Social Work Commons^™

Coping With Death, Quality Of Life, And Compassion Fatigue Among Hospice Social Workers, Virgen L. Dominguez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research indicates that working with dying patients and their families could causeemotional reactions that not only affect their well-being but their quality of life and desire to continue in their profession. Although researchers have examined compassion fatigue among other professionals, there is a gap in research on the phenomenon among hospice social workers. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to obtain a richer understanding about how hospice social workers cope with death, what their experiences are with compassion fatigue, and how their quality of life is impacted by their work. The conceptual framework was the transactional theory of …

Social Workers' Perspectives Of Depression In Baby Boomers Born Between 1946 And 1955, Karen Cohen

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractAs the leading-edge baby boomer (L-E boomer) cohort continues to age, demands of mental health services in treating diagnosed depression in this cohort are increasing. Licensed clinical social workers (LCSWs) are the most likely social workers to provide services to L-E boomers diagnosed with depression. LCSWs were the chosen participants for this generic qualitative study to gain knowledge of their perspectives of working with L-E boomers diagnosed with depression. Grounded in generational theory, this study used a generic qualitative approach allowing for nonrestrictive measures for capturing the data. NVIVO assisted in coding the data and identification of common themes, words, …

The Systemic Experiences Of Social Workers In An Inpatient, State Psychiatric Hospital, Kesia Gwaltney

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The National Alliance on Mental Illness surmised that 1 in 25 (9.8 million) adults in the United States are diagnosed with a serious mental illness annually. Of the 9.8 million people diagnosed, approximately 63% of them are psychiatrically hospitalized with repeat hospitalizations within 1 year of discharge. Social workers play a vital role in the treatment modalities of the patients they serve in the psychiatric hospital; however, there is no research that examined the professional systemic experiences of social workers in state, inpatient psychiatric hospitals and how these experiences may affect treatment outcomes of patients as it relates to frequent …

Entering The United States From Central America And Mexico: Social Work Practice With Unaccompanied Minors, Crystal Duarte

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Unaccompanied minors from Central America and Mexico have endeavored treacherous journeys to enter the United States for many decades. In recent years, there has been an influx of unaccompanied minors fleeing their native country and arriving at the United States border as a result of poverty, violence, limited prospects and to reunify with their parents. Unaccompanied minors have witnessed and faced adversities, sometimes causing various mental health problems. Providing services to a vulnerable population like unaccompanied minors from Latin America can be challenging. This study explores Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) social workers’ perceived confidence in working with …

Professionals’ Perspectives On Barriers And Facilitators Of Success With Teen Parents In The Child Welfare System, Zuleima Carrillo, Victoria Valenzuela

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the barriers and facilitators of success with teen parents who are in the child welfare system. The study examines these issues through the perspectives of professionals and paraprofessionals. The literature review suggested that having children at a young age negatively affects the mother as well as the child and that adolescents who have received or are receiving services from child welfare agencies become teen mothers at higher rates.

The study used a qualitative, exploratory design. The data was obtained from in-depth interviews with 15 professionals and paraprofessionals who …

Police Social Work In Minnesota: Starting The Conversation, Jenny Ellsworth, Taylor Fish, Alison Niesen, Natalia Pitts

Master of Social Work Student Policy Advocacy Briefs

Even with enhanced police officer training focused on improving responses to mental illness, chemical dependency, and other crisis-related calls, police officers remain ill-equipped to serve as trained mental health professionals. Officers respond to these service-related calls more frequently than crime-related calls, which is why community partnerships between police officers and social workers are needed to promote the safety and well-being of people in crisis.

Social Workers' Role In Treating Individuals With Neurological Impairments From Brain Trauma, Kimberly D. Thompson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nearly 1 billion individuals worldwide are diagnosed with a neurological condition. Neurological conditions might harm an individual’s overall mental state and quality of life. This qualitative action research project examined the social worker’s role in treating individuals with neurological impairments due to brain trauma. Information was gathered using a focus group of 4 rehabilitation social workers in Dallas, Texas, about their experiences related to utilizing social work practice with patients who have neurological conditions. Data from this action research project revealed an understanding of the psychosocial benefits of social work services for individuals with neurological impairments due to brain trauma …

