Women’s liberation movement leader Gloria Steinem speaks during a special NASW presidential forum, the “Feminization of Poverty Revisited,” held on March 20 in Washington, D.C. The event drew more than 100 female leaders in social work and a variety of other professions. The forum examined the impact poverty has on women in the U.S. and internationally and promoted the importance of advocacy for gender equality. Gloria Steinem, iconic visionary of the women’s movement, and Tina Tchen (photo left), White House chief of staff for the office of the first lady, were among the guest speakers at a recent special NASW pres...

Read More

Lileana Duarte, left, and Lener Jimenez listen while visiting the NASW national office in March. The two were part of a group of MSW students from the University of Southern California who visited Washington, D.C., as part of their class curriculum. A group of MSW students from the University of Southern California School of Social Work visited the NASW national office in March to learn more about the social work profession. The students are enrolled in Child Development and Social Policy at USC, and spent a week in Washington, D.C., as a part of their class curriculum. During their trip, the students learned about policy issues by visit...

Read More

NASW Senior Practice Associate Chris Herman presented at the annual American Society on Aging conference “Aging in America,” which was held in March. Herman represented NASW as a respondent to a panel presentation addressing the 2012 Institute of Medicine report “The Mental Health and Substance Use Workforce for Older Adults: In Whose Hands?” “This session was part of a track organized by the National Coalition on Mental Health and Aging, to which NASW belongs, and ASA’s Mental Health and Aging Network,” Herman said. Herman was joined on the response panel by NASW member Robyn Golden, representing...

Read More

The National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care has released the third edition of its Clinical Practice Guidelines for Palliative Care. The NCP developed the first edition of the guidelines in 2004. NASW is one of six NCP organizations involved in the revision process and endorses the guidelines. NASW Senior Practice Associate Chris Herman and NASW member Stacy Orloff represented NASW on the NCP task force that revised the guidelines. The guidelines are written for interdisciplinary teams and include eight domains of palliative care: structures and processes; physical aspects; psychological and psychiatric aspects; social aspec...

Read More

Social workers urging lawmakers’ support in states that have opted out or are undecided. The good news: The Affordable Care Act calls for expanding Medicaid eligibility in 2014 for nearly all U.S. citizens under 65 whose incomes are up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. The not so good news: The U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2012 ruling on the ACA allows states to opt out of the Medicaid expansion. NASW chapters have been actively petitioning their state lawmakers in favor of the expansion, which has the potential to benefit millions of people. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, on March 5, 27 states ...

Read More

From left, William Rinehart, Phillip Pittinger-Dunham and NASW student member Walter “Allen” Pittinger-Dunham attend the marriage equality rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on March 26. NASW student member Walter “Allen” Pittinger-Dunham and his husband, Phillip R. Pittinger-Dunham, participated in a rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on March 26 to show their support for marriage equality. They joined an enthusiastic crowd as the high court began hearings in two cases that support marriage equality in the U.S. “It was important as a gay man for me to stand with others, both LGBTQ and ally alike, so th...

Read More

Need for field visits should be re-examined Your article on training for safety on the job (Feb. 2013) did not address a basic issue — the necessity of field visits. The profession should take a second look at the justification for sending social workers, frequently young females, into potentially dangerous situations. Is the “magic” of the home visit an outdated concept? Home visits started in the early days of the profession with social workers visiting clients and perhaps verifying needs for financial assistance. At the time, few people owned cars and public transportation was limited. The elderly, disabled and mother...

Read More

NASW, through its Legal Defense Fund, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case, Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl. The case involves whether the Indian Child Welfare Act applies to a private adoption initiated by a non-Indian parent. Previously, the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that a Native American child could be not be adopted by non-Native American parents without complying with the ICWA, which provides biological parents with greater procedural rights to notice and consent than many state adoption proceedings. In 2009, a couple from South Carolina sought to adopt a Native American child fro...

Read More

March 2013 Board's Action Context Finances Approved form 990 Form 990 for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2012. Received the financial statements as of Dec. 31, 2011 Treasurer Mary McCarthy reported that as of Dec. 31, 2012, NASW’s total asset position was $14.5 million. Liabilities and...

Read More

From left, Kevin Trout, Katie Cianci, and Sandra Sharma prepare for a meeting with their state legislators regarding reintroduction of a bill to stop solitary confinement for incarcerated juveniles. North Koreans used solitary confinement as a way to break down U.S. prisoners of war during the Korean War, broadcast journalist Ted Koppel said recently on “Rock Center with Brian Williams.” Koppel’s report highlighted 17-year-old James Stewart, an incarcerated juvenile who committed suicide after being placed in solitary confinement. Isolation was used as psychological torture for soldiers and political dissidents, Kopp...

Read More