Campus 1980—The Shape of the Future in American Higher Education,Edited by Alvin C. Eurich and the Staff of the Academy for Educational Development. New York,Delacorte Press, 1968. 327 pp. $6.95 Paperbound

Abstract

Harry Specht's argument against private practice is really an argument against social work's involvement in psychotherapy. He says it's not social work, despite the fact that social work provides more psychotherapy than any other profession in the nation, and more professional social workers are involved in it than in any other method of intervention.     

Project Discovery: Social Work Research @ Southern Health

Abstract

The health sector uses a “person-in-environment” perspective reflected in multidisciplinary teamwork to understand and influence human lives. This standpoint accords closely with social work's knowledge and theory base, recognising that material, economic, political, organisational, and social structures interact, creating a complex array of factors impacting on individuals and families. Practice research activities are an effective way of exploring social work's particular contribution to health service provision. We describe and critique various models of practice research reported in the literature. A unique model of practice research that we are developing is discussed. Called Project Discovery: Social Work Research @ Southern Health 18 June 2011, this model demonstrates ways in which practice research may exemplify theoretically-driven and service-based research and in so doing advance social work's knowledgebase.     

Welfare Leavers and Returners

ABSTRACT

This study compares representative samples from a mid-Atlantic state of people who left the TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Program) rolls in 2002 and people who returned to TANF in this same year, after being off the rolls. Previous studies showed that the work lives of the welfare poor are more stressful than those in the primary job market. Findings of this study show the quality of life of respondents was particularly related to resource deprivations, and neighborhood conditions, while suggesting relationships to employment barriers and child well-being. Returners report more barriers to employment and neighborhood issues than leavers.     

Welfare Reform

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) on a growing constituency that may require welfare assistance: grandparents raising grandchildren. A brief review of the demographics of grandparent caregivers is followed by an exploration of welfare reform legislation, including work requirements and the Healthy Marriage Initiative (HMI). The importance of state-level policies in assisting grandparent-headed households, particularly health care, school enrollment, and housing policies, are also discussed. The paper concludes by offering implications for welfare policies in terms of their impact on intergenerational households headed by grandparents.     

Welfare reform's ineligible immigrant parents: Program reach and enrollment barriers

Since the implementation of the 1996 welfare reform act, the child-only Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) caseload has increased dramatically. Perhaps the least understood child-only population is that of ineligible immigrant parents (IIPs), who are ineligible for TANF because of their citizenship or immigration status. Using data collected through in-depth interviews and focus groups in Stanislaus County, California, this study examines how well California's TANF program serves this at-risk group. We analyze the factors that lead IIPs to seek aid for their children, the enrollment obstacles they face, and TANF's ability to meet their needs. Our results demonstrate that immigration-related fears as well as concerns about caseworkers, stigma, and future government sanctions heighten these parents' reluctance to seek aid. They also create multiple and often population-specific barriers to TANF enrollment. We close with research and policy recommendations for serving this vulnerable population.     

State TANF Time Limit and Work Sanction Stringencies and Long-Term Trajectories of Welfare Use,Labor Supply,and Income

While the 1996 welfare reform increased employment and reduced the participation of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program immediately after its inception, little is known about the extent to which the reform and stringencies of time limit and work sanction policy features have impacted individuals in the long term. This study used the Survey of Income and Program Participation 1996, 2001, and 2004 panels (1996–2007) and a difference-in-difference-in-difference design to follow low-skilled single mothers’ trajectories of welfare use, labor supply, and income for 10 years after the welfare reform and compare how these trajectories differ by stringencies of state work sanction and time limit policies. The findings indicate that welfare reform had sustained impacts on reducing welfare use (TANF and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP] program) and increasing employment. Stringent work sanction and time limit policies were associated with lower TANF participation rates in the long term, but only short time limit policies were associated with reduced SNAP participation. Neither stringent policy feature increased employment nor income. The differential effects by race were also examined and discussed.

     

Children of Substance Abusing Women on Federal Welfare

SUMMARY

The present study sought to characterize well-being indicators for a sample of children of substance dependent TANF women. Participants were 372 mothers meeting DSM-IV criteria for substance dependence and 156 non-substance abusing women from two urban counties in New Jersey. Children of substance dependent TANF mothers experienced significant vulnerabilities, as demonstrated by higher levels of contextual risk factors and negative behavioral and emotional and school outcomes. Overall, these rates were about double those found in children of non-substance abusing mothers. Results highlight the need for multi-systemic services to address the problems experienced by substance abusing TANF women and their children.     

