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Resident Perceptions Regarding Quality Of Care At Sister James Nursing Home, Michelle R. England

Theses and Graduate Projects

The quality of care in nursing homes is under serious

scrutiny by researchers, Iegislators, and the public. There are

numerous ways to evaluate quality of care because of the many

ideas and perceptions about what quality of care actually means.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate quality of care

from the resident's perspective and to determine how quality of

care can be improved at Sister 'James Nursing Home. This study is

based on a national study conducted by the National Citizens'

Coalition of Nursing Home Reform in which residents across the

country defined quality of care. The findings …

Client Survey Of A Group Treatment Model For Adult Women Incest Survivors, Kristen A. Atmore

Theses and Graduate Projects

The problem of incest has been brought more and more out into the public eye in recent. As this recognition has increased, the growth in knowledge about how to treat incest has been enormous. Many clinicians and researchers agree the long term effects of incest can be very numerous and complex resulting in such symptoms as: chemical abuse, anorexia, self-mutilation, suicide attempts, depression, marital and parenting difficulties. Many therapists also believe that long-term therapy is necessary in the recovery process. However, there is little outcome evaluation for long-term, sexual abuse survivors groups in the literature.

This is an exploratory client …

Review Of Unfaithful Angels: How Social Work Has Abandoned Its Mission Harry Specht And Mark Courtney. Reviewed By Jeanne Marsh, University Of Chicago., Jeanne Marsh

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Harry Specht and Mark Courtney, Unfaithful Angels: How Social Work Has Abandoned its Mission, New York: Free Press, 1994. $24.95 hardcover.

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 22, No. 2 (June 1995)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• FEMINIZATION OF THE AIDS EPIDEMIC - Mark S. Kaplan
• LIFE STORIES: A PRACTICE-BASED RESEARCH TECHNIQUE - Rena D. Harold, Margaret L. Palmiter, Susan A. Lynch and Carol R. Freedman-Doan
• ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER AND CASE MANAGEMENT: INFUSING MACRO SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE - Dennis D. Long
• THE IDEOLOGICAL CONTEXT OF CHANGING JUVENILE JUSTICE - Preston Elrod and Daryl Kelley
• PROTECTING WOMEN'S JOBS: UNIONS AND DEINDUSTRIALIZATION - Marietta Morrissey
• FAMILY CORRELATES OF DELINQUENCY: COHESION AND ADAPTABILITY - Glenn Shields and Richard D. Clark
• SECOND-ORDER VICTIM-BLAMING - Paula L. Dressel, Vincent Carter, and Anand Balachandran

BOOK REVIEW ESSAY

• Unfaithful Angels: How …

Feminization Of The Aids Epidemic, Mark S. Kaplan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Although males still constitute a substantial number of persons with AIDS, it is becoming clear that this is a disease affecting women and minority populations more adversely. Today women, while representing approximately 16 percent of all AIDS cases nationwide that are reported to the Centers for Disease Control, make up the fastest-growing segment of the population with AIDS. This article contends that AIDS is increasingly afflicting women who have little economic, political, or social power. Furthermore, misdirected public policy has been partly responsible for the greater incidence of the disease in certain regions and populations.

Family Correlates Of Delinquency: Cohesion And Adaptability, Glenn Shields, Richard D. Clark

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The Circumplex Model of family functioning, which includes measures of cohesion and adaptability, was used with a community-based sample of youth (N = 480) to test its usefulness for explaining delinquent behavior. Results from the research indicate that the Circumplex Model is inadequate for explaining delinquency. It was concluded that the two major components of the model, cohesion and adaptability, do not operate in the curvilinear fashion as hypothesized. Rather, the results suggest the both factors are linear in their relationship with delinquency.

Life Stories: A Practice-Based Research Technique, Rena D. Harold, Margaret L. Palmiter, Susan A. Lynch, Carol R. Freedman-Doan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Social work, like many other practice-based professions, has historically been concerned about the discontinuity between practice and research. This discontinuity is frequently reduced to a debate between qualitative and quantitative methodology, placing the profession in a dilemma and further alienating practitioners. This article describes a qualitative data collection and analysis process as it was in a large-scale study exploring issues of family development. The use of open-ended story telling and ethnographic content analysis are recommended for use in practice and in practice-based research. Adoption practice and chemical dependency settings are presented as examples.

