Gen Z Can’t Afford the Rent
New UI Dean of Social Work – Ben Lough
Ben Lough’s long and winding road to the dean’s office at the UI School of Social Work began at 17, when he left his hometown of Meridian, Idaho, for a four-state, five-nation, three-degree adventure.
Homeless in Midtown: The View from Mainchance
Advocates help pack people’s belongings before the NYPD and Department of Sanitation clear a homeless encampment near Tompkins Square Park in 2022
University marking boycott: government urges both sides to negotiate
Protesters marching during a rally as members of the University and College Union (UCU) strike.
Children still in need of greater protection in Hong Kong
The news of a boy who underwent six hours of eye surgery after he was allegedly slapped by his Muslim teacher for failing to recite a Koran verse has been met with shock, anger and compassion.
Caring for people with fentanyl addiction often means treating terrible wounds
Among users, it is commonly referred to as Tranq. Used for decades by veterinarians to tranquilize large animals, xylazine is being used by drug dealers to amp up the effects of fentanyl and other opioids. In humans, the drug causes deep flesh wounds that sometimes bore down to the bone.
The Latest Battle in the Conservative War on the American Mind
The DeSantis trustees are open about their illiberal motivations. In a piece for City Journal, Rufo bragged that 36 professors have left New College, “clearing the way for a large number of new hires interested in pursuing the great human questions rather than maintaining a stifling, left-wing echo chamber.”
What happens in a ‘sobering up’ centre?
Sobering-up centres provide something to eat, a shower, clean clothes and a laundry service. There are beds so people can rest or sleep, usually for up to 24 hours but sometimes longer.
The centre’s health workers are usually alcohol and drug workers, case workers or Aboriginal health workers. Above: The proposed site in Collingwood, Melbourne.
Inside a Brooklyn housing complex, where a third of tenants face eviction
The owner of the sprawling Flatbush Gardens apartment complex has filed to evict more than a third of the nearly 2,500 households there since the start of 2022, fueling a rise in removals in the neighborhood that outpaces any other section of Brooklyn.
We must stop the school-to-prison pipeline
While overall youth arrest and incarceration rates have declined over the past decade, young people of color are still surveilled, policed and separated from their families and communities more frequently than their white counterparts. Instead of investing in community resources, this pattern is often accompanied by a shoring up of government systems, programs and placements that further institutionalize, traumatize and isolate young people.
Long covid has derailed my life. Make no mistake: It could yours, too.
In 2019, I was in high gear. I had two young children, a busy social life, a book tour and a novel in progress. I spent my days racing between airports, juggling to-do lists and child care. Yes, I felt tired, but I come from a family of high-energy women. I was proud to be keeping the sacred flame of Productivity burning.
Then I got covid.
German trade unions slam inadequate raise in minimum wage
Working class sections in Germany, along with trade unions, social movements, and left-wing political parties, have raised objections to the insufficient raise proposed by the Minimum Wage Commission. On Wednesday, August 9, the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) accused the Commission of not doing justice, even at a time of soaring inflation. It said that employers want to save money at the expense of those who are financially the weakest in the labor market.
More Montana seniors winding up homeless due to housing shortage, long-term care crisis
Some of those living with mental illness in Kalispell’s shelters were housed before the pandemic. But when social workers could no longer visit with their clients to help them stay on top of medications and mental health support, the symptoms of chronic illnesses started to flare, sending them back out onto the streets.
Arizona nonprofit, DoT work to provide homeless with state IDs
“You can’t get a job, you can’t get housing, can’t cash a check, can’t open a bank account, can’t enter rehab programs,” says Rick Mitchell, executive director of the Homeless ID Project. “You’ve got to have an ID if you want to change your life.”
Hawaii wildfire death toll climbs to 80 as firefighters battle flare-ups
Volunteers distributed food, water, toiletries, canned goods, diapers, baby formula, clothing and pet food to fire victims at a pair of nearby shopping malls as social workers prepared to meet with victims at the Kahului Community Center to relay information about loved ones who are unaccounted for.
Government support was key for thousands of US nonprofits battered by COVID-19’s early costs − new research
We found that charitable donations declined by more than an estimated 20% during that period – which preceded a sharp end-of-year upswing in giving in late 2020. But the government grants to nonprofits, which soared during those six months by over 65%, and the Paycheck Protection Program – a government-run loan program established to support employers as the pandemic upended the economy – enabled many charities to retain their employees.
For those with dementia, relief through the power of music
Dr. Kathy Lee, gerontologist and Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work, is helping develop an app that uses music to ease the burdens for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) and their loved ones.