Recent Developments in Welfare to Work in Hong Kong

Summary

The Asian financial crisis (1997) has created a social care crisis resulting in rising unemployment, poverty, income inequalities and homelessness. Although faced with dwindling public finances, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government had been compelled to tackle these problems. However, it has been attracted to the neo-liberal recipe: changing the subvention system to a block grant, curbing social spending, and tightening eligibility for social assistance. Notably, the introduction of the Intensive Employment Assistance Projects (IEAPs), which are the first welfare to work programs in East Asia, has become a major policy tool. This paper reports on a study of the impact of the projects, one of the key pillars for welfare to work programs. The IEAPs were found to have brought about positive changes in welfare clients' motivation to work and sense of self-reliance. Social workers from both traditional and progressive NGOs have etched, in various ways, their place in the welfare to work programs and contributed to the debate on welfare reform in Hong Kong.     

Towards Customized Deliberations

ABSTRACT

The profession of social work has important contributions to make in the rapidly developing dialog about medical care decision making and to the evolution of hospitals as systems that engage with people as patients, for whom illnesses create increased vulnerability (Gruber, 1998). Professional ethics clearly states that the individual professional social worker has a responsibility to influence processes involving vulnerable populations. Articulating social work's responsibility and potential contributions in the area of medical care decision making begins with an application of social work's mission and values, and then continues with consideration of the profession's evolving role in hospitals. Pertinent aspects of the health care industry, including current models for continuum of care and for provider-patient relationships, are discussed in terms of opportunities to modify the models used to guide interactions with patients. Finally, the impact of a growing number of distinct treatment options is also considered. The objective of the article is to offer social workers in health care settings a conceptual framework for considering professional ethical obligations and for participating in the contemporary dialog regarding medical care decision-making.     

The welfare/self-sufficiency gap among single mothers through theoretical lenses

ABSTRACT

Poverty has been a recurring issue in America since time immemorial and become the target of a panoply of corrective measures from the federal government. One of these measures is, of course, the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), the key welfare policy under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Since its inception, TANF has constantly been the subject of vehement controversies among politicians, lawmakers, community advocates, social researchers, and government officials. Indeed, there has been a growing concern about the effectiveness of the program in galvanizing economically disadvantaged families toward economic self-sufficiency. This paper presents a historical overview of the political context that led to the passage of the TANF policy, identifies barriers associated with TANF implementation, explains the concept of self-sufficiency, and critically analyzes the gap between welfare receipt and economic self-sufficiency through the lenses of four theoretical benchmarks: policy design and social construction, culture of poverty, racial classification, and social control. Implications for research are discussed.     

Assessing Public Support for State Government Social Welfare Expenditures

Abstract

This study compared two different approaches to assessing the level of public support for social welfare spending at the state government level. The first approach focuses on the degree to which the public supports state government's involvement in public welfare spending. The second approach identifies the importance the public places on social welfare spending when compared to other possible functions of state government. Using Alabama data, the paper examined changes in general and comparative public support for state budget expenditures from 1980 to 2000 in Alabama. In addition, we examined the effectiveness of sociodemographic and attitudinal characteristics of respondents as predictors of both general and comparative support for three social welfare functions of state government. Support for “benefits for poor people” grew both generally and comparatively in the 20-year period; support for programs for older people remained steady; and support for mental health services declined. Sociodemographic predictors of general and comparative sup port were generally consistent with a self-interest model     

Welfare Reform

The passage of the Welfare Reform Act, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996, legislated the most sweeping changes to public assistance to poor people. The major focus of the act was to reduce caseloads and spending on public assistance. The most controversial component of the act, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), replaced the older Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). TANF embodied the welfare to work principle with provisions that needy families could only receive assistance for 2 years at a time and a total of 5 years in a lifetime, and that the poor must take personal responsibility to become self-supporting through employment. Welfare reform included changes to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) which make it more difficult for disabled children to qualify for benefits. Reductions in the Food Stamp program were also included in welfare reform. This paper discusses the details of the Welfare Reform Act and calls attention to concerns that reforms may have negative effects on poor people.     

Agency Practices Affecting Social Workers Who Treat Substance-Abusing Clients

Abstract

This study interviewed 115 MSWs with substance abuse training working in general social service agencies to determine if they viewed their settings as facilitating or hindering their work with substance-abusing clients. This study builds on the work of Lightfoot and Orford (1986) who found that social workers were more hindered than helped by their agencies' practices regarding substance-abusing clients.

Results: A majority of workers viewed their agencies as facilitating substance abuse-related work through support from supervisors and administrators, availability of substance abuse training, workers' freedom to choose clients, and opportunities to supervise others on substance abuse-related issues. Supervisor data corroborated these findings. This is a hopeful sign for the profession contrasting with considerable social work literature documenting the profession's historic ambivalence toward substance-abusing clients.     

