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Articles 61 - 90 of 98

Full-Text Articles in Social Work

A Review Of Key Developments In The Scholar Project, Roger A. Lohmann Mar 1987

A Review Of Key Developments In The Scholar Project, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The Scholar Project was my term for a variety of projects and developmental efforts to incorporate the use of computers into the everyday work life of a graduate social work faculty member before the advent of desktop computing. It began in 1974 with a variety of experiments with SPSS files, McBee "KeySort" Cards, and a Computer Aided Instruction experiment with IBM's Coursewriter software. It evolved into the full-scale integration of electronic equipment into all facets of my professional life. The Scholar bibliography mentioned, the electronic in this Research Repository, and the Docuverse project are the longest lasting products of this …


A Commentary On Unicorns And Efficiency, Roger A. Lohmann Jul 1986

A Commentary On Unicorns And Efficiency, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The issue of efficiency in human services parallels in many respects the principle that unicorns should receive fair treatment. People have paid lip service to the idea that human services should be delivered efficiently for most of the last century. Yet, in all of that time there has not been a single study published showing clearly whether a particular instance of service delivery was, or was not, efficient.The underlying issues involved in defining and measuring efficient service delivery are complex and difficult and administrators, boards and other stakeholders have typically done little more than pay lip service to the idea.


Review Of Books By Vinter & Kish And Lauffer, Roger A. Lohmann Jun 1986

Review Of Books By Vinter & Kish And Lauffer, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

During a decade of great changes in the organization and management of human service organizations, these authors have attempted to explain the changes that are occurring and offer guidance for how to deal with them for harassed and overworked human services managers and students.


Breaking Even: Preface To The Revised Edition, Roger A. Lohmann Apr 1986

Breaking Even: Preface To The Revised Edition, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Breaking Even: Financial Management in Nonprofit Human Services (Temple University Press. 1980) was the first book-length discussion of nonprofit financial management ever published in English. This preface was prepared, along with several new or rewritten chapters and additional changes for a possible revised edition of the book. The publisher decided not to do a second edition and the original first edition continued to sell in its small market niche for 25 years.


Trends In Human Services In West Virginia, Roger A. Lohmann Apr 1986

Trends In Human Services In West Virginia, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This article provides an overview introduction to the WV Human Services Trend Study, a statewide joint venture of the WVU School of Social Work, WV Human Resources Association, and WV Department of Human Services. Rather than a conventional needs assessment questionnaire, the Trend Study opted for a series of 15 county-level community forums to gather information on the future of human services in the state. From this eight subject areas of greatest interest were identified and experts were invited to develop working papers on each of these topics.


Automating The Social Work Office: Science Fictions And Practical Realities, Roger A. Lohmann Mar 1986

Automating The Social Work Office: Science Fictions And Practical Realities, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Social work was not originally an office-based profession but has become one in the past few decades. In the process, the information technology of social work practice has changed relatively little. Social work practice has yet to develop unique computer applications, comparable to developments in medicine, law, architecture, education and other fields. Most interest in computer applications in social work to date has been clerical and made use of off-the-shelf applications. The potential of currently available technology for office automation in social work offers the prospect not only for important productivity improvement, but also for a means to dealing with …


From Social Welfare To Welfare Society: A Humane World Beyond Social Welfare?, Roger A. Lohmann Feb 1986

From Social Welfare To Welfare Society: A Humane World Beyond Social Welfare?, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

In the 1980's, the relationship of social welfare activities to the future has been dramatically altered. Until the conservative ascendency of the Reagan government, the future of social welfare was defined largely in terms of the incremental welfare state, characterized by gradual expansion of tax supported programs and benefits, with periodic policy refinements and extensions of benefits and coverages to new populations. Since 1980, all sorts of "doom and gloom" has been spread--mostly linked to short-term developments. This paper is an effort to propose a moderately optimistic alternative future for one segment of the social welfare system--personal care services. In …


