News (1,641 posts)

Sometimes it takes a crisis to develop new solutions to intractable challenges. Right now in Scotland we have not one but several crises – a national housing emergency coupled with social care and health services under severe strain, with ever-growing waiting lists. We urgently need fresh thinking if we are to find a way forward and create a better, more sustainable and equitable future in which our housing stock and our health and care services are fit for purpose.

Top takeaways:
> Politics is increasingly recognized as a significant source of chronic stress, affecting both mental and physical health negatively across a broad swath of the population.
> Political anxiety is distinctly different from psychological conditions such as general anxiety, with its unique impact on emotional well-being and societal cohesion.
> Effective coping strategies include regulating exposure to political information and fostering positive social connections.

Economic power is political power. We spoke with Peter Phillips, author of Titans of Capital, about how the capitalist class is subverting democracy and controlling the lives of billions through massive investments in everything from food to war.

Emily Dalton became a part-time social worker at Hoboken Public Library while finishing her master’s at Rutgers School of Social Work in 2022; she transitioned to full-time work at the library in 2023.

Far-right activists hold an “Enough is Enough” protest on August 2 in Sunderland, England. After the murders of three girls in Southport earlier this week, misinformation spread via social media and fueled acts of violent rioting from far-right actors across England.

Scammers are compounding tactics by using fake Amazon or PayPal tech support emails and text messages to get you to connect with an imposter Social Security Administration (SSA) employee who will try to convince you that your Social Security number (SSN) or record is compromised.

Continuing a ‘long and ugly history’ of British race riots, a mob attacks police outside a Rotherham hotel housing asylum seekers.

Last month saw another extreme weather milestone with the world’s hottest day on recent record registered on 22 July – yet another indication of the extent to which greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are changing our climate, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported on Wednesday.

Leas Hollen distributed food and donated clothing to people living at the homeless camp along East 33rd Avenue in Midtown Anchorage on Thursday, August 8, 2024.

Graves for young women, girls and infants who died while detained at the New York House of Refuge for women and the New York State Training School for Girls, which operated on this Hudson, New York, property between 1887 and 1975.

During a MDMA therapy session, a blindfolded patient is wrapped in a blanket and lays on a couch.

Last Monday, to be exact, when State University System of Florida Chancellor Ray Rodrigues reportedly directed the system’s 12 public university leaders to conduct an urgent and sweeping review of faculty syllabi, textbooks, and test banks for evidence of “antisemitism or anti-Israeli bias”…. in follow-up communications Friday, Rodrigues and Emily Sikes, the system’s interim vice chancellor for academic and student affairs, clarified that universities should first conduct keyword searches of all course descriptions and syllabi for the words: Israel, Israeli, Palestine, Palestinian, Middle East, Zionism, Zionist, Judaism, Jewish, and Jews. Then, any fall courses using one or more of those terms are to be reported to the System Board of Governors, alongside a list of “related instructional materials,” by August 16.

Staff in social care teams across Lancashire walked out Friday in their second bout of strike action over pay this year.

‘It is despicable and perplexing that Goldsmiths is exploiting the generalised sense of crisis in the higher education sector to burn down its own house. We call on the institution’s senior management to immediately halt its arsonist ‘Transformation Programme’ and work with us to protect jobs.’

This type of peer counseling session is relatively common at San Quentin these days, where hundreds of volunteers come in every week to help people heal and prepare to reenter society. The prison is so well-known for its rehabilitative culture that Gov. Gavin Newsom last year formally renamed it a “rehabilitation center.” The governor also uses it as the centerpiece for his “California Model,” which focuses on humanizing incarcerated people and normalizing positive interactions between them and the guards.

Michael Bruneau, president and chief executive officer of Aurora Recovery Centre — a private drug and alcohol treatment centre north of Gimli — purchased 23 units at 873 Waverley St., with plans to renovate and rent the suites out as the Aurora Family Reunification Village, in which children would live with their parents who were undergoing treatment.

Another step officials say will help address student safety this year is that there are now eight police social workers with CCSD PD.

Columbia’s AAUP chapter has received numerous reports of individuals, both inside and outside of the University, calling for the sanctioning or dismissal of specific Columbia faculty members, according to its statement. The statement reads that the calls for “punitive action” have been based on the comments faculty members have made in the public sphere, classroom, and “in response to faculty efforts to de-escalate provocations during campus protests.”

“There’s no mincing words: Tenure’s gone. It’s been replaced by a five-year contract,” said Meera Sitharam, president of the United Faculty of Florida union’s UF chapter. She said UF’s implementation of the policy “really gives them a chance to get rid of people they don’t like.”

Dr. Jeff Karabanow, a Dalhousie University Professor of Social Work who does research on homelessness, said in an interview Thursday the potential impact of a code of conduct would depend entirely on how it’s set up and what’s included in it. “I hope people in the encampments are around the table … I think that can be quite empowering for people to provide their voice,” he said.

The spokesperson says that social workers in the province who drive government vehicles are often targeted by criminals and hijacked. The social workers are left traumatised both physically and emotionally resulting in them taking leave. With a vehicle also in the hands of criminals, the Department of Social Development has fewer vehicles for workers to use.

Areas identified for improvement were the experiences and progress of children who need help and protection, the impact of leaders on social work practice and overall effectiveness. The service was rated ‘Good’ in the experiences and progress of children in care, and those who leave care, including when they reach adulthood. Above: Reading Borough Council offices.

Mental health experts say people with depression often try to self-medicate with alcohol, but celebrities discussing their problems breaks the taboo

A Nelson-based organisation that supports the most vulnerable tamariki and their whānau across the top of the South Island is set to lose almost 40 percent of its frontline staff, as Oranga Tamariki reduces its funding.

