Socialworkersspeaks on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterRSS Feed

News Items – November 29, 2017

Michael Marshall, the writer, is a member of the Committee on Aging of NASW-CT:
Letter to the Editor: Bad Cuts In Medicare Savings Plan
Hartford Courant
The cuts made to the Medicare Savings Plan will devastate our low-income senior and disabled population and force them to decide between paying their taxes, buying their medications, or seeking medical and mental health treatment. Previously, people on the program who were single could make up to $2,120 a month, and a married couple $2,854 a month.  They could be eligible to receive Medicaid as a supplement to Medicare, keep the Part B Social Security premium, as well as receive reduced premiums and co-pays for prescriptions.  The Medicare Savings Program was a life-saver for many.

Becky Fast, the writer, is the executive director of NASW-KS:
Becky Fast: Social work takes more than a good heart
The Topeka Capital-Journal
In the aftermath of five high-profile child deaths, record numbers of children entering foster care and recent reports of the Kansas Department for Child and Families using gag orders to cover its shortcomings, the agency is clearly in crisis. Kansas’ child welfare system has long struggled with inadequate funding. In 1989, a guardian ad litem attorney sued the state, arguing that by providing so few services, the state was endangering the children in its care.

Becky Fast, the writer, is the executive director of NASW-KS:
Kansas’ lax requirements for social workers fail the state’s children and families
The Kansas City Star
In the aftermath of five high-profile child deaths, record numbers of children entering foster care and recent reports of the Kansas Department for Children and Families using gag orders to cover its shortcomings, DCF is clearly in crisis. Kansas’ child welfare system has long struggled with inadequate funding. In 1989, an attorney acting on behalf of a child sued the state, arguing that Kansas was endangering the children in its care by providing so few services. Unable to disprove the allegations, legislators in 1996 sanctioned an initiative led by then-Gov. Bill Graves that allowed long-established private, nonprofit organizations to take over most of the state’s responsibilities.

Gazette editorial: Should Congress fund a research-backed effort that helps families to thrive?
Charleston Gazette-Mail
If only someone knew how to help struggling parents do a better job bringing up their kids, keeping themselves off drugs and preparing their babies for school. Actually, lots of people know how to do that, but Congress let their funding expire. Home visitor programs of many kinds — nurses, social workers, parent coaches — have been shown in decades of research to make big differences in children’s lives. Some of that research goes back more than 40 years and was done here in West Virginia.

Sherry Amatenstein is a member:
For single adults, it’s not necessarily the most wonderful time of the year
The Daily Gazette
Sherry Amatenstein, a New York City-based licensed clinical social worker, therapist and author of “How Does That Make You Feel?”, has worked with many clients who dread the ‘most wonderful time of the year.’ “A lot of people have trouble with the holidays. … It can be a very pressure-filled time of the year,” Amatenstein said. She recommends planning something to do before the holidays, though all is not lost for those who haven’t planned anything before the season comes around.

 

|   Leave A Comment
Tagged as: , , , , , ,

Advertisement

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.