The Ideological Context Of Changing Juvenile Justice, Preston Elrod, Daryl Kelley

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The ideological nature of juvenile justice policy is analyzed, including the domain assumptions of the predominant juvenile justice ideologies which presently inform juvenile justice policy development. Further, it is argued that the failure of present juvenile justice policies to effectively respond to the juvenile "crime problem" may lead to the opportunity to develop a more critically informed juvenile justice policy, one which is better able to meet the needs of clients and respond more effectively to juvenile crime. Finally, some of the essential elements of a critical juvenile justice ideology and practice capable of more realistically and humanely responding to …

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder In Parents Of Traumatic Brain Injury Patients, Carol Farr

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) produces cognitive, behavioral, and affective deficits with resulting problems such as improper social behavior, increased aggression, emotional, personality and characterological changes. The impact upon the survivor, the sibling, as well as the parental subsystem has been well documented in the literature. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been diagnosed in several different types of trauma survivors, although rarely have individual psychological symptoms been studied in parents.

This research examined the possible vulnerability factors that are associated with TBI and their potential influence upon PTSD symptomology. Questionnaires were mailed to 266 parents of TBI patients with a response …

Attachment And Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Severity In Physically And Sexually Abused Adolescents, Lauren Woods

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The relationship between symptoms associated with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and attachment was assessed. All students (n=109) at a residential school were screened for a history of physical or sexual abuse. Thirty-seven subjects who reported such a history, ranging in age from 11 to 19, were assessed using the Children’s Post-Traumatic Stress Reaction Index (CPTSD-RI), Bell Object Relations and Reality Testing Inventory (BORRTI), Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA), Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS), and Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI). Results indicate that attachment difficulties were common in this sample and that current diagnostic criteria for PTSD did not …

Examination Of Knowledge And Attitudes About Human Sexuality As Predictors Of Adolescent Sexual Behavior, Diane Waymire

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This study investigated the variables influencing adolescent sexual behavior. Using cognitive learning theory, social learning theory, and social development as an organizing framework, factors influencing adolescent sexual behavior and the respondent's personal demographics were examined for their contribution to explaining adolescent decision-making about sexual activity.

A convenience sample of high school students from a Riverside county school district provided data for the study. Data was gathered by using a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 55 students from two of the three school sites within the district participated in the study during the winter quarter of 1995.

The findings of the …

Examination Of The Predictive Validity Of Risk Assessment Screening, Patricia Mary Morressy

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Child Protective Services ( CPS) have been under growing pressure to implement risk assessment systems over the past ten years (Dueck, H. J., English, D.J., Depanfilis, and Moote, G.T. (1993). This emphasis has come largely from the increasing number of reported allegations of child abuse and neglect (Doueck, et. al.) However, increasingly individuals involved in custody battles use the CPS reporting system to retaliate against one another. Because these reported cases require the action of CPS, the increase in allegations has overburdened the system. As a result, resources have diminished and challenges to screeners to make accurate risk assessments have …

Identification Of Variables Influencing Women's Breast Cancer Detection, Sherri Duckworth Kemp

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This study investigated the variables influencing women's breast cancer detection behavior. Using social learning theory as an organizing framework. factors influencing women's decisions to seek breast cancer detection and the respondent's personal demographics were examined for their contribution to explaining women's decisions to seek breast cancer detection.

A [convience] sample from a university medical center provided data for the study. Data were gathered with a voluntary questionnaire. A total of 25 employees from the medical center participated in the study during the winter quarter of 1994.

The findings of the study provide insight into some of the variables affecting women's …

Attention Deficit Disorder And Case Management: Infusing Macro Social Work Practice, Dennis D. Long

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Intervention with children with attention deficit disorders is complex and requires change at multiple system levels using a social work perspective. Case management, macro social work practice, time allocation issues, the structure of a professional self, constraints in expanding a narrow definition of the social worker, and specific macro level intervention areas for social workers are examined in this context.

The Sociology Of Social Work. Martin Davies.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Martin Davies (Ed.), The Sociology of Social Work. New York: Routledge, 1994. $17.95 papercover, $23.95 hardcover.

