On developments in social work in 2005:

1) The response by the entire social work profession to natural disasters such as the Asian tsunami and Katrina. Social workers account for about 40 percent of the American Red Cross' mental health volunteers; yet their contributions tend to go unnoticed. In New Orleans, two social work students who remained in the disaster area actually discovered nursing home residents who had  been abandoned and managed to get food and water to them and to alert authorities to their location.

2) At a time when most interventions to address the HIV global challenge tend to be color- and culture-blind, a new multi-site study, Project Eban, of African American heterosexual couples, where one partner is HIV-positive, by Columbia's Nabila El-Bassel. El-Bassel recently gave a presentation on the project to a group of leading research scientists at the National Institutes of Health, where it generated tremendous excitement.

What's ahead?

More progress in areas pioneered by our social work faculty:

1) Clinical applications of social gerontology, particularly in countries like China. Ada Mui's book, Clinical Applications of Social Gerontology in the Far East, is an especially rich resource.

2) Treatment of alcohol problems through a clinically tested, combined medication and behavioral intervention program. In particular, Allen Zweben's research, which is being conducted in 11 sites, will have important implications for managing alcohol use disorders in a wide variety of health care settings where many, many more people can be reached.

3) Research on complicated grief and how it differs from depression. Marion Kenworthy Professor Katherine Shear's research on this topic has already received a lot of press, and I expect it to go on doing so.