Roles Of Nephrology Social Workers In Health Literacy, Tiffena Gail Pierce

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Health literacy is vital for hemodialysis patients because they need to undergo routine treatments 3 days per week and adhere to medication regimens requiring them to understand complicated health information. The questions for this study focused on a social work practice of their roles when assessing and promoting health literacy in dialysis patients. Nephrology social workers are vital in helping dialysis patients understand their medical information so that they can make better-informed decisions about their healthcare. This study also includes an exploration of the strategies nephrology social workers use to increase health literacy in patients with chronic kidney disease. An …

“I’Ve Got To Run Again”: Experiences Of Social Workers Seeking Municipal Office In Ontario, Carly Greco

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis presents a qualitative study on the experiences and perceptions of Ontario social workers who were candidates for municipal elected office in the 2018 Ontario municipal elections. The author sought to understand the contributing factors these social workers perceive led to them seeking elected office, whether social justice was a motivating factor, and whether these social workers believe that their social work education prepared them for seeking elected office. I interviewed ten social workers and used thematic analysis, grounded in feminist theories and Verba et al.’s (1995) Civic Voluntarism Model to analyze transcripts. Participants discussed determining relationships, becoming a …

Understanding Social Support Among Dialysis Patients: A Study On Medical Social Workers Enhancing Social Support For Patients, Brandy Marie Covarrubias, Eloisa Cisneros Vizcaya

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Patients receiving dialysis treatment experience immense changes in their health and well-being, therefore receiving adequate social support services is an integral aspect of their care plan. Thus, the purpose of this study was to gain an understanding about social support services offered by social workers to patients receiving dialysis care. Furthermore, this study sought to develop awareness about additional services need to assist social workers in providing social, emotional, and physical support to patients. This qualitative study used data from a non-probability snowball sample of 10 social workers that work with patients receiving dialysis care. Findings of this study are …

Child Welfare Social Workers’ Perspective On Factors That Influence Longevity, Veronica Betancourt-Perez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The child welfare sector has been dealing with the issue of turnover for many years and it has yet to implement effective solutions to mitigate the problem. In this study, the researcher used a post-positivist approach to examine contributing factors that affect job longevity in child welfare. The researcher reviewed literature as well as used motivation and organizational support theory to determine what potential factors influence job longevity among child welfare social workers. The researcher gathered demographic information and qualitative data from ten interviews with child welfare social workers employed by the County of Los Angeles Department of Children and …

Incarcerated Mothers Achieving Reunification: Providing Support To Child Welfare Social Workers, Francesca Villarreal

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This project explores the barriers to reunification with their children for incarcerated mothers in an effort to provide more support to child welfare social workers who engage with this population. Project participants were selected from one regional office of a child welfare agency in Southern California to complete qualitative interviews. Participants included seven Social Service Practitioners (SSPs), two Supervising Social Service Practitioners (SSSPs), and one Data Analysist. Each participant’s interview was digitally recorded, transcribed, and analyzed following the systematic manual coding method with the assistance of Microsoft Word (Ose, S, 2016). Five common barriers were identified: child visitations with incarcerated …

Social Workers’ Perceptions On The Usefulness Of The Structured Decision-Making Tool In Assessing Safety And Risk, Chinwe Erika Nwufo, Carol Yareli Castillo

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In child welfare agencies, the Structured Decision-Making (SDM) Safety and Risk Assessment tools are utilized to support social workers in assessing families and make informed decisions while investigating child abuse and neglect. In the past, numerous studies have evaluated the strengths and weaknesses the SDM safety and risk assessment tools; however, studies have neglected social workers’ perspectives on using the tools during their investigations.

Using a quantitative approach, this study examines social workers’ perceptions on the usefulness of the SDM safety and risk assessment tools during their investigations. IS social work participants from one California county agency completed an online …

Social Workers' Perception On The Needs And Services For Foster Children With Special Needs, Jessica Joanna Jimenez, Winnie Wing Yang Lee

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Foster children are already at a disadvantage given that they tend to live in a home without their parents. Social workers have direct interactions working with children with special needs, and through interviews with the workers, we aimed to understand whether or not the services available are able to meet foster children’s special needs. The research on special needs children in foster care is quite limited. The purpose of the study was to identify social workers’ perceptions of the needs of special needs foster children and their access to services.

