News (656 posts)

Amy (Katie O’Flynn) and her best mate Rosie (Alice Bailey Johnson) are both employed in the formalised version of care, at either ends of the social work system. Amy helps young people in difficult circumstances and their parents, while Rosie deals with the elderly, both in their own homes and hospital. We see them both at work, sympathetic, bright and persistent in the face of those who often don’t take kindly to their attention.

Ken Paxton, the Republican Party’s nominee for the US Senate in Texas, expressed a willingness to cut programs such as Social Security in a leaked recording published by The Texas Tribune on Thursday. In the recording, which was made during a private meeting with donors and lobbyists last month, Paxton said he’d target “mandatory spending” programs—which include Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—when asked about addressing the US fiscal deficit.

The RISE final rule restructures the federal student loan program. It implements changes from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and reshapes how graduate and professional students borrow and repay federal loans.

“What is needed is a reorientation which will provide an energy of a different kind, from a different source … Deliberately falling out of love … is the acquiring of new objects of attention and thus of new energies as a result of refocusing.”

The question this active view of moving on raises is this: what is this work of acquiring new objects of attention, this different kind of energy, its different source? What is the activity of moving on?

Meanwhile, the National Union of Social Workers (NUSW) on Friday called on opposition Kuomintang (KMT) lawmaker Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) to apologize for suggesting earlier that day that a harm-reduction policy discussed by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate Puma Shen (沈伯洋) could involve social workers distributing drugs in communities.

Derek Dizon provides materials for grieving individuals at A Resting Place.

The horrific story of Jane Doe and the Cornell Seven has spurred nationwide outrage and revived contentious debates around prevention and education. But one question is still going unasked: Who really pays after a sexual assault?

Nicotine e-cigarettes are more effective in helping people quit smoking than many conventional methods such as nicotine gums and patches and quitting with behavioral support or no support at all, an updated Cochrane review finds

But for all the hype, this system has become a dead end for many families. A 2023 evaluation found 94% of people who were assessed for housing help by the system didn’t receive it. And that didn’t account for parents who were unable to connect with a worker to see if they qualified for assistance.

Families say it hasn’t improved.

Thea Garcia Ramirez, Minister of Human Development and Gender Affairs: “We need more social workers, that is not a secret. Social work is hard. Not everybody has the stamina to work as a social worker. It means listening to people’s problems all day and you go home and everybody has their own issues at home and their own lives which undoubtedly isn’t always smooth sailing. And so social work is not for the weak and we do need more social workers.

BASW believes South Tyneside Council’s decision to close all 10 South Tyneside Accredited Network for Learning in the Early Years nurseries is a major step backward. It undermines the calls for increased investment in local authority and VCSE-run provisions, the very services that keep childcare accessible and community-led. Potentially pushing families toward profit-driven alternatives risks handing control of early years care to a small handful of commercial providers.

Workers at A New Tomorrow … an addiction treatment centre in Kamloops, B.C., have joined the United Steelworkers union (USW). A New Tomorrow provides treatment and recovery programs for youth and adults living with addiction. Social workers, counsellors, nurses, addiction workers, cooks and cleaners work together to provide the care, programming and support people need to stabilize and recover.

The Treasury is therefore right to ask whether current arrangements are sustainable. And Finance Minister Nicola Willis is also right to want a “mature, grown-up conversation” about it. But whether we can afford NZ Super – and whether the entitlement age should be raised – are the wrong questions. What we should be asking is: how can we provide New Zealanders with an adequate and dignified retirement at a sustainable cost for future generations?

Support for Medicare for All is at its highest in at least a decade, according to a new KFF poll. The survey found two-thirds of Americans now favor expanding the government health program that largely covers seniors…. Given the staunch opposition from Republicans and many moderate Democrats, not to mention the lobbying power of the healthcare industry, massively overhauling the U.S. health system won’t suddenly be achievable because of a single Senate candidate. Above: Abdul El-Sayed (D-Mich.) speaks at a rally in Detroit

Based on 2025 data, 13.4% of US middle school and high school students had ever used e-cigarettes and 4.1% had ever used nicotine pouches, while 5.2% currently used e-cigarettes and 1.7% currently used nicotine pouches. Rates were higher in high school students, with 17.9% having ever used e-cigarettes and 7.1% currently using them, compared with 5.7% and 2.3%, respectively, for nicotine pouch use.

Research indicates 60% to 70% of female rape survivors do not identify their experience as rape. That’s especially true for college students. Instead, rape survivors often describe their experience in more general terms, referring to it as “bad sex” or “miscommunication.” That’s both because of how sexual assault affects a survivor’s mind, brain and body and because of how society thinks about rape. In my experience as a psychologist doing crisis intervention work with rape and sexual assault victims, it is very common for survivors to prefer to continue as if the assault never happened and to be driven by a strong desire to return to normalcy.

