Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

How Social Work Librarians Connect Social Justice To Information Literacy., Stephen Maher, Carin Graves, Sarah C. Johnson

Publications and Research

In this paper we, as members of the ACRL EBSS Social Work Committee,1 share our experience of developing a companion document to the ACRL Framework.2 Our overarching goal of this project is to clearly demonstrate the overlap between the ACRL Framework and social work’s educational competencies professional ethics. Over the course of this two-year project, we developed a fuller understanding of how social justice—and its corresponding concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion—exist in both professions.

Innovative Social Work Field Placements In Public Libraries, Sarah C. Johnson

Publications and Research

While the collaborative trend among professional social workers and librarians has accumulated much-deserved attention for several years, literature about social work students partnering with public libraries is only beginning to emerge. In fact, there are at least 100 branches that host social work students, yet academic literature examining the scope of these collaborations is sparse. Student placements do exist at Canadian and Australian libraries, yet the current research focuses on the bulk of known partnerships based in the United States. This paper includes information on the prevalence, nature, and fit of social work education and public library partnerships, garnered from …

Public Speaking As Advocacy: Formulating Your Group Advocacy Presentation, Dawn Daniels

Open Educational Resources

The slide presentation guides the students in presenting their final assignment to their classmates. The purpose of this lecture and assignment is to prepare them for advocacy work on behalf of marginalized and oppressed populations.

Swk 600: Research Methods I, Barbra Teater

Open Educational Resources

This course syllabus is for a Master level social work course on research methods. This course is the first in a two-part series where the end product is a research proposal in this course that is then carried out in the subsequent course. This course could also serve as a stand-alone course ending with the research proposal. The course uses an OER textbook resulting in a zero-textbook-cost (ZTC) for the students.

How Psychotherapists Practice In The Digital Era, Josh Weinstein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The digital era, marked by digital devices connected via high speed data networks, has altered human experience in profound ways over the past 40 years. The potential for novel forms of human relating and fulfillment of desire has led to myriad changes in behavior, thought and unconscious activity. While many adapt or thrive in expanded reality, for some, the digital can be context, source and/or location for psychological affliction. When those who suffer seek psychological relief, how psychotherapists listen for, conceptualize and work with the effects of the digital matter a great deal. While theoretical and quantitative research literature exists …

Prevention In Context: An Examination Of Factors Associated With Recent Hiv Testing Among Men In New York City, Anthony Freeman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Using intersectionality, Critical Race Theory and Quare theory as theoretical frameworks, this dissertation employs hierarchical logistic regression and data from New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) Community Health Survey (CHS) to examine the relative association of key variables and domains -- demographics, sexual characteristics, risk factors and engagement in medical care variables -- on recent HIV testing for a sample of 3997 men. Further, this study explores these effects separately for White, Black, Latino and Asian men.

Findings shows that respondents who were 18-24 years old, 45-64 years old, residing in Queens or Staten Island, employed, …

Spilling The Tea In Bilingual Latinx New York City Department Of Education School Social Workers: Towards Entre Nos, Cindy M. Bautista-Thomas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Social workers play an important role in schools. There are about one million children enrolled in the New York City Department of Education(NYCDOE) school system, across 1,843 schools (New York City Department of Education, 2020). Of those students, the largest demographic group is the Latinx population, which has been increasing steadily since 2011. Therefore, there is an urgent need not only to increase the numbers of culturally responsive bilingual Latinx social workers, but also to understand their professional experiences. In order to address this gap in knowledge, the roles of bilingual Latinx school social workers as culturally responsive practitioners in …

Reflections On The Bgj Anti-Racism Seminar, Michelle Billies

Publications and Research

In this Letter to the Editor, Billies (2021) responds to critical and supportive opinion pieces in the British Gestalt Journal (BGJ) following their plenary presentation at BGJ’s 2018 annual seminar (see Asherson Bartram, 2019; O’Malley, 2019). As author of the companion article "How/ Can Gestalt Therapy Promote Liberation from Anti-Black Racism?” (Billies, 2021), Billies, who identifies as white, discusses the intent at the seminar to support white people to increase accountability and reduce harm in dialogue with people of color, while supporting the work and needs of people of color on their terms from a Gestalt perspective. Describing a fishbowl …

How/Can Gestalt Therapy Promote Liberation From Anti-Black Racism?, Michelle Billies

