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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Image courtesy of Yahoo.

Yahoo said social work is expected to be one of five careers with the hottest potential in 2012.

The profession is expected to grow by 16 percent between 2008 and 2016, Yahoo said in this article.

Other promising career choices for 2012 are teaching, medical  and health services management; accounting and network and computer systems administration.

We encourage readers to use National Association of Social Workers resources to get the most reliable information on the social work profession. To learn more about the social work labor force and social work salaries visit the NASW’s Center for Workforce Studies Website by clicking here. And to get information on how to enter the social work field, click here to visit NASW’s “Be A Social Worker” Website, which offers information on the various kinds of social work and accredited social work schools.

Matthew MaGuire. Photo courtesy of the Detroit Free Press.

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

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

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

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

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

Aaron Alvin Sr. Photo courtesy of WALB 10.

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

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

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

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

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

Photo courtesy of Bee Media.

Contrary to popular belief, suicide is a problem that can occur even among elementary school-aged children, according to a new Temple University study.

University researchers surveyed more than 400 school social workers. Researchers found most suicide threats, hospitalizations, attempts and deaths happen among high school students.

However, the problem is also very apparent in elementary schools.

Forty percent of social workers in elementary schools said they had known of a suicide attempt that resulted in a hospitalization while seven percent said the suicidal child died.

“What’s true is that adolescents are more likely to make attempts, but kids at the elementary school level are making suicide attempts, and some of them are being hospitalized for suicidal behavior,” National Association of Social Workers and Temple University assistant social work professor Jonathan Singer said.

You can read a news report about the study on the WHYY Website by clicking here.

Singer developed a Website with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program that he hopes will be a virtual support community for people who have been affected by suicide. To learn more click here. And to find out how social workers try to prevent suicide visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Suicide Prevention Website by clicking here.

From left: Army Reserve Capt. Chad Lauro, Kina Wilkening and Professor Nancy Brown talk about the military social work program. Photo courtesy of the Aiken Standard.

The University of South Carolina is creating a program to train social workers to work with military personnel, according to this article in the Aiken Standard.

“There is a growing need for social workers in this field,” said Nancy Brown, an associate professor at the University of South Carolina College of Social Work.

The program is in its final stage of academic approval. The course could prepare 3,000 social workers for the field in the next decade, dean Anna Scheyett said.

You can learn more about how social workers help people in the armed services by visiting the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Veterans Affairs Website by clicking here. And to learn more about social work activities in South Carolina vist NASW’s South Carolina Chapter’s Website by clicking here.

That is because social workers are used to doing surveys and could help advertising and marketing companies better analyze the attitudes and needs of customers and business clients, the article said.

Turner, who lives in Pittsfield, said his Raising Heroes Group group is vital because physical and sexual abuse of young people is common. Roughly one out of four girls and one out of six girls will be sexually abused or assaulted by the time they are 18 years old,  he said.

“Though we’re always trying to find ways to empower people who have been abused or caring for someone who is abused, the best ideas of how to handle situations come from each other,” he said.

To learn more about how social workers help young people overcome life’s hurdles, visit NASW’s “Help Starts Here” Kids & Families Website by clicking here.

Yet statistics show 80 percent of chronically ill people die in hospitals or nursing homes.

“Too often, their lives have ended in pain and despair, spending their final days in an alienating institutional environment…,” Waldrop, DSW, ACSW, said.

There  is a growing emphasis on allowing chronically ill people to have a “good death,” which may include allowing them to die at home, said Waldrop, who is a professor at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work.

To learn more about how social workers help people at the end of life visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Death & Dying Web page by clicking here. NASW also released Social Work Practice in Palliative and End of Life Care. To read these standards click here.

“You know she’s going to starve, don’t you?,” one friend said. Another said, “Oh, they don’t make much money.”

Cheers to Dear Abby for praising their daughter’s career decision and giving the parents guidance on how to respond to such rude comments. To read Dear Abby’s answer in the Kansas City Star  click here.

Hana Staub.

National Association of Social Workers member Hana Staub, a social work master’s degree student at the University of North Carolina, committed suicide on May 31. She was 25 years old.

“We do not want to hide this,” her father Jacob Staub said in this article in the Daily Tar Heel. “It has become an epidemic.”

Hana was an excellent student and very active on campus. She was awarded the 2008 Summer Policy Fellowship by the National Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors.  She also worked with the Homeless Initiative of Asheville and Buncombe County to help reduce and prevent homelessness.

SocialWorkersSpeak.org offers its sympathies to the Staub family and to Hana’s friends, classmates and instructors.

Kelly McDonough. Photo courtesy of the Union-Leader.

Cheers to the Union-Leader in New Hampshire for this article about Kelly McDonough, a young woman who earned her degree in sociology and social work in an unusual way.

McDonough, 31, had attended college 13 years ago but had to drop out due to a sports injury. Years later she found out Saint Anselm College let employees take classes for free. So she got a job as a security guard there.

McDonough took 33 classes in four years. It was tough going. 

