School of Social Work News

Professor Trina Shanks is an editor on the latest edition of the Grand Challenges for Social Work and Society. This second edition outlines bold innovation and collective action powered by proven and evolving scientific interventions to address critical social issues facing society. The chapters tackle problems such as homelessness, social isolation, mass incarceration, family violence and economic inequality.

Professor Andy Grogan-Kaylor’s corporal punishment research was cited in the Guardian. Wales and Scotland have recently banned hitting, smacking and slapping children – and the children’s commissioner for England wants to introduce the same ban in England.

The 2016 meta-analysis of more than 160,000 children found that hitting as a form of discipline is ineffective at positively changing a child’s behavior, in the short and the long term. The analysis also found that children who were disciplined with physical punishment were more​​ likely to become aggressive, display antisocial behavior and exhibit mental health problems.

Associate Professor Terri Friedline’s op-ed in The Emancipator on how reviving post office banking could advance racial equity. “More than 60 million Americans – one-fifth of the population – live in communities without a bank. They’re left either to travel long distances to handle their money or use more expensive nearby options like check-cashing companies, payday lenders and currency exchanges,” writes Friedline. Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research and The Boston Globe’s Opinion team are collaborating to resurrect and reimagine The Emancipator, the first abolitionist newspaper in the United States, founded more than 200 years ago.

Clinical Assistant Professor Justin Hodge, MSW ‘13, has been appointed Chair of the Commission on Community Action and Economic Opportunity by Governor Whitmer. The commission was created to develop policies and programs to reduce poverty in the state of Michigan. Hodge was appointed to the commission in October, 2021.

Los Angeles recently opened more than 40,000 bank accounts – one for every first-grader in the Los Angeles Unified School District and contributed $50 to the students’ accounts. William Elliott discussed the LA program and advantages of children’s savings accounts with Here & Now. “Research shows that even small amounts of savings can open up possibilities for kids who might ordinarily never be able to save for college,” says Elliott.

Clinical Associate Professor Debra Mattison was awarded a 2022 Provost’s Teaching Innovation Prize. These awards honor faculty who have developed innovative approaches to teaching that incorporate creative pedagogies. Mattison along with a team from U-M’s Center for Interprofessional Education received the award for developing a fully virtual, co-curricular certificate program, for which Michigan Medicine’s Office of Patient Experience connects students with real patients, referred to as patient advisers, and their families. Mattison was also awarded an innovation prize in 2015 for an Interprofessional Education Team-Based Clinical Decision Making course.

Field Faculty Rosalva Osorio Cooksy and Clinical Professor Julie Ribaudo were part of the national task force that developed the Specialized Practice Curricular Guide for Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health, which was released in early April. The guide is part of the Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) Curricular Guide Resource Series.

Osorio Cooksy was part of the team developing Competency 5: Engage in Policy Practice. Ribaudo serves on CSWE’s National Task Force Steering Committee and led the team developing Competency 8: Intervention with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities. 
 
“The aim of the guide and the institute is to close the gap in social work education related to infants, young children and their caregivers. Despite a growing need for infant and early childhood mental health-informed professionals, very few MSW programs currently include related content in their curriculum,” said Ribaudo. “The guide offers materials, activities, and assignments that can be woven into almost any course related to work with children and families, especially in the field of mental health, school social work, medical social work, and child welfare.”
 
“My hope is that more social work programs implement infant and early childhood mental health content as there is a high need to build infant and early childhood workforce,” said Osorio Cooksy.  “Our infants, young children and families need support to build strong relationships.”

Clinical Associate Professors Dan Fischer and Debra Mattison, and Assistant Professor Anao Zhang are all members of Interprofessional Education (IPE) teams that won 2022 IPE Innovation & Excellence Awards. Fischer is part of the Effective Leadership Team. Mattison and Zhang are members of the Discharge Planning Simulation Team. Field Faculty Rosalva Osorio Cooksy had a poster as an Interprofessional Leadership Fellow. 

The awards were established to recognize and celebrate interprofessional education and practice across U-M’s health sciences schools, and were presented on Health Professions Education Day on April 5, 2022.