Digital Commons Network^™

Meeting The Psychosocial Needs Of Online Learners In Social Work Programs And Four-Year Universities: What Is Being Addressed And The Many Areas For Improvement, Kathryn Gould

DSW Capstone Projects

Almost half of social work students enter their program with a history of mental health diagnosis and exposure to multiple childhood traumas. Over half of students at four-year institutions are enrolled in one or more courses online, yet retention in online coursework is much lower than in in-person courses. As online programs continue to grow in the field of social work it becomes a vital requirement to address the psychosocial needs of online learners. The call of this capstone is to examine how universities and colleges of social work can meet the increasing need to improve course work and service …

Perinatal Substance Use Disorders And Co-Occurring Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Kaitlyn Dickens

DSW Capstone Projects

Pregnant and postpartum or perinatal women who experience Substance Use Disorder and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (SUD/PTSD) co-occurring are an underserved population and a gap can be observed in the research in terms of clinical presentation and treatment of SUD/PTSD among this population. Social work practitioners are at an increased probability of working with individuals who would identify as such. There are many psychosocial and health factors associated with untreated SUD/PTSD among perinatal women for both mother and baby.

Research suggests that the use of client centered approaches and narrative therapy is beneficial in working with those who experience PTSD. The …

Opioid Addiction In Rural America: The Transportation Need For Treatment Adherence, Jennifer Smith

DSW Capstone Projects

The opioid epidemic has continued to soar throughout the United States for over 20 years. While this epidemic knows no boundaries and affects all of America, rural communities have been drastically impacted by the number of persons suffering from this addiction, and the resulting staggering mortality rates. Rural populations face greater treatment barriers preventing patients from obtaining needed services as compared to other geographical locations. Patients face obstacles related to accessibility, availability, and stigmatization, placing them at higher risk for opioid misuse, abuse, and/or death. Even though this targeted population faces multiple complications in seeking treatment, transportation barriers are among …

Teaching Anti-Racism Practices To White Social Work Students And Community Members, Dennis Cornell

DSW Capstone Projects

Racism continues to plague the United States and White people hold a key element to ending racism by adopting anti-racism practices in their professional and personal lives. This capstone on the findings of a comprehensive systematic literature review, examines empirically-based anti-racism interventions and practices that social work teachers and community educators can utilize in anti-racism courses and workshops for White students and community members. The final results yielded 29 peer-reviewed, qualitative/quantitative research studies within the years of 2003-2021 that can be broken down into six anti-racism intervention categories: class/educational groups, teaching methods, Implicit Association Test (IAT) usage, pro-Black stories/perspectives, interracial …

Clinical Interventions For Developmental Trauma Disorder: How Evidence-Based Practice And Attachment Theory Can Inform Therapeutic Approach, Victoria Deveau

DSW Capstone Projects

Approximately two-thirds of U.S. children and adolescents report having experienced a traumatic event. A posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis requires that the youth has directly experienced a traumatic event, witnessed a traumatic event occur to others, or learned that a traumatic event has occurred to someone close. The clinician is in a diagnostic quandary, however, when the youth presents with the PTSD hallmarks of hyperarousal, avoidance, and emotional dysregulation, in absence of such life experiences. The answer to this quandary lies in an understanding of developmental trauma disorder (DTD). Clinical interventions for DTD are the focus of this capstone.

Product …

Medicare Reimagined: Past, Present And Future Envisioned For Aging In Place, Nancy Patterson

DSW Capstone Projects

The older population is persons aged 65 and older. Many older adults live healthy and active lives while others have one or more illnesses or comorbidities that make it difficult for them to live alone. Older adults aged sixty-five and older who have one or more comorbidities often require assistance to remain in their homes for as long as possible. Older adults who do not have this needed assistance often have frequent falls, make frequent trips to the emergency room, have frequent hospital admissions, or end up in a nursing home.

