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E-Newsletter • April 2025 |
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Editor's E-Note
Often, nursing home residents are unable to advocate for themselves regarding specific symptoms—that’s where social workers come in. This month’s exclusive discusses the different ways in which such information can be gathered from nursing home residents with a new assessment tool. The tool is in late-stage trials and could be immensely useful in assisting social workers and various clinicians in advocating for this vulnerable population.
I’m excited to receive your comments at SWTeditor@gvpub.com. While you’re at it, visit our website at www.SocialWorkToday.com, like our Facebook page, and follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Enjoy the newsletter.
— Josh Hildebrand, editor |
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| In This E-Newsletter
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Assessing Pain, Anxiety, and Other Symptoms of Nursing Home Residents Unable to Speak for Themselves
As many as half of nursing home residents are cognitively impaired and may be unable to communicate symptoms such as pain or anxiety to the staff and clinicians caring for them. Therefore, information needed for the evaluation of symptoms and subsequent treatment decisions typically does not reliably exist in nursing home EHRs.
A new paper reports on the novel adaptation of a commonly used symptom assessment instrument to more comprehensively acquire this difficult-to-obtain data with the ultimate goal of enabling knowledge-based expansion of palliative care services in nursing homes to address residents’ symptoms.
In the paper, part of the large, multistate, multifacility UPLIFT-AD study—short for Utilizing Palliative Leaders in Facilities to Transform care for people with Alzheimer’s Disease—researchers, including Regenstrief Institute, the Indiana University (IU) School of Medicine, and the University of Maryland School of Social Work faculty, describe how they revamped and subsequently validated a symptom assessment tool used worldwide. The UPLIFT-AD researchers modified the instrument, originally designed for reporting by family members of individuals with dementia following their death, to enable reporting on the symptoms of current residents living with moderate to severe dementia by nursing home staff as well as family.
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Social Workers Can Advocate for Those Affected by Climate Change
Marginalized communities are disproportionately affected by climate change. In a study published in the journal Ethics and Social Welfare, the authors highlight the importance of social workers advocating for these marginalized communities.
Medicaid Changes Could Lead to Coverage Loss
New work requirements for Medicaid could result in a loss of coverage for more than five million Americans, according to Newsweek.
Social Work Job Cuts in the UK
Financial complications are making it difficult for social work trainees to find placement on NHS teams. Social work organizations in the UK are calling for additional roles to be added.
Standard for Care Suicide Task Force
An NASW-created task force will assist social workers in aiding clients dealing with suicidality, according to the NASW website. |
Nowhere to Go: The Tragic Odyssey of the Homeless Mentally Ill
Nowhere to Go: The Tragic Odyssey of the Homeless Mentally Ill by the Treatment Advocacy Center's founder, E. Fuller Torrey, is now available with an updated prologue and epilogue via open access. The book is freely available to read and/or download.
When it was originally published in 1988, the book was said to be the definitive account of why deinstitutionalization failed, why the community mental health center movement failed, and why there are so many severely mentally ill individuals among the homeless and incarcerated. The Wall Street Journal called it “a remarkable book.” The San Francisco Examiner said it was “a historical hit piece on the horrors of deinstitutionalization.” Newsweek called it “one of the most scathing indictments yet of the deinstitutionalization effort.” And, according to the Washington Post, “Nowhere is a portrait of the battered mental patient more vividly drawn than in Nowhere to Go.” Learn more »
New Course in Addiction Counseling Tackles Bias
Chatham University’s graduate programs in Psychology now offer an elective class in Addiction Counseling that includes an element of film study that allows students to refine technical skills.
Addictions Counseling is an elective available to students in all three of Chatham's graduate psychology programs. The learning objectives are based on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Addictions Counseling Competencies, which are unique in that they emphasize not just skills but also attitudes. Accordingly, a major aim of the course is to help students scrutinize their conceptions of addictions, as well as their biases toward people with addictions, recognizing that technical skills alone do not ensure quality care. Read more » |
The nation's top employers and recruiters of social workers advertise in Social Work Today magazine and post their job openings on AHCJobBoard.com. Check out the most recent opportunities that have been submitted by employers across the country!
Featured Employers
California Correctional Health Care Services (CCHCS)
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Defense Health Agency
Social Worker 2025-8674
Bremerton, Washington, United States
Social Worker (Family Advocacy Program Intervention Specialist (FAIS)) 2025-8623
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Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
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Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, United States |
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