The authors, Michael Sherraden and Richard Barth, are members:
12 questions for the presidential debate
St Louis Today
Our nation’s problems are challenging, but they are not insurmountable. We offer 12 questions here. They are based on the Grand Challenges for Social Work, an initiative of the American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare, which has identified evidence-based policy proposals and solutions to these questions — solutions that are within reach.

Nickie Haggart is a member:
Presidential debate a good teaching tool for kids
WZVN (Fort Meyers, FL)
“I think it’s OK to really tell kids we have a big fight going on in America,” said Nickie Haggart, a licensed clinical social worker. She said it is most damaging to children when parents are not able to manage their feelings about their political views. “If your kids can learn from you, not hatred, but honest discussion, that’s really good,” explained Haggart, “I would just like for people to give a balanced view to their kids if their kids are old enough to understand that.”

Geraldine Aronin was a member:
Geraldine ‘Gerry’ Aronin former state official and advocate for families in need, dies
The Baltimore Sun
Geraldine “Gerry” Aronin, former deputy secretary of the state Department of Human Resources who worked to help the less fortunate and women who were victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Sept. 27 at her Canton Cove home. She was 90. “She changed the world and my life,” Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, who had been Ms. Aronin’s classmate at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, wrote in a condolence letter to her two children.

Marylou Sudders is a member:
Baker’s big health care move
CommonWealth Magazine (MA)
The state’s current 1115 funding ends in June 2017, and Baker administration officials, especially Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders and MassHealth chief Daniel Tsai, are eager to lock in the next waiver—and the nearly $8 billion over five years—before Team Obama departs in January. Since arriving on Beacon Hill in January 2015, Team Baker has engaged in intensive planning with stakeholders, including consumer advocates, hospitals, physicians, insurers, and more. State leaders want federal approval by early fall. If federal officials like their plan—and Team Baker is hitting notes Team Obama wants to hear—they may get their wish.

Laura Kaehler is a member:
High schools offer homework-free weekends, study halls
The Chicago Tribune
Laura Kaehler, a licensed clinical social worker and guidance counselor in private practice in La Grange, said students feeling stressed about homework need to talk to their teachers. Homework may not entirely disappear, but it may be adjusted, she said. “Do you really need to do 30 math problems to show you’ve mastered it? Maybe 15 is OK,” Kaehler said. “Start with the teacher. They have wiggle room as far as homework goes.”

Elizabeth Ploog is a member:
Used and Abused
The Herald Bulletin (Anderson, IN)
Elizabeth Ploog, licensed clinical social worker with the Anderson Center, said too many young people in the Madison County area are simply repeating drug use modeled by parents and other adults. “But it’s a disease,” she said. “Nobody chooses to have this disease.”

Janet Liechty
Young children form body images but parents may miss opportunity to find them
Health Medicine Network
Preschoolers may express awareness about body-image issues – but their parents may miss opportunities to promote positive body-image formation in their children because parents believe them to be too young to have these concerns, new research suggests. University of Illinois eating disorders and body-image expert Janet Liechty, who led the study, said young children are forming their body images – positive or negative – far earlier than many parents expect and largely outside of parental awareness.