A Study Of Resident And Family Psychosocial Needs In Nursing Homes, Kathryn A. Rasmussen

Theses and Graduate Projects

This study sought to explore the attitudes of nursing home social workers regarding the relative importance of resident and family psychosocial needs and the frequency of psychosocial care functions performed by nursing home social workers. Previous research has shown that 30% of residents in-a typical nursing home, on average, will experience problems achieving psychosocial well-being' Of this 30% , 2/3 will also have serious behavior and/or mood problems related to psychosocial distress. The nursing home social worker faces the challenge of trying to meet the psychosocial heeds of nursing home residents. Because of the difficulty of this task it is …

Assessing Crime Victim Satisfaction With Probation Services, Janet L. Isaacson

Theses and Graduate Projects

The field of Community Corrections has been mainly focused on identifying the needs and wants of the offender and the safety of the community. As the voices of crime victims are getting louder in the criminal justice system, probation departments are evaluating how to improve response to victim needs. A new framework that is being implemented in Community Corrections to meet those needs is a model called Restorative Justice. This model incorporates services to the offender, the victim, and the community.

A pilot project which offered specific victim services was developed out of the restorative justice concept through the Community …

Interventions With Older Adults With Hoarding Behaviors Living In "Garbage Houses", Henry J. Schoonover

Theses and Graduate Projects

The purpose of this study was to explore what interventions are being used on older adults living in what are described as "garbage houses." This study interviewed seven human service professionals to find how they intervened, what techniques they used, and what theoretical orientations influenced their intervention choices. With the help of articles in the literature and the findings from the respondents interviewed in this study, a hypothesis was developed emphasizing the systems perspective and problem solving method to establish a theoretical construct for an intervention. The intervention recommended would vary according to the individual client's need, but include short …

A Program To Facilitate, Integrate, And Transform Masculinity And Femininity In Teachers To Enhance Wholeness And Creativity, Gwenneth A. Litke

Theses and Graduate Projects

The purpose of this paper is to provide school social workers with a program to facilitate the integration of teachers' masculine and feminine dimensions. Any changes in teachers will have an effect on students' wholeness and broader implications within the school. The program focuses on the integral role of one's family in nurturing or limiting the psychological characteristics of masculinity and femininity. Strategies are provided to increase creativity, enhance learning for students, and decrease gender stereotyping. The program offers personal and professional growth to teachers in an effort to provide a more creative and energetic learning environment for students.

Client Satisfaction With Transition Services Provided By Hennepin County, Services For Persons With Disabilities, Julie Zinski

Theses and Graduate Projects

The purpose of this study is to explore client satisfaction with transition services provided through Hennepin County, Services for Persons with Disabilities. Historically, few studies have been conducted in the literature that address satisfaction of people with disabilities in the services they receive. Without this important element in developing and implementing new programs, complete success cannot be achieved.

In this study, individuals who were receiving services through the program for a period of six months or more, and were between the ages of 18 and 23, were selected to be contacted by mail to participate in an interview. The study …

Case Manager's Perceptions Of The Use And Effectiveness Of Sanctions In The Stride Program, Suzanne Hansen

Theses and Graduate Projects

This study explores the perceptions that case managers have regarding the use and effectiveness of sanctions in the STRIDE program. STRIDE is Minnesota's welfare reform effort which came out of the federal Family Support Act of 1 988. Ninety-four case managers through out Minnesota were surveyed. Participants shared their views on the purpose and results of sanctions with mandated school attenders. Participants also shared ideas for alternative approaches to sanctioning. A review of the literature explored theories of motivation, learned helplessness and social obligation which provide a foundation for the study. The effectiveness, advantages and disadvantages of mandatory welfare programs …

Evaluation Of The Crisis Intervention Program In A Family Preservation Services Agency, Mary Lou Kley

Theses and Graduate Projects

This is an investigative and evaluative study of a Crisis Intervention Program, part of Family Preservation Services. It is in response to issues concerning the effectiveness of Family Preservation Services and how that effectiveness is measured. An inductive analysis of case records was performed to gain a better understanding of factors which contributed to putting families at risk of placing children out of the home, what interventions were used that seemed to benefit most, and the experiences and techniques of the crisis intervention workers that seemed most helpful in resolving family crises. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from in-take …

Minneapolis Kinship Mentoring Program: A Descriptive And Exploratory Study, Susan J. Kramer

Theses and Graduate Projects

Children are growing up with a diminished level of adult contact that affects their social and emotional well-being. Structured adult-to-youth mentoring programs provide stable, caring adult mentors for youth in need of additional adult support. This qualitative study describes the Kinship Program, its program population and explores the nature of mentoring relationships between children and mentors from the Minneapolis Kinship Program. For this thesis, personal interviews were conducted with parents whose children were matched with mentors from the Kinship Program. Fourteen interviews were completed; this was a 47 percent response rate. Interview results indicated that parents believed mentors developed trust …

Development Of A Workshop For Older Adult Volunteers Using A Life Strengths Guide With Clients, Karen A. Strom

