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School Social Work Now!
Supporting Innovative Practice,
Effective Leadership & Applied Research
March 2013 - Vol 3, Issue 25 |
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Greetings! | |
Sarah Wettenstein, a student at Smith College School for Social Work in Northampton, MA, is conducting a research study about how school social workers practice and the different types of interventions they use. In particular, she is interested in looking at the barriers to participation in different kinds of school social work practice.
This study would involve completing a brief demographic survey and a video-interview via Skype. Your responses and interview will be kept anonymous and completely confidential. Participants may also be asked to do a 20-minute follow-up interview.
This is yet another opportunity to inform the school social work and related educational communities about the profession! It costs nothing but your time--which often is in short supply. But original research about what we do and how we do it is so very important. Please assist in this research by learning about the project or, for more information, email Sarah or call 860-604-1204.
Every student deserves access to supportive mental health services! Who better to provide them or to help families to secure resources than school social workers? Often, you are the only licensed, trained mental health clinician on the school staff. You can raise awareness about and educate others on school mental health benefits and interventions.
If you are interested in more information or green ribbon pins, please contact us. You may also view a picture and/or download the order form now. Each pin comes with two pages of Mental Health Talking Points that can be discussed or shared with administrators, staff, parents, and so on. Start a campaign in your school and Wear the Green! Good mental health is so essential to positive school and life outcomes. Please show your support today.
A colleague requests your help! Steve Whitmore, webmaster of the Michigan Association of School Social Workers (MASSW), is conducting a survey regarding the use of I-pads in School Social Work Practice. To complete the survey of application and/or website use on I-pads, smartphones, Kindles, and other devices, please go to: Tablet & Smartphone App Survey. It will take only a few minutes. Please feel free to pass this survey along to other school social workers. Deadline is March 31, 2013. Questions should be directed to: Steve Whitmore.
Judith Kullas Shine
President |
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Recommended Read for March | |
Learning from Behavior: How to Understand and Help Challenging Children in School
by James E. Levine
Forward by Sophie Freud
Understanding children's problem behaviors in school-seeing beyond the surface actions to reveal and name the root needs fueling those actions-is vital to helping the child. Yet, whether teachers in schools or parents at home, adults often make quick, cursory assessments, then an intervention is sprung. Explanations might be sought from the child, who often resists and becomes more distant. Punishment can occur and things are "taken away," but the behavior worsens. These scenarios and similar occurrences frustrate parents, teachers, and other school professionals alike. In Learning from Behavior, Levine shows us how to observe, question, and think about problem behaviors in such a way that we can understand what is motivating the children to act as they do. Behavior, after all, often represents what the child cannot communicate, due to language limitations, level of psychological development, or traumatic experience. Children think differently; they are not small adults. We need to understand the behavior from the child's perspective before we can intervene to change the behavior. Author Levine shows us, incorporating illustrative vignettes, how to do that. Read more.
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Come on . . . Follow Us!! | |
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Practice Points | |
Separated Parents and Mutual Antagonism
Some separated parents they cannot avoid provoking and antagonizing each other, co-creating conflict from which both seek relief. Yet and even though separated, they continue with their miserable ways, each complaining of the other. Both are looking for the other to desist and thus relieve the conflict.
Children of these parents go back and forth between them. They are the emissaries. They provide the fodder for parental complaints. Their secret mission is to keep the parental relationship alive and even though in conflict, parental conflict still signals a parental connection.
As these children inform each parent of the goings on with the other, neither parents is apt to redirect
them from delivering their messages. Continue.
Trauma Informed Social Work Education
. . . "Social work by its very definition has always meant working with vulnerable patients and those who have experienced trauma," says Nancy Smyth, PhD, LCSW, dean of and a professor in the University at Buffalo School of Social Work in New York. "But what we're learning from the trauma literature that is emerging is that there are specific interventions that a trauma patient needs. In the past, social work has not kept up with staying trained on that, but it's changing. Future social workers are becoming trained in evidence-based trauma treatment [EBTT]."
Over the years, social work programs have infused some elements of trauma education, but the need for greater emphasis on trauma training has become evident. No matter what area of social work today's students enter, at some point in their career, they likely will encounter clients who have experienced trauma.
