UNC study: Emotional support crucial to helping military families deal with deployments

However, spouses are more likely to handle stress well if they are encouraged to build stronger relationships with their friends and communities, and can potentially lower their long-term medical costs if they receive military support services — including mental health care — early, the study concluded.

“When the military services focus some of their resources and attention on getting their families ready for deployments, this clearly pays off in the readiness of their personnel for duty and can result in fewer emotional and family problems when they return home,” said UNC School of Social Work professor, Dennis Orthner, Ph.D. Orthner co-authored the study with Roderick Rose, a research associate at the school’s Jordan Institute for Families.

The report is published in the October 2009 issue of the peer-reviewed journal, Family Relations. The study was commissioned by the U.S. Army Family, Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command. Orthner has been providing research assistance to the Army since 1979. Full story

School holds Diversity Open House

On Sept. 29, the School welcomed nearly 100 students and faculty from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and high schools from across the state for our annual Diversity Open House. This event was co-sponsored by the National Association of Social Workers-North Carolina Chapter.

The Diversity Open House gives us the opportunity to invite students and faculty from HBCUs to explore our MSW program, and think about UNC-Chapel Hill as a viable option for social work graduate education. Activities for the day included faculty presentations on social work careers, class visits, lunch with faculty and current students, a GRE workshop, and a faculty roundtable discussion. More photos

Alumnae travel to Guatemala to explore violence against women

A Guatemalan weaver teaches the delegation about her art. More photos

In August, Karen Smith Rotabi, Ph.D. ’04; Denise Gammonley, Ph.D. ‘98; and Melissa Johnson, MSW ‘02, traveled to Guatemala as delegates for the Guatemala Human Rights Commission to explore violence against women, including femicide.

The work included hearing testimonies of violence survivors and presenting findings to the U.S. government. For example, they heard from Rosa Franco, who has testified for the Interamerican Human Rights Court in the only case of femicide ever received by the organization. Franco shared her experiences with the delegation and again gave testimony about her adolescent daughter Maria’s violent death at the hands of narcotics traffickers in Guatemala City. This case underscored the concept of femicide, which is a political act of violence perpetuated by men against women simply because they are women. Full story

Clinical Lecture Series

Mon., Oct. 19: Grief Work for the Clinician and Client, Steven Bradley-Bull, MA, MED, LPC. Mon., Nov. 16: Treating Clients and Ourselves with Positivity, Barbara Fredrickson, Ph.D.

Details & registration

UNC Library offers mobile research tools

Users of mobile phones, Blackberries and similar devices now have access to UNC Library collections and services with two sites designed just for them:

• Mobile UNC Library site: library.unc.edu/m
• For Blackberry and plain-text: library.unc.edu/m/plain

The mobile sites provide access to books, journals, research tools and librarians. Research tools include the RefWorks bibliographic management program and the PubMed database from the National Library of Medicine. 

 

5K walk, conference to raise awareness about suicide prevention

 

Faculty member Jodi Flick is a member of the N.C. Youth Suicide Prevention Task Force, which developed and helps implement a statewide strategic plan; and a member of the Triangle Consortium for Suicide Prevention.

 

The Consortium is sponsoring a 5K community walk to raise awareness; to raise money for research into the illnesses that lead to suicide, primarily depression and bipolar disorder; and to provide local support to survivors, through sponsorships to the local survivor support groups in Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Wake Forest. The walk will be held Sun., Nov. 8 in Raleigh. Flyer

 

In addition, the Annual Triangle N.C. Conference for Survivors of Suicide will be held the Saturday before Thanksgiving. In previous years, this has been here at School, but this year is in Raleigh at Meredith College, Dept. of Sociology and Social Work.

 

For more information about these events, contact Jodi Flick.

 

 

 

Know someone who might be interested in our MSW program?

• The next MSW Information Session is Oct. 16.
• The Mountain Area, Triangle and Winston-Salem Distance Education Programs will each hold individual information sessions at their site locations this fall: Triangle on Oct. 19, Winston-Salem on Oct. 28 and Mountain Area on Nov. 21.
• The School is offering a free GRE workshop on Oct. 17 in Chapel Hill and Nov. 14 in Winston-Salem, exclusively for our prospective students. 
• Sharon Holmes Thomas will be at Georgia State University in Atlanta on Oct. 30 for the Idealist Graduate Fair. If you know of prospective students in that area, please encourage them to contact her to schedule an appointment to meet.

 

Applicants sought for Health Disparities Fellowship

The North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund (HWTF) is accepting applications for the 2010-11 N.C. Health Disparities Fellowship, a program engaging talented public health and social work professionals in ongoing efforts to help close the health disparities gap in the state. The two-year fellowship program aims to increase awareness of health inequalities in North Carolina by enabling a group of mid- to senior-level public health or social work professionals to effectively design, implement and evaluate interventions that address these complex issues. More info

 

 

Jordan elected to Basketball Hall of Fame

Michael Jordan, namesake of the UNC School of Social Work's Jordan Institute for Families, was inducted into the 2009 Basketball Hall of Fame in September.

