Building the #MacroSW Syllabus Chat, 6/8 at 9pm EST

The author’s “it’s on the syllabus” T-shirt, lying on a syllabus.

“It’s on the syllabus” may be one of the most common refrains in the classroom and educator email inbox. It is a phrase meant to tactfully remind students that they may already possess the answer to the question they are asking. However, we do not yet have a syllabus for #MacroSW, and we need your help to build one.

The #MacroSW Syllabus (http://bit.ly/macroswsyllabus) is an open source document created by #MacroSW Chat Partners that enables macro social work practitioners to share community practice resources. It is a free resource whose aim is to gather resources for students and professionals who are engaging in macro practice. #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.

If you have questions or problems accessing the document please email us at OfficalMacroSW@gmail.com. You can also connect with us on Twitter (@OfficalMacroSW) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/macrosw). We encourage you to share the link with other macro social workers. This includes sharing the syllabus link via email, social networking account or through other forms of media. When sharing through social networking sites, such as twitter, please use the hashtag #MacroSW.

Submission Guidelines:

Material must be focused on macro practice social work
Shared resources must be easy to access
Resources should be free or low cost
Please use APA style
The #MacroSW Syllabus uses a Creative Commons license. Please read the licensing guidelines here.

Chat Questions:

Why does #MacroSW matter to you? What is your #MacroSW story/journey?
What are your favorite #MacroSW resources?
What #MacroSW resources do you still need?
Help us develop this resource by adding directly to the syllabus here: http://bit.ly/macroswsyllabus Please share with at least 5 contacts!

We will use this discussion to develop the #MacroSW syllabus – your feedback and syllabus additions will help us make sure it best reflects our community, concerns, experiences, and voice.

Fighting an Anti-Social Work Agenda: The Power of Protest #MacroSW Chat 4/13 at 9pm EST

Update: Chat archive available!

At first glance, social work may not appear to be intrinsically linked to protest. After all, we’re more likely to be found working behind a cluttered desk or our car between home visits. But in the earliest days of the profession social workers were integrated within the communities they served. Settlement houses were often used as meeting locations for community activists to organize strikes and other public demonstrations.

null — Image source. Photograph shows the American delegates to the International Congress of Women which was held at the Hague, the Netherlands in 1915. The delegates include: feminist and peace activist Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence (1867-1954), social activist and writer Jane Addams (1860-1935), and Annie E. Malloy, president of the Boston Telephone Operators Union. To the right of Malloy may be labor journalist and activist Mary Heaton Vorst (1874-1966) and the woman wearing a hat on the far right may be Lillian Kohlhamer of Chicago. (Source: Flickr Commons project, 2012)

Since the election of Donald Trump, America has seen a resurgence in public activism in

unnamed-1 — Left to right: Rudra Kapila, Sunya Folayan, Karen Zgoda, Kristin Battista-Frazee at the Women’s March in DC, January 2017. See more #MacroSW at the March here.

the form of mass protests and actions. Social workers of course have taken part in many of these actions as individuals or small groups, but our profession’s collective presence has been limited. The current administration has taken many actions that are explicitly contrary to social work values. With calls from the NASW and other social work institutions to organize, oppose, resist, and educate in response to an anti-social work agenda, it is time for social workers to consider how we can take bolder action to resist unjust policies.

This discussion continues the #MacroSW organizing chat series. The first chat focused on understanding power as organized people and organized money. The second chat discussed how we can effectively build relationships to develop grassroots power. How can we now take these concepts to develop public demonstrations of our power? And to what end? In the third chat of the series, we will answer the following questions:

Q1: Have you ever taken part in an action (rally, protest, disruption, etc)? What was it? Describe the experience. #MacroSW

Q2: Was the action effective? Why or why not? If so, what did it achieve? #MacroSW

Q3: Are there specific forms of protest or tactics you think social workers should be engaging in? #MacroSW

Q4: Do you have plans to participate in an upcoming action? What is it? If not, what would you like to see in your area? #MacroSW

About the Host

Justin Vest is the lead organizer for Montgomery County at Progressive Maryland where he leads issue-based advocacy campaigns and develops volunteer organizers to fight for social and economic justice. He earned his BSW from the University of Montevallo and MSW from the University of Alabama before relocating to the DC Metro area.

