NASW News

NASW once again promoted the value of advance care planning on National Healthcare Decisions Day, which is celebrated every year on April 16. NASW Senior Practice Associate Chris Herman posted a detailed Practice and Professional Development entry about NHDD on NASW’s blog. The blog was promoted through the association’s social media channels in April. Herman noted that efforts to promote advance care planning need not be limited to one day. This year’s NHDD’s theme —“It Always Seems Too Early, Until It’s Too Late”— can be used as a catalyst for initiating advance care planning educati...

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From new ways of caring for veterans to hearing what’s on the minds of young social activists to running a successful private practice, attendees at NASW’s national conference this month will find countless opportunities to grow professionally and find new inspiration. The conference theme is based on what social workers do best: Leading Change, Transforming Lives. It all takes place June 22-25 in Washington, D.C. The keynote speakers will be social worker and U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.; Robert A. McDonald, secretary of Veterans Affairs; Soledad O’Brien, award-winning journalist frequently seen on CNN; Nancy Lublin...

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Dawn Ellis-Murray is proof that education is the key to success. She said her family instilled in her the value of education as she was growing up in Vicksburg, Miss., and she has carried it with her all the way to her current role as executive director of NASW’s Alabama Chapter. “My family had a great deal of regard for education,” she said. “And it was one of those things that was understood: I would do well in school and I would graduate. There was no question if I would go to college, but what I would do once I got there.” Ellis-Murray has a bachelor’s degree in economics, a master’s degree in...

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Why is the Association undertaking a modernization and revitalization initiative? The primary driver behind modernizing the Association’s structure is long-term in nature. The current business model was designed in the 1970s and reflects the economics, technology, and best practices of that time. The impetus for this initiative was the recognition that we needed to update our business practices and structure based on current technology and best practices, to position the Association for continued financial viability and to better serve our members in the decades ahead. What is the goal of the initiative to modernize and revitalize the...

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June is LGBT Pride Month. While great strides have been made in LGBT rights, some states have passed laws that negatively impact that progress. In April, NASW posted a statement on Social Work Blog, denouncing the legislative actions by Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee to deny equal treatment of LGBT individuals and families. “NASW believes that these laws, passed under the guise of ‘religious freedom’ or to ‘protect children,’ must be vetoed or repealed,” the blog states. “Taken separately or collectively, all three laws are objectionable and are an affront to the progress we have made t...

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Center for Medicare Advocacy says settlement, which eliminated ‘improvement standard’ for Medicare beneficiaries, still not being followed Medical providers and contractors continue to illegally deny Medicare coverage and care based on an “improvement standard” that has been eliminated, according to a March 1 press release by the Center for Medicare Advocacy. On that date, CMA and Vermont Legal Aid filed a court motion for resolution of noncompliance with the settlement agreement in the landmark case, Jimmo v. Sebelius. NASW is a member of the Jimmo Implementation Council, convened by the CMA with support from the...

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20 years ago: Supreme Court rules in Jaffee v. Redmond NASW member Karen Beyer made history 20 years ago when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in her favor that social workers like her deserved the protection of psychotherapist-client privilege in the federal court system. It’s a legal interpretation that may be taken for granted today, but Beyer remembers she faced the potential of jail time for being in contempt of court for refusing a judge’s order to hand over records of her client, who later became a defendant in the case Jaffee v. Redmond. “My client had been traumatized,” Beyer said of that time. “This le...

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Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities An estimated four to eight children die from abuse and neglect every day in the U.S. Approximately half of these children are less than a year old and 75 percent are less than 3 years old. These are some of the findings from “Within Our Reach: A National Strategy to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities,” the final report of the Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities. NASW member Michael Petit was among the 12-member commission that included social worker Marilyn Bruguier Zimmerman, who resigned from the commission in November 2015 to join th...

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Rebecca started smoking at age 16. When she was 33, she was diagnosed with depression. She says she turned to cigarettes to help her cope. When she tried to quit and couldn’t, she felt even more depressed and started smoking again. “That was just a vicious, vicious cycle,” says Rebecca, who volunteered to be part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s smoking education campaign called “Tips from Former Smokers.” Rebecca, pictured above, is a volunteer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s smoking education campaign, called “Tips from Former Smokers.” Rebe...

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Transgender university and college students are at a significantly higher risk for suicide attempts when their campus experience includes being denied access to bathrooms and gender-appropriate campus housing, according to a Georgia State University study authored by NASW member Kristie Seelman. “An alarmingly high proportion of the transgender individuals participating in this study – 46.5 percent – had a history of attempted suicide,” said Seelman, an assistant professor of social work in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. Seelman was quoted in a San Diego LGBT Weekly article a...

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