Remembering September 11
 NASW “Disasters” Policy Statement
Social Work Speaks 2012-2014
Disasters are collective, community-wide traumatic events that cause extensive destruction, death or injury, and widespread social and person disruption. NASW supports participation in and advocates for programs and policies that serve individuals and communities in preparation for, during, and in the wake of disaster.
NASW Responds to Terror Attacks, NASW NEWS, October 2001
NASW headquarters in Washington, D.C., and its chapters around the country were scrambling to find ways the social work profession could best help in the national crisis. Many members contacted the association in the aftermath of the attacks, hoping to volunteer for crisis or trauma counseling or to find other ways to offer comfort to those emotionally and physically devastated by the attacks on New York City and the Pentagon and the airplane crash in Pennsylvania
Social Workers Heed Call After Attacks, NASW NEWS, November 2001
One of the first acts of NASW's New York City Chapter after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack was to contact the Oklahoma Chapter to gain insight into problems the city might expect in its social services delivery systems, how to best use chapter resources to help, what New Yorkers might expect in the way of emotional and mental health problems in the short term and long term, and how best to prepare practitioners for the challenges they would face.
Sept. 11 Anxiety Makes Social Work Job Harder, NASW NEWS, September 2002
What made social work practice especially unusual after Sept. 11 was that social workers shared the same sense of anxiety and loss as their clients. Social workers and their clients together had seen the WTC buildings collapse, had smelled the destruction, had lived through the disruptions and had experienced the same deep feeling of insecurity. They shared their clients' hyper-vigilance when the power went off or there was another bomb scare. The key to practice has been the ability to set aside personal concerns enough to provide a safe place where clients can articulate their anxieties, experiences, losses and sense of uncertainty in the world.
Volunteerism Since Sept. 11, NASW NEWS, September 2002
On the one year anniversary of 9/11 NASW National President Terry Mizrahi, MSW, PHD, asks what happens to communities when the volunteers go home? What happens when the period of public mourning is declared over? What has happened to the millions of people who were hurting before 8:43 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001? And what is happening to those in need of help since then, especially in light of the economic recession and budget deficits?
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