Shorter professor given Adult and Professional Programs Teacher of the Year award
Rome News Tribune
Grear, an adjunct professor for Shorter for more than seven years, has 18 years of professional experience as a licensed clinical social worker working in different settings of the human service and counseling fields. “It is indeed an honor to receive the Teacher of the Year Award from Shorter University, Grear said.

Fiction review: A hardscrabble life
Minneapolis Star Tribune
In Wisconsin-bred writer Debra Monroe’s third novel, “Shambles” (Engine Books, 217 pages, $14.95), single mother and social worker Delia Arco’s chaotic existence is a strong argument that the “self-actualization” goal of Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs might just be a fairy tale of the leisure classes.

Camp Sequoia to help children with social cognitive difficulties learn how to …
Philadelphia Inquirer
Wexelblatt, 39, of Narberth, holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Temple University and a master’s degree in clinical social work from Bryn Mawr College’s School of Social Work. A single father of a boy with learning issues, Wexelblatt worked in the past at Hilltop Prep School in Rosemont as director of the school’s summer day camp for special children.

Tootie’s in a movie! Kim Fields joins ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting’
Entertainment Weekly
Kim Fields, TV’s Tootie, will play a social worker who helps out a couple with an adoption. The Facts of Life and Living Single star has never acted in a movie, but she’s kept busy directing dozens of episodes of Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns and House of Payne.

Reviving Detroit: A Young Man With A Plan
NPR
Detroit is losing population, and residents have left in droves. But some young people see the city as a blank canvas, where they can help realize an urban dream. Among them is Charlie Cavell, a college student, founder of a nonprofit organization, charter school board member, and all-around Detroit enthusiast.

10 Years and a Diagnosis Later, 9/11 Demons Haunt Thousands
The New York Times
Amy Cushing-Savvi, a social worker at Mount Sinai Medical Center, which runs the largest program, said a frequent topic at staff meetings was, “What’s 9/11 and what isn’t?” — in other words, the exquisitely vexing question of how to separate the effects of 9/11 from the traumas of everyday life.

Anxiety levels vary as residents digest financial news
South Coast Today
Jeffrey Schwartz, a licensed independent clinical social worker in New Bedford, said economic uncertainty is also taking a toll on children. Anxiety among kids has “gotten far more severe since the economy’s been down,” Schwartz said, as they pick up on stressors such as their parents getting into fights about money.

Who Needs a Vacation? Family Caregivers!
Huffington Post
Maria L. Hood, LCSW, ACSW, Director of Discharge Planning at White Plains Hospital Center where VNSNY is a preferred provider of home care services, says this kind of “staycation” is a lifeline for caregivers.

Back-to-school anxiety
The Cherry Hill Sun
Anne Blair, a clinical social worker from Voorhees, said preparation is key to any successful transition. “The parents must ensure that they allow their child enough time to fully understand the transition that will take place, and how that transition may look for them,” Blair said.

Office Stress Expert: Nevada Social Workers Risking Burnout
FoxReno.com
Powell will talk about the issue at a National Association of Social Workers conference later this month. More information about the conference is online at naswwv.org.

Arlington teams up to aid hoarders
Boston Globe
New research suggests hoarding and acquiring disorders are even more prevalent than Alzheimer’s disease, said Rebecca Wolfe, the Arlington Police Department’s mental health social worker and its liaison with residents receiving help through the town’s hoarding response team.

Riley’s ‘code lavender’ eases stress of caring for very ill kids
Indianapolis Star
The past year has been tough for the social work department at Riley Hospital for Children. Trauma cases have been more acute, child deaths even more heartbreaking. Then, the department experienced a “code lavender” — part coffee klatch, part employee appreciation and all compassionate presence.

Some of those hurt most by the Great Recession spend time helping others
San Jose Mercury News
“I’m sitting here with a master’s degree in social work and not using my skills. I wanted to keep them sharp.” The sharpening stone she was seeking turned out to be the homeless drop-in center on San Jose’s Commercial Street, tucked in among plumbing-supply stores and electrician shops.

