Social Work Commons^™

Women’S Experiences With Prenatal Care: A Mixed-Methods Study Exploring The Influence Of The Social Determinants Of Health, Karen A. D'Angelo, Janelle K. Bryan, Brenda Kurz

Janelle K. Bryan

Background & Purpose: Racial and ethnic disparities pervade birth outcomes in the United States and the state of Connecticut. While Connecticut’s infant mortality rate is less than the national average, rates for the state’s Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino communities exceed it. This study explored how prenatal care in Connecticut may be enhanced to address these disparities.

Methods: In spring 2013, seven focus groups and two semi-structured interviews were conducted (n=47). Participants also self-administered brief surveys. Recruited by local service providers, participants were 18 or older, pregnant and/or in the first year post-partum at the time. Most self-identified as …

Practice Matters: Screening And Monitoring Hyperlipidemia, M. Laurie Branstetter Dnp, Maria E. Main, Tonya Bragg-Underwood Dnp

Eve Main

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide Faith Community Nurses with current information on hyperlipidemia, a chronic disease responsible for the leading cause of death worldwide. Current guidelines for cholesterol screening and a risk calculator resource for estimating cardiovascular risk are provided. Myths and truths are presented for review with patients. Suggestions and resources for lifestyle modifications and patient education are included. Faith Community Nurses are at the center of community health and actively involved with improving health outcomes related to chronic disease.

A Multicase Study Exploring Women’S Narratives Of Infertility: Implications For Counselors, Staci L. Born, Christin L. Carotta, Kristine Ramsay-Seaner

Staci Born

Infertility affects 6.7 million women in the United States (Chandra, Copen, & Stephen, 2013). Women’s experiences with infertility are not only influenced by biological health factors, but also by social, cultural, and personal variables. Given the prevalence and complexity of infertility, additional research is needed to further examine the nuances of women’s experiences. The purpose of this multicase study, as informed by four individual cases, was to explore how women construct their infertility narratives. Review of reflective journals found five common elements: (1) Emotional Rollercoaster, (2) Mind-Body (Dis)Connection, (3) Secret Identity, (4) Supportive vs. Constrained Communication Patterns, and (5) Fatalistic- …

State Agency Promising Practices: New Hampshire’S Employment Data Collection - The Power To Transform Communication, Partnership, And Service Delivery, Jennifer Bose

Jennifer Bose

In 2010, when the New Hampshire Bureau of Developmental Services (BDS) received grant funds to strengthen multisystem service delivery, its administrators partnered with area agencies; community rehabilitation providers, or CRPs (employment providers); and other stakeholders to improve and streamline the process of collecting employment data. Originally a multi-system process, BDS continued the data-collection effort when other systems withdrew. BDS’s new data-collection system allows unprecedented access to clear data displays, as well as the ability to run a variety of detailed reports to guide the statewide promotion of integrated employment.

State Agency Promising Practice: Pennsylvania’S Employment Newsletter - A Communication Strategy To Promote Employment, Jennifer Bose

Jennifer Bose

The State of Pennsylvania’s Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) created a monthly newsletter called The Employment Update, which covers state- and nationwide news about the employment of people with disabilities, including intellectual/developmental disabilities. The Employment Update is sent via email to state agency contacts and a large stakeholder community, including individuals with disabilities, service providers, state associations, employers, advocacy groups, family members, representatives from academia and others. The Employment Update contains information about employment trends, employment policy, trainings and conferences throughout Pennsylvania and nationwide. The newsletter also contains information about employment grants and project activities, including links to articles covering …

State Agency Promising Practice: Washington’S Investment In Robust Training And Technical Assistance, Jennifer Bose

Jennifer Bose

In the mid-1980s, the state of Washington was awarded a five-year federal systems change grant to kick-start their supported employment efforts via the Washington State Employment Initiative. Funding from this grant was used to develop training on best practices and to generate high-quality integrated employment supports among agencies. At the end of this five-year period, with state funding and support from state leadership, the Washington State Employment Initiative re-formed as WISE, an independent training and technical assistance (TA) organization. WISE now contracts with the Washington Developmental Disabilities Administration to provide ongoing, high-quality training and TA across the state and to …

