Not all 911 callers want an armed response. New proposal could expand police, mental health cooperation nationally.
USA Today
Numerous police reform efforts around the country are trying to improve how law enforcement responds to mental health issues, including projects to create “co-responder” teams of social workers and a new national hotline for people in crisis. Experts and advocates say police officers are too often called to solve problems better addressed by mental-health workers or paramedics. They say reforms will free police to concentrate on more serious crimes and help prevent many interactions with police from spiraling into violence.

Susan Ecker is a member:
Student Farmers Elevate Student Farming In Missouri
Green And Save News
Today, Terry and Susan operate Ecker Farms Inc., raising row crops, including grass and hay, for their Saler-crossed cattle operation. The Ecker family was the American Salers Association Commercial Producer of the Year in 2011. Susan, in addition to growing up on a farm in Holt County and supporting the Eckers’ operation, is a licensed clinical social worker and practices mental health counseling. She studied psychology at Northwest for two years before transferring to Tarkio College where she completed her bachelor’s in psychology. She also earned a master’s degree in social work from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Lisa Savage is a member:
The News is Hard for Everyone, Even Your Kids — Here’s When to Get Help
The Skimm
Lisa Savage, a licensed clinical social worker and founder of the Center for Child Development, said they could also become aggressive. “They may be a little bit more hyperactive than normal because their nervous system has kind of kicked into overdrive,” she said.… [For older kids, signs could include:]

• Trouble sleeping (Think: nightmares, early wake-ups, and difficulty falling asleep)
• Changes in appetite
• Social isolation

Sasha Jackson is a member:
Can Divorce Lead to Trauma Symptoms?
PsychCentral
“The emotion of trauma and the actual event of trauma are two different things that most people get confused about,” says Sasha Jackson, a licensed clinical social worker in San Joaquin, California. What you may experience as a traumatic event may not be so for someone else. In this sense, traumatic experiences are subjective and can be very intimate and personal. If an experience becomes a traumatic event for you, you may develop signs of trauma or a mental health condition. These effects are what most people call trauma.

Cathy Schueler is a member:
Disturbing details of Fabian Gonzales case could impact jurors mental health
KOB
However, Bosque Mental Health owner and licensed clinical social worker Cathy Schueler said those experiencing the horrifying events Victoria went through, could lead to trauma of their own. “It’s secondary trauma,” Schueler said. “That is the emotional duress that they experience from hearing about the trauma of someone else.” Secondary trauma can lead to people feeling anger, helplessness, and fear, according to Schueler.

Steven Procopio is a member:
What About the Boys? The Sex Trafficking of Young Males
Nieman Reports
We decided to look into it. We started with that source, Boston-area social worker Steven Procopio, who has strived for more than a decade to put more focus on the world of trafficked males. Procopio has long maintained that the reality of exploited boys is even more underground than that of girls because of toxic masculinity, shame, and a destructive skepticism that boys can be victims at all. During our first interview, Procopio brought with him Christopher Bates, a 26-year-old survivor who bravely told us his story of living on his own as a teen, selling his body to survive.

Study: Dads’ money woes can set stage for family conflict
The Washington Post
Traditional gender roles could be to blame, Joyce Y. Lee, an assistant professor of social work at Ohio State University who led the study, said in a news release. “When fathers feel they aren’t economically providing to alleviate material hardship in their families, that can lead to depression and more conflict with their spouse.” The researchers say their analysis method makes it clear that income doesn’t reveal the whole story for stressed-out parents.

Tyra Moore is the member:
Who, What, Why: Tyra Moore on her commitment to mental health care for Black Americans
Penn Today
Tyra Moore grew up watching her mother practice social work in the foster care and public school systems in Charlotte, North Carolina. “She and I often saw the world in the same way,” Moore says. “I was always trying to put the pieces together in my mind. How did a person get to this place? Why is the person suffering like this? And what are we doing to help make change?”

‘Aftershock’ Review: A Moving Ode to the Black Family
The New York Times
There’s no getting around just how terribly sad it feels watching “Aftershock,” the new documentary from the directors Paula Eiselt (“93Queen”) and Tonya Lewis Lee. After all, it spotlights the tragic deaths of two Black mothers in New York City who died from childbirth-related complications — Shamony Gibson, in 2019, and Amber Isaac, in 2020 — leaving behind young children, partners, families and communities gutted by grief. But alongside the despair, there is also light in this documentary. Gibson’s partner, Omari Maynard, and her mother, Shawnee Benton Gibson, a medical social worker with a background in reproductive justice activism, had been mourning their loss for a year and a half when Maynard reached out to the newly bereaved partner of Isaac, Bruce McIntyre. The two men soon banded together with Benton Gibson and others to organize for change.

Cheryl Verlander is a member:
Couple Gives $1M for Tulane School of Social Work Scholarship
Biz New Orleans
A Tulane alumna has made a $1 million bequest to the School of Social Work. The estate gift from social worker Cheryl A. Verlander and her husband, Charles “Chuck” N. Bracht, will bolster the Verlander-Bracht Scholarship Endowed Fund, which they created in 2008 to support students, especially Tulane alumni, who are pursuing master’s degrees at the School of Social Work.

Police say they want more mental health collaborators, but there’s a shortage
Maine Public Radio
Police and mental health agencies are actively pursuing grants from the Department of Mental Health and posting new positions for co-responders. But — beyond the pay scale — there are other reasons some clinicians may not apply. “There may be an ethical issue for working within a police department in a co-response model  for some social workers,” said Rebekah Gewirtz, executive director of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.

Danielle Androff is a member:
7 Ways to Ruin a Family Gathering
AARP
If this rings true for you and your clan, it may be wise to head off trouble by deciding on acceptable conversation topics and behaviors ahead of time. “The whole goal of these gatherings is to be creating good memories with loved ones,” says Danielle Androff, a licensed clinical social worker in St. Louis. “So anything that doesn’t serve that goal isn’t necessary in that setting.”​ ​Here are some ways to ruin an otherwise perfectly good gathering — as well as tips to avoid doing so.​​