“Iatrogenesis” is the word for all of it. From the Greek—iatros (healer) + genesis (origin)—iatrogenesis refers to the phenomenon by which a healer harms a patient in the course of treatment. Most often, it is not malpractice, though it can be. Much of iatrogenesis occurs not because a doctor is malicious or incompetent but because treatment exposes a patient to exogenous risks. Iatrogenesis is everywhere—because all interventions carry risk. When a sick patient submits to treatment, the risks are typically worth it. When a well patient does, on the other hand, the risks often outweigh the potential for further improvement.
Student digs up suspected wartime bomb in garden
Aaron Gibson, a 21-year-old social work graduate, made the discovery on Saturday afternoon.
Changes to NZ’s parole laws to improve rehabilitation could lead to even longer prison times
By making rehabilitation programme completion compulsory to be eligible for parole, the hope is people in prison will be incentivised to finish the programmes. Stephenson said introducing compulsory completion will have a positive impact on Aotearoa New Zealand’s high rates of recidivism and reincarceration.
There Was Always Crying in Sports. The Kelces Made It Cool.
At a new conference to announce his retirement from the N.F.L., Jason Kelce cried repeatedly. That was nothing new for the veteran offensive lineman.
Colorado unveils first rules for facilitation of psychedelic therapy
The rules outline several types of facilitator licenses that the state anticipates issuing, curriculum requirements for training programs it will approve, and a code of ethics for licensed facilitators in this newly recognized profession. The agency also made recommendations for growing, testing and labeling psilocybin mushrooms that will be used for therapeutic purposes.
‘My Generation Has Been Destroyed’ — Inside the Mental Health Crisis Facing Michigan’s Muslim Youth
In the Arab American enclave of Dearborn, the war in Gaza and increased surveillance from the FBI stoke anxiety, depression and substance abuse — pushing the 9/11 generation to the brink
Nunavut vows review of costs, more checks on kids sent south amid Global News investigation
The months-long investigation revealed serious concerns about the care received by some vulnerable youth in Nunavut’s child-welfare system when they are sent out of territory to group or foster homes operated by for-profit companies in Ontario. Above: Children’s swings overlooking Iqaluit, the capital city of Nunavut.
Plans for 400 affordable homes revealed by social housing group
New artist’s impressions reveal how the transformed Wyndford will look, with £87 million to be spent on the regeneration, including building new houses and flats, and £13 million set aside to improve existing homes and create new green areas.
Socialism, anti-fascism and anti-abortion on Prevent list of terrorism warning signs
A document from Prevent, the official scheme to stop radicalisation, includes believing in socialism, communism, anti-fascism and anti-abortion in a list of potential signs of ideologies leading to terrorism. It comes as the Conservative government considers widening what it will consider to be extremism. The document is part of online Prevent awareness training for those covered by the duty to inform if they suspect radicalisation. That includes teachers and youth workers.
Long-acting HIV treatment benefits adults with barriers to daily pill taking and adolescents with suppressed HIV
Long-acting, injectable antiretroviral therapy (ART) suppressed HIV replication better than oral ART in people who had previously experienced challenges taking daily oral regimens and was found safe in adolescents with HIV viral suppression, according to two studies presented today at the 2024 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.
This California county is testing AI’s ability to prevent homelessness
Dana Vanderford, Associate Director of Homelessness Prevention at Housing for Health at Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, in Los Angeles
NAACP and Children’s Advocates Request Federal Civil Rights Investigation of Minnesota’s Child Welfare System
“The discriminatory and disproportionate removal of Black children from their families comes at a heavy cost to both children and parents,” the 30-page complaint states. “The State has failed to remedy the historic and ongoing harms caused by its child welfare system, and the discrimination against and disparate impacts upon Minnesota’s Black families have been egregious and shocking.”
MAID and mental health: Does ending the suffering of mental illness mean supporting death or supporting better lives?
Health Minister Mark Holland, left, looks on as Justice Minister and Attorney General of Canada Arif Virani speaks about assisted dying legislation on Feb. 1, 2024 in Ottawa.
UTEP launches clinical trial to improve community health through walking
“This is an exciting opportunity to improve our community’s health through the simple, free and life-changing power of walking,” said Jennifer Salinas, Ph.D., Principal Investigator and Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work.
Trump’s White House Was ‘Awash in Speed’ — and Xanax
Under Trump, the White House Medical Unit was “like the Wild West,” and staffers had easy access to powerful stimulants and sedatives, sources tell Rolling Stone. Above: Then-President Donald Trump looks to White House physician Ronny Jackson during an event at the White House
Shrinkflation 101: The Economics of Smaller Groceries
Have you noticed your grocery products shrinking? Here’s how that gets counted — and what gets missed — in inflation data.
Children surpass a year of HIV remission after treatment pause
NIH-funded trial shows promising outcomes with treatment started promptly after birth.
