Social Work Commons^™

Real Jobs, Real Community, Real Wages: A Guide To Customized Employment, Kelsey Christy

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this capstone project is to develop a customized employment self-guided training and an in-person training based on evidence-based research. The customized employment guide and in-person training will strive to motivate and educate various entities of Dakota County Social Services, initially implemented with AS/CLS sections, for more individualized approaches to attaining and maintaining employment. The goal of the customized employment guide and training is to have a fluid, consistent, and a readily available training tool for managers, social workers, contracted agencies, providers, and direct care staff within Dakota County AS/CLS. Furthermore, it will embody the AS/CLS value of …

An Overview Of Avoidant Personality Disorder, Kristin Dehrkoop

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Avoidant Personality Disorder presents very similarly to other disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV). What separates Avoidant Personality Disorder (APD) to other disorders that present similarly?

Headway Emotional Health Services: A Parent Satisfaction Survey And Needs Assessment, Eowyn T. Gatlin

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Headway Emotional Health Services seeks to transform lives and restore families by providing a variety of quality mental health services to children and families in the Twin Cities Metro Area. The Vision Program is a partnership between Headway and the Bloomington Public School system. The Vision Program serves K-12 students who qualify for level 3 Emotional and/or Behavioral Disability (EBD) services. All students are in a classroom at their mainstream school and receive daily support from the Vision Mental Health Specialist, a special education classroom teacher, and a paraprofessional. Many students are able to participate in some mainstream programing through …

Student Facilitated Anti-Bully Program, Ashley Kiefer

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Minnesota law currently states that each school district should have a policy that addresses all forms of bullying but allows each district to create their own. This past year, the state of Minnesota has begun to scrutinize this legislation with the purpose of studying the extent of bullying in Minnesota schools and developing policies to stop it. Many schools in the state have unfortunately experienced the negative effects of bullying; some such as the Anoka-Hennepin Schools have experienced investigation and lawsuits due to suicides related to bullying (Post, 2012). At Byron Middle School, there has been limited student involvement in …

Evidence-Based Behavior Interventions For Children With Adhd: A Systematic Review, Jennifer Kimpton

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

To systematically review empirically supported behavior interventions currently being used to manage and reduce symptoms of ADHD in children.

Needs Assessment Of Emergency Department Social Workers In Southwestern Minnesota In Relation To Emergency Department Expansion, Gina Marie Njugunah

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Expansion of a hospital emergency department will affect the role of the emergency department social worker. This research project was conducted to assess the needs, concerns, and strengths of the social workers working in the emergency department of a regional medical center. The study included 13 participants who completed an on-line survey. Results showed that participants were concerned with the increase in patient volume as well as the possible increase in wait time for patients. Participants also expressed how concerns could be addressed. The most common solution was to track information about the cases, including wait times for patients, in …

Needs Assessment To Explore Support For Spouses Affected By Military Life, Erika Sletten

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Service members and family members currently have more challenging life situations due to multiple wartime deployments (Bowen & Martin, 2011). Spouses of military personnel suffer from problems at home when their loved ones are deployed. Problems may include intermittent single parenting, financial strain, and limited access to resources. These problems can lead to domestic violence, child abuse or neglect, and children’s social or academic decline (Lincoln & Sweeten, 2010).

Mental Health Inpatient Hospitalization And Smoking Cessation, Susan Warring

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Forty- four percent of cigarettes purchased, are by persons with serious mental illness. This population dies approximately twenty- five years earlier than the general population. In 1993, American hospitals were mandated to become smokefree. At that time, psychiatric facilities requested variances amid concerns that their patients may present adverse behaviors due to nicotine withdrawal. Within the last five years, smoking bans have become more prevalent, resulting in many psychiatric facilities adhering to a no smoking policy. The Owatonna Mental Health Unit at the Owatonna hospital currently has a variance to allow smoking breaks for their mentally ill inpatients.

Research Questions: …

Survey Of Emergency Department Patients' Perceived Barriers To Accessing Services And Community Resource Utilization, Kelsey Ann Wilke

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this project is to describe the patients being served by Avera McKennan’s emergency department (ED) and to explore perceived barriers to accessing services and current community resource utilization in order to prevent further non-emergent visits.

Research Questions: 1) What are the demographic characteristics of emergency department patients that are referred to the emergency department social worker? 2) What are the perceived barriers that emergency department patient’s encounter when trying to access services and community resources?

Patterns And Predictors Of Debt: A Panel Study, 1985-2008, Richard K. Caputo

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Relying on panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), this study finds that about half the study sample (N = 5,304) never experienced annual debt between 1985 and 2008, that the vast majority of those who incurred annual debt were short-term (1 year) or intermittent debtors (2-4 years), that the proportion of the study sample in debt for the most part declined over time, but also that the level of debt increased. Multinomial regression results indicated that health status and level of changes in income are robust predictors of debt in general, that age and race/ethnicity are …

Empirically Supported Treatment Interventions For Persons With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder And Comorbid Borderline Personality Disorder, Megan Seliga

Dissertations

The overall stigma- and gender-related controversies that surround the diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) present a unique ethical mandate to the practitioner. The relationship between trauma and the BPD diagnosis strengthens the need for carefully designed treatment interventions in order to secure the benefits of trauma-focused work, while minimizing the risk of undue regression. The complexity and risk of harm introduced by a diagnosis of comorbid BPD and PTSD urges the need for clarification of optimal treatment interventions to guide practitioners. Trauma-focused therapies, particularly EMDR, tend to be the treatment of choice for PTSD; however, comorbid borderline pathology has …

Perceptions, Attitudes And Acceptability Of Hiv Testing Among Sub-Saharan African Immigrants In Chicago, Rita Ndidi Amadi

Dissertations

HIV testing is a primary strategy in HIV prevention and is associated with a myriad of benefits including positive behavior changes and enhanced access to HIV care services and support. However, African immigrants delay testing and are often diagnosed with late stage HIV infection and symptoms suggestive of AIDS. Little attention has been devoted to understanding the barriers to testing among sub Saharan African immigrants in the United States.

