Sat.Jan 07, 2023 - Fri.Jan 13, 2023

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Breaking Down Mental Health Terms: What is a Thought Spiral?

My Brains Not Broken

Over the years, I’ve learned a number of words, phrases and definitions that have helped me understand my own mental health. Some of these are connected to mental illness or medicine, while others are connected to mental wellness. In this recurring series, I break down some of the mental health terms I’ve learned over the years. Today, I’ll be breaking down thought spirals : what they are, what they look like and what we can do about them.

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How to Create a Really Great Stress Reduction Plan

R.E.A.L. Social Workers

New year resolutions are interesting because many are focused on physical health. Examples of this include losing weight, exercising more, or eating healthier. Some resolutions revolve around financial health, with actions like saving more money or spending less. I have known some to include spiritual health resolutions. They attempt to attend church more often or set aside dedicated prayer and meditation time.

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Simple Habits to Adopt for a Mentally Healthy 2023

Psychological Health Care

Make 2023 the year you focus on your mental health. Forget short-lived New Year’s resolutions and rigid goal setting, instead commit to adopting some simple habits to boost your mental fitness now and well into the future. You may already realise that your mental health forms the basis for everything you do, including shaping your social and emotional well-being.

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Care Act duties ‘permanently undermined’ by widespread breaches during Covid, argues study

Community Care

Councils’ Care Act 2014 duties have arguably been “permanently undermined” by widespread non-compliance during the pandemic, a study has found. Authorities across England cut provision to people needing care and support and carers, for example, by closing day centres or reducing respite services, without making use of the so-called Care Act easements, found the research by the University of Manchester.

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5 Must Haves for Case Management

Thousands of nonprofits rely on case management software to help collect data, manage programs, coordinate with agencies, and provide life-changing health and human services. Adopting a cloud-based case management platform is essential for nonprofits and government agencies to operate more efficiently and make better use of their funding and budget.

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Five Ways to Manage Thought Spirals

My Brains Not Broken

Earlier this week, I wrote about thought spirals , what they look like, and what we can do about them. Thought spirals can be tricky to deal with, but there are ways we can try and manage them. I’ve dealt with many thought spirals over the years, and these are some of the most effective ways I’ve found of slowing my brain down and getting back to center: Acknowledge what is happening to you.

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An Affair and Trauma

Gary Direnfeld

Please realize, an affair is a traumatic experience for the one cheated on. Regardless the quality or issues in the relationship, fidelity remains an expectation. When broken, trust is difficult to repair. That repair requires unequivocal taking of responsibility by the one who had the affair. There is no wiggling around trying to blame it on a poor relationship, drugs, alcohol, whatever.

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Care home discharge plan risks inappropriate placements and neglects causes of crisis – sector

Community Care

Government plans for the NHS to discharge people from hospitals to care homes risk inappropriate placements and neglect the root causes of the acute pressures on the health service. That was the warning from social care leaders today after the government announced £200m for integrated care boards (ICBs) to ‘block book’ residential beds with a view to discharging 2,500 people from hospital.

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Care providers ask for doubled fees to care for people discharged from hospitals

The Guardian

Care England says current funding is ‘inadequate’ if homes are to pay staff more and manage rehabilitation Care providers are demanding double the usual fees to look after thousands of people who need to be discharged from hospitals to ease the crisis in the NHS. Care England, which represents the largest private care home providers, said on Sunday it wanted the government to pay them £1,500 a week per person, citing the need to pay care workers more and hire rehabilitation specialists so people

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Gender? Transcend Any Label

Gary Direnfeld

For some, gender can be so confusing. Not fitting neatly into a checkbox can leave one feeling amiss. As humans we strive for and typically require certainty. Ambiguity is unsettling. Figuring out one’s gender may not be a destination, but a journey. Therein ambiguity continues. Then there are those around you. They seek to have a definitive understanding of who you are all while you remain uncertain.

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How to help your nervous or worried child by “simply” listening

Prosper Health Collective

When your child is nervous and/or worried, it is often parents’ first instinct to try to fix the problem – and why wouldn’t you? You love your child, and that’s why you do it. However, sometimes, fixing the problem isn’t what is needed. What parents often do when children are nervous and/or worried. When children are nervous or worried, parents often attempt to reason with the child, show them the bigger picture, present positives, teach skills and strategies to deal with the feelings of being n

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Get Connected: Using Social Media for Social Work Success

Speaker: Gary Direnfeld, MSW, RSW.

You may have the clinical skills to manage a private practice, but your success could actually hinge on marketing skills. For a thriving practice, you need to differentiate yourself from others and present yourself in a way that attracts referrals. These days, much of that happens online, including on social media. In this webinar, Gary Direnfeld will discuss how social media marketing can help you build your private practice and grow your client base.

