Common and Specific Learnings for a Graduate of a School of Social Work

Abstract

Developing new scholarship on women is a recognized need in social work education. It can be furthered by applying a “gender lens” to the knowledge of the relationship between women and the welfare state. Reflecting historical concerns about providing public aid to the able-bodied male pauper and the impact of relief on the work ethic, social welfare literature has focused on male recipients while generalizing its findings to women. As a result, the story of the female pauper remains largely untold. This paper suggests that the relationship between women and the welfare state is shaped by a “family ethic” that in many ways parallels the work ethic known to shape the relationship between the welfare state and men. The family ethic is defined and applied to major income maintenance programs: public aid and social security. This article suggests foci for change.     

Anatomy of a Mean City: Including People Experiencing Homelessness in the Discussion

Abstract

In January 2006, a survey released by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty named Lawrence, Kansas the second “meanest city” to people who experience homelessness in the United States. The survey focuses on the increase in ordinances that make behaviors such as panhandling and sleeping on sidewalks illegal. A critical perspective missing from the 2006 study were the views of those experiencing homelessness. Therefore, this study was developed with the intention of providing a voice to individuals in the homeless community and to encourage other advocacy efforts to include those absent voices. Findings indicate that Lawrence may not be “mean” in terms of ordinance enforcement but suggest that homeless individuals encounter negative attitudes from the community at large and face barriers to employment and participation in community life. Implications for social welfare practice, policy and research are discussed.     

Critical Diversity and Departmental Rankings in Sociology

This paper examines whether racial and gender diversity are related to the rankings of sociology programs at research universities. It uses data from the 2011 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Rankings of U.S. Research Universities to examine the competing expectations of the “critical diversity perspective” and the “diversity as process-loss” perspective. The results are counter to the expectations of the diversity as process-loss perspective, which predicts that diversity (and efforts to achieve it) are harmful to organizations. The results are fully consistent with the critical diversity as value-in-diversity perspective, which predicts that as organizations become more diverse, they benefit relative to their competitors. The results show that, net of research rankings, 1995 rankings, faculty publication rates, visibility of faculty publications, percentage of faculty with grants, scholarly awards, program size, region, and whether the institution is public or private, diversity is positively associated with departmental rankings of sociology programs in research universities. The implications of these findings for diversity in sociology are discussed.     

Expanding “Irish Family” Repertoires: Exploring Gay Men's Experiences as Parents in the Republic of Ireland

ABSTRACT

This article explores gay men's parenting experiences and practices in order to seek insight into how gay men accept or challenge heterosexual family norms and how “family” is understood in the Irish context. It is based on small-scale qualitative research (interviews) with seven gay fathers. Despite the limited routes to parenthood for gay men in Ireland, the research findings indicate that the participants enjoy parenting and that they are motivated in their parenting practices. The gay fathers in this study are participative parents who have made significant decisions in their lives in order to prioritize their children's welfare. The diversity of family constellations and care arrangements that surround gay fathering in Ireland can expand family and care repertoires beyond the traditional biparent heterosexual norm. Gay fathers in Ireland appear to enjoy some security at the private familial level and in the responses from their families and communities, but they are keenly aware that nontraditional families are given less status in Irish society. Unlike other jurisdictions, gay parenting is not articulated by the gay fathers in this research as a rights-based argument. Instead, these Irish gay fathers are de facto activists who seek to “humanize” gay parenting.     

Barriers to Utilization of Mental Health Services amongst Male Child Sexual Abuse Survivors: Service Providers’ Perspective

ABSTRACT

Most research on child sexual abuse has been on survivors to the exclusion of service providers. This paper focuses on one group of findings from a larger qualitative study. The aim of the paper is to identify existing services and highlight the gaps in the current programs available for male CSA survivors from the perspective of service providers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 mental health service providers, recruited from two Southern and Central Ontario cities. Findings presented here report service providers’ perspective of gaps in services for male CSA survivors. “Limited Male CSA Programs”, “Institutional Barriers”, “Attitudinal Barriers”, and “Systemic Gaps” emerged as four major themes from the data analysis. Findings demonstrate the need to re-evaluate currently available service and highlights gaps in mental health service available for male CSA survivors. Implications for policy, practice, and research are discussed.     