She needed a computer, something that was not required when she first went to college in the 1990s. McDonough used her vacation time to study so had no breaks.

And since she was a university employee she was not allowed to fraternize with other students so the experience was a little lonesome.

McDonough is now looking for a social work job and said she may even try to find a job at a school so she can take classes toward a master’s degree.

“I’d like to work with children, or I’d like to do something helping people,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to help people.”

The articles cited a new Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce study that said students who major in social work, visual and performing arts, and theology can expect to earn less than those majoring in engineering, computer science or business.

We take issue with using the term “fluffy” in the headlines (To read the Times article click here and to read the Washington Post item click here).

Social workers get years of education and training to help people overcome life’s hurdles. This includes veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, school students who are homeless or have disabilities, children who have been removed from the homes of people with poor parental skills, and patients with grave illnesses such as heart disease and cancer.

There is nothing soft or fluffy about  helping people overcome such issues. It takes a strong, resourceful and intelligent person to do that.

Secondly, the Georgetown University study only looked at earnings for people who earned a bachelor’s in social work. The National Association of Social Workers Center for Workforce Studies did a 2010 report on salaries that included social workers with master’s degrees.

The NASW study, which includes master’s degrees,  puts the median annual salary for all social workers at $55,000 a year. The Georgetown University study put the median salary for students with a bachelor’s degree in social work at $39,000.

To learn more about what kinds of jobs social workers do and what they earn visit the National Association of Social Workers’ Center for Workforce Studies by clicking here.

Chia Morgan (left) and mother Debra. Photo courtesy of Michigan Live.

Cheers to Michigan Live for this article about Debra Morgan and her daughter Chia of Flint.

The Morgan family already runs Well of Hope, a nonprofit that addresses violence, crime and poverty, from a church where Debra’s husband is pastor.

Now Debra and Chia are about to graduate from the University of Michigan – Flint with duo bachelors degress in social work. They attended all classes together, with Debra taking notes on paper and Chia using the more modern approach of typing lecture points into her smartphone.

“Getting a degree in social work has helped us better understand the people we want to serve so we can do even more,” said Chia, 24.

University President Neal Smatresk said the program could be saved by merging it with the social work program at University of Nevada Reno.

At least one social worker protested the move, saying there is a shortage of social workers in Nevada.

Chamberlain, who died at age 99 on Monday, was chief of research and statistics at the State Department of Social Welfare for almost 30 years starting in 1937. She established an assistance-by-telephone service now known as the Helpline and was instrumental in setting up the Food Pantry in Sioux Falls.

She was also one of the first if not the first single adoptive parent in the state, the Argus Leader reported.

 SocialWorkersSpeak.org offers its condolences to Chamberlain’s family, friends and associates.

She taught at the University of Pennsylvania and at Fordham University in New York City. Her speciality was social work administration.

Mrs. Lee died Thursday in Philadelphia at age 73. To read her obituary in The News Leader click here.

Curtis McMillen. Photo courtesy of Washington University in St. Louis.

University of Washington in St. Louis social work professor Curtis McMillen, DSW, is quoted extensively in this stltoday.com article about an epidemic of pregnancies among foster children who are in or just aged out of the foster care system.

McMillen completed a study on the issue in 2005. That study examined 400 Missouri female foster children aged 17 to 19.

At age 17 more than one out of five reported having a baby or being pregnant at one time. By the age of 19 that figure had climbed to 53 percent.

“It’s sort of known about but rarely talked about in a public forum in Missouri,” McMillen said.

Missouri authorities are taking a more active approach to the problem. For instance, the Washington University School of Medicine’s teen outreach medical clinic got a $2 million federal grant to do a 5-year program to prevent pregnancy among foster children.

To learn more about how social workers help, visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Adoptions and Foster Care Web page by clicking here.

Tucs9on's Channel 4 covered a social work memorial in honor of Gabe Zimmerman.

The Arizona social work community gathered Jan. 17 to honor the late Gabe Zimmerman, an aide to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), according to news reports.

Zimmerman, MSW, who was a member of the National Association of Social Workers, was among six people slain in Tucson when a gunman opened fire during a public event hosted by Giffords. The congresswoman is still recovering from her injuries.

Channel 4 TV in Tucson covered the social work memorial to Zimmerman, which was held at his alma mater, the Arizona State University School of Social Work Tucson office. To watch the news clip click here. You can also click here to read Arizona Republic coverage of the event.

“Gabe was a social-work hero,” classmate and friend Eric Alfrey said. “In Gabe . . . we see the best of what it means to be human.”

To learn more about how social workers responded to the Arizona shootings and Zimmerman’s legacy click here to visit the National Association of Social Workers’ Web page covering the tragedy.

“Because social workers work with people who are so needy, it can be hard to not sacrifice too much to the job,” said Christopher Willard, a clinical psychologist at Tufts University. “ I see that happen a lot with social workers and other caring professions, and they get really burned out pretty quickly.”

Q: What advice would you give other social workers to avoid stress and depression on the job?