NASW News

Richard Reed, MSW, special assistant to the president of Homeland Security and senior director for continuity policy, presents the seminar “When Disasters Strike — Being Prepared and Responsive” during NASW’s Annual Leadership Meeting in April, held in Washington, D.C. When disaster strikes, how should social workers respond? Richard Reed, special assistant to the president of Homeland Security and senior director for continuity policy, answered this question in April when he spoke at NASW’s Annual Leadership Meeting in Washington, D.C. Reed, who has an MSW, presented “When Disasters Strike — Bei...

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Help women by empowering, not patronizing, them I would like to comment on the editorial written by Elizabeth Clark that appears in the May issue of NASW News. It is unfortunately typical that articles such as hers try to fear monger readers into thinking the world is going to end because someone can’t get free birth control. I am aware that NASW has a long history of supporting women’s rights and issues, so I understand Ms. Clark’s point of view, but I do take issue with that viewpoint — and suspect many other social workers do too. If NASW wants to help women, they should stop treating them like entitled childre...

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Through the work of the Legal Defense Fund, NASW joined an amicus brief filed in the Superior Court of Arizona for the case, State v. King. NASW is among a coalition of amici groups and professionals that are supporting a petition for post-conviction relief for a woman who exhibited symptoms of postpartum psychosis, but who was not properly diagnosed or treated. In 2002, Hope Lynette King was convicted of felony child abuse and sentenced to 40 years in prison. The brief states that it is now understood that King likely suffered from postpartum psychosis, an illness that many in the medical and mental health communities were not fully aware ...

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From left, Jacqueline Campbell, co-chair of the IOM Forum on Global Violence Prevention; Iris PrettyPaint, project director of Kaufman and Associates, Inc., a professional services firm; and Evelyn Tomaszewski, NASW senior policy adviser, participate in “The Contagion of Violence” forum recently in Washington, D.C. To address the contagious nature of violence and examine ways to treat it, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies recently presented “The Contagion of Violence,” a two-day workshop held in Washington, D.C. Experts from a wide variety of fields presented at the workshop, and NASW Senior Poli...

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Efforts are under way to find a new leader for the Congressional Social Work Caucus, as its founder and chairman, Rep. Edolphus “Ed” Towns, D-N.Y., announced he will not seek re-election in November. Towns created the caucus in 2011. It works to educate and inform fellow lawmakers of the vital role professional social workers play in helping improve the lives of the middle class and the most vulnerable among us. The caucus provides members of Congress and their staff the educational tools and resources directed toward improving the social work profession and the clients they serve. Chief among the caucus’ efforts has been...

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NASW produced a commemorative poster, shown right, to showcase the history between social work and the Children’s Bureau, as part of the bureau’s 100th anniversary celebration in April. April was a special month for children as the Children’s Bureau celebrated its 100th anniversary. Social workers were instrumental in convincing lawmakers to create the federal agency in 1912 and social workers continue to play a vital role in the agency’s mission: to provide for the safety, permanency and well-being of children through leadership, support for necessary services, and productive partnerships with states, tribes and c...

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From the President Women’s work was a political hot topic in April, leading some pundits to declare that the “gender wars” were the first big battle of the 2012 presidential campaign. It began with Mitt Romney talking about his wife, Ann, as his best source of information about what women want and need economically. This was followed by a commentator associated with Democrats deriding Mrs. Romney as a “stay at home mom” who “had never worked a day in her life.” At times, neither political party seemed able to address the realities of women’s work effectively, which reflects our nation&rsquo...

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In an NPR “Talk of the Nation” segment called Why Are Young Latinas at Risk? NASW member Luis Zayas talks about the high rate of suicide and depression among high school-aged Latina females in the United States. The show, hosted by Lynn Neary, highlights Latina girls as one of the fastest-growing groups in the country. According to the segment, research has uncovered certain trends in this group, showing that young Hispanic women are the most likely to drop out of school, use drugs, and attempt suicide (one out of six). “The Latinas have overall the highest rate of (suicide) attempts of any group, whether it's male or fem...

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When she was in college in the 1960s, Bonnie Boswell thought her social worker uncle Whitney Young Jr., was old-fashioned. Boswell, who attended Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was militant, sported an Afro hairstyle and dashiki, and took part in public student protests. Her uncle, a civil rights leader who was executive director of the National Urban League and later president of the National Association of Social Workers, preferred fighting social injustice by being a behind-the-scenes negotiator. “I had some mixed feelings about his role as a moderate,” said Boswell, who wanted her uncle to...

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NASW has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the individual health mandate and Medicaid provisions outlined in the Affordable Care Act in two amicus briefs, coordinated by the Legal Defense Fund, so that quality health care is available and affordable for all. A new NASW Practice Perspective, “State Health Insurance Exchanges: What Social Workers Need to Know,” provides insight into the role social workers can play in shaping their states’ health insurance exchanges and what to anticipate from health care reform. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on challenges to the ACA in June. In the meantime, states are re...

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