Social Work Commons^™

Foster Youths’ Perceptions Of The Social Worker’S Role In Their Pursuit Of Higher Education, Elisa Elvira Sequeira Delgado, Anedia Suarez Arroyo

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The majority of youth transitioning from foster care to adulthood aspire to achieve a higher education, yet they often face barriers and lack a support system. In the United States, only 50% of foster youth graduate from high school. About 13% of foster youth enter college and only 3% graduate. The purpose of this study is to assess foster youths’ perceptions on the social worker’s role when pursuing higher education. The literature suggests that child welfare agencies have developed a variety of programs for foster youth and for their social workers aimed at improving foster youth’s educational outcomes. Yet, the …

Social Workers' Perceptions Of Resource Family Approval, Hannah Chavez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Resource Family Approval (RFA) is a policy that was recently enacted in California. The process seeks to merge existing policies on the regulations of families who wish to care for children involved in the foster care system. The purpose of this study was to understand the perceptions of resource family approval social workers and the implementation of RFA. Ten participants were chosen from the resource family approval unit from a county child welfare agency. The study was a qualitative design with in person interviews.

Common themes emerged in responses to social worker's thoughts about RFA, social worker's ideas for preparing …

Social Workers’ And Teachers’ Feelings Of Self-Efficacy In Dealing With School Bullying, Sharon Lynn Simmons

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

Bullying continues to be a serious problem in schools. School social workers and teachers face challenges daily to deal with bullying. This author examined school social workers’ and teachers’ perceptions about their feelings of efficacy to deal with bullying and what may account for those feelings in a population of 71 teachers and 26 social workers employed in Kentucky schools. Research was gathered using a self-report, electronic survey consisting of subscales of the Teachers’ Attitudes about Bullying Questionnaire (Beran, 2005), the School Bullying Questionnaire (Nicolaides, Toda & Smith, 2002), the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (Spreng, McKinnon, Mar & Levine, 2009) and …

Social Workers' Experiences With Interventions For Clients With Congenital Heart Disease, Corinne Smorra

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many adults born with congenital heart disease (CHD) face long-term psychosocial issues related the disease. The purpose of this project was to better understand social workers' experiences with interventions for clients who have CHD and experience psychosocial problems. Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory was a basis for the research questions, which focused on clarifying social workers' experiences with interventions and identifying the ecological levels to which the interventions align. A narrative design with nonprobability sampling was used. Six social workers who counsel adults with CHD from 6 of the 109 U.S. CHD clinics participated in individual interviews. Interviews were transcribed, coded, and …

Social Workers' Experiences With Deaf And Hard Of Hearing People With Mental Illness, Makoto Ikegami

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The social work practice problem for this study was a lack of knowledge about social workers' experiences of working with deaf and hard of hearing people with mental illness. This study was needed to fill a practice gap by increasing an understanding of the experiences of social workers to inform best practices and address the needs of deaf and hard of hearing population through culturally and linguistically competent mental health services. The research questions focused on the experiences and challenges of social workers working with deaf and hard of hearing people and best practices identified by these social workers. Ecological …

Social Workers And Early Intervention With Diabetic Clients, Rievu Agiri

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Social workers are uniquely positioned to facilitate early intervention services that minimize the impact and burden of Type 2 diabetes. There is little evidence on the specific role that social workers play in addressing the psychosocial factors that exacerbate the condition or impact treatment outcomes. The purpose of the study was to examine the role of social workers in facilitating early interventions for clients with Type 2 diabetes. The theories of role and organizational systems provided the conceptual framework. Data was collected from interviews with eight participants with Master'€™s degrees in Social Work in a large Southwestern state in the …

Understanding Social Workers' Roles Providing Case Management To Medicaid Managed Care Enrollees, Vontija Deeshawn Dean-El

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Social workers often take on the role of providing case management to Medicaid recipients; however, there is little clinical research on social workers' perceptions of their case management role. The purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of the social worker case management role by exploring social workers' perceptions of their roles when providing case management to Ohio Medicaid managed care enrollees. This action research study was grounded in organizational role theory. A semi structured focus group was facilitated using open-ended questions related to social workers' role perceptions, role conflict, role ambiguity, case management, and managed care. Qualitative …