Social Work Commons^™

The Role Of Organizational Leaders In Employee Self-Care: A Change Management Approach, Olivia Dawn Honaker

DSW Capstone Projects

Although literature demonstrates that helping professionals have had high levels of stress and burnout for decades, the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the issue. The already burdened healthcare workers, now facing increased workloads, long hours, and high-level exposure to trauma, have created an urgency to address this significant risk to helping professionals. The current capstone will bring awareness to organizational leaders regarding the importance of employee self-care and the benefits of implementing employee self-care programs. First, a systematic literature review will examine self-care in helping professions and explore how organizational leaders operationalize employee self-care programs. In addition, the capstone aims …

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 …

Policy Change To Reduce Active Duty Suicide Rates, Michelle Rae Loper

DSW Capstone Projects

There continues to be a dramatic increase in the rates of suicide within the Active-Duty military population. There have been a number of efforts to curb the rates without any prolonged success. Several actions and studies have been conducted on risk factors, prevention efforts, and treatment interventions in an attempt to reduce the rates. This capstone comprises a sequence of academic papers: a systematic literature review, a conceptualization paper, and a practical application paper. This project aims to identify the essential policy components necessary moving forward within the Department of Defense to address this critical issue. The research question leading …

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 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 …

Healthcare Equity For Transgender Individuals, Mollie Staggs

DSW Capstone Projects

In the field of social justice and integrity, Social Work has dedicated itself to improving the welfare of the world, in which we all participate and interact. There are countless issues in our society that warrant professional attention for the fundamental purpose of positively impacting the livelihood of subcategories of people. For this particular Capstone Project, the focus is on transgender individuals’ systemic healthcare barriers that cisgender people within the United States do not similarly experience. The purpose is to unveil these disparities to then pose progressive alterations within the healthcare system to make the navigation and accessibility better for …