Product one of the Capstone Presentation is the systematic …

Transforming Social Work Practice And Research: Examining Lived Experiences Of Black Male Veteran Students And Mental Health, Tay Robinson

DSW Capstone Projects

Mental health disparities amongst the African American/Black community are well documented in literature. Throughout history the African American/ Black community have dealt with unethical operating procedures and research studies. This capstone project looks at historical facts, the lack of Black male veteran specific research as it relates to mental health, lived experiences of Black male veteran students with mental health/treatment, and developing culturally appropriate approaches to increasing research and effective practices to better serve this community.

The second chapter and first product of this capstone project is a systematic literature review. This literature review focused on finding literature on African …

Transforming Hurt Boys Into Restored Men: The Lack Of Mental Health Treatment For Black Male Trauma Survivors, Shericka Danielle Smith

DSW Capstone Projects

Trauma affects individuals differently, but the prevalence of trauma and its impact on Black males is detrimental. Black males are at higher risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, substance abuse, and violent crimes when trauma is left untreated by a mental health professional. As the number of traumatic events experienced by Black males continues to rise, the number of these males who seek mental health treatment remains stagnant and painfully low. Many factors play into these behaviors, yet very little data exists on what is being done to change them.

Product one is a systematic literature review in which …

Who Is A Social Worker?, Patrick Meehan, Jason Ostrander, Shannon R. Lane

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

Defining social workers for the purposes of research is not as straightforward as it sounds. To date, researchers who have examined social workers as a group have used a variety of sampling methods. Multiple methods speak to the variety of options for defining social workers. Understanding membership within the profession is a precondition to understanding research about the behavior of those within the profession. This research note explores these sampling methods in detail. Each has its advantages, but none are without their own disadvantages, some of which bias their view of the profession. As researchers who have considered the political …

A Pathway For Inclusive Innovation In Pediatric Mental Health: Prevention And Intervention Using Technology, Kate Corinne Bennett

DSW Capstone Projects

It is no secret that access to quality healthcare is difficult for citizens to achieve in the United States. Racism, discrimination, and oppression further exist at the root of compounding social problems, including limits in minority access to mental health services. The COVID-19 pandemic has also exacerbated mental health problems for young children, especially those who are already underserved and at risk. For these reasons, it is imperative that the social work profession emphasizes innovative approaches to equitable treatment access, including a focus on early intervention and the use of technology. Product one of this capstone engages a systematic review …

Self-Care And Cultural Humility: Expanding The Practice Of Social Work Leaders, Donia Addison

DSW Capstone Projects

Social workers experience vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion fatigue regularly. Well documented in the literature, self-care has the ability to assuage these negative consequences, as well as, positively impact retention rates, decrease burnout and increase the quality of services provided to clients. Despite a burgeoning of research on self-care and burnout over the last few decades, continued empirical research is necessary. This capstone project sought to add to the knowledge base on self-care and provide pragmatic recommendations for future research and social work practice.

This capstone project was comprised of three scholarly products and focused on fostering cultural …

The Inclusion Of Black Social Workers: More Than A Seat-Creating A Culture Of Belonging, Sallie J. Ingram

DSW Capstone Projects

The social work profession has been around for at least 12 decades. During most of this time, Black and White social workers have focused on issues affecting their own races. Unfortunately, social work has been found to have some of the same biases and stereotypes as the society that it serves. Therefore, three products were developed to provide research-based evidence on the importance of inclusion of Black social workers and how this inclusion will benefit social work, and the clients served.

