Social Work Commons^™

Introducing 'Society Work': The Professionalization And Localization Of Chinese Social Work In A New Era, Ke Cui, Timothy Sim, Chenxi Huang, Bowen Mcbeath

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study focuses on current discussions around the newly-built Society Work Department in China. It argues that ‘society work’ helps to clarify the internationally recognized concept of ‘social work’ and this institutional reform promotes development of the social work profession and discipline, it also helps to decolonize social work in China.

Disrupting The Abuse-Prison Nexus: The Gendered Violence Of Prosecution And Abolitionist Feminist Approaches To Social Care Work, Sid P. Jordan, Emily Thuma, Aylaliyah Assefa Birru, Deirdre Wilson, Romarilyn Ralston, Norma Cumpian, Joseph Hankins

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The vast majority of people in U.S. women’s prisons are survivors of interpersonal violence, a pattern that organizers and advocates have referred to as the abuse-to-prison pipeline. This article critically examines criminal prosecution from the perspectives of survivors of interpersonal violence who faced long prison sentences in California. In-depth interviews and group discussions were generated through a participatory process at a gathering to launch the University of California Sentencing Project, a partnership with the community-based organization California Coalition for Women Prisoners. The twenty-two formerly incarcerated participants had collectively spent more than 300 years imprisoned. Drawing on their lived experiences spanning …

Organizational Supports For Promoting Evidence Use In Private Child Welfare Agencies, Crystal Collins-Camargo, Emmeline Chuang, Bowen Mcbeath

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is minimal literature about the organizational supports that private child welfare agencies have in place to pursue positive outcomes for the children and families they serve. This study drew upon the perspectives of 27 senior managers of fourteen nonprofit child and family serving agencies in six U.S. states to examine the extent to which agencies employed organizational supports for evidence use. We identified four types of organizational supports: technical and knowledge management infrastructure, leadership and strategic alignment, and linkage and exchange efforts. Managers described whether and how they used these supports to facilitate evidence-informed decision-making and practice. Managers also …

Explaining The Variance In Cardiovascular Health Indicators Among Asian Americans: A Comparison Of Demographic, Socioeconomic, And Ethnicity, Lalaine Sevillano, Adrian Matias Bacong, Dale Dagar Maglalang

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

BACKGROUND

The Asian American (AA) population is the fastest-growing major racial or ethnic group in the U.S. Typically treated as a monolith in research, disaggregated data show disproportionate cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden among certain AA ethnic groups. This analysis aimed to identify which factors explain variance in cardiovascular health among AA ethnic groups.

METHODS

We analyzed pooled 2010-2018 National Health Interview Survey cross-sectional data from Chinese, Asian Indian, Filipino, and Other Asian adults in the U.S. Coronary heart disease, heart attack, and stroke were the CVD outcomes of interest. Covariates included sociodemographic characteristics, CVD-related health behaviors (e.g., smoking tobacco, physical …

Dimensions Of Organizational And Personal Evidence Use By Senior Managers In Private Child Welfare Agencies, Crystal Collins-Camargo, Emmeline Chuang, Bowen Mcbeath, Aian Mendoza

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Scholars know little about how human service agency leaders use evidence to improve organizational performance. We draw on interviews with 27 private child welfare administrators in six states to examine how senior leaders use evidence, the types of evidence they use, and specific organizational processes established to support evidence use. Results suggest evidence use in private agencies takes diverse forms, including the analysis of internal data, the use of external research, and evidence-based interventions. We identify actions taken by senior leaders to promote various types of evidence use, including modeling, requiring evidence use in decision-making, establishing performance measures, and developing …

Performance Methodologies In Suicide Prevention Research: Queerness, Colonization, And Co-Performative Witnessing In Indigenous Community, Antonia R. G. Alvarez

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Performance methodologies take many forms—performative writing, poetic transcription, and co-performative witnessing, to name only a few—and can be both process and product, differentiating and unifying a group between and across differences. As a social work researcher committed to decolonial, liberatory methodologies that make and bring meaning to the communities I work with, performance methodologies fill a gap that other qualitative research methods can only begin to approach. This project is an exploration in performance methodologies and Critical Suicidology through the lens of social work research, with a case study derived from a performance documenting suicide prevention research with Native Hawaiians. …