Trauma education in the past was highly specific and failed to take into account the broader context of the trauma or the fact that there are many overarching themes that exist no matter what type of trauma occurred. Full article.
Top 15 Misconceptions of Self-injury
Although SI can be difficult to control or stop, most people who practice are able to stop.
1. Only females self-injure.
Studies show that 30%-40% of people who self injure are male.
2. Self-injury is a suicide attempt or failed suicide attempt.
Research into the underlying motivations for self-injury reveals important distinctions between those attempting suicide and those who self-injure in order to manage their stress and cope with overwhelming negative feelings.Most studies find that self-injury is often undertaken as a means of avoiding suicide.
3. Only teenagers self-injure.
While it is true that the majority of those who self-injure do so during their adolescent years, people of all ages practice self-injury. Read about the remaining misconceptions.
Cyberbullying: Classroom Harassment Goes High-Tech
Consider how often you use the Internet or a cell phone. Over the last decade, technology has become ingrained in our daily lives, changing the way we work, communicate, and seek information or entertainment. At schools across the country, many students are accessorized with the latest cell phones and iPods. Children are especially tech-savvy, having grown up alongside computers, the Internet, and cell phones, and many connect with friends several times a day through email, text messages, Web sites, or instant messaging. But along with the convenience and communication that these high-tech innovations provide, the potential for negative experiences has also emerged. Complete article. |
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Leadership News | |
Leadership Requires Formal Power and Authority--Myth or Truth?
When we think about leaders, we almost always think about people who have or had formal positions of power -- politicians, corporate executives, sports coaches, etc, probably because it is those people who garner the most publicity. However, it's a huge mistake to think that leadership actually requires formal power and authority for it to create positive outcomes. Read more.
Courage Is the Key to Great Leadership
Throughout the ages, people have searched for the precise alchemy of ingredients that constitute great leadership. In measured proportions, great leaders are said to demonstrate bold but reasoned judgment, spirited but calculated risk-taking and an assertive but reflective disposition. Complicating the matter are the expectations and needs of those being led. Followers want leaders who make decisions decisively but inclusively, interpret situations with rational and emotional intelligence and exude confidence and humility.
The list of characteristics that comprise great leadership is so long and contradictory, that the aspiring leader is left to ask, "Where on earth do I start?" Fortunately, there is a clear starting point. One leadership characteristic-or more accurately, virtue-informs and strengthens all others: Courage. More. |
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Research Highlights | 
Supportive parenting and children's ability to reg-ulate their emotions and behaviors play a crucial role in optimizing school readiness. School readiness is particularly salient for the development of children living in poverty who generally are at higher risk not only for reduced school readiness (Raver, Gershoff, & Aber, 2007) but also for continued school difficulties because of early academic deficits (Morrison, Bach-man, & Connor, 2005). Disentangling the processes by which parenting and child characteristics promote children's positive outcomes is critical, particularly related to the potential of such characteristics to medi-ate children's risks for developmental or learning dif-ficulties associated with low socioeconomic status. Download the study by clicking on the link that says: "download."
Social Work Research: Highlighting Diversity in Theory, Practice and Education
. . . Multiculturalism, cultural competency and anti-racism are hotly contested terms with considerable implications for practice (Bhatti-Sinclair, 2011). Moreover, these concepts are 'locality specific and culturally relevant' (Dominelli, 1997). Jun Sung Hong, Charu Stokes, Soo-Jung Byoun, Sharlene B.C.L. Furuto and Young Sook Kim unpack the term multiculturalism as it is utilised in contemporary South Korea as social workers in that country seek to include cultural competency in social work education and practice. Drawing heavily on American understandings of cultural competence, they locate their exploration of the subject within the diverse demographics of South Korea, and ask whether and to what degree cultural competency training can become an integral part of social work education in South Korea. Focusing primarily on refugees from a number of countries, their analysis does not consider the relevance of cultural competence as it applies to those of South Korean descent, although this is clearly an issue for future research. Full article. |
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In the News | |
Teaching Emotions: A Different Approach to Ending School Violence
. . . our schools reflect our broader culture of competition, conflict, and obsession with quantifiable success. As in our larger society, our children learn in school that being a good or kind person is not as important as being a smart or a winning one. They learn that knowing how to work with other people is not as important as coming up with the right answer oneself. There is no emphasis placed on developing the skills to identify emotions and seek help when they are overwhelming. . .
