Societal Self-Regulation
Despite the underlying reasons why we do not regulate as a society, the simple fact is we no longer do. There was a time, in a galaxy far, far, away, when the culture set these boundaries (if it were free to do so), and although the ruling class would attempt to cross them, they often failed. Today it is far more likely that boundaries can be crossed without even a glance from the masses. Today, they’ve got us eating out of their hands.
Amid faculty objections, UC considers limiting what faculty can say on university websites
Whatever the final version says, the fact that regents are considering the issue at all is alarming to some UC faculty. They argue that issues of academic freedom are outside the purview of the regents and question how the university would enforce the policy. And although the policy doesn’t explicitly mention a specific issue, faculty see it as an attempt to prevent them from discussing Israel’s war in Gaza.
Social workers who help newly arriving migrants hope for empowerment, better support
“They’re leaving their home country because they feel they have no choice if they want to survive,” said Dr. Aimee Hilado, an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice. “Oftentimes, their journeys are filled with trauma and a great deal of stress. So many of them talk about never feeling safe and never knowing when the fear is going to subside.”
Kathy Hochul Doesn’t Get New York City
If she did, she’d understand the grave error of flooding with subway with armed troops. Above: National Guard patrol at a subway station in New York on March 6, 2024
Delta-8-THC use reported by 11% of 12th graders in 2023
Delta-8 is a psychoactive substance that is typically derived from hemp, a variety of the Cannabis sativa plant. Delta-8 has intoxicating effects similar to delta-9-THC (delta-9), the primary THC component responsible for the “high” people may experience from using cannabis.
Social Housing in America: Architects Must Answer the Call
Karl-Marx-Hof is a community owned apartment building, in Vienna, Austria. Vienna is visited for its imperial palaces but also for its social housing: “capital of low rent” for nearly a century, the city has defended a model of affordable housing that makes it an European exception.
Social service groups face continued challenges in detecting, addressing rising financial abuse cases in Singapore
Some social service agencies in Singapore have seen a jump of over 50 per cent in the number of financial abuse cases over the past three years. Above: Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli speaking in Parliament.
Online dating in your middle age feels like praying for a miracle
‘I’m like an online dating heavyweight champ – battered, beaten, bewildered and down for the count, but refusing to give up the title.’
Conservatives seize counselor shortage to press school chaplains
Since Texas introduced it own blueprint last year, allowing schools to use safety funds to hire chaplains who do not have the same licensing as counselors, similar bills have ricocheted across more than a dozen states including Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, Utah and Kansas…. Those who oppose the school chaplain movement say it reflects a rise in Christian nationalism in the U.S. — even as most young people sour on religion.
Student nutrition programs in Ontario grapple with nearly ‘limitless need’
Half of a tangerine instead of a whole one, half of a hard-boiled egg or an apple cut six ways — student nutrition programs across Ontario are finding ways to stretch increasingly insufficient dollars.
Retired Holyoke firefighter picked to lead Amherst police alternative CRESS
Camille Theriaque is a retired Holyoke firefighter who has worked as a licensed clinical social worker. She is being appointed as the director of the Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service department, pending review by the Town Council.
Should people suffering from mental illness be eligible for medically assisted death? Canada plans to legalize that in 2027 – a philosopher explains the core questions
John Scully, a retired journalist in Canada living with mental illness, has advocated for expanding access to medically assisted death.
Australian students struggling to put food on the table in unpaid training, but this could be a thing of the past
Federal government’s University Accord report recommends financial support for nurse, teacher and social work trainees…. While the education minister, Jason Clare, wants placements to be paid, he has not committed to funding them, saying the federal government will spend the coming months considering reform.
Femicide in Italy: A modern phenomenon deeply rooted in country’s cultural past
Shoes dyed red have become an emblem in Italy’s protests against anti-woman violence.
The Lonely, Fractured Lives of Estranged Grandparents
Thousands of grandparents today have been cut off from contact with their grandchildren. While this sometimes results from the grandparent’s highly problematic behavior toward the grandchild, my clinical experience, as illustrated in the case above, reveals that grandchildren are often a casualty of the conflict between parents and grandparents.
The Scariest Part About Artificial Intelligence
A.I. isn’t worth its significant costs. You don’t have to be a Luddite—or an insecure creative like me—to fear this technology and the sinister disregard for the human future it reflects. Communities, governments, and even those working in the tech industry should shut these dangerous and parasitical robots down before it’s too late. And meanwhile, let’s at least pass Senator Markey’s bill.
A Small University Goes Big on Psychedelic Therapy Training
As research on psychedelic drugs grows, campus leaders at Naropa University hope to carve out a niche for their small Buddhist-influenced university in Colorado. The university is training health clinicians in psychedelic-assisted therapy, which they predict will become a burgeoning mental health practice in the state.
