Social Work Commons^™

Access To Veterinary Care: Barriers, Current Practices, And Public Policy, Access To Veterinary Care Coalition

Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Small Animal Clinical Sciences

Pets have become an integral part of our families with over 80% of pet owners reporting that they consider their pets to be a member of their family. An estimated 29 million dogs and cats live in families that participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. There are also middle-class families that live paycheck to paycheck, with limited funds for veterinary care. These families deserve the companionship of pets to enjoy the mental, physical, and emotional benefits that come from this human-animal bond.

Through a grant from Maddie’s Fund®, the Access to Veterinary Care Coalition (AVCC) commissioned a national …

Development And Testing Of An Assessment Of Youth/Young Adult Voice In Agency-Level Advising And Decision Making, Janet S. Walker, Brie Masselli, Jennifer E. Blakeslee, Caitlin Baird, Kristin Thorp

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is a range of stakeholder benefits when youth- and young adult-serving agencies include service recipient “voice” in advising and decision making regarding agency policies and programming. Yet many agency stakeholders lack awareness of strategic best practices to ensure the consistent and meaningful participation of young people in decision-making processes, and few tools exist to evaluate agency efforts. This paper describes the development and validation of the Youth/Young Adult Voice at the Agency Level (Y-VAL), an assessment of the extent to which agencies have implemented best practices for supporting meaningful participation. The Y-VAL is intended for research purposes, as well …

Life Review In Aging: A Primer, Thomas M. Meuser

Social Work Faculty Publications

Humans are narrative beings. We understand and speak of ourselves and the events of our lives in the context of stories. The stories we tell are influenced by our lived experiences, the quality of our memories (what’s recalled and forgotten), relationships, personality styles, values, accomplishments, regrets, spiritual beliefs, and a host of other factors. Telling our stories from the vantage point of old age is reflective of a maturational process of introspection and discovery called life review.

Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment: A Primer, Thomas M. Meuser

Social Work Faculty Publications

Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment is an integrative approach to diagnosis, treatment and management of older adults that takes the whole person into account. While deficits may be a primary focus, strengths are also considered.

Linking Molar Organizational Climate And Strategic Implementation Climate To Clinicians’ Use Of Evidence-Based Psychotherapy Techniques: Cross-Sectional And Lagged Analyses From A 2-Year Observational Study, Nathaniel J. Williams, Mark G. Ehrhart, Gregory A. Aarons, Steven C. Marcus, Rinad S. Beidas

Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Behavioral health organizations are characterized by multiple organizational climates, including molar climate, which encompasses clinicians’ shared perceptions of how the work environment impacts their personal well-being, and strategic implementation climate, which includes clinicians’ shared perceptions of the extent to which evidence-based practice implementation is expected, supported, and rewarded by the organization. Theory suggests these climates have joint, cross-level effects on clinicians’ implementation of evidence-based practice and that these effects may be long term (i.e., up to 2 years); however, no empirical studies have tested these relationships. We hypothesize that molar climate moderates implementation climate’s concurrent and long-term relationships with …

Exploratory Study Of The Use Of Community Treatment Orders With Clients Of An Ontario Act Team, Magnus Mfoafo-M'Carthy, Cara Grosset, Carol Stalker, Irene Dullaart, Linda Mccoll Dr.

Lyle S. Hallman Social Work Faculty Publications

Community Treatment Orders (CTOs) have raised questions about coercion, lack of autonomy, and effectiveness in reducing hospitalizations and improving service users’ quality of life. This study examined the experiences of clients and clinicians when CTOs are used in combination with Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) in a recovery oriented approach. Eleven clients who were or had previously been on a CTO and eight ACT clinicians were interviewed. Although most clients had negative feelings about CTOs, some acknowledged their lives had improved. Clinicians reported that the decision to employ a CTO is sometimes debated within the team but they agreed that combining …

Virtual Mentorship Network To Address The Rural Shortage Of Mental Health Providers, Heidi Keeler, Tara Sjuts, Kosuke Niitsu, Shinobu Watanabe-Galloway, Paul Force-Emery Mackie, Howard Liu

Social Work Department Publications

Introduction: The process of identifying effective responses to the challenges of placing and retaining a rural behavioral health workforce remains elusive. The Virtual Mentorship Network was developed to test the feasibility of using distance technology to connect rural students interested in mental health careers with mentors.