Private Human Services In Welfare Society, Roger A. Lohmann Feb 1986

Private Human Services In Welfare Society, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper is an effort to propose a moderately optimistic future for the personal care sector of human services. It is proposed that the best available future scenario for personal care services between now and the year 2019 is to concentrate on privatization of service delivery on a small-scale basis. Government, in this model should be limited largely to three roles: 1) source of venture capital; 2) regulation of service delivery; and 3) income maintenance for the poorest populations. In this future, the main burden of personal care services will be carried by the private sector. Dramatic improvements in the …


Famulus: A Scholar's Aid System, Roger A. Lohmann Feb 1986

Famulus: A Scholar's Aid System, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Computers are not just for quantitative analysis. Scholarship in the humanities and qualitative social sciences can also benefit. This essay begins the task of outlining a personal scholarly system called Famulus, or scholar's assistant, for assisting individual qualitative scholars with their research and scholarly activity. Key to the design is a proposed modular system of classifying the items in bibliographic entries. Attention is also called to emerging systems of Keywords in Context (KWIC).


Resource Development: Is There A Case For Commercial Personal Care Services?, Roger A. Lohmann Jan 1984

Resource Development: Is There A Case For Commercial Personal Care Services?, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The years since 1980 have been particularly troublesome and challenging for human service leaders at all levels in the United States. If the human services are to rediscover the future and with it a viable program for meeting identified needs, some acceptable alternative to the progressive vision of a service state must evolve.


Information Processing In Social Services: A Review Of Project Iniss, Roger A. Lohmann Jul 1983

Information Processing In Social Services: A Review Of Project Iniss, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Project INISS is a research project seeking to establish the information processing practices of social workers in Great Britain. This article summarizes its most important findings for U.S. social workers and social administrators. Originally published in 1983, this article offers a snapshot of information practices in human services organizations a decade before the widespread adoption of the internet and just prior to the early beginnings of ubiquitous – nearly universal – use of computers for record keeping and information processing by social workers.


Comprehensive What? Coordination Of Whom? Area Agencies On Aging And The Planning Mandate (Revised), Roger A. Lohmann Jun 1982

Comprehensive What? Coordination Of Whom? Area Agencies On Aging And The Planning Mandate (Revised), Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The rural agency on aging did not – could not – engage in effective social planning because it was charged with a full range of responsibilities for sub-state decisionmaking among competing grant applicants. Several aspects of the Area Agency on Aging (AAA) planning mission are identified and discussed including “plan preparation”, rational decision-making, sub-state allocations and needs meeting. Widespread acceptance of the legitimacy of AAA planning goals generated three alternative models, which are termed the case management, inter-organizational and community structural approaches. More effective approaches to rural social planning might have combined elements of these three approaches in a regional …


Children Facing Death: Recurring Patterns Of Adaptation (Revised), Roger A. Lohmann, Deborah Greenham May 1982

Children Facing Death: Recurring Patterns Of Adaptation (Revised), Roger A. Lohmann, Deborah Greenham

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This article examines a number of studies on adjustment problems faced by dying children. Particular attention is given to the relationship between growth and development and the child’s awareness of their impending death. Two principal topics connecting research with clinical practice will be examined in this article: the research on awareness contexts translates into the clinical issue of whether or not to tell children of their impending death. Likewise, the question of how immature children who are dying cope with their impending death and their understanding of the effect it will have on others.


Supervision Of Field Instruction By Objectives And Results, Roger A. Lohmann Apr 1982

Supervision Of Field Instruction By Objectives And Results, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Many of the practical problems of field instruction in social work education can be dealt with through the use of the technique of Management by Objectives and Results. In this brief paper, a model of MBOR termed Supervision by Objectives and Results is suggested and outlined.


Children Facing Death: Awareness, Development And Terminal Illness, Deborah Greenham, Roger A. Lohmann Jan 1982

Children Facing Death: Awareness, Development And Terminal Illness, Deborah Greenham, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper examines a number of recent research studies on the dying child with particular attention to the relationship between growth and development and the child’s awareness of his/her dying condition.


