Luis Zayas Appointed School of Social Work Dean at The University of Texas at …
University of Texas at Austin News
AUSTIN, Texas — Luis H. Zayas, a professor at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., has been appointed dean of the School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin.

Hunter College’s School of Social Work to Open in East Harlem
DNAinfo
Hunter College’s school of social work will celebrate the official opening of its new East Harlem location Tuesday at a ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring school officials and local politicians.

School of Social Work to celebrate 100 years of giving hope and changing lives …
IUPUI Newscenter
On Monday Oct. 24th, the Indiana University School of Social Work will host a day-long celebration of its 100th anniversary. The School’s story is one that starts in June of 1911, when a letter from Indiana University President William Bryan arrived at the home of Edna Henry asking if she would be interested in a position in a new department the university was setting up: the Department of Social Service.

Through KidSafe Foundation, two South Florida women teach children to avoid …
Palm Beach Post (blog)
by Community Post Sally Berenzweig (MEd, MA) and Cherie Benjoseph (LCSW) created KidSafe Foundation to teach children ages 4-11 how to avoid bullying, stay cautious online, and be aware of abduction threats. The women bring this education through the nonprofit organization — based in Boca Raton and Coral Springs — to parents, teachers and counselors. They lecture, teach, write blog posts and have published two children’s books.

Charleston County schools get $1.2 million grant for social workers
Charleston Post Courier
Five of Charleston County’s highest-need elementary schools will be able to add a social worker to their staff rosters as a result of a $1.2 million, three-year federal grant announced this week. Charleston is one of 43 school districts nationally and one of two in South Carolina — the other is Union County — to receive an Elementary and Secondary School Counseling grant from the U.S. Department of Education to expand or establish counseling programs.

Holding on to hope: Young and unemployed in America
CNN
Bridget Coyle wants to be a social worker, but an underwhelming job market and devastating national unemployment rate are making it difficult. Despite this, she remains optimistic. “I’m hopeful because I see a lot of opportunity (for me), and it’s the only option I have,” the 24-year-old college graduate said. “I don’t want to be hopeless, because then I’ll be stagnant. I need to keep hope in the back of my mind so that I don’t stop moving forward.”

Did Berkeley’s ‘racist’ bake sale go too far?
Christian Science Monitor
To some, the bake sale represented a backward view. The satire “is rooted in the historical and racial contract fabric of white supremacy and the decline of whiteness in a continuous browning society,” says Chad Dion Lassiter, president of Black Men at Penn at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder: Interview with Scott Granet, LCSW
LovetoKnow.com
How often do you or a loved one look in the mirror and think, “Ugh…I am so fat!”…”Look at this ugly nose!”…”I am just not pretty at all.”? These are passing thoughts for some people. For others, these thoughts linger and begin to affect them mentally, emotionally, and even physically. These individuals may actually suffer from body dysmorphic disorder(BDD). Get an inside look at this disorder so you can understand what you or a loved one may be struggling with inside.

Deborah Barrett. Photo courtesy of UNC Chapel Hill School of Social Work.

National Association of Social Workers member Deborah Barrett’s short plays have won critical acclaim in the past two years.

Now her first feature-length play “Oh Baby” is coming to the stage at the Free Association Theatre Ensemble (FATE) in Cary, NC, according to this article in the Chapel Hill News. “Oh Baby” features eight interlocking vignettes that deal with childbirth and fertility .

Barrett, who is a clinical assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Social Work, can’t believe her writings will come to life on stage. “I can’t tell you how exciting this is for me,” she said. “This is my baby.”

Q: Do you know other social workers who are actors or playwrights?

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.

South Dakota social work pioneer dies
KCAU
Late in her life she was named a Social Work Pioneer by the National Association of Social Workers Foundation. South Dakota State University professor Ann Wilson says Chamberlain was “an advocate of the poorest of the poor.”

Cruz wants youth to become social workers
KUAM.com
I congratulate the Guam Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers and all organizations that advance social services, social justice and social consciousness. I want to encourage our young people to become social workers.

Social Work Students Get To Know the Capitol
KFYR-TV
The UND students and the National Association of Social Workers are soaking in the legislative process because they say there`s no better way to make change for North Dakota`s most vulnerable citizens. “Building up our knowledge by being on the floor, going to different committees. Being here on a regular basis and trying to work within the system to make some changes,” says David Bialik with the National Association of Social Workers.

Union debate really about who’s ethical
Idaho Press-Tribune
If we are going to hold people accountable and dismantle organizations, why not start with the culprits who decimated the economy? • Delmar Stone is the executive director for the Idaho Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.

