part one of a three-part workshop that studies the effects of poverty and how to deal with them, was held for the first time in Monroe County on Thursday.

Brinkley uses lockout to earn degree
Minneapolis Star Tribune (blog)
Brinkley accomplished his goal when he graduated last weekend with a degree in African-American Studies with a concentration in social work. Brinkley took part in the graduation ceremony held in South Carolina’s basketball arena.

Career change can do a number on many relationships
MSNBC.com
So how do these shifts manifest themselves in relationship problems? Karol Ward, a licensed psychotherapist and author of “Worried Sick: Break Free from Chronic Worry to Achieve Mental & Physical Health” offered a list of the reasons career changes can lead to divorce.

Slow down when talking to the elderly
UPI.com
Rebecca Axline, a clinical social worker with the Nantz National Alzheimer Center in Houston, says as the number of elderly with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia increases so do the number of caregivers. Caregivers are often advised to take time to sleep seven to eight hours, eat a healthy diet, build a support team and try to find time to re-energize.

Grieving Detroit mom works to build her baby’s connection to her late husband
Detroit Free Press
Laurie Epstein Kach, a clinical social worker who has been in the profession for almost 30 years, says times have changed drastically from when children were to be seen and not heard. If parents want to bolster a better relationship with their children, they must be open to hearing their children and telling them their feelings are valid.

Special training helps city police respond safely to mental health emergencies
TheDay.com
She dialed, said she needed help with crisis intervention, and 10 minutes later two cruisers pulled up, minus the lights and sirens but accompanied by a social worker. “It was like, a traveling social worker? Social workers make house calls?”

Palliative care focuses on life
Lansing State Journal
Patient navigators or social workers—These experts can help make sure that cancer patients and others don’t get lost in the system, receive timely follow-up tests and get their results quickly.

VA: In southwest Va., as more need help, aid organization has less to give
Washington Post
At a time of such high demand, poverty-assistance programs across the country are facing a financial crisis of their own. Hancock’s organization, which totals four employees in a rundown, two-story house, is almost out of money. Local businesses that once donated thousands each month have yet to donate a single dollar this year. As the national deficit continues to skyrocket, federal and state governments are proposing the most severe budget cuts to social service programs in decades, threatening to reduce spending by 50 percent or more.

Tips for Overcoming Online Gaming
Associated Content
To help understand what type of impact online gaming can have on someone’s overall life and for tips on overcoming online gaming, I have interviewed therapist Mike Langlois, LICSW.

Caring for the caregiver: Peer Counseling Program offers help
Naples Daily News
A licensed clinical social worker, she and her husband Norm Johnston took care of her father Ivan Escott, Jr. for five years as he dealt with Parkinson’s disease and ultimately, dementia. “I wasn’t prepared for it,” says Escott.

Incest Survivor Credits Treatment For Recovery
KMGH Denver
“Treatment interrupts the cycle of child abuse by helping children be aware of what’s happening to them and being able to talk about it,” said Diane Baird, a licensed clinical social worker at the Kempe Center.

Study Finds Keys To Working With Latino Church To Fight Domestic Abuse
WebWire (press release)
The study, “Latino Church Leaders and Domestic Violence: Attitudes and Knowledge,” was co-authored by Dr. Tina Hancock, professor of social work at NC State, and Dr. Andrew Behnke, assistant professor of family and consumer sciences at NC State.

PT. Beach cancer patient support group feels economic pinch
Asbury Park Press
They joined 11 others and Lakewood resident Pat Spillane, a breast cancer survivor and retired clinical social worker who leads the 90-minute sessions each Tuesday at noon.

How Do You Find Good Food When You’ve Got Bad Allergies?
Wall Street Journal (blog)
Now make way for Allergic Girl. That’s the moniker that Sloane Miller, a New York social worker and food allergy advocate, has given herself in connection with her various enterprises, from an award-winning blog (Please Don’t Pass the Nuts) to a group-dining program (Worry-Free Dinners).

Homelessness a ‘major’ issue in Knox, UT College of Social Work report finds
Knoxville News Sentinel
A new report by the University of Tennessee’s College of Social Work concluded that homelessness is still “a major community problem in Knoxville and Knox County.” The report is an annual product of the Knoxville Homeless Management Information System, a Web-based database for collecting and reporting data on homeless individuals and families in the area.

Knowledge, understanding combat child abuse
Idaho Press-Tribune
She is the director of the Social Work Policy Institute in Washington DC and she was visiting Idaho for a conference. Dr. Zlotnik’s work includes advancing evidenced-based practices to benefit the wellbeing our nation’s children.

Social Work Dean Jeanette Takamura: A Personal Account of Japan’s Resilience
Columbia University
Written by Jeanette Takamura, dean of Columbia’s School of Social Work, who was in Tokyo to attend a conference when the March 11 earthquake and tsunami struck northern Japan. She was able to leave the country two days later. Dean Takamura is a sansei (third generation) Japanese American, born and raised in Hawaii.

