Public Education Campaign Newsletter

July 2007 • In This Issue

	• Message from Campaign Chairs
	• My Life Was Changed by a Social Worker
	• Insider's Look at the Campaign
	• How Do These Ads Come About?
	• What's coming in 2007
	• NASW Survey Gets National Coverage
	• School Participation in the Campaign

News from the National Social Work Public Education Campaign

Impact Newsleter Archives

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Thanks to the thousands of people and organizations supporting the National Social Work Public Education Campaign .

NASW Survey Gets National Coverage

The initial focus of the National Social Work Public Education Campaign was on reaching out to“sandwich generation” women – those who are juggling the responsibilities of children and aging relatives. Many times, these women are the decision-makers of the family and can greatly benefit from social work services.

One of the key challenges of the campaign is that many Americans do not believe they will need the help of a social worker. In order to better understand the needs of sandwich generation women, NASW partnered with the New York Academy of Medicine to survey 1,000 women about what concerns them the most and how social workers can help.

This survey truly resonated with the news media and the general public. The key media placement that touched off many other outlets to take notice of the survey was an exclusive story in USA Today on Monday, November 13.

In addition to the exclusive with USA Today, the article was picked up by many other news outlets including the ABC News Network.

Middle Aged Women Less Likely to be Happy
By Marilyn Elias
November 13, 2006

Women from the mid-30s to mid-50s are less likely than Americans overall to be very happy, and many are racked by worries about aging parents and other family members, a national survey by the National Association of Social Workers and the New York Academy of Medicine reports.The bleak scenario doesn’t surprise Deb Rubenstein, a social worker who counsels “sandwich generation” women, those who have children at home and aging parents, at IONA Senior Services, a social-service agency in Washington, DC.

“I’ve had women burst into tears in my office. They say ‘Not only is my father in the hospital, and they’re calling me at work telling me to figure out where he’s going next, but the school is calling me to say that my learning-disabled child has developed another problem.’ Their plates are 110 percent full,” said Rubenstein.