News: Complicated grief

Complicated grief is an under-recognized mental health problem that affects million Americans, many of them elderly. Dr. Katherine Shear just now completed the first full-scale randomized clinical trial studying complicated grief in the elderly, which found that a new treatment approach encouraging patients to re-live the loss and reflect on its meaning is twice as successful as traditional depression therapy.

An article in Parade Magazine featuring the work of a member of the School of Social Work’s faculty, Dr. M. Katherine Shear, has won the 2014 award for “Best Magazine Article” from the National Association of Social Workers (NASW).

Two faculty members and the Director of Advising discuss the fit between social work and disaster response, and how it applies to this local tragedy.

Grief can be complicated. As one of the first medical experts to recognize this, Dr. M. Katherine Shear, the Marion E. Kenworthy Professor of Psychiatry in Social Work at CUSSW, has developed an effective 16-session treatment. She is launching the program as an official Columbia University “center” on Monday, February 25.

Announcing the release of a booklet listing the achievements of nine CUSSW doctoral students, program chair Julien Teitler mentioned their “broad range of important topics, including child obesity, foster care, adult and adolescent mental health, gender-based violence, and resilience among at-risk women in developing countries.”