Food Stamps are a SNAP
The Faster Times
So, I had to hunt down a social worker here in our new community to help us with that. While I was pursuing the Medicaid reinstatement, I inquired about food stamps. “Food stamps are harder to get than Medicaid,” said Mr. Bill[1], my gruff, brusque/garrulous (depending on his mood) social worker who I met over the phone. You never actually see any of these people.

Mom faces court
Stockton Record
Armstead is accused of torturing and killing the baby, who died Christmas Day, two weeks after a San Joaquin County social worker visited her home to investigate abuse allegations. The death has raised questions over whether social worker case loads are too high to ensure reports of abuse are investigated thoroughly.

Caregivers of wounded vets hold conference in Tampa
Tbo.com
Veronica Thomas talks with Adam Kijanski, a Veterans Affairs social work case manager. Thomas takes care of her son, a veteran who was severely wounded in Iraq.

Social Work Conference Talks about Helping People
KAUM News Extra
Video of NASW-Guam Executive Director

USF celebrates Social Work Month with launch of forensic social work program
TribLocal
According the National Association of Social Workers, Social Work Month is designed to bring awareness to the 640000 professional social workers across the country who have dedicated their careers to helping others overcome adversity to transform their lives or to improve environments to make such transformations possible.

Youth develop character while snowboarding with Shred Love group
NJ.com
By Barbara Milton, Ph.D., LCSW Doug Bauman/The Jersey JournalThirteen-year-old Edward Miles Fowlkes of Jersey City shows the certificate he received after participating in a Shred Love snowboarding trip.

An Education in Compassion
Durango Telegraph
To help address these problems in the 1930s, the University of Denver launched the Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW), the first such program in the Rocky Mountain Region. Today, it is the region’s top-ranked graduate social work program and and nationally ranked in the top 17 percent.

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.

However, columnist Lolla Mohammed Nur said the program, which is part of the School of Social Work, should not be judged simply by the revenue it generates or the number of students in its classes.

The program is valuable because it helps students learn how to organize against issues like social inequality, privilege and racism, she said. Students have launched a letter writing campaign to keep the program alive.

“Everything has a relationship to social justice … We’re not really engaged in that [kind of] talk because people either aren’t aware of it or they don’t see it because they are privileged,” said Khong Xiong, a former student in the program.

Social work has deep ties to social justice. To learn more visit the National Association of Social Workers Peace and Social Justice practice Web page by clicking here.

The Mask of Caregiving
I-Newswire.com
He writes a blog for Psychology Today entitled “Life in the Recovery Room” and sits on the NASW committee to establish national protocols for certification and standardization of caregiving practices.

TUSD gets grant to aid homeless
Arizona Daily Star
The 2011 Education of Homeless Children and Youth Sub Grant awarded by the Arizona Department of Education will provide a social worker and family mentor to work directly in schools where homeless students have high turnover and absentee rates.

Social worker is her own success story
Press Herald
As a social worker, Thea Day has seen poor people fall through the cracks of Maine’s welfare system.  She has seen people take advantage of that system, too.

Cancer Support Community: a place to heal
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Laurel Healy, a licensed social worker and clinical specialist, coordinates networking and caregiving groups.

UB Offers First-ever Regional Wellness Conference on Better Health Care for …
UB News Center
In collaboration with UB’s Native American Center for Wellness Research in the School of Social Work, the conference is the first of its kind to be held in the Haudenosaunee territory, for Native Americans residing and working in the Western New York and Southern Ontario area.

Iowa National Guard: Big age difference, but similar goal for 2 Iowa medics
DesMoinesRegister.com (blog)
Grinstead went into social work, beginning his career as a psychiatric social worker at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, where he still works in the in-patient psychiatric unit.

New Orleans called family back home
Montgomery Advertiser
Today, five years after the storm, Watson, 59, is back in New Orleans, trying to help her fellow residents in her job as a social worker.

Healing of students all in a day’s work
Albany Times Union
The job of the school psychologist, social worker and guidance counselor has grown more demanding as student needs have changed.

As unemployed lose benefits, more seek welfare benefits
Philadelphia Inquirer
Out of a strip mall in South Camden, county and state social workers operate a virtual fix-it shop for displaced workers on welfare.

Social worker Sari Greene visits Eddye Williams, reportedly Washington, D.C.'s oldest resident. Photo courtesy of the Washington Post.