Health Checks For Autistic Adults: Study Protocol For A Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial, Jeremy R. Parr, Helen Taylor, Colin Wilson, Clare Scarlett, Sarah Al-Asmori, Carole Buckley, Sally-Ann Cooper, Cristina Fernandez-Garcia, Tracy Finch, Rhianna Lees, Nicholas Lennox, Hannah Merrick, Sebastian Moss, Christina Nicolaidis, Malcolm Osbourne, Dora M. Raymaker, Tomos Robinson, Anna Urbanowicz, James M. S. Wason, Barry Ingham

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background Autistic people commonly have physical and mental health conditions. They also frequently experience barriers to accessing healthcare, contributing to problems identifying and treating health conditions. These factors may lead to increased and earlier morbidity and lower average life expectancy for autistic people. Health checks specifically designed for autistic people, incorporating adjustments to healthcare, may help to overcome these barriers and reduce health inequalities. This trial aims to investigate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a primary care health check for autistic adults and explore factors related to implementation such as acceptability and feasibility of delivery. The trial is co-designed and …

Guidelines For The Creation Of Accessible Consent Materials And Procedures: Lessons From Research With Autistic People And People With Intellectual Disability, Kelly B. Beck, Kristen T. Mackenziem, Anne V. Kirby, Ian Moura, Kaitlyn Breitenfeldt, Christina M. Nicolaidis, Shannon Roth, Multiple Additional Authors

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Informed, voluntary, ongoing consent is a central tenet of ethical research. However, consent processes are prone to exclusionary practices and inaccessibility. Consent materials are often too long and complex to foster understanding and ensure that people make truly informed decisions to participate in research. While this complexity is problematic for all people, these challenges are compounded for autistic people and people with intellectual disability. Consent materials and procedures rarely incorporate accommodations for processing and communication differences common in autism and intellectual disability. Failure to provide such accommodations ultimately threatens the conduct of ethical research. We describe lessons learned across multiple …

The Chitlins Effect: Distinguishing Cultural Resilience From Normalized Harm, Steffannie Roache

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Chitlins Effect is a practice framework developed to help behavioral health professionals distinguish between culturally rooted strengths and trauma-based patterns in the communities they serve. Named after a cultural example rooted in Black American history — where necessity became tradition, and survival became meaning — the framework describes how beliefs, behaviors, and coping mechanisms are transmitted across generations, becoming normalized within families, communities, and cultures even when those patterns carry harm. This paper introduces the conceptual foundation of the framework, situates it within existing research on historical trauma, intergenerational transmission, and social determinants of health, and outlines its application …

Divining Liberation: A Community Healing Curriculum For Uprooting Historical And Racialized Trauma, Steffannie Roache

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Divining Liberation is a structured community healing and workforce wellness curriculum designed to support individuals and groups in recognizing, naming, and uprooting the effects of historical and racialized trauma. The curriculum was developed by Steffannie Roache, MS, LPC, and delivered through Trauma Informed Oregon beginning in 2023. It is built on three conceptual foundations drawn from the author's earlier work: The Chitlins Effect (Roache, 2012), which examines how trauma-based beliefs become normalized across generations; cultural betrayal trauma theory; and trauma-informed care principles established through SAMHSA and OHA. The curriculum unfolds through four thematic parts (Recognizing the Roots, Uprooting Harm and …

Using Geographic Interviews To Conduct Community Assessments—Insights For Msw Pedagogy, Danielle Maude Littman, Denae J. Cook, Amie Thurber

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Social work is predicated as a person-in-environment profession, but few tools presently exist for students to operationalize person-in-environment through assessment and systematic understanding. Geographic interviews, which combine spatial mapping and qualitative go-along interviews, are one possible tool with promise for application in the social work classroom. This teaching note describes the process of integrating geographic interviews as one data collection method MSW students could utilize in a community assessment assignment. We share learnings from student assignments (N = 8) and instructor focus groups (N = 4). We found that while there was a high level of student and instructor interest, …

Nuance As Praxis For Teaching About Mandated Reporting: Classroom Activities, Grace Pappas, Sam Harrell, Stéphanie Wahab

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

As social work instructors, we have observed students increasingly wanting to engage in critical conversations about mandated reporting. Few resources are available to support instructors in facilitating these conversations. This teaching note offers content and lesson plans for exploring mandated reporting as a moral duty, a harm, an ethical dilemma, and a legal mandate in the classroom. Together, these pedagogical tools can help instructors embrace nuance as a practice for teaching about mandated reporting.

