Social Work Today E-Zine

China’s rise as an economic powerhouse hasn’t come without a social cost. China is confronting the effects of the largest rural to urban migration in world history, the unintended consequences of its “one-child policy” and the plight of those left behind in rural villages without social services.

The University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) is supporting China’s efforts to reestablish a social work profession through a partnership dating back to 1994. What began as an effort to supply materials to China Youth University in Beijing has evolved into a partnership that encompasses exchanges of research, faculty, and students.

“China is beginning to recognize the need for a wide range of social services,” says GSSW Dean James Herbert Williams, who just returned from China. “Our long partnership allows committed Chinese social work professionals to take the best from 100 years of U.S. social work experience and adapt it to their needs.”

Their needs include typical urban issues seen in developing Western societies—domestic violence, drug use, and homelessness. But some of the country’s social problems are uniquely Chinese and require uniquely Chinese solutions. They must find a way to address individual needs in a collectivist culture. And they must find ways to deliver services efficiently and effectively to huge numbers of low-income Chinese spread densely through urban population centers and sparsely through rural villages.

“I think our work can really improve U.S.–China relations,” says Julie Laser, a GSSW professor. “If we know each other as human beings, we can bring our countries closer together.”

— Source: The University of Denver

Since 2003, Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) Commission on Global Social Work Education has granted its Partners in Advancing Education (PIE) for International Social Work Awards to individuals and social work programs demonstrating outstanding innovations in international social work education. This year’s winners, Frederic L. Ahearn and Southern Illinois University Carbondale, were selected based on their ability to advance the concepts, curricula, and programming in social work education.

Frederick L. Ahearn, Jr, DSW, a professor of social work at the Catholic University of America, was selected as a PIE recipient because of his ability to establish social work graduation programs in countries undergoing sociopolitical changes and his positive impact on other people, social policy, institutional building efforts, and the social work education structure on a global level. He has also strengthened international social work curricula in many U.S. universities and has authored content on migration, refugees, and internally displaced people.

Southern Illinois University-Carbondale’s School of Social Work is being recognized for its collaborative partnerships across the globe. Of particular note is its involvement with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in providing a two-year certified education program for its 300 social workers and supervisors in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and Gaza.

— Source: Council on Social Work Education

In the largest private donation to a school of social work in the United States, Constance and Martin Silver have pledged $50 million to the New York University School of Social Work. The gift will be used to support the Constance McCatherin-Silver Fellowship, which provides financial aid to MSW students in need who are dedicated to helping minority populations; to establish an endowed professorship for a junior faculty member researching poverty; and to promote other new initiatives dedicated to the study of poverty and to better allocate funding, administration, and services.

The funds also will help lay the groundwork for a planned McSilver Institute for Policy and Research. ("McSilver" is a combination of Silver's name and her maiden name, McCatherin.) In recognition of this historic gift, the NYU Board of Trustees has renamed the School as the Silver School of Social Work.

Both Silvers are alumni of NYU. Constance Silver earned a BS in social work in 1978 and an MSW in 1979; she also received a PhD from the Union Institute and University in 1983. Martin Silver is a 1958 graduate of NYU's School of Commerce (now the Stern School of Business).

"This gift marks a new chapter in the life of our school, and in a larger sense, it is an unprecedented moment for social work education," says Suzanne England, dean of the School of Social Work at NYU. "The research, learning, and policy work sustained by the Silvers' generosity will help deepen our knowledge about systemic poverty, and identify effective policies to lessen or eliminate its causes."

Constance Silver, who taught at the school for several years, says "It is one of the great pleasures of my life to help the School of Social Work, and Martin is proud to be able to offer his support to the school as well."

— Source: New York University School of Social Work

The Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) Gero-Ed Center Master’s Advanced Curriculum Project (MAC Project) has awarded 2-year Gero Innovations Grants of up to $20,000 to 14 MSW programs across the country. Each program selected has an innovative plan to develop, implement, and evaluate sustainable strategies to increase the understanding that MSW students seeking to practice in mental health, substance use, and health have about working with older adults.

“Ensuring that future social workers who practice in the areas of mental health, substance use, and health have an understanding of older adults is of great importance to CSWE,” says Julia M. Watkins, executive director of CSWE. “Through the MAC Project, we can begin to assure older adults and their families that social workers practicing in these areas will understand and be prepared to provide appropriate services to meet their unique needs.”

The 14 Gero Innovations Grant Award recipients were chosen based on their proposed methodology to develop and implement innovative strategies to increase the understanding that MSW students seeking to practice in mental health, substance use, and health have of the unique issues of older adults in those practice settings. The sustainable effect of each proposal was also central to the application review process. The extent to which adjunct faculty would be included in these methodologies was also considered, as they often play a key role in teaching specialty courses.

“Together, the programs will produce a wealth of effective teaching materials that focus on increasing gerontological competencies of MSW students who intend to practice in mental health, substance use, and health care settings” says Sadhna Diwan, project principal investigator of the MAC Project and associate professor at San Jose State University. “The programs selected are well equipped to take on the challenge of producing curricular materials that address the needs of an increasingly diverse older population in this country.”