Workfare Oz-Style

Summary

Traditional approaches to the promotion of welfare have disappeared in Australia, replaced by a new institutional order represented by welfare-cum-workfare. This has impacted on social work—both as a collective entity and as a set of practices. This paper maps the shift to workfare in Australia and examines its impacts on and implications for social work. We briefly discuss the Australian model of social protection, illustrating our own brand of “exceptionalism,” and lay out what we have termed “Workfare Oz-style.” Drawing upon neo-institutional theory, we review and analyze two key contexts where “Workfare Oz-style” is operationalized—the Job Network and Centrelink. Some tentative conclusions are given and the dimensions of a research agenda, which will put any emerging propositions to empirical test, are proposed.     

State behavioral health agency website references to evidence-based program registers

PurposeEvidence-based program registers (EBPRs) are important tools for facilitating the use of evidence-based practices or programs (EBPs) by state statutory agencies responsible for behavioral healthcare, broadly defined as substance misuse, mental health, HIV/AIDS prevention, child welfare, and offender rehabilitation. There are currently no data on the purposes for which such state agencies reference EBPRs on their official websites.MethodA webscraping method was used to identify and classify relevant “hits”, defined as a state behavioral health webpage with single or multiple references to a study EBPR. A total of 778 hits (unique combinations of webpage and register) were coded. Up to three codes were applied to each hit for the “reasons for the EBPR reference” (EBPR use) dimension, one code was applied to each hit for the “purpose of the EBPR reference” and “intended audience of the webpage containing the hit” dimensions, and up to two codes were applied to each hit for the "funding mentions” dimension.ResultsThree EBPRs out of 28 accounted for 73.6% of the hits. The most frequent reason for referencing EBPRs were as a resource for selecting EBPs or validating existing programs and practices. The references tended to appear in reports from the state, in training materials, or guidelines. The references tended to address broad groups of behavioral healthcare professionals. EBPRs were frequently referenced in the context of federal block grants or other federal funding.ConclusionsIncreasing state agencies’ awareness and use of the entire range of existing EBPRs may improve implementation of EBPs nationally.     

Workplace Problems and Needs for Lesbian and Gay Male Employees

Abstract

This article presents research findings pursuant to the problems and needs of lesbian and gay male employees, as perceived from a randomly selected national sample of employee assistance professionals. The research was based on a conceptual model for framing workplace interventions addressing issues of protection, inclusion and equity (PIE) for gay/lesbian employees. Findings indicate that heterosexual employees greatly underestimate the level of discrimination sexual minorities experience; women respondents were more sensitive to gay/ lesbian workplace issues than men; existing EAP and human resource services, programs and policies inadequately address gay/lesbian needs; significant differences exist between heterosexual and gay/lesbian employees' on perceptions of diversity training content and gay/lesbian EAP professionals feel the workplace is only somewhat “safe” for them as sexual minority employees.     

The Christmas Box House: Developing a Best Practice Model for Emergency Shelter Care and Assessment

ABSTRACT

In many states, emergency shelter care facilities are the main point of entry into the child welfare system. Despite this important “gatekeeping” role, emergency or crisis shelters serving abused and neglected children have been overlooked as research settings, and little has been written about them in the child welfare literature. This article describes the evolution, design, and implementation of the Christmas Box House, a new model for shelter care in the State of Utah. Emphasis is placed on the public-private partnerships that not only spurred the development of the Christmas Box House model, but will now be critical to the success of planned research efforts.     

The Policy Transfer Model

ABSTRACT

“New” social welfare policies are often actually policies borrowed from other states or nations. This paper reviews the recent theoretical developments in understanding the processes of policy transfer and presents a “policy transfer” model that can be a useful heuristic tool for social workers engaged in policy making. It discusses how the field of social work can benefit from understanding the factors underlying successful and unsuccessful policy transfer, and argues for the inclusion of the study of policy transfer in social welfare policy courses.     

