NASW offered insight on the factors in determining case management caseloads for a Veterans Health Administration workgroup that is evaluating staffing ratios for care management with veterans of the war in Iraq. NASW Senior Practice Associate Chris Herman participated in a teleconference with the VHA Case Management Caseload Ratio Work Group recently and discussed a caseload concept paper and matrix that NASW helped develop as part of a separate caseload workgroup in 2008. The workgroup is coordinating its efforts with the VHA’s version of the Patient-Centered Medical Home: Patient-Aligned Care Team, said Peggy Kennedy, program man...

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September 2010 Board's Action Context Finance Received the financial reports for the period ending Aug. 31, 2010. As of Aug. 31, 2010, NASW’s total asset position was $13.4 million. Overall, assets decreased by $1.6 million compared to the same time last year. For the two months ending Aug. 31, total revenue increased by $27,000 versus 2009 to $3.2 million. Dues revenue for the two-month peri...

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A California appeals court last month agreed with NASW in upholding a lower court’s preliminary injunction stopping the Shasta Union High School District from conducting random drug tests on students. The case is Brown v. Shasta Union High School District. Prior to 2008, the district tested student athletes for drugs only at random. That year, the district expanded the drug testing program to all students who participate in competitive extracurricular activities, such as band or choir. Students sued the district, alleging that the random drug testing program violated their rights to privacy, equal protection and to be free from unrea...

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The Action Network for Social Work Education and Research (ANSWER) Coalition met in October at NASW to welcome a new member organization and to outline goals for the upcoming year. The group, which works to increase legislative and executive branch advocacy on behalf of social work education, training and research, also greeted Susan Kosche Vallem as the new ANSWER Coalition convener. Vallem is the policy and advocacy chair of the Association of Baccalaureate Program Directors (BPD) and the chair of the Social Work Department at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. Her term as convener will expire in November 2012. The coalition thanked prev...

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Photo: Patricia McDougal-Matthews NASW Social Work Pioneer® Katherine Kendall was honored at a celebration for her 100th birthday at an event near Washington, D.C., in September. Attendees included NASW President James J. Kelly, NASW Foundation Director Robert Carter Arnold and a host of other NASW Social Work Pioneers®. Kendall has been involved with social work education for more than 40 years with leadership roles in the Council on Social Work Education as well as the International Association of Schools of Social Work.

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The 2011 National Professional Social Work Month theme promotes the role of social workers as positive agents of change. Celebrated each March, the theme for next year is “Social Workers Change Futures.” “There are 640,000 professional social workers in the United States who have dedicated their careers to either helping people transform their lives or improving environments that make such change possible,” said NASW Executive Director Elizabeth J. Clark. NASW and its chapters will use this theme as a cornerstone to promote the message that social workers improve the fabric of society by serving as advocates for pe...

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Sam Hickman (no photo), executive director of NASW’s West Virginia Chapter, is profiled on a White House website that explains how the 50 states will benefit from the Affordable Health Care Act, which was passed into law earlier this year. The website [deactivated] includes an interactive map of the United States. Each state features a person or a fact about how the new law will benefit the states’ residents. Selecting West Virginia will show a picture of Hickman with text explaining how his family will benefit from health care reform. It states: “Sam Hickman’s son is 23, married and uninsured. Sam is happy that he wi...

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From the Director November is a short month. Its claim to fame is its fourth Thursday, when we celebrate Thanksgiving. For many years Thanksgiving, also known as”turkey day,” has been mainly a secular holiday that includes a big meal, Black Friday, football games and parades. Almost 80 percent of business and government workers are given both Thursday and Friday as paid holidays. It has become a long weekend to spend with family and friends. As with other customs, there are historical explanations for the holiday. In grade school we learned that Thanksgiving began with a meal between Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians in 1621. ...

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Evelyn Tomaszewski, a senior policy associate at NASW, has been appointed to serve on the Institute of Medicine’s Forum on Global Violence Prevention, launched over the summer. According to the IOM, the forum will work to reduce violence worldwide by promoting research and encouraging evidence-based prevention efforts. In 1996, the World Health Organization declared violence — including child abuse, intimate partner violence, elder abuse, sexual violence, gang violence and suicide — to be a leading worldwide public health problem, especially in developing countries. “It’s such a great honor for me to be able...

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A new NASW Action Alert asks members to urge their congressional representatives to support the Ending Corporal Punishment in Schools Act, HR 5628, recently introduced by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., who chairs the House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities. The National Alliance of Pupil Services Organizations, of which NASW is a member, helped draft the legislation that would strip federal funding from academic institutions that allow personnel to punish students by hitting, often with a paddle. Corporal punishment can also mean pinching, shaking, shoving, choking, and excessive exercise drills, among othe...

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