Methodological Issues in Social Work Research with Depressed Women of Color

ABSTRACT

Social work researchers committed to advancing knowledge for effective practice with depressed women, especially culturally-diverse women, are faced with numerous methodological challenges. These challenges emanate from the ambiguity that surrounds the definition and measurement of the concept of depression, and from problems that apply to all cross-cultural research including content, semantic, and technical equivalence of self-report instruments. The article reviews these challenges and concludes with recommendations for addressing them, including suggestions for promoting methodological diversity, cross-cultural measurement validity, consideration of environmental risk and resiliency factors, attention to the process of data collection, and researcher self-assessment.     

Book Review: Variable Outcomes among Children of Depressed Women

Book reviewed in this article:
Marian Radke-Yarrow, Children of Depressed Mothers: FromEarly Childhood to Maturity     

Medical and Psychosocial Treatment Issues in Breast Cancer in Older Women

ABSTRACT

The medical, psychological and social aspects of breast cancer in older women are discussed. Information is presented on relative risk, diagnostic procedures and treatment options available to breast cancer patients. The unique psychosocial issues confronted by older breast cancer patients are explored. Clinicians are encouraged to assess developmental stage, concurrent life stressors and the woman's personal interpretation of the meaning of the cancer diagnosis. Medical caregivers are urged to avoid age bias, including ageist attitudes held by the patient, in assessment and treatment planning.     

The Experience of Nurses Working with Hospitalized AIDS Patients

Twenty nurses were interviewed about their experiences of caring exclusively for AIDS patients. A qualitative analysis of the data revealed that group identity, social support, social stigma, identification with patients, and burnout were important to the experience. The process of identification with patients was a significant source of distress which affected the male homosexual staff more than other staff. Yet working in the AIDS unit also had its rewards with some male homosexual staff expressing relief at not having to conceal their sexuality. Nurses' experiences in the AIDS unit were somewhat differentiated by their ability to identify with the male homosexual group. Those who identified strongly with the group were more at risk of over-identification with patients yet seemed likely to receive recognition and support from colleagues. Many staff suffered due to the stigma attached to caring for AIDS patients and often reported not telling people where they worked. A significant number of staff are said to have already left the unit due to AIDS burnout.     

The Effectiveness of Attached Social Workers in the Management of Depressed Women in General Practice

Summary Following early reports of the feasibility and usefulness oflocating social workers in general practice (Collins, 1965;Forman and Fairbairn, 1968; Cooper, 1971) the number of attachmentsto general practice has increased markedly over the last decade(Gilchrest et al., 1978). Although there have been a numberof accounts of the increased co-operation between health carestaff (Clare and Corney, 1982) there has been a dearth of objectiveevaluations of the advantages these schemes bring to generalpractice patients. This paper describes the design, executionand outcome of a clinical trial of social work carried out ondepressed women in general practice aged 18–45. It focuseson the social workers' activities and the clients view of help:more detailed information is described elsewhere (Corney, 1981).     

Content Themes in Group Treatment with Puerto Rican Women

This papcr discusses an empirical observation of the thematic content in a cognitive-oriented group treatment. Clients were low socioeconomic Puerto Rican women who were assessed as depressed. Preliminary findings indicate that the discussed themes included interpersonal relations, children, spouse, mental symptoms, family of origin, and culture shock. Such themes bear a relationship to Puerto Rican cultural values such as personalismo and marianismo. The author concludes that group practice is applicable and effective when treatment is linguistically and culturally syntonic with the needs of Puerto Rican clients.     

Isolation and Insecurity: Resettlement Issues Among Muslim Refugee Women in Perth,Western Australia

Refugee Muslim women face a number of formidable obstacles in the resettlement process within Australia. As Muslims, they are a religious minority that has come under considerable racial attack in recent years in the wake of international terrorism. As refugees, they are struggling to put past traumas behind them and find ‘security’ in a strange land with different customs. As women, they are trying to find a voice for themselves amidst ethnic traditions that limit their range of expression and an Australian society that aspires to, but has not yet achieved, equality for women. Our qualitative study, upon which this paper is based, explored resettlement issues of Muslim refugee women during their first five years of arrival in Perth, Australia. It is based on focus groups and semi‐structured interviews with 80 Muslim refugee women: 35 Iraqi, 34 Sudanese and 11 Afghan. Our study re‐affirms that well‐documented issues of resettlement continue to be poor English language competency, securing employment and accommodation and gender‐specific problems. In addition, however, our study highlights a new and emerging issue, which is that of personal, psychological and cultural insecurity, heightened by the current political climate and exacerbated by their religious background. This leads to problematic ‘intersections’ with an Australian society that is far more complex and more difficult to cope with than is portrayed in popular discourse and political rhetoric of the easy‐going ‘lucky country’.     

