Digital Commons Network^™

The Silent Suffering Of Survivors: The Covid-19 Pandemic's Impact On Domestic Violence Resources, Osoniya I. Wodi

XULAneXUS

Increased reports of domestic violence has coincided with the eruptions and growth of the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous research has shown a positive correlation between domestic violence and the occurrence of humanitarian crises. Recently published research about domestic violence police reports in the COVID-19 pandemic has also supported this correlation. We used data from the National Network To End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) to analyze the number of survivors served by domestic violence programs in the United States, type of resources available, and unmet request from 2019-2021, one year pre-pandemic and the first two years of the pandemic. Findings from this study …

Using Sbirt (Screen, Brief Intervention, And Referral Treatment) Training To Reduce The Stigmatization Of Substance Use Disorders Among Students And Practitioners, Efren Gomez, Matthew Gyger, Stephanie Borene, Amanda Klein-Cox, Ramona Denby, Sara Hunt, Oscar Sida

Social Work Faculty Research

Negative attitudes and stigmatization of substance-using patients lead to treatment avoidance and poor physical and health out- comes. Research suggests that training in substance use disorders is a vital tool to abate negative attitudes among health workers. The present longitudinal study trained students and experienced practitioners from various disciplines on the evidence-based Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) model. The study found significant improvements in the attitudes of students—but not practitioners—who were trained during the program. The paper discusses policy and implementation implications to support and complement sustained impact of training on models such as SBIRT.

Grace Abbott Training Supervision Academy: A Year Of Growth, Collaboration, And Impact, Susan Reay, Grace Abbott Training And Supervision Academy, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Social Work Faculty Publications

I am pleased to share with you our 2023 Grace Abbott Training and Supervision Academy Report: A Year of Growth, Collaboration, and Impact. As you read through our report, you will see that in 2023, we focused on refining our offerings to meet the needs of our loyal base of social workers, mental health practitioners, and critical stakeholders who are passionate about learning and collaborating to improve people's lives. The Grace Abbott Training and Supervision Academy provides evidence-based workforce development through continuing education and supervision for behavioral health practitioners at any career stage. We are committed to breaking down barriers …

Understanding Social Care, Teresa Brown, Kevin Lalor

Books/Book chapters

As the English writer L. P. Hartley noted in opening his 1953 novel The Go-Between, ‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there’. The previous edition of this book was published in 2013, and indeed Ireland then was in many ways a substantially different place. It was a country that had suffered the ignominy of being ‘bailed out’ by our European partners after the trauma of the financial crash that had commenced in 2008. Hard to believe now, but commentators bemoaned the excessive level of construction of houses and hotels, marriage equality for LGBTQ+ people was still …

Social Workers’ Philosophical Attitudes Towards Harm Reduction Services In Housing First Organizations, John Gay Woolley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractOver the past three decades, harm reduction has gradually become more prevalent among social workers and is now viewed as an instrumental approach in treating people with drug and alcohol problems. Although there have been several studies that described how harm reduction approaches were applied in Housing First (HF) settings, there are few studies that have described social workers’ perspectives of their philosophical attitudes regarding harm reduction in HF settings. The purpose of this study was to understand social workers’ perspectives of their philosophical attitudes toward harm reduction services and how those attitudes were apparent in their interactions with substance-using …

The Reconciliation Of Cognitive Dissonance Among Social Workers In Substance Use Treatment Settings, Miranda Ashley Kieler

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although harm reduction (HR) and abstinence-based treatment approaches are both useful in addiction treatment, the former is less accepted and integrated into practice. Social workers who embrace an HR approach but who work at substance abuse treatment facilities that are abstinence based may experience cognitive dissonance because they perceive their work role to be incompatible with social work practice values and education. Little was known regarding how practitioners with a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree experience and reconcile cognitive dissonance related to their HR education and abstinence-only practice in substance use treatment centers. To address this gap in the …

Developing The Weaving Healthy Families Program To Promote Wellness And Prevent Substance Abuse And Violence: Approach, Adaptation, And Implementation, Catherine E. Mclinley, Jenn M. Lilly, Jessica L. Liddell, Hannah Knipp, Tamela Autumn Solomon, Nikki Comby, Harold Comby, Patricia Haynes, Kathleen Ferris, Maple Goldberg

Social Service Faculty Publications

Family prevention programs that enhance mental health, wellness, and resilience—while simultaneously addressing violence and alcohol and other drug (AOD) abuse—among Indigenous families are scarce. This gap in culturally grounded and community-based programs creates a critical need to develop and evaluate the efficacy of such prevention programs. This article fills this gap, with the purpose of describing the structure and content of the Weaving Healthy Families (WHF) program, a culturally grounded and community-based program aimed at preventing violence and AOD use while promoting mental health, resilience, and wellness in Indigenous families. The focus then turns to how to approach this process …