Take Five with Donna Flanagan: School Social Worker at Dyett High School
Donna is a licensed clinical social worker and certified school social work specialist who has been with CPS for 26 years, serving the students at Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts for the past seven. In 2021, Donna was named School Social Worker of the Year by the Illinois Association of School Social Workers, and she is currently working toward her doctorate in curriculum and instruction.
Middlemen Are Profiting off the Broken US Pharma System
Pharmacy benefit managers push expensive medications and slash drug reimbursement rates, pocketing the profits for themselves. Congress looked set to regulate these shadowy middlemen — but $50 million in industry lobbying later, the effort has stalled. Above: Small, independent pharmacies say that pharmacy benefit managers are putting them out of business.
Social Work in Animal Welfare: Strengthening Communities and the Human-Animal Bond
Dillon Dodson, RSW, MSW – Director, Social Work
Taxing the super-rich: a tool to close the gender gap
After climate-induced disasters, as with Hurricane Matthew in Haiti in 2016, women and girls are the last to eat or be rescued, while facing greater health-and-safety risks as water and sanitation become compromised.
More than half of American Indian youth may have abnormal or high cholesterol
More than 70% of American Indian young adults aged 20-39 and 50% of American Indian teens have cholesterol levels(link is external) or elevated fat in the blood that put them at risk for cardiovascular disease, suggests a study supported by the National Institutes of Health.
American University silent amid concerns over sweeping speech bans
In the wake of post-Oct. 7 campus tensions, new AU policies bar a wide array of protests and postings, and give administrators excessive oversight of student group membership.
Thank you to the UT building that broke my heart | Commentary
Artist Raul Valdez visits the mural he painted that is displayed in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas, May 11, 2023. The historic building is slated for demolition.
Highlands program recruits high schoolers to be fill social workers gap
New Mexico doesn’t have enough social workers, and the event was designed to give interested students an opportunity to explore careers — and degrees — in social work in the hope they will help to fill that gap, said Melissa Riley, director of the Native American Social Work Studies Institute at New Mexico Highlands University’s school of social work.
Bedbugs, Rats and No Heat: How One Woman Endured a Decade of Neglect in New York’s Guardianship System
JL lived in squalor, yet every month, her legally appointed guardian was paid $450 from her bank account. She is one of the thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers left stranded by a system meant to protect them.
For new moms who rent, housing hardship and mental health are linked
“Housing unaffordability has serious implications for mental health,” said Dr. Katherine Marcal, an Assistant Professor at the Rutgers School of Social Work and author of a study published in the journal Psychiatry Research. “For mothers who rent their homes, the ability to make monthly payments appears to have a correlation to well-being.”
Fitness to practise delays set to rise further due to Social Work England budget pressures
Case lengths – from referral to a decision on the practitioner’s fitness to practise – will increase over the next 12 months from a current average of just over two years, Social Work England said in a report to its board meeting last month.
Expedite social work profession bill, says activist
The social welfare department recorded 4,924 cases of domestic violence in 2023.
UN envoy calls again for removal of restrictions on Afghan women
Briefing ambassadors in the Security Council, Roza Otunbayeva, Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG), said that recent arbitrary arrest of Afghan women for alleged Islamic dress code violations was having a chilling effect among the wider female population, “many of whom are now afraid to move in public,” she said.
‘Handmaid’s Tale Coming to Life’: Katie Britt’s SOTU Response Sparks Alarm
Speaking in hushed tones and intermittently flashing a menacing smile, Britt—the former CEO of an Alabama corporate lobbying organization and the wife of a lobbyist—said from the comfort of her posh kitchen inside her 6,000-square-foot mansion that she understands and sympathizes with “what real families are facing.” Britt, who has been floated as a possible 2024 running mate for former President Donald Trump, characterized the GOP as the “party of hardworking parents and families”—neglecting to mention the trillions of dollars in tax breaks the party has funneled to the rich and large corporations in recent years while opposing programs such as the expanded child tax credit, which briefly slashed U.S. child poverty in half.
A look at homelessness in Ann Arbor
Daniel Kelly, executive director of the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County (which administers the Delonis Center seen above), said that a rapid increase in housing prices and eviction rates has contributed to “record need” for the shelter’s services; but many people still don’t understand the scale of the issue.
Glasgow East End sex trade concern as more than 400 men seen using prostitutes
Since 1999 Glasgow City Council’s “policy on commercial sexual exploitation has held that it is a form of male violence against women, is driven by male demand, is both a cause and consequence of women’s inequality and should be understood as survival behaviour reflecting the lack of meaningful choices and pathways out of poverty for women.”
