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The AI machine has no idea what it means to be human. It cannot offer genuine compassion, it cannot foresee your suffering, cannot intuit hidden motives or lies. It has no taste, no instinct, no inner compass. It is bereft of all the messy, charming complexity that makes us who we are. More troubling still: AI has no goals of its own, no desires or ethics unless injected into its code. That means the true danger doesn’t lie in the machine, but in its master — the programmer, the corporation, the government. Still feel safe?

Santa Clara County social worker Matthew Kraft, who was the first to sound the alarm that baby Phoenix Castro should not be sent home with her drug-abusing parents, talks during an interview after receiving the “Child Protector of the Year” award from the Child Abuse Prevention Council of Santa Clara County

I used to think climate change was the crisis we would solve last, if at all. But seeing the affordable housing crisis up close has changed my mind.

Two other institutions that Caron operates have troubled track records of their own. Last month, a staff member at the Vermont School for Girls in Bennington (above) was charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old student. In 2017, a math teacher there was convicted of similar crimes and sentenced to at least 12 years in prison. And Mount Prospect Academy, a nonprofit that runs residential treatment programs for youths in New Hampshire, is facing approximately 125 lawsuits from current and former students who allege they experienced physical, sexual and psychological abuse there.

The scale of the shortage of social work graduates was laid bare in a recent report by the Irish Association of Social Workers which revealed that, while 250 social work students graduate each year, at least twice as many graduates are needed to bridge the skills gap in Ireland every year.

Dr. Alan Garber, Harvard’s president, said in a letter to faculty and students that the university would not submit to a list of demands made last Friday. Among them are that it eliminate DEI programs, screen international students who are “supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism” and ensure “viewpoint diversity” in its hiring. At stake, the government said, was some $9 billion in federal funding. “No government,” Garber wrote, “regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”

With the global prevalence of obesity on the rise, it is crucial to explore the neural mechanisms linked to obesity and its influence on brain and cognitive health. However, the impact of obesity on the brain is complex and multilevel.

As of October, about 79 million people were enrolled in Medicaid or the related Children’s Health Insurance Program, both of which are means-tested and thus depend on the poverty guidelines to determine eligibility. Eligibility for premium subsidies for insurance plans sold in Affordable Care Act marketplaces is also tied to the official poverty level. One in eight Americans rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, and 40% of newborns and their mothers receive food through the Women, Infants, and Children program, both of which also use the federal poverty level to determine eligibility.

Nationwide, psychiatric “boarding” — when a patient waits in the emergency room after providers decide to admit the person — has increased because of a rise in suicide attempts, among other mental health issues, and a shortage of inpatient psychiatric beds, according to a study of 40 hospitals in the journal Pediatrics. It found the number of cases in which children spent at least two days in pediatric hospitals before being transferred for psychiatric care also increased 66% from 2017 through 2023 to reach 16,962 instances.

That’s a strange question. Of course there should be no misconduct in research. The problem is that it’s difficult to know exactly how much misconduct – data fabrication, plagiarism and so on – there actually is. Instead, we have to infer this from the number of allegations that are made, the number of these that are upheld following investigation and so on. In other words, our evidence is indirect.

“In social work, it’s far less often your caseload alone that will make or break your experience, it’s the culture…”

Marija Barilić, Luisa Brumana

As if sandbagging unionized federal workers isn’t despicable enough, some states recently ramped up their own assaults on union members who serve as educators, firefighters, corrections officers, and road workers, as well as in many other positions.

Harrington cites recent findings by economic psychologists showing that most people vastly underestimate the extent of inequality in their countries—in the United States, by as much as 42 percent. Since the 1960s, offshore capitalism has quietly helped transform the global economy by pioneering financialization, facilitating elite impunity, and supporting the accumulation of ever greater intergenerational wealth, all while shielded from outside scrutiny.

The Legislature eliminated parole for nearly everyone imprisoned for crimes committed after Aug. 1, making Louisiana the 17th state in a half-century to abolish parole altogether and the first in 24 years to do so. For the vast majority of prisoners who were already behind bars, like Alexander, another law put an algorithm in charge of determining whether they have a shot at early release; only prisoners rated low risk qualify for parole.

