Message from NASW-DE Executive Director John Shuford

The killings in Arizona have stunned many of us and hopefully they will motivate some of us to political action. Much needs to be done for our profession and for those we serve.  We cannot do much alone, but by joining efforts, much can be accomplished. Our PACE Committee [NASW/DE’s political action committee] is there for that reason. I encourage you to get involved with PACE.  We have great ideas, but need membership to make them happen. The Clinical Social Worker Society of Delaware performed the advocacy function for many years, but now that they will no longer function in that capacity, we need to step-up. We need to protect our profession, enhance its status and promote its development.  Please contact me and become involved in PACE.

NASW national released a statement regarding the death of Gabe Zimmerman, a staff member of Congresswoman Giffords.

The Chapter’s Board meetings are open to our membership. The next Board meetings will be February 2 [Dover], March 22 [Annual meeting and dinner in Dover], April 12 [Dover] and June 14 [Georgetown].  Please join us to give input and find out what is going on with social workers in Delaware.

I’d like to welcome our newest members:
Peter Coker, Angela Greenwood, Shondia Jones, Precious Keitt, Ken Sabanayagam, Kylee Vansant, Jessie Walker, Lanae Ampersand, Henry Koffield, Richard Bell and Nadia Caprice.

Remember our Chapter’s annual dinner and celebration on March 22.  It will be at the Duncan Center in Dover and we will have nice give-a-ways for all attendees.

Please see the classified ad below about The Delaware Psychological Association sponsoring a continuing education workshop, "Integrative Treatment for ADHD in Children, Teens & Adults".  Since the DPA is affiliated with the American Psychological Association, their programs qualify for social worker CEUs.

Finally, it is with sadness that we inform you that Leta Griffith Cooper, age 66, prominent social worker, family and individual therapist in DE, PA and WV for 35 years, died January 8th at the Delaware Hospice in Milford, DE. MORE

                                                                                                    John

Health Care Reform: Ask Your Representative to Vote No to Repeal

On January 5, 2011, Rep. Eric Cantor (VA-7) introduced the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act (H.R. 2). A vote on the bill is scheduled for Wednesday, January 19, 2011. H.R. 2 would repeal the Affordable Care Act that was signed into law last March. NASW worked hard to pass the Affordable Care Act and does not want to see the law repealed. Even if the House passes the bill, the Senate is unlikely to take it up, but it is important to let Congress know that we do not want the law repealed.

Action Requested (Click here)
Please contact your Representative before Wednesday, January 19 and ask them to vote no on H.R. 2. When you click on the Take Action link, you will be brought to a pre-drafted letter that you can modify.

Background
The Affordable Care Act offers needed improvements to health care access, quality and services for millions of Americans. It provides health insurance market reforms that would prohibit pre-existing conditions exclusions and annual or lifetime limits and allow dependent young adults to remain on parental coverage to age 26. Social workers support the law because it assures more affordable health care for beneficiaries, particularly those with modest incomes and serious health needs. Under the new law, social workers will have an opportunity to work within health teams and to provide an expanded array of covered behavioral health services to more beneficiaries.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, H.R. 2 would increase the federal budget deficit by $145 billion from 2012 to 2019, and $230 billion from 2012 to 2021. Click here to send an Action Alert!

A Milestone for Mikulski, the 'Dean' of Senate Women

"Maybe it's because she's a social worker, maybe because she's a woman - she understands relationships are everything," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). "She helps you see areas of common interest so you can find solutions." MORE

NASBHC’s New Year Webinars: Confidentiality in School-Based Health Services: Understanding HIPAA & FERPA

The NASBHC (National Assembly on School-Based Health Care) has new free webinars. The first webinar will be on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ( FERPA) in the context of school-based health centers (SBHCs) on Tuesday, January 25, 2010 from 3:00-4:30 pm EST.

Objectives
• Review adolescents’ interests in confidentiality
• Explain confidentiality & disclosure requirements of HIPAA & FERPA
• Describe how to assess which law protects records of your SBHC
• Clarify differences in HIPAA & FERPA
• Discuss strategies for protecting & sharing health & education information in compliance with HIPAA & FERPA

Panelists
• Abigail English, Director, Center for Adolescent Health & the Law
• Rebecca Gudeman, Senior Attorney, National Center for Youth Law
Click here to register.
Or copy and paste this link into your browser: http://www.nasbhc.org/site/lookup.asp?c=enLFJHMlFmH&b=5962245

Giffords Shooting Points Up Mental Health, Gun Control Gaps

It’s hard to decipher any coherent views from Loughner’s You Tube ramblings. Those seeking insight might better spend their time reviewing the report of a review panel appointed by then Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine after the 2007 tragedy at Virginia Tech, in which a disturbed 23 year old undergraduate killed 32 people and wounded 25 before taking his own life. That document concludes that gaps in both Virginia’s mental health system and its guns laws contributed to the Virginia tragedy. MORE

Single, Female, Mormon, Alone

Of all the places I felt sure I’d never go, Planned Parenthood topped the list. Because, you know, they perform abortions and give condoms to kids, or so I’d been warned. Yet one spring afternoon found me in its waiting room next to a teenage girl, who was clearly perplexed by the intake form and likely bound for an uncomfortable, humiliating four minutes in the back of a borrowed Chevy Chevelle.

