Social workers are needed on the front lines of a growing women’s health issue: risky drinking. Women’s rates of deaths tied to alcohol increased 85 percent from 1999 to 2017, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. That’s compared to a 35 percent increase among men and a 51 percent overall increase in deaths tied to alcohol. What’s more, research also shows that women who drink alcohol face a higher risk of...

The NASW Iowa Chapter (NASW-IA) worked with the NASW Foundation and the University of Iowa School of Social Work, in 2018-2019, to assess the Iowa social work labor force. The initiative was funded by a generous $50,000 grant from the Telligen Community Initiative.   “We wanted to gather information in a concise and organized way that would allow us to make the case that we need more professional social workers in the state of Iowa and how professional social workers...