Editor's Eye

 

Riding the Mutual Aid Bus and Other Adventures in Group Work: A “Days in the Lives of Social Workers” Collection, edited by Linda May Grobman and Jennifer Clements. Groups come in all kinds. Therapy groups. Support groups. Task groups. Psychoeducational groups. Online groups. Play groups. Experiential groups. Art groups. Drumming groups. Co-facilitated groups. Child groups. Adult groups. Family groups. The list goes on. Regardless of what setting you are in, if you are a social worker, you will work with groups at some time in your career. Read 44 stories of social work with groups. Available now at: http://shop.whitehatcommunications.com/riding-the-mutual-aid-bus-and-other-adventures-in-group-work/

 

Are you or someone you know applying to social work graduate school? The Social Work Graduate School Applicant’s Handbook is now available in Kindle format and print format! Order it from Amazon here for the Kindle edition or here for the print edition.

 

Check out all of our social work and nonprofit books, social work greeting cards, social work buttons, and more. All of our books and products are available through our secure online store at: http://shop.whitehatcommunications.com.

 

You can also download our catalog in PDF format at:

 

 

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**Get your textbooks!** Support The New Social Worker while you shop. Follow this link to Amazon.com for all your textbook and other supply needs.

 

Job Corner

 

 

 

Walden Sierra, a nonprofit behavioral health organization serving Southern Maryland, seeks licensed LGPC, LCPC, LGSW, or LCSWs for exciting full-time opportunities with our Agency.  At Walden, we partner with individuals and families with the courage to face an array of crisis, abuse, trauma, family, and addiction issues by providing professional counseling and educational services in either an inpatient or outpatient setting. Openings are based in Lexington Park, MD.   Master’s Degree with appropriate licensure.  Previous experience in the field preferred.  Experience working with electronic records system helpful.  

 

Contact Person: Human Resources

E-Mail: hr@waldensierra.org

Web Site:  http://www.waldensierra.org  

 

 

Providence Hospital—Washington, DC    

 

What connects us is much larger than medicine.  

 

Yes. There is the exceptional clinical excellence for which we are known. And our standing as the most experienced, continuously operating hospital in Washington, DC. But there is much, much more to being at Providence.  

 

At Providence Hospital’s Seton House, you will be part of an exceptional behavioral health services program offering inpatient and outpatient substance abuse, emotional, behavioral, and psychiatric treatment services for our community. Come experience Providence for yourself.  

 

As Social Worker, you will provide psychosocial counseling services to psychiatric, substance abuse, and geriatric patients and their families with an emphasis on continuity of care; coordinate and participate in multidisciplinary treatment and discharge planning; document all data on E.A.R.; and submit departmental statistics and reports as needed.  

 

We offer a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package, including health/dental, 403(b) retirement plan, tuition assistance, free parking, and much more.

 

To learn more, visit us at: provhosp.org/career and click on “Apply Now” to view our opportunities.  

 

An Equal Opportunity Employer.

We conduct pre-employment drug and background screening.  

 

Experienced Trauma Counselors Needed in Gulu, Uganda  

 

We have an on-going program in Gulu working with youth that were abducted by Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army and forced to be child soldiers or sex slaves. We need psychologists and social workers who can gently help these youth with the horrors that they experienced.  

 

Requirements:  

These are volunteer opportunities. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. No end date.  

 

Interested? Please read NGOabroad website http://www.ngoabroad.com/ and send answered Questionnaire and resume to: info@NGOabroad.com  

 

QUESTIONNAIRE IS ESSENTIAL  

 

Featured Excerpt

by Renee Zandee-Adams, MSW, LCSW

 

I am not a “group” person. Don’t get me wrong. I understand the therapeutic value of the group, as well as the stages of group development for both the group and the leader. I have excelled in my academic study of group work and successfully participated in countless role plays in the presence of both peers and mentors throughout my entire academic career. However, I must confess, there are many, many things I wish I had known before beginning my first support group for caregivers of individuals residing in a skilled nursing facility.

 

In the same way that knowing how a car operates does not make one a good driver, earning a master’s degree in social work and studying the group process in depth does not necessarily make one a good facilitator. I believe that the skills needed to effectively facilitate a group are often highly underrated. I also believe that it is often assumed that if you are intelligent and have people skills, you can run a group. I have been present in groups as both observer and participant and generally have left with a less than satisfied feeling and secretly wondered if others felt the same way. This leads me to believe that I was not alone in my lack of preparedness and lack of respect for the true work and skill needed to be a good facilitator.

 

As professionals, we desire the best for our clients. We want to provide them with the tools to navigate their way through whatever situation they may be struggling with and achieve their “healthiest selves.” Because of this, I am going to share the pitfalls that I ran into as a new facilitator and hope to prevent you from experiencing the same.

 

I am going to share the biggest misconceptions that I held about the group dynamic and how these misconceptions affected my group, its development, and its therapeutic value. First and foremost was my belief that a “good” group essentially “runs itself” followed by the belief that my dual role as both Social Service Director and support group facilitator would somehow be beneficial to both the group and the facility for which I was employed and, lastly, my belief that all participants, at their core, have a similar goal of supporting and respecting one another.

