Social Work Commons^™

Interns Matter: Maximizing Integration Of Interns Into Community Agencies, Valerie Garcia

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Hope Services is a non-profit agency serving individuals with developmental disabilities in six counties. Over the years, there have been many agencies that have formed connections with Hope Services. One of these collaborative partnerships has been with CSU Monterey Bay’s (CSUMB) integration of interns through their field placement program. However, recently former Hope Services South District Manager, Greg Dinsmore, witnessed a lack of utilization and integration of interns across all Hope Services agencies. Through firsthand experience as a mentor, he witnessed the benefits of utilizing interns and saw the need for further advocacy and support for the integration of interns …

Associations Of Hiv Risk Behaviors Among Older Latinas And Their Adult Daughters, Gira J. Ravelo

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the associations between adult Latina daughters’ HIV risk behaviors and that of their older Latina mothers’ HIV risk behaviors. The central hypothesis of the study is that adult Latina daughters’ influence their older mothers’ behaviors and that such behaviors interact with the level of their attachment.

Older Latinas are a vulnerable population that face cultural risk factors, health care provider bias, and engage in low rates of HIV testing. The primary mode of HIV infection for Latinas is through heterosexual contact. Yet, traditional gender norms such as marianismo belief place pressure on Latina women to be submissive …

Planning And Designing The Improving Addiction Care Team (Impact) For Hospitalized Adults With Substance Use Disorder, Honora Englander, Melissa B. Weimer, Rachel Solotaroff, Christina Nicolaidis, Benjamin Chan, Christine M. Velez, Alison Noice, Tim Hartnett, Ed Blackburn, Pen Barnes, P. Todd Korthuis

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

People with substance use disorders (SUD) have high rates of hospitalization and readmission, long lengths of stay, and skyrocketing healthcare costs. Yet, models for improving care are extremely limited. We performed a needs assessment and then convened academic and community partners, including a hospital, community SUD organizations, and Medicaid accountable care organizations, to design a care model for medically complex hospitalized patients with SUD. Needs assessment showed that 58% to 67% of participants who reported active substance use said they were interested in cutting back or quitting. Many reported interest in medication for addiction treatment (MAT). Participants had high rates …

The Public Health Harms Of Pornography: The Brain, Erectile Dysfunction, And Sexual Violence, John D. Foubert

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Putting Care Back Into "Health Care:" An Analysis Of The Place Of Community Health Workers Within The U.S. Health Care System, Megan Schowalter

Honors Program Theses

This paper explores who a Community Health Worker (CHW) is and contextualizes the social, political, and historical factors that allowed for the growth of CHWs within the primary health care sector in the U.S. It analyzes how CHWs perceive their own roles and responsibilities within the U.S. health system as a means of highlighting the gap within health care services and the influence of Social Determinants of Health (SDH) on well-being. The second part of this paper relates CHWs to scholarship by medical anthropologist Paul Farmer and public health scholar Alicia Yamin concerning pathologies of power and the need for …

Wood County Project Connect: Final Report For Event Held October 19, 2016, Melissa W. Burek, Mamta Ojha, Megan Schnell

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Project Homeless Connect (PHC) is designed to provide immediate goods and services to homeless individuals and those nearing homelessness. PHC provides basic needs and critical services in one day at one location. Along with providing valuable and necessary services to help alleviate homelessness, an additional positive outcome for service providers is the opportunity to network with different agency members, and reinforce relationships, collaborations, and partnerships. On October 19, 2016, Wood County, Ohio held its fourth Project Connect (PC) event at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Bowling Green, Ohio. This report presents a compilation of data collected at the event, as …

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

Melissa Burek

Case Study: Healthy Texas Women Program In The Abilene-Taylor County Public Health District, Saul Francisco Delgado

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The public healthcare system faces continuous transformations and challenges of constant adjustments to the increasing usage of fee for service revenue and the decrease of federal investment to women’s healthcare services and to the safety net healthcare providers (Meit, 2013; Weisman, 1997).

In 2016, the Texas 84^th Legislation Session determined to consolidate two existing women’s healthcare service programs into one a single program: the Healthy Texas Women (HTW) program. The new women’s program is a preventative care program that provides services of family planning and chronic illness care under a complete fee for service reimbursement system as its sourse …

Reaching Local Community With The Message Of Developmental Milestones And Early Identification Of Autism, Hope M. Duncanson

Poster Presentations

This poster presents project activities for a pilot program for effectively distributing Learn the Signs, Act Early materials to a small study group in a community in Maine.

