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HRC’s All Children – All Families and Partners Share Child Welfare Resources With Conferences
HRC blog
HRC Foundation’s Alison Delpercio, deputy director of the Children, Youth & Families Program, co-presented workshops alongside representatives from several All Children – All Families (ACAF) partner organizations at the National Adoption Conference and National Association of Social Workers’ conference.… Delpercio, Harry Morgan, MSW, of Prince George’s County Maryland’s Department of Social Services and Colleen Gibley-Reed, MSW, LCSW, from Colorado’s Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse & Neglect presented a symposium on ACAF’s Training of Facilitators program. This training model, which was first conducted in 2016 in collaboration with Children’s Home Society of Florida, helps child welfare agencies build their capacity to train staff on LGBTQ inclusion. The NASW session was live-streamed and will be available soon on the conference’s archive.

Lara Hulin is a member:
Health professionals and students talk to state leaders about mental health problems in schools
KVUE
One of the panelists worked in a Texas school district. She said it’s all about building relationships with students and doing a better job of connecting them to health professionals when they need it. “They’re more likely to come to a person when they already have an established relationship if they feel a trust level, if they feel a comfort level,” said Lara Hulin, school social worker with Houston ISD. Hulin said her district has student-led mental health awareness groups to help reduce the stigma. Others also mentioned connecting counselors to doctors when they see a student with a severe mental health problem.

Mental health crisis in schools, availability of professionals discussed
The Register-Herald (Beckley, WV)
n addressing the opioid impact on the state’s children, West Virginia lawmakers are taking a closer look at the availability of counselors, psychologists, social workers and nurses in schools. During the 2017-18 school year, 36 of West Virginia’s 55 counties did not have a full-time social worker employed, and seven counties did not have a full-time psychologist employed. All counties had at least one full-time counselor and one full-time school nurse. “If we don’t do something about the mental health crisis students are dealing with, we can’t make an impact on achievement,” said Michele Blatt, assistant superintendent of the West Virginia Department of Education.

New Hiring Rule for Child Protection Workers Faces Push Back
U.S. News & World Report
According to the department, Kansas was one of only 10 states requiring social work licenses for such positions before the change in May. But many child welfare advocates, including members of Kansas’ National Association of Social Workers, oppose the move, and see loosening requirements as lowering standards for workers who make life-changing decisions daily.

Janet Shapiro is a member:
The Crisis For Separated Children Is Just Beginning
Romper
“These kinds of traumatic stressors — and there’s nothing worse for a child than being forcefully separated from their parents — are associated not only with later social, emotions, psychological problems, but also with later-in-life increases risks of serious health issues,” Janet Shapiro, the Dean of the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research at Bryn Mawr College and Director of the Center for Child and Family Wellbeing, tells Romper. “In addition to the individual trauma of individual children and families, these kind of early adversities and traumatic stress raise the risk for physical health problems. This is not a short-term thing for children who’ve been highly traumatized.”

Terri Keener is a member:
Fireworks may be traumatic to Las Vegas shooting survivors, others
Las Vegas Review-Journal
“Many of those who were at the Route 91 festival have described the onset of the shooting as sounding like fireworks,” Terri Keener, the center’s behavioral health coordinator and a licensed clinical social worker, said in a news release. “Over the Fourth of July holiday, the sound of fireworks may be a startling reminder of that night for many survivors.”