NASW News

An article in The Daily American Republic in Poplar Bluff, Mo., highlighted the role of rural social work when reporting the election of Elaine Mullins (no photo) to a two-year term as an at-large, rural member of the 13-member NASW Missouri Chapter Board of Directors. Chapter Executive Director Tamitha Price was quoted as saying that Missouri is predominately rural and that Mullins will help represent and lobby on behalf of the rural Missourians. The article explained that the social work post for Mullins in Neelyville, Mo., was first created in 2001 thanks to a grant from the state’s Department of Mental Health and Senior Services....

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Chapter Executive Director Steve Karp Connecticut social workers proved this year that it pays to be persistent. NASW’s Connecticut Chapter led a successful campaign to convince lawmakers to override a governor veto of a master social worker licensure proposal. Gathering support for a veto override is a rare occurrence, noted Steve Karp, the chapter’s executive director. “It was a huge victory for social workers in Connecticut,” he said. “This helped show we can do a lot when we speak with one voice.” Getting the law on the books was no easy feat, Karp explained. The idea arose from how best to use...

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Less than six months. That’s how long Robert Carey-Hogue was expected to live when he sought the services of Kansas City Hospice and Palliative Care in the fall of 2008. Carey-Hogue, 38 at the time, had been HIV-positive for 15 years, asymptomatic thanks to antiretroviral medications that kept the virus in check. But when UnitedHealthcare, his insurer, decided to stop paying for his treatment (despite continuing to collect his $3,600 monthly premium), Carey-Hogue had to do without the medication. He and his partner, Rand Souden, simply couldn’t afford the medications that cost thousands of dollars each month, even after mortgagi...

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NASW’s political action committee, Political Action for Candidate Election, known as PACE, has endorsed 119 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and three senators who are up for reelection on Nov. 2. This year, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 36 of the 100 Senate seats are up for grabs. The winners will serve in the 112th Congress. “In this election cycle, NASW is focused on protecting those incumbents who have stood up most strongly on the issues that are important to social workers and their clients,” said Brian Dautch, an NASW senior political action associate who assists the PACE Trustees wit...

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NASW has new Lunchtime and Specialty Practice Sections webinars, as well as a new WebEd course available. “An Advanced Course in Ethics and Malpractice Risk for Social Workers” is the latest WebEd course for members. Members who successfully complete an online exam will receive 3.0 CEs. The course was funded by NASW Assurance Services Inc. and created by the NASW Office of Ethics and Professional Review with support from the NASW Legal Defense Fund. The authors explain that the 21st century has brought a renewed focus on professional ethics. “An increase in public awareness and accountability has forced licensed profess...

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  NASW Executive Director Elizabeth J. Clark and Bryan Wooden, deputy director of the Division of Behavioral Health from the federal Indian Health Service, met at the NASW national office in Washington recently. NASW and IHS staff discussed plans to help the IHS recruit and prepare more Native American social workers, as well as ways to better educate NASW members about the needs of tribal communities.

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NASW will send a membership survey to a sample of prospective, current and lapsed members this year in an effort to improve membership services, programs and benefits. Tracy Whitaker, director of NASW’s Center for Workforce Studies and social work practice, said the survey results will be a guidepost for the professional association, which represents around 140,000 social workers. “This will help us form our programming for the future,” she said. “This is our chance to help improve our services.” The survey will be sent out to a sample group in October. Members who do not receive a mailed survey will be sent ...

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The NASW Board of Directors voted at its June meeting to increase new and renewing associate membership dues, bringing them in line with regular member dues. As of Oct. 1, annual associate member dues will increase to $190, the same amount a regular member pays. The associate membership is open to anyone currently employed in a social work capacity (not self-employed or group private practice) who holds a baccalaureate or higher degree from an accredited U.S. college or university. Associate members are eligible for all rights and privileges of regular members, except they may not hold national elective office with NASW. They can vote in ...

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“Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license,” U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker ruled last month in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, a lawsuit challenging the 2008 voter-approved amendment to the California Constitution that limited marriage to heterosexual couples. Walker’s 136-page findings of fact and conclusions of law mirrored the amicus brief that NASW, its California Chapter and several other prominent organizations filed with the court in support of the plaintiffs. The brief contended that denying same-sex couples the right to marry flies ...

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Consider the facts: Schools of social work cannot train and graduate enough students to meet demand. Social work careers are perceived as stressful jobs that pay poorly. More than half of social workers surveyed by NASW have student loan debts between $10,000 and $40,000. Students say educational debt is keeping them from pursuing a social work career. With that in mind, NASW posed the following question to participants of the 2010 Social Work Congress in Washington last April: “What should be done to ensure that the benefits and rewards of a social work career continue to attract enough people to the profession?” Congress-goe...

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