Johanna Pretzl, who is studying the Conversion programme for persons with a foreign degree in Social Work at Stockholm University shares her background, experiences with the program, and hopes for the future.

During his presentation, Mateo Taveras shared the findings of a qualitative research study conducted in three hospitals in the capital city. The research revealed a concerning lack of specific regulations for the work of social work personnel within these healthcare facilities. According to the speaker, this absence of clear guidelines has led to a devaluation of the professional role, inconsistent practices across different institutions, and a weak integration of social workers into medical care teams.

Heavy drinkers who have eight or more alcoholic drinks per week have an increased risk of brain lesions called hyaline arteriolosclerosis, signs of brain injury that are associated with memory and thinking problems, according to a new study.

The bill was specifically drafted by Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton, to ban flags celebrating the LGBTQ community in schools. It was later expanded to apply on all government property in the state. Public higher education is included…. The U.’s faculty have increasingly prompted pushback from state leaders, who have suggested that the school has become too progressive.

The unbroken conservative desire to cut the welfare state is not really motivated by concern for welfare recipients but rather by concern for others who they think are more deserving of the share of the national income and consumption that welfare beneficiaries currently receive. Makers and takers. Producers and parasites. And so on.

A McGill University-led study found that people with cannabis use disorder (CUD) had elevated dopamine levels in a brain region associated with psychosis.

Kaila Anderson knows first-hand that farmers have a high propensity for depression and one of the highest rates of suicide of any occupation, often attributed to the demanding and precarious nature of the job. Yet she has found that crisis-line staffers, doctors and therapists in farm country often don’t have the cultural training to recognize the signs of emotional stress unique to farmers.

The proliferation and growing sophistication of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has also opened troubling new frontiers. Child abusers can now produce realistic AI-generated child sexual abuse material, using the photos of real children in order to extort. This can make detection harder and muddy the water in terms of legal accountability. Many jurisdictions are still playing catch-up.

Being married is by no means an established protective factor for dementia, with an earlier meta-analysis (a study of studies) showing mixed results. The new study from Florida State University uses one of the biggest samples to date to examine this issue, and carries a good deal of weight.

In the face of ongoing funding disruptions to US foreign assistance programs, a group of international experts including co-lead author Prof Lucie Cluver, Professor of Child and Family Social Work, Department of Social Policy and Intervention, and co-author Dr. Seth Flaxman, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, call for urgent action to ensure the continuation of life-saving interventions and support for children and families affected by HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

At the end of March, Jonathan P. Kessler, Assistant Professor of Practice at Merrimack College and visiting lecturer in the Social Work programme at Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU), visited Latvia to deliver a lecture.

While fentanyl-related deaths have drastically risen over the past decade, no evidence suggests any resulted from incidentally touching or inhaling it, and little to no evidence that any resulted from consuming it in marijuana products. (Recent data indicates that fentanyl-related deaths have begun to drop.) There is also almost no evidence that law enforcement personnel are at heightened risk of accidental overdoses due to such exposures. Still, there is a steady stream of reports — which generally turn out to be false — of officers allegedly becoming ill after handling fentanyl.

I conducted this new systematic review to collate information on the prevalence of animal tranquilizer adulteration of illicit opioid products, the mechanisms of action, and how these new products could affect the current recommendations for naloxone use in people who have stopped breathing.

The Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine (TUCVM) is proud to announce that Chankia S. Berry, TUCVM’s Veterinary Social Worker, has been named the 2025 Social Worker of the Year by the Coalition of Black Excellence Social Workers.

Placing wake-up calls. Tracking locations. Managing assignment deadlines. How hyper-involved moms and dads can’t seem to back off.

We always welcome feedback and views from members on any issues raised in parliament which cut across social work interests and stand to impact upon the profession and people we support. Your insights and expertise help to drive our influencing and engagement work with policy-makers. Please contact our Political & Public Affairs Lead on jonny.adamson@basw.co.uk

“The community members in jjokbang-chon are subjected to the worst of climate change while contributing the least to its causes. This pattern is not unique to jjokbang-chon — it reflects a broader global injustice,” Dr. Kang said. “Higher-income countries and cities drive emissions through their lifestyles and consumption, yet it is poorer countries and marginalized communities that bear the brunt of climate disasters. This disparity, known as the carbon divide, highlights how the wealthiest 10% of the global population are responsible for nearly 50% of all emissions”

Researchers explored the long-term effects of preschool expansion in Japan in the 1960s, revealing significant reductions in risky behaviors amongst teenagers. By analyzing regional differences in the rollout of the program, the study identified links between early childhood education and lower rates of juvenile violent arrests and teenage pregnancy. The findings suggest that improved noncognitive skills played a key role in mitigating risky behaviors, highlighting the lasting benefits of early-education policies.