‘The greatest fighting force in human history’
Recall that, in his four years in office, Donald Trump increased military spending by 20%. Biden is now poised to achieve a similar 20% increase in just three years in office. And that increase largely doesn’t even include the cost of supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia — so far, somewhere between $120 billion and $200 billion and still rising…. In all seriousness, there’s now a huge pentagonal-shaped black hole on the Potomac that’s devouring more than half of the federal discretionary budget annually.
‘Underwhelming’: NIH trials fail to test meaningful long Covid treatments — after 2.5 years and $1 billion
This funding “has been largely wasted,” said David Putrino, director of rehabilitation innovation at Mount Sinai and a clinician studying long Covid. RECOVER’s research findings so far, such as a paper about common symptoms published in May 2023, have not added new insights to the field, he said.
Scots pensioners rocked by fuel poverty
Fuel poverty rates have doubled among pensioners in Scotland over the last two years according to new research from Age Scotland. The charity’s largest national housing survey of older people identified that 39% of over 65s are living in fuel poverty in 2023, compared to the last available set of Scottish Government figures for 2021 (19%).
Efforts to find safe housing for homeless youth have gone backwards. Here’s what the new national plan must do differently
Homelessness conjures images of someone sleeping in a doorway, alley or city park. “Rough sleeping” is, after all, the visible homelessness that people see. But there are other forms of homelessness that are more hidden.
Review – I Could Be So Good For You: A Portrait of North London’s Working Class
John Medhurst’s history of north London offers a rich tapestry of working class community and resilience
Why moving fast 3 minutes a day can lower your cancer risk
People who regularly rushed up stairs or hurried to catch a bus were about 30 percent less likely to die of many types of cancer than people who dawdled
Coosa County DHR social worker receives Alabama Spirt of Adult Protective Services award
The Alabama Department of Human Resources announced Thursday that Brandon Perry, a social worker with Coosa County DHR, is the recipient of the 2023 Alabama Spirit of Adult Protective Services Award.
Their Families Said They Needed Treatment. Mississippi Officials Threw Them in Jail Without Charges.
In Mississippi, serious mental illness or substance abuse can land you in jail, even if you aren’t charged with a crime. The state is a stark outlier in jailing so many people for so long, but many officials say they don’t have another option.
1,000 young people waiting for CAMHS appointment in Kerry and Cork
Nationally, there are 4,421 children and young people waiting for an appointment with CAMHS; 1,000 of those are in the Kerry and Cork region as of May this year.
Glasgow homelessness ‘crisis’ as staff struggle with cuts
In March it was announced that £21million of cuts would be made to health and social care services to plug a funding gap, with £2m slashed from the Glasgow Alliance to End Homelessness and a hotel used to house homeless people “decomissioned”.
Now members of UNISON have submitted a collective workload grievance as they say the numbers of rough sleepers has increased and staff are unable to cope with the extra demand, reports our sister title The Herald.
Half of people worldwide at risk of developing mental health condition by age 75, per new study
Overall, 29% of male respondents and 30% of female respondents reported having had at least one of the mental health conditions in the 10 years prior to when they answered the survey’s questions. The lifetime risk that a person would develop a mental health condition by age 75 was 46% for male respondents and 53% for female ones, which the researchers estimated based on respondents’ experiences with disorders and their ages at the time of the survey, then projecting the risk of occurrence if all respondents lived for 75 years.
Narcan, rare books and citizenship: How L.A.’s chief librarian is meeting the city’s needs
“We say yes to a lot of things,” Szabo said. “It’s about how we define what the library is. I love the fact that people can see the library as part of a solution to a community issue. But how much social work is enough? How much public health programming is enough? How far do we go with adult education?” Above: People, including members of the homeless community, wait for the Richard Riordan Central Library to open
Idaho is sued, again, over an abortion law. Educators say it violates free speech
State Rep. Bruce Skaug, former Sen. Christy Zito, and the Idaho Family Policy Center, a religious lobbying group, co-wrote the legislation. Most Republicans in the Legislature supported the 2021 bill.
Biden’s health care wins are being undone — and at the worst possible time
Sen. Ron Wyden, chair of the committee that oversees Medicaid, likened some states’ attempts to stop people from losing coverage to “waving at somebody as their car goes by, and going, well, we contacted you.”
Hearing aids slow cognitive decline in people at high risk
> Hearing aids reduced the rate of cognitive decline in older adults at high risk of dementia by almost 50% over a three-year period.
> Treating hearing loss may be a safe way to lower the risk of dementia in vulnerable populations.
