NASW-FL is the Voice of Professional Social Work in Florida—Your Membership Controls the Volume!
Turn up the volume! Join NASW today by calling 1-800-742-4089.

NASW-FL Chapter Elections

Vote now in the election for positions on the NASW-FL Board of Directors or Committee on Nominations and Leadership Identification (CONLI)! Election open now through July 21st. To vote, just click here to access the online ballot. You will need your name and membership number to vote. E-mail naswfl@naswfl.org to request your membership number or a paper ballot.

Clinical Practice Update

The DSM-5 will be released on May 22, 2013. However, the new diagnostic categories will not begin officially to be used until October 1, 2014. The American Association for Social Work Boards (ASWB) will not use the new DSM-5 information on the LCSW Clinical Exam until January 2015. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), the DSM-5 is intended to be a manual for assessment and diagnosis of mental disorders and will not include information or guidelines for treatment for any disorder. NASW-FL will offer a 6-hour training on the DSM-5 as a pre-conference intensive for Social Work Conference 2013 (SWC). This training will occur on June 5th with Sophia Dziegielewski, PhD, LCSW in Orlando.

NASW will also host, as part of SWC 2013, a workshop on “Reporting New Psychotherapy Codes and PQRS Codes for Medicare” on June 7th in Orlando with Mirean Coleman LICSW, CT, Senior Practice Associate with the NASW National Office in Washington D.C. A copy of the new CPT codes is available free to members. E-mail your request to naswfl@naswfl.org.

NASW has just released four new practice standards available on line at www.socialworkers.org. They include:

• NASW Best Practice Standards in Social Work Supervision (2013)
• NASW Guidelines for Social Work Safety in the Workplace (2013)
• NASW Standards for Social Work Case Management (2013)
• NASW Standards for Social Work with Service Members, Veterans, and Their Families (2013)

If you have any questions on social work practice, please contact Jim Akin at 1-800-352-6279 or jim@naswfl.org.

Congratulations, Awardees!

The following award winners were selected by the CONLI Committee for the 2013 Social Work Awards. The awards will be presented at the June Conference.

Susan Mankita, LCSW
Social Worker of the Year

Heather Blankenship
Social Work Student of the Year

Robin Kohn, LCSW
Social Work Educator of the Year

Brad & Tammy Weaver
Public Citizens of the Year

Representative Mia Jones
Florida House (D-14)
Elected Official of the Year

Social Work Research Center
Help Develop the Florida Social Work Research Center

The Florida Social Work Research Center is an online research tool that will serve to link the practice community with social work research in order to increase the utilization of evidence-based practice in Florida. It will also allow policy makers to access research data in a convenient format.

Currently, we are accepting abstracts from topical experts and opportunities for research from agencies or organizations. Abstracts and research opportunities may be sent to Jim Akin, NASW-FL Executive Director, at jim@naswfl.org.