State Agency Promising Practice: Oregon’S Employment Support Website - Communicating The Employment First Policy, Jennifer Bose

Jennifer Bose

In 2009, the state of Oregon adopted its Employment First policy. When Oregon’s Office of Developmental Disabilities Services (DDS) decided to promote the implementation of this policy, it began by updating its existing employment website. The redesigned website (http:// www.dhs.state.or.us/dd/supp_emp/) emphasizes the value of integrated employment over other outcomes, and the importance of building community-wide conversations, with the goal of achieving integrated employment for people with developmental disabilities. The website shares the value of integrated employment with all targeted audiences by highlighting resources and illustrating employment successes. It was also designed to share information on the Oregon’s progress and concrete …

State Agency Promising Practice: Maryland - Collaborating To Promote Self-Employment For People With Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities, Jennifer Bose

Jennifer Bose

Self-employment has emerged as a viable option for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD). To meet increased self-employment demands, Maryland’s Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA), in collaboration with the Maryland Division of Rehabilitation Services (DORS), adapted services offered through the Reach Independence through Self Employment (RISE) program. The RISE program, funded by DORS, provides technical assistance and financial support to people starting their own businesses. DDA’s role in this self-employment initiative has helped people with IDD start a wide variety of businesses and achieve meaningful employment.

State Agency Promising Practice: Pennsylvania’S Employment Newsletter - A Communication Strategy To Promote Employment, Jennifer Bose

Jennifer Bose

The State of Pennsylvania’s Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) created a monthly newsletter called The Employment Update, which covers state- and nationwide news about the employment of people with disabilities, including intellectual/developmental disabilities. The Employment Update is sent via email to state agency contacts and a large stakeholder community, including individuals with disabilities, service providers, state associations, employers, advocacy groups, family members, representatives from academia and others. The Employment Update contains information about employment trends, employment policy, trainings and conferences throughout Pennsylvania and nationwide. The newsletter also contains information about employment grants and project activities, including links to articles covering …

State Agency Promising Practice: Massachusetts - Using A Collaborative, Person-Centered Planning Approach To Facilitate Community Employment, Jennifer Bose, Jaimie Ciulla Timmons

Jennifer Bose

The Northeast Region Supported Employment Project was developed by the North Shore area office of the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services in 2007. This pilot program, open to any individual with ID/DD who wanted to work, emphasized a person-centered planning approach to achieving the individuals’ goals for employment in the community. The project emphasized the individual’s choice of employment providers, collaboration with the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission (MRC), and use of an independent facilitator to support career and life planning. The project was spearheaded by two DDS administrators dedicated to communicating the value of community-based employment to the Department.

A Scoping Review Of The Associations Between Mental Health And Factors Related To Hiv Acquisition And Disease Progression In Conflict-Affected Populations, Erica Koegler, Erica Koegler, Caitlin E. Kennedy

Erica Koegler

The Social Class And Mental Illness Correlation: Implications Of The Research For Policy And Practice, Christopher G. Hudson

Christopher Hudson

Ongoing efforts to unravel the causal issues involved in the correlation between socioeconomic status and mental illness suggest that the hypothesis of a recursive or interactive relationship may be the most tenable, at least with the psychoses. Implications of this research are explored, with particular attention paid to the mental health costs of economic policies, the principles with which states allocate mental health resources, and the use of this knowledge-base in service planning.

Patterns Of Residential Mobility Of People With Schizophrenia: Multi-Level Tests Of Downward Geographic Drift, Christopher G. Hudson

Christopher Hudson

This study tests the geographic drift hypothesis that the negative SES-MI correlation results from individuals first developing conditions such as schizophrenia and then moving frequently because of their disability to low income and urban areas, and to neighborhoods with high concentrations of SMI persons. This is a secondary analysis of hospital records of 1,667,956 individuals in Massachusetts, USA, between 1994 and 2000. It employs a longitudinal cohort design and techniques of multi-level modeling. Downward geographic drift of those with schizophrenia was found to be small, but greater than other groups examined. The small level of drift was best explained by …

