Social Work Commons^™

Defying Dementia: An Exploration Of Recovery, Deb Miller, Corey W. Johnson

The Qualitative Report

Exploring the human side of dementia helps put a face on this fast-growing affliction. This study reflects one elderly woman’s story of recovery from dementia that arose following a stroke. Painting a portrait of life with dementia can help us conceptualize the experience, how people live and how they would like to live. The woman is Marcia, my mom, and this is a qualitative inquiry with a collaborative narrative design to explore her experiences and to document my own. This study may help dementia patients and their support teams better understand the process of living with dementia and can perhaps …

Insights From State Treasurers: Developing And Implementing Statewide Child Development Account Policies, Chris Leiker, Margaret M. Clancy, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

In 2018 and 2019, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Illinois, and California enacted laws creating automatic, universal, at-birth CDA policies, and in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic halted the progress of CDA bills in Missouri. Several states previously adopted CDA policies by administrative rule. This Policy Summary presents insights from four state treasurers based on their direct experience developing statewide CDA policy through legislation.

On July 16, 2020, the treasurers and other professionals gathered virtually for “All Children Can Reach Their Potential: A CDA Conference.” In a panel discussion moderated by Missouri State Treasurer Fitzpatrick, Pennsylvania State Treasurer Joe Torsella, …

The Four Pandemics, Joshua Miller

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

COVID 19 interacts with white supremacy, economic insecurity and politcal terrorism, adversely affecting many people and populations. This article considers the consequences of these four interacting pandemics and suggests that social work, particularly clinical social work, requires radical revisioning and decolonizing to be able to ethically and adequately serve affected people.

Flooding Schools: School Mental Health Providers And The Climate Crisis, Erik J. Reinbergs, Sarah Fefer

International Journal of School Social Work

This study provides an example of using a problem-solving model to explore the impact of the climate crisis on schools. Using publicly available climate change and flooding prediction data, we estimate that by 2100, assuming a “medium” climate change scenario, more than 1677 schools in the coastal United States are expected to flood every year and more than 2262 schools are expected to flood every 10 years. Within the data, “medium” is defined as warming levels that will lead to an estimated five feet of sea level rise by the year 2100. Limitations in the data suggest these numbers are …

Rules, Roles, And Practices: Exploring School Social Worker Preparation For Practice, Kimberly M. Knox, Stacy Gherardi, Allison Stoner

International Journal of School Social Work

At present, there is significant variability in the United States in regards to pre-service education and licensing requirements for school social workers. Studies have suggested that this variability impacts practice and may limit perceptions of the profession. The state of New Mexico requires a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree in order to practice as a school social worker but does not require any school-specific coursework, fieldwork, or training. This mixed-methods study describes findings from a survey of 84 school social workers in New Mexico which assessed perceptions of their preparation for practice. Quantitative survey items suggested that participants felt …

An Item Response Theory Analysis Of The Scoff Questionnaire In A Seventh Grade Population, Gerald J. Bean

International Journal of School Social Work

Eating disorders continue to be of concern to school social workers and health and counseling services staff in schools. There is a substantive need for scales that can help to measure both the extent to which eating disorders exist in a school population and to measure risk for specific students. Given that an eating disorder can be chronic and life-altering, early detection of risk is critically important. The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of a popular eating order screening scale—the SCOFF Questionnaire—in a seventh-grade population using Item Response Theory methods. Epidemiological studies have suggested that …

Tasks And Impact Of School Social Work In Switzerland As Perceived By Teachers, Principals And School Social Workers – A Multilevel Analysis, Werner Wicki, Roland Künzle, Marianne Mueller, Uri Ziegele, Karin Stadelmann, Kurt Gschwind

International Journal of School Social Work

To investigate whether the perceptions of school-based professionals regarding the tasks and impact of school social work (SSW) converge or diverge, this study collected survey data among 638 teachers, 41 school social workers, 62 principals, and 23 special education teachers distributed over 92 Swiss schools. After constructing several scales measuring the tasks and the impact of SSW via principal factor analyses, ANOVA’s were carried out to compare the mean perceptions of the included professionals. To prove for related perceptions between teachers and school social workers multilevel analyses were performed by including additional exploratory variables such as school context and personal …

School Social Work In Vietnam: Development And Capacity Building Through International Collaboration, Leticia Villarreal Sosa, Nguyen Thu Ha

International Journal of School Social Work

International collaborations and exchanges have been a part of the social work profession since its beginning. The internationalization of social work is firmly established with the presence of multiple international social work organizations. In the specialization of school social work, there are opportunities for exchange through an international school social work conference held every two to three years. It was at this conference that the authors met to initiate a collaboration in support of the development of school social work in Vietnam. This paper discusses the collaborative efforts and project funded by a Fulbright Specialist grant to support the development …

