The Self-Care Center for Cuts: A Model for Student Development

Abstract

We conducted a study to determine whether an intervention using self-care information would change college students' attitudes and beliefs concerning personal responsibility and involvement in their own health care. Individuals entering a student health service were randomly assigned to a treatment or control group. Members of the treatment group (n = 187) received the intervention and completed the survey instrument. Members of the control group (n = 204) completed the survey instrument only. The intervention consisted of one page of general information about the benefits to individuals of taking responsibility for their own health and a booklet containing excerpts from a consumer-oriented health care book. The survey instrument was composed of a measure of attitudes toward information and behavioral involvement in health care and a measure of beliefs regarding control over one's health. Results indicated that the intervention was able to change the treatment group's attitudes regarding active participation in health care. The treatment group's responses also reflected less belief that health was outside of the individual's control. The study showed that a positive change in health-related attitudes and beliefs can result from a relatively uncomplicated informational intervention.     

Gay men's digital cultures beyond Gaydar and Grindr: LINE use in the gay Chinese diaspora of Australia

ABSTRACT

Recent research on gay men's digital cultures has focused predominantly on Western, English-language-based sites and populations. In the case of Australia, a country with an official multiculturalism framework in place and against a backdrop of significant levels of Asian immigration over the past several decades, a more pluralistic approach is needed to critically interrogate the dialectic between platforms, users and wider sociocultural complexities. To this end, the current paper presents research in progress on the social chat application LINE and its use amongst the Chinese diaspora of gay men in Australia. Drawing on data from participant observation carried out over several months during late 2015 and early 2016 in an Australian-based LINE group for local Chinese gay men, we highlight here how LINE functions as an important intermediary for many Chinese men engaging with gay men's digital cultures in this context. In particular, we show how LINE plays a crucial role in Chinese gay men's engagements with gay men's digital culture in Australia by (1) mediating this group's navigations of new social and cultural environments and (2) remediating their experiences within other platforms central to the broader GLBT community.     

Using a Book Group to Facilitate Student Learning About Social Work

The focus of this short paper is the increasingly popular format of the book group. This format has been used on an undergraduate social work programme in the UK with the aim of engaging students, as some enjoy reading fiction for pleasure but find it harder to read social science. The BA Social Work Book Group has met regularly to discuss non-social science books, such as novels and autobiographies. A specific example is presented of a best-selling novel with significant social work content (J.K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy) and the book group's discussion of this. The strengths and limitations of book groups in social work education are drawn out.     

Social Problems,by Amitai Etzioni. Foundations of Modern Sociology Series. Prentice Hall,Englewood Cliffs,New Jersey, 1976. $3.95, Paper. 182 Pp.

Abstract

Publication productivity has received increasing attention in the social work literature. A major shortcoming of the social work literature on productivity is the paucity of attention given specifically to the publication efforts of ethnic minority social work educators. This article presents findings from the first national survey to specifically focus on publication productivity among African-American social work faculty. The data generated from the survey reveal that productivity is associated more with individual-level factors than structural factors, a minority of African-American faculty are producing most of the publications, and African-American social work faculty are producing slightly fewer publications than the broader population of social work faculty.     

The utility of the DSM-5 Z-codes for clinical social work diagnosis

ABSTRACT

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the standard reference text used by social workers for diagnosing mental disorders. The social work profession has always had an uneasy relationship with the DSM, but for 33 years there was an opportunity to note a client’s psychosocial stressors on Axis IV. With the publication of the DSM-5, however, the multiaxial diagnostic system was abandoned, and many social workers are concerned that this change limits their ability to provide comprehensive diagnoses. The purpose of this article is to consider an expanded use of Z-codes as one way to continue including social work’s psychosocial perspective on human functioning in the diagnostic process.     

An exploratory factor model of social area analysis

Social ecology theory promotes the idea that the social structure of any given area influences the behavior of the social group in that area. One model of ecological theory is Shevky and Bell's social area analysis, which presents three constructs to describe and measure urban differences. Shevky and Bell label these constructs social rank, urbanization, and segregation. However, the measures (and labels) originally proposed by Shevky and Bell have been altered across repeated applications. This study is a test of the validity of the three‐construct model using variables popular in current research. The results of this study reveal that a four‐factor model provides a better fit, suggesting that a revision of social area analysis theory is in order.     