Migrant deaths at sea: the real blame lies with policies created by European states
I am a scholar with a focus on the development of international law and legal institutions in the practice of transitional justice. My view is that the focus on smugglers, or even the action and inaction of the Greek coast guard, distracts from the real cause of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean: the deliberate policies set in place by European states and supported by the European Union.
How Can Over-the-Counter Naloxone Prevent Opioid Overdose Deaths?
Naloxone, which can be administered as a nasal spray or by injection, can quickly reverse an overdose from opioids, including heroin, fentanyl, oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, and morphine. (It will not work on overdoses from cocaine, methamphetamine, or other non-opioid drugs.)
Six months into B.C.’s decriminalization experiment, what’s working and what’s not?
Pivot Legal drug policy lawyer Caitlin Shane holds up a pamphlet that Vancouver police have been tasked to give out to people who are found with small amounts of illicit drugs, instead of seizure of the drugs or their arrest.
NH decriminalizes fentanyl and xylazine test strips
Several efforts this past legislative session sought to decriminalize what harm reduction advocates call life-saving tools in an increasingly adulterated and contaminated drug market. House Bill 287, which Sununu signed on Aug. 4, will allow the general public to possess testing strips and other materials intended to detect fentanyl and xylazine in a substance.
Health care on wheels: Tapestry van brings services to the people
Since last summer, nearly 1,800 people around the Valley have received reproductive, addiction, and sexual health services on a mobile van operated by Tapestry Health.
There Is No Housing Crisis
Canada’s “housing crisis” is a permanent state of affairs that harms people in, or in need of, rental housing; roughly one-third of the country’s households. The other two-thirds own homes whose values rise much faster than other investment options…. A housing system that serves all but one group is not in a state of crisis; it is one based on structural inequality and economic exploitation.
U.S. healthcare workers at high risk of drug overdose
Compared with employed adults who are not healthcare workers, social workers and other behavioral healthcare workers are more than twice as likely to die of overdose, said study co-author Dr. Mark Olfson. He’s Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine and Law at Columbia University Medical Center, in New York City.
Britons have become so mean that many of us think poor people don’t deserve leisure time
A new survey is shocking, but maybe not surprising. This is the Victorian workhouse mentality repackaged for the iPhone era
UCSF social workers march on the boss, call out disparities in service for vulnerable patients
Sometimes, a social worker is the only person in someone’s life who they can trust. When UCSF doesn’t retain staff, or when workers are holding down multiple jobs just to get by, it’s our clients who ultimately suffer.
NYCHA Residents in Chelsea Resist Demolition Plan That Could Displace Them
The 4,500 tenants at NYCHA’s Fulton and Chelsea-Elliott Houses face the recent announcement that their buildings will be demolished and rebuilt by The Related Companies and Essence Realty.
In Sky Valley, embedded social worker is a ‘department of one’
Social worker Jessi Beyer (above left) has been on the job two months as the “East County co-responder.” In that time, she has responded to about a dozen people in crises ranging from domestic violence to suicidal ideation.
In D.C.-paid housing, he tried to stay sober as drug dealers took hold
After midnight one night in January, Watts heard a bullet pierce his window. He crawled to the bathroom for cover and used his cell phone to dial 911.
‘12 years of hell’: Indian boarding school survivors share their stories
The social workers arrived at the family’s one-room shack in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1955 and gave Jim LaBelle’s mom a stark choice: give up her two boys for adoption or send them to an Indian boarding school. Above: Jim on left
Troubles-linked trauma in North untreated for decades, report finds
Dr Michael Duffy from the school of social sciences, education and social work at Queen’s led the study with colleagues from across the university as well as Ulster University, the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and Trinity College Dublin. Above: The aftermath of a bombing at Great Victoria Street railway station in Belfast in March 1972
DfE orders struggling council to improve SEND services
Bill to offer social work degree scholarships
The bill’s explanatory note said that the proposed Social Work Scholarship Program (SWSP) is “a long-term effort to ensure the stability of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and all current and future social welfare and development entities in the country. It likewise encourages deserving and qualified students to pursue” social work and development and eventually enter public service.
Pennsylvania is getting closer to psychedelic reform, and advocates in Philly are pushing for decriminalization
Victor Cabral, a licensed social worker trained in psychedelic-assisted therapy who served as deputy director in Gov. Tom Wolf’s Office of Advocacy and Reform, believes that while decriminalization is unlikely to pass in Pa., more conservative policies are within reach. Above: A vendor bags psilocybin mushrooms at a cannabis marketplace in Los Angeles.