North Douglas County Community Needs Health Assessment (Phase 2), Callie H. Lambarth, Diane Reid, Beth L. Green

Early Childhood

Beginning in August 2016, Phase 2 of the North Douglas County (NDC) Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) built on work completed in the Phase 1 planning process, and engaged the communities of Drain, Elkton, and Yoncalla, Oregon in the development and administration of a regional health services survey. The purpose of the survey was to learn from families with children ages 0-8 in the NDC region in order to:

• Identify service needs across a range of health service types, e.g., dental care, immunizations, prenatal care, well-child care, primary care, and mental health;
• Identify barriers to access;
• Prioritize the programs and …

Breast Cancer Care In California And Ontario: Primary Care Protections Greatest Among The Most Socioeconomically Vulnerable Women Living In The Most Underserved Places, Kevin M. Gorey, Caroline Hamm, Isaac N. Luginaah, Guangyong Zou, Eric J. Holowaty

Social Work Publications

Background: Better health care among Canada’s socioeconomically vulnerable versus America’s has not been fully explained. We examined the effects of poverty, health insurance and the supply of primary care physicians on breast cancer care. Methods: We analyzed breast cancer data in Ontario (n = 950) and California (n = 6300) between 1996 and 2000 and followed until 2014. We obtained socioeconomic data from censuses, oversampling the poor. We obtained data on the supply of physicians, primary care and specialists. The optimal care criterion was being diagnosed early with node negative disease and received breast conserving surgery followed by adjuvant radiation …

Recovery From Design, Cassandra J. Ellison

Theses and Dissertations

Through research, inquiry, and an evaluation of Recovery By Design, a ‘design therapy’ program that serves people with mental illness, substance use disorders, and developmental disabilities, it is my assertion that the practice of design has therapeutic potential and can aid in the process of recovery. To the novice, the practices of conception, shaping form, and praxis have empowering benefit especially when guided by Conditional and Transformation Design methods together with an emphasis on materiality and vernacular form.

The Association Between Neighborhood Factors And Mexican Americans’ Mental Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review, Kai Wei, Jaime Booth

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This systematic review seeks to elucidate the association between neighborhood factors and Mexican American mental health outcomes. We searched PsycINFO and Academic Search Premier for studies related to neighborhood factors and mental health. Google Scholar was used to identify additional studies, followed by a manual inspection of the related work. Eleven studies were identified. Nine studies found that neighborhood factors had a significant impact on mental health among this group. Neighborhood compositional factors influenced mental health directly, among which minority concentration was found to be protective for Mexican American mental health. Neighborhood contextual factors influenced mental health directly and indirectly …

When ‘Places’ Include Pets: Broadening The Scope Of Relational Approaches To Promoting Aging-In-Place, Ann M. Toohey, Jennifer A. Hewson, Cindy L. Adams, Melanie J. Rock

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Aging-in-place is a well-established concept, but discussions rarely consider that many older adults live with pets. In a ‘pet-friendly’ city, we conducted semi-structured interviews to explore perspectives of community-based social support agencies that promote aging-in-place, and those of animal welfare agencies. Applying a relational ecology theoretical framework, we found that pets may contribute to feeling socially- situated, yet may also exacerbate constraints on autonomy experienced by some older adults. Pet-related considerations at times led to discretionary acts of more-than-human solidarity, but also created paradoxical situations for service-providers, impacting their efforts to assist older adults. A shortage of pet-friendly affordable housing …

Profound Barriers To Basic Cancer Care Most Notably Experienced By Uninsured Women: Historical Note On The Present Policy Considerations, Amy M. Alberton, Kevin M. Gorey

Social Work Publications

America is considering the replacement of Obamacare with Trumpcare. This historical cohort revisited pre-Obamacare colon cancer care among people living in poverty in California (N = 5,776). It affirmed a gender by health insurance hypothesis on nonreceipt of surgery such that uninsured women were at greater risk than uninsured men. Uninsured women were three times as likely as insured women to be denied access to such basic care. Similar men were two times as likely. America is bound to repeat such profound health care inequities if Obamacare is repealed. Instead, Obamacare ought to be retained and strengthened in all states, …