Aging And The Milieu Of Social Policy, Roger A. Lohmann, Nancy Lohmann Jan 1982

Aging And The Milieu Of Social Policy, Roger A. Lohmann, Nancy Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

One facet of the new conservatism, which is drawing so much interest but not much information currently is the proposal for converting a large number of social service programs (including the Administration on Aging) into a single community block grant program. Even without the Reagan Administration and its new conservatism, however, the case for substantial--if less dramatic--changes in the network of services and programs which benefit the aged has been growing for some time. In this chapter, wel review some of the broader implications of current social policies for the aged, and some of the criticisms raised among gerontologists, concentrating …


Social Work Practice With The Rural Aged, Nancy Lohmann, Roger A. Lohmann, Ellen Netting Jan 1981

Social Work Practice With The Rural Aged, Nancy Lohmann, Roger A. Lohmann, Ellen Netting

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Approximately 27 percent of America’s aged live in rural areas. Despite similar problems, however, there are substantial differences in the nature of human services designed to meet these needs in cities and rural areas. This chapter examines rural problems and services in health, income, housing and social integration. In addition, unique rural issues of community outreach and professional relationships in rural areas are examined.


Love, Death And The Hexadecimal, Roger A. Lohmann Dec 1980

Love, Death And The Hexadecimal, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper analyzes the role of information in social casework practice. Three models of computer-based information processing are discussed: Cybernetic, Management Information Systems and Natural Language Processing. The latter is most consistent with social casework information needs because of its potential to focus on the problems of the meaning of social action.


The Rural Social Development Research Group At West Virginia University, Roger A. Lohmann Jul 1980

The Rural Social Development Research Group At West Virginia University, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper is intended to present and discuss the emergent research program on social work in rural areas at the WVU School of Social Work, It also outlines a program of future research, and attempts to do that by outlining a research focus that is small scale, cost conscious, practice oriented and designed to place social work at its core. Finally, the intent is to suggest a clear and enduring linkages between what social work research and social work practice in rural areas.


Revolution By Evolution: The Needed Graduate Response To Undergraduate Social Work Education, Roger A. Lohmann Mar 1980

Revolution By Evolution: The Needed Graduate Response To Undergraduate Social Work Education, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper is an assessment of the state of the art of graduate social work curricula with particular reference to the lag of such curriculum in responding to the maturation of undergraduate social work education. Advanced standing programs, it is suggested, offer a purely administrative solution to the curriculum question posed by the new continuum of social work education. An ad hoc trial and error problem-solving strategy is called for, on the basis of four assumptions: the primary of the BSW curriculum; and the advanced, specialized and applied science character of graduate social work.


Budget Making, Financial Management And Human Services Administration, Roger A. Lohmann Jan 1980

Budget Making, Financial Management And Human Services Administration, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Budgeting is one of the fundamental aspects of human services administration in both public and voluntary (nonprofit) social agencies. Yet, for many social workers and other professionals in the human services, budget-making and the other related responsibilities of financial management in social agencies have an air of magic and mystery about them. The focus of this chapter is to demythologize budgeting and other aspects of the financial management process in human service agencies.


Natural Language Processing And Computer Use In Social Work, Roger A. Lohmann, Jay Wolvovsky Feb 1979

Natural Language Processing And Computer Use In Social Work, Roger A. Lohmann, Jay Wolvovsky

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Can computers do social work? Can social workers do computers? This article seeks to outline a text-oriented approach to answering these questions through an approach labeled Natural Language Processing.


The Politics Of Aging And Rural Social Services: An Exploratory Analysis, Roger A. Lohmann Aug 1978

The Politics Of Aging And Rural Social Services: An Exploratory Analysis, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The advent of federal funding for rural social services during the late 1960s and 1970s brought about changes in the political organization of rural America. A host of new organizational actors, like Area Agencies on Aging and various local aging agencies were created in rural communities across the country, in the wake of Baker v. Carr with its “one man/one vote” principle and funding through programs like the Economic Opportunity Act and the Older Americans Act. This article details a leadership succession model suggesting that local leadership of aging interests went through at least four distinct phases during this time: …


The Politics Of Aging And Rural Social Services, Roger A. Lohmann Aug 1978

The Politics Of Aging And Rural Social Services, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Circumstances in the development of rural aging services in the 1960s and 1970s produced four distinct community leadership styles in the aging network. These are described and labeled the pre-organizational, the grantsman or leadership planner style, the organizational or managerial style and the organized advocacy style.


