News (1,607 posts)

Three medical social workers are urging the government to widen the scope of the long-awaited Social Work Profession Bill, which is expected to regulate only those outside the public sector. They warned that excluding social workers in the public sector from the Bill would have a detrimental effect.

The hearing… included testimony about proposed legislation, championed by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) that would allow the US Justice Department and law enforcement authorities to pursue RICO charges—prosecutions under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act—against organizations that “support” protests and “rioting” via anything from helping to organize protests to establishing legal defense funds and bail funds to support organizations and individuals engaged in protest.

Last month, AI company Anthropic agreed to a blockbuster $1.5 billion settlement after being caught red-handed training its models on an enormous cache of pirated versions of copyrighted books and other material. Now, a similar lawsuit aimed at ChatGPT maker OpenAI has taken a dramatic turn, raising the possibility of yet another major legal escalation regarding AI-facilitated copyright infringement — and a potentially much bigger payout to rightsholders. Specifically, authors and publishers who filed a lawsuit against the Sam Altman-led firm have secured access to internal Slack messages and emails discussing the mass deletion of a pirated books dataset, Bloomberg reports.

People living in socially and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods may face higher dementia risks, according to new research from Wake Forest University. Scientists found biological signs of Alzheimer’s and vascular brain disease in those from high-burden areas, particularly among Black participants. The results suggest that social and environmental injustices can alter brain structure and function. Improving community conditions could be key to protecting brain health.

The anticipated delay comes as a majority of the 5.9 million households served by the federally funded heating and cooling assistance program are grappling with the sudden postponement of benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps about 1 in 8 Americans buy groceries. Money is running out for other safety net programs as well and energy prices are soaring.

The World Tsunami Awareness Day 2025 Campaign is dedicated to advancing tsunami resilience through alignment with the Tsunami Ready Programme, a global initiative aimed at strengthening community resilience through awareness and preparedness strategies

11 million private renters in England will now have more secure and fairer conditions, such as ending Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions which removes people from their homes at the whim of the landlord, due to the Renters Right Bill receiving Royal Assent on 27th October and becoming an Act of Parliament.

These mobilisations have emerged largely outside of Indonesia’s acknowledged reformasi social movements that, since the mid 2000s, are often organised in NGOs with access to funding and recognition by the government as “legitimate” representatives of civil society. Many of the new street protests have a distinct class character, involving students and gig economy workers from poor backgrounds, as well as workers and farmers, many with previous experiences in conflict with state and private companies.

My soon-to-be-published new research finds generative AI also carries a colonial bias. When prompted to visualise Aotearoa New Zealand’s past, Sora privileges the European settler viewpoint: pre-colonial landscapes are rendered as empty wilderness, Captain Cook appears as a calm civiliser, and Māori are cast as timeless, peripheral figures. As generative AI tools become increasingly influential in how we communicate, such depictions matter. They naturalise myths of benevolent colonisation and undermine Māori claims to political sovereignty, redress and cultural revitalisation.

Cognitive struggles are climbing across the U.S., especially among young and economically disadvantaged adults. Rates of self-reported cognitive disability nearly doubled in people under 40 between 2013 and 2023. Researchers suspect social and economic inequality plays a major role and are urging further study to understand the trend’s causes and long-term impact.

The report said 83% of all countries, accounting for 90% of the world’s population, met the World Bank’s definition of high inequality. It added that countries with high inequality were seven times more likely to experience democratic decline than more equal countries.

Even though most of us think of healthcare as a human right, the reality is that in the United States the provision of healthcare is big business. It places profits over people, demonstrating that priority through tax dodging, price gouging, insurance denials, and unsafe conditions for patients, as documented in a recent joint report from our two organizations, Americans for Tax Fairness and Community Catalyst.

Staff at Coventry City Council have been violently attacked, sexually assaulted and verbally abused, a new study has revealed. Assaults have risen by 30 per cent in the past year, showing the serious risks faced by employees on the job.

National safe working limits for children’s social workers are needed to stop workloads driving practitioners out of the profession, the Department for Education (DfE) has been told…. Following a two-year DfE-commissioned project, the national workload action group (NWAG) called on the department to urgently commission work to determine safe workload limits, which it said should be followed by a review of the sufficiency of the children’s social work workforce.

Allegations of sexual abuse by early childhood educators have rocked Australia in recent months. Now, the ABC’s investigation into the childcare sector has revealed hundreds more cases – this time committed by children against other children. But some distressed parents have told the ABC their concerns were not taken seriously by the centre or police because it happened between children.

The US military is a behemoth that covers nearly the entirety of the planet, and the extent of the damage it is doing to the environment is difficult to comprehend. The military emits more carbon pollution than any other single institution and, depending on which estimates you trust, more than a vast number of countries in their entirety. As the world continues to hurtle toward climate disaster, the military is disproportionately responsible.

Uneducated fear motivates citizens to choose security and material or social advantages at the expense of justice. Hence why tyrants, in Aristotle’s time as much as ours, use fear and threats to wellbeing to maintain power. If we are going to have a political community that can make the sacrifices required to resist injustice, then some members of that community need to know how to feel fear well.