Cheers to the Washington Post for this article about Eddye Williams, who at age 110 is reportedly the oldest resident of Washington, D.C., and her 85-year-old daughter Edythe Simmons.

Simmons was hospitalized for a long time but became part of a Washington Hospital Center program to care for very sick elderly people in their homes. As a result she was recently reunited with her mother in a home they shared after living in a nursing home for three years.

The article said the home health care program also provided a social worker for Simmons and Williams. Social worker Sari Greene makes regular visits and coordinated Simmons move back to the residence.

The article is a good example of how social workers are an important part of the American health care system and provide valuable services to our nation’s rapidly growing elder population.

To learn more about how social workers such as Greene help the elderly visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Seniors & Aging Web page by clicking here.

A disabled office worker. Photo courtesy of Equality 2025.

Households that have an adult with a disability have substantially lower income and net worth than those without, according to a study published in the June issue of National Association of Social Worker’s Social Work Research Journal (Volume 34 No. 2).

The income and net worth disparity between households with an adult with a disability and those without persists, regardless of the family structure (married couple, single parent etc.).

The study shows that adults with disabilities continue to fall behind their peers when it comes to economic well being almost two decades after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The study was done by researchers at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Social Work and the University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, School of Social Work, Social Welfare and Social Planning  in Israel.

The National Association of Social Workers offers members an array of cutting-edge publications. To subscribe to Social Work Research or purchase other NASW books and journals visit the NASW Press Web page by clicking here.

The "Living Proof" podcast team. Back row from left: Dave Coppola, Howard Doueck, Steve Sturman and Josh Bradley. Middle row: Richard Amantia and Kathryn Clark. Front row: Adjoa Robinson and Peter Sobota.

Staff from the University at Buffalo School of Social Work staff is disproving the myth that social workers are technologically challenged.

The school has launched a “Living Proof” podcast series that uses technology to spread social work knowledge around the nation and the globe.  The series features conversations with some of the nation’s top social workers, interviews with researchers, and provides information on emerging trends in best social work practices.

“They are an important way for us to reach out to others,” said Richard Amantia, an information technology specialist for the university who was given the task of helping set up the podcasts.

A podcast is an audio file that can be played on a computer, laptop or digital music player such as an iPod or burned onto a CD.  As a result, podcasts allow interviews and lectures to be taken out of a strictly classroom environment.

 ”You can listen to them anywhere,” said Kathryn Clark, a master’s of social work student at the university who works on the podcast team. “You can listen to them in a car. People can learn a lot in a little bit of time. Everybody has an iPod.”

The University at Buffalo podcasts have attracted some of the best minds in social work, including Dr. Lori Wiener from the Center for Cancer Research; Dr. Frederic Reamer, a professor at the Rhode Island College School of Social Work; and Dr. Caitlin Ryan, an expert on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues.

The podcasts have covered complex and sensitive social topics, including children living with HIV, end-of-life care for the elderly, and post traumatic stress disorder in veterans. And the university team that records programs tries to make podcast segments as topical as possible. For instance, experts were brought in to talk about trauma after a fatal plane crash in Buffalo.

The podcast Web site has attracted almost 300,000 visitors since it was launched almost two years ago and there have been about 40,000 downloads.

The segments sound pretty much like radio talk shows and even open with theme music. They are co-hosted by Professor Adjoa Robinson, who once did a radio program in Oregon.

 ”We try to cast the net as broadly as possible (to find guests),” said Howard Doueck, professor and associate dean for academic affairs. “Some people don’t even realize what a podcast is.” 

Doueck said some social work schools are using the podcasts in coursework. And he said it is relatively easy for other schools of social work to get involved in making them because they are relatively easy to produce.

 ”There is room out there, the profession is large enough, and the topics are varied enough that I don’t see that as competition,” he said.

Larry E. Davis, photo courtesy of the Pittsburgh-Tribune Review.

The University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work and Center on Race and Social Problems will hold a conference examining the state of minorities in America, according to this article in Pittsburgh-Tribune Review.

The conference, which lasts June 3-6, will look at how minorities are affected by economics, education, criminal justice, race relations, health, mental health, and families, youths and the elderly.

“America is in the process of rebuilding. So is Pittsburgh,” said Larry E. Davis, director of Pitt’s Center on Race and Social Problems and dean of the School of Social Work. “This is a great opportunity for us to take advantage of the down time and make a better product.”

Allison Blake. Photo courtesy of Rutgers School of Social Work.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie nominated National Association of Social Workers member Allison Blake to run the New Jersey Department of Children and Families, according to this NJ.com article.