Celebrating the Life of Hydeia Loren Broadbent, HIV/AIDS Activist
To commemorate Women’s History Month and National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on March 10th, we honor the life and legacy of activist Hydeia Loren Broadbent, who died on February 20, 2024. Diagnosed with HIV at the age of three, Broadbent spent much of her life in the public eye advocating for individuals with HIV and AIDS.
Pairing Seniors and Students Is a Win-Win for Affordable Housing
With social isolation and housing affordability reaching crisis levels, a startup in Toronto is experimenting with pairing seniors and students. Above: City of Toronto
Record number of agency workers filling children’s social care vacancies
Department for Education figures show there were 65 full-time-equivalent agency workers in children’s social care services in Oxfordshire as of 30 September 2023, up from 47 the year before, and the highest figure since records first began in 2017.
Union seeks answers after domestic violence charity closes
Workers at Glasgow East Women’s Aid were given “no notice” prior to the Easterhouse based organisation closing, a union has claimed…. The organisation was thrown into turmoil last October after 13 Unite members were suspended amid allegations that workers were targeted because of their trade union activities.
Despite Need, Care Facilities for Homeless Patients Are Underutilized
Interfaith Community Services renovated an Escondido motel that now serves as its 106-bed Abraham and Lillian Turk Recuperative Care Center.
When Therapy Makes Things Worse
“Iatrogenesis” is the word for all of it. From the Greek—iatros (healer) + genesis (origin)—iatrogenesis refers to the phenomenon by which a healer harms a patient in the course of treatment. Most often, it is not malpractice, though it can be. Much of iatrogenesis occurs not because a doctor is malicious or incompetent but because treatment exposes a patient to exogenous risks. Iatrogenesis is everywhere—because all interventions carry risk. When a sick patient submits to treatment, the risks are typically worth it. When a well patient does, on the other hand, the risks often outweigh the potential for further improvement.
Student digs up suspected wartime bomb in garden
Aaron Gibson, a 21-year-old social work graduate, made the discovery on Saturday afternoon.
Changes to NZ’s parole laws to improve rehabilitation could lead to even longer prison times
By making rehabilitation programme completion compulsory to be eligible for parole, the hope is people in prison will be incentivised to finish the programmes. Stephenson said introducing compulsory completion will have a positive impact on Aotearoa New Zealand’s high rates of recidivism and reincarceration.
‘I believe in the value of social work’: launch editor looks back as Community Care turns 50
Mark Allen is the founder and chairman of the Mark Allen Group, a publishing company which employs more than 500 staff and publishes more than 100 titles, including Community Care. Fifty years ago, the same Mark Allen, then a young journalist working in Manchester, responded to a job advert at a publishing company and became the editor of a new social care magazine.
There Was Always Crying in Sports. The Kelces Made It Cool.
At a new conference to announce his retirement from the N.F.L., Jason Kelce cried repeatedly. That was nothing new for the veteran offensive lineman.
Colorado unveils first rules for facilitation of psychedelic therapy
The rules outline several types of facilitator licenses that the state anticipates issuing, curriculum requirements for training programs it will approve, and a code of ethics for licensed facilitators in this newly recognized profession. The agency also made recommendations for growing, testing and labeling psilocybin mushrooms that will be used for therapeutic purposes.
‘My Generation Has Been Destroyed’ — Inside the Mental Health Crisis Facing Michigan’s Muslim Youth
In the Arab American enclave of Dearborn, the war in Gaza and increased surveillance from the FBI stoke anxiety, depression and substance abuse — pushing the 9/11 generation to the brink
Nunavut vows review of costs, more checks on kids sent south amid Global News investigation
The months-long investigation revealed serious concerns about the care received by some vulnerable youth in Nunavut’s child-welfare system when they are sent out of territory to group or foster homes operated by for-profit companies in Ontario. Above: Children’s swings overlooking Iqaluit, the capital city of Nunavut.
Plans for 400 affordable homes revealed by social housing group
New artist’s impressions reveal how the transformed Wyndford will look, with £87 million to be spent on the regeneration, including building new houses and flats, and £13 million set aside to improve existing homes and create new green areas.
Socialism, anti-fascism and anti-abortion on Prevent list of terrorism warning signs
A document from Prevent, the official scheme to stop radicalisation, includes believing in socialism, communism, anti-fascism and anti-abortion in a list of potential signs of ideologies leading to terrorism. It comes as the Conservative government considers widening what it will consider to be extremism. The document is part of online Prevent awareness training for those covered by the duty to inform if they suspect radicalisation. That includes teachers and youth workers.
Long-acting HIV treatment benefits adults with barriers to daily pill taking and adolescents with suppressed HIV
Long-acting, injectable antiretroviral therapy (ART) suppressed HIV replication better than oral ART in people who had previously experienced challenges taking daily oral regimens and was found safe in adolescents with HIV viral suppression, according to two studies presented today at the 2024 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.