Cocaine, amphetamines and MDMA now have to compete with a group of imitators: synthetic cathinones, more commonly called “bath salts”. These are the most popular new stimulants in Europe today, and they are here to stay. Within this family of chemicals, the most popular is mephedrone, which was first sold online in 2007 as a legal alternative to MDMA. Its effects – euphoria, heightened appreciation of music, empathy and light sexual arousal – made it a popular party drug. However, its effects don’t last as long as MDMA, which leads people to take it various times during the same session, increasing the associated risks.

Since 2017 when the MeToo hashtag went viral, people have been trying to create online whisper networks. Projects like the Shitty Media Men list and the Facebook group Are We Dating the Same Guy are both examples of trying to build a larger warning system. The Tea app sells itself as a digital platform that gives women tools to protect themselves and others when dating men. However, important components of whisper networks get lost when they are moved to anonymous nationwide warning systems.

The flexible, general and relatively autonomous nature of chatbots makes it difficult to be sure they will adhere to updates, says Nick Haber, an AI researcher and professor at Stanford University. For example, OpenAI had trouble reigning in earlier model GPT-4’s tendency to excessively compliment users. Chatbots are generative and build upon their past knowledge and training, so an update doesn’t guarantee the model will completely stop undesired behavior.

But earlier this year, journalists at the Russian newspaper Izvestiya submitted pills they had purchased online for testing and found they contained a substance called sibutramine. First used as an antidepressant in the 1980s and later as an appetite suppressant, studies later found sibutramine increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes – while only slightly promoting weight loss.

The review panel was convened to look at the child protection system after the death of four-year-old Megan Khung, who was abused by her mother and the woman’s boyfriend. It found that there were lapses at multiple points across the system, and a lack of coordination between agencies. One of its seven recommendations was to ensure child abuse cases are mainly managed by child protection case management agencies, like the Ministry of Social and Family Development’s (MSF) Child Protective Service (CPS).

The Catrina has proved an appealing inspiration for women seeking to protest against the unacceptably high levels of gender-based violence in Mexico. The country has one of the highest rates of femicide in the world – a term used to denote deadly violence against women because of their gender. Alongside the glitzy parade is an alternative event called the Marcha de las Catrinas. In Mexico City, this march follows a route between two monuments dedicated to female victims of violence.

This trend is the total power of Boards of Trustees — self-appointed, self-reproducing, and answerable to no discernible public or regulatory scrutiny, not even to the presidents they hire, assess, and fire. Indeed, the growth of the power of the board is one of the most important transformations in American colleges since at least the 1990s…. In short, American universities have gradually come to be ruled by the very top of their imperial executive branches, the president and the board. The faculty, whose senates used to constitute a combined version of a legislative and judicial branch on campuses, have long been on the retreat, intimidated by the ballooning cadre of administrators and buffeted by real or imagined fiscal crises. In their diminished state, faculty are now kept busy responding to various student and parent whims about course content, grading, and campus politics. Faculty governance has largely been replaced by a governed faculty.

Today, with her cancer in remission, Linda Nothing (center) credits the U of T program for helping her heal in both body and spirit. Developed in collaboration with the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres and the Middleton-Moz Institute, the two-year graduate program combines academic study with Indigenous Knowledge systems to prepare graduates to work with individuals, families and communities affected by historical and intergenerational trauma.

The Care Reform (Scotland) Act recognises that some family and friends are also ‘Essential Care Supporters’ – an integral part of the care team for their loved ones. Anne’s Law recognises their role in providing care, support and companionship. This section of the regulations explains how care home providers should identify Essential Care Supporters for their residents. An Essential Care Supporter could someone who has been the resident’s main carer, or simply a close contact, like a family member or friend.

In the ten years I have rented in the private sector in London, I have had six landlords, nine flatmates, two section 21 eviction notices, two stints staying with friends to tide me over, one bedroom so damp mould grew on my clothes and one instance of fungi growing out of the ceiling. Some sickening maths suggests I have parted with around £115,000 in rent in the process. There is nothing particularly unusual about this. A fifth of households in the UK live in privately rented homes – dependent on the whims of often faceless landlords, powerless to demand repairs, unable to plan further ahead than the length of a tenancy. It can be an unpleasant, unsettling way to live.

Lead author PhD Candidate Bianca Johnston, from the Department of Social Work in the School of Primary and Allied Health Care, who was supervised by Monash University’s Associate Professor Catherine Flynn and Australian National University’s Associate Professor Faith Gordon, said it is hoped that by understanding and providing visibility to what young women are already doing to keep themselves safe, recover and heal in the face of IPV that the findings of this research can inform youth-informed strategies in direct social work practice.

“Every day without funding stretches social workers and law enforcement thin, putting vulnerable children in danger,” said Marisa Cummings, a citizen of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska and a tribal consultant with 20 years of experience in federal policy and advocacy.
Starting Nov. 1, millions of people may not receive their food stamps benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. Also frozen: the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program; Head Start preschool funding; and Women, Infants and Children subsidies as the federal government heads toward a “fiscal cliff.”

