NASW News

Honoring the people in hospices, hospitals, health care systems and long-term care facilities who collectively work to improve palliative and end-of-life care is what the Circle of Life Awards, co-sponsored by NASW, are all about. “Winning this award means that the program has achieved the very high standards that the American Hospital Association, NASW, and other supporting organizations set,” said Stacy Orloff, an NASW member who served on this year’s Circle of Life Awards committee. Award criteria include implementation of the National Consensus Project’s “Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative C...

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June 2014 Board's Action Context Finances Received the financial report for the period ending April 2014 As of April 30, 2014, total assets were $16.7 million, and total liabilities and deferred income were $13.7 million, resulting in total net assets of $2.9 million. Programs ...

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A young migrant boy is hoisted onto a freight car as Central Americans board a northbound train in Ixtepec, Mexico, on July 12. The number of unaccompanied minors detained on the U.S. border has more than tripled since 2011. Children are said to be crossing with their parents in rising numbers as well. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) Social workers can be instrumental in helping unaccompanied, undocumented minors find legal representation and other services once they cross the border into the United States. Tens of thousands of minors have arrived at the U.S. border within the last few months, fleeing from extreme violence and turmoil in their...

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Social workers can aid millions of Americans in signing up for health care coverage as the next open enrollment period for the Health Insurance Marketplace, under the Affordable Care Act, takes place Nov. 15 to Feb. 15, 2015. NASW and other social work organizations are partnering with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, to develop a toolkit for social workers on what they need to know about connecting people to coverage. “We are enthusiastic to be partnering with NASW and see huge potential for our collaboration,” said Angelica Gutierrez, a social worker and special assistant at the CMS Office of Communica...

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Depression sufferers need a strong support system to draw out hidden, raw feelings, says NASW Member Marcie Dimenstein, a licensed social worker at The Connection in Middletown, Conn. Dimenstein is quoted in an article on News 8 WTNH.com that talks about Carlos, who is in rehab and lives at the Recovery House at The Connection, a nonprofit agency providing community-based services. Carlos sought treatment after admitting to his substance abuse, addiction to opiates, and mental issues that he said turned him into another person. Dimenstein says in the article that someone who is very depressed has the same lack of hormones as someone who ha...

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Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud was known to have his dogs present during client sessions, and an animal’s soothing presence has long been noted for therapeutic properties, says Ellen Winston, co-founder of Animal Assisted Therapy Programs of Colorado. Mike Gooch’s daughter, Audie (photo right), stands with Moon, a horse at Home on the Range, a therapeutic equine program in North Dakota. “An animal present provides a social lubricant,” Winston says. “It’s a neutral topic to discuss, especially for children and adolescents.” Animal therapy can mean two different things, she says. There is the...

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“From this day forward, I promise to be part of the solution to ending domestic violence against women.” Recent headline news of domestic violence within the NFL has sparked a much-needed national conversation. Statistics on the prevalence of domestic violence indicate the problem is a worldwide epidemic. A 2013 report of the World Health Organization, titled “Global and Regional Estimates of Violence Against Women: Prevalence and Health Effects of Intimate Partner Violence and Non-Partner Sexual Violence,” found that intimate-partner violence affects 30 percent of women worldwide. According to Domestic Violence St...

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Countless children are waiting for homes that many people with disabilities want to provide, says Robyn Powell, attorney adviser for the National Council on Disability. “There are a significant number of people with disabilities who want to take adoptive children in and raise them,” she said. “But they can face attitudinal and policy matters in the adoption process.” Powell moderated a Capitol Hill briefing on this topic in June, which NASW and NCD co-sponsored. She said the scope of the briefing, called “Rocking the Cradle: Ensuring the Rights of Parents with Disabilities and Their Children,” was for pe...

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By Paul Pace, Rena Malai and Laetitia Clayton, News staff From left, keynote presenters Brené Brown, Steve Pemberton and Robert Reich speak during the 2014 NASW National Conference in July. Photos by Kea Taylor/Imagine Photography The theme of NASW’s national conference, “Social Work: Courage, Hope and Leadership,” was delivered through speakers’ messages and personal stories throughout the four-day event in July. Nearly 2,000 people from 50 states and 12 countries attended the conference in Washington, D.C., where they heard from expert speakers and had the chance to attend a variety of individual pr...

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Attendees at the Special Commission to Advance Macro Practice meeting are, front row from left: Mary Jo Monahan, Terry Mizrahi and Darlyne Bailey. Second row: Darla Spence Coffey, left, and Linda Plitt Donaldson. Back row: Angelo McClain, left, and Jenifer Norton. With the goal to help advance macro social work practice and education, leaders from several major social work organizations met earlier this year at the NASW national offices in Washington, D.C. Leaders from the Special Commission to Advance Macro Practice in Social Work, the Council on Social Work Education, the Association of Social Work Boards and NASW met in April to disc...

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