Social Work Month 2017: For What Do You Stand Up?

Poster: National Association of Social Workers

(archive of this chat here)

March is Social Work Month, a time to “educate the public about the contributions of social workers and give social workers and their allies tools they can use to elevate the profession,” according to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). “Social workers stand up for millions of people every day. These include people who are experiencing devastating illnesses and mental health crises, our veterans, children, families and communities. Yet many people still misunderstand who social workers are and the invaluable contributions they bring to society…Social workers are trained to look at situations in a holistic way. They help people increase their ability to solve problems, to cope with stressors and to get needed resources. Social workers bring individuals together with other people and their communities to find solutions for problems that continue to plague our society, including hunger, lack of affordable housing, and equal rights for all. And social workers make organizations responsible to people through sound social policy.”

Every year, Social Work Month highlights resources and information that can lead to policy, laws and legislation that serve to increase social justice and advance the social work profession. It was established in 1963.

Logo: International Federation of Social Workers http://ifsw.org/news/world-social-work-day-2017/

World Social Work Day is celebrated on the first day of Spring, March 21st.

Join the #MacroSW chat this Thursday, March 16, with host Pat Shelly from @UBSSW, as all kinds of social work organizations, practitioners, agencies, legislators, schools and students share ideas and actions that help celebrate our profession in all its aspects. We’re pleased to have Greg Wright of @NASW on the chat too!

Discussion questions:

What activities are you engaging in for #SWmonth 2017?
Who or what do you stand up for?
Why this choice?
How does Social Work Month help you and other social workers?

And…
~Please share media – news, movies, books – that feature social workers~

The New Social Worker Online magazine has many articles, art and poetry by social workers in its special Social Work Month Project 2017 series.

Here is an annotated list of novels about social workers from 2015. Titles: All Our Names (2014); The Believers (2010); Fourth of July Creek (2014); The Interestings (2014); The Social Worker (2011); Unprotected (2012). And let’s add PUSH by Sapphire (1997).

Multi-colored letters wiht a sunburst effect spell out "social work month" in a design of 3 tiers, one word on each line. — Image: Media Education Foundation

Resources:

Green, Adrienne. (2016. August 11). From social worker to foster parent and back. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/08/social-worker/495533/

International Federation of Social Workers. (n.d.) Global definition of social work. Retrieved from http://ifsw.org/get-involved/global-definition-of-social-work/

Lewis, C.E. Jr. (2017 March). Young social workers should be preparing for the future. The New Social Worker. Retrieved from http://www.socialworker.com/extras/social-work-month-2017/young-social-workers-should-be-preparing-for-the-future/

National Association of Social Workers. (n.d.) Social Work Month 2017. Retrieved from http://www.socialworkers.org/pressroom/swmonth/2017/default.asp

New Social Worker (2017 March). Social Work Month 2017. [Blog posts].Retrieved from: http://www.socialworker.com/topics/social-work-month-2017/

Social Work Licensing Map (n.d.) [Social worker’s salary guide] [Infographic]. Retrieved from https://socialworklicensemap.com/social-worker-salary/

Zimmerman, E. (2017, March 12). Social workers help many people. Sun Herald. Retrieved from http://www.sunherald.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article137497983.html

Learn More about #MacroSW on inSocialWork Podcast Episode #210!

Listen to the podcast here: Episode 210 – Karen Zgoda, Rachel L. West, and Patricia Shelly: Promoting Macro Social Work Through Social Media/Twitter Chats

In this episode, our guests Karen Zgoda, Rachel L. West, and Patricia Shelly describe how they are using macro social work Twitter chats to promote support for and education about all forms of macro practice activities. They discuss what Twitter chats are, why they matter, and why social workers are producing and participating in them.

