NASW Social Work Talks

We speak with Raymond Monsour Scurfield, DSW, LCSW, ACSW, author of "Faith-Based and Secular Meditation: Everyday and Posttraumatic Applications" (NASW Press, 2019). This NASW 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient is professor emeritus of social work at The University of Southern Mississippi, Gulf Coast. His work focuses on the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in combat veterans and disaster survivors. See the show notes for resources and a transcript.

Elizabeth B. Strand, PhD, LCSW, Director of Veterinary Social Work and Associate Professor, University of Tennessee, talks about the need for veterinary social workers and why she loves her work. See the show notes for resources and a transcript. Love this episode? Please leave us a review in Apple Podcasts!

Megan Fenyoe, LCSW, is an Air Force veteran, host of the Blonde Bombshell podcast, and author of "You Are Enough: 5 Steps To Move From Struggle to Strength." Her work focuses on how the mind affects well-being, and how individuals can move from struggle to strength. See the show notes for resources and a transcript. And if you like this episode, please leave us a review in Apple Podcasts.

In this episode, we speak with Ruth Glenn, President & CEO of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, is a domestic violence advocate and survivor. She was in Washington, DC, presenting at NASW's 2019 virtual forum, "Addressing Domestic Violence Through the Social Work Lens." See the show notes for resources and a transcript.

We talk to Jean E. Balestrery, PhD, MA, MSW, LICSW, about what social workers need to know about how dementia effects indigenous peoples. Dr. Balestrery is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research aims to improve health and social service outcomes particularly for marginalized communities. She's co-editor and author of "Indigenous Peoples and Dementia: New Understandings of Memory Loss and Memory Care" (UBC Press). See the show notes for resources, and if you like this episode, please leave us a review in iTunes!

Our guest Michael Wilkins, LCSW, is therapist at the Center for Trauma & Resilience in Denver. We speak with Michael about his work bringing yoga and breathing techniques to inmates in Colorado. Michael is a yoga instructor, an ultra-marathon runner, and is certified in auricular acupuncture. Michael helps clients attain skills that enable them to experience an active lifestyle as a means to better physical and mental health. See the show notes for resources and a transcript. And if you like this show, please leave us a review!

Our guest Jonathan B. Singer, Ph.D., LCSW, is an associate professor of social work at Loyola University Chicago and a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in working with children and families. He hosts the award-winning Social Work Podcast, and is author of multiple publications, including "Suicide in Schools: A Practitioner's Guide to Multi-level Prevention, Assessment, Intervention, and Postvention." See show notes for resources and a transcript. And if you like this episode, please leave us a review in iTunes!

NASW CEO Angelo McClain, PhD, LICSW, speaks with Mary Jo Monahan, CEO of the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) about efforts to increase social work practice mobility. See show the notes for resources and a transcript. And if you like this episode, please leave us a review in iTunes!

Clawbacks are when an insurance company requires a provider to return money they've been paid in the past. Clawbacks can occur months, or even years, after the service has been provided. Rebekah Gewirtz, MPA, Executive Director of NASW's Massachusetts Chapter, speaks with us about how her chapter is fighting against clawbacks in her state.

NASW member Debra Walsh Keane talks about why libraries need social workers, the kinds of services library social workers provide, as well as the rewards and challenges of the job. Debra is the social work coordinator for the Jefferson County Public Library in the Denver area. She's also a member of the Public Library Association's Social Work Task Force. See the show notes for resources and a transcript. And if you liked this episode, please leave us a review in iTunes!

Ellen Kahn is a social worker and Director of the Children, Youth and Families Program at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). We speak with her about HRC's work to serve youth who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer. See the show notes for resources and a transcript. If you like this episode, please leave us a review in iTunes!

Animals provide some of our most reliable, uncomplicated and valued relationships, which contributes to our health and well-being. Philip Tedeschi, LCSW, is Clinical Professor and Executive Director of the Institute for Human-Animal Connection at the University of Denver's Graduate School of Social Work. We speak with Professor Tedeschi about the benefits of animal-assisted interventions in social work. See the show notes for resources and a transcript. If you like this episode, please leave us a review in iTunes!

Martha Gonzalez-Cortes is Senior Vice President of Community Investment at Kalamazoo Community Foundation in Michigan. She has a deep working knowledge of immigration policy issues, and a passion for finding systemic solutions to challenges faced by immigrant and refugee families. We speak with her about immigrant children in the United States who have been separated from their families, and what can be done to put an end to this inhumane practice. See the show notes for resources and a transcript. And if you liked this episode, please leave us a review in iTunes!

