NASW News

Homeless transgender youth no longer will be turned away from Covenant House Texas, Houston’s largest shelter for homeless youth, thanks to a change in policy advocated for by the NASW Texas Chapter’s GLBT Equity Committee. On Jan. 25, Covenant House Texas adopted a policy that prohibits discrimination on the basis of “gender expression in any phase of its admissions, programs or activities,” in addition to race, gender, disability, age, national origin, religion and sexual orientation. The shelter also will go through the process of becoming a “Safe Zone,” an environment that is respectful and responsiv...

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The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship and the Institute of Medicine’s National Cancer Policy Forum hosted “Patient-Centered Cancer Treatment Planning: Improving the Quality of Oncology Care,” a workshop that addressed ways to improve coordinated and comprehensive patient-centered cancer care. Tom Sellers, president and CEO of NCCS, said it was critical to partner with IOM for the workshop so that NCCS could identify best practices among providers for patient-centered cancer treatment planning, especially right after diagnosis. Promoting open and positive dialogue between newly diagnosed cancer patients and their...

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NASW’s 2010 national award recipients, announced earlier this year, include an inexhaustible advocate for the disabled, a messenger of nonviolence, a social worker who’s seemingly done it all and a public servant who gives voice to the voiceless. Inspired by her “Movement for Change” initiative to make all of New Jersey’s public buildings and spaces compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, NASW named Jacqueline Jackson its 2010 Social Worker of the Year. Jackson, who lives with multiple debilitating conditions and uses a wheelchair, “is passionate about making America fully accessible for all...

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Defending Child Welfare Reading NASW President James J. Kelly’s message about the burden held by the child welfare workforce (January News), I was moved. As a social worker, social work educator, researcher and lawyer, I have worked in and with the child welfare system in multiple roles. I agree with your call to arms; social workers need to work through individual and collective advocacy to defend the child welfare system and demand more resources. As you point out, unfortunately less than 40 percent of the child welfare workforce includes professional social workers (BSW or MSW holders), yet society at large attributes the failures o...

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NASW continues to promote the welfare of clients and social workers involved with hospice and palliative care. Advocacy efforts last year to include voluntary advance care planning as a service provided under the new Medicare annual wellness benefit were initially successful, until a White House reversal. NASW Executive Director Elizabeth J. Clark had written a letter on behalf of the association to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Donald Berwick, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, urging them to add voluntary advance care planning as a service offered under the new Medicare annual...

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The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s requirement that Americans have health insurance or pay a penalty squares with Congress’ constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce, NASW recently told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The appeals court is reviewing a lower district court’s declaration in Commonwealth of Virginia v. Kathleen Sebelius that the law’s insurance mandate is unconstitutional because it requires an otherwise unwilling person to purchase a good or service. In an amicus brief filed with the appeals court, NASW, along with several women’s rights organizatio...

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“Social workers will face a wide range of challenges that have far-reaching implications for the profession,” U.S. Rep. Edolphus “Ed” Towns, D-N.Y., said at a Feb. 16 briefing on implementation of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Towns, a social worker, convened a panel of five experts, including Asua Ofosu, manager of NASW’s government relations department, and Stephen Gorin, executive director of the NASW New Hampshire Chapter. The other panelists were Robyn Golden, director of older adult programs at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and co-chair of the National Coalition on Care C...

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A video excerpt of a November symposium, Supervision: The Safety Net for Front-Line Child Welfare Practice, is available on the NASW Foundation’s Social Work Policy Institute’s website. The video features the first two hours of the meeting, with eight presentations by child welfare and workforce experts. The website also includes a full report and action brief from the symposium and the opportunity to earn 2.0 CEs upon successful completion of an online post-test. “Working with the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute and Casey Family Programs, along with NASW’s Center for Workforce Studies, we wanted to make...

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In February, NASW leaders attended the 28th annual Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors, or BPD, conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. The conference theme was “The Nuts and Bolts of BSW Education: From Basics to Competency Assessment.” “The annual conference is a meeting of social work educators, students and leaders with an interest in undergraduate social work education,” explained Michael Daley, president of BPD. “Although the conference is targeted at undergraduate educators, representatives from other social work organizations made presentations and engaged in dialogue with attendees.&rdquo...

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In October, NASW Executive Director Elizabeth J. Clark will lead a People to People social work delegation to Brazil. The eight-day trip will include visits to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In addition to better understanding social work practice in Brazil, participants will hear from local experts and visit facilities to learn about women’s rights, racial inequality, services for the aging, crime and prisoner re-entry into communities, and violence against homeless children. The trip is open to NASW members and their guests. Those attending will receive 30 continuing education credits from NASW’s Continuing Education Ap...

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