It is, of course, impossible to say, but it is not far fetched to posit that a broad-based intervention designed to reverse the problematic dynamic in our schools could shift their culture and reach their students in a deeper and more attentive way.
Such an intervention is in fact currently underway in several school districts around the country. SEL article.
Lead Poisoning and the Middle Class: the Silent Epidemic that Doesn't Discriminate
Erin Pavlica's family pediatrician had never recommended a blood lead test for any of her three children. And when she came in with her daughter Quinn in January, just after the girl's first birthday, the nurse initially brushed off her request for the test.
"She was like, 'Oh really? Why?'" recalled Pavlica, of St. Paul, Minn. Pavlica pushed. Eventually, Quinn's lead level was checked and the result came back at just over 9 micrograms per deciliter of blood -- above the 5-microgram-per-deciliter threshold, which is when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers a child to have lead poisoning.
"I was super shocked," Pavlica said. "The doctor was as well." Pavlica suggested that her pediatrician may have never thought to test for lead since her family was white, well-educated and fairly well-to-do -- not the demographic traditionally perceived as being at risk. More.
Are We Overdiagnosing Mental Illness?
. . . The American Psychiatric Association, whose manual has been used by health insurers, pharmaceutical companies, doctors and other clinicians since it first published in 1952, has dismissed DSM-5 opponents as overly alarmed.
"All the good epidemiological studies unfortunately show that one in five people have a psychological disorder. ... They're prevalent, they're just all over the place, and that's very disturbing to some people," said Dr. Carl Bell, a Chicago psychiatrist and University of Illinois School of Medicine director of public health and community psychiatry.
One of 15 members of a DSM-5 committee zeroing in on personality disorders, Bell spoke on behalf of the psychiatric association. "If you dig down into (the DSM-5), it's an extraordinarily complex document." Read other thoughts.
How One School Social Worker Celebrates Social Work Month
I am Artan C. Hughes, school social worker. I reside in Detroit, Michigan, and work at two locations that are comprised of diverse populations. This year I am using the theme from the National Association of Social Workers, "Weaving Threads of Resilience and Advocacy: The Power of Social Work." For the staff, they will receive handouts on the definition of social work, school social work, inspirational quotes, and giveaways. For the students, I have an in reach and outreach project. Read more. |
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Survey Completion Request |
You are invited to participate in a brief 20 minute anonymous survey. The Center for School Mental Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine is conducting this survey (a) to understand the barriers to engaging caregivers in school-based mental health treatment, and (b) to develop best practices for engaging caregivers in school-based mental health treatment. Mental health professionals who provide school-based mental health services are invited to complete this survey. Participation involves completing a 20 minute online survey of mental health professionals' experiences with engaging caregivers in school-based mental health treatment. Your participation in this survey is completely voluntary. In addition, your responses are completely anonymous and confidential. If you decide to participate, you may discontinue participation at any time, or if you feel uncomfortable answering any questions, you may choose "skip" as the answer or you may leave the text box blank. By completing the survey, you are providing consent to participate in this evaluation. Please contact Dr. Nicole Evangelista Brandt or 410-706-0980 with questions. Thank you in advance! Go to School-Based Mental Health Survey. |
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Webinars | |
ARCHIVED & AVAILABLE
Keeping Common School Areas Safe presented 3/20/2012 and
Teasing, Taunting, Bullying, Harassment, Hazing, and Physical Aggression: Prevention, Strategic Intervention, and Crisis Management presented 5/11/2012
Teasing, taunting, bullying, harassment, hazing, and physical aggression are persistent problems with children and adolescents in schools across the country. These events typically occur in common areas of the school (i.e. hallways, bathrooms, buses, cafeteria). To help address these problems and provide schools with comprehensive, evidence-based approaches to school-wide discipline, behavior management and student self-management, Project Achieve is providing two online presentations at no cost to view at your own convenience. Each presentation, about 60 minutes long, discusses ways to implement social skills training, peer mediated approaches, a school wide accountability system, school and common school area safety system, and home-school collaboration approaches. Click the links above to access.
