Message from NASW-DE Executive Director John Shuford
The Annual Awards Celebration was a huge success. To see a copy of the program, click here.
77 members and family enjoyed excellent food, great music and collegiality, and the keynote speaker [Phyllis Moore] was  very informative. It was great to honor Linda Brittingham as Social Worker of the Year [word has it that her staff gave her a surprise party Friday morning to celebrate her honor]. Many of her staff were present to support her at the celebration.
Horizon House was also honored as Social Work Agency of the Year for all the innovative work they do and for supporting the profession. There were many students present to support their honorees and to mingle with social workers working in the field. Please look at the program to see why Nanci Woodson was honored as MSW Student of the Year, and why Barry Peterman was honored as BSW Student of the Year. They are two very special people.
It was also very special to have Walter Kalman and Bob Mahon from the New Jersey NASW Chapter. They have both been instrumental in our ability to revitalize our chapter.
For those wishing to take the LCSW exam, we have two test prep courses coming up April 23 and May 21. Sign up for either one [they are the same] on our website www.naswde.org. Also on the website is information on registering for the New Jersey Annual Conference, where you can earn 20 CEUs in three days.
The Delaware Psychological Association is sponsoring a continuing education workshop on “Psychopharmacology Update: Children, Teens and Adults.” See the ad below for more information. This is a valuable topic for social workers, both clinical and others.
NASW-NJ Early Bird Deadline for NASW-DE Members Ends Today!
The NASW - New Jersey Chapter’s Annual Conference is fast approaching. NASW-NJ has graciously extended its Early Bird deadline to Delaware  NASW members until today, March 25th!
This conference offers us a GREAT opportunity to relax, recharge, reinvest AND earn more than 20 hours of continuing education credits! To sign up, fax [with credit card info] or mail [with credit card info or check] your registration postmarked no later than March 25.
Please print & mail your registration form - http://tinyurl.com/NASWNJConferenceRegistration - to Kendra Hayes, NASW-NJ, 30 Silverline Drive, Suite 3, North Brunswick, NJ 08902 or fax to 732-296-8074.
After today, NASW-DE members will have to pay the regular conference rate. Registrations can be faxed (with credit card) to 732-296-8074 by April 16th or mailed (with check) and postmarked by April 10th in order to reach the NASW-NJ Office on time. Any registrations received after this time will be held and attendees will have to register on-site in person.
Photos from the Annual Awards Celebration
Test Prep Coming...April 23rd!
 We are about to begin our continuing education program as part of the collaboration with the New Jersey chapter. Our first two courses will be LCSW Test-Prep Courses on April 23 and May 21. The cost will be $110 for NASW members and $130 for non-members.
The April 23 course will be in Wilmington, the location to be determined and the May 21 course will probably be in Dover. We will have more information in the next newSWire. Those who have taken this course state that it is excellent.
NASW Supports Medicare Coverage Improvements for CSW Services
 On March 14, NASW endorsed the Medicare Mental Health Modernization Act that will make critical improvements in mental health coverage for Medicare beneficiaries, including ending the unfair treatment of clinical social worker services for nursing home residents. NASW’s letter argued that mental illnesses are as treatable as other general medical conditions. Furthermore, Medicare coverage for mental health services contain a number of discriminatory and deficient provisions that need to be corrected or updated to reflect advancements in mental health services delivery. Other important changes in the bill include the immediate elimination of discriminatory outpatient cost-sharing requirements for beneficiaries receiving mental health services and the addition of broader community benefits. Read NASW’s Medicare letter here. NASW also worked with Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) to reintroduce the Clinical Social Work Medicare Equity Act, S. 583.
MyHelpList for Veterans and their Families
 "MyHelpList: Information and Assistance for Military Service and Family Members During Tough Economic Times" is a list of resources from the military, government and nonprofit organizations in a wide variety of areas related mostly to economic and family assistance for service members, veterans and their families.
The list was produced by the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Military Community and Family Policy), Personal Finance and Transition Directorate. Click here for a pdf copy of the list.