A Program Evaluation of Los Angeles ACORN's Welfare Case Advocacy

SUMMARY

Bureaucratic confusion and client dissatisfaction since the 1996 changes in welfare policy opened opportunities for third party advocacy on behalf of welfare clients. This paper evaluates Los Angeles ACORN's case advocacy program for welfare clients. Outcomes analyzed include client satisfaction with ACORN's advocacy and effects of the program on welfare clients who later became ACORN members. Ninety-one percent of clients surveyed (N = 99) stated they were satisfied with the resolution of their welfare case complaint. Eighty-eight percent of respondents stated ACORN did a better job resolving their problem compared to the welfare department. Unique aspects of the program include peer advocacy and opportunities for welfare recipients to join ACORN and work on welfare policy changes among other issues.     

Practitioner Research Capacity: A Survey of Social Workers in Northern Queensland

Abstract

Strategies to build practitioner research capacity need to be developed in order to increase the research base for social work. To be effective, strategies need to be informed by an understanding of the organisational context and the social work workforce. This paper reports the results of a cross-sectional survey of social workers conducted as part of a larger study of health practitioners in a public sector health organisation in northern Queensland. The survey demonstrates a high level of interest in research. Research methods congruent with social work's person in environment focus were favoured by participants. However, consistent with the literature, lack of confidence, limited knowledge and skills, and practical constraints impeded research activity. This study contributes to research capacity building initiatives by identifying research strengths and areas of research activity where support is required. Approaches to evidence-based practice consistent with social work and strategies for research capacity building are discussed.     

Making the Transition from Welfare to Work: Employment Experiences of CalWORKs Participants in the San Francisco Bay Area

ABSTRACT

This study describes welfare-to-work participants in the San Francisco Bay Area, support services, experiences with the CalWORKs program, and predictors of employment status in the wake of welfare reform. Findings indicate that many are working and more Stayers and Recidivists than Leavers are using food stamps and Medi-Cal. Multivariate analysis reveals that race and financial supports were the significant factors contributing to employability, defined as the ability to secure employment despite the need to supplement earned income with welfare payments. To help people stay off of welfare, case management services are needed to help participants maintain employment and increase job skills. In addition to expanding our understanding of human behavior within the social environment of poverty, implications for practice and policy are identified.     

Spirituality,Religion, and Social Work

Abstract

Social work scholars and practitioners have approached the question of how to integrate religion and/or spirituality into their profession in one of four typical ways: (1) resistance or avoidance; (2) an overly-generalized syncretism; (3) radical separation of the terms spirituality and religion; or (4) a genuinely interdisciplinary conversation between the disciplines of social work and religious studies. This latter approach not only identifies social work's conflictual founding legacy, but also recognizes broader contemporary intellectual traditions which do not easily separate “religion” from “spirituality.” Such awareness and common grounding allow social work to more substantively and creatively partake in cross-disciplinary research and discussion.     

How Mothers Cope When Their Welfare Grant Is Cut

Abstract

In this qualitative study of welfare mothers' perceptions and responses to receiving an economic sanction, we recruited a convenience sample of mothers of preschool children whose benefits had been cut due to noncompliance with an employment activity. The interviews combined semi-structured and open-ended questions, as well as measures of maternal depression and economic hardship. No pattern of differences in strategies was found between those women who complied with the work mandate and those who did not. Many of the women were confused about the reason for the cut in their benefit. Policy ramifications of findings in regard to the 2002 TANF Reauthorization legislation are discussed.     

Charity or Entitlement Conundrum: Welfare Policies and Safe Motherhood in Impoverished Buffalo,New York

ABSTRACT

In contrast to the most industrialized Western nations, the United States faces great social and economic disparities and a deep gap between the socioeconomic strata. The child poverty rate is almost three times higher than in any other industrialized Western country, and single mother families represent 60% of all poor families in the United States. Concentrating on the situation of single mothers in impoverished Buffalo, New York, the authors argue that similar to the underdeveloped world, the fate of single mothers in the United States is tied to the global economy. This project seeks to understand how systemic (social location) and idiosyncratic (individual) factors interactively affect the health and well-being of female-headed, single-parent families. The quantitative analyses are supported by an examination of a case study of a transitional housing program, called Gerard Place. We examine the impact of this comprehensive program offered to poor mothers, including housing, counseling, education, child care, and financial support. These support systems assist female-headed families to rebuild self-sufficiency, sustainable income, and economic independence. The call to approach welfare programs as a synthesis of systemic and idiosyncratic factors concludes the study.