Cychlorphine is one of an array of new, deadly drugs upending the illicit drug market and confounding cities that are only now beginning to get a handle on fentanyl. These novel drugs can be made by amateur chemists anywhere, and they are harder to trace, their effects on the human body harder to reverse. Experts say cychlorphine is 10 times as potent as fentanyl. Test strips can detect fentanyl but not cychlorphine, and it can take numerous doses of Narcan to reverse the new drug’s effects, though most people carry only one or two doses at a time. It has shown up in Europe and the East Coast over the past couple of years, its presence spreading like tentacles.

Bolton Council is being urged to sign a charter designed to protect migrant care workers, as UNISON says overseas staff are vital to keeping adult social care services running across the borough. The trade union has launched a campaign calling on the local authority to back UNISON’s Migrant Care Worker Charter, which aims to improve protections for overseas care workers and tackle exploitation within the sector.

This month marks a quarter of a century since our predecessor organisation, the Care Council for Wales, was established to make sure everyone working in social care works to the same values and standards.

This week, the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs announced that current or former Defence personnel may “apply to have historical homosexual convictions extinguished from their service records”. This sits alongside a commitment to issue a formal apology later this year for the harms LGBTQ+ personnel and veterans experienced because of historical discriminatory policies.

Should organizations serving pregnant people be allowed to use disinformation and pressure to prevent them from accessing abortion care? About 160 unregulated pregnancy centres (UPCs) operate across Canada, mostly in smaller communities with no abortion services. UPCs are anti-abortion organizations that often operate under the guise of clinics or counselling centres. Stories collected from individuals who visited UPCs reveal how they cause lasting harm through deception, disinformation, and other traumatizing strategies meant to turn people away from abortion. This begs the question: why are these centres allowed to operate with no oversight?

To investigate the connection between exercise and marriage, researchers examined survey responses from nearly 1,700 young married couples enrolled in the nationally representative Couple Relationships and Transition Experiences (CREATE) study. The BYU project has tracked newly married couples throughout the United States for more than a decade. The researchers looked at both individual exercise and physical activity done together as a couple. They then compared those habits with three measures of relationship health: communication, conflict resolution and marital stress.

Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight, which provided the report to the AP, noted that while the Army report concluded the gloves were effective, it said little about their safety. “The military assessment in ICE’s own files shows that these gloves can cause ‘intense pain’ and force compliance. It does not establish that they are safe,” Chukwu said. “Everyone should be alarmed that ICE is preparing to deploy a tool designed to inflict, at best, intense pain, without showing that it is safe for the people who will be subjected to it.” Above: Compliant Technologies – Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter (GLOVE).

Children are the most neglected population when it comes to palliative care. More than 800,000 children each year in South Africa have life-limiting illnesses, according to research done by Unicef and the International Children’s Palliative Care Network. Yet there are only five children’s hospices in the country.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, youth who are in need of protective care between the ages of 16 and 17 can sign on with the province for an individualized youth services plan. In this province, youth lose access to their financial and social support on their 21st birthday. It’s one of the youngest age limits in the country. However, the province says there are exceptions.

Truth is, university faculty and librarians interact infrequently, perhaps to wrangle obscure research material or to provide newbies with a library introduction. But now that collaboration must deepen on behalf of anyone who cares about authentic knowledge.

Three years ago, the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability tabled its final report, a hefty 12 volumes and 222 recommendations. In recent days, a coalition of more than 20 disability advocacy and representative organisations marked the anniversary with Australia’s first independent progress report of how the recommendations have been implemented.

I am 12 years into a two-decade sentence, and I am crippled by fear. Sweat drips off my body. My heart races. I lose my breath. This doesn’t happen because I am in prison. It happens at the thought of leaving prison. The truth is I’ve become more comfortable inside than I am out in the free world. This is what happens when you become institutionalized.

We are psychiatrists who work with patients with advanced cancer. It’s no wonder, then, that when Canada legalized medical assistance in dying a decade ago, it quickly became a major topic of conversation in our clinics. We’ve counseled patients about the procedure and assessed whether they were eligible. One of us has administered the drugs to end patients’ lives. We’ve also researched what leads people to choose this option. And together, we created an institutional framework that determined how one of Canada’s largest medical centers would respond to requests for assisted death.

Groundworks Collaborative’s 40-bed Hope’s House shelter is expected to receive its first tenants later this month.

Plans to drastically cut child poverty in Scotland are off target by a “wide margin”, a leading charity has warned. One in five children in Scotland remain in poverty and ministers need a “much bolder” plan to tackle the issue, a landmark new report has found. Analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) warned of an “increasing disconnect” between Scottish Government rhetoric on child poverty and the reality facing families.

In October 2025, the UK’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs made three recommendations: classify medetomidine as a class C drug, like xylazine; train emergency responders on its effects and update public information sites like Talk to Frank; and get border-control labs routinely testing seized drugs for it. The government’s response is pending.

At least 206 attacks involving emergency medical services (EMS) personnel and emergency response operations were recorded in the Western Cape between 2023 and 2026, while 55 attacks on social workers were reported
during the same period. About 20 government vehicles were also hijacked over the past two financial years, highlighting the risks public servants face when entering communities to provide essential services.