Product One was a systemic literature review focused on answering the research question of whether or not the social …

The Underlying Issue: Acknowledging The Impact The Race-Based Bias Of Some White Teachers Poses For Black Adolescents, Cerenity Leavell-Barker

DSW Capstone Projects

Current literature fails to assess the race-based bias of some white teachers and its impact on the school-to-prison pipeline. The actions of some white teachers due to unconscious or conscious race-based bias can increase race-based stress experienced by Blacks students and lead to racial trauma. Racial trauma is a traumatic experience that can alter this stage of development and have significant impact on the academic achievement of Black adolescents and influence behaviors perceived as negative. The purpose of this capstone is to enhance awareness and knowledge on the traumatic impact the race-based bias of some white teachers poses for Black …

The Impact Of Bias And Historical Racial Trauma On Black Girls’ Education: Using Theory To Better Understand Benefits, Angela Fisher-Williams

DSW Capstone Projects

ABSTRACT OF CAPSTONE

Implicit biases are among the most unfair discriminating microaggressive habits; Black students face within the compulsory educational system. However, college institutions are not sufficiently preparing social work students to work with this marginalized group to help manage these needs through diversity training courses. The researcher wrote a synthesis paper that synthesized two theories, the Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS). This research will determine if social work students who take part in diversity training embedded in their coursework could better prepare social workers for the field. This research employed a descriptive design while …

Leadership & Innovation: The Keys To Solving Wicked Social Problems, Kaye Mooney

DSW Capstone Projects

Social work leaders must utilize unique leadership styles and innovative activities to enhance human well-being and meet the basic needs of all people (NASW, 2008). Social work leaders must value and actively seek input from all people, strengthening the solutions' chance to work. Wicked social problems (WSP) plague our country, especially among marginalized groups. We must utilize a new combination of social work leadership styles to resolve WSP.

The capstone project presents significant social work leadership and social innovation findings. First, a systematic literature review synthesized how transformational, anti-oppressive, and ubuntu leadership styles impact social service organizations. The conceptual paper …

Assessing Veterans For Acquired Suicide Capability: Blocking The Intersection Of Desire And Ability, Jennifer Schneider

DSW Capstone Projects

The purpose of the capstone project was to identify a procedure to increase the number of lethal means safety encounters occurring with the veteran population. Ultimately, the capstone had a dual focus to address this goal, as the systematic literature review focused on a research question separate from the remaining papers.

The systematic literature review asked, “what are veterans’ perspectives of discussing firearm safety with healthcare providers?” Through the review process, and the utilization of a meta-ethnography approach, two third-order constructs were formulated. These constructs identified that veterans view the provider as responsible for trust and rapport development, in addition …

Disproportionality In School Discipline: The Use Of Critical Race Theory And Attachment Theory Interventions In Action, Phaecia Ward

DSW Capstone Projects

Two primary focuses of schools have been to educate and keep children safe. Although exclusionary discipline practices are and should be the last resort for dealing with safety in schools, research indicates that preschool-aged children are being expelled or suspended at rates that are at least three times that of children in grades K-12.

The central problem is why are Black children being disciplined disproportionately in early childhood settings? What are the identified risk factors because of exclusionary discipline for children in their early years? What are the identified protective factors that can be employed to help prevent the statistics …

Vicarious Trauma In The Black Community Due To Police Brutality And Aggressive Policing: How Social Work Clinicians Can Understand And Mitigate The Problem, Sharrion Brown

DSW Capstone Projects

Police brutality and aggressive policing impacts the Black community. Social media and new outlets allow visuals of police brutality and aggressive policing to be shared rapidly. This form of second-hand exposure can cause trauma. The purpose of this study is to explore the adverse mental health outcomes in the Black community due to police brutality and aggressive policing and find ways that social work clinicians can understand and mitigate the problem. This study was conducted because when Black people seek therapeutic services, they are often met with clinicians who invalidate their racial trauma and racial experiences due to second-hand exposure …

Conceptualizing Attorney Motivation: A Study Of The Representatives For Parents And Children In The Child Welfare System, Shannon Moody