The Innocent Victims of the Recession
MyFox Phoenix
“We are seeing a higher number of children that have more severity in their injuries,” says Nicole Schuren, a hospital social worker. “I think that the children suffered paid the price for that,” says Dr. Jennifer Geyer. And they’re sometimes paying with their lives.

Meth ‘Cook Houses’ Gone, Demand For Drug Lingers
NPR
Five years ago, Christine Brown was a social worker with CPS. Today, she is a supervisor. “We’re still seeing the same behaviors in the families, and we’re still seeing the same effects on the kids. They’re still exposed, it’s still happening, and it’s a battle. It’s a battle every day,” Brown says.

Texas’ reimbursement rate for abortion alternatives mentors …
The American Independent
The state program, whose subcontractors are primarily faith-based organizations that include maternity homes and crisis pregnancy centers, “is an issue of great concern to our association,” said Vicki Hansen, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers — Texas Chapter.

Social workers will celebrate National Health Care Decisions Day
Lakenewsonline.com
“It’s a tragedy when a person’s wishes are unknown at the end of their life,” said Susan Major, MSW/LCSW, director of Social Work Services at Lake Regional Health System. “It’s important for all adults to define ‘quality of life’ for themselves and to make their decisions known in case they become incapacitated.”

College of Social Work receives grant to explore demographics of kidney …
The Gamecock
Courtesy of College of Social Work For years, research has indicated that a disproportionately low number of African-American patients in need of kidney transplants actually receive them compared to white patients in South Carolina and nationwide.

Parents of girl who hanged self sue school district
Brandon News and Tribune
Donna Witsell said school officials told her a social worker from the school tried to call the family the day Hope signed the contract.

Students Bare Their Soles for Poverty Awareness
Hood Today
The event, sponsored by Hood’s Student Social Work Organization, was inspired by Toms Shoes, a company that donates a pair of shoes for each pair sold. “A Day Without Shoes,” held April 5, was designed to encourage students to reflect upon poverty and what it must be like to live life without basic necessities, such as shoes.

109 resident puts personal touch on the big screen
The 109
Morris, a social worker specializing in limb loss, received a telephone call several months ago that opened a door she had never imagined. Just a few weeks later, she was being flown to a movie set to act alongside Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon in a film called “True Grit.”

Why There’s ‘No Health Without Mental Health’
Huffington Post
Old or young, neglecting your mental health is bad for your physical health and vice versa.

Warm the Children is a help up, not a hand out, says Whitmore Lake social worker
AnnArbor.com
For Whitmore Lake Public Schools social worker Terry Bond-Manville, Warm the Children is not a handout, it’s a help up. Bond-Manville has been referring families to WTC for several years and has volunteered as a shopper for two years.

Lucy Liu gets romanced in Lifetime’s mumbly ‘Marry Me’
ChicagoNow (blog)
I’m not buying Liu as Rae, a social worker who gets dumped, gives up on love, meets a cutie and then, ka-pow!, gets marriage proposals from Steven Pasquale, Bobby Cannavale and Enrique Murciano.

Getting hitched may become obsolete as many opt to stay unmarried
Shreveport Times
Leesa Sitter, a licensed clinical social worker in Shreveport, says that marriage isn’t necessarily becoming obsolete but people’s childhoods play a significant role on their views about matrimony.

Target Offering In-Store Social Workers For Some Employees
The Consumerist
And so Target decided to bring in a social worker who could offer staffers a place to vent or to come to for advice on anything from family problems to advice on buying a home or adopting a baby.

Baylor School of Social Work Begins Move to Downtown Waco
Baylor University
Baylor University’s School of Social Work begins the move today from campus to its new home in downtown Waco, placing the School in the “heart of the community” it serves.

Black scholars reach into their own pasts to help beleaguered young black men
Chicago Tribune
Johnson, whose doctorate is in social work, said that as he was conceptualizing “Social Work With African American Males: Health, Mental Health, and Social Policy” (Oxford University Press), he thought about a book from the early 1980s that examined adult black men in a comprehensive way that hadn’t been done before.

Ramapo students rally for bill to aid social work field
NorthJersey.com
BY ALLISON PRIES A rally to bring attention to the needs of the social work industry was held Thursday at Ramapo College. Five senior social work majors have undertaken a policy advocacy project to bring attention to the Social Work Reinvestment Act.

Editorial: Baylor’s admirable reach to help ailing soldiers
Baylor University The Lariat Online
For years, Baylor researchers from the psychology and neuroscience department and the School of Social Work have been working toward a cure for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Family Therapy: Actors give social work students a chance to practice counseling
Montana Kaimin
Ann Davis consoles “Kerri,” played my Myra Nurre, after she stormed out of a family counseling session Friday during Catherine O’Day’s social work class.

