NASW News

NASW Oregon handed out awards at its Social Work Month event. From left: Lucrecia Suarez, Social Worker of the Year; Kristine Nelson, Lifetime Recognition; and Dr. Margaret “Peg” Miller, Public Citizen of the Year. National Professional Social Work Month was celebrated from coast to coast in March. NASW chapter leaders and others were busy hosting advocacy days, award and recognitions ceremonies as well as attending proclamation speeches and promoting social work through the local media. It was all done to help highlight this year’s theme, “Social Workers Inspire Community Action.” The NASW News invited chap...

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Social workers participated in an expert panel convened by NASW recently to develop standards for social work practice with family caregivers of older adults. Among the participants were, from left: Nora O’Brien, Sandra Edmonds Crewe and Joann Damron-Rodriguez. NASW seeks members’ comments on draft standards for social work practice with family caregivers of older adults. Members can expect the draft standards in May and will have 60 days to submit comments. Development and dissemination of the standards, made possible by a grant from the AARP Foundation, is part of a three-phase initiative of the John A. Hartford Foundation t...

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The demand for cancer care in the near future will far outpace the workforce trained to help people with the disease, experts say. NASW is joining the campaign to address this problem by encouraging non-oncology social workers and social work students to strengthen their core understanding of cancer. The association is taking part in the C-Change Cancer Core Competency Initiative. The goal is not to duplicate efforts by oncology professional organizations, but to strengthen the cancer knowledge and skills of the non-oncology health workforce. NASW is a member of C-Change, a coalition working to leverage the expertise and resources of its ...

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Two cancer organizations merged recently to become the largest employer of social workers who provide psychosocial oncology support. The Wellness Community and Gilda’s Club Worldwide pooled their resources to become the Cancer Support Community (CSC). Both organizations have established solid, reliable reputations in the cancer community and share a commitment to quality, integrity and services based on the best research available to move the two organizations’ agendas forward. Licensed oncology social worker Vicki Kennedy is vice president of program development and quality assurance at CSC. She said the two organizations join...

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NASW and the NASW Foundation’s Social Work Policy Institute participated in the 27th annual conference of the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors (BPD) in Atlanta. The theme of the March conference was “Promoting a Culture of Social Justice: Social Work and Social Change.” Elizabeth J. Clark, executive director of NASW; Joan Levy Zlotnik, director of SWPI; and Freddie Avant, immediate past president of BPD and associate dean, professor and director for the School of Social Work at Stephen F. Austin University, conducted a joint presentation called “Social Work Policy Institute: A National Think...

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NASW urged justices to support same-sex couples’ right to marry and students’ right to an education in separate friend-of-the-court briefs recently in California and North Carolina. In the matter of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, NASW, its California chapter and several other prominent organizations asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to invalidate Proposition 8, a ballot initiative approved in 2008 by California voters that amended the state’s constitution “to provide that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” NASW contends that denying same...

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Pictured from left are NASW President James J. Kelly, Executive Director Elizabeth J. Clark, Samira Beckwith and John Hansan. The NASW Foundation honored its 2009 award recipients at a ceremony in March. Samira K. Beckwith received the Ruth Knee/Milton Wittman Award for Lifetime Achievement in Health and Mental Health Practice and John E. Hansan received the International Rhoda G. Sarnat Award for Advancing the Public Understanding of the Social Work Profession. Ronald W. Manderscheid, who could not attend the ceremony, was the recipient of the Ruth Knee/Milton Wittman Award for Outstanding Achievement in Health and Mental Health Policy.

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Steven Huberman (no photo) , dean of Touro College’s Graduate School of Social Work, was quoted in an article produced by the school that highlighted a recent community day program called “Social Work on the Front Lines: The Role of Social Work in Today’s Military.” The event was presented by the school. Huberman joined others in delivering the opening remarks. The article quoted Omar Domenech, a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army, who spoke to around 150 people, mostly students and faculty at Touro’s Graduate School of Social Work. “In the military, the soldier’s mind becomes conditioned to believ...

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The newly formed American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare held its first meeting last month in Washington. Twenty-three fellows were inducted into the Academy at a ceremony that took place around the time of the 2010 Social Work Congress. The event was attended by NASW President James J. Kelly, a member of the Academy’s working group. “They are the best and the brightest of the profession,” Kelly said of the inductees. The Academy consists of scholars and practitioners who are dedicated to achieving excellence in social work and social welfare through high-impact work. The first six fellows, selected by the w...

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Natasha Singer was quoted in the Oneonta Daily Star in a story about healthy ways to cope with grief in response to unexpected deaths in the community that made news. Singer is a bereavement counselor with Catskill Area Hospice and Palliative Care. She said when people and communities experience a tragic loss it leaves them stunned. “The rational mind just can’t get around it,” Singer said in the article. “They question why it happened and need to express their despair.” Cataclysmic events including earthquakes, tsunamis and floods leave people feeling vulnerable, the story explained. “It seems like the...

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