Milford Redefined: A Model of Initial and Advanced Generalist Social Work

Abstract

Social work has long sought a conceptual framework to describe its most basic approach to service delivery: generalist social work practice. A milestone in that process was the series of Milford conferences in the 1920s during which the elements of “generic casework” were first identified. This article presents a model that advances and clarifies the concepts of generalist social work as viewed at the beginning of the 1990s. Generalist social work at both the initial and advanced levels involves a way of viewing practice. It is a perspective that focuses on the interface between systems, on a client-centered and problem-focused philosophy, and on an openness to multiple theories and approaches for improving people's well-being. Practice at the initial level requires a set of competencies necessary to provide services consistent with the understanding derived from the perspective. Advanced generalist social work represents increased complexity in the learning process and greater breadth and depth of exploration in a generalist perspective rather than a uniquely different perspective from the generalist approach.     

Toward Rigor and Relevance in US Social Work Education

Abstract

After reviewing the major changes taking place in American higher education, the present paper discusses a select number of challenges confronting US social work education. These challenges are broadly characterized as those of rigor and relevance. The paper presents the author's reflections on the best ways to meet these challenges and stresses the promotion of research and social innovations as important foci for social work education.     

Teaching Successful Community Practice in Social Work

ABSTRACT

This article identifies and addresses a severe problem in the management of community practice projects of students in their second and third year in the Undergraduate Social Work program at the University of Haifa School of Social Work; namely, the current binary evaluation method based on total success or failure of the project.

Using a systems approach, this study creates a framework by which to ensure effective and positive outcomes for community practice projects carried out by undergraduate social work students (Freund, Arkin & Saltman, 1999). This framework is unique in that it draws on knowledge gained from organizational and community theories, as well as instructional theories for teaching social work practice.

The proposed framework includes three components that describe the factors necessary to help transform the student's learning experience: the organization's characteristics, the student's resources, and the evaluative measures.

This inter-conceptual approach enhances the ability of the instructor, the student, and the organization to build an appropriate organizational foundation for students operating communal programs. The underlying assumption is that an integrative approach promotes a better understanding of the components essential for building and evaluating social plans conducted by social work students.     

Ethnic- and Gender-Sensitive Social Work Practice

Abstract

Attempts to incorporate into social work educational programs subject matter related to culture, ethnicity, and women have not produced sequential articulated content. This article presents a framework which provides systematic inclusion of topics pertaining to racial, cultural, ethnic, and women's issues and concerns through all social work curriculum and practice.     

School Performances Among Internationally Adopted Children in Norway

ABSTRACT

A sample of 193 internationally adopted children from Colombia and Korea and a matched sample of 193 Norwegian-born children were tested for school competence. The results showed that as a group, adopted children had lower school performances than Norwegian-born children. The disparity within the adopted group's performances was considerable. Most of the disparity was explained by the adopted children's language skills, especially the ability to use the language at a higher cognitive level (school language), and a high frequency of hyperactive behavior. However, while country of origin also contributed significantly, the children's age of adoption did not explain much of the variance.     

Confronting Gender Discrimination in the Mexican Workplace

Abstract

This article focuses on the issue of gender discrimination in Mexico, in light of NAFTA since passed in 1993. A model of transnational contention from social movement theories is modified and used to analyze the integration of actions by Mexican, US and Canadian women's and labor group's actions, as they fight for Mexican pregnant workers' rights. Data from interviews with labor leaders, female legislators, political parties and feminist NGOs in Mexico and tri-national government documents are processed in a typology of transnational contention, revealing a high degree of integrated transnational and domestic efforts-which I argue is the basis for a growing women's labor movement in the region.     

e-Inclusion and e-Social work: new technologies at the service of social intervention

ABSTRACT

This paper defines the concept of e-inclusion in reference to programmes and projects that promote social inclusion through the use of new technologies. This concept is related to e-social work, defined as the use of ICTs in the field of social work and social services. To illustrate the implications of e-inclusion and e-social work, a case study is presented on a community involvement project using new technologies as a means and as an end. The SAREGUNE project for community use of new technologies was set up in Vitoria (Spain) in 2004. Ten years later, it gained recognition as a European e-inclusion scheme within the ‘Leonardo Da Vinci Multilateral Projects, Transfer of Innovation’ lifelong learning programme. This article explores the origins of the idea and its significance in the fight against the digital divide and in the processes of intercultural and social inclusion within the city's historic central district. A process of deconstruction, construction and reconstruction of the scheme is used to identify and describe the movements of rotation and revolution within the process of social inclusion, the levels of integration of e-social work at individual, group and community level, and the impact of the project in terms of e-inclusion.     