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

Background. Attorneys who represent parents and children in dependency, neglect, and abuse (DNA) proceedings are key in influencing the outcomes of the cases they carry. These influences include the length of time a child spends in the custody of the state or the necessity for foster care, visitation with family members, length of time to reunification, and recommended services for the child and parents (Courtney & Hook, 2012; Goldman, 1993; Thornton & Gwin, 2012; Zinn & Peters, 2015). The American Bar Association’s analysis is that there are “four constants: high caseloads, low compensation, inadequate training, and lack of supervision” …

An Investigation Of The Effects Of Psychological And Social Factors On Labor Market Integration In A Gender Stratified Sample Of Refugees In Germany, Theresia M. Pachner

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

Refugees are disproportionally more likely to be unemployed. Additionally, women have a higher unemployment rate than men. Prospective gender-stratified research on refugee labor market integration is both rare and needed. The goal of this dissertation was to determine the effects of psychological, social, and demographic factors on employment outcomes within a gender-specific framework.

This secondary data study used data from a representative longitudinal panel study of refugees in Germany. Data spanned two years with collection at two time-points (T1 and T2) including baseline (T1) and one year later (T2). Using a complex samples framework in SPSS, logistic regression analyses were …

The Influence Of Distance Learning On Undergraduate Social Work Competency: An Exploratory Study At A Private University, Christine K. Fulmer

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

This is an exploratory study of undergraduate social work education at a private faith-based university. The university offers both online and residential program options. The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of distance education and program option on the educational outcomes of graduates in a newly developed social work program. The program started in 2015 with its first graduating class in 2017. The sample (N = 262) consists of students graduating in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Students could take classes across program options and each student in the sample completed both traditional and online social work courses. …

Trauma-Sensitive Leadership In Multidisciplinary Settings, Jennifer Griswold Withrow

DSW Capstone Projects

As the social work profession continues to expand into more diversified areas of practice, such as politics, environmental justice, governmental work, and international crisis work, it is critical to ensure that social workers have the tools necessary to be successful leaders in these extended areas. Utilizing Trauma-Sensitive Leadership is an important concept to incorporate into multidisciplinary teams to ensure employees and communities feel supported and understood. By implementing these concepts which are ingrained into the social work profession into expanded areas of practice, social workers can feel empowered to lead multidisciplinary teams and provide support and understanding to the staff …

The Program To Reduce Implicit Bias In Carroll Hospital Center Using The Implicit Association Test, Katherine E. Traynor

Capstone Showcase

Natural brain processes make all individuals susceptible to unconscious bias; however, stressful, fearful, or anger-evoking situations as well as the negative influence of media and social surroundings increase the risk of holding obstructive bias, and there is a greater risk of being negatively impacted by this phenomenon when belonging to a minority population (Rose & Flores, 2020). As a result, high rates of infant mortality (10.2 deaths per 1,000 live births for the Non-Hispanic Black population compared to 4.1 in the White population) and cardiovascular related diseases (190.0 cases per 1,000 in the Non-Hispanic Black population compared to 161.3 in …

Delaware’S Multidisciplinary Teams For The Investigation Of Child Abuse: Communities Of Practice?, Lori Sitler

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

Multidisciplinary teams (MDT) of professionals are mandated to respond to and investigate cases of child abuse in Delaware. Utilizing research and theory about interorganizational collaboration, my exploratory study considered how this mandate operated in practice. Five themes from interorganizational literature (IOC) on facilitators and barriers to collaborative practice--trust, commitment, communication, capacity, and change--were examined using the theories of Goffman and Weber. The concept of power underlies these themes.

The MDT was considered a motivating example to explore whether Lave and Wenger’s socio-cultural learning theory of Community of Practice (CoP) explained learning and practice among multidisciplinary professionals considering barriers and facilitators …

A Descriptive Study: Perceptions Of Family Court Judges And Attorneys Regarding Parents Involved With Child Welfare Services As A Result Of Substance Misuse And/Or Mental Health Issues, Nathan Terrell

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

For three consecutive years, Kentucky has dealt with the worst rates of child maltreatment in the United States. Kentucky has implemented numerous measures to address this crisis. While many research efforts have focused on perceptions of children involved with child welfare services, there are few efforts researching the perception of judges and lawyers about parents involved with family court services.