Equity In Sustainable Development: Community Responses To Environmental Gentrification, Amy Krings, Tania Schusler

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Sustainable development aims to address economic, social, and environmental imperatives; yet, in practice, it often embodies a neoliberal market logic that reinforces inequalities. Thus, as the social work profession grapples with its role in advancing environmental sustainability, practice models must explicitly attend to social and economic justice. For example, environmental gentrification refers to situations in which the cleanup of contaminated land or the installation of environmental amenities intentionally or unintentionally catalyzes increased housing costs, thereby contributing to the displacement of vulnerable residents. With the goal of contributing to practice knowledge, we conducted a systematic review of peer‐reviewed articles (1997−2017) to …

Social Work Research Sequence Syllabi, Armando Barragan

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

This syllabus is the prototype for SW 6011, 6012, 6013, & 6014, a revitalized generalist and advanced generalist social work courses that will be taught in the semester system. The format is a departure from the quarter system format and the process of development involved all faculty.

Both Insider And Outsider: On Conducting Social Work Research In Mental Health Settings, Beth Sapiro, Elizabeth B. Matthews

Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The mental health clinic poses unique challenges for social work scholar-practitioners. The familiar setting, the nature of mental health data collection, and the researcher’s clinical training and experience all complicate efforts to maintain a reflexive stance in research. Additionally, conducting research in a clinical environment risks replicating a hierarchical medical model in the research relationship. Using a theoretical framework of critical realism, two doctoral-level scholar practitioners analyzed the advantages and challenges of conducting research in a clinical setting. Audit trails and experiences of peer debriefing from their dissertation research served as the basis for this conceptual analysis. The analysis considers …

Understanding The Role Of Past Health Care Discrimination In Help-Seeking And Shared Decision-Making For Depression Treatment Preferences, Ana M. Progovac, Dharma E. Cortés, Valeria Chambers, Jonathan Delman, Deborah Delman, Danny Mccormick, Esther Lee, Selma De Castro, María José Sánchez Román, Natasha A. Kaushal, Timothy B. Creedon, Rajan A. Sonik, Catherine Rodriguez Quinerly, Caryn R.R. Rodgers, Leslie B. Adams, Ora Nakash, Afsaneh Moradi, Heba Abolaban, Tali Flomenhoft, Ruth Nabisere, Ziva Mann, Sherry Shu Yeu Hou, Farah N. Shaikh, Michael Flores, Dierdre Jordan, Nicholas J. Carson, Adam C. Carle, Frederick Lu, Nathaniel M. Tran, Margo Moyer, Benjamin L. Cook

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

As a part of a larger, mixed-methods research study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 21 adults with depressive symptoms to understand the role that past health care discrimination plays in shaping help-seeking for depression treatment and receiving preferred treatment modalities. We recruited to achieve heterogeneity of racial/ethnic backgrounds and history of health care discrimination in our participant sample. Participants were Hispanic/Latino (n = 4), non-Hispanic/Latino Black (n = 8), or non-Hispanic/Latino White (n = 9). Twelve reported health care discrimination due to race/ethnicity, language, perceived social class, and/or mental health diagnosis. Health care discrimination exacerbated barriers to initiating and continuing …

Leadership Through An Indigenous Lens, Kelley Mccall

Buder Center for American Indian Studies Research

Indigenous leaders are found throughout history, across the globe. Indigenous leaders have been present long before European settlers colonized lands. These leaders possessed qualities, worked within frameworks, and created strategies to successfully lead their people and nations. For the purposes of this brief, examples used will be of American Indians/First Nations leaders.

Two Clinical Prediction Tools To Improve Tuberculosis Contact Investigation, Ruoran Li, Francesco Nordio, Chuan-Chin Huang, Carmen Contreras, Roger Calderon, Rosa Yataco, Jerome Galea, Zibiao Zhang, Mercedes C. Becerra, Leonid Lecca, Megan B. Murray

Social Work Faculty Publications

Background: Efficient contact investigation strategies are needed for the early diagnosis of TB disease and treatment of latent TB infections.