This cross sectional survey, conducted in partnership with African community organizations in Chicago, used multistage sampling techniques to reach this hard to reach population. It attempted to elucidate the HIV testing …

Empirically Supported Treatment Interventions For Persons With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder And Comorbid Borderline Personality Disorder, Megan Seliga

Dissertations

The overall stigma- and gender-related controversies that surround the diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) present a unique ethical mandate to the practitioner. The relationship between trauma and the BPD diagnosis strengthens the need for carefully designed treatment interventions in order to secure the benefits of trauma-focused work, while minimizing the risk of undue regression. The complexity and risk of harm introduced by a diagnosis of comorbid BPD and PTSD urges the need for clarification of optimal treatment interventions to guide practitioners. Trauma-focused therapies, particularly EMDR, tend to be the treatment of choice for PTSD; however, comorbid borderline pathology has …

Eating Disorders And Health Related Quality Of Life: What Residential Treatment Can Do, Robyn Michelle Welk-Richards

Dissertations

Objective: This study was designed to investigate the Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) in individuals being treated for eating disorder at the residential level of care. The objective of this study was to inform collectively the multiple paradigms that have power in the treatment decisions for individual's seeking clinical care for an eating disorder, i.e. clinicians, payers, policy-makers, friends and family, and the afflicted person. Residential treatment is often overlooked or dismissed as a primary level of care, due to a lack of insurance and other third-party payment. The intension of this research study is to build support for a …

The Confluence Of Attachment Style, Perceived Social Support, And Role Attainment In Women Experiencing Postpartum Mood Disorders, Carrie Jennifer Feig

Dissertations

A purposive convenience sample was used in this mixed methods study. Fifteen postpartum women were given four questionnaires and participated in a brief oral interview. The questionnaires included the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the McPhee Scale, the Maternal Attitudes Questionnaire, and the Post-Partum Quality of Life. As determined by the questionnaires, a correlation was found between level of competence and level of depression such that the less competent a woman felt, the more depressed she felt. The hypothesis tested in this study was that postpartum depression occurs when complicated early attachments have not been modified by either a sense of …

Promising Criminal Justice Practices In Human Trafficking Cases: A County-Level Comparitive Overview (2005-2010) With An Emphasis On Cases Involving Children, Angela Inzano

Center for the Human Rights of Children

The aim of the project is to review and analyze other similarly sized counties as Cook County, with large, metropolitan centers across the country, in order to identify best practice, challenges and efforts that have led to successful case outcomes. This research project identifies and synthesizes cases from 2005-2010 that involved human trafficking and developed at county-level law enforcement agencies and task forces across the United States. Where possible, cases involving minors will be high-lighted, in order to address distinct issues facing children who have been victimized by human trafficking. Best practices in victim identification, case investigation, perpetrator prosecution, and …

Parental Problems, Case Plan Requirements, And Service Targeting In Child Welfare Reunification, Amy C. D’Andrade, R. Chambers

Faculty Publications

Only about half of parents attempting to reunify with their children in foster care succeed in their efforts. Parents are ordered by the court to use treatment services in order to resolve their problems. These treatment services thus play a critical role in reunification, and in fact the use of services appropriately matched to parents' problems has been found to be associated with a greater likelihood of reunification. However, there is little in the literature regarding the specific requirements of reunification case plans, and whether they are accurately targeted at reunifying parents' problems. This mostly descriptive study uses case file …

Social Care Managers. Action Or Reaction?, Judy Doyle, Pat Mcgarty

Other resources

Survey of social care managers.

Models Of Youth Work: A Framework For Positive Sceptical Reflection, Trudi Cooper

Research outputs 2012

In the post-welfare state, youth workers need models to articulate the purpose and value of their work to politicians and the public, and to explain foundational assumptions about society, young people, values, and mechanisms for personal and social change. Robust on-going discussion about models clarifies the relationship between theory and practice and enables youth work to make use of advances in knowledge in other disciplines, and to innovate constructively when faced with social and political change. Theorisation of models of youth work flourished briefly in the final quarter of the twentieth century. Renewed models of youth work are urgently needed. …

'Delivering' Education; Maintaining Inequality. The Case Of Children With Disabilities In Afghanistan, Jean-Francois Trani, Parul Bakhshi, Anand Nandipati

Brown School Faculty Publications

Education for children with disabilities in Afghanistan, particularly disabled girls, continues to lag behind despite laudable efforts of the Ministry of Education to promote universal access for all. The opportunity for education constitutes not just a means of achieving learning outcomes but also a space for social interaction, individual development and psychosocial support, which are paramount in Conflict Affected Fragile States (CAFS). However, many persisting barriers still need to be overcome in Afghanistan to allow education for all and change negative attitudes towards education of children with disabilities. In this paper we argue that viewing education as a basic commodity, …