Changing Patterns Of Acute Psychiatric Hospitalization Under A Public Managed Care Program, Christopher G. Hudson

Christopher Hudson

This study evaluates changes in patterns of acute psychiatric hospitalization under Massachusetts' Medicaid-funded Mental Health and Substance Abuse (MMHSA) carve-out program. The data consists of the Case Mix Database, for FY 1996 and FY 1997, compiled by the state's Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, on all acute hospital episodes in the state. Key comparisons involve hospital utilization during the nine months preceding the 1996 implementation of the current expanded carve-out program and the subsequent 15 months of its implementation. Secondary comparisons are made between patients funded by the state's two major Medicaid programs, its behavioral carve-out and its …

Wood County Project Connect 2016, Melissa Burek, Mamta Ojha, Megan Schnell

Melissa Burek

Transdisciplinary Health Teams In Brazil's United Health System, Rahbel Rahman

Rahbel Rahman

Integration of social services (i.e., civil registration, community mobilization) with disease prevention services (for e.g. HIV prevention services) has been recommended as a key strategy by practitioners, policy makers and researchers to solve the multifactorial determinants of chronic diseases faced by minority groups.

Drawing Comparisons Across Community Health Agents (Acs), Nurses And Physicians In Brazil’S Unified Health System (Uhs), Rahbel Rahman

Rahbel Rahman

Recent WHO guidelines emphasize on empowering communities to take ownership of their healthcare needs. Brazil’s UHS is a model for delivering community-based care through Family Health Strategy (FHS) interdisciplinary teams - ACS, nurses, and physicians. Our study compares nurses, physicians and ACS on their perceptions of work environment, professional skills, cognitive capacities and job context. Global health administrators and policy makers can leverage on comparisons across providers to develop interprofessional training and implement system-level interventions.

Predictors Of Service Integration By Transdisciplinary Health Team's In Brazil's Unified Health System, Rahbel Rahman

Rahbel Rahman

Integration of social services (e.g., civil registration, community mobilization) with public health and primary care has been recommended as a key strategy by practitioners, researchers and policy-makers to solve the multifactorial determinants of chronic diseases. Despite efforts to increase service integration in the past 50 years, there is limited evidence on effective approaches to integrating myriad services. Our study investigated the influence of individual- and organizational-level factors, and job characteristics on service integration using 262 providers from Brazil’s Family Health Strategy (ESF) team. Brazil’s Unified Health System (SUS) is acknowledged worldwide as a model for studying integration as ESF transdisciplinary …

Wo’Kikso’Ye!: Live And Remember. Reflections On Akicita Cik’Ila, Little Soldier, Alex Lunderman (1929-2000), Richard William Voss, Joel R. Ambelang

Richard Voss

It isn’t often that one gets to meet someone like Alex J. Lunderman, Sr. His Lakota name was Akicita Cik’ala (Little Soldier). The co-authors of this reflection worked closely with Alex over the years in different ways. Richard Voss, who is the speaker in this narrative, met Alex (Little Soldier) in his personal spiritual journey that eventually linked to his research interests in a number of collaborations with Alex (Little Soldier) and other Lakota Elders (Voss, R. W., Douville, V., Little Soldier, A., & White Hat, Sr., 1999a; Voss, Douville, Little Soldier, & Twiss, 1999b). Joel Ambelang followed this research …

Working With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Voices From The Field, Page Walker Buck, Rebecca G. Laster, Jocelyn Spencer Sagrati, Rachel Shapiro Kirzner

Page Buck

No abstract provided.

The Social Problem Of Depression: A Multi-Theoretical Analysis, Rich Furman, Kimberly Bender

Rich Furman

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the social problem of depression from a multi-theoretical perspective. It explores depression through the lens of two psychologically based theories of human behavior, existential theory and cognitive theory, as well as through the vehicle of two sociological theories, Marxist theory and the theory of oppression. By understanding how each of these theories explains depression, social workers may be helped to see the complexity of treating the problem. It is the belief of the authors that social work literature, which is often dominated by reductionist, quantitativelybased research studies, has increasingly ignored theoretical explorations …

