|
School Social Work NOW!
Supporting Innovative Practice,
Effective Leadership, and Applied Research
Vol 6, Issue 34
|
|
ACSSW is pleased to announce two upcoming national events. The first is October 17-18, 2016 in Milwaukee. This Mental Health in Schools Institute is designed for school social workers but welcomes related colleagues from schools and from the community. Since so much of what we do is collaborative, we believe professional development with related providers can strengthen services to children and youth. During this Institute we will also offer PREPaRE 2, a nationally acclaimed training for those who provide crisis and trauma response. Watch our website for more information to be posted shortly.
Then it's back to NOLA!! January 30-31, 2017 will find us in exciting New Orleans for the 5th National Mental Health Institute for School Social Workers. Previous attendees learned much, played hard, and enjoyed new connections as a result of attending this Institute. Plan now to join us at Tulane University for enriching learning opportunities. Details to come!
~ ~ ~
Most of us anticipate having a great summer enjoying interesting activities and exploring new ideas. For some students, however, summer means an end to nutritious meals until school begins again. Nutritious meals for children and youth under 18 can be found on an interactive nutrition map posted by the USDA. Check it out! ~ ~ ~
SchoolSocialWorkNOW is on its every-other-week schedule of summer publications. Weekly newsletters will begin again in September.
|
...Over the same decades that children's play has been declining, childhood mental disorders have been increasing. It's not just that we're seeing disorders that we overlooked before. Clinical questionnaires aimed at assessing anxiety and depression, for example, have been given in unchanged form to normative groups of schoolchildren in the US ever since the 1950s. Analyses of the results reveal a continuous, essentially linear, increase in anxiety and depression in young people over the decades, such that the rates of what today would be diagnosed as generalised anxiety disorder and major depression are five to eight times what they were in the 1950s. Over the same period, the suicide rate for young people aged 15 to 24 has more than doubled, and that for children under age 15 has quadrupled. Access article.
Psychological trauma, defined as the experience of an event in which a person feels their life is threatened or in danger, may be accompanied by a sense of helplessness, horror, or numbing as the internal alarm system becomes activated.
We react to trauma in a number of ways, and certain factors put us at risk for more severe psychological difficulties. Fortunately, there are qualities we can build on to help us manage our reactions to traumatic events. There are four main types of reactions we may experience following a trauma: emotional, cognitive, physical, and interpersonal. Learn more.
Resources from the Coalition to Support Grieving Students (CSGS) #15
The Coalition to Support Grieving Students continues to share mini-papers on the concepts of death and grieving in children. This week's resource page is What Not To Say. Sometimes while trying to help, adults say things that are not helpful or may even hurt. Use and share this and previous papers to help children through loss. They are designed for practitioners, for in-service training, as references, as guidance for parents, and many other avenues. Share these articles freely and tell us what you think.
|
|
|
 |
|
Policy makers continuously call for higher standards and greater accountability for instruction, improved curricula, better teaching, increased discipline, reduced school violence, an end to social promotion, and more. At the same time, it is evident that current strategies to accomplish all this are inadequate to the task. This is likely to remain the case as long as so little attention is paid to reforming and restructuring the ways schools address many well-known factors interfering with the performance and learning of so many young people...
Addressing barriers is not at odds with the "paradigm shift" that emphasizes strengths, resilience, assets, and protective factors. Efforts to enhance positive development and improve instruction clearly can improve readiness to learn. However, it is frequently the case that preventing problems also requires direct action to remove or at least minimize the impact of barriers, such as hostile environments and intrinsic problems. Without effective, direct interventions, such barriers can continue to get in the way of development and learning. Full article.
What are forward-thinking HR leaders thinking about? What keeps them up at night? What factors are shaping their work now and as they prepare for the next year or two?
...Here are 3 big ones: cognitive overload, open system leadership development, and culture-specific change. Learn more.
|
Abstract: The purpose of this research project was to explore how school social workers are utilizing yoga as an intervention for youth who have an emotional/behavioral disorder (EBD). This research project was qualitative in design and seven school social workers from Minnesota were interviewed. Participants interviewed were school social workers from Minnesota that discussed how yoga was being used in schools to increase mind-body awareness and self-regulation among youth who have an emotional behavioral disorder. Six themes emerged from the data including: normalizing yoga, benefits, yoga curriculum, feedback, barriers, and suggestions. Previous research has indicated that yoga is beneficial not only for the physical body, but for the mind as well, was found in the findings. The findings suggest the need for further research to be conducted relating to altering the use of yoga as an intervention in a more systematic way as well as how to adapt the yoga interventions to meet the needs of the group. Access research.
