The FTC has announced that enforcement of the new Red Flags Identity Theft Rule, scheduled to become effective August 1, 2009, has been delayed until November 1, 2009 to give the agency additional time to develop guidance for small businesses.  Health care practitioners are subject to the new requirements.  For more information see http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/07/redflag.shtm and https://www.socialworkers.org/ldf/legal_issue/2009/200906.asp

The Chicage Tribune recently featured a social worker and cancer survivor in St. Charles who  offers oasis to those who need moments of peace, quiet.

By Alexa Aguilar |Special to the Tribune | July 29, 2009

When Deborah Marqui of St. Charles planted the first flowers in her garden more than 30 years ago, she envisioned it as a place her family would enjoy in the years to come.

But instead it flowered into a 2-acre “healing garden” that helped her through two bouts of cancer and now offers a peaceful escape to anyone looking for a quiet place.

The shaded woods and flowering beds hidden just off a busy St. Charles street offered her so much peace that after she lost a friend to cancer, she decided to open the gardens monthly to the public. She’s seen the research that links time spent in nature and quiet with health benefits. But she also has experienced firsthand its restorative effects….”I needed to heal my body, mind and spirit,” said Marqui, a licensed clinical social worker. “Cancer has a way of waking you up. … I needed to chill and ground myself.”…full article

The Washington Post’s recent article, “The Making of an Agent” featured social worker Krista Bradford as she trains as a secret service recruit.

“Krista had just assessed a 4-year-old autistic girl. She told the girl’s mother to buy crayons and blocks, she later recalled. As a social worker, Krista was tired of rappelling into lives after they’d crumbled. She wanted to try something preemptive, such as law enforcement.Krista herself had experienced the limits of social services. She was given up at birth in an adoption that failed, and later moved into an adolescent group house where she reached for a serving bowl and was stabbed in the hand with a fork.

“I’ll be a good protector,” Krista believed. “I know how important it is to be protected.”"

The United States has been at war for more than eight years, with Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan beginning in 2001 and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. During this time, more than 1.5 million troops have been deployed to serve in these wars.

Social workers continue to play an important role in the lives of veterans both during and after wartime. This fact sheet highlights some of the key considerations and concerns regarding social work services and veterans’ issues

We’ve received emails from social workers regarding TNT’s new show “HawthoRNe”, starring Jada Pinkett Smith.  What are your thoughts on how the social worker charater is being portrayed on that show? Leave your comment below or on Facebook.

Here is some of the buzz about the show, from around the web, that mentions social work :

Truth about Nursing : “The physician arrives, concurs with Hawthorne’s assessment, and they head to the NICU. Later, Hawthorne tries to protect Isabel from a social worker who sees it as a case of endangerment and has called Protective Services. Hawthorne argues that Isabel rescued the baby. When Isabel stops by to see Moses in the NICU, it’s clear that she has no idea what’s going on, and blames Hawthorne and the hospital for making the baby sick. Hawthorne tries to console her, and to explain that they are helping the baby. Isabel, who veers very quickly from one mood to another, takes out a dollar bill and gives it to Hawthorne “for [the baby's] future.” However, at that point the social worker shows up with the police.”

Pop Matters : “At Richmond Trinity Hospital, Christina Hawthorne (Smith) is the Chief Nursing Officer. She battles for her patients, explaining to one social worker, “I jeopardizes my job every day” for the good of her patients. Her foes include incompetent doctors who talk down to nurses, hospital administrators with their eyes on the bottom line, and the kind of bureaucratic red tape the health care system produces on a daily basis.”

Amy’s Life in Brief : “So, don’t ask me why I watch hospital-based TV shows. I know, I work in a hospital…I should have my fill. But, nevertheless, I still like them. I still like them, even when they portray social workers in a rather negative light.

So, I was intrigued by this new show, Hawthorne, on TNT. It goes at hospitals from the nurses’ perspective, with the main character being the head of nursing services. I won’t go into all the ways the show wasn’t true to what goes on in hospital. That can be said about any hospital show. Anyway…I just got done watching the pilot episode.

In the pilot episode, there was a social worker involved. Maybe I shouldn’t get all up in arms because they didn’t come right out and declare this character a social worker, but it was implied. Essentially, and I’m sorry if you have recorded this show and haven’t had a chance to watch it, a mentally ill, homeless woman (who has previously been befriended by the title character) shows up with a newborn infant at the hospital. The title character sort of convinces her to let the baby be brought into the hospital for medical evaluation.