Feminism and Male Scholarship: The Treatment of Women and Gender in Social Policy Texts

This paper reports the results of a study of sixty selected British and Australian academic texts on social policy and the welfare state. The purpose of the study was to investigate changes over the last fifteen years in the ways in which the position of women and gender-related issues are dealt with by feminist and non-feminist writers in the social policy field. Differences in the levels of feminist awareness in the various texts are found to be associated with the sex of the author, the type of book, the date of publication, the country of publication, and the socio-political and intellectual context in which the various texts were produced.     

存在主义治疗取向对高校心理咨询的启示

存在主义疗法源自存在主义哲学思想,作为一种动力学取向的治疗,它认为人格的内在冲突在于个体与存在的经验之间。当代存在心理学并不排斥其他治疗流派,而是对其他流派观点的补充和整合。存在治疗强调来访者的责任和生活的意义,指出存在焦虑是一种正常的生活状态并深具建设性。当今大学生的焦虑和困惑充满了时代特点,他们的存在困境正是存在主义治疗所关心和讨论的主题。高校心理咨询工作者可从存在主义疗法获取如下启示:区辨存在焦虑和神经症性焦虑;重新审视社会适应标准;增进来访者的责任能力;注重对意义的追寻;对死亡和人生困苦持非防御的态度;增进咨询师的在场意识,并帮助学生恢复其感受能力。     

Behavioral Treatment of Chronic Psychiatric Patients

Behavioral treatments for hallucinations and delusions, aggressive and destructive responses, inappropriate social behavior, poor self-care and grooming, and deficient recreational and vocational skills in chronic psychiatric patients are reviewed. Consideration is given to the short-term, long-term, and generalized effects of these interventions. Three case studies illustrate behavioral procedures of consumable reinforcement, response cost, graphic feedback, differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO), and overcorrection. The potential contribution of clinical social workers in applying such programs on a psychiatric unit is discussed.     

An Evaluation of Social Support Intervention with Depressed Mothers in Child and Family Care

Correspondence to Professor Michael Sheppard, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AA, UK. Summary The significance of maternal depression to social work practicein child and family care has become increasingly apparent inrecent years. Social support, furthermore, is a concept (aswell as a reality) which provides a major focus for social workpractice. Indeed, social support, it is also clear, is of considerableimportance in helping prevent depression. This paper seeks toexamine social support work carried out by social workers inrelation to depressed mothers in child and family care. In particularit seeks to evaluate the quality of that intervention in thelight of key problem areas associated with high levels of supportneeds, the extent to which social workers target support needsthrough direct, indirect and informal supports, and the extentto which particular interventions are associated with a higheradequacy of support experienced by these depressed women. Thepaper finds a certain degree of haphazardness in social workers’targeting of support needs, although in some areas of indirectsupport, in particular, their targeting is reasonably accurate.There is little evidence of any one form of intervention beingassociated with more adequate support with one significant exception,relief care of children. The paper concludes that social workersneed to develop a keener awareness of support deficits so thatthey are targeted better; they need to monitor more carefullyinterventions carried out by other agencies and professionals;and they should look to relief care of children as a major formof intervention to support these women.     

The Effectiveness of an Out-Patient After-care Group with Previously Hospitalized Alcoholics

Summary The importance of after-care for alcoholics has been emphasizedby the Alcoholic Sub-Committee of the World Health Organization.¹Many writers have stressed this view and some have even attributedrelapses to the lack of vigorous after-care (Vallance, ² Rathod³).This paper reports an appraisal for a fortnightly group after-careservice for alcoholics which was established as an adjunct tothe ongoing treatment programme of an alcoholic unit. Data werecollected to provide some evaluation of the new service.     

Social Support: An Important Factor for Treatment Adherence and Health-related Quality of Life of Patients with End-stage Renal Disease

ABSTRACT

End-stage Renal Disease (ESRD) or chronic kidney disease constitutes a serious public health problem in the United States. The purpose of this study is to examine the causal relationship of perceived social support with treatment adherence and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of ESRD patients. The study utilized a non-experimental research design and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to analyze the data collected from a sample of 413 ESRD patients. The findings of the study supported a statistically significant relationship between perceived social support and HRQOL as well as between perceived social support and treatment adherence. Formulating appropriately targeted interventions to improve social support may help in enhancing the HRQOL and treatment adherence, where both those factors were empirically supported to be related to mortality and hospitalizations in ESRD patients. This study helps to enhance the body of knowledge relating to HRQOL of ESRD patients, and provided foundation for interventions in improving treatment adherence and the HRQOL. Future research may focus on the complexities associated with the HRQOL and treatment adherence in ESRD patients, with emphasis on demographic characteristics and its relationship with social support.