Good morning! ☀️

We’re considering forming an online advocacy group and community where we can push for legislative changes that espouse social work values and help marginalized groups. People who are not social workers can also join. If this sounds interesting, please click HERE and complete the Google form.

Also, if you are a clinician, check out Mentalyc. They have created a platform that automatically transcribes therapy sessions and writes your clinical notes for you. It can be used either as an EMR or solely for its note-taking capabilities!

Today’s question: When were the first social work university courses offered and where?

News

Child Abuse Registries

In 2018, Nzinga Terrell-Brown was fired from 2 jobs as a teacher's aide without knowing why. What was going on? Well, 10 years earlier, she had “been placed on New Jersey's registry after she decided not to wake her fiance's kids, ages three and five, when she popped into the store to pick up a birthday cake for the five-year-old. The errand was short, the weather was mild, and the kids were fine. Nevertheless, someone called the cops, and Terrell-Brown was charged with ‘inadequate supervision.’”

There are millions of parents like Terrell-Brown across the nation who have been registered for crimes ranging from sex trafficking to allowing their children to play outside without their supervision. Who decides whether to place a parent on this registry? A caseworker and a supervisor from Child Protective Services. Judges or other authority figures need not be involved in the decision.

Sometimes, parents don’t even know that they are listed on the registry until years down the line when they are denied a job. For example, an audit showed that child protection agencies may not have notified up to 40% of these parents! Yet appeals must be filed within months, or in some places weeks.

Fortunately, some organizations and agencies have started to push back against these unjust laws and systems. Let Grow advocates for allowing children to have some independence without parents “getting arrested or investigated for neglect”. In Colorado and some other states, laws are being passed that narrow the child neglect laws so that they cover only serious and obvious dangers for children.

Other social work-related news

• The mental health version of 911 is set to launch nationwide next month

• The military keeps making one obvious mistake with its suicide prevention efforts: It doesn’t seem to prioritize mental health although it says it does. Its websites and resources are outdated and stigma is still very much prevalent throughout the agency

• Patients seek mental health care from their doctor but find health plans standing in the way

• New York let residences for kids with serious mental health problems vanish. Desperate families call the cops instead.

• Berlin crash driver had a history of paranoid schizophrenia, authorities say

Research

Is a reduction in crime always a good thing?

In the past, we’ve talked about how some cities across the nation have begun sending out mental health professionals instead of police officers for nonviolent crimes. Researchers examined Denver’s support team assistance response (STAR) pilot program, which sends out mental health professionals, and found that the pilot reduced minor crimes by 34%. Many deem this a huge success.

In some cities such as San Francisco, however, citizens are fed up with a lenient response toward crime. Why? Because this has contributed to a 40% increase in burglaries since 2019 and a huge reduction in arrests for shoplifting. This, in turn, has hurt local businesses and has caused some stores to close down.

A 2020 Tweet from the Tenderloin police station in San Francisco captures the sentiment: “Tonight, for the fifteenth (15th) time in 18 months, and the 3rd time in 20 days, we are booking the same suspect at county jail for felony motor vehicle theft.”

The criminal justice system must strike a very delicate balance; One which allows citizens to feel like they live in a stable and just society, and one where crime is directly, justly, and effectively addressed and halted.

Other reads on research

• The relationship between mental health and mass shootings. Regarding the perpetrators of mass shootings, 30% were suicidal prior to the shooting, 31% had experiences of severe childhood trauma, and over 80% were in crisis

Reads on policy

• Urge your Senators to increase access to social work services and social work reimbursement rates The Improving Access to Mental Health Act (S. 870)

• Long wait for justice: People in jail face delays for mental health care before they can stand trial

• Miami County starts mental health initiative in court system

Tech, social work, and cool opportunities 😎

• Alto Neuroscience uses AI to create biomarkers for personalized mental health drugs

• Aetna cancels contract with Cerebral over controlled substance prescribing issues

• Growth Associate at Uplift, a technology-driven mental healthcare company on a mission to improve access for everyone

• Practice Management Specialist (Outpatient Behavioral Health) at Optum

• Various roles at Coa, a mental health “fitness studio”

• Program Lead, Verily’s Inclusive Culture of Belonging and Equitable Health Outcomes (VIBE) at Verily

Answer: The first social work courses were offered in 1898 by the New York Charity Organization Society. This society eventually evolved to become what is today Columbia University School of Social Work.

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