Social Work Commons^™

Milwaukee Selects A Workforce Intervention: Organizational Culture & Climate, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

The Division of Milwaukee Child Protective Services (DMCPS) of the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) will be implementing and testing an organizational culture and climate intervention called ARC, which stands for Availability, Responsiveness, & Continuity. ARC is an organizational change process that has improved outcomes in mental health settings by: 1) introducing core principles to guide service improvement efforts, 2) embedding research-based organizational components for service improvement, and 3) fostering attitudes necessary for ongoing service improvement. DMCPS employs approximately 185 State employees. These employees conduct initial child protective service assessments, oversee ongoing case management services delivered by private …

How To Make School-Based Mental Health Work, Jenny Wilhoite

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

This session is designed to give an overview of how to create a School-Based Mental Health program that benefits students on all tiers, providing universal prevention, early intervention, and intensive services for at-risk students. Meeting the unmet needs of students with mental health challenges impacts student attendance, behavioral and academic outcomes, and discipline in a positive way.

Unveiling The Mask:Sexual Trauma's Impact On Academic Achievement, Behavior, And Self-Identity, Teshaunda Hannor-Walker, Sarah Kitchens, Lacey Ricks

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Sexual trauma is an unfortunate but a common and often masked experience for many students in America. While sexual trauma in itself is not a mental health disorder, it can become a risk factor for many academic and mental health problems. Trauma-informed schools can play an important role in helping students deal with the aftercare of a traumatic experience.

Building Reflection Skills Through A Service-Learning Project In Human Services, Jennifer Dobbs-Oates

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

Abstract:

Service-learning is a rich context for developing reflection skills, promoting learning and personal/professional development. This service-learning project required students to partner with a professional who serves clients in a group setting and plan one group meeting/session. This poster describes reflection assignments and completed projects, and highlights learning promoted through reflection.

Previously presented at the Engagement Scholarship Consortium (2013)

Seed For Oklahoma Kids Wave 3: Extending Rigorous Research And A Successful Policy Model, Margaret M. Clancy, Michael Sherraden, Sondra G. Beverly

Center for Social Development Research

With support from philanthropists, the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis (CSD) is conducting a third wave of research in the SEED for Oklahoma Kids (SEED OK) experiment. A research study of exceptional quality, SEED OK represents an opportunity to assess the long-term potential of Child Development Accounts (CDAS)—a national system of asset-building accounts for children and youth.1 Wave 3, taking place in 2019 and 2020, expands the original CDA in SEED OK with an automatic progressive deposit, and extends the longitudinal research to examine the impacts of the CDA when the children are in middle …

Marked For Life: Young Adults Perspectives On The Impact Of Parental Military Deployment, Megan Humlicek

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

This qualitative study explores the long-term impact of parental military deployment (PMD) on young adults 19-25 years of age. While the literature is abundant with studies focusing on the impact of PMD on children and adolescents, it is mute when it comes to the long-term impact on young adults. Thirty-two participants responded to an in-depth Qualtrics questionnaire and seven partook in a follow-up phone interview to gain insights into their adjustment process to PMD, its impact on their personality development, the services and support systems they utilized, and the potential influence it had on their career choice. The outcome demonstrates …

The Opioid Crisis: Exploring The Effects On First Responders And Healthcare Professionals, Rachel Lubischer, Dawne Frain

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

In 2017, the National Department of Health and Human Services declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency (The White House, 2018). Although Nebraska ranks among the states with the lowest number of drug overdose deaths, rising opioid use creates safety concerns for first responders and healthcare professionals, and leads to strained resources in many jurisdictions. We hope to increase our audience’s knowledge on the opioid crisis, how it effects first responders and healthcare professionals, and pertinent policies and initiatives in Nebraska. Our audience will leave this presentation better equipped to initiate discussions with friends, family, and community members about …

Preventive Benefits Of U.S. Childcare Subsidies In Supervisory Child Neglect, Kathryn Maguire-Jack, Kelly M. Purtell, Kathryn Showalter, Sheila Barnhart, Mi-Youn Yang

Social Work Faculty Publications

Using data from age 3 of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, the current study explores the complex relationships between U.S. child care subsidies and neglect. Specifically, the study examines two research questions: (1) Are U.S. child care subsidies associated with selfreported neglect among low-income mothers? (2) What individual types of self-reported neglect are significantly reduced by receipt of child care subsidy? Using negative binomial regression examining the relationships among mothers who were income-eligible for child care subsidy, we found that child care subsidy was associated with lower levels of supervisory neglect, indicating an important role of subsidy in …