|
|
Recommended Read for June
|
Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair
by Anne Lamott
from Booklist:
In her latest whirling, fuming, blunt, wise, and funny book of homilies, following the best-selling Help, Thanks, Wow (2012), Lamott combines exasperation and sorrow over perpetual and universal suffering with a stubborn belief in the possibility of meaning, solace, and mending. She asks how we can even begin to seek coherence when children are massacred in their schools and polar bears are "floating out to sea on scraps of ice." All we can do is what needs to be done. We clean up oil spills, rebuild after catastrophes, care for the sick, serve food, and wash floors. Lamott connects the epic to the ordinary and observes, "We live stitch by stitch, when we're lucky." As she tells charmingly self-mocking yet laser-sharp stories from her patchwork life of spiritual inquiry-one about a blouse she inherited from a friend who died too young, another about a creatively repaired curtain-sewing and darning become metaphors for accepting life's cycles of joy and loss, and for taking care of each other and the world. Lamott's larky yet shrewd needle-and-thread spirituality is realistic and renewing.
|
| Professional Development Opportunities |
~~~
11th Annual Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work
July 14-16, 2016
|
|
Something's wrong in America's classrooms.
According to new data from the Education Department, black students - from kindergarten through high school - are 3.8 times more likely to be suspended than white students.
Now the really bad news.
This trend begins in preschool, where black children are already 3.6 times more likely to be suspended than white students.
In all, 6,743 children who were enrolled in public pre-K received one or more out-of-school suspensions in the 2013-14 school year. Read more.
1. You'll only learn a fraction of what you need to know from school. I have a master's degree in social work and an additional certification as a licensed clinical social worker. Graduate school gave me great training, but you only really learn what you need to know when you start working with people. For example, every master's program teaches cultural competency - the skills to work with people from a particular ethnic or cultural group - but you have to start working with those groups before you can fully understand their perspective. I also draw on my background as a Latina and an immigrant to empathize with some of my clients, which is something you just can't learn from a book. Find the other 9!
|
|
School Social Work Positions
|
ESSA: Meeting Students' Needs Under Title IV
August 25, 2016 - 3 - 4 pm ET
Rather than continuing to authorize individual programs that support a well-rounded education, ESSA creates a block grant that provides formula funding to states and districts. Districts that receive funds under this block grant must spend at least 20 percent of their allocation on a well-rounded academic activity and 20 percent on an activity that supports safe and healthy students, and they may use some funds to expand the use of technology. This means that, although discrete funding streams will no longer be available to support programs such as physical education, district leaders can allocate funds from the block grant according to their schools' needs, without the hassle of applying for a myriad of grants to support various activities. Learn more and click on "add to calendar."
The Impact of Terrorism on Children: What Harms, What Helps
The University-Based Child and Family Policy Consortium, in collaboration with the Society for Research in Child Development, hosted "The Impact of Terrorism on Children: What Harms, What Helps" webinar on February 16, 2016. Based on an SRCD Social Policy Report written by James Garbarino and colleagues, and the Social Policy Report Commentary by Ann Masten, this webinar will discuss the research on the effects of children's exposure to terrorism. Access webinar. Approx. 1 hr.
Webisode: Behavioral Health Concerns in Classrooms
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) latest webisode recording with Knowledge Network for Systems of Care TV (KSOC-TV) addresses the topic of identifying and managing behavioral health concerns in elementary school classrooms. The panelists, including Center for School Mental Health affiliate faculty, Dr. Kimberly Becker, provide specific strategies on how students, parents, teachers, and administrators can work together to support positive mental health among elementary school students. Watch by clicking here. Approx. 1 hr.
Webisode: Expulsion and Suspension Policies in Early Childhood Settings
The Child and Family Policy Consortium webinar features presentations on expulsion and suspension policies in early childhood settings. Speakers include Dr. Walter Gillian (Yale University) and Dr. Oscar Barbarin (University of Maryland - College Park). Click here to watch. Approx. l hr.
|
|
2ne Quarter Deadline: June 30, 2016
Grants of up to $500 are available for "innovative programs, events, or projects" from the Meemic Foundation for Michigan, Wisconsin or Illinois. Apply online using their easy application that takes less than 30 minutes to complete. These grants are open to any employee of a K-12 public or private school. Universities and colleges may also apply. Fill-in-the-blank application.
Grants are accepted year round, but the second quarter cycle ends June 30th. Grants are up to $500. Recipients will be notified by August 15th.
The foundation says it supports "basically anything that supports teachers and enhances the student's educational experience" - from field trips to books to behavior modification programs; science, music, or art equipment to professional development.
|
|
|
|
