We have come a long way since the 1970s, when the word cancer was not spoken, and patients were not told their diagnosis because it was thought they would give up hope. There is now a firm trend in oncology towards putting the needs of patients and their families at the center and making them […]
Fall 2015 issue
From classroom to Capitol
As social work students prepare for advocacy-based careers, faculty members from the School of Social Work develop course assignments to help train their students for real life experiences in the field. Last fall, one professor challenged her students to create legislation that could be file during the 84th session of the Texas Legislature, which convened […]
On being witness
A man with the words “Pimpin’ Ken” tattooed on his forehead was on the witness stand as Laurie Cook Heffron entered the Bexar County courtroom last October. The man was the defendant in the human trafficking case for which Cook Heffron was about to testify as an expert witness. He was accused of pimping out a […]
The DSM-5: What social workers need to know
Countless workshops and presentations on the Fifth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) have garnered professors Beth Pomeroy and Cynthia Franklin a nickname: the DSM-5 Ninjas. We asked Pomeroy what social workers should know about the new manual, and this is what she shared: There are four new chapters: Trauma […]
Trauma and recovery
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s most recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an estimated 22.7 million Americans needed treatment for problems related to drug or alcohol abuse in 2013. Suzanne Bartholomew (MSSW ’11) is the manager for women’s program at The Arbor Treatment Center in Austin, TX. We talked […]
New modes of intervention for young people seeking recovery
By Lori Holleran Steiker Newspapers and magazines are full of stories of adolescent and young adults struggling with addiction. Stories of youth overdoses flood the media, the death rates for overdose in Americans aged 15 to 24 more than doubled from the early to mid-21st century nationwide. This trend serves as an ominous backdrop to the […]
New Center for Diversity and Social and Economic Justice
Professor Yolanda Padilla is the leader of the new CSWE Center for Diversity and Social and Economic Justice. This center will provide social work education with the opportunity and the means to support greater diversity and social and economic justice in education, teaching, research, curriculum, institutional arrangements, and leadership development. “It was a real honor for me […]
UT Heals
The School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin is one among ten institutions across the country to receive a five-year grant from the Council in Social Work Education, the National Association of Social Workers, and the New York Community Trust to train social work students to be healthcare leaders. Social Work HEALS (Social […]
Fall 2015 Community
Dean Zayas’s summer Texas tour; Endowments: John and Jennifer Gates Endowed Scholarship in Social Work; Planned gift: Ashbrook-Teague Trust Graduate Fellowship in Social Work; Why I Give: Ramón Gómez.
Fall 2015 Class Notes
Terri Spahr Nelson is psychotherapist, consultant, educator, and author with more than 30 years of experience working in mental health and behavioral sciences, and specializing in victims of violence and trauma. She is a military veteran, twice awarded the Army Commendation Medal. She is Director of the Bachelor’s of Social Work Program in the Department […]