 

I have heard, for years, from many respected individuals, that “the group essentially runs itself.” The problem with this belief is that, for many, it minimizes the true importance of preparation. I clung to this misconception as I decided to develop my first caregiver support group where I worked as a Social Service Director in a skilled nursing facility.

 

Having worked as a Skilled Nursing Facility Director for four years, I identified a great need for in-house support for the family members of patients living there. Generally, this population of caregivers spent much of their day in the nursing home and either didn’t have the energy or the time to attend an off-site support group. My solution was to offer a group on Saturdays, on-site, in a safe, convenient, and familiar setting.

 

I followed the recipe for any successful group. I posted flyers, mailed out personal invitations, collected various resource materials and handouts, reserved a private area, and bought doughnuts. The RSVPs were rolling in, and I had a surprisingly hefty group of approximately 15 caregivers. As the attendees were seated and settled, I explained what I perceived to be the purpose of the group, reviewed some general guidelines and expectations, and asked that everyone introduce themselves. So far so good. I then opened the floor and asked if anyone had anything specific that he/she wanted to share. Silence—not the silence that gently pushes one to deeper insight, but the awkward silence when no one really knows what to say or how to begin or end.

 

Possibly, in an effort to end the awkward silence, or maybe because the attendees had an agenda quite different from my own, the support group transformed itself into a forum for voicing complaints. There were complaints about care, policies, administration, and departments. In my inexperience, I felt outnumbered, and my attempts at redirection—the ones that served me so well in my one-on-one practice—seemed to fail me in this setting.

 

Read the rest of this article at:

 

 

• Student Role Model: Sean Hudson (in PDF and print version only)

• Ethics Alive!: Whoops! Practice Errors and the Ethics of Follow-Up - http://www.socialworker.com/home/Feature_Articles/Ethics/Ethics_Alive!_Whoops!_Practice_Errors_and_the_Ethics_of_Follow-Up/

 

• Field Placement: Thinking Outside the Box: Social Work Field Placements in Legal Settings - http://www.socialworker.com/home/Feature_Articles/Field_Placement/Thinking_Outside_the_Box%3A_Social_Work_Field_Placements_in_Legal_Settings/

• From Generation to Generation: Three Generations of Social Workers - http://www.socialworker.com/home/Feature_Articles/General/From_Generation_to_Generaton%3A_Three_Generations_of_Social_Workers/

• A Good Group Runs Itself—and Other Myths - http://www.socialworker.com/home/Feature_Articles/Professional_Development_%26_Advancement/A_Good_Group_Runs_Itself%2C_and_Other_Myths/

• Challenge House Retreats: Building Resilience in At-Risk Youths (in PDF and print version only)

• Educational and Credit Card Debt: What’s a Social Worker To Do? - http://www.socialworker.com/home/Feature_Articles/Professional_Development_%26_Advancement/Educational_and_Credit_Card_Debt%3A_What%27s_a_Social_Worker_To_Do?/

• In the Ogre’s Lair: Seeing Light in Shadow - http://www.socialworker.com/home/Feature_Articles/Professional_Development_%26_Advancement/In_the_Ogre%27s_Lair%3A_Seeing_Light_in_Shadow/

• New Acronyms=Greater Opportunities for Social Workers in Health Care Settings - http://www.socialworker.com/home/Feature_Articles/Professional_Development_%26_Advancement/New_Acronyms%3DGreater_Opportunities_for_Social_Workers_in_Health_Care_Settings/

• Social Work Students in Action (in PDF and print version only)

 

• 10 Things Every New Social Worker Needs To Know About People - http://www.socialworker.com/home/Feature_Articles/Professional_Development_%26_Advancement/10_Things_Every_New_Social_Worker_Needs_To_Know_About_People/

• Tech Topics: Sites Ease Stress of End-of-Life Planning - http://www.socialworker.com/home/Feature_Articles/Technology/Tech_Topics%3A_Sites_Ease_Stress_of_End-of-Life_Planning/

• On Campus (in PDF and print version only)

• Reviews - http://www.socialworker.com/home/Reviews/Book_Reviews/Book_Reviews%3A_Winter_2013/

...and much more!

 

Features

 

 

 

The Heart Truth

 

American Heart Association—Community Awareness

 

Office of Minority Health—Heart Disease Statistics

 

CDC—Teen Dating Violence

http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/intimatepartnerviolence/teen_dating_violence.html

 

Love Is Respect

 

 

 

African American History Month

 

Library of Congress—African American History Collections

 

 

 

 

 

Eula M. Cousins, 110, pioneering black social worker and educator, dies

 

My Turn: School Social Workers to the Rescue

 

Tracing Birth Familes on Facebook Can Have Devastating Impact All Round

 

GSA Receives Grant to Strengthen Social Work Practice for Older Adults

News & Resources

 

• field placement
• technology
• practice specialties
• news of innovative social work practice
• what every new social worker needs to know about…
• other topics of interest to social work students, new graduates, and seasoned professionals

The Verne LaMarr Lyons Memorial MSW Scholarships are awarded to master’s degree candidates in social work who demonstrate an interest in or have experience with health/mental health practice and have a commitment to working in the African American community. Up to 2 scholarships of up to $2,000 each will be awarded. 

