Using Collaboration to Maximize Outcomes for a John A. Hartford Foundation Geriatric Enrichment Project

Summary

Two institutions representing two BSW and one MSW program and a geriatric education center collaborated in a John A. Hartford geriatric enrichment project. Sharing the risks and benefits of a collaborative model, 75 percent of faculty participated in mini faculty fellowships, and bimonthly dinner meetings with colleagues from each of the three programs, and actively engaged in the curricula revisions. Faculty report pervasive geriatric enrichment in each program's foundation content areas, and increases in students placed in geriatric enriched field practicum settings, from pre-project levels of 8.1 percent to a high of 24 percent. The features of the collaborative project include: respecting each program's autonomy while actively sharing ideas, resources and partnering with community's aging experts; and strengthening mutually reciprocal relationships among faculty and the gérontologie practice community. This model of shared risks and benefits also provides opportunities for innovation, diverse thinking, and shared decision making.     

A family-centred practice supervision project conducted for a child welfare agency

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on a supervision project that aimed to enhance a child welfare agency staff’s professional competence in family-centred practice through a strength-based approach. A qualitative study was designed to explore the effectiveness and the change agents of the supervision. Purposive sampling was used. Two agency supervisors and two social workers participated the study voluntarily. The findings indicated that after the period of supervision, the staff had changed in three respects: their conceptualisation of the meaning of family work in the care context; their understanding of the importance of relationship-based interventions with families; and their development of alternative ways of practice. The agents of change from the supervision were the consultants’ modelling effect and the co-worker experience of the consultants and the social workers. This supervision approach can discern the synergistic effect of supervision on an agency’s routine supervision and balance the cultural beliefs in qing, yuan and ‘face’ embedded in the supervisory process.     

Using critical social theory to develop a conceptual framework for comparative social work

This paper sets out a conceptual framework for comparing and contrasting social work within nation-states and across international boundaries. The framework is "situated" theoretically within a (late)modernist understanding of events within advanced capitalism and draws primarily on Habermas' critical social theory. The authors apply this framework to explicate the development of social work in Northern Ireland, a region in which high levels of political conflict mark it out as a site of local, national and international interest. It is suggested that the ideas developed from the case study have relevance for the social professions in other countries, particularly where social conflict is in evidence.     

Professionals' perceptions of the rocky routes to successful outcomes for young people in a children's residential school

Poor outcomes for young people in and leaving care have been well documented and research has indicated that the expectations of professionals working with children and young people looked after is a significant influence, particularly in relation to education. An evaluation of an independent children's residential school in Scotland provided a rare opportunity to analyse and compare the views of different kinds of staff about desirable outcomes and how successful outcomes could be achieved. Care workers, teachers and specialist support staff shared some views, but also held contrasting expectations, which appeared to be linked to differing emphases in their models for working with young people. This paper offers tentative explanations for such differences and concludes with suggestions on how to help align service staffs' expectations of young people leaving their care.     

Building a Latino Youth Program: Using Concept Mapping to Identify Community-Based Strategies for Success

ABSTRACT

In this study, a mixed methodology called concept mapping was used to bring 233 community members together to identify culturally relevant intervention strategies that could be used in developing a program for Latino youth. Three phases of data collection were completed to generate and rank 66 desirable strategies clustered around three goals: 1) staying in school, 2) developing positive social and family roles, and 3) bridging American and Latino cultures. An analysis of the rankings revealed differences in priorities between youth and adults. The results indicate that concept mapping can be useful in the development of community-based programs.     

Organizational Form as a Mechanism to Involve Staff,Public and Users in Public Services: A Study of the Governance of NHS Foundation Trusts

In addition to introducing markets and market‐like structures into public services, New Labour wished to promote the involvement of users and the public in decision‐making in other ways than as individual consumers. One way was to involve the public in the governance of organizations. This could be done by removing public services from state control, and transferring them to mutual ownership; or by increasing public involvement in the governance of public bodies. NHS foundation trusts (FTs) were presented as mutuals. Our study shows FTs are not mutuals, as they continue to be owned by the state. Moreover, staff of FTs were generally not engaging with the new governance structures. In general, there was mixed experience of the new structures enabling governors to increase accountability of the hospitals to the public. On the other hand, having a membership did enhance the legitimacy of FTs, as opposed to other NHS organizations. The findings of the study are of current interest as the coalition government is continuing with the policy of FTs, and also encouraging mutuals and other forms of public involvement.     

