Social Work Commons^™

The Three Evaluations Of Social Welfare Programs, Dean Harper, Haroutun M. Babigian

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

As new and innovative social welfare programs are being attempted, there has been an increased concern with evaluating the effectiveness of such programs. To what degree is a new program effective? For which kinds of clients is each type of program effective? What elements are crucial in a program which has been judged to be effective? These are just a few of the questions that evaluators would like to answer.

There is a large literature on evaluation research--some of it reporting or reviewing the results of specific evaluations (6, 8, 9, 10, 11) and some of it presenting general discussions, …

The Myth Of A Population Explosion In America: Implications For The Social Welfare Profession, Lillian T. Cochran, James M. O'Kane

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In the past decade, the concern over a hypothetical "population explosion" has become an increasing preoccupation in growing segments of the American public. Terms such as "standing-room-only-world," "demographic catastrophe,' "future doomsday," etc. have become common, and the work of organizations such as Planned Parenthood, Zero Population Growth, and countless other agencies has centered around this supposed threat to continued human existence. Paul and Anne Ehrlich have set forth the general position on "overpopulation" stating: "The explosive growth of the human population is the most significant event in the past million millenia. . . . Mankind itself may stand on the …

Social Welfare As Coercive Social Control, Norman N. Goroff

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The key concepts which require some basic definitions in the title are "social welfare, social control and coercion". For the purposes of this paper, social welfare is defined as those public programs designed to provide an individual who is in financial need with the resources (financial and/or in kind) to exist in our society. Social control refers to the entire range of actions and pressures which are designed to lead the individual to function within society without threatening to disrupt the social order. These actions and pressures are embodied in sanctions for enforcing group norms as well as in formal …

Self-Interest, Social Welfare Policy And Social Problems, John P. Flynn

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This writer assumes that there is a reciprocal interdependence between the providers and the receivers of social welfare programs and explores one particular aspect of that exchange. A proposition explored here is that self-interest is a dynamic in social welfare policy formulation and that such a dynamic is founded on the basic assumption of reciprocal interdependence. The perception of newlyfound self-interests obtainable in alternative social welfare policy options is examined here as a factor in inducing purposive policy change.

It Is proposed here that the common characterization of the welfare relationship as a unilateral transfer has obscured the connection between …

National Income Insurance: Some Implications For Political And Economic Inequality, John B. Williamson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Several co-workers and I have recently completed an evaluation of sixty-three anti-poverty programs and proposals (Williamson, et. al., 1973, 1974). This paper briefly describes the study and some of our findings by way of introduction to the presentation and defense of a national income insurance proposal, This proposal is a synthesis of three highly rated anti-poverty strategies. It would within a few years have a substantial impact on the extent of the economic inequality in the United States.

The Interorganizational Relationships Of A Public Welfare Agency, Burton Gummer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The American social welfare field is best characterized as a highly decentralized sphere of activity in which autonomous organizations define and pursue their goals in a fairly independent fashion. The complex nature of modern social problems, however, requires concerted action by a variety of organizations if effective solutions are to be developed. This conflict between the structural nature of the welfare field and the demands of the problems to be addressed has meant that social welfare planners have had to be concerned with the conditions affecting the willingness of independent organizations to engage in cooperative activities with each other. The …

Recipients' Attitudes Toward Welfare, Kirk W. Elifson, William S. Little, William Chamberlain

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

While the general plight of welfare recipients has long been recognized, little or nothing to date has been ascertained concerning their views toward the system that largely determines their lives. Many recipients find themselves manipulated by a less than personalized bureaucracy but few researchers have sought to examine the experiences and attitudes of these recipients toward that system. Given the recent figures which indicate a "welfare explosion" (Piven and Cloward, 1971), and the vast expenditures for public assistance programs (Skolnick and Dales, 1969:5), the lack of systematic empirical research in this area is disconcerting. Such information should be of considerable …