The MSW programs chosen to receive the Innovations Grants for 2007 span from New York to California: Adelphi University; Arizona State University; Fordham University; Case Western Reserve University; Monmouth University; New York University; Saint Louis University; University at Albany; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Chicago; University of North Carolina at Greensboro; University of Oklahoma; University of Texas at Arlington; and University of Texas at Austin.

— Source: The Council on Social Work Education

The University of Illinois at Chicago will serve as the home institution for the Council on Contemporary Families, a national non-profit, non-partisan association of leading family researchers and mental health and social work practitioners.

The 10-year-old council, formerly based in Manhattan, promotes the findings of social science research and clinical experience in public discussions of what contemporary families need and how these needs can be met.

The council's work embraces a wide range of issues such as work/family policy, marriage, divorce, childhood and family diversity.

Barbara Risman, UIC professor and head of sociology, will serve in the newly created post of executive officer.

"CCF exists because research and clinical experts felt that our work was often misinterpreted in the public sphere," said Risman, whose own research focuses on gender politics in families, teen sexuality and gender relations in middle school.

Over the years, the council has developed and sponsored symposiums where experts and news media representatives work together to analyze new trends related to families.

"We've seen the coverage of family and relationship issues improve as a result of our work," Risman said.

The council will sponsor "Who Cares?: Dilemmas of Work and Family in the 21st Century," an Oct. 20 conference at UIC. The event will focus on contemporary career demands and their impact on women and families.

Source: University of Illinois at Chicago

Kim Strom-Gottfried, PhD, LISW, professor at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill School of Social Work, has been appointed the first Smith P. Theimann, Jr. Distinguished Professor for Ethics and Professional Practice.

The professorship is named in honor of Smith P. Theimann, Jr., who received his bachelor’s degree in sociology in 1942 and his master’s degree of social work in 1944 from the university. It was established by gifts from Theimann’s estate with matching funds from the North Carolina Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund.

Strom-Gottfried received her doctorate from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, her master’s degree in social work from Adelphi University and her bachelor’s degree in sociology and social work from the University of Maine. She joined the School of Social Work at UNC in 1999 as an associate professor and associate dean for academic affairs. She served as the school’s interim dean from 2000 to 2001. She was a Moister Ethics Fellow with the University of North Carolina Institute on the Arts and Humanities and formerly served as chair of the National Association of Social Workers’ National Committee on Inquiry. She is a faculty fellow with the Parr Center For Ethics at UNC.

A nationally recognized researcher, trainer, and consultant on ethical misconduct and ethical problem solving, Strom-Gottfried is the author of more than 30 articles and monographs on ethics. In 2002, she coauthored a curriculum resource book on ethics and she has two more texts forthcoming on ethical practice. She is also coauthor of Direct Social Work Practice.

“The Theimann Distinguished Professorship is the first in the nation that is focused on ethics and professional issues in a social work program,” says Jack Richman, dean of the UNC School of Social Work. “Given the escalating importance of ethical issues in healthcare, business, and the social sciences, ethics is a critical area of concern in all facets of professional and personal life. Dr. Strom-Gottfried is a recognized international leader in ethics and social work research and practice, and she will make an important contribution to UNC, the nation, and the profession.”

The genetics revolution and the subsequent evolution of genomics and their implications for public health demand the education of a new breed of professionals. Sarah Lawrence College, having pioneered genetic counseling with the first graduate program in the field, is again responding to emerging needs by launching a new graduate-level program in Public Health Genetics/Genomics.

“The advent of DNA technologies has vastly broadened the field from attention to genetics – the study of single genes responsible for specific diseases or medical conditions – to the much larger arena of genomics, which includes research on disorders involving multiple genes or gene interaction with environmental factors. These developments have many implications for public health,” said Rachel Grob, associate director of graduate studies. “There is an urgent need to train professionals who can translate research into practice in this burgeoning area.”

The new Sarah Lawrence program, which offers a certificate or continuing education credits, is the first such program in the country specifically designed for professionals who work in the health care field. While a number of schools of public health have begun to incorporate genetics into their curricula and about one-third of the genetic counseling programs have a course devoted to public health, Sarah Lawrence College is the first to launch a full certificate program for professionals concerned with issues at the intersection of genetics/genomics and public health.

With greatly expanded genetic screening programs (for example, New York State screened all newborns for 11 conditions in 2002, increasing to 46 conditions in 2006), serious ethical, legal and social questions are emerging. Issues the program will address include the uses of genetic information and the challenges for public policy and programs; safeguarding the public; educating consumers, providers and the general population; and the challenges of translating genomic information into health care practices that are useful to individuals and communities.

“The demand for professionals trained in genetics/genomics and public health will surely increase as health care institutions, public health departments, insurance companies and industry face mounting pressure to assure that care systems consider the effects of the new genetics on individuals,” Grob said. “Equally important are the roles these professionals will play in arenas of public policy.”

Source: Sarah Lawrence College