A Journey Through Darkness
from The New York Times Magazine
In the 20 or so minutes of “fresh air” allotted after lunch (one of four such breaks on the daily schedule), I try to forget where I am, imaging myself elsewhere than in this fenced-off concrete garden … my movements watched over by a more or less friendly psychiatric aide. Soggy as my brain is from being wrenched off a slew of antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications in the last 10 days, I reach for a Coleridgian suspension of disbelief, ignoring the roar of traffic and summoning up the sound of breaking waves. More

Training Social Workers to Work with Older Adults
from NASW IL
I was in Hyde Park yesterday at the University of Chicago - School of Social Service Administration at an event acknowledging the great work taking place to ensure that there is a future cadre of social workers trained to work with older adults. More

Social Worker, Teacher, Author
from The Chicago Sun-Times
Miriam Elson was a clinical social worker who taught generations of University of Chicago students and offered the psychological counseling they needed to become better scholars and people. She helped to develop the Student Mental Health Clinic at the university in the 1950s and was its chief psychiatric social worker for more than 23 years. More

Want to Stop Bullies?
from ABC News
Guess who's most likely to step in and defend a victim of bullying? A girl. Several studies have come to that conclusion in recent years, but new research takes the finding a step further. Girls are more likely to challenge a bully than boys are, but it's not just because they are girls. One large study at the University of Illinois found that powerful, popular males were more likley to pick on weaker members of their own sex, whereas unpopular, aggressive boys tend to bully popular girls. More

One Family, After All
from The Chicago Tribune
When five brothers and sisters were forced into the foster-care system, no single family could take them all. That's when two mothers united to keep them together. More

PTSD Counseling Available on Navajo Nation
from The Associated Press via The Native American Times
Members of the Navajo Nation should have an easier time getting treated for post-traumatic stress disorder under a new agreement to place social workers on tribal land. The Navajo Area Indian Health Service and the Northern Arizona Veterans Affairs Health Care System recently agreed to locate social workers in the Fort Defiance Hospital and the Chinle Veterans Center. Though both facilities are in Arizona, their services likely will be available to any Navajo veteran who needs help, Indian Health Service spokeswoman Jenny Notah said. More

With Obama at Forefront, Backers of Fatherhood Initiatives See Rare Chance for Progress
from The Associated Press via Newser
With a centennial celebration of Father's Day coming next month, and a new president committed to supporting better parenting, liberals and conservatives alike say the political stars may be aligned for major progress in promoting responsible fatherhood. It's an issue that's been divisive in the past, even as research made clear that the estimated 24 million children growing up with absent fathers — a disproportionate number of them African-American — are at higher risk in regard to poverty, crime and other social problems. More

Losing Your Job: A Blow to Your Health Too
from TIME Magazine
Losing your job can make you feel lousy. Whether you're fired or laid-off, joining the ranks of the unemployed is not exactly a feel-good event. You don't need a study to tell you that. But what impact does losing a job have on your health? Could a layoff send a perfectly healthy person into a downward spiral of sickness? It's possible, says Kate Strully, a sociologist at State University of New York in Albany. More

Not All Caregivers are Stressed and Depressed
from HealthDay News via Forbes
Though caring for a stroke survivor can be challenging, many family members doing just that say they experience little or no stress and actually find the task personally rewarding, U.S. researchers have found. The study included 75 people who were caring for a family member who'd had a stroke eight to 12 months earlier. About 53 percent were caring for a spouse, 31 percent were looking after a child, and 16 percent were caregivers for another relative. More

Children Absorb Parents' Attitudes Regarding Food
from The McClatchy/Tribune via The Chicago Tribune
The mother of two boys −Kyle, 7, and Luke, 5 − Robin Miller, who hosts the Food Network show "Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller." is known for recipes that help super-busy moms. However, what isn't so widely known is that she got into this business because her older sister, Stacy, died at 21 after battling the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. Miller, who was 17 at the time, said the experience convinced her to study nutrition. Years later, she's hyperalert to developing healthy food attitudes in her own children. More

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