Publications and Research

Anti-Black racism is an interruption of contact that often takes place out of awareness, and is continuously enacted through innumerable fixed gestalts at every level of human experience. Gestalt therapy as a movement does not leverage its great potential for undoing fixed gestalts of anti-Black racism, or supporting fluid gestalts of racial liberation; this article explores GT theories and practices that do so. I first discuss how concepts of the field, ground, awareness, consciousness, and contact can be informed by ideas such as intersectionality and double consciousness from Black liberation history as well as theorists such as Crenshaw, DuBois, Fanon, …

Public Library-Based Social Work Field Placements: Guidance For Public Libraries Planning To Become A Social Work Practicum Site, Elizabeth A. Wahler, Jacob D. Ressler, Sarah C. Johnson, Colleen Rortvedt, Tasha Saecker, John Helling, Michael A. Williams, Danielle Hoover

Publications and Research

Public libraries are increasingly faced with patron psychosocial needs, including mental health problems, substance use, homelessness, or poverty-related needs. Since library staff are often not trained to address these needs, many are choosing to host on-site social work practicum students to provide information and referrals for patrons presenting with psychosocial needs. However, little existing guidance is available about initiating a social work practicum placement, which can leave libraries unprepared and often “reinventing the wheel”. This manuscript provides guidance on the steps that should be considered by libraries intending to host their first social work practicum student.

Social Work/Public Library Partnerships: Patron Needs Addressed By Msw Students, Beth Wahler Ph.D., Mary Provence Msw, Lcsw, Sarah C. Johnson Mlis, Lmsw

Publications and Research

Dozens of public libraries in the United States partner with social work, including via practicum placements, to address patrons’ psychosocial needs. This presentation examines and compares staff and patron perceptions of patrons’ needs with actual usage of social work practicum student services by patrons within a large urban library branch.

Social Work Librarians Promoting Social Justice Through Critical Information Literacy, Sarah C. Johnson, Stephen Maher Mlis

Publications and Research

The Association of College and Research Libraries’ Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education aligns with the Council on Social Work Education’s mission to foster information literate students. Academic librarians discuss how the Framework aligns with social work educational competencies and propose how partnerships with teaching faculty help prepare research-informed students and practitioners.

Impacts Of Mental Health First Aid On Mental Health Literacy And Stigma, Junseon Hwang

Student Theses

Mental Health First Aid has been developed to train the general public to give initial support to those in mental health crisis and development. The effectiveness of Mental Health First Aid has been questioned due to its relatively short history of the course. Mental Health First Aid was recently widely-disseminated in New York City as part of the ThriveNYC initiative. While most studies were supportive of the training, there has been no study that specifically examines New York residents. We recruited 328 New York residents who self-reported whether or not they have participated in Mental Health First Aid via Amazon …

Job Satisfaction Among Peer Support Staff In Mental Health Treatment And Recovery-Oriented Settings, Jonathan P. Edwards

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Introduction/Objective: Peer support practice in mental health treatment and recovery-oriented service settings has seen exponential growth during the past several decades. An estimated 25,000 certified peer specialists in the United States alone necessitates a deeper understanding of factors that are associated with job satisfaction. While there exists a body of research on this topic, many of these studies were conducted with limited sample sizes, within discrete practice settings and geographic regions, often focused on one facet of job satisfaction (e.g., compensation), and lacked racial diversity in the sample. The current study addresses these limitations by examining multiple factors associated with …

Facilitators And Barriers For Home Health Aides Detecting And Reporting Elder Abuse In New York City, Agnieszka K. Halarewicz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Elder abuse impacts close to 13 percent of older adults in the US. It exists in secret, with only about one in 24 cases becoming known to the systems that can provide intervention. As baby boomers age and the general population lives longer, for example New York City is expecting to have up to 1.3 million adults by year 2030, the number of people impacted by abuse is expected to drastically increase. A gap exists in the current span of knowledge and practice applications about the issue, particularly around homecare services. Home health aides, a rapidly growing profession, provide direct …

Truth Telling: Exploring Sexuality In Widowed And Single Older Black Women, Margaret A. Salisu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Interest in older adults’ sexuality is reflected in the significant growth of literature on sexuality and aging, especially in the last few decades, and in growing media interest in this topic. Clinicians, researchers, educators, journalists, policymakers, and other stakeholders continue to highlight the importance of sexuality and sexual health in the older population. However, available studies in this area pertain to older married people almost exclusively and the few available studies on widows focus exclusively on White women. To address this gap in knowledge, this study focused on older widowed and single Black women aged 65 to 75 years. Feminist …