Karen Zgoda, LCSW, is an instructor in the School of Social Work at Bridgewater State University. She starting hosting online social work chats in 2000 and is currently a collaborator and chat host for the #MacroSW Twitter chats, focused on macro social work practice. Karen previously wrote the SW 2.0 technology column for The New Social Worker Magazine and served as an AmeriCorps VISTA member and project coordinator at CTCNet working on digital divide issues. Her research and pedagogical interests include technology in social work and education, macro social work, social policy, and research methods. You can find Ms. Zgoda on Twitter as @karenzgoda.

Rachel West, LMSW, is social media manager for the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration (ACOSA), where she became one of the founders of the #MacroSW Twitter chats. In 2012, she founded The Political Social Worker, a blog dedicated to community practice social work and politics. Providing consultation to nonprofits and private practices since 2013, Ms. West’s consultation focuses on a number of issues related to advocacy and community outreach, including the use of social media as a community organizing tool. Ms. West also works privately as a career coach, coaching and training macro social workers. Additionally, she is an instructor at Stony Brook University, School of Social Welfare, teaching advanced macro social work practice. You can find Ms. West on Twitter as @poliSW.

Patricia Shelly, MSW, is director of community engagement and expansion at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work. She has served as a member of the LGBT Domestic Violence Committee of Western New York for 12 years and the Women in Black Buffalo movement for 15 years. Previously, Ms. Shelly was the associate director for the Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender at the University at Buffalo. She is the editor of SocialWorkSynergy, the blog of the University at Buffalo School of Social Work. She is a chat partner for the #MacroSW Twitter chats and often serves as a chat host. You can find Ms. Shelly on Twitter as @PatShellySSW.

Direct podcast link here.

APA (6th ed) citation for this podcast:

Episode 210 – Karen Zgoda, Rachel L. West, and Patricia Shelly: Promoting Macro Social Work Through Social Media/Twitter Chats. (2017, February 27). inSocialWork® Podcast Series. [Audio Podcast] Retrieved from http://www.insocialwork.org/episode.asp?ep=210

Open Invitation to the Trump Administration to Engage the Social Work Community

We, the partners of the #MacroSW Twitter Chat, invite Trump Administration representatives and the President to join the #MacroSW chat on Thursday, February 23, 2017, at 9:00 p.m. EST for an open question and answer forum to engage the social work community and professionals who work with people in need of healing and hope and to discuss a range of pressing issues.

#MacroSW twitter chat is a collaborative group of social workers who promote macro focused practices and fight for social justice. We are conveners in the social work profession and host weekly conversations on Twitter every Thursday at 9 p.m. EST with social workers nationwide who come together online to strategize about practice, share resources, and network. Here is our weekly schedule and feel free to connect with us at @OfficialMacroSW or email us at OfficialMacroSW@gmail.com.

Social workers have a mission to reach those who have been forgotten and left behind and to solve our toughest social problems. There are more than 640,000 social workers in the U.S. and we are the largest provider of mental health services in the country. As a reminder, the National Association of Social Workers has sent the Trump transition team this document, Advancing the American Agenda: How the Social Work Profession Will Help which details social work’s rich history, our impact, and how we serve. It provides detailed research and statistics that touch on pertinent issues.

For a Twitter chat forum, questions would be posed to President Trump, and/or administration representatives, from social workers on the below topics. We would also welcome this chat to be convened on Twitter through Periscope or other video streaming service to answer questions live. These topics were selected because President Trump had spoken about these issues on the campaign trail or taken action by executive order. We are open to other topic suggestions from both the Trump Administration and social work community. Leave comments below this post or tweet us and mention our handle @OfficialMacroSW.

If no one from the Trump Administration joins the #MacroSW Twitter chat, we will proceed with convening this question and answer forum and compile ideas and feedback to deliver to your administration. A blog post will follow this invitation closer to Feb. 23 outlining the questions and additional resources to prompt discussion.

Topics

Refugees and immigration reform. The Executive Order, Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, which bans aliens from the nations of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya, and Somalia from traveling and seeking refuge in the U.S. This ban has caused alarm at home and around the world, raised constitutional questions which led to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a suspension of this order and has left many believing we are abandoning our core principles as Americans. Social workers play a key role in helping settle immigrants and refugees in communities, protect illegal immigrants who live in the shadows and are at a higher risk to suffer abuse and victims of crime. We also advocate fair and just immigration reforms which honors our nation’s history. We should agree humane treatment of all people is necessary to resolve the struggles our communities face in helping immigrants.