Big Ideas, Small Data: Opportunities And Challenges For Data Science And The Social Services Sector, Gerri Dimas, Lauri Goldkind, Renata Konrad

Social Service Faculty Publications

The social services sector, comprised of a constellation of programs meeting critical human needs, lacks the resources and infrastructure to implement data science tools. As the use of data science continues to expand, it has been accom- panied by a rise in interest and commitment to using these tools for social good. This commentary examines overlooked, and under-researched limitations of data science applications in the social sector—the volume, quality, and context of the available data that currently exists in social service systems require unique considerations. We explore how the presence of small data within the social service contexts can result …

Social Identity As A Factor In Bystander Responses To Bias-Based Verbal Aggression Among College Students, Shveta Kumaria, David S. Byers, Katherine M. Mccarthy, Carmen Moedano

Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research Faculty Research and Scholarship

Bias-based bullying is a significant problem in the United States, including aggression targeting college students with minoritized social identities. Bystander responsiveness can help to buffer the effects, but social identity factors may influence how students respond to bias-based aggression among peers. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of a subsample (N = 7,291) of the 2018–2019 Healthy Minds Study to test correlations between racial, sexual, and gender identities and self-reported and hypothetical peer interventions. Students who identify with minoritized sexual and gender identities, across racial identities, are most likely to report past or intended interventions while students who identify as …

Perceptions Of The Grant Decision-Making Process: A Study Of Foundation Grantmakers And Grant Seekers Who Focus On Youth Violence In Chicago, Illinois, Patiya Freely

Dissertations

Local partners like churches, schools, and community organizations are often at the front lines of addressing the problem of recurring deadly violence against Black urban youth. Foundation grants are frequently used to fund their work. While foundations annually award millions of dollars in grants to community-based organizations addressing youth violence, there is little detailed information available about the foundation grantmaking decision-making process. Notably, there is a lack of research on the determinants of the grant decision-making process that may inadvertently affect grantee outcomes and ultimately the of beneficiary organizations and communities.A sample of ten decision-makers who had funded or sought …

Professional Discretion Of Child Protective Services Investigators In Foster Care Placements, Leonard Fikes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Families of color in North Carolina have been disproportionately affected in the child welfare system, particularly in the foster care system. The purpose of this qualitative research study examined the discretionary powers of Child Protective Services (CPS) investigators and how they interpreted and applied child welfare policies that disproportionally impacted African American families from marginalized, underrepresented communities. Guided by Wallander and Molander’s professional discretion as the framework, this research expanded the current literature and increased awareness of racial disproportionality and the continued disproportionality of African American children in the child welfare system, especially foster care placements. The central research question …

Social Worker Perspectives On Implementation Of Harm Reduction Into Abstinence-Based Substance Abuse Programs, Susan Woomer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Opioid addiction is a growing epidemic in the United States and was declared a public health emergency by the Department of Health and Human Services in October of 2017. There is a growing recognition that the current treatment for heroin and opioid addiction, abstinence-based treatment programs, is not readily available and has minimal success in addressing the epidemic. Harm reduction therapy is recognized as an effective way to address the opioid epidemic. This study aimed to develop further insight and understanding of how to integrate harm reduction therapy in abstinence-based treatment programs. The theoretical framework for this study was the …

Effect Of Family Engagement On The Behavioral Health Of Mentally Ill Offenders, Jessica Rae Horn

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, 40% of incarcerated individuals have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder, but they often lack the support system needed to navigate their incarceration. This study addressed ways to understand how family engagement opportunities can improve the behavioral health of mentally ill offenders. Specifically, five research questions were used to explore the degree to which the practice of family engagement was understood as a method for providing support to mentally ill incarcerated individuals. The study followed the Baldrige Framework of Excellence to identify current organizational leadership and management issues that can help reach its goals, improve …

“Talking Sweet And Moving Quiet”: Trauma And Resiliency In Gang-Involved Girls In Belize, Kristcha Deguerre

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Background: Currently, the research exploring gangs in Belize is growing, with one exception; current research excludes gang-involved girls and women. Besides a previous pilot study conducted by this author, there is no known research on gangs in Belize that includes girls and women. Given the extent to which gang violence and activity is increasing within Belize, it is crucial to understand the entire gang-involved population in order to combat this growing social issue.