Matt Noel’s family unprepared for his sudden death, but fond …
Altoona Mirror
“There is a special component when an identical twin dies,” Paula Pimentel, a licensed clinical social worker with a practice in Altoona, said. “It’s like a telepathic connection when they’re identical. The surviving twin feels there’s a piece of them missing.”

Grand Jury to CPS: Missed cases should trigger policy review
The Union of Grass Valley
In a report released on its website, Nevada County’s Grand Jury reported a Child Protective Services social worker failed to enter in one case of alleged child abuse into a state computer system, and subsequently failed to do a follow-up investigation on the case.

Hear from our social workers
Idaho Press-Tribune
As a school social worker in Blaine County, I find that people sometimes feel like my position is a luxury. Unfortunately, our county frequently has the highest rates in the state for teen drug and alcohol abuse and suicide attempts. One of my primary roles is working with families and community organizations to prevent or reduce these negative outcomes for our youth.

Lost in Cyber Space: Does Your Teen Prefer Cyber Reality to Real Life?
Patch.com
Toni Nagel-Smith, a Katonah-based licensed clinical social worker at Courtyard Nutrition & Therapy Associates, said this issue surfaces again and again with her clients. “I see this (heightened attachment to electronics) to some extent with every child I see,” Nagel-Smith said.

Foster Care Gets an Overhaul
Wall Street Journal
On the heels of hiring about 50 social workers and opening a new community center last month, Alameda is preparing a job-placement program for some of its foster-care kids who have become too old for the system. The new program is part of an expansion that began in 2007 when the county started to overhaul the operation by questioning established ways foster care operates.

Department ‘crippled’ by staff shortage: DA
Times LIVE
“There are 303 vacancies for social workers out of 1 115 posts (27%) and 46 nurse vacancies (31%) out of 147 nursing posts,” Democratic Alliance social development spokeswoman Rika Kruger said in a statement. “This is resulting in severely negative consequences for the children and the elderly who are dependent on state support.”

The stakes in school budget cuts
Ct Post
In this plan, the district will cut 20 social workers. This will affect students who receive individualized education plans, special education services, and behavior plans, as well as those who have other social and emotional needs (including bullying!).

The human touch
University of Texas at Austin News
Helena Harvie has one more year before she receives her master’s degree in social work. While living in San Diego, she became close to several US Navy families and has wanted to work with the military ever since. She believes a social worker can help in every aspect of a veteran’s life — from physical to emotional needs.

Pain of program cuts felt at school board finance hearings
Ct Post
The level of frustration felt by school employees upon hearing the damage $18 million in program cuts will have on the school district next year can probably best be summed up by Susan Smith, director of social work. “There will be 1,800 students not seen,” Smith said. Despite whatever issues they face on a daily basis at home, they and their parents are simply going to have to suck it up, she said, adding she felt like crying.  

New commission will review juvenile facilities
West Virginia Record
State Supreme Court Chief Justice Margaret Workman announced Monday the creation of the Adjudicated Juvenile Rehabilitation Review Commission to investigate juvenile justice facilities and procedures in the state. The commission was established to look into the Feb. 23, 2009 death of Benjamin Hill at the Industrial Home for Youth in Salem, the state’s only maximum security correctional facility for juveniles, and the Honey Rubenstein Center in Davis.

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.

Photo courtesy of NASW Idaho chapter.

Cheers to NPR for this article on a study on the stress army wives experience when their mates are deployed and return home.

The article quotes National Association of Social Workers member Rene Robichaux, who is social work programs manager for the U.S. Army Medical Command. Robichaux talked about what social workers are doing to help families dealing with the added stress of repeated troop deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

For instance, the army is hiring dozens of new family and marriage therapists and is even offering counseling by telephone, Robichaux said.

To learn more about how social workers help veterans and their families visit NASW’s “Help Starts Here” Veterans Affairs Web page by clicking here.

A CNNMoney.com headline depicts social work and several related careers as “stressful jobs that pay badly.”  However, the actual article highlighted the dedication of social workers and how they provide valuable services to families and their communities. And back in August a CNN article advised readers to pursue a career in patient advocate social work because that line of work is expected to grow 24 percent. Photo of social worker Heather Griffith courtesy of CNNMoney.com.

Social Workers, what do you think?  Leave your comment and join the discussion below.