A conversation on newsroom
Los Angeles Times
Social workers dealing with abused and neglected children labor at one of society’s most difficult jobs, often facing an array of bad choices from which they must try to choose the least bad.

Southeast Tennessee Conference on Social Welfare Puts Spotlight on Poverty
WDEF News 12
Social workers say the number of families and children living in poverty is sky-rocketing. Thursday more than 150 social welfare professionals gathered for the Southeast Tennessee Conference on Social Welfare and talked about fighting the affects of a bad economy.

Randerson Cares Elder Services expands services to LGBT …
PR Web
“We combine both the perspective of social worker and advocate in order to help our clients maneuver complex systems and obtain the best possible care for an optimal quality of life…”

To protect the children
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is easing out Trish Ploehn from her post as director of the Department of Children and Family Services. That’s a welcome development.

Parricide (Part 2): Is Our Detached Society to Blame?
Huffington Post (blog)
Surrounded by a culture of violence, Jo Eekhoff, a licensed clinical social worker in Belen, NM, where the most recent patricide took place, found herself deeply saddened by the situation.

You Should Know: Gale Golden
BurlingtonFreePress.com
I am a clinical social worker and clinical associate professor of psychiatry. I practice general psychotherapy as well as clinical sexology.

 Ada Deer, Native rights pioneer, to launch Mitchell Museum’s …
TribLocal
Deer is on the National Association of Social Workers Foundation’s roster of “Social Work Pioneers.” She created the first program to provide social work training on reservations and co-founded the Indian Community School in Milwaukee.

Blueprint: Levine honored for his longtime service
Online Athens
He served on the board of directors of the Georgia Gerontology Society, as a member of the National Association of Social Workers, and as a participant in White House Conferences on Aging in 1971, 1981, 1995 and 2005.

Jim Loach’s Debut Film Deals With Child Abuse
ABC News
In the movie, the story is told through the eyes of social worker Margaret Humphreys, played my Emily Watson, the Oscar-nominated British actress.

Become the dream mother-in-law
Shreveport Times
But for moms who want to prove that wrong, Leesa Sitter, licensed clinical social worker in Shreveport, gives some advice on becoming the ideal mom-in-law.

Woman inspired to begin support group
Morning Sentinel
Even for someone like Labul, a clinical social worker at Tri-County Mental Health whose husband is a physician, the diagnosis left her confused and unsure what to do next.

Your Child Can Control Bullies: Use Unruh’s “Stop Bullying Now …
NewsReleaseWire.com
Gary M. Unruh, MSW LCSW, forty-year veteran family and child therapist, sees the evidence every day in his practice: “School programs aren’t working parents don’t know what to do, and children are being damaged. There’s no escaping bullying; it’s 25/8, thanks to cyberspace technology,” he says.

Experts: Adoptive families need help
Florida Today
The conference at the International Palms Resort in Cocoa Beach targeted social workers who work with families in crisis and the community faith leaders whose congregation members may be considering or coping with adoptions.

Summit explores nature of poverty
Indiana Gazette
The summit, called the Community Sustainability Summit on the Effects of Poverty, brought together professors, social workers and community members from Indiana County and elsewhere in the state.

Care centers provide fun for elders, relief for family
Columbus Dispatch
Both are assistant professors in Ohio State’s College of Social Work. The centers not only give people a place to go, they also help with health concerns and can alert clients and their doctors to problems.

U. of Ill. leads in faculty Fulbright scholarships
Chicago Tribune
The (Champaign) News-Gazette reported that Illinois’ recipients included associate social work professor Susan Cole, history professor Kristin Hoganson and and education professors Richard Hunter and Christopher Lubienski.

Six-point resolution adopted for women welfare
Times of India
MANGALORE: A three-day international conference on women and mental health organized by School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya, Mangalore, and Flinders University, Australia, adopted a six-point resolution.

Democrats see losses as bump in the road
Twin Falls Times-News
Lora Ohlensehlen, a Twin Falls social worker, said the National Association of Social Workers has been encouraging social workers to go into politics.

The grinding reality of growing up poor
Washington Post 
“Poverty trumps mistreatment, absolutely,” said Sheryl Brissett-Chapman, executive director of the National Center for Children and Families in Bethesda.

Batterer program seeks to change abusers’ thinking
Newton Kansan
However, only about 5 percent of the offenders who are court ordered to participate in the program have a diagnosable mental illness, program director and licensed clinical social worker Evelyn Stabler said.

Urban League celebrates 100 years of service
Milwaukee Courier Weekly Newspaper
The National Urban League was founded by social worker George Edmund Haynes, the first African American to earn a PhD from Columbia University, and Ruth Standish Baldwin, a wealthy social activist.