Understanding The Effect Of Moral Transgressions In The Helping Professions: In Search Of Conceptual Clarity, Erin Sugrue

Faculty Authored Articles

There is a vast academic literature on the moral dimensions and ethical dilemmas of what are commonly referred to as the helping professions (e.g., nursing, medicine, social work, counseling, teaching). Over the past several decades, increasing attention has been paid to the issue of moral transgressions perpetrated, witnessed, or experienced by these professionals and their accompanying psychological and social outcomes. Scholars seeking to understand moral transgressions and their effects have proposed and examined a variety of constructs, including moral distress, demoralization, and moral injury. This article examines to what extent constructs related to moral transgressions and their …

Future Direction For Child Mental Health: Developing A Blueprint Using The System Of Care Framework, Isaac Karikari, Betty Walton, Christine Marie Bishop

Faculty Publications

Mental illness is multi-layered and it requires a team effort in order to be addressed. Commonly, there is uncertainty toward improving and maintaining the gains that are made by professionals in the child mental and behavioral health field. Based on lessons learned from a multi-year SOC expansion grant funded by SAMHSA, project members discuss recommendations for improving child mental health, as well as providing support to families.

Information And Civic Literacy In Bsw Curricula: Prerequisites For Effective Advocacy, Gayle Mallinger, Molly Kerby

Social Work Faculty Publications

Overview:

• Overview of Information & Civic Literacy
• Strategies for increasing student competence in information and civic literacy
• Efficacy of various strategies.

Expanding Full-Service Community Schools Into Rural Minnesota, Rachel Cox Raverty, Lindsey Gilbert, Jessica Goettl, Claire Otto, Korissa Smith

Master of Social Work Student Policy Advocacy Briefs

Communities throughout rural Minnesota would greatly benefit from full-service community schools to support academic achievement and contribute to thriving communities. Lack of health and human services, mental health disparities, and cultural divides are among the greatest concerns for students in rural areas. One in 5 children birth to eighteen has a diagnosable mental health condition and 1 out of every 10 children experience a mental health problem that is severe enough to impair how they function at home, in school, and in their communities. When youth come to school hungry or experiencing in-home trauma, academic success is hard to achieve. …

Extraordinary Acts To “Show Up”: Conceptualizing Resilience Of Lgbtq Youth, Kenta Asakura

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

Sexual and gender diversity is an overlooked subject in resilience research. This study seeks to advance the conceptualization of resilience among lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) youth. Informed by social ecological theory of resilience, grounded theory analysis of interviews with service providers (n = 16) and LGBTQ youth (n = 19) yielded the following categories: (a) facing adversities across contexts, and (b) “doing well” while still in pain. LGBTQ youth face both general and LGBTQ-specific adversities. LGBTQ youth, even in a so-called “post-gay” era, remain challenged to navigate marginalization to maintain their well-being. Participants endorsed a context-dependent understanding …

Bridging The Gap: Supporting Transition-Age Youth Living With Mental Health Conditions, Oreoluwa Dasylva, Abbie Ensrud, Brittany Kruse, Cindy Schulz

Master of Social Work Student Policy Advocacy Briefs

The transition from adolescence to adulthood is a crucial time in a person’s life. For young people living with mental health conditions, becoming an independent, well-functioning, and productive adult can be especially challenging. It is imperative that supports be put in place to ensure transition-age youth have a smooth passage from child to adult mental health services. Nearly half of all life-long diagnosable conditions present by age 14. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) finds the co-occurrence of serious illnesses and substance use disorders exist among transition-age youth more than any other developmental age. When left untreated, …

Voting Rights & Felon Disenfranchisement: A New Path Forward, Jenessa Rudell, Sierra Sanders, Kali Shae, Emily Stensvold, Luke Westman

Master of Social Work Student Policy Advocacy Briefs

The current felon disenfranchisement policies in Minnesota undermine the essential voting rights necessary for democracy to thrive. Minnesota currently outranks many founding NATO countries in incarceration rates per 100,000 in population. If an individual in Minnesota is convicted of a felony, their right to vote is revoked until they complete their sentence, probation, or parole. This is especially problematic because Minnesota’s probationary periods extend into decades long punitive measures. Governor Mark Dayton’s Task Force suggestions of allowing felons to vote after incarceration is a step in the right direction, but does not go far enough to alleviate the problem of …