Holding Both: Witness Aid Workers' Experiences Supporting Intimate Partner Violence Survivors In District Attorney Offices, Ovita Williams

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Social workers and advocates practice in district attorney (DA) offices as witness or victim aid workers providing intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors counseling, advocacy, resources and information as they enter the criminal legal system (CLS). Their experiences, in particular how stress and vicarious trauma (VT) manifested for them in this unique setting within the criminal legal system, had not yet been examined. This phenomenological study sought to better understand (1) how social workers and advocates in a prosecutor’s office experience practice with intimate partner violence survivors, (2) their experiences of stress, secondary traumatic stress, vicarious trauma, and supports, and (3) …

Mission Adrift: The Impact Of Managerialism On Graduate Social Work Education, Carolyn Hanesworth

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Neoliberal policies have led to the installation of managerialism, or the application of business practices and principles in institutions of higher education. Although much is known about the impact of managerialism on faculty in the overall academy, very little is known about its impact in specific disciplines, particularly in the United States. Using semi-structured interviews, this dissertation investigates how social work faculty experience and negotiate managerialism in the traditional pillars of teaching, service, and scholarship.

This study found that managerialism leads universities to place new and increased demands for productivity, efficiency, and accountability on social work faculty. Respondents report major …

Scwk 410 Field Placement And Seminar I (Individuals And Families), Shirell Roeback

Open Educational Resources

Social Work 410 is the second of the three-course field practice sequence (SCWK 293, 410 & 492). Supervised field experience. On-site visits by Social Work faculty. Integration of field, classroom learning in a weekly on-campus seminar and professional preparation. Placements are from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on two weekdays for a minimum of 200 hours for the semester. Permission required for repeating the course.

Preliminary Efficacy Of Motivational Interviewing On Problem Drinkers 55 And Older Compared To Younger Counterparts, Alexis Kuerbis, Sijing Shao, Nehal Vadhan, Jon Morgenstern

Publications and Research

Background: Older adults who drink problematically are the largest group of substance users among those 55 and older. This group often chooses moderation as a goal instead of abstinence, and motivation and self-efficacy are found to have less of an impact on drinking compared to younger adults. No study has examined age effects (specifically 55 and older vs. younger counterparts) on motivational interviewing (MI) compared to brief advice with a sample that includes individuals over 65. Objective: To explore the moderating impact of age on heavy drinkers’ (aged M=50.7 years SD=11.6, range 23-73) response to MI. Methods: Data …

Exploring Vicarious Resilience Among Practitioners Working With Clients Who Have Experienced Traumatic Events, Adam Reynolds

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Vicarious Resilience is the positive impact that practitioners may experience when working with individuals who have lived through traumatic events. The effects of this phenomenon may be noticed as changes in life goals and perspective, client-inspired hope, increased recognition of clients’ spirituality as a therapeutic resource, increased capacity for resourcefulness, increased self-awareness and self-care practices, increased consciousness about power and privilege relative to clients’ social location, and increased capacity for remaining present while listening to trauma narratives.

While prior research into vicarious resilience has focused primarily on practitioners in trauma-specific settings, this quantitative dissertation studied the experiences of a convenience …

We Need A Loud And Fractious Poor, Jeff Maskovsky, Frances Fox Piven

Publications and Research

This article explores the political consequences of four decades of consistent humiliation of the poor by the most authoritative voices in the land, and offers insights into ways that new movements are creating spaces for poor people’s political voices to surface and become relevant again. Our specific concern is the challenge that the current humiliation regime poses to those who seek to revive radical, disruptive and fractious anti-poverty activism and politics. By humiliation regime, we mean a form of political violence that maltreats those classified popularly and politically as “the poor” by treating them as undeserving of citizenship, rights, public …

From Muhammed To The Jobup: Engaging Malemployed Immigrants Through Journalism, Tiziana Rinaldi

Capstones

I focused my graduate work on the local community of malemployed immigrants. They are foreign-educated newcomers — medical doctors, pharmacists, teachers, lawyers and engineers, to name a few of their professions — who lack the resources to find skill- appropriate work in the U.S. They end up either unemployed or working at "jobs for which they’re overqualified or overeducated or both,” I wrote for NJSpotlight in 20171.