Patriarchy and incest in William Faulkner's 'Absalom! Absalom!' and Juan Rulfo's 'Pedro Páramo'

Abstract

This article presents a comparative analysis of patriarchy and incest in the work of William Faulkner and Juan Rulfo. Focusing primarily on Absalom! Absalom! and Pedro Páramo, I argue that Rulfo adopts and, at the same time, interrogates Faulkner's patriarchal model of the family: the incestuous relationships that characterize Absalom! Absalom! reappear, under different disguises, in the Mexican writer's novel. My analysis also suggests that both Faulkner and Rulfo were intrigued by the symbolic implications of incest, and exploited these implications in order to talk about the collapse of the patriarchal and cultural order in the post-Civil War South and early 20th century Mexico respectively. The conclusion maintains that, despite Rulfo's reluctance to acknowledge Faulkner's impact on his artistic consciousness, the intertextual dialogue between the two writers should be read both as a form of incest, and as a quest for a new social structure.     

Senior Faculty Perceptions of Social Work Journals

Abstract

Academic journals are the primary means of disseminating new knowledge. A journal's prestige is a key determinant of its contents' visibility, readership, impact on practice, and use and citation in future research. This article presents a method for assessing the prestige of journals in the diverse field of social work, and demonstrates its application in a 1990 survey in which 421 senior faculty at accredited graduate schools of social work rated the familiarity and perceived quality of 120 journals in their field. The findings have value for researchers seeking to publish their work in the most appropriate journal and for persons attempting to assess the scholarly contribution of social work educators.     

Unlocking Doors: Providing MSW Programs and Students with Educational “Keys” to Social Justice

ABSTRACT

How can social work educators identify what constitutes social justice as a practice, as a social work stance? How can we teach our students to recognize this stance, to work toward it, to practice it, and to live it? Symbolic interactionist Erving Goffman's concepts of keys and keying, as underscored in his work Frame Analysis, provide useful tools for helping students to recognize the value of social justice within social work educational encounters and to apply this value when they enter the field. The concepts of keys and keying can also help programs to assess and amplify their commitments to social justice.     

Teaching Students the Task Force Approach: A Policy-Practice Course

Abstract

In contemporary society, task forces are commonly used to deal with community-based social problems. Task forces develop, change, and implement policies at all levels of government, and within all types of organizations, including the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Unfortunately, social work educators have not been involved in teaching the policy-practice skills of working on a task force. This article discusses existing literature on task forces. Gersick's (1988) model of task group development is used to structure the teaching of the task force approach. An advanced policy course on homelessness is used as an illustration, and a recommendation is made for adjusting educational requirements to cross-reference courses in the social work curriculum that teach substantive topics and, at the same time, use innovative methods to teach group skills.     

Doing collaborative research: doing what feels right and makes sense

Drawing on current doctoral research in the UK, this paper discusses the benefits, challenges and dilemmas associated with adopting a collaborative approach to exploring the experiences of women offenders as consumers of community-based health and social care services. The initial focus is on the rationale for setting up an advisory group of 'expert advisers/knowers', as a means of collaborating with women with direct and personal experience of the criminal justice system. In addition, the group's role in supporting, advising and guiding the research process is explored with particular emphasis on examining the practice of building long-term relationships with 'vulnerable' groups of women. Both short and long-term ethical issues are considered, for example, the implications of adopting an approach based on reciprocity, mutual disclosure and 'friendship' and the impact of 'role reversal' where it is the researcher who ultimately feels powerless and abandoned in the relationship. A key theme that underpins the work is the notion that in this context, 'doing' collaborative research essentially embraced 'doing' what fundamentally 'felt right' and 'made sense' thus ensuring that the study was meaningful to all involved.     

Publication Rates of Undergraduate Social Work Programs in Selected Journals

Abstract

Scholarship is receiving an ever-increasing emphasis within social work education, particularly at the undergraduate level. Decisions on recruitment, reappointment, tenure, salary, and promotion often are influenced by publication productivity. The authors extend previous research on publication activity of graduate faculty by reporting the journal article production of undergraduate social work faculty over a 7-year period in seven major social work journals. As expected from earlier studies, relatively few faculty produced a sizable proportion of the articles. However, articles written by only one author were less common than previous research suggested. The majority of articles appeared in three of the journals reviewed: Social Work, Journal of Social Work Education, and Families in Society (formerly Social Casework). The most prolific undergraduate faculty were likely to come from programs located in combined bachelor of social work/master of social work settings in relatively large public universities. Gender differences were noted in only one area: twice as many women authors were among the most prolific baccalaureate contributors.     

Practice Wisdom on Custodial Parenting with Mental Illness: A Strengths View

ABSTRACT

Social work principles of strengths, empowerment, and consumer-centered care for persons with mental illness are currently being adapted to broader contexts. This article presents study findings on practice wisdom about custodial parents with mental illness, a potentially increasing group of consumers in light of mental health reform. The research team organized thirty-six professionals with practice experience into five focus groups. Findings reflect strengths perspective categories of resilience, social support, family functioning, self-care, and parents' positive experience of their symptoms. Implications discuss how providers who work with custodial parents and their children can apply these findings in assessments and interventions.