Athena Viscusi, LCSW, is a Psychosocial Care Specialist at Doctors Without Borders. She's directed mental health programs in Haiti, South Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Myanmar, and Palestine. She's hired, trained and supervised local workers in refugee camps and worked with clients in cholera and Ebola treatment centers. Prior to this, she was a community mental health provider in Washington, DC. She worked with immigrants and refugees, at a domestic violence shelter, and a homeless outreach and substance abuse treatment program. She also directed a gang intervention program that provided services to youth and their families.

Allison Peeler, LMSW, believes social workers need to drop the outdated story of "underworked and unpaid" and to redefine the way they view themselves and their earning capabilities. See show notes page for resources.

Valerie Arendt, MSW, MPP, discusses why it's so important for social workers to negotiate their salaries. Arendt is the Executive Director of NASW's North Carolina Chapter. See the show notes for resources, and please leave us a review on iTunes!

Suze Orman is a New York Times best-selling author and smart money expert. She hosted the award-winning "Suze Orman Show" on CNBC for 13 years. Her books include "Women & Money," "The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous and Broke" and "The Courage to be Rich." We spoke with her about balancing working in a helping profession and taking care of yourself first. See the show notes for resources and if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review!

Social work has the highest debt-to-salary ratio of any profession. Robert Schachter, DSW, LMSW, describes how social workers in New York City advocated for pay equity in one of the highest cost-of-living cities in the country. Dr. Schachter served for 27 years as the Executive Director of the NASW New York City chapter.

Michael Sinclair, MSW, PhD, assistant professor at Morgan State University School of Social Work, often gets questions about pay from his students. Dr. Sinclair talks to us about why the social work pay landscape looks the way it does, and what can be done to change that. This is the first in our series of episodes about social work salaries as part of Social Work Month 2019. See show notes for resources. And if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us review on iTunes!

Susan Munsey, LCSW, founded GenerateHope, which provides innovative programs for young women and teens who have survived the trauma of sex trafficking. Munsey is a trafficking survivor herself, and she's passionate about rescuing and rehabilitating women and educating people on this issue. Please see the show notes for resources

Sean Erreger, LCSW, MSW, is a clinical case manager for children and youth at the New York State Office of Mental Health. He believes that for social workers who work with teens, striving to understand the social media that their clients are using is part of cultural competency. For related resources, see the show notes

Mike Langlois, MSW, LICSW, is author of "Reset: Video Games & Psychotherapy." He is a gamer-affirmative therapist whose work focuses on gaming, social media, and the impact of social networks on relationships. Langlois encourages us to change our perspective of gaming and to understand that they can be very social in nature. See show notes for resources

Zander Keig, MSW, LCSW, is a clinical social work case manager on the U.S. Navy Medicine West Regional Transgender Care Team. He's a U.S. Coast Guard veteran and co-author of three books and several journal articles. He is also a transsexual man who transitioned in 2005. His peers at the NASW California chapter named him Social Worker of the Year in 2018. He is chair of NASW's National Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues. See the show notes for resources

Our guest Santo D. Marabella, MBA, DSW (a.k.a., The Practical Prof®) is an author, playwright, filmmaker, speaker and educator. He's the author of "The Lessons of Caring: Inspiration and Support for Caregivers." Dr. Marabella talks about the lessons he's learned while caring for his aging parents, and how the book can help people in a similar situation. Read the show notes to learn more

Guest Catherine P. Bradshaw, MEd, PhD, is a developmental psychologist and youth violence prevention researcher. She is editor of "Handbook on Bullying Prevention: A Life Course Perspective," which offers recommendations for prevention and intervention in bullying across the lifespan. Thanks for listening! Remember, we'd love to hear your ideas for future shows. Visit the show notes to learn more

Children with disabilities are highly diverse in terms of their health conditions, disability severity, and social environments, yet they share many of the same needs. Many programs and services have been developed to meet these needs. Our guest, Paula Allen-Meares, MSW, PhD, discusses a recent report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, that identifies the characteristics of effective programs, as well as opportunities for their improvement.

