Category: Uncategorized
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Therapy as a Tool of Austerity: When Coping Replaces Poverty Relief
By Dr. Maurice Vann A person who cannot afford rent has a housing problem. A person who cannot afford enough food faces material deprivation. When those conditions produce anxiety, exhaustion, or despair, offering therapy may address some of their emotional consequences, but it does not pay the rent or fill the refrigerator. The political question…
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Social Work Agencies Should Give Peer Recovery Workers Authority, Support, and Fair Pay
Recovery Month offers social work agencies an opportunity to examine how they employ people with lived experience of substance use disorders. Inviting a peer worker to a meeting can signal inclusion, but the more revealing questions concern pay, supervision, decision making, and working conditions. Agencies that value this contribution should show it in the structure…
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HUD’s Homelessness Competition Was Vacated. Social Work Must Use the Reset to Demand Evidence
The federal homelessness funding system is in an unusual pause. On August 7, 2026, a federal district court vacated the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s fiscal year 2026 Continuum of Care competition because the agency had not completed the notice and comment process required for major changes. HUD now says the former August 26…
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A Universal Government Login Is Not Access Unless People Can Complete It
On August 31, 2026, the Office of Management and Budget directed federal agencies toward a universal sign on through Login.gov for most public services that require authentication. The goal is understandable. People should not have to prove the same identity repeatedly, remember a collection of passwords, or navigate different systems simply because public benefits and…
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Healthy Aging Requires Practical Support, and Social Work Should Help Deliver It
Healthy Aging Month is an opportunity to examine what makes everyday independence possible. Advice about exercise, nutrition, and social connection becomes more useful when people have the resources to act on it. Social work should help identify and address the practical conditions that turn a reasonable recommendation into an achievable part of daily life. In…
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The AmeriCorps Settlement Gives Social Work Agencies a Reason to Plan for Service Continuity
A funding dispute can become a service problem long before a community organization closes its doors. Staff must decide whether to recruit, supervisors must plan assignments, and residents need to know whether the help they depend on will remain available. The AmeriCorps settlement announced September 10 offers a timely reason for social work agencies to…
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Eviction Prevention Is Social Work. Portland’s New Plan Shows Where the Profession Belongs.
A tenant facing eviction may need a lawyer, money to cover overdue rent, help gathering documents, and someone who can coordinate those steps before a deadline expires. Social work belongs in that response. The profession should help build the systems that preserve housing while people still have it. Portland’s recent procurement offers a concrete starting…
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Vermont’s $11.7 Million Rural Care Investment Needs Social Workers at the Center
On September 10, 2026, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced $11.7 million for rural health care in Vermont. The investment could expand access and strengthen fragile services. It will fall short, however, if workforce planning treats social workers as peripheral to rural care. The initiative includes $9 million in tuition benefits for health…
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CMS Found $3.4 Billion in Suspected Equipment Fraud. Stop Treating Beneficiaries as the Problem
On September 8, 2026, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced action against 11 medical equipment suppliers associated with more than $3.4 billion in suspected improper billing during 2025 and 2026. The scale of the alleged scheme should change how social workers talk about program integrity. Fraud in public benefits is often framed as…
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Food, Shelter, and Therapy: Social Work’s Misplaced Priorities
A person worried about the next meal or tonight’s sleeping arrangement may also need mental health treatment. The failure of a service system is not that it offers therapy, but that it can offer therapy more readily than a practical answer to hunger, unsafe housing, or an interrupted income. This final article in The Social…