Blake, DSW, MSW, is currently director of the Institute for Families at the Rutgers School of Social Work.

“Through Blake’s efforts, New Jersey’s child-welfare system now emphasizes social work training and ensuring social workers are in supervisory positions,” said Walter Kalman, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers-New Jersey.

The New Jersey state Senate Judiciary Committee and full Senate must approve Blake’s nomation.

Photo courtesy of AP

Do you want to kick your marijuana habit?

The University of Washington School of Social Work is looking for 70 marijuana-dependent adults to take part in a clinical research trial. Researchers will test treatment approaches to help people stop using the psychoactive drug.

“When people smoke marijuana they don’t intend to become dependent on it, but marijuana becomes pervasive over time,” said Cynthia Shaw, project director of the Marijuana Counseling Project.

To take part in the study contact Shaw at (206) 616-3235 or mcpsvcs@uw.edu.

To learn more about how social workers help people fight drug and alcohol dependency visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Addictions Web site by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Jeers to the Georgia state government for considering $600 million in budget cuts that some students said could force public colleges and universities to cut social work and other course offerings.

About three dozen students held a protest at the state capitol on Wednesday to protest the cuts. About a third came from Dalton State College. Many of the Dalton State students study at the School of Social Work and are afraid budget cuts could force the school to close the program.

“If they cut the program, then everything I’ve done this far won’t matter,” Dalton State sophomore Benji Parker, 22, said. “Hopefully the credits transfer, but who knows?”

Students plan larger protests later this month. Read the full story in the Atlanta Journal Constitution by clicking here.

Associate Professor Timothy Conley. Photo courtesy of the University of Montana.

Tougher laws and treatment for alcohol abuse are the strongest deterrents to drunk driving, according to a survey by the University of Montana. ABCMontana.com posted this article on the survey results.

Timothy Conley, associate professor at the University of Montana School of Social Work, led of team of student researchers who interviewed 201 people convicted of felony drunk driving in the state. Conley is also a member of the National Association of Social Workers.

Conley will present his findings to state lawmakers who are working on 2011 legislation to curb drunk driving.

To find out more about how social workers help people overcome addictions, please visit NASW’s “Help Starts Here” Addictions Web page by clicking here.

Amy Coha. Photo courtesy of WCSH-6 TV.

We like  WCSH-6 TV’s coverage of a seminar in Maine that uses a play to teach future health care professionals how to detect signs of domestic violence.

One of the people putting on the play is National Association of Social Workers member Amy Coha, MSW, LCSW. Coha is clinical associate professor at the School of Social Work at the University of New England.

“We are still finding that a number of professionals are not taking the time to ask the questions,” Coha said.  “If you don’t ask the question, you will never know how many survivors you are working with.”

To learn more about how social workers help stop domestic violence visit NASW’s “Help Starts Here” Domestic Violence Web page by clicking here.

Students in the master’s program visit residents at seven Hartford-based senior residences, offering screenings for memory loss and depression, medicine management, and other mental health outreach services. The program is in its third year and contacted 950 people.

The initiative especially targets minority elderly who for cultural reasons may hesitate to seek help for depression and other issues. University officials claim it is the only such program in the nation.

“Some of the people are skeptical, they wonder what our hidden agenda is,” student Chris Parker said. “People prey on these folks. They’re a vulnerable population. But when they see that we deliver what we said we would, they’re initially surprised, and then they want us to come back.”

To read the full story on UConn Today click here.

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

Photo: University of Connecticut social work students visit residents at Mary Mahoney Village in Hartford. Photo courtesy of  UConn Today.

Dr. Jack Otis. Photo by Erin McCarley.

Dr. Jack Otis set up the baccalaureate and doctoral degree programs at The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work. The former dean of that school died Jan. 5 at age 86.

“Dr. Otis served as dean during a period of significant growth for the School of Social Work,” said Dean Barbara White. “His intellect, creative vision and leadership created the foundation for the future achievements of the School of Social Work.”

 To learn more about Dr. Otis’ accomplishments click here.

For instance, 41 percent of American Indian/Alaskan Native children with special health care needs showed behavioral problems, 13 percent more than white children from this group. And 45 percent suffered from asthma, 8 percent more than white children, the analysis said.

Little research has been done on the health care status of American Indian/Alaskan Native children with special health care needs. University students Electa Hare and Amanda Blackhorse analyzed 2005-2006 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs data with guidance from Assistant Professor Paul Shattuck.

The analysis underscores the need for more resources to help American Indian/Alaskan Native children with special health care needs, the university said.