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In a significant move aimed at strengthening the country’s response to gender-based violence (GBV), the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprise Development in partnership with the Council of Social Workers Zimbabwe, has initiated a comprehensive review of the curriculum for social work studies in tertiary institutions.
The benefits of early intervention apply across age groups, but they may be especially important for adolescents, a fact that the World Health Organization recently emphasised in its guidance to improve access to mental healthcare for young people. “With one-third of mental health conditions emerging before the age of 14 and half before the age of 18, early action is essential to enable children and young people to thrive and realise their full potential,” it said. The challenge, however, is finding the appropriate means to deliver the support – and that may be easier said than done.
“What they’re saying when they make these appointments is that we don’t trust the people who are there,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an adviser to the Food and Drug Administration. Some doctors and scientists are bracing themselves for the gutting of public health agencies, a loss of scientific expertise and the injection of politics into realms once reserved for academics. The result, they fear, could be worse health outcomes, more preventable deaths and a reduced ability to respond to looming health threats, like the next pandemic. “I’m very, very worried about the way that this all plays out,” Dr. Offit said.
For more than a year, the building that houses SOYA, a multi-purpose food bank, clothing depot, and resource centre, has been without heat, with no way to reach the new owners of the building.
A bill, HR 9495, which would allow a presidentially appointed treasury secretary to unilaterally strip a nonprofit of its status if deemed a “terrorism-supporting” organization, has passed in the US House of Representatives. The bill passed 219-184, mostly along partisan lines, with Republicans in support and Democrats opposing; 15 Democrats broke with their caucus to vote in favor of the bill. It is important to know who voted in favor.
This month the Korean Association of Social Workers met their Swiss and British counterparts for shared learning and strengthening links.
We don’t yet know how the Australian teenagers came to be poisoned in this tragedy. But it is a good idea when travelling (particularly in areas with traditionally fremented drinks, such as south-east Asia, the Indian subcontinent and parts of Africa) to always be careful.
BASW UK Chair, Julia Ross reflects on issues being raised in the assisted dying debate.
Women in Afghanistan have been banned from speaking in public.