Social Work England cuts timeframes for investigating staff alleged to be practising illegally
The regulator said that the change had been achieved through a boost in staffing for the relevant team – which had previously been carrying vacancies – streamlined procedures and new guidance on the process for the public and social workers.
UTRGV School of Social Work unveils simulation room in Laredo
UTRGV School of Social Work professor Griselda Vazquez explains how students practice hypothetical scenarios in the Simulation Room at the University of Texas Education and Research Center at Laredo
Kyrsten Sinema Does Us All a Favor
Sinema’s official Senate farewell was, in other words, a classic Sinema performance: claiming the enlightened, above-the-fray rhetorical high ground while wallowing in the professional-class petulance reserved for an insufficiently grateful client base.
Illinois Commission gifting loan relief to state’s social workers
The Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) has launched applications for the School and Municipal Social Work Shortage Loan Repayment Program. Eligible recipients will earn up to $6,500 for loan repayment.
I investigated child abuse in Iowa for decades. Kim Reynolds is wrong about the threats.
It is imperative that our children are not misled by politicians to fear drag queens instead of the statistically more predatory members of our society, often in their own families. Above: Laura Hansen retired after more than three decades as a social worker with the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services/Child Protective Assessments Unit in Polk County.
A Proposal to Tie Tenure to Intellectual Diversity Nears Approval in Indiana
The bill, SB 202, would allow public colleges’ boards of trustees to deny faculty members tenure or promotion if they are deemed “unlikely to foster a culture of free inquiry, free expression, and intellectual diversity within the institution” or to expose students to scholarship representing a variety of ideological viewpoints, or if the board determines that the faculty members are likely “to subject students to political or ideological views and opinions that are unrelated” to their discipline.
With Medical Debt Burdening Millions, a Financial Regulator Steps In to Help
the CFPB has done its share of policing mortgage brokers, student loan companies, and banks. But as the U.S. health care system turns tens of millions of Americans into debtors, this financial watchdog is increasingly working to protect beleaguered patients, adding hospitals, nursing homes, and patient financing companies to the list of institutions that regulators are probing.
Temporary housing ‘a factor in 55 child deaths in England since 2019’
Temporary accommodation can include bed and breakfasts, hostels and temporary housing and is often supplied by councils. A shortage of social housing and soaring private rents has led to some town halls to resort to places that are damp, cold and overcrowded.
Chris Hedges: How Private Equity Conquered America
Blackstone, Apollo, and a handful of other firms are demolishing the US economy for short-term gain, and leaving workers and communities in the wreckage.
AI in education is a public problem
The recent critiques of AI in education resonate with Mike Ananny’s call to treat generative AI as a ‘public problem’:
“we need to see it as a fast-emerging language that people are using to learn, make sense of their worlds, and communicate with others. In other words, it needs to be seen as a public problem. … Public problems are collectively debated, accounted for, and managed; they are not the purview of private companies or self-identified caretakers who work on their own timelines with proprietary knowledge. Truly public problems are never outsourced to private interests or charismatic authorities”
Gentrification Is a Feature, Not a Bug, of Capitalist Urban Planning
That’s what capitalists say; it’s not really what they do. Capitalists and political conservatives are quick to call for an expansion of the state when it comes to its carceral capacities or its military might, and those expressions of state power have been ballooning budgets at the local, state, and federal levels. Big businesses love the kinds of complex regulations that keep smaller firms from competing with them; they can hire armies of lawyers to whack through the weeds, while their competitors get mired in the muck. They herald expansions of state power that increase inequalities and suppress insurgencies as government doing its job. Above: A view of the Hudson Yards development zone is seen from the street in 2018 in New York City.
Navigating special education labels is complex, and it matters for education equity
The Ontario Ministry of Education’s special education policy and resource guide provides instructions to school boards and schools on administering special education programs. It also emphasizes the importance of education equity, and involving parents in special education designations.
Recruitment crisis means borough has only half the number of child social workers it needs
The authority currently has 59 vacancies, but a further 55 vacancies are unfilled, according to a report being presented to the council’s employment committee on Monday. Above: Trafford town hall
Gaza Doesn’t Need Patronizing “Empathy”
How can this be said plainly? Brené Brown is not “overwhelmed” by the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. If she was, she might have been one of the people who spent the last five months on advocacy work, rather than relying on the word “overwhelmed” to express her alignment with the prevalent emotional diktats. Many of us know people who are overwhelmed right now; a hollow use of the term is an affront to them…. Insofar as she sees a foray into the political arena as necessary or profitable, Brown should know that the “call to courage” mantra she sells might actually entail taking stances that risk one’s following and marketability.
Fifth of social worker and care roles ‘vacant’
A report prepared for Westmorland and Furness Council said the vacancy rate of 20.5% in the area was higher that the national average of 11.6%.
Deadly experiment? UK asylum sites criticised for ‘horrific’ level of despair
Wethersfield is one of two mass accommodation sites the Home Office has opened recently, along with the Bibby Stockholm barge, a hulk-like structure moored in Portland, Dorset (above).
