Social workers discuss work with combat vets, refugees
Jamestown Sun
You’re a social worker assigned to help a combat veteran reintegrate into life in America and a “new normal” with family, friends and a job. Or your assignment is a family of refugees who fled war or persecution in their homeland, fled across a border and spent years in a refugee camp before coming to this exceedingly strange place called North Dakota. The word Thursday from two professionals: Empathy.

University’s First African-American Professor Dies
UConn Advance (blog)
“After I arrived at UConn, I received requests from five different schools of social work because they wanted black professors,” Williams said in an interview earlier this year. “Affirmative action laws had been passed. But I said no, I wouldn’t take those jobs, because UConn took me when it didn’t have to.”

Counselors, Social Workers Attend Ethics Training
North Central Ohio
Sixty-two counselors, therapists, and social workers attended a three-hour professional ethics training course Friday morning at Richland County Children Services. The program is held each year by Mental Health and Recovery Services, and the Center for Individual and Family Services and Rehab Center.

DC agency fails elderly and disabled adults in need, inspector general says
Washington Post
One licensed social worker, for example, wrote: “After many years of being frustrated with the lack of responsiveness from APS, I have reached the point where I do not attempt to utilize their services [because] it has not proven to be a fruitful or worthwhile process.”

A Brighter Future for 1000 Orphaned Children
AllAfrica.com
The scheme, dubbed Bridges to the Future is the brainchild of Dr. Fred Ssewamala, a professor at Columbia University School of Social Work, USA. He initiated it as a research study. Under the scheme, poor and orphaned children in primary schools can later afford further education after primary school by using their savings in the new bank accounts.

FAU Students Offered Tremendous Internship Opportunity
BocaNewsNow.com
Florida Atlantic University’s School of Social Work has partnered with Women In Distress (WID) of Broward County to offer internship opportunities for undergraduate students. FAU undergraduates will gain hands-on work experience while serving the local community.

[Video] Jefferson Award Winner Cindy Hatch Helps Homeless Veterans
WOAI
Cindy Hatch came to San Antonio from Houston for the Social Work program at Our Lady of the Lake University. That’s when she also interned at a Soup Kitchen. Since then she has worked with the homeless for more than a decade, the last four years with what’s called the HUD-VASH program.

Social media relays grief over deaths of Fayette County teens
Lexington Herald Leader
The crisis team, a pool of volunteer guidance counselors, social workers and school psychologists, was activated five times during the course of the week — once for each of the teens and once for a preschooler who died after an illness, Fayette County schools Superintendent Tom Shelton said.

Fisher seeks investors who want to make social impact
Crain’s Detroit Business
“I think we’re both trying to really change the whole dynamic, creating a real asset class for social work.”

Springle family questions trial delay of Army soldier
Carolinacoastonline
Family and friends also established in May 2009 the Charles Keith Springle, Ph.D. Memorial Scholarship Fund through the School of Social Work at UNC-Chapel Hill, where Cmdr. Springle completed his undergraduate and graduate work.

[Audio] Indiana Social Workers Deal With Serious Issues
theoriginalcompany.com
Modern day slavery, or human trafficking, is happening in Indiana. Abby Kuzma, Director of Consumer Protection for the Indiana Attorney General’s office, says they’re seeing cases of labor abuse and sex trafficking.

California Governor signs landmark legislation to ban reparative therapy for minors
LGBTQNation
In addition to the SB 1172’s sponsors, the bill was supported by dozens of organizations, including a number of mental health organizations, including: The California Psychological Association, the American Psychoanalytic Association, the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (California Division), the National Association of Social Workers (CA Chapter), the California Latino Psychological Association, and the California Council of Community Mental Health Agencies.

Mental Illness: It’s the elephant in our room
The Colorado Springs Business Journal
Billie Ratliff, a social worker who supervises mental-health evaluations at Memorial Health System, says her staff of 18 evaluates more than 500 patients a month, with shifts every day, all day. About 220 of those need full evaluations and additional psychiatric services.

Busting the myths about social work
The Guardian
“I think the most popular myth is that social workers are child snatchers,” says newly qualified social worker Charity Chaya, who has just graduated from Buckinghamshire New University. “From my experience, and my second year placement was in a children and family team, social workers do everything in their power to help families stay together.”