Celebrate Social Work Month – March 2010

The 2010 Social Work Month theme is “Social Workers Inspire Community Action”

Since its inception, the social work profession has worked to improve life for millions every day. Social workers operate from values that recognize each person as relevant to society and believe that, when needed, society should help each person achieve his or her fullest potential.

No Limitations. People choose careers in the social work profession because they believe they can make a significant impact in the lives of others through individual and group assistance.  But they also recognize that effective social work practice with individuals, families and communities is affected by institutions, customs and laws that may limit the success of many.

Our Legacy. A commitment to fairness, and an intense interest in seeing others succeed by removing personal and public barriers, distinguishes social workers from other like-minded helping professionals.  These values—coupled with tangible social science skills—have led social workers in history to create essential safety net programs such as unemployment insurance, health insurance, income assistance and child protection services, and to fight for a range of human and civil rights in the United States.

Our Impact. Social workers are close to the critical events that shape the quality of American life. We are on the frontlines, developing, advocating and delivering social programs that are responsive to such human needs as homelessness, poverty, family break-up, mental illness, disability, alcohol and substance abuse, domestic violence and many other issues.  Social workers help people live more rewarding lives.

This year’s Social Work Month celebration showcases the expertise and dedication of professional social workers in helping to improve community life.  We will promote the chosen theme “Social Workers Inspire Community Action” through three core strategies of the ongoing National Social Work Public Education Campaign:

• Consumer Education
• Entertainment Outreach
• Student Recruitment

While social workers are integral parts of all communities, the general public’s understanding of these contributions and services is still limited.  Using this toolkit and related campaign materials you can help ensure that more people are exposed to positive and actionable information about the social work profession.  Every social worker has a role to play, so we hope this online toolkit helps you identify and implement promotional activities that best suit your skills and interests.

SWM 2010 Toolkit Materials:

SWM 2010 Overview

• Key Messages for SWM 2010
• Community Action Hero Nomination Form

Consumer Education Overview

• 10 Things You Can Do to Educate Consumers
• Visitor’s Guide to the HelpStartsHere.org Web Site

Entertainment Outreach Overview

• 10 Things You Can Do to Change Social Work Media Portrayals
• Visitor’s Guide to the SocialWorkersSpeak.org Web Site

Student Recruitment Overview

• 10 Things You Can Do to Introduce Students to Social Work
• Visitor’s Guide to BeASocialWorker.org Web Site

Resources

• History of Social Work Month
• Who Are Social Workers? Handout

If you have any questions about Social Work Month 2010, please contact NASW Communications at 202-336-8212.

Find out where to take your career and how to get there!  The NASW Center for Workforce Studies has compiled survey results, indentified decision points, and classified the social work labor force to help you understand your place on the professional spectrum.  These reports are must haves for any social worker looking to equipt themselves for the current workforce demands.

Your feedback is needed:  Share your experiences:  Complete the survey

CLICK TO ORDER

The Results Are In: What Social Workers Say About Social Work

NASW Center for Workforce Studies, Tracy Whitaker, DSW, ACSW, Director

2009. Item #B200. 66 pages. $24.99

CLICK TO ORDER

Workforce Trends Affecting the Profession 2009

NASW Center for Workforce Studies, Tracy Whitaker, DSW, ACSW

2009. Item #B100. Booklet. 28 pages.  $9.99

The National Health Service Corps (NHSC), through scholarship and loan repayment programs, helps Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) in the U.S. obtain a sufficient number of fully qualified medical, dental, and mental health providers essential to meet their populations’ critical need for safe and fundamental health care.

Purpose of the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program (NHSC LRP)

The purpose of the NHSC LRP is to ensure that an adequate supply of health professionals are available to provide primary health services to populations located in select Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs), identified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. HPSAs can be found in rural and urban communities across the nation. The NHSC LRP recruits fully trained health professionals who agree to provide primary health services in NHSC community sites. In return, the NHSC LRP assists clinicians in their repayment of qualifying educational loans that are still outstanding.

Now accepting applications for Loan Repayment Awards. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act designated $200 million to fund the NHSC LRP. Applications will be accepted continuously until funds are expended or September 30, 2010, whichever comes first.

The National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program provides $50,000 (or the outstanding balance of qualifying student loans, if less than $50,000), tax free, to medical, dental, and mental health clinicians in exchange for two years of service at approved sites in Health Professional Shortage Areas. Upon completion of the service commitment, clinicians may be eligible to apply for additional support for extended service. Most applications will be processed within eight weeks of the submission of a complete application (i.e., on-line application, supplemental paper forms, and required documentation).