Methods: In Year 1, college and high school students were virtually mentored using a near-peer approach both live and asynchronously as a cohort over 7 months. In Year 2, college students only were virtually intensely mentored live over 1 month. High school students were asynchronously provided with informational videos produced by mentors. Program benefits …

Social Work Trauma Interventions: Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Kassie Baumann

Senior Honors Theses

According to Lynne Weilart (2013), in her article on the reasons why people seek out therapy, trauma is the number one reason people attend counseling. Many different trauma-informed approaches are designed specifically to address the consequences of trauma and to facilitate healing. Some of these approaches are as follows: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT); Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT);Mentalization Based Therapy (MBT); Trauma Systems Therapy (TST); Trauma Assessment Pathway (TAP); and Attachment, Self-Regulation, and Competency (ARC) (de Arellano, Danielson, Ko, & Sprauge, 2008). The effectiveness of each trauma intervention will be examined. DBT is one of these trauma interventions that is growing …

Jails Are Not Treatment Centers, Michael Henning, Rachel Mattick, Cali Turbes

Master of Social Work Student Policy Advocacy Briefs

Currently, in Minnesota alone, there are more individuals with severe mental illness being incarcerated than hospitalized. Blue Earth County's Yellow Line Project (YLP) reported that 83.7% of individuals screened positive for mental illness prior to being booked into jail . Not only does incarcerating individuals with mental illness fill our jails, it prolongs mental illness and time spent away from treatment. Jail diversion programs divert individuals with mental health disorders from the criminal justice system and into appropriate treatment when applicable. For those individuals ineligible for diversion from the criminal justice system, care coordination would be ideal to assist in …

Family Impact Seminar 2018: The Kids Are Not All Right: Policy Options To Address Youth Trauma In Massachusetts, Denise Hines, Laurie Ross Ph.D, Marianne Sarkis Ph.D

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

Family Impact Seminars are a series of annual seminars, briefing reports, and discussion sessions that provide up-to-date, solution-oriented research on current issues for state legislators and their aides. The seminars provide objective, nonpartisan research on current issues and do not lobby for particular policies. Seminar participants discuss policy options and identify common ground where it exists.

The Kids are NOT All Right: Policy Options to Address Youth Trauma in Massachusetts is the ninth Massachusetts Family Impact Seminar. Today’s seminar is designed to emphasize a family perspective in policymaking on issues related to early intervention in childhood trauma, sex trafficking and …

The Social Isolation Epidemic: A Public Health Concern, Jolynne Bockman, Allison Frandrup, Hannah Miner

Master of Social Work Student Policy Advocacy Briefs

Social isolation kills. Loneliness and social isolation raise the likelihood of coronary heart disease and stroke, result in poor cardiovascular and mental health outcomes, and drastically increase the likelihood of death. Resulting health implications that stem from real or perceived physical or emotional remoteness include a spectrum of harsh realities ranging from feelings of low self-worth to reduced work capacity to attempts to harm oneself. Social isolation does not have to become the defining reality of modern life. Attention to the vast loneliness spreading through diverse populations across the state is desperately needed as a means to combat this modern …

Launch-Ing Minnesota Early Childhood Mental Health Into The Future, Molly Abdo, Alyssa Baker, Elizabeth Holz

Master of Social Work Student Policy Advocacy Briefs

What is Social-Emotional Development? The foundation for lifelong mental health, including social and emotional development, is established early in life and shaped by children's relationships with parents, caregivers, and peers. This foundation is critical to all aspects of healthy development and growth in early childhood. Social-emotional development can be defined as "the capacity to form secure relationships; experience, express, and manage a range of emotions; and learn and explore one's environment."

