Wishing you the brightest and best of the season.
Please be advised that the Weekly Update will not be published next week. The news brief will resume publication Jan. 7, 2009.
Happiness Always,
The National Association of Social Workers - Illinois Chapter
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How to Fight Loneliness
from The Chicago Tribune
 James Cwiklinski, 82, can feel quite alone. "Sometimes I pretend I'm happy, but I'm not. I have to make the best of it," the widower said. Cwiklinski does make the best of it. These days, he's most thankful for the afternoon lunch visitors, movie club meetings and holiday dinners arranged by the Chicago chapter of Little Brothers—Friends of the Elderly. More
2008 – A Chapter Year in Review
from NASW IL
 Back in the day, before cable television, the internet and blogging, I would always look forward to the year in review programming that aired on the big three networks, or locally about Chicago and Illinois on WGN, said Joel Rubin, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers - Illinois Chapter. Those years in review programs are still around, but in different formats. For the country and the state of Illinois, the past year has been a roller coaster of emotions, ranging from the election of Barack Obama as President to our teetering economy, and the controversy surrounding our Governor. More
Hundreds of DCFS Kids Left in Limbo
from The Chicago Tribune
For 105 days—from just after Labor Day, past Halloween and Thanksgiving and, now, nearing Christmas—the girl has not been outside. She has not been to school. She has not seen her family, her friends, her dog, Max. She longs for her own bed and, perhaps, some junk food. Instead, the 14-year-old has been living at a psychiatric unit at Rush University Medical Center, the unintended victim of an Illinois child-welfare system that has been struggling to find homes for its most vulnerable children. More
Strengthening the Social-Service Safety Net
from The Chronicle of Philanthropy
The number of working Americans seeking aid from local social-service organizations is rising fast in cities and towns across the country. But for a growing share of Americans, help may not be available because of cutbacks in government and private spending on social services and because the social-service system has not adapted well to the 21st century. More
Call For Presentations
from NASW IL
The NASW Illinois is now accepting applications for its statewide conference "A Meeting of the Profession," which will be held Sept. 9-11. Submissions will be judged on clarity of content, relevance to the social work knowledge base, and presentation of new or unique approaches to practice methods, among others. More
Social Workers Strain to Help While Economy Thwarts Them
from The Press of Atlantic City
Candi Collins couldn't take it any more. Day after day, the 43-year-old confronts unemployment, the threat of homelessness and illness. The challenges consume her as she tries to sleep at night. And the problems aren't even hers. Collins is a social worker with Tri-County Community Action Partnership in Bridgeton, Cumberland County. Her job is emotionally demanding in the best of times. More
Psychiatrists Revise the Book of Human Troubles
from The New York Times
The book is at least three years away from publication, but it is already stirring bitter debates over a new set of possible psychiatric disorders. Is compulsive shopping a mental problem? Do children who continually recoil from sights and sounds suffer from sensory problems — or just need extra attention? Should a fetish be considered a mental disorder, as many now are? More
Drug Rehabilitation or Revolving Door?
from The New York Times
Their first love might be the rum or vodka or gin and juice that is going around the bonfire. Or maybe the smoke, the potent marijuana that grows in the misted hills here like moss on a wet stone. But it hardly matters. Here as elsewhere in the country, some users start early, fall fast and in their reckless prime can swallow, snort, inject or smoke anything available, from crystal meth to prescription pills to heroin and ecstasy. And treatment, if they get it at all, can seem like a joke. More
Welfare Faces Big Hit as Demand for Services Soars
from The Sacramento Bee
Welfare benefits in California could be cut to levels of seven or eight years ago, under at least one state budget proposal. Agencies that serve some of society's most vulnerable people are slashing staff and canceling services in anticipation of state budget cuts to welfare programs. More
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