This study used a mixed-methods approach to explore the perceptions of Kentucky Family Court Judges and family law attorneys about parental involvement with child welfare services as a result of substance misuse and/or mental health issues. The qualitative component of …

How Do Refugees Experience A “Sense Of Place” In A Community Garden? Exploring An Intervention To Mitigate The Consequences Of Displacement, Amy E. Stein

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

As a consequence of displacement, refugees grapple with significant resettlement challenges, such as social isolation, language barriers and depression, anxiety, and trauma. A growing body of literature focuses on place-making, or emplacement, to promote health and well-being for re-settlement challenges. This qualitative study helps social service providers understand the neces-sity for community-based interventions to improve the resettlement process for refugees, using a place attachment model. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Karen and Chin Burmese (Myanmar) adult refugees who participated in a community garden program in Phil-adelphia (ages 28 to 82). Data analysis revealed that community gardens offer an opportunity for …

Adverse Childhood Experiences And The Risk Of Drug Overdose In Adulthood, Samantha E. Wright

Graduate Research Posters

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) encompass a variety of traumatic events that occur during one’s youth. ACEs may be physical, mental, emotional, or sexual in nature, and they are often associated with long-term negative consequences such as alcoholism, substance abuse, and criminal justice involvement. The global rise of the opioid epidemic has intensified the need to better understand and address factors associated with illicit substance use. The current study will investigate the relationship between exposure to ACEs, onset of drug use, and history of drug overdose.

Methods: This study will utilize an observational design in which participants will be asked …

The Experiences Of Older Youth In And Aged Out Of Foster Care During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Material And Financial Well-Being By Foster Care Status, Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation, Ethnicity, And Race, Johanna K. P. Greeson, John Gyourko, Sara Jaffee, Sarah Wasch

Department of Social Work - Faculty Scholarship

As a marginalized, under-resourced population, older youth with foster care experience are acutely vulnerable to the economic and social harms wrought by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study summarizes findings from an online survey deployed in April 2020 to learn about the experiences of current and former foster youth (ages 18 to 23) during one month of the COVID-19 crisis. Using purposive sampling and a cross-sectional design, the survey yielded a final analysis sample of 281 respondents from 32 states and 192 cities or districts. Findings underscore the pervasive negative impacts of COVID-19 on respondents’ housing/living situations, food security, employment, …

Tools For Addressing Intimate Partner Violence And Suicide Risk: Lessons Learned From Oha’S Covid-19 Emergency Response For Suicide Prevention Grant, Karen Cellarius, Aliza Tuttle, Lea Sevey

Regional Research Institute for Human Services

In August 2020, the Oregon Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence (OCADSV), the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), and Portland State University’s Regional Research Institute for Human Services (PSU RRI) began an 18-month collaboration to strengthen support for domestic violence and mental health agencies during COVID-19. As part of this grant, six domestic violence advocacy organizations around Oregon were able to place co-located advocates with their mental health partner agencies for services and cross-training. The content of this booklet is another product of this collaboration.

2022 Zero Suicide Implementation In Oregon: Cross‐Site Follow‐Up Change Report, Karen Cellarius, Aliza Tuttle

Regional Research Institute for Human Services

This implementation self‐assessment and the accompanying web survey were adapted for the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) by Portland State University in collaboration with the OHA Youth Suicide Prevention staff. The assessment was adapted from three existing Zero Suicide resources available at http://zerosuicide.org/.

The Organizational Self‐Study is a questionnaire about the extent to which each component of the Zero Suicide approach is in place at a single organization. Zero Suicide recommends completing this self‐study at the start of an organization’s Zero Suicide initiative, then every 12 months after that as a measure of fidelity to the model. The self‐study questions …