News (1,639 posts)

Ngāi Te Rangi Oranga Whānau social worker Violet Davidson (above) said many of her mental health clients required significant help and wraparound services. In her 24 years of experience, the issues had escalated and secondary health care services were “backlogged”.

Kirsten Ryder, training and development specialist with Stoney Nakoda First Nations, poses in front of Stoney Nakoda Child & Family Services building in Mînî Thnî

For Inwood native Jordana Suriel (SSW’25), growing up on Dyckman Street gave her a nuanced lens into how socioeconomic complexities can shape the human experience.

The Imprint’s recent five-part series, Medicated in Foster Care: Who’s Looking Out? revealed that states across the country have failed to properly monitor and curtail the heavy, haphazard reliance on psychiatric medication prescribed to foster youth. Dozens of young people with histories of trauma described “pain and anguish muffled, not healed,” by these quick-fix drugs.

Others, like Claire, felt the scheme was not value for money. “The fast-track schemes rarely work and Think Ahead seems like a very expensive scheme. Those trained through these schemes often don’t stay in frontline [social work] or leave the profession altogether as soon as they realise it’s not for them,” she said.

An attempt to make assisted dying legal in England in Wales continues to make its way through parliament, with MPs currently scheduled to have a final vote on the bill in June.

As part of the Provost’s Honors Symposium during UW-Eau Claire’s Celebration of Excellence in Research and Creative Activity, Emily Casey and research teammates presented a study of student self-reported health and financial impacts of cannabis use. Dr. Aaron Willis, Assistant Professor of Social Work, served as faculty mentor.

More than 3.3 million people live below the poverty line, according to the 2022 Poverty in Australia Snapshot by the Australia Council of Social Service.

In 1918, as World War I intensified overseas, the U.S. government embarked on a radical experiment: It quietly became the nation’s largest housing developer, designing and constructing more than 80 new communities across 26 states in just two years. These weren’t hastily erected barracks or rows of identical homes. They were thoughtfully designed neighborhoods, complete with parks, schools, shops and sewer systems. In just two years, this federal initiative provided housing for almost 100,000 people.

Budget documents obtained by the Guardian through public records requests reveal that several counties have put the money toward hiring prosecutors, acquiring police gadgets and police vehicles, and covering sheriff costs. Washington county, the state’s second-largest jurisdiction, budgeted twice as much of its funds for police and district attorney salaries as it did on community programs, while two other counties used the money for laser devices that are meant to detect drugs but have been criticized as useless. Above: Roberto Paredes of El Jardín, a non-profit that serves people with substance-use disorders, does outreach

In The Origins of Totalitarianism, Arendt emphasized one primary factor in the rise of authoritarianism that has little obvious connection to politics: loneliness. While we usually think of loneliness as not having our social needs met, Arendt defined the word as something deeper. Loneliness happens when there are no shared objective facts and no potential collective action to solve shared challenges. It’s a state of being where you can’t trust others. Loneliness, in Arendt’s telling, inflames the connective tissues of a society. It weakens the body politic so that demagogues and despots can prey. “What prepares men for totalitarian domination,” she wrote, “… is the fact that loneliness, once a borderline experience usually suffered in certain marginal social conditions like old age, has become an everyday experience.”

“Social connection was everything, and sometimes that came with pressure to conform, including drinking,” said Dr. Awua, a postdoctoral research associate in The University of Texas at Arlington’s School of Social Work. “I remember how hanging out with peers and even my older siblings often centered on drinking.”

Study yourself, establish what beliefs you cherish over others, and start from there. If your choices are the consequences of your deepest beliefs, they are less likely to feel wrong or uncertain. Release the demand for certainty, and you’ll have neutralised anguish.

This creates a vicious circle. Health research is vital for shaping the policies, treatments and community interventions that underpin modern healthcare. However, for disabled people, who make up one-sixth of the national and global population, too much research does not reflect their experiences and needs. The active participation by disabled people in health research is good science, good economics and the right thing to do.

While Hongdae guys are by no means representative of all Korean men (a point Sean Solo emphasises) the fact these men exist, and have become a recognisable part of Hongdae’s nightlife, speaks to serious broader issues of misogyny and gendered thinking…. in recent years, a growing number of South Korean women have spoken out about issues of sexual harassment and violence, including a crisis of digital sex crimes.

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which has existed for over 40 years, provides energy assistance for roughly 6.7 million households across the United States. In FY 2023, the program provided nearly $123 million in assistance to 101,181 families in Connecticut, with an average disbursement of $655 for heating assistance.

“This is the facial recognition technology nightmare scenario that we have been worried about,” said one civil liberties campaigner. Above: A Project NOLA security camera keeps watch over the corner of Conti Street and Burgundy Street in New Orleans

When I first arrived in the United States from Brazil to pursue my Ph.D., I felt nothing could stand in my way. But a few months into my studies, a persistent dizziness crept in. Walking to campus, reading papers, and even grocery shopping left me unsteady.

