An appeals panel led by a Trump appointee is giving the Supreme Court the chance to gut one of the few major provisions remaining in the law.
Femicides in 2023: Intimate cases on the rise three years after state of emergency declaration
“When the state of emergency was declared, in January 2021, femicides went down, according to the Police and the State Statistics Institute. But, since efforts seeking to insist and stress that this is a public health issue did not continue, violence is once again rising,” said the former president of the College of Social Work Professionals (CPTS, Spanish acronym) Mabel López Ortiz.
There are many reasons disabled people can’t just work from home – threatening to cut their benefits won’t fix the wider problems
As part of the UK government’s latest economic plan, disabled people may have to look for jobs they can do from home or face cuts to their benefits. Previously, disabled people with limited ability to work may have received benefits without being required to look for work. Now, Laura Trott, chief secretary to the Treasury, has said that disabled people not in work must “do their duty” and work from home.
‘Playing us for years’: how pokies profits have funded tax-deductible spending within Australian clubs
Schemes in Victoria and NSW give clubs tax cuts if they put gaming proceeds into communities – but they overwhelmingly spend it on themselves. This former gambling addict said she and her friends would play pokies and ‘all pretend to each other that we were supporting the community’.
The Answer To Veterans Homelessness Could Be One Of LA’s Most Expensive Neighborhoods
Tiny homes sit adjacent to what was previously Veterans Row on the campus of the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Ending the Coalfield-to-Prison Pipeline
Boosters have promoted prison construction on abandoned mine lands as a tool of economic development throughout Appalachia. New federal funding provides the opportunity for more sustainable and socially beneficial investments. Above: A former coal mining site in West Virginia
How journal hijackers derail academic careers with impunity
The documented hijacking of a legitimate academic journal earlier this year shows how the pressure on researchers to publish, combined with the proliferation and development of AI technology, is threatening to undermine trust in research and is even derailing the careers of affected academics.
Chicago Gangs Emerge From Deprivation. To End the Violence, End the Deprivation.
Students protest against planned school closures in Chicago in March 2013. Neoliberal education reforms that closed many schools in poor neighborhoods is just one form of deprivation that has intensified gang violence in Chicago, forcing students to cross through rival territory to reach their new schools.
Look to the mainstream to explain the rise of the far right
Javier Milei in Argentina (above). Geert Wilders in the Netherlands. These are the two latest “populist shocks” – the tip of the “populist wave” that comes crashing against the weakened defences of liberal democracies…. Using “populist” instead of more accurate but also stigmatising terms such as “far-right” or “racist” acts as a key legitimiser of far-right politics.
Ofsted warns of rise in ‘last resort’ unregistered placements
Councils are putting more children in unregistered placements due to increasing demand and limited supply in social care, the latest Ofsted report reveals…. Between July 2022 and May 2023, applications were made for 1,140 children, which is almost double the level of two years before.
Behaviour shifts and the implications for migration statistics
Net migration to the UK has been running at record levels. Driven by a rise in people coming for work, increasing numbers of students and world events, the patterns of migration have changed with more arrivals from outside of the EU than in the previous decade. Emma Rourke explains how the ONS is interpreting these behavioural changes, how they feed into the latest data and the implications for other population statistics.
For Alaska Families, Questions Remain About Unsolved Deaths and “Suicides”
Local law enforcement said there was only one official unsolved killing in Kotzebue, Alaska. Many residents suspect otherwise. Above: SN was buried in this cemetery on a bluff overlooking Kotzebue and the Chukchi Sea.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s 1st community-based hospice swings open doors after decade of effort from supporters
The Lionel Kelland Hospice in Grand Falls-Windsor… was years in the making.
Students feel unity and support in new Africentric social work program
Within the program, 36 students will have tuition and fees paid by the four partners, creating an accessible and culturally informed program that will help address underrepresentation of Black/African Nova Scotians in the social work field. Cohort-based learning allows a group to learn and work their way through a series of courses together, offering a supportive style of education.
Lumbee Tribe member Cristina Green strives to support children in need
Cristina Green is a social worker at Department of Children and Families.
Toxic air killed more than 500,000 people in EU in 2021, data shows
European Environment Agency says half of deaths could have been avoided by cutting pollution to recommended limits
The climate crisis doesn’t have to be a hunger crisis, says WFP ahead of COP28
o make a dent in spiralling global hunger, the world must rapidly scale up protection for vulnerable people on the frontlines of the climate crisis, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today, a week before world leaders meet in Dubai for the next UN Climate Summit, COP28. Last year alone, climate extremes pushed a staggering 56.8 million people into acute food insecurity.