Senate Bill would Extend Electronic Health Record Incentive Payments
 Under a bill (S 539) introduced by Senator Sheldon White house (D-RI), the U.S. Senate Finance Committee will consider legislation that would make health information technology (HIT) incentive payments available to mental health care, behavioral health care and substance misuse treatment professionals and facilities. The bill would:
- Extend Medicaid and Medicare meaningful use incentive payment eligibility to licensed psychologists and clinical social workers.
- Expand Medicaid incentive funding eligibility to community mental health centers, mental health treatment centers, psychiatric hospitals and clinics that offer substance misuse services.
- Extend Medicare incentive payment eligibility to inpatient psychiatric hospitals.
- Clarify the eligibility of certain behavioral health care providers for technical assistance from regional extension centers.
Click here for a pdf copy of the bill.
House Considers Long-Term Care Program Repeal
 On March 17, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing about efforts to repeal the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act that was included in the Affordable Care Act. Many Republican representatives seek repeal of the new program due to cost concerns. The CLASS Act is a voluntary, cash-only benefit program designed to assist enrollees with the cost of long-term care services. Cash benefits are provided to qualified chronically ill and disabled people regardless of age.
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, recently determined that CLASS, as planned, is financially unsound, but says the new health law grants her all the authority necessary to make changes to the program to make it financially sound.
For more information about CLASS, see NASW’s recent News from the Hill here.
Annual DASH for Organ & Tissue Donation
 This is a request to form a Team for the Annual DASH for Organ & Tissue Donation Donor Awareness walk scheduled for April 17, 2011 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Most of you already know me as the Delaware State University Student Council President from the Wilmington campus. What you may or may not know is that I am a two time kidney transplant recipient and ‘Loving every minute of it’!
Every year I participate in the Annual DASH for Organ & Tissue Donation Donor Awareness.
The Dash for Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness is a collection of different courses, 10-kilometer and 5-kilometer runs, and a 3-kilometer walk designed to help promote organ and tissue donation and highlight the success of transplantation. All the distances depart from the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and continue along West River Drive and the banks of the Schuylkill River, drawing participants such as transplant candidates, transplant recipients and family members, hospital personnel, donor family members and the general public.
Join us at the 16th Annual Dash for Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness on Sunday, April 17th, 2011 at the base of the Art Museum steps. All proceeds support organ and tissue donor awareness programs.
If interested please respond via email to create a team name, website, etc.
For more information go to www.donors1.org
Nanci Woodson, DSU Student Council President and the NASW 2011 MSW Student of the Year Award recipient.
Grant: Delaware Mentoring Council (DMC)
The DMC “will award up to a total of $220,000 in grants to fund youth mentoring efforts in Delaware’s public schools and site-based after-school programs throughout the community. The maximum award for each grant is $10,000 to qualifying schools or $3,000 to qualifying 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations.”
Completed applications must be submitted electronically to einnes@delcf.org by 4:30 pm on May 20, 2011.
Call-in information, applications and informational forms are all available on the Delaware Community Foundation’s website at www.delcf.org.
** For More information Contact: Erin Innes, Director of Community Affairs, Delaware Mentoring Council, 302.504.5265 or einnes@delcf.org
Grant Opportunity: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the Second Chance Act – Juvenile Mentoring Initiative
“The Second Chance Act (P.L. 110-199) authorizes grants to government agencies and nonprofit groups to provide employment assistance, substance abuse treatment, housing, family programming, mentoring, victims' support, and other services to help adult and juvenile ex-offenders to transition successfully from incarceration to the community. OJJDP will provide grants to support mentoring and other transitional services essential to reintegrating juvenile offenders into their communities.”
Please note, registration with Grants.gov is required prior to application submission.
OJJDP encourages applicants to register several weeks before the application deadline of 11:59 p.m., Eastern Time, on May 2, 2011.
For more information, please see the contact information listed below:
For technical assistance with submitting an application, call the Grants.gov Customer Support Hotline at 1-800-518-4726 or e-mail support@grants.gov.
For assistance with any other requirements of this solicitation, contact the Justice Information Center at 1-877-927-5657 or via email to JIC@telesishq.com. The Center is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Eastern Time. On the solicitation close date, the Center will be open 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Eastern Time.
