Mary Esty is a member:
Therapists are using neurofeedback to treat ADHD, PTSD and other conditions
The Washington Post
Mary Lee Esty, a Bethesda clinical social worker, has a small study underway treating veterans with PTSD. In an earlier study of seven veterans who used neurofeedback, she reported, the results were promising. “These people [in the early study] initially had minimal function. They could not work, and many attempted suicide,” she said. “One is getting a PhD now. One has a full scholarship when he could not read after his head injury. All of them are doing well.” Other studies describe results of the therapy in a similar way, as promising but requiring further examination. Esty, who received a National Institutes of Health grant for an earlier study of brain-injured patients, has used neurofeedback to treat more than 2,500 people, mainly with brain injuries or PTSD.

Programs across campus honor Dr. King’s legacy
Michigan Daily
Instead of attending classes Monday, University students and faculty honored the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. by hosting or attending various seminars and discussions to examine social justice in American society. The School of Social Work hosted “Policing Black Bodies: A Dialogue on Poverty, Police Brutality and the Way Out” to reflect on King’s legacy in modern America. Writer Shaun Ossei Owusu, Assistant Prof. Kamau Rashid and Rackham student Finn Bell discussed how poverty, race and police brutality have changed throughout U.S. history. “The historical configurations of race in the United States, within the context of slavery and colonialism, actually teaches us a great deal about the contemporary manifestations and expressions of racism today,” Rashid said. “Racism is both permanent and indestructible and I think that there’s a lot that we can learn from this.”

Strategies shift for treating mental illnesses: Facing a shortage of beds and cost pressures, hospitals use outside social workers for help
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
His job was gone, his apartment wrecked in a manic rage, and the suicidal voices in his head kept insisting, “Life isn’t worth living.” Then Kendall Coleman, 50, who suffers from schizophrenia and depression, met a social worker named Jolene Peterson. “I probably would be homeless or dead by now were it not for her,” said Coleman, who lives in Bloomington. Coleman is among hundreds of patients across Minnesota benefiting from a fundamental shift in the way hospitals and health plans treat people with serious mental illnesses. Facing a critical shortage of psychiatric beds, and new financial pressures to reduce costly readmissions, hospitals are increasingly turning to outside social workers for help — even deploying them inside hospitals, settings once considered off-limits to nonmedical professionals.

Judith Matz is a member:
[Video] ‘Biggest Loser’ Pediatrician Defends The Show Against Criticisms
The Huffington Post
Dr. Joanna Dolgoff said the show was a “positive experience” for her, but clinical social worker Judith Matz argued the show normalizes unhealthy behavior. “This show is based on shame, and so no matter what, it’s disturbing to me that millions of people are watching this show and it’s really an entertainment show,” Matz said. “It’s not a show about health.”

Helen Cahalane
Pitt School of Social Work Launches Online Training to Help Prevent Child Abuse
University of Pittsburgh
In response to Pennsylvania’s new Act 31—which requires all professionals in the state who regularly come in contact with children to receive training in the recognition and reporting of child abuse—the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work is offering a comprehensive online training program free of charge.… “Ending child abuse and neglect is a public responsibility, and it takes everyone working together to keep children safe,” said Helen Cahalane, clinical associate professor of social work and the school’s principal investigator of child welfare education and research programs. “Pitt’s School of Social Work has a long-standing commitment to child welfare education, and our Child Welfare Resource Center is among the top training and technical assistance programs in the country. Our development of this training on recognizing and reporting suspected child abuse and neglect is directly in line with our mission of protecting children, supporting families, and strengthening communities.”

Social Work Awareness Game in partnership with the San Diego Padres
PRLog
On Saturday, April 25th at 5:40pm at Petco Park, the National Association of Social Workers will partner with the San Diego Padres to host the 3rd annual Social Work Awareness game versus the Los Angeles Dodgers. This year’s celebration entitled, “Social Workers: Helping Families Flourish” will honor social workers who specialize in working with families and will include pre-game and on field recognition of industry leaders.

Social workers oppose bill to change DCYF director job requirements
Providence Journal
Legislation to eliminate the requirement that the director of the state’s child welfare agency have a master’s degree in social work drew sharp criticism Wednesday night from professionals in the field including a college dean and the president of the second-largest state employees union.… Richard Harris, National Association of Social Workers of Rhode Island, testified about the importance of having someone with experience at the helm. “I hope the director of the department of health is a doctor,” he said. “I hope a chief judge is a lawyer….” The committee held the bill for further study.

Bat Sheva Marcus is a member:
The Orthodox Sex Guru
The New York Times Magazine
[Bat Sheva] Marcus chose a secular college, partly because the only religious option open to girls seemed repressive. But during her undergraduate years she felt shame about all things sexual; her father had been open-minded about Talmudic education, but the family had been completely silent about sex. At college, the topic put her into a tongue-tied panic, and she couldn’t even bring herself to say the word “breasts.” While getting a master’s in social work, though, she made friends among a small group of modern-Orthodox feminists and gradually discovered that she could talk about sex after all. She was working with a Jewish organization, trying to get young professionals more involved in philanthropy, when, in 1998, she met a urologist, Michael Werner, at her synagogue. He asked if she would join his practice as an administrator and assist him in setting up a sperm bank and fertility clinic. In 2000, she and Werner opened the Medical Center for Female Sexuality in Westchester (and later, the one in Manhattan). She treated secular patients with sexual issues, including low libido, while she studied toward a doctorate in human sexuality.