Social Work Commons^™

"It Takes Time To Shift Historical Paradigms": Changes In Structure, Governance, Perception, And Practice During A Decade Of Child Welfare Policy Reform In Florida, Amy Catherine Vargo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explored changes in structure, governance, perception and practice within Florida's child welfare system over a ten-year period (2001-2011) inclusive of two concurrent, statewide reform efforts: the privatization of child welfare services and implementation of a Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration. Using an anthropological perspective and holistic approach, the child welfare system is presented as a type of meta-organizational culture inclusive of subsystems and subcultures which are all embedded in historical and socioeconomic context that involves alternations between child safety and family preservation approaches to care.

Guided by a grounded theory approach to qualitative data analysis, content analysis of child …

Clinical And Criminal Justice Outcomes In The Jail Diversion And Trauma Recovery (Jdtr) Program, Daniel Harold Ringhoff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods study evaluated clinical and criminal justice outcomes of the Florida Jail Diversion and Trauma Recovery (JDTR) program that utilized compensated veteran peer mentors. Quantitative results showed veteran participation in JDTR improved clinical outcomes, such as PTSD symptoms, function difficulty and depression scores, but not criminal justice outcomes such as re-arrest rates. Study limitations, however, prevent the drawing of conclusions regarding the potential effectiveness of veteran peer interventions improving criminal justice outcomes. Qualitative results showed participants overwhelmingly viewed their assigned veteran peer mentor as a "peer" and rated them as "very important" to their future success. Improvements in …

Development Of The Professional School Social Work Survey: A Valid And Reliable Tool For Assessment And Planning, Catherine E. Randall

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

School social workers are currently in a unique position to support and lead schools through the change process initiated by districts' adoption of a Response to Intervention model. This dissertation describes an exploratory study to develop and pilot-test a self-administered survey for use by school social workers for the purpose of assessing the effectiveness of school social work practice. The survey was developed using DeVellis' 8-step process for survey design. The survey consisted of four subscales theorized to measure school social worker effectiveness as determined by a review of current literature in the field: Response to Intervention, Evidence-Based Practice, School …