“We seem to think black men don’t want to talk about these issues, but we found that given a safe environment, they were excited to share and grow.” NASW members and staff presented at a September Congressional Black Caucus Foundation event in Washington, exchanging ideas on improving relationships and marriages in the African-American community and ensuring that former prison inmates get jobs and adequate mental health care. Social worker and Howard University professor Tricia Bent-Goodley spoke about social welfare policies and African American-families at a Sept. 23 panel sponsored by Rep. Edolphus “Ed” Town...

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NASW is pleased to announce the launch of the Caseload Capacity Calculator (CLC). This software, developed by Consulting Management Innovators Inc. (CMI), builds on the Caseload Concept Paper and Matrix published by NASW and the Case Management Society of America (CMSA) in 2008 and on a 2011 survey of NASW members. From that foundation, a team of clinicians and analysts developed software that provides comparison data with case managers in similar settings. The CLC is available free of charge to all case managers through Dec. 31, 2011. Thereafter, it will be free to NASW and CMSA members, though nonmembers may continue to use the tool for a ...

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Sept. 2011 Board's Action Context Finances Approved pre-audited financial report for period ending Aug. 31, 2011. For the two months ending Aug. 31, 2011, NASW’s total asset position was $14.2 million. Overall, assets increased by $838,000 from the same time last year due to long-term investments. Revenue year to date was $3.3 million, which exceeded revenue from the same time last year by ...

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Thomas “Tab” Ballis was interviewed by Jemila Ericson for WHQR Public Radio in Wilmington, N.C., as part of the station’s special coverage of the decentennial remembrance of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacks. Ballis, a licensed clinical social worker in Wilmington, explained that he spent time at a Ground Zero tent as an on-site counselor for the Red Cross. He arrived in December after the attacks. He noted that even up to that date, responders continued to work nonstop. “They were being driven [by the hope] that they would find at least one soul who survived under the rubble,” Ballis said. He said there w...

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From the President Social work is a global profession, and NASW works to support the profession overseas and in its 56 chapters. As I wrote in a blog in August, the NASW Foundation’s Social Work Across Nations (SWAN) initiative has received a “twinning” project grant from the American International Health Alliance (AIHA), with funding from USAID, to assist in developing the social welfare workforce in Tanzania. Specifically, NASW is partnering with the Tanzanian Social Work Association (TASWO) to advance social work practice and education, as well as social welfare legislation and systems in that nation. What TASWO is wor...

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Nearly every social worker subscribes to the broad principles outlined in the NASW Code of Ethics: a commitment to service; social justice; the dignity and worth of a person; the importance of human relationships; integrity and competence. However, one’s background and unique sets of beliefs can influence how these principles are interpreted and put into practice, and sometimes opinions vary. The existence of viewpoints that differ from NASW’s Code of Ethics and other takes on social work conduct is not a new phenomenon, but a dramatic change in recent years has been the increasing number of platforms where viewpoints, ranging fr...

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From left: Brendan Broms of NASW-Los Angeles, screenwriter Rob Woronoff, past NASW President Suzanne Dworak-Peck, and screenwriter and actor Hilliard Guess. Social workers Ron Barber and Jacki McKinney snagged top honors in August at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s 2011 Voice Awards at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. Barber, an aide to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was injured in a shooting attack in January in Tucson, Ariz., was honored with a Special Recognition Award for establishing the Fund for Civility, Respect and Understanding. That fund is launching an anti-bullying program in pub...

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Children’s Bureau child welfare specialist Brian Deakins, left, was an organizer of the summit. Katherine Briar-Lawson, dean of the School of Social Welfare at the University at Albany-SUNY, right, spoke on the panel about research findings. “I would like a whole summit on intervention research,” she said. What happens to research findings when they fail to reach expected outcomes? A group of researchers debated that question during a panel discussion titled “The Rest of the Evidence: Where Have All the Null and Negative Findings Gone?” in late August at the second National Child Welfare Evaluation Summit in ...

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NASW has broadened its support of improving medication adherence by announcing it is a committed partner in the National Consumers League’s Script Your Future campaign. The effort seeks to raise awareness among consumers and their family caregivers about the importance of taking medication as prescribed, as a vital first step toward better health outcomes. Campaign organizers explained that nearly 45 percent of the adult population has one or more chronic condition that requires medication. However, one out of three people never fill their prescriptions and nearly three out of four Americans do not take their medications as directed...

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A new report by the Institute of Medicine* notes that pain is more than a physical symptom and that treatment is not always resolved by curing the underlying condition. Among the findings in Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education and Research is that even though pain is universal, it is experienced uniquely by each person and care must be tailored. Social workers who have spent years studying the complexities of pain management say the report will serve as a vital guide in promoting the study of and treatment options related to suffering. “I am excited by the report,” said Shirley O...

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