But what did I know? I was a 35-year-old virgin, preparing for my own “first time,” which, incidentally, didn’t happen until I was well into 36….
Oddly, my trip to Planned Parenthood provided much that the church had not in recent years. During my exam, the clinician explained every move before she made it, asked permission to touch me during the most routine procedures. I was mystified: by her compassion, by the level of attention paid to my body — as if it were fragile, or sacred. Only then did it occur to me how many terrified and abused women Planned Parenthood must treat every day.
And that brought me to tears, sorrowful for the ways in which we all suffer, in whatever ways we do, and grateful for the unlikely refuge of this place. Grateful also for the safety granted my own tears, prompted by the delicate weight of a hand on my shoulder, the warmth of her palm against my back…. MORE

Online CE Institute

Click here or on the image above. The Online CE Institute offers you a variety of alternative learning formats for your continuing education credits, including:

• Audio workshops; available for download (“CEtoGo”) or streaming on your PC (“Online Seminar”)
• Pre-taped video presentations  (coming soon)
• Live on-line seminars (webinars/teleconferences) (coming soon)
  
  

All programs found on this website are certified for any state that accepts NASW approved courses, for those dually licensed in other states, such as Delaware, Pennsylvania, , Florida, and others.

Now Available Online! Early Bird Registration for the NASW-NJ 2011 Annual Conference & Exhibition

Early Bird Registration for the 2011 NASW-NJ Annual Conference in now available. Click here or visit the NASW-NJ Web homepage at www.naswnj.org.

The NASW-NJ Annual Conference and Exhibition, the Meeting of the Profession, will be held on May 1-3, 2011 at the Trump Taj Majal in Atlantic City.

News from DE and Beyond...

Students and killings
The colleges are 2,000 miles apart, but the scenarios are eerily similar: a troubled student triggers red flags in the classroom, bringing campus police and university administrators in to deal with bizarre behavior. Some action is taken, but the student nevertheless unravels and ends up on a slow path to an alleged murderous rampage. Those are among the parallels between accused Arizona gunman Jared Loughner and Virginia Tech assassin Seung Hui Cho, who killed 32 people in a day of horror on campus. MORE

Study finds nearly half of school social workers feel unequipped to handle cyberbullying
Instances of cyberbullying continue to make news nearly every day, and while it's recognized as a problem among most school-aged children, a new study published in Children & Schools and coauthored by Temple University social work professor Jonathan Singer, finds that nearly half of school social workers feel they are ill equipped to handle it. MORE

Walking a mile in the shoes of my elderly mom ain't easy
When my husband headed out the door to take my mother to get her Wisconsin ID and mentioned that it shouldn't take too long, I laughed out loud, writes Chicago Tribune reporter Lisa Black. I knew it wouldn't be that easy. Like a few million other baby boomers, I have become a caregiver for my mother, a shift of roles that comes with many stresses. Cleaning out her California apartment and persuading her to leave the sunny climate for an assisted living facility just over the border near our home was just the start. Bittersweet, too, was that even though she has struggled with significant health problems, she was always able to survive without our help, until now. MORE

Wheaton couple knows it's never too late for family
Since getting involved in the foster care system 27 years ago, Paul and Jill Keenon have taken on some of the most difficult of cases — teens pulled from drug-infested homes, others plagued with thoughts of suicide, schizophrenia and hopelessness. All their adopted children all share a common bond: age. All have been older children who have less hope of finding a permanent home through the foster system. MORE

Is Your New Year's Resolution A Divorce? You're Not Alone
Mark Sichel is a New York City-based licensed clinical social worker and the author of Healing from Family Rifts. In his book, he describes in great detail the concept of the "Family Myth," which consists of "the well-rehearsed notions, wholly fictitious, about the nature of a family unit. This Myth dictates that surface appearance is more important than individual happiness, and that every family member is compatible, possesses the same goals, and loves all the others without question." MORE

Real life among the old old
I recently turned 65, just ahead of the millions in the baby boom generation who will begin to cross the same symbolically fraught threshold in the new year to a chorus of well-intended assurances that "age is just a number," writes author Susan Jacoby. But my family album tells a different story. I am descended from a long line of women who lived into their 90s, and their last years suggest that my generation’s vision of an ageless old age bears about as much resemblance to real old age as our earlier idealization of painless childbirth without drugs did to real labor. MORE

Classified

OFFICE-MATE WANTED for nicely furnished two-office suite in Newark.  Cost is about $210 monthly plus small share of utilities. Contact Valetta Evans at 302-723-1677 or Nancy Ball at 302-540-9785.

Continuing Education - Non-NASW Sponsored

The Delaware Psychological Association is sponsoring a continuing education workshop, "Integrative Treatment for ADHD in Children, Teens & Adults", presented by Ari Tuckman, Psy.D. MBA, on Friday, February 25, 2011
At the Delaware Center for Horticulture in Wilmington.

For details and registration, please visit the Continuing Education section of the DPA website at http://www.depsych.org/. 
The Delaware Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education.