Hong Kong residents generally reported satisfactory levels of happiness between 2018 and 2022, with scores above six out of 10. The latest survey, conducted this summer among baby boomers and members of Generations X, Y and Z, found that Generation Y respondents had the lowest scores for happiness, health and family relationships.

How extensive is white nationalism’s appeal among the broader public, and who is drawn to this extremist ideology? We are political scientists who study political behavior, identity and social media. In recently published research in the scientific journal Nature, we offer some answers to these questions using national surveys we conducted with nearly 8,000 non-Hispanic white Americans from 2021 to 2025.

Pennsylvania’s health department today confirmed the state has recorded 1,004 measles cases this year, an increase of 106 cases in the past week. More than 99% of people with measles in Pennsylvania have been unvaccinated, with just four cases in vaccinated people, according to the health department. Pennsylvania has confirmed 198 hospitalizations, for a hospitalization rate of nearly 20%.

As an education scholar who researches the experiences of undergraduate college students and fraternities, I believe that universities and colleges have not devoted enough resources toward curtailing the hazing, sexual assault and other kinds of dangerous behavior that sometimes happens at fraternities or other student organizations. But there is only so much they can do – in part because beneath it all is a hypermasculine culture of proving one’s worth.

Six-time NBA champion and former North Carolina Tar Heels star Michael Jordan has made a $10 million commitment to the UNC School of Social Work in honor of his mother, Deloris P. Jordan. It’s the largest single gift in the School of Social Work’s history and will expand the reach and impact of the Global Social Development Innovations Center

Talk of the risks of AI is everywhere. But who is responsible if something goes wrong? It is time for international oversight

Meta wants users to turn to a cute artificial intelligence (AI) “agent” throughout the day to carry out common tasks for them, such as booking flights or doing their shopping. The company’s new Muse agent…. As people get used to using an agent, they will hand it more tasks and spend more time with it. In the same way social media evolved from actual social networking to an ever-present tool to fill idle moments and manage our moods, AI agents may end up managing the vast galaxy of interfaces that govern modern life. Muse is also an attempt to head off the threat to Meta’s existing position posed by competing AI agents. If agents take off, they could become users’ main interface with the online world – and gather even more information about users and their preferences than social media platforms do, which whoever owns the agent could then sell to advertisers.

Government spokespeople hastened to assure us all that this would be a wonderful thing. As HKFP reported: “The platform promises to centralise real-time data from a variety of sources – CCTV cameras, tracking systems, smart sensors, government databases, social media and mobile apps – and then use this information to optimise traffic lights, waste management, and other aspects of urban governance.”

I immediately thought of this experience when I heard about the alleged sexual assault committed by seven fraternity members at Cornell University. As a social psychologist, and the author of a book examining why so-called good people stay silent in the face of problematic behavior, what I find most tragic about the events at Cornell is that reportedly over 50 men on a group chat learned about the assault as it was happening. Yet there’s been no public report that any of them tried to stop the assault, help the victim or contact campus or local police departments.

I am a lifelong resident of Multnomah County, as well as a proud District 2 resident… I earned both my Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Social Work from Portland State University. I currently serve as a culturally specific mental health consultant working with preschool-aged children, providers, and families. My work focuses heavily on prevention, behavioral health, culturally responsive services, and supporting the professionals who serve our communities.

In the weeks after this year’s appropriations bill passed, employees of AM General or its parent company donated tens of thousands to key appropriations committee members in both chambers, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif. Collins is separately facing scrutiny over a report from ProPublica that the FBI investigated an alleged pay-to-play scheme involving a major donor, an ex-defense contractor. Collins’ office denied that there was any kind of pay-to-play arrangement and said she fully cooperated with the FBI.

Scientists found that five seemingly unrelated conditions, including long Covid, ME/CFS, and PTSD, may disrupt many of the same biological networks involved in immunity, metabolism, and cellular energy. The findings could help explain their shared symptoms and may open the door to new blood tests and treatments.

For many years, the image of Maxi Lont wandering the streets of Aruba has stood as a tangible reminder of the cruelty of addiction and social abandonment. His story, like that of many other citizens in similar situations, is not merely a personal tragedy, but the clearest evidence of an institutional system that has lost its direction and moral compass. The foundations and the Department of Social Affairs funded by the people of Aruba are failing to deliver.

The study, led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the “la Caixa” Foundation, and Aarhus University, found that young people diagnosed with ADHD or ASD in Denmark now more closely resemble the broader population than those who received the same diagnoses 10 years earlier. The findings suggest that the increase in ADHD and ASD diagnoses may partly reflect changes in who is being identified and diagnosed, alongside any possible changes in the underlying likelihood of developing these conditions.

MO’s father was killed by a Russian shell at his home near Kyiv in the early weeks of the war.

UCSF social worker Juliette Suarez, who works at the school’s Division of Trauma Recovery Services, speaks during a Sept. 23 vigil for Alberto Rangel, who was stabbed and killed at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital’s Ward 86 in December.

With the respiratory virus season ramping up, a federal website that helps people find nearby locations where they can get vaccines remains down (as of 10/4)…. A note at the top of the page says “The functionality of this website may be impacted while it is being updated.” The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to an email asking when the website is expected to work again.