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Social worker receives $225,000 judgment against city of Tulsa for malicious prosecution claim
Tulsa World
A social worker who says she was falsely charged with failing to report child neglect has been awarded $225,000 from the city of Tulsa in a malicious prosecution case. Laura Lynn Fox claimed in a lawsuit that the charge damaged her reputation as a social worker.

Elaine Nell is a member:
Disabled Kids’ Parents Watch D.C. Warily
North Carolina Health News
The American Health Care Act proposes cutting $880 billion from Medicaid over a 10-year period. The proposal would shift the program from one where the federal government matches North Carolina’s spending to one where the state receives a set annual amount for spending. More of the cost of care would be pushed onto states. The proposed limitations make Elaine Nell’s blood run cold. Nell’s 5-year-old daughter Lydia is a child who is “medically fragile.” Born prematurely, Lydia developed a dire complication necessitating the removal of close to 80 percent of her intestines. Lydia is able to run and play like other preschoolers, but she dependent on almost continuous nutrition via a feeding tube that she carries around in a flowered backpack.

No slurs, no hate: FGCU celebrates diversity
News-Press (Ft Myers, FL)
Forty-five Florida Gulf Coast University students who are studying to be social workers are going to be in Tallahassee next week participating in an advocacy day. The students are taking part in the National Association of Social Workers Florida Chapter’s LEAD or Legislative Education and Advocacy Day. FGCU students plan to talk to lawmakers about bills dealing with services to military veterans and their families and human trafficking. Students in social work programs from across the state participate in the advocacy day each year, helping the association push its legislative agenda.

Advocate hopes for Guam survivors of US nuclear bomb tests to receive help
The Guam Daily Post
Guam was also a stopping point for U.S. Navy ships coming from the Marshall Islands after detonations to decontaminate, according to Robert Celestial. “Our island and our people – were undoubtedly exposed,” Celestial said at the National Association of Social Workers conference on March 29. The Army veteran has first-hand experience with nuclear radiation. Between 1977 and 1980, Celestial, alongside other Pacific Islander and Asian Army personnel, helped fill the U.S. military’s Runit Dome in the Marshall Islands with nuclear waste and affected debris.

Grace Ott is a member:
Furry friends from here to eternity
Boca Beacon
Pets play an important role in today’s households, whether it’s a new furry addition to a family or a beloved companion that’s been with you for years, when faced with the idea of loss it can really run deep. A panel discussion will be held including Rev. Michelle Robertshaw from St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Lemon Bay Animal Hospital Veterinarian Dr. Paul Belliveau, Grief Specialist Cathy McClung, Tidewell Hospice-Englewood, and Grace Ott licensed clinical social worker and facilitor of the program.

Carolyn Karoll is a member:
4 reasons you don’t have to be healthy to love your body
The Revelist
“First, I think it is important to define health and to come to an understanding that there is health at every size,”  explained certified licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist Carolyn Karoll. “If you look at social media and search some of the thinspo sites you will see lots people who have a host of health problems, a result of being malnourished/manipulating their genetic blueprint to fit an unrealistic, unhealthy standard, who proclaim to love their bodies. I believe appreciating what your body can do for you can contribute to body positivity, but I would not go as far to say those things are synonymous.”

Kaitlyn Dowd is a member:
In the battle against opioids, one city blames drug makers
TVN
In another battle in the opioid crisis, the city of Everett, Washington claims its heroin crisis has been fueled by the aggressive distribution and abundant supply of the pain pill OxyContin. The city is suing Purdue Pharma, the company that makes the pain medication, for allowing its pills to flood into Everett. Pain pills like OxyContin can be highly-addictive and act as a gateway to heroin use. Everett is littered with camps filled with makeshift tents and the tools used to get high off heroin. “Sometimes it’s really difficult for people to stay clean,” said social worker Kaitlyn Dowd. She says it has become an epidemic. Near a trail of needles, baggies, spoons and foil, Dowd said, “It’s everywhere.”

Amy Horowitz is a member:
Boomerang seniors: Aging adults move to be near mom or dad
KRMG
Caregiving for an older family member is not what it was when first studied and coined as the “sandwich generation,” those people squeezed between aging parents and young children, said Amy Horowitz, a professor of social work at Fordham University in New York City. “Now it’s the children who are on the verge of retirement or who have retired and are still having responsibility of older parents,” she said. “In New York City, I know somebody whose almost-90-year-old mother is living in the same apartment building. It becomes, how do you balance your own life?”