Methods: Between September 2009 and August 2012, we conducted a prospective cohort study in Lima, Peru in which we enrolled and followed 14,044 household contacts of adult pulmonary TB patients. We used information from a subset of this cohort to derive two clinical prediction tools that identify contacts of TB patients at elevated risk of progressing to active disease by training multivariable models that predict (1) co-prevalent TB among all household contacts and (2) one-year incident TB among adult contacts. …

Factors That Influence Screening, Brief Intervention, And Referral To Treatment (Sbirt) Implementation In Non-Medical Settings, Andrew Joseph Flaherty

Theses and Dissertations

Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is an evidenced-based intervention model designed to reduce substance use. While initially used in a variety of medical settings, SBIRT is increasingly implemented in non-medical settings. Unfortunately, very little is known about SBIRT implementation in non-medical settings. Therefore, the purpose of this exploratory qualitative study is to understand if professionals recently trained in SBIRT are using it and factors that influence implementation of SBIRT from their perspective.

In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted using a purposive sampling frame, comprised of practitioners recently trained in SBIRT. Interviews were recorded, and then transcribed verbatim, transcripts …

The Three-Legged Stool Of Voter Engagement, Addie Sandler, Mary E. Hylton, Jason Ostrander, Tanya R. Smith

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

Disparities in voter turnout have increased significantly over the past four decades. Members of historically oppressed groups, those who are low-income, and or who have lower levels of education vote at significantly lower rates than white, wealthy and or more educated community members. These disparities correlate directly to political power and the eventual allocation of resources by elected officials. Therefore, eliminating these disparities through targeted voter engagement with client groups is particularly important for the profession of social work. This article describes the conceptualization of voter engagement as a three-legged stool, consisting of voter registration, regular voting, and basing voting …

Socially Just Trauma-Informed Responses To Covid-19 With Undocumented Communities, Daniela Dominguez

Journal of Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Insidious Trauma, Heteronormative Steeping, And Help-Seeking: Exploring The Rural Non-Heterosexual Experience, Jennifer Towns

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Non-heterosexual (NH) individuals are often exposed to stressors based on their non-heterosexual status and, therefore, may have unique needs related to help-seeking for mental health, especially in rural areas where residents are more likely to identify as religious or conservative, groups that have historically been opposed to NH individuals. This study was completed to explore the lives of 10 non-heterosexual individuals in rural northern Michigan related to their daily encounters with minority stress and their experiences with help-seeking for mental health symptomology. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted, and transcriptions were analyzed to identify the occurrence of traumatic experiences at a …

We Are Brave: Expanding Reproductive Justice Discourse Through Embodied Rhetoric And Civic Practice, Roberta Hunte, Catherine Ming T’Ien Duffly

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this article, we share the example of our recent community-based performance project on reproductive justice, We are BRAVE, to serve as a model of how community-based performance can be an embodied strategy for social change. We draw from the work of scholars of feminist rhetoric, community-based performance, and reproductive justice. In sharing the example of We are BRAVE, we show how using communitycentered, performative storytelling as embodied rhetoric can be an effective mode of public and political persuasion.

Healthy Birth Initiatives: The Road Toward Reproductive Justice, Roberta Hunte, Susanne Klawetter, Sherly Paul

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study concerns racialized experiences of reproductive oppression among Black women and the efforts of one organization - Multnomah County’s Healthy Birth Initiatives (HBI) - to combat this oppression and move towards Reproductive Justice. This study explores how Black women experience and respond to racism-related stress and its impacts on their health during and after pregnancy and subsequent parenting. The project was informed by a pilot focus group conducted in 2016 by Drs. Jenna Ramaker and Roberta Hunte in partnership with HBI, which asked HBI clients about the role of toxic stress and racism-related stress in their lives. The current …

Xenophobia And Racism Against Asian Americans During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Mental Health Implications, Hsiu-Lan Cheng

Journal of Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Social Worker Shortages And The Rise In Competition For A Competent Child Welfare Workforce, Anita Barbee

Other QIC-WD Products

Several national studies have been conducted over the past few years (e.g. Hooyman, & Uniitzer, 2011; Lin, Lin, & Zhang, 2016) to project the number of social workers that will be needed by the year 2030. What they all point to is a huge deficit in the number of social workers (upwards of 200,000) needed to care for children, the elderly and those with addictions, mental health, and other health issues. However, those estimates may be low given that as of 2018 there was no regular gathering of comprehensive data on workforce needs in such areas as child welfare, juvenile …

Pathways To Post‐Traumatic Stress Disorder And Alcohol Dependence: Trauma, Executive Functioning, And Family History Of Alcoholism In Adolescents And Young Adults, Stacey Subbie-Saenz De Viteri, Ashwini Pandey, Gayathri Pandey, Chella Kamarajan, Rebecca Smith, Andrey Anokhin, Lance Bauer, Annah Bender, Grace Chan, Danielle Dick, Howard Edenberg, Sivan Kinreich, John Kramer, Marc Schuckit, Yong Zang, Vivia Mccutcheon, Kathleen Keenan Bucholz, Bernice Porjesz, Jacquelyn Meyers

