The 2012 general election results proved favorable for NASW. In addition to the association supporting the successful re-election of President Barack Obama, a strong majority of congressional candidates endorsed by the NASW Political Action for Candidate Election, or PACE, will serve in the new Congress. NASW PACE endorsed 172 congressional candidates and enjoyed a success rate of more than 93 percent after the election. “We not only maintained all of the social worker members of Congress who ran, but gained unprecedented numbers of women in the House and the Senate, most of whom support policies that will benefit our profession and ...

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Helping journalists understand the importance of social work title protection is a step in the right direction, according Julie Drizin, director of the Journalism Center on Children and Families at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. She said the whole profession can easily get blamed when a news report decries general mishandling of a child welfare situation. “I think journalists need to be educated on this question of who is a social worker and who is not a social worker,” Drizin said. “I think it is a mistake that journalists need to be very careful of whenever they investigate syste...

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Critical thinking needed in social work education I write in response to the article, “Social Work Education Needs a Boost,” which appeared in the September issue. Dr. Jeane Anastas, the current NASW president, raised some excellent issues regarding whether social work students score lower on critical thinking activities when compared with students in other academic disciplines. Social work practitioners and educators should address whether students seeking to enter our profession acquire critical and complex reasoning skills necessary for the engagement, assessment and intervention activities that social workers regularly perf...

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In October, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Windsor v. United States, maintaining that the Defense of Marriage Act is an unconstitutional violation of the equal protection clause. DOMA is a 1996 federal law that defines marriage as being between one man and one woman. It denies same-sex families the right to marry and the ability to enjoy the same financial and legal rights as heterosexual couples. NASW, through its Legal Defense Fund, joined the American Psychological Association and a legal team headed by William F. Sheehan, of Goodwin Procter LLP, in filing an amicus curiae brief in the case. The court action mirrors a simi...

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The Health Resources and Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has awarded 24 schools of social work and psychology with grants totaling $9.8 million. The grants, through the Mental and Behavioral Health Education and Training Grants Program, were  made possible by the Affordable Care Act. According to HHS, mental health conditions are among the top five chronic illnesses in the U.S., and the grants will help in recruiting students and providing support for clinical training in mental and behavioral ...

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While growing up in a single-parent household, Marty Oliphant found additional guidance from a mentor in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. It’s only fitting, then, that he would become a man who wanted to give back. He has done so in many ways, the latest while serving as the executive director of NASW’s Hawaii Chapter since 2011. Oliphant grew up in Hawaii as the only male in his household. He said his mother enrolled all of her children in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. It was there Oliphant met Lambert Davids, who would help shape his life in a positive way. “He was there for me and was a male influence in...

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NASW co-hosted a Capitol Hill briefing with the Congressional Social Work Caucus in October to discuss the challenges of helping children in the child welfare system. Joan Levy Zlotnik, director of the NASW Social Work Policy Institute, moderated the briefing, titled “Children at Risk: Optimizing Health in an Era of Reform.” Rep. Edolphus “Ed” Towns (photo, below right), D-N.Y., who created the Social Work Caucus last year, gave the welcome remarks. “This is a very important session,” said Towns, who is also a social worker. “Children are 25 percent of our total population, but they are 100 perc...

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Libby, Mont., is a rural working-class town situated in the northwest corner of the state. For several decades, workers and residents were unaware they were being exposed to highly toxic asbestos associated with nearby vermiculite mining and milling operations. The exposure was so intense that in 2002, Libby was declared a Superfund site, the federal government’s program that works to clean up the nation’s uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. Since 1999, the Environmental Protection Agency has cleaned up the major asbestos source areas around the community. Many private properties in the Libby area are still in the midst of the ...

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NASW-California takes leadership role backing bill that bans ‘reparative therapy’ The NASW California Chapter took a leadership role in helping pass a state law that bans sexual orientation change efforts for minors. California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law S.B. 1172 on Sept. 29, making California the first state in the union to prohibit licensed mental health professionals from engaging in sexual orientation change efforts, or “reparative” therapies, for minors. The law goes into effect this month. Rebecca Gonzales, director of NASW California Government Relations and Political Affairs, said it was crucial that ...

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The color pink as associated with breast cancer is seen as feminizing the disease and not completely inclusive of LGBT people who have breast cancer, according to commentary written by NASW member Liz Margolies and published on Advocate. Margolies, who is the founder and executive director of the National LGBT Cancer Network, says in the piece that pink has been adopted by the entire U.S. as being representative of breast cancer treatment and awareness, with well-meaning health care workers decorating their scrubs and offices with pink ribbons. Margolies says the one-color-fits-all approach does not meet the needs of LGBT breast cancer surv...

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