Frank Bisignano, who ranked as one of Wall Street’s highest-paid CEOs as the head of banking technology company Fiserv, was confirmed as the Social Security Administration chief this month. He will now take the reins at the chronically underfunded agency, which his former company could benefit from privatizing. To comply with federal ethics law, Bisignano has agreed to sell his shares in Fiserv, which are currently worth roughly $484 million. Because of a special loophole in the tax code for government officials, Bisignano will be able to indefinitely defer any capital gains tax on the divestment — meaning he may never have to pay taxes on the enormous windfall.

Under the award, every Citizens Advice Bureau across every corner of the country will receive £50,000 this year and £50k in the next financial year, with the same amount going to the national organisation, Citizens Advice Scotland…. The award is part of Foundation Scotland’s £12m fast-tracked Response Fund, It comes in response to increased pressure on charities like us, who are seeing a surge in demand for services while they themselves are facing reduced capacity and soaring overheads, such as utilities, staffing and National Insurance costs.

Agents, chatbots and other tools based on artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly used in everyday life by many. So-called large language model (LLM)-based agents, such as ChatGPT and Llama, have become impressively fluent in the responses they form, but quite often provide convincing yet incorrect information. Researchers draw parallels between this issue and a human language disorder known as aphasia, where sufferers may speak fluently but make meaningless or hard-to-understand statements. This similarity could point toward better forms of diagnosis for aphasia, and even provide insight to AI engineers seeking to improve LLM-based agents.

UPTE noted that the rally—organized by UCSF social workers and their union, the University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE-CWA 9119)—was driven by mounting frustration over UCSF’s handling of discharges for unhoused patients. Protesters argued that the university has failed to provide sufficient resources or safe discharge planning, leading to further instability and harm.

February 2025 brought the “Valentine’s Day massacre”, when the misnamed “department of government efficiency” fired 1,000 National Park Service employees and 3,400 from the US Forest Service. In March, courts ruled the firings lawless. More buyouts followed. In May, the administration signaled it would slash the agency’s budget by 40% – the biggest cut in its 109-year history.

I left each consultation feeling more anxious and alone … I became suicidal for the first time in my life

Ophir Loyola Hospital’s social worker and event speaker, Cristina Belém, highlighted the importance of ensuring equity in the field of oncology and palliative care

Take Action Now: Contact Your House Member Today!
Send a letter… directly to your Members to vote NO on the House reconciliation bill, which will cause greater hunger and hardship for children, families, veterans, older adults, and others — in addition to slashing live-saving health benefits via Medicaid. These draconian cuts are being made exclusively to finance tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations.

Activists, not elites, are leading the way forward in a world without Roe.

Five years after the pandemic hit, California community colleges are still battling one of the most nefarious problems to surface after courses moved online en masse. Criminals continue to find ways to evade various checkpoints in their pursuit of financial aid and other benefits that come with being a college student….These fraudsters — sometimes called ghost students, Pell runners, or straw students — are hitting the system’s central application portal at an alarming rate. While spam filters stop many of them, colleges are spending hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars finding further fraud. Instructors, as the last line of defense, are struggling to balance due diligence, good teaching practices, and student support.

Through the project, Howard students spend a year working in D.C. K-12 schools, with the goal of becoming permanent social workers. Above: Dr. Sandra Jeter with Project PRESS fellows.

We’ll go from a world where our bias was to take everything as evidence to one where our bias is to take nothing as evidence…. As truth decays, so too will trust. That would have profound political implications. A world of doubt and uncertainty is good for autocrats and bad for democracy, Chesney and Citron argue. “Authoritarian regimes and leaders with authoritarian tendencies benefit when objective truths lose their power.” In George Orwell’s 1984, the functionaries in Big Brother’s Ministry of Truth spend their days rewriting historical records, discarding inconvenient old facts and making up new ones. When the truth gets hazy, tyrants get to define what’s true. The irony here is sharp. Artificial intelligence, perhaps humanity’s greatest monument to logical thinking, may trigger a revolution in perception that overthrows the shared values of reason and rationality we inherited from the Enlightenment.

37 Social Work Centers will receive security personnel from a licensed company within a month. The Public Procurement Procedure, which was recently announced by the Ministry of Social Policy, expires this week and requires a total of 60 security guards, announced the Deputy Minister of Social Policy, Demography and Youth, Gjoko Velkovski.

Nearly two years into the largest Rico, or conspiracy, prosecution against a protest movement in US history, the case is mired in delays and defence claims that proceedings are politically motivated and ruining the lives of the 61 activists and protesters who face trial. Rico cases are usually brought against organized crime, and are associated with the mafia, but in Georgia a sprawling prosecution has been brought against dozens of people opposed to a police training center near Atlanta known as Cop City.

Social workers and students should always make their voices heard, but particularly during this tumultuous period for federal rulemaking, says Dr. Kathryn Libal, UCONN Social Work Professor and Director of the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute.