Social Work Faculty Works

Introduction Family history (FH) of alcohol dependence is likely to increase the risk of trauma exposure, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and alcohol dependence. FH of alcohol dependence and trauma has been separately shown to adversely affect planning/problem-solving aspects of executive function. However, few studies have examined these risk factors in an integrated model. Methods Using data from trauma-exposed individuals from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism prospective cohort (N = 1,860), comprising offspring from alcohol-dependent high-risk and comparison families (mean age [SE] = 21.9 [4.2]), we investigated associations of trauma (nonsexual assaultive, nonassaultive, sexual assaultive) …

Working From Home And The Office During A Pandemic: The Experience Of Louisiana Child Welfare Workers, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Staff from the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services, Child Welfare Division (CWD), like many other child welfare professionals from across the country, have been heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. CWD caseworkers had to adjust to working at home, interacting with families differently, and remaining connected to colleagues via technology. It was, according to some staff, difficult and challenging at times. CWD staff in three parishes that have implemented the job redesign in partnership with the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QICWD) were asked to provide some insight into their experience of working during the pandemic. The …

Research‐Based Knowledge About Social Work And Sustainability, Aila‐Leena Matthies, Amy Krings, Ingo Stamm

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Social Work Research And Evidence-Based Practice In Experimental Medicine Exploring Issues In The Xenotransplantation Context, Alan Lipps, Kyeonghee Jang

School of Social Work

Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to discuss challenges to interdisciplinary evidence-based social work practice (EBP) within a context of xenotransplantation (XTx) using genetically modified animal organs, and the broader context of experimental medicine.

Method: This paper reviewed EBP terminology and discussed the meaning and function of evidence-based social work practice within an IDT in a XTx setting. Meta-analytic systematic reviews, and psychosocial surveys, were discussed to glean insights into ways in which IDTs can incorporate those research methodologies into EBP within an experimental medical (i.e., XTx) context. Several issues that arise while conducting psychosocial research in preparation for …

Wellness In The Helping Professions: Historical Overview, Wellness Models, And Current Trends, Ashley J. Blount, Dalena L. Dillman Taylor, Glenn W. Lambie

Journal of Wellness

Introduction

Wellness and the concept of holism have rich histories throughout the helping professions. However, Westernized medical models often promote the concept of treatment rather than prevention, limiting the helper’s ability to focus on wellness when working with clients/patients. Therefore, in order to support a re-integration to holistic wellness and the prevention of illness, and re-focus on a wellness ideology, we conducted a thorough theoretical overview of wellness in the helping professions to: (a) provide a historical overview of wellness in helping professions, (b) discuss prominent wellness models, (c) review wellness assessments, (d) present wellness supervision models, and (e) offer …

Telework, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is telework? Telework is a type of alternative work arrangement in which employees perform some or all of their job duties at an approved location other than their official worksite. Other labels for telework include telecommuting, remote work, mobile work, virtual work, distance work, distributed work, work from/at home, and flexplace, though definitions can vary (e.g., Allen, Golden, & Shockley, 2015). Telework arrangements can be informal and determined through individual agreements or formal, as part of a more structured program. Formal arrangements may be governed by federal or state statute, executive orders, organizational policy, or collective bargaining agreements. The …

Covid-19, Politics, And Science In Utah: Executive Summary Of Research Findings, Jessica Ulrich-Schad, Jennifer E. Givens

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Daily life in the United States and Utah has changed considerably since the global outbreak of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus. On March 6th, 2020, Gary R. Herbert, Governor of the State of Utah, declared a “State of Emergency” in response to pandemic. On March 27th the Governor then issued the “Stay Safe, Stay Home” Directive, which was much less strict than the shelter in place orders seen in other states as it simply urged residents to leave home infrequently, stay 6 feet away from others outside the home, and banned private gatherings larger than 20. At the end of April, …

Workforce Participation Of Parents Of Children And Youth With Mental Health Difficulties: The Impact Of Community Services And Supports, Claudia Sellmaier, Lisa M. Stewart, Eileen M. Brennan

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study explored the effects of demands related to caring for children and youth with mental health difficulties and of resources in community ecologies including health services, schools, neighborhoods, and social supports, on parental workforce participation. Through secondary analysis of U.S. data from the 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health, we found that when children’s mental health issues were more severe, parents experienced frustration with their ability to get services and spent more time providing health care, they were less likely to be employed. Community factors were critical: employed parents reported more frequent contact from the school system, and fewer …