Conceptual Framework of Coalitions in an Organizational Context

Summary

Organizations are forming coalitions in their struggle to survive with fewer resources. Under the “Contract With America,” funds for human services are expected to be increasingly cut back. Organizational actors will continue to coalesce because of their compelling interests to serve disadvantaged populations in our communities. This article uses the political-economy perspective in presenting a conceptual framework of coalitions in organizational settings. We need access to various perspectives and models of coalition building in order to provide direction for organizational groups as they attempt to change the sociopolitical structures in which they must operate.     

Assessing the Effect of Welfare Reforms on Public Assistance Caseloads in Four Ohio Counties

Abstract

The implementation of welfare reform at the local level is critical to assessing the effects of structural reforms initiated since the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act of 1996. Wide variations in the activities undertaken in response to national welfare reform have hindered efforts to understand the factors that have contributed to the success of welfare reform apparent in caseload reductions. This paper reviews Community Human Service Plans in four Ohio counties and examines their trends in caseloads. Two strategies emerge: “job attachment” and “human capital development.” These differences in local implementation can be related to caseload trends.     

Industrial welfare and the state: nation and city reconsidered

Industrial welfare history presents important challenges to developmental state theories in “late” industrialization. This article expands the debate by examining how nation-states create statutory welfare by addressing institutional variety beyond markets. It is simplistic to argue linear growth of national welfare or of states autonomously regulating markets to achieve risk-mitigation. I contend that welfare institutions emerge from the state’s essential conflict and collaboration with various alternate institutions in cities and regions. Using histories of Europe, India, and Karnataka, I propose a place-based, work-based, and work-place based welfare typology evolving at differential rates. Although economic imperatives exist to expand local risk-pools, it is precisely the alternate institutional diversity that makes late industrial nation-states unable or unwilling to do so. This results in institutionally “thin,” top-down industrial welfare. Ultimately, theories that overly depend on histories of small nations, homogenous nations, or city-states, provide weak tests of the economics of industrial welfare.     

Creating Culturally Grounded Videos for Substance Abuse Prevention

ABSTRACT

This article describes and critiques the pilot phase of a project in which an ethnically diverse group of students from a large southwestern urban high school created culturally based substance abuse prevention videos for urban middle school students. The rationale evolved from research that suggested that a peer-created, culturally-specific approach to drug abuse prevention would be more effective than would programming created by adults operating from a “so-called” culturally-neutral” perspective. The dual perspective of this article includes both the field experiment per se and the data collected, using a case study perspective. Overarching themes of culture and power are discussed, as are the elements of age and gender. Implications extending beyond the pilot offer insights for researchers and practitioners.     

Becoming an Ally: Breaking the Cycle of Oppression (2nd edn)

Abstract

In the present context of “get tough on crime” and “back to criminal justice” campaigns that continue to dominate political agendas throughout Australia, critics point to the inadequacy of “welfarist” or reformist criminological and sociological theories that have informed interventions in the past and reinforce the need for “retributive justice” models of penal policy. The present paper examines historical evidence on the role of the human sciences in juvenile justice administration during the 1940s, a formative time when psychiatric, psychological, and social work expertise came together in the form of the Children's Court Clinic in Victoria. It suggests that contemporary critiques about the failure of the welfare model of juvenile justice inadequately capture the historical functioning of expertise in justice administration and the real extent to which the welfare model as “actual rehabilitative intervention” was ever implemented.     