The Adaptive Roles Framework: Trauma Adaptations And Identity Formation, Steffannie Roache

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Adaptive Roles Framework is a culturally grounded conceptual model that explains how individuals develop patterned behavioral, emotional, and relational strategies in response to family systems, culture, trauma exposure, and social environments. Rather than conceptualizing behavior through pathology or personality typology, the framework positions behavioral patterns as adaptive survival strategies, responses that increased safety, belonging, or stability within specific environments and were reinforced over time because they worked. The framework identifies seven adaptive roles observed consistently across individuals, families, workplaces, and communities: the Guardian, the Translator, the Assimilator, the Archive Keeper, the Time Jumper, the Intellectual Escape Artist, and the …

“I Have One More Hour Of Power And Many Miles Of Communication To Go”: Lessons Learned From Community Research Interrupted By Climate Crises, Antonia R.G. Alvarez, Sherry Manning, Teresa Dosdos Ruelas

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Ang Pagtanom og Binhi Project is a University–Community partnership and community-based participatory research project exploring the health benefits of food sovereignty practices in the Philippines. In late 2021, in the midst of data collection, Super Typhoon Odette made landfall in the Philippines causing massive environmental and structural devastation. In the aftermath of the storm, community partners in the Philippines and members of the research team in the United States shared photos, texts, and updates. These messages included descriptions of structural and environmental damage caused by the storm and stories of mutual aid efforts and actions taken by individuals and …

Weaving Our Kuwentos (Stories) Toward Ginhawa (Aliveness): Pilipinx American Social Work Motherscholars Enacting Praxes Of Survival And Thrivance In The Academy, Joanna C. La Torre, Lalaine Sevillano, Lisa Reyes Mason, Alma M. Ouanesisouk Trinidad, Cora De Leon

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Five Pilipina American (PA) social work MotherScholars, from a doctoral student to an interim dean, used kuwentuhan (Pilipinx methodology) to amplify their survivance and thrivance despite attempted exclusion, reduction, and distortion as Pilipinos by coloniality/modernity. Grounded in decolonial feminism (the view that oppressions such as sexism and racism co-constitute coloniality and that unsettling oppressions disrupts hegemony) and Pinayism (an integrated framework revaluing the labor, intellect, and nurturance of mothering through a cultural lens), the authors work coalitionally across their PA diversity to re-center ginhawa (aliveness or sense of ease and wellness). Together, they embarked on an iterative self-study process of …

Participatory Longitudinal Qualitative Interview Study To Understand Autistic Gynaecological And Obstetric Health: The Autism From Menstruation To Menopause Study Protocol, Amy Brown, Kathryn Williams, Aimee Grant, Gemma L. Williams, Harriet Axbey, Abigail Wilkins, Ellen Firth, Hazel Lim, Helen Cave, Christina Nicolaidis, Multiple Additional Authors

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Autism is a lifelong minority neurotype present from birth. There is a dearth of credible evidence to suggest gender variation in Autism prevalence, despite historical under-diagnosis of women. Autistic people Assigned Female At Birth (AFAB) have worse physical and mental health compared with non-Autistic peers. To date, the reproductive health experiences of Autistic AFAB people have been under-investigated.Methods and analysis This study aims to co-develop a quality improvement intervention to improve the reproductive health of Autistic people. The study uses Community Partnered Participatory Research (an approach similar to Community-Based Participatory Research), largely through a Community Council that co-governs the study. …

'T-W-O': External Challenges And Coping Strategies Of Chinese Social Work Service Organisations During The Epidemic, Bin Xu, Bowen Mcbeath, Haobo Xi

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

During the peak years of COVID-19, Chinese social work service organisations actively participated in the preventing and controlling of the pandemic. These organisations also faced external challenges that reflected changing public health policies, contractual and fiscal changes, and immense service needs. This paper describes the specific external challenges that a purposive sample of 11 Beijing-based social work service organisations experienced because of the pandemic, as well as the strategies they used to address them. We find that project and fiscal precarity were the greatest external risks faced by social service organisations. In order to mitigate these concerns, the organisations actively …

“You Could Have Did Us Better Than This”: Reparative Housing Policies And The Struggle To Right Harms To Black Communities, Amie Thurber, Lisa K. Bates, Susan Halverson, Keisha Muia

