Committees
Task Forces & Nominating Committee member list (PDF)
Behavioral Health Task Force
The Task Force has focused on sharing information related to workforce development, curriculum, and competencies. The long term goal is for NADD to take a leadership role in formulating a national agenda for social work in behavioral health through input into policy, e.g. Social Work Reinvestment Act and related state initiatives; SAMHSA priorities. Possible future agenda items include addressing the research regarding low use by social workers of evidence-based practices by social workers and the subsequent criticism of us by the NIMH director.
Child Welfare Task Force
The Child Welfare Task Force focuses on the interface of child welfare and social work education, particularly workforce issues. Past initiatives include coordinating major presentations at APM on child welfare workforce issues involving representatives of IASWR, NASW, APHSA, as well as NADD; coordinating the efforts to track IV-E legislation proposed changes along with CSWE, ANSWER, NASW, and IASWR, and crafting possible responses from social work degree programs.
Gerontological Task Force
The NADD Gerontological Task Force has worked to advance leadership among graduate schools of social work in aging related school missions, curricula, field training, research, fund raising and legislative advocacy. With much assistance from the John A. Hartford Foundation and the New York Academy of Medicine the Task Force has undertaken a number of initiatives including the development of two resource guides. Other work underway includes efforts to maximize Medicaid for geriatric social work education. Special attention is currently being given to elder abuse and the need to promote social work leadership in adult protection services. In addition, plans are underway to foster new development and fund raising initiatives. Strategic materials on fund raising are being developed.
Health Disparities Task Force
NADD’s Health Disparities Task Force works to strengthen the role and advance the national leadership of schools and departments of social work in the effort to eliminate disparities in health care and health status. Current initiatives include: (1) fielding a survey to better understand current health disparities content in social work programs; (2) seeking funding for a "curriculum infusion" proposal that would provide resources for strengthening health disparities content/curricula in social work programs, and (3) sponsoring a NADD conference on health disparities. Please click Task Forces -> Health Disparities to see more information.International Task Force
The main goal of the International Task Force is to gather and disseminate data on innovative and meaningful approaches to international social work education. In collaboration with CSWE and various faculty leaders in this field, the Task Force is in the process of putting together a report on opportunities and challenges for schools of social work in key areas of international social work. In the past, the Task Force, together with representatives from international social work organizations, organized workshops at annual meetings of CSWE and NADD. Presentations covered topics such as global field placements, international student and faculty exchange, and funding opportunities for international activities. The Task Force is instrumental in organizing annual National Conference on International Social Work.
Trauma & Disasters Task Force
The NADD Trauma and Disaster task force has been active since Hurricane
Katrina struck the U.S. Gulf coast in 2005. We have focused on 1) gathering
web resources related to trauma and disasters and social work and 2) on
exploring salient issues for deans and directors on these issues, including
those involved in how our own programs prepare for disasters that affect
us and our communities. The task force is now expanding the conversation
on these important issues to include social work faculty. We maintain
on online community in Google Groups where faculty can share ideas and
resources (e.g., syllabi) via a listserv, shared documents and web resources.
Those who are interested in joining will need to set up a Google
Groups account (free) and then submit a request to join the NADD
Trauma & Disaster Forum.
Structure of Educational Programs Task Force
The NADD Task Force on Structure provides a forum for members from differing program structures with varying sets of governance demands and expectations. This includes discussions on similarities and differences of programs and the impacts of those differences on administrative roles. It has also involved surveys to establish a baseline understanding of the current profile of institutional program structures. The Task Force specifically:
- Provides opportunities for members to update and track programmatic changes in institutional structure.
- Provides one-on-one support, for deans/directors, based on lesson learned.
- Through mutual support, provides consultation to programs that confront administrative changes either within their program or for themselves.
- Informs NADD of issues related to program structure and quality education.
- Seeks advocacy through NADD to support programs and their ability to provide quality graduate social work education.