Using the social journalism method2 of engaging members of a chosen group to fill important if not crucial information gaps, I developed The JobUp, a series of free, offline educational events, as my …

Racial And Ethnic Disparities In Palliative Care: A Systematic Scoping Review, Daniel Gardner, Meredith Doherty, Gleneara Bates, Aliza Koplow, Sarah C. Johnson

Publications and Research

Despite the advances and spread of palliative care programs, communities of color remain significantly underserved. Although these disparities are widely known, there is a marked lack of empirical evidence. The authors conducted a systematic scoping review that synthesized the literature since 2000 about racial and ethnic disparities in palliative and end-of-life care. We searched PubMed, Medline, SocIndex, CINAHL, Social Work Abstracts, and PsycINFO, using search terms including palliative care or end-of-life care, disparities or barriers or utilization, and race or ethnicity or African American or Hispanic. Findings lend support to extant literature that social environmental barriers and disparities distinctly affect …

Innovative Collaborations: Social Work Student Interns At Public Libraries, Sarah C. Johnson

Publications and Research

While the collaborative trend among professional social workers and librarians is garnering much-deserved attention, literature about social work students partnering with public libraries is virtually non-existent. In fact, there are at least 73 partnerships yet a scarcity of academic literature addresses social work interns within public libraries. While there are students at Canadian libraries, this research focuses on the bulk of known partnerships based in the United States. Emerging from a mix of interviews and public resources, the author’s inquiry fosters this call to action: Social work educators must initiate interagency collaboration with libraries in order for students to expand …

The Burgeoning Information Universe: Implication For Social Work Education And Practice, Sarah C. Johnson Mslis, Lmsw, Margaret Bausman Lcsw-R, Mslis, Sarah Laleman Ward Mlis, Ma

Publications and Research

The information universe is fierce and ubiquitous, replete with a 24 hour news cycle, trolls, bots, fake news, predatory publishers, and paywalls. The exponential acceleration in access to information during these nascent years of the 21st century is simultaneously a victory for egalitarianism and promotion of social equity as well as a daunting hotbed for scurrilous and obfuscated resources requiring discerning and supple information literacy skills to efficiently and effectively navigate an ever burgeoning wealth of knowledge. If, as the above quotations imply, life-long learning and contribution to the knowledge foundation is an ethical standard for professional social workers and …

Place-Making By Black And Latinx Students In Predominantly White Institutions: Participatory Design And Meaning Making Through A Social Enterprise, Joshua P.H. Livingston

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Black and Latinx male retention in post-secondary institutions, particularly predominantly white institutions (PWI), remains a critical social problem. Even though many PWIs set up structures to welcome and support Black and Latinx males, those structures are defined and created through dominant cultural norms. They have been challenged to mitigate the individualized facets of disengagement. A social innovation, proof of concept model was conceptualized, designed, and developed alongside Black and Latinx males in college. Social innovation is defined as a new way of approaching long standing and complex problems. Proof of concept (PoC) helps to validate that processes and designs are …

Does Ethnic Identity, In-Group Preference, And Acculturation Protect Latinas With A History Of Interpersonal Trauma From Developing Symptoms Of Ptsd?, Evelyn M. Ramirez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Previous research suggests ethnic identity, a sense of belonging to a particular cultural group, may be protective against symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the role of ethnic identity, in-group preference (i.e., an individual’s preference for interactions with members of their own ethnic group) and acculturation (i.e., the level of comfort with the mainstream culture) have not been investigated as protective factors for Latinas with a history of interpersonal and sexual trauma. In this study, ethnic identity, in-group preference and acculturation were assessed via self-report on the Scale of Ethnic Experience in two samples of undergraduate Latina and non-Latina …

Partnering For Social Justice: Social Work Students’ Placement At Public Libraries, Sarah C. Johnson

Publications and Research

While the collaborative trend among professional social workers and librarians is garnering much deserved attention, literature about social work students partnering with public libraries is virtually nonexistent. Public librarians can advocate for social justice by initiating partnerships with master-level social work (MSW) students to enhance small- and large-scale programs to address the unique needs of patrons. In this chapter, I highlight existing collaborations among public libraries and student social workers to raise awareness of possibilities.

Exploring Narratives Of Adolescent-To-Parent Abuse, Sofia Oviedo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Adolescent-to-parent abuse (APA) is an often hidden form of family abuse that evidences a breakdown in the parent-child relationship with damaging effects on the physical and emotional well-being of parents and youth. This study aimed to examine the experiences of parents affected by APA, the effects on the parent-child relationship, and on parent identity. It also explored how APA influenced the relationship dynamics during conflicts, how parents managed these conflicts, and how parents viewed their power within these interactions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 parents who resided in two major cities in the US (Seattle, WA and New York …