Relief Vs. Rehabilitation: Conflicting Goals Within The American Social Welfare System, Matthew Silberman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

There are two distinct orientations within the American social welfare system. The first orientation is a bureaucratic one in which heteronomous agencies are committed to a set of externally imposed regulations designed to provide relief to individuals who require some form of assistance in order to survive (Blau, 1965; Friedlander, 1968: 258-284; Wilensky and Lebeaux, 1965:233-282). Assistance usually takes the form of monetary grants. The second orientation is professional in character (Meyer, 1959). In many agencies, priority is given to the provision of the rehabilitative services to which professionally trained social workers are committed in principle and to which nonprofessionals, …

Curanderismo And Health Delivery Services, Jean Margaret Blaesser

Dissertations and Theses

This study explores and describes curanderismo (folk curing) and the cultural disease concepts of mollera caida, empacho, mal de ojo, and susto as researched in a rural Oregon community. Chicano cultural disease concepts and beliefs are then related to modern health delivery services, and a case is made for the need for cultural awareness, respect, and sensitivity on the part of medical personnel who deliver services. The approach of a curandera (curer) and a doctor are compared.

It is strongly stated that Chicanos' health beliefs and practices do not exist in isolation from the rest of their …

The Impact Of Directly Mailed Family Planning Materials To Afdc Welfare Mothers, Paul J. Placek

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

Communications research has repeatedly documented the fact that people are affected by the various forms of mass media, and so family planning programs have begun to use television (Hutchinson, 1970), radio, movies, posters, telephones (Dabbs and Neiger, 1970), newspapers, and various combinations of these media (Clark and Morris, 1972; Chase, 1972; Balakrishnan, 1967; Takeshita, 1966; Cernada and Lu, 1972) in transmitting the message of family planning. Our present media focus, however, involves direct mailing, which in contrast to other media, often has the advantages of being sent by an authoritative or prestigious source, is relatively …

Pandora's Box: The Liberation Of Welfare Mothers, Bonnie Morel Edington

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

The non-"misandrist" mainstream of the women's movement has suggested that, more than women being liberated from male oppression, both sexes need to be liberated from the tyranny of culturally determined sex roles, the last bastion of ascribed status. If all social roles were androgynous they could be based on more relevant criteria. For example, children would be encouraged to develop skills and talents without regard for their "appropriateness" to gender, the male-female ratio in the work force and in nearly all specific occupations would be virtually equal, pay would be equal, and the number of …

Ethnicity, Professionalism, And Black Paternalism: Implications For Social Welfare Services, Robert S. Bartlett

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

The assumption around the use of nonprofessionals as members of the agency team suggest that the "bridge" function is enhanced when the new worker and the client-system are similar in such factors as ethnicity, class, cultural background, religion, and so on. Data from a 1968 survey tested Grosser's hypothesis: "that staff similarity with the client in ethnicity...will result in greater accuracy regarding the client and his community (1966:60)". Grosser's hypothesis was tested at a black staffed community action agency, serving a black ghetto in a large metropolitan city in the northeastern section of the United …

Perspective On Youthful Deviance: Implications For Social Policies, Albert S. Alissi

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

The way a society deals with its younger deviants reflects the place assigned to youth in hat society. In his famous study of European family life, Phillippe Aries pointed out that for centuries children shared the same status as adults and were mixed with adults as soon as they were weaned from their mothers at about the age of seven. And so it was possible that in England in 1801, a child of thirteen was hanged for stealing a spoon. A girl of seven was publicly hanged in 1808 and a boy of nine was …

The Stability Of The Family Day Care Arrangement: A Longitudinal Study, Arthur C. Emlen, Betty A. Donaghue, Quentin D. Clarkson

Regional Research Institute for Human Services

This monograph tells of an era when an increasing numbers of working mothers found day care down the street with a mother who had a child or two of her own and was glad to add one or two more during the day. Informal family day care met with respect by a team of researchers in Portland, Oregon. They studied family day care and discovered ways to create “natural helping networks” in the neighborhood.

