Compromised Care: Psychotropic Drugs Given to Nursing Home Patients Without Cause
from the Chicago Tribune
Frail and vulnerable residents of nursing homes throughout Illinois are being dosed with powerful psychotropic drugs, leading to tremors, dangerous lethargy and a higher risk of harmful falls or even death, a Tribune investigation has found. Thousands of elderly and disabled people have been affected, many of them drugged without their consent or without a legitimate psychiatric diagnosis that would justify treatment, state and federal inspection reports show. More

NASW IL Hosts National Meetings; World Series Social Work Story
from NASW IL
This past week, NASW IL had the opportunity to host two National NASW meetings. On Thursday, Oct. 26, NASW Chapter Executive Directors met for a full day of meetings, followed on Friday by a NASW Chapter President and Executive Director training in which forty chapter presidents and directors participated. The trainings, which NASW IL has been hosting for the past four years, work on the important relationship between volunteer social work leadership and the Chapter Executive Director. The partnership between the two is vital for chapters to advance and advocate for the important issues impacting the profession in states across the country. More

At Evanston Park, a Turf War Between Mentally Ill Patients and Parents Who Live Nearby
from Chicago Tribune
A small Evanston park offers a place to relax for men and women who live at a nearby mental health center, but it is off-limits for some parents worried about cigarette smoke and uncomfortable encounters. Grey Park's playground – with its teeter-totters and tot lot – sits virtually unused these days. The residents of the Albany Care treatment facility "are always going to be in that park, and they're always going to be in the neighborhood," said Mike Jackson, a parent who lives nearby. "I don't have a problem with that. It's that they have essentially taken ownership of that park." More

Long-time Rockford Social Workers Gets Lifetime Achievement Award
from WREX-TV
A researcher with the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Rockford was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award. James A. Powers, Jr. got the award from the National Association of Social Workers' Illinois chapter. The award covers the State of Illinois and is given to one social worker each year for distinguished service to the profession and the public. More

VA, DoD Host National Mental Health Summit
from Reuters
The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense are hosting a first-of-its-kind national summit to address the mental health care needs of America's military personnel, families and Veterans, harnessing the programs, resources and expertise of both departments to deal with the aftermath of the battlefield. More

Recession Drives Surge in Youth Runaways
from The New York Times
Over the past two years, government officials and experts have seen an increasing number of children leave home for life on the streets, including many under 13. Foreclosures, layoffs, rising food and fuel prices and inadequate supplies of low-cost housing have stretched families to the extreme, and those pressures have trickled down to teenagers and preteens. Federal studies and experts in the field have estimated that at least 1.6 million juveniles run away or are thrown out of their homes annually. But most of those return home within a week, and the government does not conduct a comprehensive or current count. More

For SAD Sufferers, CBT Better Than Light Therapy
from Social Work Today
In Behavior Therapy, University of Vermont psychologist Kelly Rohan, PhD, presents research on the long-term effects of different treatments for seasonal affective disorder. The first year Rohan randomized 69 people with SAD into one of four groups: light therapy treatment, cognitive behavior therapy, a combination of the two or a wait-list control. She then surveyed participants on how they were doing one year later. Of those treated with CBT, only 7 percent had a recurrence compared to 36.7 percent of people treated with light therapy. More

Fighting H.I.V., a Community at a Time
from The New York Times
Federal health officials are preparing a plan to study a bold new strategy to stop the spread of the AIDS virus: routinely testing virtually every adult in a community, and promptly treating those found to be infected. More

Experts: Internet Bullying on the Rise
from The Arizona Republic
It's difficult to quantify the growth of online-bullying cases. Still, law-enforcement agencies worldwide have said they're seeing an uptick in cyber-harassment cases involving social-networking sites, said Philip Rosenthal, a New York-based computer-crime expert with 20 years of law-enforcement experience. "Go to Google and type in 'cyber bullying' or 'cyber suicide,' and you're going to be shocked with what you see," Rosenthal said. "It's growing every day." More

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