Symbolic Interaction And Social Planning: Perspectives From The Early Years, Roger A. Lohmann Mar 1978

Symbolic Interaction And Social Planning: Perspectives From The Early Years, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The principal thesis of this paper is that the inadequacies of recent efforts at social planning are essential failures of theory, rather than failures of practice. Economic, land use and social welfare planners it is suggested have all shared a common unwillingness or inability to abandon commitments to an essentially utilitarian rhetoric of reasoned behavior, wherein means are matched with ends, persons are viewed as essentially self-interested and goal-directed rational problem solvers operating on schedules of goal attainment known or predictable by the planners. Symbolic interaction theory has resources to revitalize planning theory. Selected publications by John Dewey, G.H. Mead, …


The Measurement Of Personal Influence In Organization And Community, Roger A. Lohmann Jan 1978

The Measurement Of Personal Influence In Organization And Community, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Discussions of personal influence in organizations and communities are ordinarily abstract and theoretical.In this paper, a practical method for the measurement of influence in interactional terms. The approach combines the use of Likert scales, sociometry and a simplified version of block modeling using matrices. The approach is illustrated with a hypothetical human service agency with a staff of seven professionals.


Dying And The Social Responsibility Of Institutions, Roger A. Lohmann Nov 1977

Dying And The Social Responsibility Of Institutions, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Contemporary American society has established a comfortable reliance upon a large network of total and quasi-total institutions for dealing with certain life threatening events and socially disruptive conditions As a consequence these institutions have become primary locales for dying. It is the principal argument of this paper that although a large proportion of all deaths now occur in institutions, they are generally harsh and unsympathetic in their handling of dying, and particularly insensitive to the social and psychological needs of surviving significant others in the period immediately following a death. It is suggested that along with accepting the responsibility to …


Public Affairs, Community Service And Personal Care: The Three Faces Of Social Work, Roger A. Lohmann Apr 1977

Public Affairs, Community Service And Personal Care: The Three Faces Of Social Work, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper was written for a faculty seminar at the School of Social Work, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where at the time the author was an Assistant Professor. It makes the case that contemporary social work at the time was an uneasy mix of three very different approaches: A public affairs perspective addressing broad social policy issues; a community services perspective extending to agency management, planning and financing; and a personal care perspective built on psychotherapy, social casework and group work. At the time, many schools of social work were struggling with a legacy of strong support for the personal …


Urban-Designed Programs For The Rural Aged: Are They Exportable?, Roger A. Lohmann, Nancy Lohmann Jul 1976

Urban-Designed Programs For The Rural Aged: Are They Exportable?, Roger A. Lohmann, Nancy Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

There are a variety of problems that affect older people in rural areas. In the first part of this paper, we examine four problems affecting the rural aged in particular: health, income, housing and social integration into rural communities. In the second part of the paper, we examine the question of whether programs to deal with these problems that have developed in various cities in the United States can readily be translated into rural communities. The paper concludes with a warning that the urban crisis, largely discovered by human services and other urbanists in the 1960s, is increasingly being expropriated …


The Social Work Contract And Survivorship Services, Roger A. Lohmann, Carl Gaddis May 1976

The Social Work Contract And Survivorship Services, Roger A. Lohmann, Carl Gaddis

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The concept of contracting by social workers is a useful way to describe the normative bounds of client-worker interaction. A growing literature on death and dying in recent years suggests first that long-term care institutions are increasingly the locales for dying in our society and that social workers and other professionals working in such locales have frequently dealt inadequately or not at all with the social and emotional dimensions of death and dying in institutional settings. This article proposes that the social work contract with terminally ill patients be extended to include their survivors.