Championing Health, Community, and Culture: How Rush Generations is Celebrating Older Americans Month
Each May, the U.S. Administration for Community Living (ACL) encourages organizations around the nation to celebrate Older Americans Month (OAM). OAM offers an opportunity to recognize the contributions of older adults while reaffirming our commitment to supporting healthy aging. This year’s theme, Champion Your Health, emphasizes prevention, wellness, and empowering individuals to take an active role in their […]
Crisis Response: A Growing Ecosystem for Advancing Health Equity
The behavioral health landscape in the United States is undergoing one of its most significant transformations in decades. The national expansion of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, a growing network of mobile crisis response teams, and the proliferation of crisis receiving and stabilization centers (CRSCs), have created a surging demand for trained, compassionate behavioral […]
Incarceration and Health Care Inequality
Author: Rebecca Bryant, Americorps Member In January, the Center for Health and Social Care Integration at RUSH (CHaSCI) hosted a Social Work Grand Rounds led by Dr. Nicole Mushero named Incarceration in the United States: Health Impacts and Advocacy Opportunities. This session highlighted how limited access to health care in correctional facilities, like prisons and jails, is negatively impacting the health of incarcerated individuals and decreasing life expectancy even after release. The Impacts of Health Care in Correctional Facilities Many people in state prisons grew up facing serious […]
A Social Work Month story: Walking beside a mother through crisis and Change
Author: Eve Escalante, LCSW This month we celebrate Social Work Month, and I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to have multiple spaces to reflect on the value of the work that this discipline provides, how my role has shifted since I began my social work career two decades ago, and how social […]
Introducing our new Social Work in Health Care Certificate Program
When I think back to my first days on the job as a healthcare social worker, I felt completely overwhelmed. I was a new MSW hired to work in a dialysis center in Chicago. I specialized in healthcare social work, had a bachelor and Master of Social Work, and had interned in healthcare settings. Having said that, the idea that I was […]
New resource highlights concerning impact of new Dept. of Education proposed policy on future social work workforce
If you’ve been following the Department of Education’s latest rulemaking, you may have heard about the plan to phase out Grad PLUS loans for all new graduate students. But what’s gotten far less attention is the selection of what counts as a “professional degree” to inform the new loan caps. And that decision could reshape […]
Environmental Inequity: Impacts on Health in Chicago
As an AmeriCorps Member in the Department of Social Work and Community Health at RUSH University Medical Center, I help connect patients to various resources through our system’s Social Determinants of Health Screener. Through this experience, I was inspired to dive deeper into other factors that may impact someone’s health. A healthy environment is an […]
Addressing Stigma and Structural Barriers in Substance Use Treatment
As AmeriCorps members conducting social determinants of health (SDOH) screeners, we’ve witnessed firsthand how structural barriers and health disparities interconnect and compound. From transportation barriers resulting in difficulties accessing primary care to financial barriers preventing medication follow-up, our conversations with patients have illuminated health as a complex environmental web. January is Substance Use Disorder Treatment […]
Reflections on Dr. Martin Luther King’s Legacy
“A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.” -Martin Luther King Jr., 1965 Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) and his legacy serves as […]