Paid Family And Medical Leave Policy: An Investment In Minnesota's Families, Hannah Krog, Danielle Kaderlik, Danielle Maher, Paxson Menard, Kallie Trutnau

Master of Social Work Student Policy Advocacy Briefs

The current policy Minnesota, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), is unpaid and simply insufficient to meet the needs of Minnesotans. In 2016, only 1 in 7 U. S. civilian workers had access to paid family and medical leave (PFML) as an employee benefit. Ten percent of Minnesotans will take family or medical leave (FML) in any given year. While almost three-quarters of Minnesota workers receive at least some pay when they are out of work for family or medical reasons; access to pay during leave is not equally distributed. Low-wage (46%); part-time (38%); less educated (38%); black …

A Bill To Create The Bright Futures Plan Task Force: Testimony On H.B. 2389 Before The House Education Committee, Oregon State Legislature, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

Legislation introduced in the Oregon House of Representatives early in 2019 proposed the creation of a task force to develop recommendations for increasing the number of children with savings for postsecondary education. The proposed Oregon Bright Futures Task Force would be obligated to submit its recommendations by January 2020. This document presents remarks prepared by Michael Sherraden and Margaret Clancy. Presented by Sherraden in testimony before the House Committee on Education on March 13, 2019, the remarks identify key design elements of Child Development Account policies and note experiences gained from research and as well as other policy engagements.

An Expert Discussion On Autism And Empathy, Damian Milton, Noah J. Sasson, Elizabeth Sheppard, Melanie Yergeau, Christina Nicolaidis

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

As early as 1962, psychologists described children with “autistic psychopathy” as being “unable to achieve empathy.”² An empathy deficit has since become a core feature in many conceptualizations of autism, including the Theory of Mind (or mind-blindness) model and the Empathizing-Systematizing model.³ Researchers have distinguished between cognitive empathy (or theory of mind; the capacity to understand another person’s perspective or mental state) and emotional or affective empathy (the capacity to experience affective reactions to the observed experiences of others), asserting that autistic individuals have deficits in the former, but not in the latter.⁴,⁵ Even this …

Filling The Sex Trade Swamp: Robert Kraft And His Predecessors, Janice G. Raymond

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

"Baby Factories": Exploitation Of Women In Southern Nigeria, Jacinta Chiamaka Nwaka, Akachi Odoemene

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Despite the writings of feminist thinkers and efforts of other advocates of feminism to change the dominant narratives on women, exploitation of women is a fact that has remained endemic in various parts of the world, and particularly in Africa. Nigeria is one of those countries in Africa where women are largely exposed to varying degrees of exploitation. This paper examines the development and proliferation of baby-selling centers in southern Nigeria and its impacts on and implication for women in Nigeria. It demonstrates how an attempt to give protection to unwed pregnant girls has metamorphosed into “baby harvesting” and selling …

Facilitating Transformation In Workforce Training: Using Clinical Theory To Understand Psychological Self-Sufficiency, Rana Hong, Terry B. Northcut, Marcia Spira, Philip Young P. Hong

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Acknowledging the scarcity of a bottom up social work practice model in facilitating the development of success in workforce development programs, this study explores Psychological self-sufficiency (PSS) as an emerging social work practice theory. Phenomenological studies of low-income jobseekers in employment training along with the empirical validation of measures of the core constructs of PSS – employment hope scale (EHS) and perceived employment barrier scale (PEBS) – and testing of the theoretical model resulted in the emergence of a new theory of PSS. PSS was conceptually defined as a dynamic and internal drive that activates the process of transforming cognitively …

Pedagogical Techniques That Provide Educational Value To Social Work Students Through Bereavement Academics And Empathetic Advancements, Sandra Renea Williamson-Ashe

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

The lack of empathy in college students has been documented and empathy levels are reported to have declined over recent years. College student bereavement has not been well-researched (Balk, 2008) but the lack of declining college student empathy has documentation in psychological expressions (Balk, 2008). This article addresses social work students engaged in an academic bereavement assignment that incorporates student centered instruction (SCI) and “teaching through relationships.” Using an untimely social work students’ death, students utilize research, reflection, cooperative small group learning, and applied theory, to compose a writing assignment. Intentionally introducing the “sorrowful empty chair” in the bereavement assignment …

