Social Work Commons^™

The Abcs Of Gfe, Brandon Youker

Brandon W. Youker Ph.D

Goal-free evaluation (GFE) is the process of determining something’s merit intentionally without reference to its stated goals and objectives. The following PowerPoint presentation describes GFE and discusses preliminary attempts at operationalization. The video concludes with a lively discussion where audience members challenge Dr. Youker on GFE's feasibility and merit. . *This presentation is available at The Evaluation Center's website archived as an Evaluation Café presentation: http://www.wmich.edu/evalctr/2012/11/goal-free-evaluation-an-analog-experiment-comparing-goal-free-evaluation-and-goal-based-evalation-utility/

Partner Violence Assessment In Rural Health Care Clinic, Ann Coker, Vicki C. Flerx, Paige H. Smith, Daniel J. Whitaker, Mary Kay Fadden, Melinda Williams

Dan Whitaker

Objectives. We sought to determine the frequency of intimatepartner violence by type in a large, clinic-based, nurse-administeredscreening and services intervention project.

Methods. A brief intimate partner violence screen, which includeditems to measure sexual and physical assaults and psychologicalbattering (using the Women’s Experience With Batteringscale) was administered to consenting women receiving care at1 of 8 rural clinics in South Carolina.

Results. Between April 2002 and August 2005, 4945 eligible womenwere offered intimate partner violence screening, to which 3664(74.1%) consented. Prevalence of intimate partner violence ina current (ongoing) relationship was 13.3%, and 939 women (25.6%)had experienced intimate partner violence at some point …

Gaining Ground, Losing Ground: The Paradoxes Of Rural Homelessness, Cheryl Forchuk, Phyllis Montgomery, Helene Berman, Catherine Ward-Griffin, Rick Csiernik, Carolyn Gorlick, Elsabeth Jensen, Patrick Riesterer

Rick Csiernik

The study examined rural housing and homelessness issues and looked at similarities and differences between rural and urban areas. It involved a secondary analysis of focus group data collected in a 2001-06 Community University Research Alliance study of mental health and housing. The findings highlight concerns regarding the lack of services, which can precipitate a move from a rural to an urban community. Inadequate transportation services often posed a challenge to rural residents attempting to access services. Many participants preferred rural living but felt they had to choose between residing where they wanted to and having access to essential services. …

Adherence Among Women With Hiv Infection In Puerto Rico, Desiree Ciambrone, Helen Loewenthal, Lauri Bazerman, Carmen Zorilla, Brenda Urbina, Jennifer Mitty

Desiree A Ciambrone

Women are the fastest growing segment of the adult population acquiring HIV, and most women infected with HIV are in their reproductive years. The success of HAART is highly dependent upon the ability and willingness of the individual to adhere to complex antiretroviral regimens. Improved adherence among HIV-infected pregnant women will delay disease progression in the mother and should also reduce HIV transmission to the baby. Modified directly observed therapy (MDOT), may benefit this population. MDOT has been shown to be an acceptable and feasible intervention among HIV substance users; however, no-one has yet evaluated the use of MDOT in …

From Child Abuse To Permanency Planning, Deborah Siegel

Deborah H Siegel

Reviews the book "From Child Abuse to Permanency Planning: Child Welfare Services Pathways and Placements," Richard P. Barth, Jill Duerr Berrick, Mark Courtney, and Vicky Albert..

Selecting Effective Treatments / Book Review, Deborah Siegel

Deborah H Siegel

Reviews the book "Selecting Effective Treatments," by Linda Seligman..

Open Adoption And Adolescence, Deborah Siegel

Deborah H Siegel

In open adoptions, birth and adoptive families exchange identifying information and have contact. Although most adoptions today include some form of openness, much of the public remains wary of this. The purpose of this study was to explore, longitudinally, adoptive parents' perceptions of their children's open adoptions. This article reports the findings of tape-recorded interviews with 31 adoptive parents who were first interviewed when their children were infants and toddlers, again 7 years later, and a third time when their children were adolescents. The study found adoptive parents were committed to maintaining contact with the birth family even when discomforts …

Preventing Adolescent Abuse, Deborah Siegel

Deborah H Siegel

Reviews the book `Preventing Adolescent Abuse: Effective Intervention Strategies and Techniques,' by Richard P. Barth and David S. Derezotes..