Child care beyond tax credits and paid leave. Greater flexibility in affording childcare is a goal for everyone. We also need to improve opportunities and wages for the childcare workforce, which has an underpaid and predominantly female and minority-race workforce. And, there are too few affordable and high quality child care options for middle class and low income families, often negating efforts to work full-time.

Reducing opioid, crack, drug and alcohol addiction and criminalization. Nationwide addiction has destroyed families and communities. Social workers are on the front lines in combating addiction and can be relied upon to deliver treatment programs to break the cycle of addiction. We also seek to end the criminalization of addiction in which people end up in prison instead of treatment and minorities represent a disproportionately high number of inmates. Social workers seek solutions to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline, especially in communities of color, and offer treatment instead of jail for nonviolent offenders.

Affordable healthcare for everyone. As the Trump Administration and Congress seek to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, social workers have grave concerns about how this will be done. The expansion of health insurance and Medicaid has increased social workers’ ability to provide mental health and addiction services and created parity for health and behavioral healthcare and we want this to continue. Also, we know basic healthcare is a necessity for people to live independent and productive lives. This is especially important for the disabled and older adult communities who are entitled to live healthier and stay at home for as long as possible instead of in expensive nursing facilities.

Veteran’s mental health and addiction. Social workers are the largest provider of mental health and addiction services for veterans and their families. We need more social workers working in the veteran’s health administration to end the high suicide rates, heal PTSD and treat trauma, addiction and mental health disorders.

Violence against minorities and the police. The intersection of racism, trauma and violence experienced by black communities and law enforcement officers has led to an untenable situation for everyone. It’s a tragedy that there is a greater incidence of violence and killings of people of color at the hands of police. When police officers die in the line of duty protecting our communities, this is a tragedy that happens far too often. And here is a troubling statistic: over 50 percent of police brutality incidents involve disabled people especially those of color. Cases like Arnaldo Rios-Soto and Korryn Gaines are not isolated occurrences and show the dangerous realities some face if they encounter law enforcement. Social workers are on the ground in every community, working to stem acts of violence and the aftermath of social unrest in the wake of the shootings and killings of black citizens and police officers.

Economy and social justice. Jobs are the backbone of thriving communities; social workers often support those who are un- or under-employed, as are many people with disabilities. Social workers are instrumental in supporting working-class families who are seeking work as well as creating opportunities for people to start businesses and build wealth in the shifting economy with its many changes due to globalization and automation.

Social workers’ expertise and interests extend beyond this list. We are collaborators by nature and dedicated professionals who believe in equality, diversity and advocacy for those who cannot advocate for themselves. We work with marginalized and oppressed people everywhere and care deeply about human and civil rights. Our reach is broad: social workers help people on a one-on-one basis as well as creating large-scale community change and policy initiatives.

In policies and philosophies where the Trump Administration and the social work community have mutual interest, mission alignment and the potential for productive work, we will work with this administration to reach important goals on behalf of all Americans.

We must state clearly, while we are open to collaboration with the new Trump Administration, we will organize and speak out against policies deemed harmful to minorities, immigrants, women, and other disenfranchised populations. The purpose of this invitation is to open respectful dialogue which is necessary in order to devise the best solutions for our rich and sound democracy.

As President Trump has demonstrated so well, Twitter is a rich social media community where people can express themselves freely, and easily organize and communicate. Twitter is an incredible platform to engage large numbers of people and harness the best ideas. We hope that President Trump and his administration will join us for this conversation.

The Opioid Crisis 02-09-17 #MacroSW Chat

Map of USA overlaid with text "91 Americans die every day from opioid overdose (that includes prescription opioids and heroin). — Image: CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Here’s the archive of this twitter chat.

Why do social workers need to know about the opioid epidemic?

Opioid dependence is an epidemic in the United States.
Many social workers are interested in addictions.
We will see opioid dependence regardless of where we practice social work.
It is important that all of us know more about this issue.