Kristen Lee, Ed.D., LICSW, is a professor of Behavioral Science at Northeastern University, and is the author of "Mentalligence" and "Reset." With more than 20 years' experience as a clinician, educator, researcher and parent, she speaks about her area of expertise: preventing and treating burnout.

A new NASW social justice brief reports that Black youth make up about 14% of the total youth population, but comprise 47.3% of the youth who are transferred to adult court by juvenile court judges. Guests Mel Wilson, NASW's social justice and human rights manager, and Jeree Thomas, policy director at the Campaign for Youth Justice, discuss this unjust practice. They encourage social workers to get involved in action-oriented coalitions to make changes in their communities, and to hold their elected officials accountable. Read the show notes to download the report and for more resources.

Carla Gonzalez is a clinical social worker and domestic violence survivor who leverages her professional skills and uses her platform as Miss U.S. World Elite (among other titles) as a vehicle for speaking out against domestic violence, bullying and sexual assault.

For Brenda Wade, MSW, LCSW-C, CSSW, writing is both a means of self-care both and as a way to explore the challenges that she sees in her work as a school social worker. Published under the pen name Hunter William, Wade's Charm Town fiction trilogy shines a spotlight on the lives of children and adults in a Baltimore school. See the EP14 show notes for resources

Opioid addiction has become a public health crisis in the United States. Our guest, David Stoecker, LCSW, is founder and director of Better Life in Recovery. He recommends that we look at the opioid addiction pandemic through a harm-reduction lens, rather than a punitive one. He argues that abstinence is not the only path to recovery and that we need to create healthy communities and to provide recovery support to those who need it. See Episode 13 show notes for resources

NASW President Kathryn Conley Wehrmann, PhD, MSW, LCSW, talks about her career path and her efforts to support social workers, especially those new to the profession.

NASW Senior Practice Associate Roxana Torrico Meruvia, MSW, talks about Social Work Speaks, NASW policy statements and how members can get involved in the process. See Episode 11 show notes for resources

In this special episode, our guests weigh in on the crisis currently brewing around immigration in the United States, specifically related to children separated from their families at our southern border. Our guests are Melvin H. Wilson, LCSW, NASW's Manager of Social Justice & Human Rights, and Guadalupe G. Lara, LMSW, NASW Board of Directors Member-at-Large. See Episode 10 show notes for resources

Our guests in this episode are Heidi McIntosh, Deputy Director of Programs at NASW; and Julie E. Shroyer, MSW, Senior Policy Advisor at Polsinelli, a top Washington, DC law firm. We talk about the skills that social workers bring to the table, the importance of social workers participating in the 2018 mid-term elections; and the challenges of advocating for the disadvantage in the current political climate.

With the conference just days away, we speak again with the conference organizers to give you idea of what you can expect, whether you attend in person or virtually.

May is Foster Care Month, so we speak with Matt Anderson and Malissa Flores, two social workers from the Children's Home Society of North Carolina, who partner with public agencies to help kids move from foster care into permanent families. See Episode 7 show notes for resources

Joan Levy Zlotnik, PhD, ACSW, discusses how public policy is an important part of social work. See Episode 6 show notes for resources

We speak with Bob Arnold, Director of NASW Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization that supports NASW's educational, research, training and charitable initiatives through a wide range of projects that serve the profession, practitioners and the public. Visit the Foundation website to learn more

Dawn Hobdy, NASW Director of Ethics & Professional Review, discusses how the Code of Ethics changed, examples of challenges that social workers face, and how NASW is helping social workers meet the challenges they face every day. See EP4 show notes for resources

Thinking about attending the 2018 NASW National Conference? Raffaele Vitelli, NASW's Director of Professional & Workforce Development, and Richard Loomis, Manager of Conference and Event Planning talk about the planning that makes this event as useful as possible for our attendees.

What are NASW's social justice initiatives right now, and how were they chosen? Mel Wilson, our Social Justice & Human Rights Manager, speaks about the issues that concern us, and that are keeping us busy in the national office and at our local chapters. See Episode 2 show notes for resources

March is Social Work Month, and we're talking to NASW CEO Angelo McClain about the importance of Social Work Month, NASW initiatives for 2018, and experiences that led Dr. McClain to become interested in the social work profession.

NASW Director of Membership Jennifer Watt welcomes you to NASW Social Work Talks, where we seek to inform, educate and inspire on topics that social workers care about. Launching March 2018, in honor of Social Work Month. Brought to you by the National Association of Social Workers.