Social workers in Singapore: More than kindness and patience required as work evolves with societal shifts
Flora Tan, among three honoured social workers on 17 November, received recognition at the prestigious annual Outstanding Social Worker Award.
How a Maine Businessman Made the AR-15 Into America’s Best-Selling Rifle
Neither a gun enthusiast nor a right-wing ideologue, Richard Dyke used political connections and lobster giveaways to build Bushmaster, the company that popularized assault-style rifles.
Opinion: Father Joe Carroll’s empowering approach to social work has inspired me for 25 years
Ruth Bruland is the chief program officer at Father Joe’s Villages.
Green jobs: from challenge to opportunity
Women will have to be able to break into some male-dominated sectors if green jobs are not unwittingly to sustain gender segregation
Domestic violence prevention campaigners call for royal commission after the deaths of four South Australian women
A professor of Social Work at Flinders University, Dr. Sarah Wendt, said this week’s deaths were a concerning representation of a broader problem. “These homicides are a reflection of this significant social issue in Australia called domestic and family violence and we cannot take our focus off this issue,” she said.
Community Help Points across Staffordshire are lifelines for residents dealing with cost-of-living pressures
There are 26 Community Help Points across the county, including libraries and community centres. Referrals are made by staff at Staffordshire County Council as well as local social work teams, and people can also refer themselves or others directly to individual help points. Above: Library Supervisor Sarah Sproston, at Stafford Library’s Community Help Point.
Essex Social Work Promise
We have launched the new Essex Social Work Promise. It has been developed with input from children and young people in Essex. It aims to strengthen relationships between children, families and social workers.
Corporate America Just Threw A Party Celebrating Tax Cuts For The Ultrarich
Just hours after avoiding a shutdown, tax policy wonks, lawmakers, and staff, polished their shoes, pressed their tuxedos, and attended “Tax Prom,” an annual fundraiser to support the anti-tax Tax Foundation. The organization is a classic D.C. deficit squawk: it flies its Wall Street coop when big corporations want tax cuts, and screeches when it’s time to invest in the rest of us.
Faces of the Pack: Xochitl Salinas
Native American alumna uses her master’s degree in social work to help her community and guide people through the healing process
The Red State Brain Drain Isn’t Coming. It’s Happening Right Now.
The larger population may prefer to move—on those rare occasions when it does move—to a red state, but the college-educated minority, which moves much more frequently, prefers relocating to a blue state.
BC Greens Call for More Accountability for Child Welfare Services
BC Green Leader Sonia Furstenau. During question period on Monday, she asked government about oversight for child protection workers in the Ministry of Children and Family Development.
‘Jarring Wake-Up Call’: Hunger Surges in US After Food Aid Cuts
Hunger Free America’s 2023 National Hunger Survey Report found that “the number of Americans without enough food over a seven-day period was an average of 40% higher in September and October of 2023 than in September and October of 2021.”
UNICEF and SADC call for improved legislation, policies, and budgets to address gender-based violence as data reveals that about 17 per cent of girls and women in Southern Africa have experienced forced sex in their lifetime
The prevalence of sexual, physical and emotional violence in several Southern African countries is among the highest in the world, according to a new report by UNICEF and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
BASW joins campaigners to press for fair uprating of benefits
Ahead of the Autumn Statement, campaigners are ramping up calls for the Chancellor to deliver greater support for low-income families.
Wolfpack Beds crochets sleeping mats for unhoused people
Paola Ramirez Hernandez, a second-year studying social work, holds up one of their bed mats during the Wolfpack Beds Club meeting… The goal of their club is to make crochet bed mats out of plastic bags for unhoused people in the area.
Overdose deaths increased in pregnant and postpartum women from early 2018 to late 2021
“Cold” vigil attendees knock shelter waitlist
About 90 families were on a waiting list Monday for state-funded shelter, advocates said during a Monday night vigil where they called on Beacon Hill’s powerful to steer money towards an escalating crisis.
With COVID surging, should I wear a mask?
COVID is on the rise again, with a peak likely over the holiday season. Given this, health authorities in a number of Australian states have recommended people start wearing masks again. In Western Australia, masks have been made mandatory in high-risk areas of public hospitals, while they’ve similarly been reintroduced in health-care settings in other parts of the country.