Jordan’s Hall of Fame selection was a slam dunk after he retired as perhaps the greatest player in history. And in his speech, he gave much of the credit to his UNC coach. “There’s no way you guys would have got a chance to see Michael Jordan play without Dean Smith,” he said.

The family has maintained its ties with Carolina over the years. Jordan's mother, Deloris, serves as a member of the School of Social Work's board of advisors, as do Dean and Linnea Smith.

 

 

Mountain Area Distance Education MSW Program to host grand opening reception Oct. 21

 

Formerly called the Asheville Distance Education MSW Program, this semester the program moved to Blue Ridge Community College in Flat Rock, N.C., near Hendersonville, and was renamed the Mountain Area Distance Education MSW Program. The move was necessary because of recent changes in the University's funding model for distance education.

  

This relocation brings a new and exciting opportunity to grow and strengthen our presence in the area by admitting a class of students annually, rather than every other year, beginning next fall. The program's format, curriculum and field education opportunities remain the same.

 

To celebrate the formal opening of the Mountain Area program, a reception will be held on Wed., Oct. 21 from 5-7 p.m. at the Blue Ridge Conference Center on campus. All are welcome to attend. Please RSVP to Sarah Naylor at (919) 962-6444 or smnaylor@email.unc.edu by Oct. 15.

 

Looking for a job? Have a job to post?

Check out our alumni job board. New positions added!

Dual degree MSW/MPH student Adriane Casalotti was awarded a 2010 Women’s Research and Educational Institute (WREI) Congressional Fellowship on Women and Policy. As a fellow, she will work a minimum of 40 hours per week in a Washington, D.C. congressional office as a legislative aide on policy issues affecting women. The nine month fellowship begins in January.

F A C U L T Y   S P O T L I G H T

Michal Grinstein-Weiss and Andréa Taylor were awarded a $94,638 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF) as part of the Assets for Independence Knowledge Development Initiative. The Assets for Independence (AFI) Program, administered by ACF, provides the largest source of funding for IDAs in the U.S.

Grinstein-Weiss and Taylor will lead the UNC team, collaborating with a team of researchers from ABT Associates, to examine asset-building program implementation and evaluation in the U.S. and Canada and to formulate recommendations for ongoing evaluation and management of the AFI program.

The Arc of the United States has chosen Susan Parish the winner of its 2009 Research Matters! Award. This prestigious award "honors an outstanding researcher who has made research findings that should lead to improvements in the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families." The award will be presented in Pittsburgh on Nov. 14 at The Arc's annual convention, and Parish will present a breakout session about her research results. Parish will also present a webinar session in the near future.

Amelia Roberts-Lewis and doctoral student Sharon Parker presented a lecture on HIV and AIDS at TROSA (Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers) in Durham on Sept. 29. The lecture was attended by 80 residents, who were engaging as they thought about their own risk factors for HIV.

Paul Smokowski is featured in a new podcast, as part of the Living Proof podcast series from the University at Buffalo School of Social Work. Smokowski describes his current research exploring the protective and risk factors involved for Latino youth as they attempt to integrate into United States culture. Discover what he learned about the "Critical Aspects of Acculturation" for this fast-growing population.

Teaching award winners announced

Congratulations to the 2008-09 Dean’s Recognition of Teaching Excellence Award winners:
Deborah Barrett, Gary Bowen, Mat Despard, Marilyn Ghezzi, Shenyang Guo, Matthew Howard and Joelle Powers.

Dorothy Elizabeth (Betty) Broder, MSW '91, of Raleigh, passed away on Sept. 20 following an extended bout with cancer. Obituary

Rachel Foster, PhD '08, a major in the U.S. Air Force, is now deployed in Afghanistan as a member of a Combat Stress Team. Her new address is: Rachel E. Foster (no rank please), Charlie Company, 710th BSB, FOB Shank, APO AE 09364.

Johanna Greeson, PhD '09, was a call-in guest on Sept. 24 on a Philadelphia NPR show about schools for kids in foster care (mp3). Greeson is the principal of Johanna Greeson Consulting, a small research, evaluation and consulting firm specializing in professional and technical services for individuals, non-profits and human service organizations.

Amy Salahshour Prentice, MSW '09 and Matthew Prentice, MSW '09 were married on May 29 in Fuquay-Varina, N.C.

Editor: Michelle Rogers
 
Subscribe: To receive E-Contact monthly via e-mail, receive it at a different e-mail address, or to be removed from our mailing list, please e-mail the list administrator.

Do you have news to share? If you have received an award, promotion, taken a new job, gotten married, or added a new member to the family, let us know. We would love to share your news with other alumni and the School of Social Work community. Please e-mail your alumni news and photos.

Alumni: update your contact information

 
2009 Archive January | February |March | April | May | June | July | August | September