The South African photographer Lindokuhle Sobekwa, whose experimental work has been praised for its “power and simplicity” and explores family ties, myth and post-apartheid life, has won the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation prize 2025. Sobekwa was awarded the £30,000 prize, one of the most prestigious in the industry, at the Photographers’ Gallery in London on Thursday for his work I Carry Her Photo With Me that focuses on the life and disappearance of his half-sister, Ziyanda.

I became a psychotherapist and psychologist to maximise the good I could do in the world. It seemed obvious that helping people by engaging with the root of their suffering would be the most helpful thing to do. I also became a child psychotherapist to address the roots of suffering in childhood, where they seemed to stem. I experienced how deepening into a feeling could transform it, and learned about pre-natal trauma; I even wrote a doctorate on trauma. Now, two decades into my career, I practise, lecture, supervise and write about all of these things, but increasingly I reject everything that I learned.

“Approximately 95 percent of the programs identified for waivers at the chancellor level had accreditation and licensure requirements attached to them,” said David J. English, the system’s senior vice president for academic affairs, during a UNC board committee meeting this week. English said these programs are in counseling, education, nursing, psychology and social work.

Sometimes the most haunting part of trauma isn’t what happened—it’s wondering what could have happened if you hadn’t trusted your gut.

Sweeping tax provision threatens to upend loan forgiveness plans for nonprofit workers…. This translates to roughly 6 million borrowers whose path to financial freedom could be abruptly terminated by a single administrative decision. These affected workers include:
– Healthcare professionals serving in nonprofit hospitals
– Teachers and staff at private educational institutions
– University employees across thousands of campuses
– Social workers addressing community needs
– Public interest attorneys providing legal aid
– Environmental researchers at conservation organizations
For these professionals, many of whom accepted lower salaries with the promise of eventual loan forgiveness, the proposed change represents an existential threat to their financial futures.

One such effort is Project Mayday, an all-volunteer harm reduction collective based in Charleston, West Virginia, the state with the highest overdose mortality rate in the nation. Despite unscientific restrictions on harm reduction services pushed by conservative state lawmakers, the group distributes first aid and other supplies that help drug users take control of their own health, including naloxone, the lifesaving medication that can reverse a potentially fatal opioid overdose.

Engineers built E-BAR, a mobile robot designed to physically support the elderly and prevent them from falling as they move around their homes. E-BAR acts as a set of robotic handlebars that follows a person from behind, allowing them to walk independently or lean on the robot’s arms for support.

Secretary of Health and Human Resources Janet Kelly speaks at a bill signing ceremony in Richmond

Today, it would be nearly impossible to overstate the extent to which justice for the criminal defendant in the U.S. has been compromised by prosecutorial misconduct of the most serious kinds. A growing body of evidence from journalistic investigations, scholarly studies, and reports from civil liberties groups reveals a startling pattern of serious misconduct, lack of transparency and accountability, and politicized and racialized enforcement.

Since SSA installed new anti-fraud checks on claims made over the phone, only two claims out of over 110,000 were found to likely be fraudulent, according to internal documents obtained by Nextgov/FCW.

Sarah Osofsky returned to school last year to earn her master’s degree in social work, hoping to give back to her community and find a job that would pay enough to survive Hawaiʻi’s high cost of living. Now, less than two weeks away from graduation, the mother of two is struggling to find a position that can sustain her family.

PhD candidate Ogechi Kalu has received the 2025-2026 CSWE Doctoral Student Policy Fellowship.

They were the children of domestic violence, parents haunted by drug addiction and other traumas, taken from their homes by social workers convinced that they would be safer in the custody of San Diego County than with their own parents…. Some of them were drugged to keep them vulnerable, and easy to molest, the plaintiffs say. In addition to repeated sexual assaults, others say they suffered physical and verbal abuse by social workers at the Polinsky Children’s Center.

Marcel Ballin also argues that there are many different reasons for promoting physical activity. However, large-scale interventions or policy changes intended to apply to the entire population must be based on reliable estimates — otherwise there is a risk of expecting effects that have in fact been overestimated. “Our results should not be interpreted as if physical activity and exercise are ineffective or that you should not try to promote it. But to create a more nuanced understanding of how big the effects of fitness actually are on different outcomes, we need to use several different methods. If we just ask the question in the same way, we will always get the same answer. It’s only when we get the same answer to a question that we have asked in slightly different ways that we can be sure that the findings are accurate,” says Marcel Ballin.

People with both heart disease and diabetes were also found to be at high risk, as were those with chronic lung conditions like asthma or COPD — chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Liver and bowel conditions also showed a noticeable link to depression in both men and women. Women with joint and bone problems, such as arthritis, were particularly affected, but this pattern was not as prominent for men.

North East Lincolnshire Council is taking a proactive approach to ensuring social workers and partner agencies are working collaboratively to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people across its district.

How relatedness to nature is linked to well-being is determined by district-level socioeconomic status. The Kobe University analysis is based on survey results from two major Japanese metropolitan areas.