Social worker and New York Times best-selling author Brené Brown is known for helping people transform their feelings of vulnerability into acts of courage. As the latest keynote speaker announced for the NASW national conference —“Social Work: Courage, Hope & Leadership,” taking place in Washington, D.C., July 23-26 — Brown plans to present “Daring Greatly: Social Work and The Call to Show Up, Be Seen and Live Brave.” Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work and a columnist for O, The Oprah Magazine. She is a distinguished scholar who tackles t...

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Photo right, from left: Finley Drewery and Cashla Massey, students from North Carolina’s Livingstone College’s Social Work Forensic Interviewing Class, visit with North Carolina State Rep. Elmer Floyd of the 43rd District during Social Work Month last year. Eighty students from the small, rural college attended the Lobby Day event hosted by the NASW North Carolina Chapter. Social worker Deona Hooper has special plans for this month, also known as National Professional Social Work Month, where this year’s theme is All People Matter. Hooper, who is the founder and editor-in-chief of www.socialworkhelper.com, is planning to...

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Carla Damron, executive director of NASW’s South Carolina Chapter, wrote an article for South Carolina’s The State newspaper about the importance of having licensed social workers on staff to help clients with mental health issues at the new emergency shelter in Columbia, S.C. The city provides funding to keep the shelter running, but not enough to keep trained social workers on staff. She said this lack of professional staffing could cause the city more expense later on. “Licensed professionals could provide case management and oversight, coordinate with vocational specialists in the community to expand the range of wor...

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Licensed Clinical Social Worker Camielle Call knows how daunting it can be to keep up with the changes in claim procedures that are taking place this year for those in her profession. But she and other clinical social workers said thoroughly educating oneself on the revisions will make adapting to them much easier. The claims and reimbursement processes that are changing include a revised CMS-1500 form; the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM); the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5); and requirements to file quality measures from the Physician Qua...

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Because all people matter “Every man is our brother, and every man’s burden is our own. Where poverty exists, all are poorer. Where hate flourishes, all are corrupted. Where injustice reigns, all are unequal.” — Whitney M. Young During the 1960s, Whitney M. Young, as president of the National Urban League, brought a new thrust to social welfare by helping identify and solve urban community problems, working to prepare high school dropouts for college, helping to get black workers into jobs previously preserved for whites, pushing for federal aid to cities, proposing racial integration of corporate workplaces, an...

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Two social workers have been selected to serve as 2014 Practice Change Leaders for Aging and Health, a national program that works to develop, support and expand the influence of organizational leaders who are committed to achieving transformative improvements in care for older adults. The social workers are Cindy Tack (photo left), director of care coordination at the MMC Physician-Hospital Organization in Portland, Maine; and Amy Turk (photo right), chief program officer at the Downtown Women’s Center in Los Angeles. According to Practice Change Leaders, the program is a one-year opportunity for participants to gain enhanced leade...

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As Social Work Month approaches in March, NASW has extended the deadline for its annual Media Awards nominations to Feb. 15, and is also preparing to air NPR sponsorship ads about the value of social workers in all media markets. The third annual NASW Media Awards recognizes professionals and projects across 11 categories that have raised awareness about social work-related topics through a variety of platforms, including blogs, documentaries, news articles and television programs. “The media awards are an excellent way to reward media projects that have done a good job on recognizing social work during the previous year,” said...

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Speakers say more public policy social workers needed Photo right: U.S Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., left, speaks during a Public Policy Roundtable discussion in Washington, D.C., in December. Stephen Gorin, executive director of the NASW New Hampshire Chapter, is at right. The discussion focused on the need for more social workers in politics. Two members of Congress who are also social workers emphasized the need for more social workers in politics at a Public Policy Roundtable discussion in Washington, D.C., in December. U.S. Reps. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., spoke to social work leaders, including Ange...

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The Mexican Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Mexico City government, the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization organized two meetings in November during Violence Prevention Week from a Public Health Perspective. The Best Practices in Violence Prevention Meeting and the 6th Milestones in a Global Campaign for Violence Prevention were held concurrently in Mexico City. Evelyn Tomaszewski, senior policy adviser at NASW and a member of the Institute of Medicine Forum on Global Violence Prevention, was invited to participate in the event. She said the gathering was an opportunity to highlight social wor...

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Social workers urged to defend program as it faces federal cuts Social workers and Social Security have a rich history together, explains NASW-New Hampshire Executive Director Stephen Gorin, and he urges social workers to continue this history by advocating for the Social Security program, which is facing possible government cutbacks. “It’s important to keep in mind that social workers were at the forefront in helping create Social Security,” he said. Social work pioneer Frances Perkins, the first female Cabinet member as Secretary of Labor in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration, served as chairwoman ...

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