16 #MacroSW Chat

by Patricia Shelly

(Here is the archive of all the tweets from this chat)

What does healthy aging and productivity look like in the 21^st century? Baby boomers are retiring later, millennials are starting families and technology continuously offers new ways to delegate tasks.

One Grand Challenges for Social Work paper explained the trends as follows:

“Increased automation and longevity demand new thinking by employers and employees regarding productivity. Young people are increasingly disconnected from education or work and the labor force faces significant retirements in the next decades. Throughout the lifespan, fuller engagement in education and paid and unpaid productive activities can generate a wealth of benefits, including better health and well-being, greater financial security, and a more vital society.”

Man with white hair in clear goggles and blue cape raises fist, as does his young male sidekick in goggles and red cape. — Superhero and sidekick. Image: Beth Johnson Foundation

The challenge of reshaping social expectations, institutions, policies, and programs so we can benefit from the older population and its growing social capital is more important than ever.

Join us on Thursday, October 6, 2016, at 9pm ET, 8pm CT and 6pm PT:

We’ll chat about how ways to increase ongoing engagement with and productivity by our older Americans.

Hosts:
Pat Shelly, University at Buffalo School of Social Work @UBSSW
Mikhail Bell, representing the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare @AASWSW

Questions for Discussion:

Why is increasing productive engagement in later life a Grand Challenge for Social Work?
What is productive aging?
How does productive engagement benefit society?
How can social work lead the way with this challenge?
What are some examples of productive engagement for later life? Any from your community?
Do you have new ideas or visions for a productive later life?

RESOURCES

Teresa Minja speaks out at the U.N. on the need for a convention on the rights of older people. Image: Help Age International

white woman with white hair and big black sunglassed in night club in front of turntable. — Mamy Rock, a British DJ in her 70’s, made appearances across Europe. Image: SPOA films

About #MacroSW:

#MacroSW is a collaboration of social workers, organizations, social work schools, and individuals working to promote macro social work practice. Macro social work practice focuses on changing larger systems, such as communities and organizations. It encompasses a broad spectrum of actions and ideas, ranging from community organizing and education to legislative advocacy and policy analysis. The chats are held weekly on Twitter every Thursday at 9 p.m. EST (6 p.m. PST). Click here for a list of chat partners. For information about how to participate in the #MacroSW chat, view our FAQs. For chat schedule and chat archives check out: http://macrosw.com.

Media Night 9.29.16 – Environmental Justice

Here is the transcript for this chat: https://storify.com/OfficialMacroSW/media-night-9-29-16-environmental-justice

For our September Media Night, we will be talking about environmental justice as an important area of macro social work practice.

environmentaljustice_image Environmental justice gets at the notion that all people have a right to a clean, safe, environment regardless of their race, ethnicity, SES, gender, and no matter where they live. In this chat, we’ll be discussing lead exposure as an environmental justice issue of particular importance to social workers.

Here is a link the article, Freddie Gray’s life a study on the effects of lead paint on poor blacks by Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/freddie-grays-life-a-study-in-the-sad-effects-of-lead-paint-on-poor-blacks/2015/04/29/0be898e6-eea8-11e4-8abc-d6aa3bad79dd_story.html.

samantha-teixeira-513x336 Our host will is Dr. Samantha Teixeira from the School of Social Work at Boston College. Samantha Teixeira, PhD, joined the faculty at the School of Social Work in 2015. Her research focuses on how neighborhood environmental conditions affect youth and how youth can be engaged in creating solutions to environmental problems in their communities. In order to better address neighborhood environmental disparities, Dr. Teixeira utilizes a community based participatory research approach to identify community environmental issues and learn how they shape life in disadvantaged neighborhoods, particularly among youth. In her work, she uses innovative, mixed methods approaches including photography, community mapping, in-depth interviews, and spatial analysis to uncover the perspectives of neighborhood residents and intervene in community problems.

She has published on the topics of place-based, comprehensive community interventions that address neighborhood environmental disparities, youth-led participatory research, and environmental justice interventions and education. Samantha’s diverse practice experience includes work in child protective services, community organizing and development, and local government initiatives.

Our #MacroSW Partner facilitating the chat is Laurel Hitchcock (@laurelhitchcock).

Here are the questions we hope to discuss during the chat:

Would you consider lead exposure to be an environmental justice (EJ) issue? Why?
Why is lead exposure an important environmental/contextual consideration when considering the life and death of Freddie Gray?
EJ issues have been called a form of “slow violence” that causes injury more slowly than typical acts of violence. How does slow violence relate to Gray’s Baltimore community?
In the graphic “Baltimore neighborhoods with elevated lead levels” click to see maps illustrating lead levels, vacant property, & child poverty. What do you see here?
This article illustrates many interconnections between micro and macro social work issues. Identify issues at different systems levels and how they interconnect.
The article alludes to the connection between lead exposure and violence. How do you think these issues relate?