Member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Ms Starry Lee, and the Director of the National Security and Legal Education Research Centre of the Education University of Hong Kong, Professor Gu Minkang, also shared their valuable insights on patriotic education as well as national security and the law at the symposium respectively, which enabled participants to have deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the relevant topics (emphasis added). The role of social work?

Jackie Chen was among a group of social workers who often carried a loudspeaker seeking to mediate between police and protesters during the often-violent social unrest. While she had been acquitted in her first trial in September 2020, prosecutors successfully appealed the verdict. She was convicted following a retrial.

O’Malley said the combination of increased anti-fraud measures–for an agency whose error rate is already under 1%–and funneling more people into online and AI-powered service lanes will crush the public’s faith in the agency. < Isn't that the goal?

Have you ever gone to a store or a restaurant where the music was so annoying that you walked right out? Now imagine what it must be like for the employees. In a new study, researchers found that when background music at a workplace is out of sync with what workers need to do their jobs, it can affect their energy, mood — and even performance.

In probing whether there are basic sex differences in humans, a psychologist and a biologist agree to seriously disagree…. As you read, notice how these scholars interpret the same evidence through fundamentally different frameworks – revealing why discussions about sex differences remain both scientifically complex and politically charged.

Iriss is working with a mix of strategic and local partners to co-design a better and more joined up approach across Scotland to hoarding – a hidden and often misunderstood mental health issue that impacts on people who hoard, their families, communities and workers. It is estimated to affect 1 in 10 people and a third of all fire deaths are in homes of people who hoard.

Researchers from chemistry, biology, and medicine are increasingly turning to AI models to develop new hypotheses. However, it is often unclear on which basis the algorithms come to their conclusions and to what extent they can be generalized. A publicationnow warns of misunderstandings in handling artificial intelligence. At the same time, it highlights the conditions under which researchers can most likely have confidence in the models.

On a Friday evening in February, the National Institutes of Health announced it was dropping indirect-cost (IDC) rates on research grants to 15 percent. Guidance issued by the Office of the Director said it wanted to make U.S. medical research the best in the world by reducing “administrative overhead” to allowed increased spending on “direct scientific research costs”… and made it effective the following Monday. Implementation is paused pending full judicial review, but even if the courts deny this change policymakers could choose to revisit the issue.

Judges are finding a growing number of criminal defendants in New York City’s state courts mentally unfit to stand trial, meaning their charges must either be dropped or they must be held in hospitals, not in jail, according to city health data obtained by Gothamist. But the hospitals where the defendants are supposed to go for treatment can’t keep up with the increasing demand, mental health officials, researchers and legal experts said. Instead, the defendants are being held on Rikers Island, which faces the threat of a federal takeover amid high rates of violence.

Investigators have linked difficult early life experiences with reduced quality and quantity of the white matter communication highways throughout the adolescent brain. This reduced connectivity is also associated with lower performance on cognitive tasks.

A long-stalled EU proposal to broaden anti-discrimination protections faces withdrawal, prompting urgent calls to salvage its vital principles amidst rising inequality.

We need working class people of all backgrounds – people like you – to run and serve if we are going to make progress on economic, social, and climate justice.

A study by the European Transport Safety Council found that in a collision between a modest-size SUV (sports utility vehicle) weighing 1,600kg and a lighter car weighing 1,300kg, the risk of fatal injury decreases by 50% for the occupants of the heavier car but increases by almost 80% for the occupants of the lighter car. Similarly, pedestrians and cyclists are more likely to be killed if the car that strikes them has a bonnet that is higher off the road than average, a typical feature of an SUV.

The UK Government has announced new grant funding of £2billion as part of their long-term plans to build 1.5million new homes to help tackle the housing crisis.