Designing And Evaluating Workshop "Bridges": A Training Project To Upgrade Social Services In Long Term Care Facilities, Corrine C. Williams

Dissertations and Theses

Early in the fall of 1973, the Oregon Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) decided to sponsor a statewide training project in cooperation with seven chapters in other Department of Health, Education and Welfare (DHEW) regions across the United States. These workshops were to comprise Stage I of a two-stage plan; they were to serve as demonstration projects. Their planning, implementation and evaluation were to be seriously reviewed and studied afterword in an attempt to devise a model, or models, for Stage II, when a great number of such workshops would be held across the nation. The …

Social Science And Social Welfare: Toward A Society For The Solution Of Social Problems, Andrew Billingsley

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

Do existing social work texts contribute to a student's recognition of professional values and issues and of the implicit ideological bases for these? The following study contends that they do not, and that their failures are quite similar to those found by Mills in his examination social pathology texts.

Our concern today with social science and social welfare policy is in keeping with the purposes and conceptions of the founders of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. In those early days these men and women were idealists- -they were reformists, but they also …

Public Concepts Of Poverty: The County Commissioners' View, Charles Ramsey, Rita Braito

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Every program designed to decrease poverty is based upon assumptions either as to the nature and causes of poverty or what is necessary to help the poor improve their lot (Spilerman and Elish, 1970; Task Force on Economic Growth and Opportunity, 1966; Valentine, 1968). Often these assumptions are only implicit, and supervisors of the program might not even agree with the assumptions if they were stated. Nevertheless, a program would itself make no sense unless certain statements about poverty were true. For example, a program of economic development to increase employment opportunities assumes that, first, much poverty is due to …

Swedish Child Welfare Worker: Estrangement And Alienation In An Ideal Situation, Implications For American Social Policy, The, Wayne Plasek

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

Our research was guided by an interest in the attitudes of social workers toward their personal work situation, their occupation, its place in the society, and other matters. It seemed likely that in a welfare state, the position of the profession and the attitudes of its practitioners would reflect its key position within the society. If such expectations were borne out, we might be able to make predictions concerning such attitudes among American social workers should the welfare program be greatly expanded.

A Study Of Ambulance Transportation In Relation To Public Welfare Policy, Gary Jules Lutz

Dissertations and Theses

This study examines the Public Welfare Medical Transportation Program with particular focus on ambulance transportation. It addresses the problems Public Welfare has in funding and administrating the program, looks at the components of the larger emergency medical care system and its relationship to Public Welfare, studies who, how, and why this service is being delivered, and makes recommendations for policy revision in respect to the larger emergency medical care system.

Some Correlates Of Morale Among Nursing Home Residents, Gail Olmsted Sydnor, Patricia Mears Wold

Dissertations and Theses

This is a study of twenty-six patients aged sixty years and over residing in a nursing care facility in Portland, Oregon in the fall of 1973, which explores the relationship of their morale and selected environmental and social factors.

There are three major aims of the study. The first is to measure variances in morale states as experienced and reported by the respondents. The second aim is to determine how a given set of factors correlate with the self-reported morale of each of the respondents. Selected for consideration are 1) attitudes: expectations upon entering the home and choice, comparison of …

A Follow-Up Study Of Community Organization Concentrators, Hedy-Jo Huss Powell

Dissertations and Theses

This follow-up study of 1970-73 graduates of the Portland State University School of Social Work was aimed at identifying the community organization and social welfare planning skills that M.S.W.s are using in their current practice. The study sought information from graduates that could be useful in evaluating the current Social Welfare Planning concentration and planning future curriculum.

Two groups of graduates were surveyed utilizing a mailed questionnaire. The first group consisted of the universal sample of former students identified as community organization concentrators; the comparison group was a sample of graduates who had majored in direct services.

The study explored …