Several major news stories have shed light on a disturbing trend: Suicide rates in some regions have spiked and the economic recession is being cited as a factor. While national statistics on suicide lag by three to four years, news sources have conducted their own investigations about the topic. The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, MSNBC and Business Week have published stories in the past year highlighting local data and calls for more support for the newly unemployed or those facing financial devastation. The Wall Street Journal surveyed 33 of the nation's most populous states and found 19 have suicide data for 2008. In all, thos...

Read More

NASW is calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court decision that, if left in place, would make it harder for employees to challenge their employer's discriminatory practices. In the matter of Lewis et al. v. City of Chicago, a U.S. district court in 2005 ruled that the city was using a hiring exam for firefighters that illegally discriminated against minority applicants. However, an appeals court in 2008 reversed the ruling on a technicality, asserting that the applicants did not file their discrimination claims in time with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits...

Read More

The Council of Chapter Executives named Marc Herstand, executive director of the NASW Wisconsin Chapter, the 2009 Outstanding Executive Director of the Year at its recent annual meeting. Herstand (left) receives the award from previous winner Tamitha Price, executive director of the NASW Missouri Chapter. At the event, Janet Kusyk (right), program coordinator at the NASW Oregon Chapter, was noted as the winner of the 2009 Gilman-Wells award.

Read More

Joan Levy Zlotnik stressed the need to include social workers in CER strategy development. Experts from the research, practice, policy and education arenas convened at NASW's national office to outline how the social work profession can best contribute to the growing attention to comparative effectiveness research, or CER, in health and psychosocial services. The newly formed Social Work Policy Institute hosted the meeting, called "Social Work Research and Comparative Effectiveness Research: A Research Symposium to Strengthen the Connection." Joan Levy Zlotnik is the director of SWPI. The think tank was launched in October to strengthen ...

Read More

Karyn Walsh, senior practice associate at NASW, was one of the facilitators of the course “Understanding Cancer in Hungary: The Social Worker’s Role.” NASW has posted a new online course that will aid social workers and other health care professionals in Hungary with a better understanding of cancer and psychosocial counseling skills to help those with the illness. The course, "Understanding Cancer in Hungary: The Social Worker's Role" is available in Hungarian and is based on the existing course, "Understanding Cancer: the Social Workers Role." The new course is developed with information gathered from oncology psychos...

Read More

NASW Arizona Chapter Executive Director Carol Stambaugh (no photo) was chosen by the Arizona Society of Association Executives as the Executive of the Year. It is the highest recognition given by the organization to the chief staff executive of an association in the state. Those honored with the award exemplify the very best in association management by continually bringing credit to the profession and to the entire association community. Stambaugh was given the award at the society's annual gala recently. "I was so lucky to have a past-president, my president-elect, and some committee chairs in attendance at the gala with me," Stambaugh sai...

Read More

This year, the National Association of Social Workers is proud to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Academy of Certified Social Workers (ACSW), which is our signature credential. NASW has long supported national recognition for sound professional standards and this credential has been the cornerstone of NASW's efforts to ensure high-quality social services for the public. There are currently more than 35,000 social workers certified as members of the Academy nationwide. Established in 1960, on the verge of historical social reforms, the ACSW was the first credential created to formally recognize leaders in the social work profession. Bef...

Read More

NASW’s Rita Webb, left, and Rebecca Myers, right, talk with Feminist Majority President Eleanor Smeal at the Women, Power and Money Summit. The Coalition for Women's Appointments, of which NASW is a member, honored more than 320 women appointed to positions in the Obama administration at a Sept. 29 celebration. The event, co-sponsored by NASW, took place at the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius spoke at the event and was joined by Nancy Hogan, director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, and Tina Tchen, director of the White...

Read More

NASW Social Work Pioneer® and Life Time Achievement honoree Herman D. Stein died Oct. 2 at his home in Shaker Heights, Ohio. He was 92. According to the NASW Foundation, Stein was recognized for his many years of service to the profession as an educator, administrator, consultant and researcher. An obituary published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Stein joined the faculty of what was then Western Reserve University in 1964 as dean of the School of Applied Social Sciences. He was named university provost in 1969 and vice president in 1970. Before this, Stein earned a bachelor's degree in social science from the College of t...

Read More

Prominent social workers from around the country gathered in October for the annual Social Work Pioneers® weekend program in Washington. Social Work Pioneers® who attended the event were: Event chair Bernice Harper, Catholic University School of Social Work Dean James Zabora, Metro Washington Chapter President Hal Lipton with his wife, Lenne. NASW President James Kelly (left).

Read More