Provides information on all things social work, including direct practice (both clinical and community organizing), research, policy, education... and everything in between.
Today's interview focuses on how simulation can be used to teach holistic competence. They talked about how in the late 2000s, they recognized that there were several problems with the existing model of teaching students practice skills. Their solution was to simulate real-world problems so that students could practice specific skills, get feedback, and improve their practice. In today's episode, Marion and Toula detail the steps necessary for creating simulations, how they involved field supervisors in the development of client simulations, the iterative nature of improving the simulations over time, and an innovative approach to help students learn knowledge and skills through practice and feedback they call "Practice Friday".
I was excited to talk with Dr. Freedenthal because she's come up with 89 tips and techniques that you can start using right away with suicidal clients.
In today’s episode, we talk about five of them:
Tip #10 – Embrace a Narrative Approach: “Suicidal Storytelling”
Tip #35 – Know When and Why to (and not to) Pursue Hospitalization
Tip #36 – Know Why not to Pursue Hospitalization
Tip #64 – Incorporate a Hope Kit
Tip #88 – Propose a Letter to the Suicidal Self
[Episode 118] In today’s episode, I talk to Erlene Grise-Owens, Justin “Jay” Miller, and Mindy Eaves, the editors of the TThe A-to-Z Self-Care Handbook for Social Workers and Other Helping Professionals, published by The New Social Worker Press. My guests debunk some self-care myths and they share some of the guidelines about making self-care a practice. My guests not only talk about what self-care is and is not, but they also model it. We talk about SMART self-care plans, about how being active is not the same as being athletic, about how personal self-care requires professional self-care and that professional self-care affects organizational wellness and that organizational wellness affects professional self-care.
[Episode 117] Hey there podcast listeners, Jonathan here. It is March 5th, 2018 and that means we’re on day 5 of #SWMonth 2018.
For the past 4 years, since 2014, The New Social Worker Magazine has celebrated Social Work Month by publishing inspired and insightful reflections. One of the things I like best about the poems, essays, and reflections at socialworker.com is that they are great for sharing with folks that might not understand what social workers do. Linda Grobman, the social work pioneer and award winning publisher of New Social Worker gets some of the profession’s best known or most profound thinkers to share their wisdom as part of this series.
This year I was honored and humbled to receive an invitation from Linda to submit a short piece for Social Work Month. True, the invitation was addressed to “Dr. Brené Brown, University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work,” but nevertheless I accepted. Linda is such a good sport that she didn’t have the great daring to rise strong and tell me that I had received the invitation by mistake. And I kinda feel bad that if there isn’t a contribution from Brené this year it is basically my fault. But, I mean, what are you gonna do? Opportunities like this don’t come around often.
[Episode 116] Today's episode of the Social Work Podcast is about social media and gang violence. It is about 8 million tweets, cyberbanging, and using social media to get a 360-degree view of someone’s life. It is about the amazing research of Dr. Desmond Patton.
Dr. Patton's research uses qualitative and computational data collection methods to examine how and why gang violence, trauma, grief, and identity are expressed on social media and the real world impact they have on well-being for low-income youth of color.
Desmond and I spoke in January of 2017. He unpacked the complex relationship between gang banging and cyberbanging – a term he and his colleagues coined back in 2013. We also talked about how social workers can think about the relationship between social media and youth. Desmond encourages us to think of the online world as a new social environment that social workers need to understand. He questions existing agency policies that prohibit social workers from interacting with clients on social media and asks if those are empirically-sound policies. And one of the things that I love the most about Desmond’s work is that he combines the rich understanding that comes from qualitative research and the cutting edge insights that can come from analyzing big data.
In today's episode, Allan and I talked about 1.06(g) – professional affiliations and the removal of the word “disability." Allan talks about the difference between baseline standards – don’t have sex with your clients, and aspirational standards – the ideal world in which, for example, we will always be promoting social justice. We talked about section 1.15 – disruption in electronic communications. We ended with a discussion of resources, such as the free NASW webinar on changes to the 2018 NASW Code of Ethics, and ways that you can provide feedback about things that you like or don’t like about the 2018 NASW Code of Ethics. Allan encourages people to be involved in the many online discussions of ethics. He encouraged folks to read and write articles for the Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics and other sites.
In today’s episode, Part 2, Allan and I talk about Section 1.05, cultural competence and whether online communities fall under the ethical standard of cultural competence. Allan mentions the NASW 2016 Standards and Indicators for Cultural Competence. A few minutes later I mention the 2017 NASW, ASWB, CSWE, & CSWA Standards for Technology in Social Work Practice, and feedback that the Tech Standards and the 2018 Code of Ethics painted technology as problematic. Spoiler alert: Allan disagreed. All of the NASW Practice Standards & Guidelines can be found on the NASW website. We talk about section 1.04(e), knowing the laws in your jurisdiction and the one where your client lives and how that affects practicing across state lines with or without technology.
In Part 1, episode 113, we provided a historical overview of the NASW Code of Ethics and discusses why the NASW Code of Ethics was revised for 2018. Then, Allan and I talk about Section 1.03, Informed Consent, and specifically subsection “i” which has to do with electronic searches.
In Part 3, episode 115, we talk about 1.06(g) – professional affiliations, and the removal of the word “disability”. We talk about 1.15 – disruption in electronic communications. We end Part 3 with a discussion of resources for folks who want to learn more about the NASW Code of Ethics, and ethical issues in social work practice.
In Part 2, episode 114, we talk about Section 1.04(e) knowing the laws in your jurisdiction and the one where your client lives and how that affects practicing across state lines with or without technology. We also talk about 1.05, cultural competence.
In Part 3, episode 115, we talk about 1.06(g) – professional affiliations, and the removal of the word “disability”. We talk about 1.15 – disruption in electronic communications. We end Part 3 with a discussion of resources for folks who want to learn more about the NASW Code of Ethics, and ethical issues in social work practice.
[Episode 112] Today's episode of the Social Work Podcast is about the parallels between social workers and superheroes. I spoke with John Vassello. John is the Associate Director of Field Education and Admissions in the Binghamton University Department of Social Work. He also serves as the Continuing Education Coordinator.
John and I talk about an innovative approach to marketing the University of Binghamton's social work program AND the buzz he creates at conferences and recruitment events, all with squishy little superhero stress dolls.
John connects the dots between superheroes (origin stories, secret identities, costumes, code of ethics, and more) and the life and times of social workers.
You can purchase a complete set of the Social Justice League superheroes, all proceeds funding Binghamton social work student scholarships, here: bit.ly/SocialJusticeLeague.
[Episode 111] Today's episode of the Social Work Podcast is about engaging people who are suicidal into professional mental health services. I spoke with Dr. Dana Alonzo from Fordham University. We talked about some of the reasons why people might not want to seek professional mental health services when they are suicidal, and some of the things that mental health professionals do to make it hard for folks to want to stay in treatment. Dana sees this as a problem of engagement. She described the process of how she developed her intervention and what it entails. She ends with some tips on how to improve engagement in treatment for anyone, regardless of suicide risk.
If you’re feeling suicidal, please talk to somebody. You can reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255; the Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860; or the Trevor Project at 866-488- 7386. Text “START” to Crisis Text Line at 741-741. If you don’t like the phone, consider using the Lifeline Crisis Chat at www.crisischat.org.