Grants.gov number assigned to this announcement: OJJDP-2011-2934
Release Date: March 2, 2011.
- OJJDP Second Chance Act- FAQ.pdf
- OJJDP Second Chance Act- Juvenile Mentoring Initiative.pdf
NASW Occupational Profiles
Social work salaries are affected by a number of factors, including highest social work degree, region of the county, years of experience, sector of employment and practice setting. Using data from the 2009 Compensation & Benefits Study,social work salaries were segmented according to particular practice settings. NASW Occupational Profiles provide an overview of various practice settings, and a look at some of the challenges and benefits of working in those settings. Salary differences were also examined according to race and gender. MORE
News from DE and Beyond...
Illinois probes religious foster care agencies over discrimination
State officials are investigating whether religious agencies that receive public funds to license foster care parents are breaking anti-discrimination laws if they turn away openly gay parents. If they are found in violation, Lutheran Child and Family Services, Catholic Charities in five regions and the Evangelical Child and Family Agency will have to license openly gay foster parents or lose millions of state dollars, potentially disrupting more than 3,000 foster children in their care. MORE
NASW’s “News from the Hill” includes material on changes in long-term health care insurance, Obama’s education funding proposal, and MORE.
Illinois abolishes the death penalty after Governor Quinn hearing arguments pro and con. Gov. Pat Quinn sat stoically and took pages of handwritten notes as family members of murder victims begged him to preserve the death penalty as an option for those convicted of killing their loved ones, the impassioned pleas coming during a closed-door meeting with the prosecutors who helped put the killers behind bars. Weeks earlier, the governor followed much the same routine as he was told the capital punishment system is too broken to keep in place by Sister Helen Prejean, a New Orleans nun whose experiences with a Death Row inmate became the basis for the film "Dead Man Walking."
Homeless children: The hard times generation
CBS News via 60 Minutes
Unemployment improved a bit last month but it is still nearly nine percent and the trouble is job creation is so slow, it will be years before we get back the seven and a half million jobs lost in the Great Recession. American families have been falling out of the middle class in record numbers. The combination of lost jobs and millions of foreclosures means a lot of folks are homeless and hungry for the first time in their lives. MORE
Talk doesn't pay, so psychiatry turns instead to drug therapy
The New York Times
Medicine is rapidly changing in the United States from a cottage industry to one dominated by large hospital groups and corporations, but the new efficiencies can be accompanied by a telling loss of intimacy between doctors and patients. And no specialty has suffered this loss more profoundly than psychiatry. MORE
He'll ride bike across country to get men to face depression
But the very morning that Hockert, 71, stepped out of his car behind the St. Anthony Police Department and shot himself in the chest, I was having coffee with Mark Meier, a social worker, businessman and father of three.
Caregivers of wounded vets hold conference in Tampa
Veronica Thomas talks with Adam Kijanski, a Veterans Affairs social work case manager. Thomas takes care of her son, a veteran who was severely wounded in Iraq.
Grant opportunity from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the Second Chance Act – Juvenile Mentoring Initiative. Information about the grant, the grant application and FAQ about the grant.
Classified
SAVE THE DATE
Monday, April 18, 2011, 7 p.m.
New Directions Delaware
16th Annual Drew A. Sopirak Memorial Program featuring Dr. Dan Gottlieb
Brandywine High School Auditorium, 1400 Foulk Road, Wilmington, Delaware
Tickets are $5.00 at the door. www.newdirectionsdelaware.org
Continuing Education - Non NASW Sponsored
The Delaware Psychological Association is sponsoring a continuing education workshop, "Psychopharmacology Update: Children, Teens & Adults", presented by Andrew Donohue, D.O. and Saurabh Gupta, M.D., on Friday, April 29, 2011 at the Family Center of the St. Joseph's on the Brandywine Church in Greenville, DE. For details and registration, please visit the Continuing Education section of the DPA website at http://www.depsych.org/ or call DPA at (302) 475-1574. The Delaware Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education."
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