So, they get the baby inside and the social work-y character is implying that she will be contacting CPS. Of course, the title character responds (paraphrasing here), “Why? She didn’t do anything wrong!” There is some protest from social work-y character and then agrees to wait a bit before contacting the authorities. (more…)

Video of Arizona State Legislature Representative and Social Worker Kyrsten Sinema talking about her new book with local media.

Kyrsten Sinema serves as the Assistant Leader to the Democratic Caucus in the House of Representatives and represents central Phoenix in the Arizona Legislature. Now in her third term, she is the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee and the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.

Kyrsten holds both a law degree and a Master’s degree in Social Work from Arizona State University, and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in the School of Justice and Social Inquiry at ASU. She is an adjunct professor in the School of Social Work at ASU and practices law when not in session. Kyrsten also serves as faculty for the Center for Progressive Leadership, teaching tomorrow’s community leaders about the political process.

Press Release
July 7, 2009

Washington DC – The NASW Press has released Child Custody Evaluations by Social Workers: Understanding the Five Stages of Custody, a first-of-its-kind book offering advice to professional social workers on how to conduct custody evaluations. Ken Lewis, PhD, wrote this guide defining the parameters of the five stages of child custody for social workers and the families they represent.

Child Custody Evaluations by Social Workers highlights the value professional social workers bring to custody evaluations.  Family court judges are increasingly turning to mental health professionals to assist them when making custody determinations in the child’s best interest.  This book is a valuable resource for social workers who want to enhance their ability to advocate on behalf of children and families.

“Generally, psychologists are considered to be the most appropriate mental health professional for child custody evaluations, but they only assess the child’s psychological fitness with one or both parents,” says Dr. Lewis. “Social workers understand that the child is an integral part of an extended family and should be assessed in this broader social environment.”

In his book, Dr. Lewis describes the five stages of custody from the perspective of both the social worker and the family lawyer. The five stages – Marital Discord, Initial Custody, Visitation Denial, Custody Modification, and Child Removal – each require special consideration. Lewis explains each stage and demonstrates which social work skills should be applied to ensure the best outcome for the child. The book can also be a resource for professionals and parents who wish to better understand how child custody evaluations can affect a custody dispute.

Dr. Ken Lewis has worked as the director of the Child Custody Evaluation Services of Philadelphia for 25 years. He has been court appointed as either guardian ad litem or child custody evaluator in more than two dozen states and his specialties include interstate custody and high-conflict cases. Dr. Lewis was also a social work professor at several universities for nearly a decade. He offers workshops on custody evaluations to social workers nationwide.

For more information about Child Custody Evaluations by Social Workers: Understanding the Five Stages of Custody or other books published by the NASW Press, please visit www.naswpress.org.

Contact: Amber Moore
202-336-8277
amoore@naswdc.org

About the NASW Press

The NASW Press, a division of the National Association of Social Workers, has been publishing materials in social work since 1956. NASW Press is a leading scholarly press in the social sciences, serving faculty, practitioners, agencies, libraries, clinicians, and researchers throughout the United States and abroad. Known for attracting expert authors, the NASW Press delivers professional information to hundreds of thousands of readers through its scholarly journals, books, and reference works.

About the National Association of Social Workers

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW), in Washington, DC, is the largest membership organization of professional social workers, with nearly 150,000 members in 56 chapters throughout the United States and its territories.  It promotes, develops, and protects the practice of social work and social workers.  NASW also seeks to enhance the well-being of individuals, families, and communities through its advocacy.

From Social Justice and the First Lady - Newsweek

by Eleanor Clift - July 3, 2009

“They are the legacy of a failed social policy that began in the 1980’s with the de-institutionalization of people with mental illness on the assumption that communities with the help of pharmaceuticals would absorb their care. “And that didn’t happen,” says Schroeder Stribling, a licensed clinical social worker and deputy executive director at N Street. As she takes me through the facility, she introduces me to someone she proudly calls “the anchor,” a cheerful African-American woman who is eager to tell me all the classes she has taken from yoga to anger management. She’s been coming to N Street for nine years and Stribling counts her as a success story by the four measurements she uses: health, housing, income and employment. Tanya has been substance free for two years, she’s in subsidized housing, she gets disability, and during the day, she does classes. N Street does try to place people in jobs if possible, and they’ve started a pilot program with “supportive senior services,” what we used to call nursing homes, where they pay half the salary for the first year for people they place to encourage their hiring.”