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DfE proposes law change to improve adults’ access to adoption therapy

Community Care

The government has proposed changing the law to make it easier for adults to access adoption-related counselling. The Department for Education is consulting on removing the requirement for counsellors providing adoption-related therapy to adults to register with Ofsted as adoption support agencies. It said the move would improve access to counselling for adult adoptees and birth relatives, and to therapeutic parenting services for adoptive parents, as current requirements acted as a disincentive

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Sick man of Europe: why the crisis-ridden NHS is falling apart

The Guardian

Other countries are looking on appalled as the UK’s failure to reform social care has left its health service struggling to survive It is 6am and a dozen ambulances are waiting to offload their patients, but the local NHS hospital is already full. Every bed in the emergency department is occupied. As well as the patients in ambulances, others lie inside on trolleys in corridors, some even on trolleys in cleared-out cupboards.

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Dementia care and the benefit of experience

Social Care

"Working at Vida has shown me how important it is for all nurses to have the opportunity to take a placement or work in a specialist dementia care setting and to interact with people living with dementia." [Image created by freepik.com ]. The power of placements. I’m a registered nurse working for specialist dementia care provider, Vida Healthcare. I’d like to share my experience of working in a specialist dementia care home and why more nurses should consider gaining experience within care sett

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Listening skills for parents

Prosper Health Collective

Listening is a skill. Listening can be highly effective. However, it’s not easy because parents have to actively “do nothing”. Listening can be very effective for helping children who are feeling nervous and/or worried (see blog “ How to help your nervous or worried child by “simply” listening” ). However, if you notice your uncomfortable thoughts/feelings when trying to listen (e.g., “I feel like I’m doing nothing”, “I don’t want them to feel this way”), you will come to realise that the managi

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£200m for NHS to buy short-term care placements to speed up discharge

Community Care

The government will give the NHS an extra £200m to buy short-term care placements to help relieve the pressures on its beleaguered emergency care system. Integrated care boards (ICBs) will be able to use the money to buy beds in care homes or other settings for up to four weeks in order to speed up hospital discharges, freeing up beds to admit people stuck in accident and emergency departments.

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Update: Missouri’s take-the-child-and-run approach leads to tragedy

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

This agency's failure to follow federal law contributed to an unspeakable tragedy Last fall, I took issue with how KCUR public radio in Kansas City handled a story about the failings of the state’s family policing system (a more accurate term than “child welfare” system). In many ways, it was a good story, but it still missed the point. I concluded it this way: This was certainly a better story than many, perhaps most day-to-day reporting on “child welfare.

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Technology and Entrepreneurship in Social Work

Swhelper

Manuel Stoilov. After helplessly watching her sister try to navigate the international adoption process, Felicia Curcuru launched Binti in an effort to reinvent foster care and adoption. Since the launch of the company in 2017, Binti has expanded its network to over 190 agencies across 26 states in the U.S. The software Binti creates helps social workers […].

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Helping children to start school

Prosper Health Collective

The anticipation, excitement, nervousness and bittersweet feelings that arise when children start school for the first time! Here are some things to think about for this process. Attending to practicalities is important. Make sure you prepare, in good time, with things like school uniforms, bag, hat, lunch box, stationery etc. It’s helpful for children know what’s ahead and what to expect.

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Care review response will start to address mounting social work pressures, says ADCS president

Community Care

The government’s forthcoming response to the care review will begin to address mounting pressures on the social work workforce, the president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) has said. In an interview with Community Care, Steve Crocker said he was optimistic that the Department for Education’s response and accompanying reform plan – due shortly – would introduce measures that would address substantial social worker shortages and retentio

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When Prisoners Go Home: Preventing Recidivism Among Top Goals for Social Workers

Social Work Blog

The U.S. leads the world in the total number of incarcerations, imprisoning Americans at a rate of 629 people per every 100,000. And even though the current rate is the lowest in 20 years, the U.S. in 2022 had more than two million people in prison, according to World Population Review. And that number “is equivalent to roughly 25% of the world’s total prison population.”.

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Building on leadership with the Florence Nightingale Foundation

Social Care

The Florence Nightingale Leadership Programme allows care colleagues, like St Monica Trust's Emily Pimm, to apply their experience and knowledge to improve practice in their fields of work. An opportunity to develop. My Florence Nightingale Foundation (FNF) journey began last year, with an application to their Leadership Scholarship programme. I had never heard of the Foundation before, but after a discussion with a friend about helping people understand the impact of coronavirus restrictions on

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How “Sending the Elevator Back Down” Promotes Equity

Nicole Clark Consulting

How can “sending the elevator back down” promote equity? January is National Mentorship Month, highlighting the power of mentorship and its benefits. Mentoring fosters trust and understanding between a more experienced person (mentor) and someone with less experience (mentee). Ideally, mentoring is mutually beneficial, provides routine exchange of perspectives, and builds on knowledge and trust.

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Why Do We Feel Menta Illness Self-Stigma? How Do We Fight It?