Waterpipe Smoking Among College Students in the United States: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

Objective: To review the literature on college student waterpipe use with a focus on undergraduates in the United States. Participants: Undergraduate students. Methods: Studies were accessed using the databases PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Academic Search Premier. Searches included combinations of the following keywords: “waterpipe,” “hookah,” “shisha,” “nargila,” “argileh,” “hubble bubble,” “college,” “university,” and “student.” Results: Results demonstrate that approximately 1 in 5 American college students report past-year waterpipe use. Results also suggest that there are a number of established correlates of waterpipe smoking, including male gender, Arab ethnicity, cigarette smoking, and the belief that waterpipe smoking is less harmful than cigarette smoking. Conclusions: Despite its harmful health effects, waterpipe smoking is quite common among college students. Future research with better methodologies and theoretical frameworks are needed to advance the field.     

Applying an Ecological Framework to Understanding Drug Addiction and Recovery

ABSTRACT

A new conceptual model of drug addiction and recovery, the Acculturation Model, is presented, with “addiction” and “recovery” understood as distinct sociocultural phenomena with their unique prescribed behaviors, rituals, symbols, and language that serve to construct and consolidate a cultural identity. The model suggests that individuals in recovery from drug addiction will need to make a cultural transformation in order to maintain sobriety. Examples of specific rituals that may help facilitate movement from addiction to recovery are detailed.     

When the Spirit Blooms: Acquiring Higher Education in the Context of Welfare Reform

ABSTRACT

Established within a political context greatly influenced by stereotypical assumptions of impoverished women of color, welfare reform codified a work-first philosophy meant to attack perceived “dependency” and spur “self-sufficiency.” This article describes the shortcomings of the work-first approach and highlights the importance of higher education for helping women, and especially women of color, achieve economic well-being. It then reports key findings from a study that examines the impact of higher education on the lives of welfare participants in California. Utilizing a mix of surveys, focus groups, and personal interviews, this study finds that despite the challenges associated with balancing parenthood, college-level coursework, and the bureaucratic demands of welfare reform, the stereotypical notions of the “welfare queen” do not apply. Instead, study participants exhibited a high level of ambition, persistence, determination, and hard work in pursuit of their educational ambitions; and in the process, improved their lives and the lives of their children.     

Exploring Fatherhood Diversity

SUMMARY

Our analysis, grounded in a social constructionist perspective, explores the theoretical and political complexities facing researchers and policymakers as they attempt to conceptualize, study, and promote fathers' involvement with their children. Taking into account the growing diversity of life course and residency patterns for men and children today, we stress how the definition of fatherhood and conceptualization of paternal involvement are interwoven. As our starting point, we highlight how diverse stakeholders construct differing images and types of fatherhood during an era when men are “doing fatherhood” in a wide range of contexts. Next, we explore issues associated with a broad conceptualization of father involvement, influence, and motivation with an eye toward fatherhood diversity. We then consider how several family processes are implicated in the way men develop, negotiate, and sustain their rights, privileges, and obligations as fathers in different types of family structures. We conclude by suggesting how our treatment of these issues can guide future research on fatherhood.     

The Role of Federal Policies in Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Families

Abstract

Grandparents caring for their grandchildren is among the oldest practices in child rearing with roots embedded in the traditions across many cultures. However, in recent years, the issue of “grandparents raising their grandchildren” has garnered the attention of researchers, advocates, service providers and even the popular press. Dynamic changes in family life, related social trends and child welfare policies in the United States have resulted in dramatic growth of intergenerational care giving among this population. The 2000 United States Census shows that there are 6 million children living in grandparent- and other relative-maintained households, which represents a thirty-percent increase from the last Census. This growth has created the need for effective federal policies that support and insure the well-being of these families.

This paper examines some of the reasons grandparents raising grandchildren are capturing public attention, and the growing needs for effective federal policies that support this burgeoning population. We will (1) provide a brief demographic sketch of grandparent-headed families, (2) identify some of the challenges faced by these families, and (3) explore some of the most effective federal public policies, in particular the new National Family Caregiver Support Program, which are emerging from an intergenerational agenda directed at assisting these families. We conclude by noting that the issue of “grandparents raising their grandchildren” presents a unique opportunity to develop coalitions and policies that cross sometimes rigidly defined age-based policy structures.