Social Work Blog Social work updates from NASW
Blogger Baby Hoax Writer Beccah Beushausen is NOT a professional social worker. Social workers say she is a young woman in pain who needs professional help with her grief.
In response to a June 12 article in the Chicago Tribune and a related Associated Press story about “April’s Mom”, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-baby-hoax-12jun12,0,5601624.story, the National Association of Social Workers has confirmed that the troubled young woman who created a huge online following with a fictitious account of her pregnancy IS NOT A SOCIAL WORKER. According to sources at the NASW Illinois Chapter, Beccah Beushausen is not licensed in the State of Illinois as a social worker and is not a member of the National Association of Social Workers.
The NASW Illinois Chapter has contacted the Chicago Tribune to ask that the paper run a correction. If you would like to encourage the Tribune’s editors to publish a correction, please send an e-mail to kijanssen@tribune.com or submit comments to http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-lettertotheeditor,0,3578487.customform.
You can also post comments to the Tribune Web site at http://www.topix.net/forum/source/chicago-tribune.
Thank you to NASW for their active role in fighting misuse of “Social Worker”. Recently, a caller to a talk radio show stated she had two masters degrees (psychology and criminal justice), then stated she was a “Social Worker”. I immediately emailed the show to educate them accordingly. I also notify newspaper editors and bloggers accordingly each time they make the same mistake.
We’ve seen some success here in Cental Florida. The media is now hesitant to identify someone as a Social Worker unless he/she does so during interview. We just passed our Title Protection Bill last year…
Let’s all keep uo the good work!