We are suddenly sailing in uncharted waters. A deadly viral pandemic has infected the entire world. So many people are in distress. They need so much help. Nonprofits, as they always do, are responding. But in these troubled times, the nonprofits themselves will need help.

Overwhelmed by your client’s need, it’s possible to neglect your own vulnerability.

Prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic our political climate was spewing constant conflict, divisive quarreling, insensitive bickering, and displaying an empathy deficit unparalleled in modern history. Whole nations were in conflict as we initiated a tariff war with China, Britain turned its back on the European Union, Russia continued to threaten the Ukraine and U.S. politicians began erecting a wall between us and Mexico, our closest neighbor.

The Corona Virus pandemic has swooped down on the human race like a tornado onto a small Midwestern trailer park. Its impact has been sudden, uncontrollable, devastating, life-changing, and fear inducing. The entire human race has reacted.

Each year Social Work Today asks its readers to nominate their top-ten colleagues for outstanding service in the field. I like to publish the list here on our blog as a form of recognition and congratulations. However, what caught my eye this year was the element of a “calling” in each of their stories. To these successful case workers, social work is so much more than a job.

Many years ago (2008), I read an article in the summer edition of the Nonprofit Quarterly by Christopher Finney about what makes a great mission statement. Permit me to share excerpts of this incisive article.

According to the National Eating Disorder Association, up to 30 million people in the U.S. suffer from an eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder. Worldwide the figure is more like 70 million sufferers!

Our American youth culture has forgotten our seniors. It isn’t accurate to accuse us of neglecting or abusing our seniors. No, caught up in the everyday business of our hyper-success culture, we simply don’t think about our senior population unless we have to. As long as we feel we’ve made reasonable accommodations for our seniors (Social Security and Medicare) we tend to pay closer attention to our careers and our children.

Going Mainstream

Homeschooling – parent-led, home-based education - is an age-old traditional educational practice that a decade ago appeared to be cutting-edge and “alternative” but is now bordering on “mainstream” in the United States. It may be the fastest-growing form of education in the country.

The Headline

After years of writing about the mass incarceration of Americans, it gives us great pleasure to share this headline with everyone in the social services community.

One way for a software solution to help you be HIPAA compliant is to offer you HIPAA encryption as part of the package. But is that something you need to be HIPAA compliant? Technically, no, it’s not mandatory.

The rules state you should use encryption if it would be needed to safeguard electronic Protected Health Information (PHI). But, they do say if you don’t use encryption, you need to have an alternative to encryption that will safeguard as well as encrypting would. Or you need to have documentation with justifiable cause, as to why have taken a different tact with regard to safeguarding PHI.