NASW News

Social worker Fernando Torres-Gil, professor of Social Welfare and Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Luskin School of Public Affairs, and director of the UCLA Center for Policy Research on Aging, received the 2014 American Society on Aging Hall of Fame Award. According to the ASA, Torres-Gil is a passionate, committed advocate for people with disabilities. He brings his experience and knowledge about disability policy and advocacy to the ASA community and beyond. Torres-Gil has long been an influential leader at the national level, earning his first presidential appointment in 1978 when President Jimmy Carte...

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Photo right: from left, NASW Social Work Pioneers® Jesse Harris, June Simmons, Douglas Glasgow, Juan Ramos, NASW CEO Angelo McClain, and Pioneer Steve Hornberger attend the Pioneers 20th Anniversary Observance and 10th Annual Event in October at the Woman’s National Democratic Club in Washington, D.C. Before schools of social work, before legal regulations and codes of ethics, there were social work pioneers, said Robert Cohen, a member of the NASW Pioneer steering committee. Cohen remarked on this during his speech at the NASW Social Work Pioneer® 20th Anniversary Observance and 10th Annual Event. More than 100 people &mda...

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This year marks the 60th anniversary of NASW. National Professional Social Work Month, which takes place each March, will kick off NASW’s anniversary celebration. The month serves as an opportunity for social workers and their supporters to highlight the important work social workers perform every day to make the world a better place. The Social Work Month theme, “Social Work Paves the Way for Change,” is incorporated in the newly designed logo that symbolizes how social workers help people along a path toward change, despite obstacles in the way, said Greg Wright, NASW public relations manager. Helping social workers ...

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NASW and the American Psychiatric Association collaborated on a forum called “Serving the Same Populations: Collaborating for Better Outcomes” at the American Psychiatric Association’s 66th Institute on Psychiatric Services conference in October. Joan Levy Zlotnik, director of the NASW Social Work Policy Institute; and Saul Levin, APA CEO and chief medical officer, moderated a panel discussion that included social workers Caitlin Ryan and Marvin Southard and Marvin Southard. Zlotnik said the forum focused on innovations and integrated care, interprofessional team work and effective community and family interventions to pr...

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Ferguson, Mo. (photo right), resident Tory Russell, left, comforts Londrelle Hall after Hall and another man ran from their home in Atlanta to a memorial in Ferguson on Nov. 23, more than three months after a black teenager was shot and killed there by a white police officer. It took Hall 20 days to make the run, which he did to raise awareness of the shooting. AP Photo Following the St. Louis County grand jury decision in November not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the August shooting death of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., NASW issued a statement that it continues to urge “reforms that would help end the excess...

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Midterm Election Results A strong majority of congressional candidates endorsed by the NASW Political Action for Candidate Election, or PACE, will serve in the new 114th Congress that starts this month. As a political action committee, PACE endorses and can choose to financially contribute to candidates from any party who support NASW’s policy agenda. At press time, the anticipated results of the Nov. 4 midterm elections showed approximately a 90 percent success rate of the 169 congressional candidates that were endorsed by the NASW PACE board of trustees. Brian Dautch, senior political action associate at NASW, researches and revie...

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Hundreds of protesters (photo right) attend a marriage equality rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on March 26, 2013, as the court began hearings in two cases that supported marriage equality in the U.S. The court that year found the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. At press time, same-sex couples in 35 states and the District of Columbia had equal marriage rights. Marriage equality in the U.S. made a giant leap forward in October when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to weigh in on challenges to five lower federal court rulings that had rejected state bans on same-sex marriage. By leaving the lower-court decisions inta...

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Social workers can be true to their faith and profession I want to respond to the letter in the October 2014 NASW News in which Rick Ralston expressed his appreciation of the article in the July 2014 News, titled “Theology a Natural Fit for Some Social Workers.” Mr. Ralston states that “It has been difficult to read many issues of the primary news magazine of my professional organization due to NASW’s liberal stance on so many issues.” I re-read the original article in which two social workers who completed dual degrees (MSW & MDiv) discussed their experiences and their work. There is nothing in the ...

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National Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities (Photo right) David Sanders, left, chairman of the national Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities, and Commissioner Michael Petit discuss the proceedings at the CECANF Florida public hearing held in 2014. It was one of several public hearings the commission has conducted across the U.S. There were 1,620 child maltreatment deaths reported in 2012, but research suggests that the real number may be under reported by 1,000 or more children because of a lack of consistency in how child deaths are documented across the U.S. Improving standards of data co...

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The number of people age 65 and older is growing. And that growth adds the potential for increased cases of family conflicts in addressing an older person’s care and well-being. A newly developed practice modality, eldercaring coordination, can help families and older adults address those conflicts. The Association for Conflict Resolution Task Force on Eldercaring Coordination developed the process, during which a coordinator assists elders, legally authorized decision-makers and others who participate by court order or invitation to resolve disputes with high conflict levels that impact the elder’s autonomy and safety. &ldquo...

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