This study used qualitative interviews with open-ended questions to gather …

Job Readiness Of Social Workers Serving Individuals With Developmental Disabilities, Danielle Marie Orozco

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The present study explored advance year Master of Social Work (MSW) candidates and graduated social workers perceived preparedness to serve individuals with developmental disabilities (DD). There has been minimal of studies that have explored perceived preparedness in serving individuals with DD, more specifically in the field of social work. Due to the lack of research on the topic and the recent growth of the DD population, the present research was an exploratory project that utilized qualitative techniques. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews that analyzed advance year Master of Social Work candidates and graduated social workers perceived preparedness serving individuals …

Ethics In Social Work Practice (With A Rural Twist), Paul Force-Emery Mackie

Social Work Department Publications

Social work ethics can be challenging, and in rural areas even more so. What do we know about how to practice in unique and often isolated geographic environments? Join Professor of Social Work and National Association for Rural Mental Health Past President Dr. Paul Mackie for a two-hour training focused on ways to address common ethical dilemmas and challenges faced by behavioral health providers in rural and low-population areas.

Exploring The Relationships Of Email Overload, Stress And Burnout In Social Workers, Lisa M. Lowrie

Social Work Doctoral Dissertations

Technostress is the inability to cope with information and communication technology which may result in stress and burnout. Email overload, stress, and burnout among social workers is a phenomenon that may impact retention in social and human service organizations. This mixed methods design uses the transactional theory of stress as the theoretical framework for measuring the relationship of email overload (email invasion, email volume, and email rapid response extraction) to stress and burnout in the social work workforce. This dissertation also explores the generational cohort, gender, and social work degree as predictors of email overload. Participants in this study were …

Examining Self-Care Among Individuals Employed In Social Work Capacities: Implications For The Profession, J. Jay Miller, Joann Lianekhammy, Erlene Grise-Owens

Social Work Faculty Publications

Increasingly, the social work profession recognizes the need for more attention to self-care. Concomitantly, this growing awareness and ethical commitment is fostering a burgeoning self-care movement. However, despite recognition about the importance of self-care, there is a paucity of research that explicitly examines self-care practices among social workers. This cross-sectional study examined the self-care practices of individuals employed in social work capacities (n=1,011) in one southeastern state in the United States. Findings suggest that participants in the sample engaged in personal and professional self-care practices only moderately. Further, data suggest significant group differences in the practice of self-care, by relationship …

Child Welfare Workers’ Perspectives On Placement Instability And The Impacts On Foster Youth, Steven Joseph Delgado, Amanda Marie Fuerte

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In this study, the researchers explored child welfare workers’ perceptions on placement changes for youth in foster care and the impact these changes had on youths’ overall outcomes. Using a Post Positivist paradigm, qualitative research was completed using snowball-sampling procedures. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with sixteen members from their personal networks of child welfare social workers that have direct contact with foster youth. The research participants included current child welfare social workers from two counties in Southern California. The study’s findings suggest that children’s behaviors and foster parents’ reactions to those behaviors impacted placement changes. Further, participants felt that …

Discussing Sexual Health Topics With Severely Mentally Ill Clients: An Exploration Of Social Work Practitioners’ Preparedness, Priscilla Rodriguez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Mental health professionals have an important role to play in assessing and addressing the needs of their clients, including those with severe mental illness. Research, however, has demonstrated a reluctance toward discussing sexual health topics with severely mentally ill clients. The purpose of this study was to explore social work practitioners’ attitudes and preparedness toward addressing the sexual health need of clients who are mentally challenged to a great extent. Under the qualitative research paradigm, this study sampled 8 licensed clinical social workers who currently work in the United States. Thematic analysis of interview data generated four major themes. First, …

The Effects Of Organizational Commitment And Harmonious Passion On Voluntary Turnover Among Social Workers: A Mixed Methods Study, Ashley Scales

Dissertations

The retention of Social Workers (SWs) is a concern that affects government and private organizations and the workforce. Voluntary turnover among SWs is increasing at an alarming rate. Not only is voluntary turnover rising, but organizational commitment and harmonious passion are declining (Wharton University of Pennsylvania, 2012). This study explored and examined the effect organizational commitment and harmonious passion have on voluntary turnover among Child Protective Services (CPS) SWs. The study used a concurrent mixed method design. Data collected during the quantitative phase provided information on the perceptions of SWs regarding organizational commitment, harmonious passion, and their intent to leave. …

Self-Care Among Social Workers Employed In Rural Settings: A Cross-Sectional Investigation, Diane N. Loeffler, J. Jay Miller, Theresia M. Pachner