On Our Web Site

 

The Winter 2013 issue of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER is available now! It is available to download in PDF format at:

 

 

THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER’s Web site at http://www.socialworker.com includes the full text of hundreds of articles from past issues of the magazine. The current issue is featured on the site’s main page. Past issues can be found under “Magazine Issues” in the right column of the page. For selected full-text articles from issues prior to Spring 2006, click on “Feature Articles Archive” on the left side of the page. The magazine is also available for FREE download in PDF format.

 

In addition to the free PDF and Web versions of the magazine, the magazine is available in PRINT at http://newsocialworker.magcloud.com! Order it today!

 

You can also purchase bound volumes for 2011 and 2012 at Amazon.com. Search for “The New Social Worker” (in quotes).

 

Our online discussion forum/message board is a place for open discussion of a variety of social work-related issues. Join in our discussion at http://www.socialworker.com (click on the “Forum” link).

 

 

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The Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics is a free, online, peer-reviewed journal published twice a year, in full text, online.

 

The journal’s archives from 2004-2012 can be found at: http://www.socialworker.com/jswve

 

The Fall 2012 edition is available at:

 

Artices in this edition include:

 

Editorial by Linda May Grobman, MSW, LSW, ACSW

 

W. Dana Holman, DSW

 

Jeremy Carney, MSW, Ph.D. & Kristen McCarren, BSW

 

A. Antonio González-Prendes, Ph.D. & Kimberly Brisebois

 

Gretchen E. Ely, Ph.D., Chris Flaherty, Ph.D., L. Shevawn Akers, MSW & Tara Bonistall Noland, MSW

 

Margo J. Heydt & William P. O’Connell

 

Kamilah Majied, Ph.D. & Tamarah Moss-Knight, Ph.D.

 

Gail E. Trimberger

 

 

Hegland, K. F., & Fleming, R. B. (2010). New Times, New Challenges: Law and Advice for Savvy Seniors and Their Families. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.

Reviewed by Peter A. Kindle, Ph.D., CPA, LMSW

 

Hunter, S. (2010). Effects of Conservative Religion on Lesbian and Gay Clients and Practitioners: Practice Implications. Washington, DC: NASW Press.

Reviewed by Peter A. Kindle, Ph.D, CPA, LMSW

 

Lesser, H. (Ed.) (2012). Justice for Older People. New York, NY: Rodopi Press.

Reviewed by: Stephen M. Marson, Ph.D., Senior Editor

 

Nichols-Casebolt, A. (2012). Research Integrity and Responsible Conduct of Research.  NY: Oxford University Press.

Reviewed by: Charles Garvin, Ph.D.

 

 

Go to the journal Web site at http://www.socialworker.com/jswve to read this and other available issues.

 

Future editions of the Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics will be published by the Association of Social Work Boards. Read Linda Grobman’s editorial in the Fall edition for more about this transition.

 

In Print

White Hat Communications, publisher of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER magazine and the Social Work E-News, has published several books about social work. These books make great gifts (for graduation or other occasions) for yourself, or for your friends, students, and colleagues in social work!

 

Briefly, those currently in print are:

 

DAYS IN THE LIVES OF SOCIAL WORKERS: 58 Professionals Tell Real-Life Stories From Social Work Practice (4th Edition), edited by Linda May Grobman

 

MORE DAYS IN THE LIVES OF SOCIAL WORKERS:35 Real-Life Stories of Advocacy, Outreach, and Other Intriguing Roles in Social Work Practice, edited by Linda May Grobman

 

DAYS IN THE LIVES OF GERONTOLOGICAL SOCIAL WORKERS: 44 Professionals Tell Stories From Real-Life Social Work Practice With Older Adults, edited by Linda May Grobman and Dara Bergel Bourassa.

 

 

IS IT ETHICAL? 101 SCENARIOS IN EVERYDAY SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE: A DISCUSSION WORKBOOK, by Thomas Horn

 

THE FIELD PLACEMENT SURVIVAL GUIDE: What You Need to Know to Get the Most From Your Social Work Practicum, 2^nd Edition, edited by Linda May Grobman

 

THE SOCIAL WORK GRADUATE SCHOOL APPLICANT’S HANDBOOK: The Complete Guide to Selecting and Applying to MSW Programs, by Jesus Reyes

 

We also publish books on nonprofit management. Want to start your own agency? Check out THE NONPROFIT HANDBOOK: Everything You Need to Know to Start and Run Your Nonprofit Organization (6th Edition) and IMPROVING QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE IN YOUR NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION, by Gary M. Grobman.

 

 

All of our books are available through our secure online store at:

 

You can also download our catalog in PDF format at:

 

VISIT OUR SITES

www.socialworker.com