Governor signs bills aimed at improving child-abuse investigations
Los Angeles Times (blog)
Two of the bills are aimed at improving the Los Angeles County database that provides social workers with information about a family’s history during a child-abuse investigation.

Patch Adams to speak in Fairbanks on Oct. 6
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
by Staff Report FAIRBANKS — The National Association of Social Workers Alaska Chapter will kick off its annual conference with a keynote lecturer Dr. Patch Adams on Oct. 6.

Victorian Tea Party honors Edith Abbott
Grand Island Independent
She worked with Jane Addams at Hull House in Chicago and helped establish social work as a serious profession during her tenure at the University of Chicago.

Ridgewood to hold presentation on youth suicide prevention
NorthJersey.com
The presenters are Scott Fritz, a founder of the society who lost a child to suicide, and Maureen Underwood, a clinical social worker and a nationally recognized expert on youth suicide prevention.

College, alliance sponsor domestic violence prevention workshop
The Daily Citizen
Dalton State College’s School of Social Work and the Conasauga Family Violence Alliance will co-sponsor their annual domestic violence conference on Friday, Oct. 1, with the Rev. Pat Merchant as a featured speaker.

New social services commissioner takes the helm
Greenwich Post
When Mr. Barry set out for a master’s degree in social work at St. Louis University, he wanted to be a therapist. His first course, however, got him sidetracked and he hasn’t looked back. It was public policy, administration.

Nashua feeling effects of nation’s rising poverty rate
Nashua Telegraph
Eileen Brady, a social worker for the Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter, said her organization first noticed a bump in the need for its services in March 2008, an indicator that something bad was about to happen with the economy. Brady said the soup kitchen’s food distribution numbers have tripled since that time.

Source counseling center at Red Bank Regional High School has new director
Asbury Park Press
“One of the things that Suzanne brings is a unique blend of social work background and business acumen,” said Principal Risa Clay, who founded the Source 10 years ago. “She brings the best of both worlds to the program.”

51-year-old Japanese widow Satomi Sato works two low-wage jobs to support herself and daughter but barely makes ends meet. Photo by Ko Sasaki for New York Times.

Japan last fall announced its official poverty line for the first time.

The move was a surprise because many Japanese claim they live in a homogenous, mostly middle class society that does not have stark divisions between rich and poor, according to this New York Times article.

In fact Japan, which sunk into economic stagnation years ago, has a 15.7 percent poverty rate. That is just below 17.1 percent in the United States.

Some social workers are concerned poor people who cannot afford to educate their children in Japan’s highly competitive educational system will pass their plight on to the next generation.

“We are at risk of creating a chronic underclass,” said Toshihiko Kudo, a board member of Ashinaga, a nonprofit group based in Tokyo that helps poor children and orphans.

Photo courtesy of Employment Practices Risk Management Association.

Social workers have a reputation for helping the poor and oppressed, but Chicago social worker Jinnie English MSW has found an unusual niche, according to this item in the Utne Reader spirituality blog.

English serves middle-class clients who grew up in poverty. Despite outward signs of success, many still deal with the psychological impact of their hardscrabble upbringing, she said. Many are also people of color, English said.

 English can relate because her family was sometimes on welfare while she was g rowing up. “I still feel the shame,” she said.

The current recession is proving just how distressed the system is, the writers said. More families are relying on unemployment insurance and food stamps to ride out the economic storm because TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), the new name for welfare, is no longer as available.

The authors wrote:

“Why the huge difference between unemployment insurance and food stamp usage and welfare caseloads? People have a legal right to food stamps if they meet the statutory requirements, but since 1996 there has been no legal right to cash assistance. And so welfare, generally speaking, has not cushioned the impact of the recession.”

For more information on the National Association of Social Workers’ position on this welfare and other issues read “Promoting Economic Security Through Social Welfare Legislation,” policy briefs prepared by NASW’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Economic Security. And to find out what legislation NASW is currently pushing visit its Advocacy Web page.

Cheers to The State newspaper in South Carolina for its profile of Alma Puente-Ruiz, a social worker who created a program to help immigrants from Latin America and other parts of the world navigate American culture. The article demonstrates how life-changing social work can be. Puente-Ruiz, who immigrated from Mexico, started the program after she noticed local immigrant women and children were mired in poverty and living in run-down trailers.

“I concentrate on how I can help them and get their kids out of these places,” she said. “I don’t discuss politics. I don’t discuss their legal issues.”

Also visit the NASW’s “Help Starts Here” section on Kids and Families.

photo courtesy of www.theendofpoverty.com

Is poverty man-made and can it be eradicated? A new documentary “The End of Poverty?,” examines these issues and others. Award-winning director Phillipe Diaz directed the film and actor Martin Sheen narrates it. To see clips from the film click here. And to find showings near you go here.

QUESTION: From a social worker standpoint how can poverty be eliminated in the United States? Leave a response below.