Social Work Faculty Publications

Despite growing recognition about the importance of self-care for social work professionals, research related to the topic has not kept pace with the changing landscape of the profession. Particularly, self-care practices among rural social work professionals have been overlooked in the research. Rural social work practice is, in many ways, decidedly different from practice in more urban areas. Thus, the primary aim of this exploratory study was to investigate the personal and professional self-care practices of rural social workers. Specifically, the study sough to better understand how often social workers engage in self-care and whether or not there are associations …

Social Workers And Politics: Direct Political Involvement And Encouragement Of Client Involvement In Politics, Amnon Boehm, Neveen Ali Saleh Darawshy, Esther Boehm-Tabib

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The research focused on two aspects of political involvement among social workers. The first was the direct political involvement of social workers on behalf of their clients, and the second, the social workers’ encouragement of their clients’ involvement in political activity. The main purpose of the research was to identify the factors that explain these two types of political involvement among social workers. The data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire from a research sample of 165 social workers in 50 social services departments in Israel. The findings indicate that the factors of the community (as opposed to …

The Insight And Factors That Promote Job Longevity For Child Welfare Social Workers, Dakota Caitlin Meza, Loretta Reyes Broadnax

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The high turnover rate of child welfare social workers has been a chronic issue that society has yet to mitigate. To understand this problem, the researchers looked at contributing factors in comparison to the factors that promote job longevity. The researchers reviewed the multidimensional theory of burnout, to explore the ongoing issue of high turnover rates. Also, organizational support theory was examined to determine if support from organizations contributed to job longevity. The post-positivist approach was used to gather qualitative data from this study as to the potential factors promoting job longevity through individual interviews with seasoned child welfare social …

Exploring The Relationship Between Occupational Burnout And The Behavioral Well-Being Of Social Workers, Damian A. Pisapia

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a relationship between occupational burnout and the behavioral well-being of social workers. Burnout is a multidimensional syndrome where workers experience feelings of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment as a consequence of work related stress and overwhelming job demands. Burnout can negatively affect organizational functioning, work performance, and pose significant health risks to workers. There are a limited number of studies focusing on the impact of occupational burnout on the behavioral well-being of workers. The findings of this study indicated that there was a significant relationship between burnout …

Burnout Rates Among Social Workers: A Systematic Review And Synthesis, Austin Taylor Kimes

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Research suggests that social workers experience burnout at elevated rates; however, no study has developed an average rate of burnout among general social workers and quantitative research on the topic is lacking in general. This study conducted a systematic review and synthesis of the existing literature on burnout among social workers in order to (1) identify average burnout rates among social workers; and to (2) confirm previous findings showing differences between social worker groups by area of employment. A quantitative secondary data methodology was used that included self‑report data from the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) that contained both cross‑sectional and …

Application Of Cotter And Colleagues' Glass Ceiling Test To Examine Salary Disparity In Field Of Social Work, Kris Foote

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Abstract

Workplace Attachment Among Social Workers In The Veteran Health Care Sector : A Mixed Methods Study, Michael Lawrence Clarkson-Hendrix

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study expanded the application of attachment theory, referred to as workplace attachment theory in this study, to investigate worker behavior, principally in relation to retention and turnover among social workers in a Veteran health care sector agency. Interdisciplinary collaboration, including whether it was related to workplace attachment, was also a significant feature. Three main aims were to identify (i) workplace attachment experiences; (ii) relational, social and physical contingencies that affected workplace attachment security; and (iii) the extent to which workplace attachment is influenced by interdisciplinary collaboration. Using a sample of social workers, a mixed methods research design involving a …

Filial Responsibility In The Family Of Origin Experiences Of Social Workers, Aphrodite Easton

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This exploratory quantitative study examined social workers’ family of origin experiences of filial responsibility, including emotional and instrumental caregiving. Additionally, this investigation explored the relationship between social workers’ past and current caregiving experiences, reported coping strategies, and the perceived fairness of their families of origin. This research was carried out through an anonymous, online survey of 46 part- and full-time MSW students and MSW graduates using self-report measures including a demographic survey, the Filial Responsibility Scale-Adult, and the Proactive Coping Inventory.

In support of the study’s main hypothesis, participants’ childhood experiences of filial responsibility were significantly correlated with adulthood experiences …

Behavioral Health Workforce Policy Issues: A Rural Perspective, Paul Force-Emery Mackie

Social Work Department Publications

This presentation is part of a Panel discussion on Current Issues In Behavioral Health Workforce Policy at the 31st Annual Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy, Atlanta, GA, on November 12th.