Join us on Thursday, February 9, 2017 at 9 pm EST, 8 pm CST, and 6 pm PST as we look at the epidemic of overdose deaths in the U.S. caused by use of opioids. We’ll discuss current stats, contributing factors, and evidence-based treatment and prevention practices. The host is Pat Shelly from @UBSSW – she’ll be on the @OfficialMacroSW handle.

Our guest expert is Charles Syms, from the School of Social Work at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, using the @UBSSW handle.

Photo of Charles Syms, African American man,standing wiih arms crossed over chest, smiling, wearing white shirt, yellow tie, and eyeglasses. — Charles Syms, LCSW, ACSW

Charles Syms, LCSW/ACSW, is a clinical associate professor who has been a faculty member in the University at Buffalo’s School of Social Work since 1998. A past National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) Minority Research Fellow, Professor Syms’s current teaching and research interests include the treatment of individuals with substance use disorders, particularly the impact of alcohol and other drugs on people with mental health problems and those involved with child welfare system. He works to extend this education into the on-line environment.

Professor Syms has over 35 years of professional social work practice. He received his MSW in 1979 from California State University – Sacramento. His experience includes work in child welfare, domestic violence, forensic mental health and substance use disorders. He has held numerous positions, including child protection worker, child protection clinical consultant, prison psychiatric social worker, supervisor on an in-patient chemical dependency unit, domestic violence specialist and group leader, child welfare program director, and a leadership role in coordinating two community-based, university/public school collaborative violence prevention projects. Additionally, Professor Syms shares his experience and expertise as a member of agency-based and professional advisory boards at the local, state and national levels.

Here are some questions we will discuss this week:

Just how widespread is the opioid epidemic?
Why is it worse in the United States than elsewhere?
What are the evidence-based practices that are effective in treating opioid dependence?
Are there preferred prevention models?
What implications for policy does Carl Hart’s talk, “Let’s quit abusing drug abusers,” offer?
What are social workers doing at the macro level regarding this epidemic?

Resources:

“Let’s quit abusing drug abusers” by Carl Hart (19 min. video) http://www.tedmed.com/talks/show?id=309156

Understanding the epidemic: https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/

Treatment Overview: https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/effective-treatments-opioid-addiction/effective-treatments-opioid-addiction

Prevention: The IPP model. https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/opioids/odprevention.html

Safe injection spaces: http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/2015/08/tuesday-new-film-documents-public-injection-drug-use-new-york-calls-supervised-injectio

Inside North America’s Only Legal Safe Injection Facility: http://bit.ly/2ke4B1h
Look for the archive of all tweets from this chat that will be posted the following day on February 10.

New to Twitter chats? Here is a great guide: “How to Participate in a Live Twitter Chat – Tips for Social Workers” by our partner, Laurel Iverson Hitchcock.

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 the #MacroSW Chat Schedule, Recent Posts, and all chat Archives – See the column on the right side of our home page: http://macrosw.com

Fighting an Anti-Social Work Agenda: Understanding Power #MacroSW 2/2 at 9pm EST

Chat archive now available!

As the new presidential administration comes into power, basic assumptions about the role of government in assisting the most marginalized have been thrown into question. Regardless of your political affiliation, social workers should be deeply concerned about proposed changes to social service programs and the government agencies that administer them.

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) has called on social workers to organize, oppose, resist, and educate in response to the anti-social work agenda that is being put forward by the new administration. But how do we actually proceed?

#MacroSW is introducing a organizing chat series to educate social workers on the important role they play in resisting cuts to services and advancing social justice in their communities by teaching basic community organizing skills that will move social workers from an online space to real world action.

In the first chat of the series, we will discuss the concept of power–who has it, what structures support it, but also how to build our own to confront injustice. For most of us, power does not come naturally. We have all been disadvantaged in some way by a lack of power–through economic oppression, racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism or based on some other characteristic. Therefore learning to want power can be challenging. But social workers also have a unique relationship to power. We may experience personal oppression from society while working at institutions that uphold traditional power structures.