Grimsby’s ‘inadequate’ children’s services are now seeing the ‘fastest improvement in the country’
The Department for Education-appointed children’s services commissioner has described North East Lincolnshire Council’s children’s services improvement as “the fastest in the country”. Above: Grimsby Town Hall
Increase in adult safeguarding concerns in Dorset
The report says that while emotional, physical and psychological abuse by others continue to be a concern the county sees many cases of self-neglect. Said the report: “We are seeking to improve understanding of self-neglect across all age groups and how we can work together effectively to provide the right support at the right time.”
SAD lamps: do they work? Experts explain how they help the winter blues
Have you ever noted that you sleep more in the winter months? Or eat more carbs or have low energy? If you do, then you might be one of the around 6% of the higher latitude populations with seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
Opinion | I Read Mike Johnson’s Legal Filings. They Reveal a Distinctive Pattern.
So while Johnson’s legal career reflects decades of arguing for free speech and free expression of religion, it has consistently been for the same religion — and not evidently in furtherance of an even-handed legal principle that would protect all religions equally (in addition to the right to reject religion altogether). Johnson’s theory, summed up, appears to be what might be dubbed, “the First Amendment for me but not for thee.” As he has described it in his own words, “the founders wanted to protect the church from the encroaching state, not the other way around.” But only when that church is Christian.
Hot yoga may help relieve depression symptoms
In a new NIH-funded pilot study, a research team led by Dr. Maren Nyer from Massachusetts General Hospital looked at a combination of yoga and heat, or hot yoga. Hot yoga sessions are done in a hot (105°F) room. The researchers assessed whether people with major depression would be able to adhere to regular hot yoga practice for eight weeks. They also looked at the potential effects of hot yoga on depression symptoms.
Dysart will nix all of its school social workers next year, as if that’s no big deal
The Dysart school board eliminated all social worker positions next year, suggesting office workers could simply do their jobs. They can’t.
The educational technology stock that went from $98 to $1. Inside the 2U debacle.
A lawsuit filed earlier this year by three former students in USC’s online master’s in social work alleges that the school illegally misled them by advertising that the online degree, which at the time cost more than $100,000, was comparable to the school’s in-person program.
Study highlights struggles of spousal caregivers in Finland
A recent study by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) has brought to light the significantly lower quality of life experienced by individuals assisting their partners with functional limitations.
University legitimacy: a strong defence of academic freedom
In view of the threats to the socio-economic and political stability of our societies, we may ask ourselves, as believers in democratic values in the academy and elsewhere: were we simply not sensitive and attentive enough to the undercurrents of dissatisfaction, unrest and new waves of neo-nationalist and protectionist movements that won – in particular in Hungary and Poland, but also in large parts of East Germany – considerable shares of the votes in regional, national as well as European elections?
If you think ‘bossware’ surveillance culture in the workplace is new, think again
Exhibit A in this connection is Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915), the founder of a religion originally called “scientific management” and now colloquially known as Taylorism…. The first outing of Taylorism 2.0 was the gig economy – think Uber, Deliveroo, etc. In this, workers are not employees (with the kind of rights protected by employment law) but independent contractors who enter into formal agreements with tech platforms to provide services to the platform’s clients or customers.
Poverty simulation gives UNCP students valuable insight
UNC Pembroke students participated in a Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS) this week, offering them a greater understanding of the challenges faced by impoverished individuals. Students roleplayed the lives of low-income families facing poverty––from single parents to homeless––and were tasked with providing necessities and shelter on a limited budget.
ARPA bolsters social work in Glens Falls region
A nonprofit helping at-risk youth. An effort to increase mental health training. A project set to chronicle homelessness in the greater Glens Falls region. Those are just a few of the things getting bolstered by a new dose of funding from the American Rescue Plan Act.
Oregon’s first-in-the-nation drug decriminalization law is facing pushback amid the fentanyl crisis
Oregon’s first-in-the-nation law that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine and other illicit drugs in favor of an emphasis on addiction treatment is facing strong headwinds in the progressive state after an explosion of public drug use fueled by the proliferation of fentanyl and a surge in deaths from opioids, including those of children.
Can little actions bring big joy? Researchers find ‘micro-acts’ can boost well-being
An analysis released Tuesday from scientists behind a research initiative called the BIG JOY Project finds that people who commit daily “micro-acts” of joy experience about a 25% increase in emotional well-being over the course of a week.
New three-tier system to tackle suicide risk among Hong Kong children in pipeline after surge in cases, lawmakers told
Undersecretary for Health Libby Lee said the Health Bureau would work with the Education Bureau and Social Welfare Department to create a “three-tier emergency mechanism” to protect vulnerable pupils. She explained the proposed system allow teachers and social workers to quickly identify pupils with strong suicidal tendencies and provide counselling services.