Skip to this page's content

Press Releases

Simmons Professor Receives National Social Work Award

BOSTON (May 19, 2005) — Simmons College Professor Helen Reinherz, MSW, ScD., head of the nation's longest study on the predictors of mental health from early childhood onward, has been awarded the 2005 Presidential Award for Excellence in Social Work Research by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). The award is considered one of the social work profession's most prestigious honors.

With more than 150,000 members, the NASW is the largest membership organization of professional social workers in the world. The association works to enhance the professional growth and development of its members, to create and maintain professional standards, and to advance sound social work policies.

For 28 years, Reinherz has served as principal investigator of the Simmons Longitudinal Study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. The study looks for behavioral, health and family factors that are likely to lead to good or poor mental health at various stages of one's development. It is designed to help mental health professionals, policy makers, parents, educators, and social workers improve early identification and treatment of mental health issues. (For more information describing the work of the study and numerous publications about its findings, visit www.simmons.edu/ssw/sls.

The Simmons College School of Social Work (www.simmons.edu/ssw) is located in Boston, MA. Founded in 1904, it has a nationally acclaimed clinical social work program and is one of the oldest schools of social work in the nation.