The challenges presented by parental mental illness and the potential of a whole‐family intervention to improve outcomes for families

Parental mental illness (PMI) can negatively affect the lives of all family members, and there is acknowledged need to work with family and social contexts to promote recovery. However, programmes undertaking such work remain rare and knowledge concerning mechanisms through which PMI impacts families and through which recovery might be achieved is underdeveloped. This paper outlines a new family intervention programme and presents evidence from focus groups with 16 professionals into their experiences of work with families with PMI. Evidence suggests that interactional effects of PMI, family communication and family relationships are key to understanding its impacts, but professionals are liable to struggle to engage with these due to concerns over stigma, lack of skills and low confidence. Positive impacts on practice were achieved through raising awareness of the whole‐family context in relation to PMI, building confidence to raise and engage with PMI and the provision of structured tools for use with families. Positive impacts on the lives of family members were then achieved by professionals in relation to symptoms for the ill parent, the burden on children and overall family well‐being, strongly mediated through improved family communication, understanding and relationships. Implications for policy and practice are considered.     

The BMI as a somatotypic measure of physique: A rejoinder to Jeremy E.C. Genovese

In 2008, Maddan, Walker and Miller promoted the use of the Body Mass Index (BMI) as a viable alternative to Sheldon's technique of somatotyping. Utilizing the BMI, Maddan Walker and Miller re-analyzed the original data from the Sheldon studies. This analysis indicated a statistically significant relationship between the two measures of somatotyping. Genovese wrote a response to this work suggesting the BMI is not a useful proxy for somatotyping individuals. We respond to Genovese's critique by providing a full explication of the Sheldon somatoype measure and an analysis of Sheldon's original data accounting for all of the different somatotypes identified. Analyses here indicate that the original somatotype measure was very subjective. Although not without flaws, the BMI provides an objective somatotype measure that is comparable, if not superior, to the measure promulgated by Sheldon.     

Rethinking Politics for a Green Economy: A Political Approach to Radical Reform

Because the process of achieving a green economy is bound to be political, it is important how politics is understood. This essay employs a three-dimensional model of politics (functional, constitutive, performative) in developing an approach to radical reform that accentuates political potentialities—understood in terms of debate, open exchanges of differing opinions. By exploring a central tension between the formal economy (associated with administrative and policy arenas in modern society) and the informal economy (associated with the enhancement of community), the argument concludes that achieving a green economy involves a key role not simply for the rational economic individual or the cooperative community member, but also for the citizen.     

Bedtime without Battles: Using a Behavioural Approach to Establish Bedtime Routines: Giving Parents of Nursery and Primary Age Children a Focus for their Difficulties

Summary Twelve children (age range 3–10 years) who had been referredto the Reading Child and Family Guidance Clinic with a varietyof presenting problems, but who were also reluctant to go tobed, were offered the opportunity to try to establish a bedtimeroutine. It was felt that a behavioural approach, focussingon one major problem area, would have a generalized therapeuticsignificance within the family. Using a contract and rewardssystem, in nine cases a non-argumentative bedtime was establishedwithin 4 weeks and this remained at follow up 6–8 weekslater. In one of these cases the routine broke down but waslater re-established. In three cases the initial response wasencouraging but the parents were unable to persist with theplan. In most cases the benefits of having a less tired childand a less tired parent reduced the severity of other problemareas of behaviour.     

A Primer for Social Worker Researchers on How to Conduct a Multinomial Logistic Regression

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to explain how to conduct a multinomial logistic regression (MLR) to increase its usage among social work researchers. A challenge for social work researchers carrying out practice-based research is to incorporate statistical analyses that are comprehensible to clinicians. Another challenge is that categorical variables, as opposed to continuous, commonly occur in clinical settings, yet their usage is seldom taught in social work education. This article will discuss MLR, a categorical data analysis used when there are three or more unordered categories in the outcome variable. Multinomial logistic regression determines differences across client groups, and can be useful in assessment, case planning, and examination of outcomes.     

Using Theory to Understand Public Support for Collective Actions that Impact the Environment: Alleviating Water Supply Problems in a Nonarid Biome*

Objectives. There is increasing public debate over how to meet future water supply needs in historically water‐abundant areas such as the American southeast. Citizens, policymakers, and others are struggling to find ways to meet these needs and to design political strategies for implementing them. This article examines water supply problems facing many communities in the southeast and how social theory can be used to better understand public support for collective actions designed to alleviate them. It presents a framework synthesizing recent work of Dunlap and Jones on the conceptual foundations of environmental concern research with Ajzen and Fishbein's theory of reasoned action in order to understand public support for building a dam to meet local water supply needs. Methods. The linkages postulated by the model were empirically tested using mail‐survey data obtained from a random sample of 433 adult residents of Cumberland County, Tennessee. Results. Results demonstrate that public support for building the dam is weak. Conclusion. Knowledge of public beliefs, norms, and attitudes about its construction and potential impact, however, can provide policymakers, natural resource professionals, and local stakeholder groups with a solid understanding of why residents support, oppose, or are unsure about building a dam to alleviate water supply problems in this county.