Why is it Important? When children fail to develop social-emotionally, mental health symptoms begin to emerge and can "cause distress, interfere with relationships, limit the child's participation in daily …

Perinatal Depression: Investing In Our Mothers Before It's Too Late, Katelin Dietel, Anna Garbers, Kailee Hrubetz

Master of Social Work Student Policy Advocacy Briefs

Currently, there is no consistent, universal screening process within the United States healthcare system that considers the mental health of a new mother. Mandatory screening for perinatal depressive symptoms would improve the lives of new mothers, children, and their families nationwide. Home-visiting programs, such as the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program supported by Healthy Families America, should be universal and available in every locale in the U.S. Individual state policies within these programs should be tailored to meet the needs of each unique mother, child, and family. Early, nurturing relationships are critical to a child's development. …

Invisible No More: Bringing Awareness To Mental Health In Older Adults Living In Rural Minnesota, Abigail Schaper, Carley Ledoux, Kristry Danielson

Master of Social Work Student Policy Advocacy Briefs

Approximately 8 million Americans 65 years of age and older have mental health disorders. It is estimated that these numbers could reach 14.4 million by 2030. Minnesotans turning 65 in this decade (about 285,000) will be greater than the past four decades combined (Aging: MN State Demographic Center, 2018). Anxiety and depression are two of the more common mental health disorders in older adults and are associated with severe consequences, including life dissatisfaction, illness, and mortality. With this growth comes many barriers. The rural mental health system is not equipped to address this growth. The system is underfunded, largely uncoordinated, …

Taking Care Of Palliative Care, Jolene Baker, Kristina Larsen, Amanda Schumacher

Master of Social Work Student Policy Advocacy Briefs

Minnesota has done well with the amount of palliative care services provided across the state. However, rural communities in Minnesota have far less access to palliative care programs than those living in urban settings. This is in part due to the lack of availability of health care professionals in rural communities, and the lower reimbursement rates provided for palliative care programs in rural settings. Although the majority of large hospitals in Minnesota offer palliative care programs, most hospitals with fifty beds or less do not. Palliative care has been shown to improve the quality of life of individuals living with …

Relative Effectiveness Of Mindfulness And Cognitive Behavioral Interventions For Anxiety Disorders: Meta-Analytic Review, Samina K. Singh, Kevin M. Gorey

Social Work Publications

Increasingly popular mindfulness intervention innovations seem demonstrably effective in alleviating anxiety among people with anxiety disorders. However, the basis of such primary and synthetic evidence has, for the most part, been comparisons with non-active comparison conditions such as waiting lists. The longest-standing and strongest evidence-informed practices in this field have been cognitive behavioral interventions (CBI). This meta-analysis synthesized evidence from nine randomized trials of the relative effectiveness of mindfulness interventions compared to CBIs (i.e., active control groups) in treating anxiety disorders. The sample-weighted synthesis found no statistically or practically significant differences between the two groups on anxiety alleviation: Cohen’s d …

Is Counseling Integral To Buprenorphine-Assisted Opioid Addiction Treatment? Examining Counseling Participation And Treatment Retention At A Richmond, Virginia Clinic, John R. Gyourko, Hilary Colin King

Social Work Student Works

Treatment providers in Virginia are required by law to offer counseling or referrals to all clients receiving medication-assisted opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment (American Society of Addiction Medicine, 2016; Medical Society of Virginia, 2018). Prescribing physicians widely regard counseling as a critical component of medication-assisted OUD treatment (Lin, Lofwall, Walsh, & Knudsen, 2019), and clients perceive counseling to be among the most important factors promoting recovery from opioid dependence (Hay, Huhn, Tompkins, & Dunn, 2019). Research investigating the efficacy of counseling as an OUD treatment component, however, has been equivocal to date (Brown, 2018; Dugosh et al., 2016). The current …

Mitigating Early Loss Of Community Participation In Early Psychosis Services: State Of The Science, Tamara G. Sale, Dora M. Raymaker, Mariam Rija, Veronica Gould, Christina Wall, Ryan P. Melton

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the early stages of treatment for psychosis, community engagement and social networks are threatened through a combination of symptomology and negative messages and reactions from the environment which may result in internalized stigma, disempowerment, and prolonged isolation. While treatment programs attempt to mitigate these factors, ambivalence toward treatment and the basic concept of psychosis, along with difficulty engaging in conversation, make initial engagement more difficult. Self-determination theory and growing recovery literature point to the importance of maintaining a sense of community relatedness and connection, and developing a sense of agency and competence as important to active recovery and retention …