Ethical Issues In Open Adoption, Frederic Reamer, Deborah Siegel

Deborah H Siegel

Total secrecy and confidentiality no longer typify adoption in the United States. Today, most adoptions involve an exchange of information or some form of contact between the birth family and adoptive family - so-called open adoptions. This article provides a comprehensive overview of ethical issues associated with various forms of open adoption, including issues of privacy, confidentiality, self-determination, paternalism, conflicts of interest, deception, and truthtelling.We present guidelines for social work practice in open adoptions, based on current ethical theory and ethical standards in social work.

Open Adoption Of Infants, Deborah Siegel

Deborah H Siegel

As the frequency of open adoptions of infants increases, furious debate continues between those who argue that open adoption is a grave mistake and those who assert that it is a long-overdue innovation. This ankle defines open adoption, summarizes the open adoption controversy, and presents a qualitative descriptive study of adoptive parents' reactions to the recent open adoptions of their infants. Findings indicate overwhelmingly positive feelings about open adoption and some issues and concerns unique to the open adoption experience. The ankle concludes that social workers involved in adoptions should move from their traditional stance in directing and defining the …

Defining Empirically Based Practice, Deborah Siegel

Deborah H Siegel

The article deals with a study, which described the integration of research and practice into the graduate social program of the School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago. The need to evaluate the effectiveness of clinical practice is an increasingly frequent theme as agencies scramble for limited funds. Reaganomics has helped bury the once-fashionable belief that social ills can be cured by tax dollars. More than ever, social workers are required to justify the services they deliver. In addition to the economic reasons for the profession's need to integrate research and practice, social workers also have an ethical obligation …

Open Adoption Of Infants, Deborah Siegel

Deborah H Siegel

Adoptions today increasingly include contact between adoptive and birth families. What do these "open adoptions" look like? How do the participants feel about them? This article, based on part of a longitudinal study that first examined adoptive parents' perceptions of their infants' open adoptions seven years ago, explores the parents' reactions now that their children are school age. This qualitative descriptive research revealed changes in the openness in the adoptions over time and identified four dimensions along which open adoptions vary. Findings showed parents' enthusiasm for the openness in their adoptions, regardless of the type and extent of openness. Implications …

Increasing Aging Content Within The Social Work Curriculum: Perceptions Of Key Constituents, Stacey Kolomer, Terri Lewinson, Nancy Kropf, Scott Wilks

Terri Lewinson

This mixed methodology study examines the perceptions of key constituents regarding methods for effectively integrating aging content into the foundation curriculum of the BSW and MSW program at the University of Georgia School of Social Work. Students were asked to complete a survey to determine their perception of geriatric content that existed within the foundation coursework. Following an analysis of the survey results, eight semi-structured focus group discussions were conducted with a purposeful sample of students, faculty, field instructors, social work alumni, older adults from the community, and representatives from aging agencies. The intention of these focus groups was to …

Condom Use Among U.S. Young Adult Black Women: An Integrated Cognitive Approach, Grace Loudd

Grace Loudd

This study examines how cognitive influences such as sexual self-schema, HIV-related stigma, perception of HIV risk and condom sexual self-efficacy influence condom use at last sex among young adult Black women. An integrated theoretical framework consisting of The Health Belief Model, Social Cognitive Theory and Intersectionality Theory were presented to explore how these cognitive influences impact condom use at last sex among young adult Black women. The present study was based on a secondary data analysis collected by the Baylor College of Medicine Teen Clinic located in Houston, TX. Young adult Black women with high condom sexual self-efficacy are 33.2% …