Social Work Commons^™

Scaling-Up Child And Youth Mental Health Services: Assessing Coverage Of A County-Wide Initiative, Cole Douglas Hooley

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over 7 million children and youth have a diagnosable mental illness any given year. There are evidence-based treatments (EBTs) to effectively treat these conditions, but these EBTs reach a very small percentage of their target population with treatment rates between 1-3%.1 We know very little about what influences these coverage rates. Beginning in 2009, the Los Angeles County Mental Health Department (LACDMH) began an ambitious agenda to scale-up the provision of EBTs in child/youth mental health care. The present study seeks to contribute to the scale-up literature by examining three questions based on LACDMH’s initiative: 1) To what extent have …

Caseworker Turnover In Foster Care Services: Problem Or Symptom? A System Dynamics Approach, Marian Joan Stahlschmidt

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Problem: Child welfare (CW) caseworkers perform a crucial role in our society--ensuring the safety, permanency, and well-being of one of our most vulnerable populations, victims of child maltreatment. Yet, since its inception in the early 20th century, CW, including foster care services, has been plagued by high turnover rates that have been associated with delayed permanency and recurrent maltreatment. This dissertation aimed to develop a dynamic hypothesis about the system structure that produces turnover in foster care services, to create a formal system dynamics simulation model representing the problem, to develop an intervention to reduce the problem, and to test …

A Formative Assessment Of The Vulnerability Context Of Three Indigenous Communities In Rural Ecuador For Improved Intervention Design, Ivy Blackmore

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nearly 20 % of the current world population are small-scale producers living in rural areas who rely on agriculture and related activities to support their families (IFAD, 2016; World Bank, 2008). Despite the almost 76 billion USD of official development assistance committed to agriculture improvement projects and associated activities over the past decade, many of the intended beneficiaries remain poor and struggle to meet their basic needs. The lack of success in addressing rural poverty highlights the need for quality research focused on understanding what type of intervention/s could help rural communities sustainably improve their livelihood security.

The goal of …

Social Engagement Among Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment And Conversion To Dementia, Takashi Amano

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Promoting social engagement is a promising approach to prevent or delay conversion from cognitive impairment no dementia (CIND) to dementia. However, little is known about social engagement among people with CIND. This dissertation project aimed to improve understanding of social engagement among people with CIND by addressing gaps in the literature. It had three specific aims including: to describe and identify factors associated with heterogeneity of social engagement among older adults with CIND, to assess the association between heterogeneity of social engagement and conversion from CIND to dementia, and to investigate the relationship among heterogeneity of social engagement, other types …

Promoting Child Behavioral Health In Homeless Services: A Community-Based System Dynamics Approach, Katherine Marcal

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Families with children comprise one-third of the entire homeless population (Henry, Watt, Rosenthal, & Shivji, 2017). Homelessness exposes children to chaotic, unsafe living environments that pose threats to healthy development; unsurprisingly, children in homeless services display high rates of mental health disorders compared to stably housed children (Bassuk et al., 2015; Buckner, 2008). Despite concerted efforts at the state and local levels to end family homelessness by 2020, rates have remained largely unchanged over the past decade (Henry et al., 2017; U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, 2015). Additional indicators such as increasing wait times, average length of stay, and reentry …

Subtypes Of Neglect In Relation To Reporting Practices, Safety Outcomes Among Known Cases, And Risk And Protective Factors, Chien-Jen Chiang

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Objectives: The overall objective of this dissertation is to build knowledge about the phenomena of neglect subtypes to better guide prevention and child welfare intervention efforts in the future. The first aim focuses on how we come to officially identify cases of child neglect and its relationship to policies that set definitions for what is reportable in a given state. The second aim highlights whether or not there appear to be differences in safety and permanency outcomes for children known to CPS for different forms of neglect. The third aim focuses on why families may develop specific neglecting behaviors that …