Social Work Education

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  • 1.  Social Work Month: Why is it the Right Time for Social Work?

    Posted Mar 01, 2022 14:16
    Edited by Kianna Mckenzie Apr 04, 2022 15:35
    The yellow banner includes logos of partnered organizations and says,

    The theme for Social Work Month
     2022 is "The Time is Right for Social Work." To help celebrate, CSWE invites social work educators, students, and social workers to share their thoughts on why it is the right time for social work. Reply to this thread with photos, videos, quotes, testimonies, poems, paintings, or other content, with a chance for them to be shared at a March 25 meeting and on CSWE's social media channels throughout March.

    Please 
    share this discussion thread with your networks and post your content below by Monday, March 14 to be considered.
    #The Time Is Right for Social Work

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    Kianna Mckenzie
    Communications and Marketing Coordinator
    Council on Social Work Education
    VA
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  • 2.  RE: Social Work Month: Why is it the Right Time for Social Work?

    Posted Mar 02, 2022 09:23
    Edited by Kianna Mckenzie Apr 04, 2022 15:35
    The time is right for social work because world events are showing us just how interconnected the world is. As social workers those events resonate with us, they make sense to us, in unique ways. Through the media we are now bearing witness to a distant war in ways we never have before: in real time. At the same time, students are embedded in this larger world, in ways earlier generations have not. The time is now because we are a profession that can engage a new generation of students in this larger world through critical thinking and in actionable ways. Students are speaking....


    For more on expanding the worldviews of students, see the Diversity Center curricular resource: Global and Intercultural Competence 

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    Yolanda Padilla
    Director, Ctr for Diversity and Soc & Eco Jus
    CSWE

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  • 3.  RE: Social Work Month: Why is it the Right Time for Social Work?

    Posted Mar 02, 2022 11:49
    Some favorite quotes (most aren't social workers, but their words resonate):


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    Darla Spence Coffey
    CSWE
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  • 4.  RE: Social Work Month: Why is it the Right Time for Social Work?

    Posted Mar 02, 2022 22:36
    It is the Right Time for Social Work to start having conversations about how infertility and miscarriage impact both men's and women's mental health. This is rarely discussed in our education.  1 in 8 couples struggle with infertility and 1 in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage.  There was research done in 1993 that compared the psychological distress with those diagnosed with cancer and infertility, among other diagnoses.  Their results showed that there was no significant difference between those diagnosed with cancer and infertility when it came to their psychological distress.  If we're not talking about this in the academic setting, which prepares future clinicians, how are they supposed to know how to support those struggling with these issues?  Are we further stigmatizing infertility and reproductive trauma, by not talking about it even among social workers?  It just doesn't go to the individual level.  Adoptive parents are 10 times more likely to have attempted fertility treatments.  Also, 39% of foster parents said their motivation to become foster parents was due to infertility.  We don't even ask specifically if someone has experienced infertility or miscarriage in our assessments.  There is much more work we could do to help prepare our future clinicians to be able to help these individuals and develop an awareness of these issues.  Social Work could be a big player in this field, but we need to have some education or training on it.  I'm currently a member of the Mental Health Professional Group through the American Society of Reproductive Medicine and an MSW Student.  There are currently 76 members in this group who are LCSWs in the entire nation.  There could be more that are not in this group, however, this would still be a very small number, considering that around 7.2 million people struggle with infertility.  We can do better.  I have a link below for a podcast that I did with the University of Buffalo and their podcast In Social Work.  I encourage you think about ways that we can start having these discussions in our classes. 

    Invisible Loss: What is Fertility Counseling? - UB Social Work (insocialwork.org)

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    Steven Miller
    MSW Student
    University of Wisconsin-Madison
    Madison WI
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  • 5.  RE: Social Work Month: Why is it the Right Time for Social Work?

    Posted Mar 14, 2022 11:11
    I'm a Social Worker- Lets Learn to Advocate children's book


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    Sujeeta Menon
    Change Happens!
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  • 6.  RE: Social Work Month: Why is it the Right Time for Social Work?

    Posted Mar 15, 2022 10:30
    It's Social Work Month. But EVERY month should be Social Work Month. Why? Because social workers make memorable and positive impact with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities each and every day. We help in numerous settings including our schools, hospitals, child welfare agencies, mental health clinics, nursing homes and retirement communities, prisons, private practices, rehabilitation facilities, and community organizations. Even in the toughest situations, social workers are present. This is the time to make sure social workers are heard and social workers are seen. This is why we are showcasing the good work of social work on our college campus and in our community. Join us because together we are stronger. We are Social Workers!

    #The Time Is Right for Social Work

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    Patricia Saleeby
    Program Director
    Bradley University
    Peoria IL
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  • 7.  RE: Social Work Month: Why is it the Right Time for Social Work?

    Posted Mar 18, 2022 13:20
    Edited by Kianna Mckenzie Apr 04, 2022 15:35

    I am a LCSW and also Distinguished Professor in Social Work at University of Utah. This week the high impact journal JAMA Internal Medicine published the results from my $2.8 million NIH-funded clinical trial of Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) therapy for opioid misuse, opioid use disorder (OUD), and chronic pain – "Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement vs Supportive Group Therapy for Co-occurring Opioid Misuse and Chronic Pain in Primary Care: A Randomized Clinical Trial."

    MORE reduced opioid misuse by 45% nine months after the end of treatment, more than doubling the effect of standard supportive psychotherapy, and exceeding the effect size of other therapies for opioid misuse among people with chronic pain. At the same time, 50% of patients reported clinically significant reductions in pain severity, and MORE's effect size on chronic pain symptoms was greater than that observed for the current gold-standard psychological treatment for chronic pain, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Finally, although nearly 70% of participants met criteria for depression at the beginning of the trial, on average patients in MORE no longer exhibited symptoms consistent with major depressive disorder by the end of the study.

    Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) is a social work treatment designed by a social worker for social workers. So this study is a huge victory for social work! Social work is helping to halt the opioid crisis!


    To date, I've trained multiple healthcare systems and more than 450 social workers, psychologists, nurses, and physicians to use MORE to help their patients. Given MORE's clear efficacy, it's now time to disseminate MORE throughout the country to help stem the tide of the opioid crisis.

    I am hopeful that the timing of this publication will be serendipitous, given that the opioid settlements are just now reaching the states. My hope is to get this paper into the hands of state legislators, governors, and other policymakers so that they will consider MORE as part of the solution to help stem the tide of the opioid crisis.

    Eric Garland, PhD, LCSW
    -----------------------------------------------
    Distinguished Endowed Chair in Research
    Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean for Research
    University of Utah College of Social Work

    Director, Center on Mindfulness and Integrative Health Intervention Development

    (C-MIIND)

    Research Health Scientist, Whole Health

    VA Salt Lake City Health Care System

    Associate Director of Integrative Medicine
    Supportive Oncology Program
    Huntsman Cancer Institute

    www.drericgarland.com

    office: 801-581-3826

     



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    Kate McCauley
    The University of Utah
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