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper contributes to the burgeoning literature related to reparative planning, with an emphasis on housing policy. After exploring the state of theorizing related to reparative planning, this paper describes its three central dimensions: public recognition, material redistribution, and social/spatial transformation. The authors use these dimensions to evaluate a housing policy designed to repair harms to Black residents in Portland, Oregon. This in-depth analysis draws on survey, interview, and focus group data to explore the degree to which residents’ experiences of the policy reflect these three dimensions. The paper concludes with implications for other municipalities considering reparative housing policies, namely …

Planting The Seed: Using Research As A Tool To Revitalize Puberty Ceremonies In Anishinaabe Communities, Miigis B. Gonzalez, Alexandra Ziibiins Johnson, Lisa Awan Martin, Jillian Naawakwe, Jillian Fish, Lalaine Sevillano, Melissa L. Walls, Lee Obizaan Staples

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose: The purpose of this work is to honor the wisdoms of Anishinaabe Elders, community and culture by interweaving these teachings with my own (first author) Anishinaabe experiences and a research project. Ceremonies are an important health practice for Anishinaabe people. This project aimed to gain a clearer conceptualization of the protective role of Anishinaabe puberty ceremonies on health in adolescence and across the lifespan. Design/methodology/approach Spiritual offerings guided this project at every stage including inviting Elders and community members into shared spaces of storytelling and teaching elicitation and grounding me as I carefully adopted the use of a western …

“What Keeps Me In School”: Oregon Bipoc Learners Voice Support That Makes Higher Education Possible, Roberta Hunte, Miranda Mosier-Puentes, Gita Mehrotra, Eva Skuratowicz

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

A growing number of college students are nontraditional learners (age 21–65) who are people of color. These students face unique challenges in a higher education system increasingly shaped by neoliberalism and the ongoing context of institutionalized racism. In Oregon, policymakers have established ambitious goals to address racial disparities in educational attainment. In this study, focus groups and interviews were conducted with 111 Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) adult learners in Oregon to better understand their perspectives and experiences in regard to educational and career pathways. Participants included currently enrolled students, adults who had enrolled and left, and adults …

The Nexus Of Resistance And Neoliberalism In Social Work And Social Welfare: A Scoping Review, Kevin Cherry, Sandra Leotti

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study intervenes in a growing scholarly dialogue about neoliberalism in social work and social welfare by addressing the undertheorized concept of resistance. We conduct a scoping review of 54 articles published from 2008–2023 to answer two questions: how is resistance discussed in relation to neoliberalism, and what are the practice elements of resistance? Findings highlight resistance as a diverse phenomenon enacted in relation to context-specific manifestations of neoliberalism. A range of actors engage in resistance, including individual practitioners, social service organizations and collective action entities, among others. Resistance occurs across all scales of practice and takes many forms, from …

A Response To “The Danger Of Ideology”, Amie Thurber, Ericka Kimball

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

On January 9, 2024, Social Work journal published in advance access a commentary by Farber and Fram titled “The Danger of Ideology: Social Work, Israel, and Anti-Semitism” (Farber & Fram, 2024). Writing following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the authors lay out their central thesis in the opening paragraph: “We watch in horror and stand in support of Israel. As social work educators and scholars, we must also speak about the complicity of our profession in nurturing anti-Semitism and the ideology that undergirds Hamas and other terrorist organizations” (p. 1). This is a serious claim, and one that …

A Place To Rest My Soul: How A Doctoral Student Of Color Group Utilized A Healing-Centered Space To Navigate Higher Education, Jessica I. Ramirez

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Students of Color have historically faced explicit and implicit forms of discrimination and oppression in educational settings. Unfortunately, not much has changed over the decades as Students of Color continue to experience white supremacy and other systems of oppression. As Students of Color enter graduate school, there are often fewer Students of Color, making these educational settings isolating and hostile. These experiences often encompass white supremacist policies, practices, and remarks that negatively impact Students of Color. With this in mind and as someone who identifies as a Chicana who was once in a doctoral program, I questioned how doctoral Students …

The Integration Of Social Work Values And Principles In Police Work, Dasha Rhodes, Taylor Geyton, Jam Ost