To take a closer look at these concepts, we will discuss the following questions:

How do you define power and how do you know it when you see it?
Who has power in our society and why?
What role does social work play in maintaining or challenging current power structures?
How can advocates for justice build power to challenge inequality
What new or existing opportunities do you see for yourself to build power?

Resources:

10-Point Plan to Stop Trump and make gains in justice and equality – Waging Nonviolence
Oh Crap! What Now? Survival Guide – a crowdsourced collection of health, legal and volunteer opportunities
Organizing for Power – resources for building power
Indivisible Guide – a practical guide for resisting the Trump agenda
People’s Action – volunteer with a national network of grassroots advocacy organizations

View this document on Scribd

About the Host

Fighting an Anti-Social Work Agenda: Understanding Power #MacroSW 2/2

A True History of Social Workers Online: #MacroSW 12/1 at 9 pm EST

Chat archive available here!

historyofsw — Screenshot of timeline by Susan Mankita and Linda Grobman from http://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/technology-articles/true-history-of-social-workers-online/

Guest Experts

Linda Grobman, MSW, ACSW, LSW, is the publisher, editor, and founder of the award-winning The New Social Worker magazine (www.socialworker.com). Linda has had an interest in connecting with social workers online since the late 1980s, and has published a technology column in The New Social Worker since its beginning in 1994. She also co-authored The Social Worker’s Internet Handbook with Gary Grant in 1998. Linda was 2014 Social Worker of the Year for PA NASW and was named NASW Social Work Pioneer this year for “…supporting early-career social workers through her innovative publishing endeavors, and embracing technology for social workers—and in the intersection of the two.”

Susan Mankita, MSW, LCSW has been educating social workers about technology since 1995. She founded the AOL Social Work Forum, one of the earliest and the longest running online communities for social workers. She connected thousands of social workers there, and later, through SocialWorkChat.org. These long running online communities for social workers, enabled easy access to support, mentoring and training FOR colleagues BY colleagues, long before the existence of Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter. She provided the earliest training about the Internet to NASW’s National Board of Directors, and The Association of Social Work Boards before many of them had access to email. Currently, Susan owns a professional development company for social workers and provides licensure preparation focused on struggling re-takers. She teaches social work practice courses at FIU. She was the 2013 Social Worker of the Year for both the Miami-Dade Unit and Florida Chapter of NASW.

In April 2016, Susan Mankita and Linda Grobman presented at the 2016 Social Work Distance Education conference on the topic, “A True History of Social Workers Online.”

They presented a timeline, which represents major events and memories in the development of social workers’ use of the Internet beginning in the 1980s. Through this timeline and presentation at the Social Work Distance Education conference in April 2016, in Indianapolis, IN, and now through this Twitter chat, Susan and Linda seek to preserve the rich history of social workers’ use of the Internet, dispel the myth that social workers have not been and are not online, and emphasize the value of the relationships formed through online networking by social workers with social workers.

Please join us for this discussion with two early adopters of online networking for social workers.

Here are questions we will discuss:

So now you’ve heard our early experiences. Fill in some gaps. What’s your earliest experience with social work or social workers online?
Building community and insuring social presence. Here’s how we did it. How has it changed?
You are our legacy. What do you hope your legacy will be? What will social workers be doing online 15-20 years from now?

Seriously Old but Appropriately Selected References:

Bellamy, D. (1987). Innovative applications of computer technology in social work. Paper presented at the Conference of the Canadian Association of Schools of Social Work, Learned Societies Meeting, Hamilton, Ontario, June 7.
Cnaan, R.A. (1989). Introduction: Social work practice and information technology – an unestablished link. Computers in Human Services, 5(1/2), 1-15.
Colon Y. (1996). Chatter(er)ing through the fingertips: Doing group therapy online. Women and Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory (9), 205-215.
Giffords, E. (1998). Social Work on the Internet: An Introduction. Social Work, 43(2), 243 – 251.
Grant G.B. & Grobman, L.M. (1998). The social worker’s internet handbook. Harrisburg, PA: White Hat Communications.
Marson, S. M. (1998). Major uses of the internet for social workers: A brief report for new users. Arete, 22(2), 21-28. Retrieved from http://www.marson-and-associates.com/resume/RMajor.pdf
Marson, S. M. (2003). A Selective History of Internet Technology and Social Work,” that was published in Computers in Human Services, 14:2, 35 — 49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J407v14n02_03
National Association of Social Workers & Association of Social Work Boards (2005). Standards for technology and social work practice. Available at http://www.socialworkers.org/practice/standards/NASWTechnologyStandards.pdf
Smith, M. (2009). What my LED ball reveals about the future of technology and social work: a farewell aloha. Retrieved from http://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/technology-articles/What_My_LED_Ball_Reveals_About_the_Future_of_Technology_and_Social_Work%3A_A_Farewell_Aloha/
Vernon, R. and Lynch, D. (2000) Social work and the web. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks-Cole.
Vest, G., Pruett, K. & Holmgren, B. (n.d). Social advocacy, brokering and networking with pc’s. Retrieved from http://www.socialworksearch.com/research/researchgv.shtml

#MacroSW Chat – Nov. 10, 2016: It’s the Post-Election Detox / What’s On Your Mind / Fall & Winter Holidays are Coming OPEN MIC!

A swirling spiral of red and blue lines with people swept along it, leading to a ballot box. — Image: Stephen Savage for the NY Times

Here’s the archive of this chat.

Results are in; the winner of the US Presidential Election has been announced. The #MacroSW partners want to let everyone know that we will not assume we know how our colleagues / students / chat participants voted. #MacroSW chat will remain non-partisan in our role as the facilitator of these gloriously wide-ranging, informative, and stimulating chats. We plan on this chat being- as we hope all our chats are – trauma-informed.* We do expect people to be expressing feelings and opinions, with comments made in a safe and respectful way in line with the Code of Ethics and the history of macro social work.** Host Pat Shelly from @UBSSW will be using the @officialmacrosw handle to further align in a neutral position.

Votes will be in and counted; the political ads will disappear. How will you recover from this election season? Or do you want to talk about ANYTHING BUT the impact of the election?

Join us for this open mic:

What’s on your mind?
Regaining a sense of sanity after the 2016 U.S. elections.
Oh how those Thanksgiving and December holidays loom!!

Host: Pat Shelly @UBSSW University at Buffalo School of Social Work

We hope to have some fun, and offer ideas and resources for election season recovery! And – in case you are worried that your stress level will get too low – we might talk about how to prepare for the November/December holidays and the often fraught family time they engender. The open mic means you can introduce whatever else is on your mind.
*6 Key Principles of a Trauma-Informed Approach:

Safety;
Trustworthiness and Transparency;
Peer support;
Collaboration and mutuality;
Empowerment, voice and choice;
Cultural, Historical, and Gender Issues

** “Macro social work practice includes those activities performed in organizational, community, and policy arenas. Macro practice has a diverse history that reveals conflicting ideologies and multiple theoretical perspectives (emphasis added).Programmatic, organizational, community, and policy dimensions of macro practice underscore the social work profession’s emphasis on using a person-in-environment perspective. Thus, social workers, regardless of roles played, are expected to have sensitivity toward and engage in macro practice activities.”

Netting. F.E. (2013). Macro Social Work Practice in Encyclopedia of Social Work 20th Edition. Retrieved from http://socialwork.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.001.0001/acrefore-9780199975839-e-230

Resources:

To put things in perspective, here’s a satirical piece from the digital humor magazine The Onion:
ELECTION 2016: Nation Admits It’s Probably Going to Come Out of This Having Learned the Completely Wrong Lesson

And some bona fide research:

These elections are having an impact on the nation’s mental health:
Talking to Your Therapist About Election Anxiety : “‘I’ve been in private practice for 30 years, and I have never seen patients have such strong reactions to an election,’ said Sue Elias, a licensed clinical social worker in Manhattan.”

A report by the American Psychological Society shows that the 2016 elections were a source of stress for 52% of Americans surveyed:
Stress in America: U.S. Presidential Election 2016