How Hugging Mom Teaches Me The Meaning Of Love And Perhaps Beyond, Ethan Trinh

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

Hugging mom is unconventional in a traditional Vietnamese family. I write this piece to articulate my thoughts to describe different ways to look at the meanings of hugging. During my writing process, I use a walking meditation as a Buddhist practice to calm my mind so that I can see my true self and a clearer picture of different layers of the act of hugging. I believe hegemonic gender roles and patriarchy happen everywhere in the world, not particularly in Vietnam. I do not plan to devalue my home country’s cultural values in this paper. This is not the purpose …

The Importance Of Cognitive Diversity For Sustaining The Commons, Jacopo A. Baggio, Jacob Freeman, Thomas R. Coyle, Tam Nguyen, Dale Hancock, Karrie E. Elpers, Samantha Nabity, H.J. Francois Dengah Ii, David Pillow

Ecology Center Publications

Cognitive abilities underpin the capacity of individuals to build models of their environment and make decisions about how to govern resources. Here, we test the functional intelligences proposition that functionally diverse cognitive abilities within a group are critical to govern common pool resources. We assess the effect of two cognitive abilities, social and general intelligence, on group performance on a resource harvesting and management game involving either a negative or a positive disturbance to the resource base. Our results indicate that under improving conditions (positive disturbance) groups with higher general intelligence perform better. However, when conditions deteriorate (negative disturbance) groups …

Social Mobility: The Necessary Focus Of St. Louis Investment In Black Males, Sean Joe, Robert Motley

Center for Social Development Research

The tragic killing of Michael Brown at the hand of Darren Wilson, a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer, further highlighted the long-standing disparities in health, education, employment, and overall well-being disproportionately burdening Black boys and young men in the St. Louis region. Since that event and the associated developments, actions have centered on attending to structural determinants, racism, and equity. However, less attention has been devoted to the overall well-being of Black boys and young men ages 18 to 29 in the St. Louis region and to the paucity of available economic opportunities. This brief report seeks to shift the focus …

An Exploration Of The Experience Of Adults With Learning Disabilities Through Art, Adi Greenboim-Zimchoni

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

This study employed arts-based research with phenomenological, qualitative inquiry to understand and explore the perspectives of adults with learning disabilities and their sense of self and support in inclusive and special education classrooms in Israel during their school years. In this study, the researcher attempted to take Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (1979) one step further by examining the participants’ feelings and relationships with the people in their daily lives during childhood. The researcher met with 12 participants ages 18-31 diagnosed with learning disabilities between third and eleventh grade. Participants created drawings illustrating how they felt about teachers, parents, friends and …

The Meadowlark Scholarship Act: Testimony On L.B. 544 Before The Education Committee 106th Nebraska Legislature, Margaret Clancy

Center for Social Development Research

In late January 2019, legislators in the state of Nebraska introduced a package of bills designed to broaden access to postsecondary education and to encourage saving in the state 529 college savings plan. The proposed legislation’s central piece, the Meadow Lark Scholarship Act, would create a universal, at-birth, $100 seed deposit for every child born in the state. Other bills would authorize an automatic savings match program for low- and moderate-income families who save in the state 529 plan, exclude 529 contributions in determining eligibility for need-based public benefits, and make other changes to the 529 plan. On February 5, …

Dallas Refugee Engagement Project, Anna Landreneau, Kovan Barzani, Uroob Haris, Lawrence Jiang, Michael Park, Thomas Schmedding

SMU Journal of Undergraduate Research

The full capabilities of well-structured project management are rarely realized outside of the scope of the respective profession. The tools and skills in which project managers specialize are furthermore often considered in high-level business contexts, but are far less remembered as crucial components to many other endeavors. This project portfolio serves as an insight into the structure and process of managing a short-term social awareness project and an exploration and application of various project management tools. It also provides a review of the success of implementing sound project management toward humanitarian work on a community level. Public Equity, the team …

Seeing The Faces Of Opioid Addiction, Erin Olson

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Around 130 Americans die every day from opioid related deaths, most of them overdoses."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the problem of substance abuse from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/seeing-the-faces-of-opioid-addiction/

The Birch Creek Canids And Dogs As Transport Labor In The Intermountain West, Martin H. Welker, David A. Byers

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Historically, domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) have been documented as central features of Intermountain West and Great Plains Native American camps. Some of these dogs were bred specifically for largeness and stamina to haul travois and to carry pannier-style packs. Ethnographic accounts frequently highlight the importance of dogs in moving through the Intermountain West and the plains, reporting loads as heavy as 45 kg (100 lbs). We calculated body mass from skeletal morphometric data and used these to estimate prehistoric and historic dog load capacities for travois and pannier-style packs in the Intermountain West, Great Plains, and Great Basin. Specimens of …