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Persisting social inequities and injustices were spotlighted in the United States in 2020 after the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. A particular focus on the interactions of police officers and non-violent community members rallied a call to reallocate funds to social services better equipped to handle such situations, aptly named #defundthepolice. Many called for the need and placement of social workers in police agencies to curtail the negative interactions witnessed between police officers and communities of color, specifically with Black Americans. Across the nation, social workers are not always employed or readily available in police organizations. Therefore, instilling …

Supporting Resource Equity For Oregon’S Home Visiting Workforce: Exploring Program Model And Regional Differences, Nicole M. Lauzus, Yumi Lee, Beth L. Green, Erin Gaines, Ron Joseph

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Prenatal and early childhood home visiting is an effective strategy for promoting positive birth outcomes, improving family well-being and preventing child abuse and neglect. One key to successful services is having a strong, well-supported home visiting workforce. In Oregon and nationally, this critical workforce is facing a crisis as programs struggle to hire and retain skilled home visitors, and workers face low pay, difficult working conditions and high job stress.

This learning brief is the second in a series to share findings from a 2023 survey of Oregon’s home visiting workforce, which provides a wealth of information about how to …

“I Was Determined To Fulfill This Image Of Myself That I Wanted Of A ‘Good Asian Student’”: A Photovoice Study Of Asian American College Student Mental Health, Lalaine Sevillano, Joanna C. La Torre, Taylor A. Geyton

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Asian American (AsA) youth and emerging adults are growing at a faster rate than all other racial and ethnic populations in the United States. Burgeoning empirical evidence shows that they are experiencing increased adverse mental health outcomes since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, trends in AsA youth and emerging adults’ utilization and help-seeking behaviors remain low. Health equity scholars posit that the model minority stereotype continues to obscure and minimize these mental health disparities. The current study aims to contribute to this vital research through a Photovoice study with AsA emerging adults. Fourteen AsA undergraduate students (M age …

Training Social Work Master's Students For Integrated Health Care Settings: The Importance Of Specialized Education, Passion Ilea, Ericka L. Kimball

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Integrated health care poses a unique opportunity for social workers to deliver person-centered, empowering, and collaborative care addressing all aspects of patient health. This study analyzed four years of data from a project designed to train social work master’s students to be effective members on integrated teams. Students that participated in the project achieved statistically significant levels of improvement from pre- to posttests with large effect sizes on the Behavioral Health Consultant Core Competency Tool skills (n = 93, Cohen’s d = -1.752, t(92) = -16.894, p < .001) and the Team Skills Scale (n = 94, Cohen’s d = -1.558, t(93) = -15.101, p < .001). Wilcoxon signed-rank tests confirmed improvements. No existing evaluations of integrated training for social work students capture behavioral health competencies data. Offering specialized training in integrated behavioral health work to students has immense potential benefit for outgoing social workers seeking to support patients.

Contested Places: A Typology For Responding To Place-Based Harms, Amie Thurber, Amy Krings, Mónica Gutiérrrez, Jason Sawyer, Greer A. Hamilton

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

In response to historic and ongoing devaluation of certain people, and concurrently, the places they live, many communities are grappling with how to respond to place-based harms. This has produced a wide range of responses, such as calls for “Land Back,” reparations programs, arts-based neighborhood regeneration, and local history initiatives. This paper explores the potential roles community practitioners can play in these contested places. Drawing on a review of the literature, this paper offers an emerging typology for responding to place-based harms.

Exploring Affective Experiences Of Queer Individuals Navigating Relationships With Evangelical Parents, Grace Pappas

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

An abundance of scholarship explores and discusses the process of queer identity development, including the experience of disclosing one’s queer identity, often referred to as coming out. Coming out to one’s parent(s) can be a challenging and complex experience for queer individuals, particularly for children from religious families. In this study, I explored the nuanced relationships between queer individuals and their Evangelical parents. I conducted qualitative interviews with nine participants. Using thematic analysis and Ahmed’s theory of affect and happy objects, I constructed four themes: (a) learning the affect queer carries, (b) feeling the affects of being queer, (c) how …

Bidirectional Relationships Between Nicotine Vaping And Maladaptive Eating Behaviors Among Young Adults., H Isabella Lanza, Kailey Waller, Lalaine Sevillano

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Past research indicates that young adult cigarette smokers are at risk of engaging in maladaptive eating behaviors (MEBs); however, whether this relationship extends to nicotine vaping is unclear. The current study assessed bidirectional associations between four types of MEBs and nicotine vaping among young adults.