Youth Homelessness: Prevalence And Associations With Weight In Three Regions, J. J. Cutuli, Caren Steinway, Staci Perlman, Janette E. Herbers, Karin M. Eyrich-Garg, Joe Willard

J. J. Cutuli

This study investigated the utility of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) to document associations between homeless status and weight while estimating the prevalence of youth homelessness in three regions. A school-based survey, the YRBS includes youths who have been difficult to involve in past research. Analysis of 2011 YRBS data produced populationweighted estimates of youth homelessness prevalence separately for Connecticut, Delaware, and Philadelphia. Public high school students anonymously reported their housing status, height, and weight on the YRBS. Height and weight were converted to body mass index (BMI) percentile-for-age scores. Homelessness was associated with higher BMI percentile scores for …

Grandmother Kinship Care Providers: Predictors Of Elevated Psychological Distress, Deborah M. Whitley

Deborah M. Whitley

Most children in kinship care with grandmothers in the U.S. have been abandoned or maltreated. The challenges these caregivers encounter often include poverty, social isolation, and diminished health. These factors may hinder the grandmother’s ability to provide a supportive family environment. The purpose of the present study was to determine levels of psychological distress in African American caregiving grandmothers and identify predictors of increased distress in African American custodial grandmothers. We hypothesized that diminished grandmother health, family resources and support, as well as increased child behavior problems, will predict psychological distress.

Controversies In Psychiatry And Dsm-5: The Relevance For Social Work (Occasional Essay), Jill Littrell, Jeffrey R. Lacasse

jill l littrell Dr.

This essay addresses recent controversies surrounding the forthcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5—the first major revision of the DSM since 1994), as well as questions regarding the safety and efficacy of psychotropic medications discussed in the public domain. Mental health professionals across a wide range of professions have signed a petition to the DSM-5 Task Force protesting changes in the new edition, and critiques of psychiatric medications are increasingly disseminated in the media. These issues have particular relevance for children in foster care, who receive diagnoses and medication at high rates. The general …

The Controversy Over Antidepressant Drugs In An Era Of Evidence-Based Practice, Jill Littrell, Jeffrey Lacasse

jill l littrell Dr.

Questions regarding the efficacy of antidepressant drugs have been a recent focus of attention in the national news both in print and in the television media. Many clients will have questions regarding what they can believe and how they can address mood problems. Social workers constitute a greater percentage of the mental health work force than any other profession. Thus, social workers will probably be asked by clients about these issues. This article presents information on the efficacy of antidepressants for both the short and long term. It covers adverse effects and withdrawal symptoms. Clients' self-determination should be honored. However, …

Perspectives Emerging From Neuroscience On Why People Become Addicted And What To Do About It, Jill Littrell

jill l littrell Dr.

This paper reviews the new ideas emerging from neuroscience regarding the question of why some people are compelled to use drugs. During the process of drug exposure, the brain’s motivational system is changed in ways that co-opts the individual’s motivational system. Changes in the brain’s motivational structures along with changes in the brain’s self-regulatory structures compel an individual to drug use. Ways to reverse those changes in an addicted brain have been identified, as have ways to enhance self-regulatory control. The information from neuroscience offers a new perspective on “loss of control” as well as offering implications for treatment.

Development And Validation Of An Instrument To Assess Imminent Risk Of Homelessness Among Veterans, Ann Elizabeth Montgomery, Jamison Fargo, Vincent Kane, Dennis P. Culhane

Dennis P. Culhane

Medicalization Of Mental Disorders: 1970- To The Present, W. Joseph Wyatt

W. Joseph Wyatt

A thirty-five year escalation of emphasis on biological causation has rendered, for many, medications as the treatment of choice for mental disorders. Non-drug treatment may be cast aside, as a result.

The Relationship Between Community Investment In Permanent Supportive Housing And Chronic Homelessness, Thomas Byrne, Jamison Fargo, Ann Elizabeth Montgomery, Ellen Munley, Dennis P. Culhane

Dennis P. Culhane

The Consequences Of Malnutrition Following Discharge From Rehabilitation To The Community: A Systematic Review Of Current Evidence In Older Adults, Skye Marshall, Judith Bauer, Elisabeth Isenring

Skye Marshall