The expansion of the Palm Springs Navigation Center is nearly complete, with 80 beds for homeless individuals slated to become available next month. The additional beds will complement the 50 existing ones currently available at the facility, raising the overall shelter space within the city. The new beds will be in modular units, which are meant to provide a transitional space for individuals as they seek more permanent housing.

Nationally known for her scholarship focused on critical analysis and socially constructed power, Dr. Robbins has applied these perspectives to human behavior theories, practice methods, pedagogical issues in social work education, and epistemological methodologies.

Walz, who is in the middle of his second term as governor, has secured a number of policy wins during his tenure, from universal free school meals for K-12 students to paid family and medical leave after Democrats won full control of the statehouse. On the higher ed front, he is known as someone who believes in the importance of postsecondary education and investing in the state’s public colleges and universities.

The Interior Department has concluded an unprecedented yearslong review finding nearly 1,000 children died, separated from their tribes and families, with many buried across hundreds of institutions created for ‘forced assimilation.’ Above: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland embraced boarding school survivor Delores Twohatched at the first stop on the “Road to Healing” tour in July 2022

“Understanding your legal rights, whether it’s about the care you receive or your connections to loved ones, helps Fosters and their supporters advocate more strongly for a better experience in foster care,” Minnesota’s Assistant Foster Youth Ombudsperson Hannah Planalp (above) said in an email. As a former foster youth and representative of the Office of The Foster Youth Ombudsperson, she described how critical it is to have these rights be “clear and comprehensive.”

Midlothian’s chief social work officer Joan Tranent, outside Fairfield House, Dalkeith.

BASW Cymru’s National Director, Prof. Sam Baron (above), has congratulated Eluned Morgan MS on not only becoming the new First Minister of Wales, but also being the first woman to do so.

Sara, a university professor, describes a typical working day for her as including a barrage of “back-and-forth e-mails, Slack, last-minute Zoom meetings”. These, she says, “prevent me — and everyone in general, I feel — from actually having the time to do deep work, think, write, with high quality”. Above: Marie Curie’s research straddled many decades and involved periods of rest and reflection in the French countryside.

Measure 110 will continue to play a dominant role in Oregon’s fight against addiction. The program, overseen by the Oregon Health Authority (above), will continue to receive millions of dollars a year in cannabis revenues for addiction programs and support, including treatment, housing, support groups and services run by peers, who are in recovery from drug addiction.

Quade was the first in her family to graduate high school and graduated from Missouri State University in 2008 with a degree in social work. She worked for former U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill as a legislative aid as her first foray into politics.

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s passion for children and families has defined her career in public service. She served on the Minneapolis school board, worked as executive director of the Children’s Defense Fund Minnesota, and advocated for kids as a state legislator and lieutenant governor.

Councillor Margaret Walker (Cambuslang West) Chair of the Social Work Resources Committee, said: “We know how important the work of all of our social care staff is right across our communities, especially to those who are vulnerable. “We also recognise the significant challenges facing social care – and that our staff continue to be critical to meeting those challenges.

Beginning with the British National Party – a far-right political party that had unprecedented electoral success in local council elections in the early 2000s – a similar ideological trajectory can be traced through a number of far-right street movements that emerged between 2009 and 2018. These included the English Defence League (EDL) in around 2010, Britain First, Football Lads Alliance and Democratic Football Lads Alliance among others.

These groups have couched racist ideology in the notion of “defence”.

Before pursuing a Master of Divinity from EDS, President Bucklin received her Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She began her career as a lay leader on the staff of the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa, where she worked in children and youth ministry before transitioning to young adult ministry, communications, congregational development, church planting, and lifelong formation.

Too often, journal assessments of potentially unreliable research are superficial, opaque and prolonged. Changes to the guidance given by the Committee on Publication Ethics could tighten up the process.

Urban Institute researchers say the financial burden not only puts a strain on the borrowers themselves but also the social welfare programs designed to be their safety net.

Our need to understand this middle-aged group and their vulnerability to extremism through social media was the driving force behind an EU-funded research project, currently in its second year. For the first time, researchers from across Europe are looking at people in their 40s to mid-60s to uncover what characteristics of social media and online content encourages them to go down the rabbit hole to extremism.

ADASS, BASW and Social Workers Union hail role of social workers and care staff in supporting communities affected by violence, disorder and racism, while AMHP Leads Network raises concerns about safety

Figures from the Department of Education’s annual school census for Northern Ireland for 2002-23 show that 28.7% of children in the care system stayed on in school from year 12 to year 13 compared to 64.8% for other children. The Early Adversity and Developmental Trauma course in UU’s School of Psychology is the first course of its kind in Northern Ireland. It aims to help attendees pursue a career in psychology, community work or social work.

BASW and SWU condemn in the strongest possible terms the appalling acts of violence, disorder and racism that have terrorised communities across the country in recent days. Stoked by disinformation spread by far-right agitators, attacks have been targeted towards citizens of diverse faiths, Muslims, asylum seekers, immigrants, and other minority groups.

In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. If you’re not really interested in aged care, you should be. Given these figures, you will almost certainly be engaging with aged care services at some stage – either for yourself, or supporting family members or friends seeking aged care.

“The Hong Kong Christian Institute has always been committed to nurturing believers and encouraging churches to establish a faith practice with social consciousness and social responsibility,” the Chinese post read. “But it is constrained by the current social environment. The institution is unable to operate in a way where it can freely carry out its mission,” the post continued.

After months of hearings, a federal judge last month ruled that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs discriminates against homeless veterans whose disability compensation makes them ineligible for housing being constructed on its West Los Angeles campus.

Events Calendar for August