NASW News

The NASW Legal Defense Fund has updated NASW’s sample forms and information materials that highlight the latest rules of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued the 2013 Omnibus HIPAA Final Rule in January. At press time, enforcement of the rule was set to go into effect on Sept. 23. The changes require health care providers, health plans and other entities that process health insurance claims to update their HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices, Business...

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Vermont Department of Mental Health Commissioner Paul Dupre announced that NASW member Frank Reed has been appointed deputy commissioner for the department. Reed has been with DMH since 1999, serving most recently as interim deputy and commissioner for the department. Reed is a licensed clinical social worker who has served as president of the NASW Vermont Chapter and as a behavioral health surveyor for the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, a national accrediting organization for mental health treatment services. A statement from DMH said Reed’s extensive knowledge of Vermont’s designated hospital and c...

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The Rural Social Work Caucus quilt (photo right) displays the many themes used throughout the years for the annual conference of the National Institute for Social Work and Human Services in Rural Areas. The NASW Pennsylvania Chapter attended the 38th Annual Conference for the National Institute for Social Work and Human Services in Rural Areas in July at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. Abigail Hurst, director of policy and communication at the chapter, said about 150 people traveled from across the country to the event, where the theme was “Community, Commitment and Tradition.” Members of the Rural Caucus shared sto...

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NASW-Nevada Executive Director J.D. Fripp said that even though he is not a professional social worker, he has been one in spirit since he was a small child growing up on welfare in New York City. “I was at the heart of Harlem, in terms of social economics,” he said. As a kid, Fripp would sometimes accompany his grandmother to the welfare office. His family was very poor, he said, and he remembers the social workers who helped during the visits. “I distinctly remember the days of sitting across the desk of a social worker, and back then, we got food stamps, and government-issued cheese and peanut butter” Fripp said...

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NASW’s new president-elect Darrell Wheeler has been part of the organization for more than 27 years, and has served in many aspects, he said. He was on the NASW-Pennsylvania board of directors, the NASW-New York board of directors, and was Region II representative and vice president to the NASW national board. Wherever Wheeler has lived, he has always been a member of NASW and active within his local chapter, he said. “Over the years, I’ve been an NASW member of the North Carolina Chapter, Pennsylvania, New York City and Illinois,” Wheeler said. Wheeler is dean of the school of social work at Loyola University in...

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NASW chapters in Texas and Delaware were selected to receive monetary awards to further research projects that link social work practice and policy issues with relevant social issues. Ruth Fizdale Chapter Research Grant Each chapter will receive $2,000 in the 2013-14 Ruth Fizdale Chapter Research Grant program, administered through the NASW Foundation. The grant promotes opportunities for NASW chapters to conduct pilot research projects targeted to a specific emerging issue. The Texas Chapter plans to use its grant to help support its Clinical Research Project, which focuses on clinical reimbursement for social work providers, according t...

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The National Coalition on Mental Health and Aging has developed talking points to ensure that older adults’ mental health is included in the national Community Conversations on Mental Health. NASW is a member of the coalition. The talking points are important, because older adults’ mental health is often under addressed in discussions about aging and mental health, said NASW Senior Practice Associate Chris Herman. “The goal of the talking points is to equip social workers and others to bring older adults’ mental health into the Community Conversations [now Creating Community Solutions],” she said. “Disc...

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Successful veterans policy rests on whole community After reading the September newsletter, I would like to share the following thoughts. As a social worker who does work with the DoD and VA, I am encouraged to see the NASW supporting military social work, and was very interested in the article regarding national veteran policy by Paul Pace. I am committed to the services rendered to our service members, veterans, their family members and the service providers and social workers who reach out to them, and I would support a unified covenant. However, I was disturbed that no one mentioned in the article was a representative of DoD or VA s...

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NASW, through its Legal Defense Fund, filed an amicus brief in the Court of Appeals for Middle Section of Tennessee at Nashville in the case Garretson v. Jones. The case involves lesbian parents who have separated. One of the parents is seeking to deny access to the child by the non-adoptive mother. A trial court had found that the child had built a bond with both women for his initial four and one-half years of life. However, the trial court ruled against the non-adoptive mother on legal grounds. The brief urges the appellate court to reverse the trial court’s decision. It states that decades of social science research shows that chil...

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The NASW Foundation announces the 2012-2013 recipients of the Ruth Fizdale Chapter Research Grant; the Jane B. Aron Doctoral Fellowship; the Consuelo W. Gosnell Memorial MSW Scholarship; and the Verne LaMarr Lyons Memorial MSW Scholarship. The Ruth Fizdale Chapter Research Grant gives NASW chapters the opportunity to pursue new research projects that center on an emerging and specific issue in social work. The grant will fund research projects that join practice and policy issues with correlating social issues. Recipients are: NASW-North Carolina; purpose of research: To position social work as a lead profession within the medical ho...

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