‘Actually I am not happy’: Hong Kong seeks new strategies to stem rise in student suicides
Emily, a social worker based in a primary school, echoed Tsang’s remarks, telling HKFP in Cantonese that both teachers and students were under tremendous pressure as schools sought to improve their rankings.
Our ‘Troubled’ Underclass
“When I was a baby, my mother and I lived in a car. About a year later, we moved into a slum apartment in Westlake, a poor neighborhood in Los Angeles. Documents from social workers report that my mother would tie me to a chair with a bathrobe belt so that she could get high in another room without being interrupted. She left bruises and marks on my face. While my mother did drugs, I would cry from the other room as I struggled to break free.”
Homeless crackdown gains momentum in California as US Supreme Court test looms
Seven months into a crackdown by the city of San Diego on homeless encampments, many of the tents that once lined downtown sidewalks are gone. Now two California state senators – a Republican and a Democrat – have joined forces to propose a statewide version of San Diego’s ordinance, which allows police to roust many homeless people even when shelter is unavailable.
Lawmakers Could Limit When County Officials in Mississippi Can Jail People Awaiting Psychiatric Treatment
A padded cell in the Adams County jail in Natchez, Mississippi, is used to hold people awaiting psychiatric evaluation and court-ordered treatment. LH, a 37-year-old hospice care consultant and mother of two, was found dead in one of the jail’s two padded cells in late August, less than 24 hours after she was booked with no criminal charges to await mental health treatment.
Program aims to increase number of Spanish-speaking social workers in the state
The UConn School of Social work is working to address a shortage of bilingual social workers through Connecticut ¡Adelante!, a new program offered in Hartford.
‘Profiteering off children’: care firms in England accused of squeezing cash from councils
Now more than 80% of care homes in England are run to make a profit, with large, debt-laden chains owned by private equity investors increasingly taking over smaller companies. Unlike the Welsh and Scottish governments, UK ministers are not seeking to eliminate profit-making from the care of children in England. Instead, the government’s reforms are focused on rebalancing the market by boosting commissioning power and providing capital funding for councils to build more homes.
Mary McAleese keynote address for Yes Yes Campaign
Second energy firm wrongly received money from welfare payments under Centrepay scheme
A second Australian energy company wrongly received money from the welfare payments of former customers, prompting fears the issue identified at AGL could be widespread. Guardian Australia revealed last week that $700,000 had been diverted via the government-run Centrepay debit system from the pockets of more than 500 welfare recipients to the energy giant AGL.
$400,000 Per Missile? Sanders Rips War Profiteers ‘Fleecing’ US Taxpayers
“America’s national priorities are badly misplaced,” the senator asserted. “Our country spends, with almost no debate, nearly $1 trillion a year on the military while at the same time ignoring massive problems at home. We apparently have unlimited amounts of money for nuclear weapons, fighter planes, bombs, and tanks. But somehow we can’t summon the resources to provide healthcare for all, childcare, affordable housing, and other basic needs”…. “Alone, we account for roughly 40% of global military spending; the U.S. spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined, most of whom are allies. Last year, we spent more than three times what China spent on its military.”
Meth use is declining in Australia – but the public still sees it as the most worrying drug
Many of us have Styrofoam coolers lying around the house or clogging up our trash, but instead of letting them go to waste, one Lewiston woman is turning them into homes for stray cats.
Judith Keys is a now retired social worker, but her heart for helping others never went away…. For the past two years, she’s run her own business, creating and giving away what she calls “Cat Cubes.”
Op-Ed: Protect older adults in Queens from abuse
Shyvonne Noboa is the Associate Executive Director for Older Adult Services at Sunnyside Community Services, leading a team of 65 staff members and managing a budget exceeding $7 million. With over a decade at SCS, she’s been instrumental in its success, directing caregiver services and launching innovative programs.
How the Tories drove Britain’s local services into bankruptcy
Britain is so broke that it can’t afford lollipop people any more. Councils are having to turn off the fountains in Nottingham and dim the street lights in Birmingham. In some areas, public toilets are a thing of the past. Libraries might soon follow them.
Once in a Thousand Years: The Increasing Threat of Mega Floods in Southern China
The Pearl River basin has experienced significant flooding events linked to climatic changes, with notable impacts on local ecology, agriculture, and society. A new study highlights the importance of understanding historical flood patterns to predict future events and their potential effects on human civilization.
Debt, missed classes and anxiety: How climate-driven disasters hurt college students
Hundreds of students were affected by a devastating wildfire in Lahaina, Hawaii, in August 2023. The University of Hawai’i Maui College gave affected students emergency funds immediately.
CHKD’S first male NICU social worker reflects on ancestry during Black History Month
Kevon Purdie was raised in Suffolk and is the first man to work as a social worker at CHKD’s NICU in Norfolk.
Dedication to community building realized at UB
Rosaura Romero qualifies for what might be called a True Blue trifecta: She’s a proud UB alum, who’s also a UB grad student (set to graduate this spring), who also kicked off her career at UB.