Thank you all for reading the blog this year. 2016 was a good year for me although I did slow down a bit on the blog productivity this year. This was due to taking an adjunct teaching position. I hope to look for more teaching and training opportunities. But enough about me, let’s get to the things you found most interesting this year.
This post features an incredibly thought provoking presentation leader David W. Covington. David brings a leadership and clinical perspective to his speeches that is inspiring. His thoughts about taking a “10,000 foot overview about suicide prevention” to re-frame the problem are critical.
2. Race, Privilege, and Colin Kaepernick
This post was inspired be a convergence of events. There was a conversation on twitter between activist Deray Mckeeson and social worker leader Brene Brown about race, privilege, and trauma. This was coupled with the popular news story about Quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem. One of the things that was called into question was his privilege as a rich athlete. These events made me reflect on my own white privilege and how we can advance conversations about race.
This year I attended and was invited to speak at the National Council On Behavioral Health Conference in Las Vegas. It was also a highlight to speak with the founder of the Healthcare on Social Media (#hcsm) twitter chat, Dana Lewis, about the power of twitter chats. This was incredible conference and would recommend leaders in behavioral health and healthcare to attend future conferences.
4. Are There Enough Social Workers Doing Suicide Prevention Research?
This featured original research from a conference that I found on twitter. This post demonstrates that yes, social work is underrepresented in suicide prevention. It also demonstrates the potential for your research to be shared and talked about via social media.
5. Population Health or Good Old Fashioned Social Work?
Population health has become an important concept in 2016. I talked about how the core values of social work, match with the definition of population health. My argument is that you can’t have population health without a social work voice.
Some Other Highlights of 20116
– Co-Authoring (with Dr. Jonathan Singer) the National Association Of Social Workers (NASW) Award winning article “Let’s Talk About Suicide: #LanguageMatters” . This was written for The New Social Worker magazine. Also co-wrote an accompanying article with Dr. April Foreman “That’s So Borderline: #LanguageMatters When Talking about Borderline Personality Disorder”
– Doing Presentations on self care, compassion fatigue, and counter-transference for both the National Association of Crisis Center Directors (via webinar) and face to face for the University at Albany School of Social Work CEU program.
-Organizing the joint Macro Social Work (#macrosw) and Suicide Prevention On Social Media (#spsm) twitter chat “Suicide is A Social Justice Issue”
-Being a finalist for the #Medx / Symplur Social Media Research Challenge.
I am seeking more opportunities to present about both therapeutic alliance issues and the professional use of social media. Please check out my work with me page if you are interested in having me come to you in 2017. Thanks again for reading and have a great year.