About #MacroSW:

About #MacroSW Media Nights:

Tune in for our once a month #MacroSW Media Night to talk about different social problems highlighted by the press. We’ll feature a video, podcast, blog post or article that features a hot topic. These chats are ideal for class assignment or extra credit opportunity. For the chat schedule: https://macrosw.com/special-events/.

HIV/AIDs Prevention & Treatment: #MacroSW 9/22 at 9pm EST

Chat archive now available!

My “Until There’s a Cure” bracelet, which I’ve worn since my MSW internship on HIV/AIDs in 1998-1999.

According to aids.gov:

HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. If left untreated, HIV can lead to the disease AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). Unlike some other viruses, the human body can’t get rid of HIV completely. So once you have HIV, you have it for life…No effective cure for HIV currently exists, but with proper treatment and medical care, HIV can be controlled…Today, a person who is diagnosed with HIV, treated before the disease is far advanced, and stays on treatment can live a nearly as long as someone who does not have HIV.

As recently as June 2016:

More than 1.2 million people in the US are living with HIV, and 1 in 8 of them don’t know it.
Over the last decade, the annual number of new HIV diagnoses declined 19%.
Gay and bisexual men, particularly young African American gay and bisexual men, are most affected.

However, statistics do not capture the whole story. Aaron Laxton, an AIDS Activist, Youtube Blogger, Writer, Social-Engineer, and MSW student at Saint Louis University, often publishes about his experience with HIV:

Join us as we discuss HIV/AIDs prevention and treatment and implications for macro social work practice. Our chat questions will be:

What do I need to know about HIV?
What do I need to know about HIV prevention?
What’s treatment as prevention (TaP)?
How effective is PrEP?
What are resources in your community for PrEP?
Where can I learn more about social work and HIV prevention and treatment?

For this conversation, we will also be joined by:

David Fawcett, PhD, LCSW. cropped-with-mark-2016_06_22-19_46_05-utc David Fawcett is an
expert on stigma and mental health and substance abuse problems in the LGBT community in Florida. Separate from his clinical practice, he presents workshops on chronic illness, substance abuse and mental health in the LGBT community.

Evelyn Tomaszewski, MSW. Evelyn Tomaszewski is NASW senior policy associate in the Human Rights and Social Justice Department and directs the NASW HIV/AIDS Spectrum Project. She is staff to the NASW National Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues, and she can address the impact of policy, programs, and laws on LGBT individuals and families. Her work focuses on building capacity to address LGBT human rights, violence prevention and early intervention, and HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment.

Toxic Masculinity is a Macro Social Work Issue

Chat archive now available!

Here’s a link to the trailer for “The Mask You Live In.” This documentary on the American “boy crisis” explains how to raise a healthier generation of men and features interviews with experts and academics. What does it mean to be a man? American society might be pushing a masculinity on our boys that destroys them.

The 91 minute film is available for viewing on Netflix.

#MacroSW Chat Sept. 8: Moving from Conversation to Action

View Chat Archive

As we celebrated our last day of summer this Labor Day weekend, let’s not forget the true intention of the holiday is to recognize the labor movement and its workers. In this spirit let’s talk about how a conversation among like-minded people becomes a social change movement. There isn’t a straightforward path to creating a movement but our profession is full of stellar examples and social workers who have taken an idea or a wish and turned it into an actionable cause. Join us for the #MacroSW chat on Thursday, Sept. 8 at 9 pm EST (6 pm Pacific) to discuss moving from conversation to action.

Advocacy happens every day in big and small ways and in communities across the country. We don’t have to look far for examples. Consider the 10 NASW chapters who are collectively advocating to keep their decision-making power and the recent unveiling of Secretary Hillary Clinton’s mental health agenda which in this election year we can play an active role to shape this policy. There are many other tangible change initiatives social workers can participate in. We can look to history too, such as the labor, civil rights, and women’s movement, and appreciate that monumental change is possible.

This chat is to follow up on our July post conversation to action, in the wake of the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile and the sniper attack on Dallas police, which encouraged people to share advocacy activities happening in communities in our crowdsourcing document to curate a list of places where you could share your social work expertise.

On this chat, we’ll discuss things happening right now, as well as pay homage to our profession’s history of moving conversations to advocacy work. Social injustice has not only outraged us but motivated organizing efforts. Social workers have artful weaved a “feet on the ground” approach with theory and are skilled at collaboration to guide community organizing work.

For this chat, we’ll discuss the following questions.

What was the tipping point that pushed you to work on a cause or issue?
How has social media played a key role in your activism?
Share tactics which have helped you or your organization solve a community problem?
What issues are you currently working on and where do you need additional help in your community?
Share events or initiatives where social workers can be involved in a cause. Also, add to our crowdsourcing Google doc so we can Tweet about them later!

Resources