Social Work Commons^™

Stitching The Pieces Together, Julie C. Nissi

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Social Justice Theatre And The Impact On Theatre Artists, Stevie Taken

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Theatre as an agent for social change has significantly impacted communities and entire countries. Examining how subversive theatre impacts those who engage with it to affect positive social change is a worthwhile endeavor. Theatre possesses the power to inspire empathy in people, which leads to progressive political action. This study explores the impact of participating in social justice theatre has on the artists who engage in it.

The literature reviewed in this study examines the impact attending subversive theatre has on audience members, its aim is to inspire empathy as a tool to create progressive social change. This study expands …

Alternative Approaches To Police Interventions When Responding To Mental Health Crises Incidents, Karen Rivera Apolinar

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Purpose: This study explored mental health workers perspectives on alternative approaches in responding to mental health crises.

The study was carried out in Southern California, in collaboration with mental health workers who currently work or previously have worked in mental health crisis. It adopted a post-positivists paradigm and data was gathered through individual interviews with mental health workers who have direct experience with mental health crisis response in the community and with the police. The twenty participants in the study were men and women working in the mental health field, and of various backgrounds, licensures, and ages.

The study found …

The Intersection Between Harm Reduction And Social Work, Sydney Biondi

Undergraduate Research Posters

This qualitative study explores the intersection of harm reduction and social work. Social workers who practice harm reduction were recruited to participate in interviews. In the field of social work, harm reduction is seen as a promising practice, but we do not know very much about what it looks like in practice. The purpose of this research study is to find out how the perceptions of social workers of harm reduction aid or inhibit community harm reduction efforts. We think that the geographical location of a social worker impacts the perceptions and experiences of harm reduction, because of the resources …

Social Work Allyship: Exploring White And Bipoc Perspectives At Predominately White Institutions Within The Southeastern Conference, Aubrey Franke

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the experiences of allyship through the perspectives of White and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) social work students at primarily White universities within the Southeastern Conference. The study includes 10 semi-structured interviews with Bachelor and Master’s level social work students. The findings from this study present necessary characteristics and qualities for effective social work allyship. Interestingly, BIPOC students emphasize the importance of informed action, while White students share relational qualities such as empathy and willingness to learn. The findings also show that some BIPOC students experience performative allyship from White social work students. BIPOC participants …

Inter-Agency Collaborations Among Mental Health And Law Enforcement Professionals In San Bernardino County During Covid-19: A Qualitative Study, Sonya Mcisaac

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

As first responders, law enforcement officers and mental health professionals are constantly sought after regarding the delivery of critical services to people in need. However, the COVID-19 pandemic brought almost everything to a halt. It is therefore important to understand how social services were delivered during the crisis. It has been assumed in the literature that interprofessional collaboration is an important service delivery framework. However, because COVID-19 is a relatively recent public health phenomenon, relevant studies on interprofessional collaboration between law enforcement officers and mental health professionals are scant, if not non-existent. This qualitative study addresses this gap by exploring …

Community-Oriented Policing: Building Trust And Collaborative Relationships With The Black Community, Tunice M. Cole

DSW Capstone Projects

Black people die at the hands of police at a disproportionate rate. In the United States, Black citizens are three times more likely to be killed by police than White citizens. This, along with other factors, has caused a lack of trust, legitimacy, and relationships between police and the Black community. Examining this problem from a socio-ecological and social constructivist perspective suggests that the solution encompasses the use of community feedback and experiences to build and develop a model of community-oriented policing that addresses the issues of the community being served.

Product one of this capstone was a systematic literature …

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 …

Reproductive Freedom For All: A Policy Brief, Noa J. Cook

The Downtown Review

Reproductive freedom in the United States has been a source of controversy throughout history and current legislation places these rights under attack. Divided into three parts, this policy brief seeks to address the lack of accessible reproductive healthcare for women, with special attention to economic, racial, and ethnic disparities. Part 1 includes a historical overview of abortion access and significant legislation in the U.S., describes the present status of the problem, and the populations affected. In Part 2, the pros and cons of current policies such as the federal contraceptive guarantee of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Hyde Amendment, and …

"We Had To Rely On Each Other": Voices Of Latinx Foster Youth With Experiences In Care With Siblings, Isabella B. Ginsberg

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

Relationships between members of sibling groups have been found to impact well-being for children who enter foster care (Herrick & Piccus, 2005). Being placed in stranger foster care is often challenging and can be traumatic with children reporting confusion, worry, and loss of identity and sense of belonging (Herrick & Piccus, 2005, Unrau et al, 2008). While there is some research that explores the experiences of siblings groups in foster care and others separately that examines Latinx children in foster care, there is very little information that looks into the potentially unique experiences of Latinx individuals who were in care …

"When They See Someone Who Is Poor, They Step On Them": The Social Determinants Of Health Among Survivors Of Sex Trafficking In Cambodia, James P. Havey, Glenn M. Miles, Lim Vanntheary, Nhanh Channtha, Hanni Stoklosa

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Social determinants of health (SDH) are defined as the non-medical yet health-affecting conditions of a person’s life. They include such considerations as working conditions, discrimination, and access to health services. The aim of this study was to explore the SDH impacting those who have survived sex trafficking in Cambodia. This study employed a mixed methods, secondary analysis, focusing on 52 survivors of sex trafficking in the Butterfly Longitudinal Research Project from 2010 through 2019. Participants described myriad social determinants of health, including: gender, age, relationship status (marriage), ethnicity, national identification documentation (statelessness), social class, formal education, vocational training, occupation, and …

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 …

Shame And Public Dependency: A Literature Review, Norman L. Wyers

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

All research related to under-utilization of income maintenance programs as well as to their impact on recipients has discovered the presence of stigma. A survey of the pertinent literature points out that much is known about stigmatization but that social welfare has been slow to incorporate this knowledge in any attempt to reduce the destructive effect of stigma on program users. Both liberal and radical reform measures are proposed as remedies.