Risk At The Boundaries Of Social Work: An Editorial, Rory Crath, Jeremy Dixon, Jo Warner

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

In this editorial we introduce a special thematic collection of articles which focus on how risk operates, or is conceptualised, at the boundaries of social work practice. The collection includes theoretical, empirical, and practice-oriented articles, each of which critically engages with contemporary debates about risk and social work and its complex intersections with boundary making in diverse fields. These fields include social work with older people, child sexual abuse and exploitation, and people with learning disabilities. We begin the editorial with a brief account of how social work can be defined and the competing ideological traditions that underpin differing forms …

Grace Abbott Training And Supervision Academy Annual Report 2022, Michelle Nelsen, Susan Reay, Ellen Rice, Katie Robbins Case

Social Work Faculty Publications

GATSA trainings target social workers, students, and other professionals in practice areas including major mental disorder, addiction, LGBTQ bias and stigma, aging and dementia, children and families, corrections and forensics, suicide, cultural literacy, public and private mental health, supervision, research/policy/ licensure, domestic violence, rural and underserved communities, and school social work.

Social Workers’ Philosophical Attitudes Towards Harm Reduction Services In Housing First Organizations, John Gay Woolley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractOver the past three decades, harm reduction has gradually become more prevalent among social workers and is now viewed as an instrumental approach in treating people with drug and alcohol problems. Although there have been several studies that described how harm reduction approaches were applied in Housing First (HF) settings, there are few studies that have described social workers’ perspectives of their philosophical attitudes regarding harm reduction in HF settings. The purpose of this study was to understand social workers’ perspectives of their philosophical attitudes toward harm reduction services and how those attitudes were apparent in their interactions with substance-using …

Trauma-Informed Care: A Collaborative Strategy To Address Hiv-Infection Rates Among Black Gay And Bisexual Men, Willie T. Boddie Jr.

DSW Capstone Projects

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) continues to be an epidemic among gay and bisexual men or men who have sex with men (MSMs). For Black MSMs, the HIV infection rate is disproportionate compared to the number of Black or African American citizens in the U.S. Black MSMs have the highest HIV infection rate in the U.S. This Capstone Project seeks to explore the possible impact of trauma experiences among this group and determine how providing trauma-informed care, along with the standard HIV education and awareness can be used to effectively reduce this disparity and ultimately …

Mitigating Compounded Barriers To Independence: Improving Outcomes Post Emancipation For Foster Youth With Secondary And Tertiary Barriers To Success, Corletha Norman

DSW Capstone Projects

A total of 407,493 children were identified as foster children by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (2021) at the completion of their 2020 fiscal year. The reason for entry into foster care is just as varied as the way in which the children exit. It is expected that many foster youth will experience poor outcomes as a result of their foster care experiences. Poor outcomes continue to be an ever-present undesired rite of passage for foster youth preparing to leave foster care at or after the age of 18. Research conducted over …

Annual Credit Checks For Adolescent Youth In Foster Care: Factors Associated With Identity Fraud Victimization, John Gyourko, Johanna K. P. Greeson

Department of Social Work - Faculty Scholarship

Child identity fraud, or the criminal exploitation of a child’s personal data, poses serious risks and challenges for youth in foster care. Despite the 10-year history of a federal mandate requiring state child welfare agencies to conduct annual credit checks for adolescent foster youth (42 U.S.C. § 675), identity fraud has received scant attention in child welfare research. Analyzing a state-level administrative dataset with linked child welfare and consumer credit records, we employed logistic regression to assess demographic and foster care placement factors associated with identity fraud victimization among a statewide population cohort of 1,176 youth (age 14 to …

Sheprep: Examining The Influence Of The Messaging And The Messenger Associated With Prep Uptake Among African American Women, Christian C. Spears

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

African American Women (AAW) make up less than 15% of the female population in the United States but account for over 50% of new HIV diagnoses among females. This largely preventable health disparity can be mitigated by advocating and prescribing Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), a preventive HIV medication, to persons at risk. Despite advances in medication options, there are less than 13% of Black people who could benefit from having been prescribed PrEP, and limited research and promotion on the effectiveness of PrEP for AAW. The “ShePrEP Study” aimed to assess awareness, perceptions, and receptivity toward PrEP among AAW. This study …

Intimate Partner Violence: The Silent Enemy Among African Immigrant Women, Omoniyi Anne Bello

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Intimate partner violence among immigrant and minority groups remains a social and health problem that has garnered little attention. African immigrant women particularly face intersectional challenges (e.g., language barriers, unemployment, and lack of access to health care, resources, and services) that heighten their vulnerability to partner violence. Yet, knowledge about their experiences remains elusive in empirical research. Examining the nature and extent of their experience can provide valuable insights that could enhance research and practice on partner violence. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to explore the experiences of African immigrant women survivors of partner violence in Edmonton, …

Help-Seeking Behaviors And Employment Hope Among Depressed Black Male Foster Care Alumni, Vanessa Jennings