Guest: Dr. Michelle Munson, Professor at the Silver School of Social Work at New York University.

New international research initiative connects scholars from Canada and New Zealand to explore Indigenous knowledge and community-based climate adaptation. Above: Mira Azzasyofia, right, with Elder Kerri Moore during sage picking at Nose Hill Park.

While he was state schools superintendent, Ryan Walters demanded Bibles be placed in every classroom, created a state Office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism, and encouraged schools to use online “pro-America” content from conservative media nonprofit PragerU. He called teachers unions “terrorist” organizations, railed against “woke” classrooms, threatened to yank the accreditation of school districts that resisted his orders and commissioned a test to measure whether teacher applicants from liberal states had “America First” knowledge.

The term ‘borderline’ itself is not very helpful for understanding the condition. It originally referred to the idea that the problems of BPD exist between, or at the border of, ‘psychosis’ and ‘neurosis’ – an idea rooted in early psychoanalytic concepts. This understanding of the disorder does not reflect the majority of current research on BPD or people’s personal experiences with it, but the term ‘borderline’ has lived on.

The suicide prevention charity says that suicide is and needs to be treated as an issue of inequality, with the rate of suicide mortality in the most deprived areas in Scotland being 2.5 times higher than the least deprived area. The charity says that tackling inequalities across Scottish society and in services is the only way to reduce the number of lives lost to suicide in our communities.

New roles include social workers, occupational therapists, coordinators, and care assistants, some of whom will be based directly in hospital settings at Bronglais and Glangwili.

MF says policies based on “this idea that those in poverty have to be punished” keep people like her poor.

The SWRB said in a letter to Tse, which was seen by HKFP, that the board had decided to maintain its September 4 order that suspended his social worker licence for three years, starting from this Friday.

Work, education and health are just some of the areas where technology is being used to supercharge monitoring – and potentially control.

It’s no wonder that the right’s strategy to destroy the foundations of our democracy as we know it is routed through our public school system. Seventy percent of teachers are in a union, making teaching one of the most unionized professions in America. Public schools are a rare American institution where people of all races, faiths, and backgrounds are meant to gather and be treated equally.

Of the many good reasons why you shouldn’t give up hope, the first is that popular resistance is growing, as seen in the recent No Kings protests, the largest in US history. Above: People form a human banner at Ocean Beach during the “No Kings” protests in San Francisco on Saturday, June 14

A writer sits at her kitchen table, pen in hand, staring at her first book contract. The coffee’s gone cold. The pen is poised. The word that catches her eye isn’t advance or royalties. It’s morality. It reads like a warning: The publisher reserves the right to terminate this agreement if the author engages in conduct that may subject the publisher to public disrepute or contempt. In other words—one wrong tweet, and the dream evaporates.

Almost all the billionaire cash is backing independent candidate Andrew Cuomo (98%), with 58 of the 62 billionaire spenders giving a total of $18.4 million to Cuomo-aligned super political action committees (super PACs). Democratic hopeful Zohran Mamdani has received the support of just two billionaire spenders, who together have contributed $270,000 to outside PACs pushing his candidacy…. As of October 1st, New York City is the primary residence to 111 billionaires, according to Forbes, with lots more owning second homes or business property in the Big Apple. Collectively these 111 billionaires are worth $717 billion, over six times the city’s annual budget.

Attorney General William Tong said he joined of 21 other attorneys general and three governors in a suit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its Secretary Brooke Rollins…. Earlier this week, state officials warned that EBT card holders may not see their cards reloaded on Nov. 1. Here in Connecticut, 360,000 thousand would be impacted. This affects 120,000 children in our state.

Affordable homes built the post-war social contract—their absence today fuels political extremism.

Researcher Connie Chan at her exhibition on the 1980s and the 1990s LGBTQ culture in Hong Kong

Library Manager John Elford says the reimagined main street has brought new visitors to the public library and helped residents see that social workers at the library are helping unhoused members of the community connect to nearby resources.

If you’re considering a career in social work, now is the time to act. Maryland, and the nation at large, is facing a mental health crisis that demands a robust, compassionate, and highly trained workforce. Clinical social workers are at the forefront of this response, providing therapy, crisis intervention, and advocacy in communities that need it most.

Plymouth State University has received a $1.56 million federal grant to launch the Plymouth-Area Rural Opioid Training Collaborative, which will support workforce development and professional training to address the ongoing shortage of behavioral health providers in northern New Hampshire.

I have found that the same far-right groups that sought to defeat public housing construction and maintain racially restrictive agreements in post-World War II Los Angeles also advocated to ban immigrants from U.S. housing programs. Among the leaders of these efforts was the far-right politician and activist Gerald L.K. Smith. Described in 1976 by historian John Morton Blum as “the most infamous American fascist,” Smith helped bridge the American right’s 1940s conspiratorial and isolationist America First era and its 1960s anti-civil rights era.

BASW has been campaigning for Liberty Protection Safeguards to be implemented across England and Wales. The Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) scheme, which was agreed by parliament in 2019, is designed to replace Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). However, it has been subject to repeated delays, leading to uncertainty as to whether it would be implemented at all.