Understanding the Developmental Needs of Young Families Experiencing Homelessness
Young families who are homeless often have unique needs based on both the challenges of trauma and homelessness and their developmental stage. A developmental perspective is essential to tailoring services to meet the needs of this population. During the first session of this course, we will provide an overview of development from birth through young adulthood; child and adult brain development; expected behaviors and responses at each stage; and the impact of trauma on development. Register to access.
Understanding the Impact of Trauma in the Lives of Displaced Children and Families
The prevalence of traumatic stress in the lives of displaced children and families is extraordinarily high. Experiences of trauma can have a significant impact on how families interact with each other and with service providers. In this webinar, participants will learn about the connection between traumatic stress, displacement, and homelessness; the mind-body response to stress and trauma; factors that influence our responses to trauma, particularly cultural factors; and the impact of chronic trauma on all areas of functioning. Register here to access. |
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Grants & Funding | |
Champion Creatively Alive Children
Crayola Creative Leadership Grants 2013
Crayola, in collaboration with the National Association of Elementary School Principals, is accepting applications for the 2013 Creative Leadership Grant program. The program will award up to twenty grants of $2,500 to elementary schools working to develop a team of leaders who can help increase arts-infused education within school and beyond. In addition, each program will receive an in-kind grant of Crayola products valued at $1,000.
Applications will only be accepted from principals who are members of NAESP. Every school that submits an application by June 10 will receive a Crayola product Classpack. Click to access application. Deadline: June 21, 2013.
American Psychiatric Foundation: Typical or Troubled?™ Grant
Typical or Troubled? ™ is a school community program designed to educate teachers and other school staff, and parents on the warning signs of emotional and behavioral health issues; how to talk to students who may be experiencing problems and engage family members: and help connect students to appropriate resources within the school or community. To date, the program has been implemented in 35 states, over 500 schools and districts, and connected with over 510,000 students. Importantly, the program has resulted in critical interventions with student in need, ignited positive dialogue and collaboration among the school community, and resulted in establishing or improving referral systems and connections to services within the schools.
For those who work in or with two or more middle or high schools, you are eligible to apply for a grant sponsored by the American Psychiatric Foundation to implement the Typical or Troubled? ™ School Mental Health Education program. Grant awards depend on innovative educational materials, brochures, evaluation tools, technical assistance, and connections with many of your colleagues across the nation. In addition, grant awards depend on the number of schools. For implementation in two to four high schools grant awards in the amount of $1,000 and for implementation in five or more high schools grant awards in the amount of $2,000. The application deadline is March 30, 2013. For more information click here. If you have additional questions email: APF.
NEA Foundation-Nickelodean Big Help Grant
Sponsored by Nickelodeon and the NEA Foundation, NEA Foundation-Nickelodeon Big Help Grants provide up to $5,000 to K-8 public school educators in the United States. The Big Help Grants program is dedicated to the development and implementation of ideas, techniques, and approaches to addressing four key concerns - environmental awareness, health and wellness, students' right to a quality public education, and active community involvement. The grants target these four concerns as areas of great promise in helping students in the twenty-first century develop a global awareness that encourages and enables them to make a difference in their world. Applicants must be practicing U.S public school teachers or public school education support professional. The application process is the same as for the NEA Foundation's Student Achievement grants. Applicants should specify that their request is for the Big Help Grants program in their application. Application deadline is June 1, 2013. Link to RFP. |
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ACSSW Activities | |
ACSSW's present activities include:
- increasing research projects and their application within the school environment;
- developing a national school social work role framework paper;
- establishing a National Center for School Social Work Practice, Leadership and Research, a long-term goal,
- presenting the 4th National School Social Work Research Summit. Watch for details to come.
If you have interest in participating in any of these activities, contact Judie Shine. ACSSW strives to be inclusive and transparent in all of its activities and welcomes, whether lengthy or short, the participation of its members. |
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