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Traumatic depression is a system of experiences where the mind, heart, and gut track happenings lingering among systemic models of prevention and intervention and personal stories. This nonexperimental correlational study aimed to provide insights into mental help-seeking and employment hope among depressed Black/African American foster care male alums. The central research question was to what degree, if any, a positive relationship exists between employment hope and seeking access to mental health-related services among male foster care alums who identify with depression. It was hypothesized that a statistically significant relationship exists. The social cognitive career theory and theory of planned behavior …

Social Workers’ Philosophical Attitudes Towards Harm Reduction Services In Housing First Organizations, John Gay Woolley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractOver the past three decades, harm reduction has gradually become more prevalent among social workers and is now viewed as an instrumental approach in treating people with drug and alcohol problems. Although there have been several studies that described how harm reduction approaches were applied in Housing First (HF) settings, there are few studies that have described social workers’ perspectives of their philosophical attitudes regarding harm reduction in HF settings. The purpose of this study was to understand social workers’ perspectives of their philosophical attitudes toward harm reduction services and how those attitudes were apparent in their interactions with substance-using …

Intimate Partner Violence: The Silent Enemy Among African Immigrant Women, Omoniyi Anne Bello

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Intimate partner violence among immigrant and minority groups remains a social and health problem that has garnered little attention. African immigrant women particularly face intersectional challenges (e.g., language barriers, unemployment, and lack of access to health care, resources, and services) that heighten their vulnerability to partner violence. Yet, knowledge about their experiences remains elusive in empirical research. Examining the nature and extent of their experience can provide valuable insights that could enhance research and practice on partner violence. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to explore the experiences of African immigrant women survivors of partner violence in Edmonton, …

Help-Seeking Behaviors And Employment Hope Among Depressed Black Male Foster Care Alumni, Vanessa Jennings

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Traumatic depression is a system of experiences where the mind, heart, and gut track happenings lingering among systemic models of prevention and intervention and personal stories. This nonexperimental correlational study aimed to provide insights into mental help-seeking and employment hope among depressed Black/African American foster care male alums. The central research question was to what degree, if any, a positive relationship exists between employment hope and seeking access to mental health-related services among male foster care alums who identify with depression. It was hypothesized that a statistically significant relationship exists. The social cognitive career theory and theory of planned behavior …

School Social Workers’ Role In School Discipline: Understanding School Discipline And Juvenile Justice, Staisha D. Hamilton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Disproportionate disciplinary actions relating to school-based offenses for Black youth influence their early juvenile justice involvement. The continued excessive disciplinary actions involving Black male students in lower-level academic settings are concerning because, without being addressed, continuing disproportionate disciplinary action toward Black males can lead to future juvenile justice involvement and create a large-scale social work practice issue. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to focus on school social workers’ perspectives of their role in addressing disproportionate disciplinary strategies and their understanding of the relationship between school discipline strategies and juvenile justice involvement. The theoretical framework of this project …

Who Has Control In The Courtroom?: Maine Lawyers' Process For Client Representation Family Matters Cases And How Perceptions Of Coercive Control Impact Their Process, Katie Seelen Msw

All Student Scholarship

Supervising Professor: Rachel Casey Informed by the researcher’s work with women struggling through separation and child custody legal proceedings with their abusive male co-parents, the study seeks to understand if and how Maine’s court system considers intimate partner violence (IPV) in family matters cases. The research aims to gain specific insight into family lawyers’ understanding and consideration of coercive control—a term encompassing gender-based, psychologically abusive and controlling behaviors—when representing clients in divorce and parental rights and responsibilities cases. Under the label “post-separation abuse,” growing literature demonstrates the extent to which coercive control among separating co-parents manifests through the family court …

A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis Of Factors Associated With Burnout Among Early Childhood Education And Care Providers, Lee Wells

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Burnout among the early childhood workforce has gained widespread attention in research and policy due to greater awareness of the negative impacts on children, providers, and organizations. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) providers create supportive and nurturing environments that facilitate early learning and development for young children. Accordingly, ECEC providers are the connective tissue between program intentions and outcomes. Despite the critical nature of the field, early childhood providers continue to be underpaid, under-resourced, and undervalued, leading to a high risk of burnout. With turnover rates of ECEC providers higher than ever, the link between burnout and attrition has …

Engaging Predominantly White Churches In Racial Justice Work, Christopher B. Rakestraw

DSW Capstone Projects

Over the past three years, the tragic deaths of many people of color have renewed nationwide discourse on racial injustices and racism. White churches seeking to become anti-racist are confronted with a number of obstacles. This capstone project addresses the topic of Engaging Predominantly White Churches in Racial Justice Work through three interconnected scholarly products. Each product draws from the research of sociology, psychology, social work, education, and religion to investigate a different aspect of the overarching subject.

The Systematic Literature Review examines the impact of white racial identity on the racial attitudes of Predominantly White Church (PWC) congregants. Evidence …