Theses and Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project is to develop a training workshop that teaches older adult volunteers about a Life Strengths Interview Guide that can be used when working with clients. The framework of the workshop focuses on Erik Erikson's life cycle theory with a strengths perspective. The interview guide is divided into eight sections that relate to Erikson's eight psychosocial stages of life. Each section contains questions related to a specific stage in life and is intended to get the client talking about the strengths that are found in these specific areas of his or her life. The workshop is …

Homeless African-American Familtes And Transitional Housing : An Ecological Perspective, Sandra Coleman

Theses and Graduate Projects

The purpose of this exploratory/descriptive study is to explore the variables associated with the uderrepresentation of African-American families in Minneapolis transitional housing programs. This underrepresentation is notable given the fact that African-American families were overrepresented in Twin City Metro Area emergency shelters. The Twin City Metro Area includes the city of Minneapolis. Lastly, homeless single parent families headed by women are the fastest growing segment within the homeless population, and urban homeless families are disproportionately African-Americans. The methodology involves conducting phone interviews with key informants from the Minneapolis transitional housing community. The collected data will cover three categories: (1) 1994 …

School Social Workers' Perceptions Of Their Role In Preventing And Eliminating Discrimination Toward Gay, Lesbian And Bisexual Students, Jennifer E. Corniea

Theses and Graduate Projects

The purpose of this research was to explore school social workers' perceptions of their role in advocating for and providing services to gay, lesbian and bisexual students. The focus of the research was on Minnesota school social workers who were working in a school(s) which served any grade between sixth and twelfth. The research design included both qualitative and quantitative methods. A survey was developed and distributed to 250 school social workers in Minnesota. Ninety-eight of those who were eligible for the research elected to participate. Findings indicate that school social workers assume a variety of roles within the school …

The Relationship Between Service Utilization And Psychiatric Hospitalization Among People Diagnosed With Borderline Personality Disorder, Craig S. Schwalbe

Theses and Graduate Projects

This exploratory study was conducted to determine the relationship between service utilization and the psychiatric hospitalization among people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Secondary analysis was performed on the case files of 12 female adult clients of a rural county social service mental health department who are diagnosed with BPD. Results indicate that service utilization by this population is comparable regardless of time spent in acute psychiatric hospitals. Results further indicate that history of childhood sexual abuse was a predictor of hospitalization in this sample. A replication of this study which utilizes multiple methods is recommended. Implications for direct …

An Exploration Of Nursing Home Social Workers' Training And Support Networks In The Area Of Death And Grief, Gena Du Bois

Theses and Graduate Projects

This exploratory study was formulated for the purpose of collecting data to define and substantiate the phenomenon of "Grieve out," coined by Dick Obershaw of Burnsville, Minnesota. "Grieve out" will be defined as ...emotional investment...staff invests and never divest of the relationship" upon the death of the resident. The definition of burnout will be discussed as it is not dissimilar to "grieve out." This thesis is based on Doka's theories of disenfranchised grief. Bowlby's attachment and loss theory, and Vachon's occupational stress theory. It is based on these theorists that this work will focus on boundaries. supportive networks, and specific …

The Degree Of Agreement In Defining Child Maltreatment Among Hennepin County Child Protection Workers In Minnesota, Emily Sprague Ryan

Theses and Graduate Projects

State laws set broad and vague limits on defining child maltreatment. Varying interpretations may occur between communities and within communities when defining maltreatment. The purpose of this study was to describe how consistent social workers at Hennepin County child protection define child maltreatment. The study analyzed any differences among the workers through examining background of the worker. The study involved an anonymous survey of 160 workers. The study findings indicated that workers were inconsistent 50% of the time The study was inconclusive in determining if position, race, age, years in social work, or years in current position changed perceptions of …

Barriers To Cardiac Patients Returning To Work: Program Planning Guidelines For Social Workers In Outpatient Cardiac Rehabilitation Programs, Anne Powers

Theses and Graduate Projects

The purpose of this study is to explore barriers to cardiac patients under the age of 65 in returning to their jobs following cardiac events and create program planning guidelines based on the findings. Reasons why patients do not return to work noted in the literature include job stress, anxiety and depression, cardiac invalidism, and/or physical limitations. Former outpatient cardiac rehabilitation patients were surveyed as well as professionals who work in hospitals or clinics with cardiac patients to assess barriers to returning to work following a cardiac event and how outpatient cardiac rehabilitation programs can assist patients in returning to …