The National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program provides many benefits. Be sure you stay in compliance with the requirements of your in-service contract. Click here for a list of the in-service obligations.

National Health Service Corps loan repayment participants will be working under one of three types of assignments while serving their obligations. For more information about the Practice Assignments, click here.

Below are links to more information about the program and application process: (more…)

BusinessWeek Magazine’s health care-themed August 17th issue includes an article on eldercare, titled “A Pro in Your Corner.” Focusing on the role and expertise of geriatric care managers among the vast network of caregivers, the article’s sidebar, “Decoding the Credentials,” specifically included NASW’s Case Management credentials. The master’s level Certified Advanced Social Worker in Case Management (C-ASWCM), and the baccalaureate degree Certified Social Work Case Manager (C-SWCM) distinguish the professional social work case manager from those not specifically trained and accomplished in the case management practice model. Visit the NASW Credential Center Web page to learn more.

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.”"

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.”

National Association of Social Workers Executive Director Elizabeth J. Clark, PhD, ACSW, MPH recorded this important message about the future of our profession and I hope you will take a moment to view this video.

Social Work Reinvestment Act

• Send a Letter to Your Representative in Support
• Send a Letter to Your Senator in Support

To honor Gay Pride Month we asked Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) social workers to tell us why they chose social work as their profession and to describe the unique challenges facing their community.

	Annmarie K. Agosta, MSW, LCSW, LMSW, East Brunswick, New Jersey
	Patti Aldredge, MSSW, PhD, New York New York
	Gary Bailey, MSW, ACSW, Boston, Massachusetts
	Bruce M. Beckwith, MSW, LCSW, New York, New York
	Paul C. Briggs, MSW, ACSW, LCSW, LMT, Miami, Florida
	Jerry Buie, MSW, LCSW, Salt Lake City, Utah
	Osvaldo Caballero, MSW, LCSW, Chicago, Illinois
	Steven G. Chen, MSW, LSW, Indianapolis, Indiana
	Patricia J. Corbin, MSW, LSW, ACSW, Columbus, Indiana
	Catherine Crisp, PhD, MSW, Little Rock, Arkansas
	Darren L. Debo, MSW, LCSW, Raleigh, North Carolina
	Michele Eichorn, MSW, ACSW, Jersey City, New Jersey
	Lourdes D. Follins, MSW, PhD, Brooklyn, New York
	Patti Geier, MSW, CSW, Brooklyn, New York
	Michael A. Giordano, MSW, LICSW, Washington, DC
	Chris Herman, MSW, LICSW, Washington, DC
	Wendy Rae Hill, BSW, Sacramento, California
	James J. Kelly, PhD, MSSW, Atherton, California
	Jane Kornbluth, MSW, LCSW, New York, New York
	Jonathan Lebolt, PhD, MSW, LCSW, Richmond, Virginia
	Sandra Stacey Lucas, MSW, LMSW, CASAC, New York, New York
	James I. Martin, PhD, MSW, New York, New York
	Jean K. Quam, PhD, MSW, Minneapolis, Minnesota
	Joe Vanny Perez, MSW, LMSW, New York, New York
	Annemarie Redelmeier, MBA, MSW, LCSW, Doctoral Student, Austin, Texas
	Jack Register, MSW, LCSW, Raleigh, North Carolina
	Janice L. Ricks, MSW, LISW, ACSW, Cincinnati, Ohio
	Caitlin Ryan, PhD, ACSW, San Francisco, California
	Jodi Silverman, MSW, LCSW, Branford, Connecticut
	Kyrsten Sinema, MSW, JD, Phoenix, Arizona
	J P Tittsworth, MSW, LMSW, BSW, AA, Houston, Texas
	James Toy, MSW, Ann Arbor, Michigan
	George W. Turner, MSW, LSCSW, LCSW, Kansas City, Missouri

We invite you to visit the National Association of Social Workers’ Official Facebook Fan Page, become a fan today and post your introduction on our Wall.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1034770689&ref=profile#/pages/National-Association-of-Social-Workers/16695101734?sid=a362153f85ae1e31a97ff8dcdb04508d&ref=search

NASW also has 2 official Facebook groups where you can post introductions and network with onther social workers online:
Official NASW General Group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10886145903

Official NASW Social Work Students Group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=60929389402&ref=mf

Please pass this information on to other social workers and social work students who would be interested in networking online via Facebook.

NASW Social Media Team
http://www.socialworkers.org
Follow NASW on Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/nasw