Nnatasha Tracy

Mental illness self-stigma is essential to recognize. Stigma is a very popular word in mental health advocacy circles. People talk nonstop about the effects of stigma, stigma, stigma. However, self-stigma gets somewhat less press. I don't know if that's because it's people with mental illness talking to other people with mental illness about self-stigma (as opposed to advocates who may or may not have an illness) or because people just don't like to cop to perceived weakness, but self-stigma is

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2022 End of Year Report has just been published

International Federation of Social Workers

Dear colleagues, Happy New Year to all of you! On behalf of the Executive, Commissioners, Ambassador, Secretary General and the Secretariat I am delighted to present you the 2022 End […].

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5 Ways To Boost Employee Wellbeing

Swhelper

Jake Paul. The term “Employee well-being” covers the mental, physical and financial health of the workers in the organization. According to a recent survey, 58% of the world’s population spends one-third of their lives at the workplace. So, creating a work environment that supports the positive well-being of employees is crucial. At present, there has been an […].

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Change to Medicare Subsidy Arrangement for Psychological Services

Psychological Health Care

Medicare subsidised visits to psychologists have been reduced from 1 January 2023. This means the number of Medicare subsidised psychology sessions you can claim has dropped from 20 to 10, per calendar year. The number of therapy sessions claimable was originally increased from 10 to 20 in October 2020, in response to the impact of Covid-19 under the Federal Government’s Better Access Pandemic Support measures.

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Three reasons why politicians can’t solve our social care crisis

The Guardian

Political disagreement about the role of the state, the expense of reform and our unwillingness to confront ageing are at the root of the problem A confidential No 10 memo on (not) reforming social care reads: “The prime minister agreed that this seemed the right course, but noted that careful thought needed to be given to the presentation in order to avoid charges that the government had pulled back from its original commitments on long-term care.

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2023: Some pegs in the ground

Reimagining Social Work

We live in critical times. The unequal distribution of wealth and privilege (and the resulting unequal distribution of social suffering) continues to impact upon the stability of the world order. Arguably there is, at least, an increasing awareness of the social, economic, and environmental challenges which we are faced with collectively: as a planetary species. […].

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Technologies to Invest in for Your NGO in 2023

Famcare

According to research , around 1.5 million NGOs (non-governmental organizations) are currently operational in the United States. Some of these NGOs focus on raising awareness about different social issues, while others work on-field to help individuals in need, including seniors, children in foster care, and homeless people. But the lack of new technology and infrastructure in NGOs makes it difficult for them to work seamlessly on their cause.

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News Items – January 12, 2023

Social Workers Speak

News Items – January 12, 2023. Morgan State University Professor Anthony Estreet named CEO of the National Association of Social Workers. AFRO American Newspapers. Morgan State University (MSU) professor Anthony Estreet, Ph.D , has been selected to step into the role of chief executive officer for the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). Estreet, who previously served as chair of the Master of Social Work Program at MSU, will step into the role on Feb. 6.

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Flu season in England is worst for a decade, says health secretary

The Guardian

Steve Barclay acknowledges NHS is under ‘severe pressure’ and expresses regret over instances of poor care UK politics live – latest news updates England is suffering its worst flu season for a decade, the health secretary has said, as he sought to acknowledge “severe pressures” in the NHS and expressed “regret” for some patients receiving poor care.

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Social Work in Ukraine: January Update on the Partnership between IFSW and the Kamianets-Podilskyi District

International Federation of Social Workers

The above image shows Dignity Shopping at the Kamianets-Podilskyi Social Supermarket and children’s activities at the Community Social Work Centre “Thank you IFSW so much for all the support. It […].

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Why Data Analytics is Crucial for Non-Profits

Famcare

According to surveys , around 53% of companies have adopted data analytics to enhance their procedures. With a large number of organizations realizing the importance of data analytics for better operations, now’s the ideal time for non-profits to invest in social services software integrated with data processing and analytics features. Like other companies, non-profits and caseworkers can benefit significantly from data analytics.

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What You Need To Know About Value-Based Payment Models

Relias

For over a decade, we have heard the terms “value-based care” and “value-based payment” in discussions about how to improve health care quality and reduce costs. But as a major difference in how most providers have operated, change has come slowly. For example, less than 20% of Medicare spending is currently value-based. But momentum will continue, since the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced in 2021 that it plans to transition fully to value-based reimbursement by 2030.

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Sweeping social care reforms can wait – homes need money and workers right now | John Harris

The Guardian

Hospitals can’t discharge patients because councils don’t have the funds to facilitate care afterwards. It’s a perfect storm of neglect Last Thursday, I spoke to a hospital doctor based in north-east England working in acute medicine, a catch-all term that takes in most conditions that present as emergencies, from heart attacks to kidney failure. I was put in touch with her by EveryDoctor , the advocacy group for medical professionals set up just before the pandemic.