Social Service Outreach Programs Using Elderly Korean Immigrants' Church Ties

ABSTRACT

This study examined how Protestant Korean-American churches and their pastors can serve as ties between Korean seniors and agencies that offer social services. Working in partnership with the North Central Texas Area Agency on Aging (NCTAAA) and 2-1-1 services at United Way, the researcher asked 53 Korean pastors in two counties in North Central Texas to participate in the study. Each was asked about his willingness to host an outreach program. Thirty telephone surveys and 11 face-to-face interviews inquired about current services and pastor willingness to serve as gatekeepers for seniors. Translation and transportation were the top social service needs. All pastors in the study agreed that their churches should be a vehicle to provide social service information to seniors. Indeed, five churches accommodated program outreach offered by the NCTAAA and 2-1-1 services. The host churches tended to have highly structured, regularly scheduled programs (e.g., ethnic senior schools) already in place. A total of 405 Korean seniors participated in the outreach events, and 28 seniors were assisted in benefit counseling by telephone. Altogether, the results suggest that social service agencies can use the church ties of Korean seniors for program outreach.     

Disaster Outreach Service Provision

ABSTRACT

This article reports preliminary findings on the development of an index that measures outreach workers' perceptions of the provision of services to survivors of natural disasters. Data were collected from a sample of 64 outreach counselors who worked for Project Recovery during the Great Flood of 1993 along the Mississippi River in Illinois. Factor analyses were used to identify a 15 item index. The fifteen items represent five factors which explained 82.2% of the variance among the items. The resulting Disaster Outreach Service Provision (DOSP) Index has acceptable reliability estimates (Alpha = .83) and appears normally distributed. The index represents an important step in filling the need for measurement instruments designed specifically for use in natural disaster situations. Such instruments can be used in evaluating the provision of disaster relief services and in conducting disaster related research.     

Access to Services by the Elderly:

Abstract

This analysis evaluated the hypothesis that comorbidity, as a measure of physical health status, would negatively impact the stress management capability of caregivers. To examine this relationship, data from 3,112 caregivers participating in the Uniform Caregiver Assessment through California's Caregiver Resource Center System in 2000 were used. Results indicated that comorbidity was not a significant predictor of caregiver inability to manage stress; however, high depression scores, disruptive behavior by the care receiver, and reduced social support from family and friends were significantly associated. Implications for social workers in these areas are discussed.     

实施外展社会工作 主动救助流浪儿童

根据笔者的调查,流浪少年儿童流浪期间生活没有保障,有65%的流浪少年儿童曾经受到过欺负,有30.1%的流浪少年儿童曾经被人诱劝加入组织。所以,必须对流浪少年儿童实施主动救助。郑州大学社会工作专业的大学生志愿者将外展社会工作方法应用于流浪少年儿童的救助与保护,大力开展街头巡回救助,同时吸收已经接受救助的流浪少年儿童参与进来,协助外展社会工作者发现和帮助还在街头流浪的少年儿童,取得了良好的效果。     

Challenges to Treating the Elderly Latino Substance Abuser

Summary

The Friendly Companion Program was initiated in May of 1999 to enhance social support for VAMC Northport Nursing Home residents who have infrequent or no visitation by family, friends, or significant others. Friendly Companions are adult and youth volunteers who make a commitment to visit residents on a regular basis. The resulting relationship appears to stimulate increased social interaction and maximize quality of life for nursing home residents. The program is considered part of the overall patient clinical care with multi-disciplinary involvement for volunteer training, patient referral, and evaluation by staff and patients. Social Work Performance Improvement measures and outcomes are discussed.     

Attached to Income Support Programs for the Elderly:

Although there is every evidence that the degree of stigma attached to income support programs for the elderly has been decreasing, only about one-half of the elderly individuals who are eligible participate currently in the Supplemental Security Income program (SSI). The present study explores issues of stigma as perceived by low-income elderly persons who were not receiving Old Age Assistance payments in 1973-a year before SSI went into effect. The results of regression analysis indicate that their attitudes toward issues of stigma are statistically nonsignificant predictors of whether they would contact social security ofiice in 1974 to inquire about their eligibility for SSI benefits. The data source for the present study is the Survey of the Low-Income Aged and Disabled (SLIAD) conducted in 1973 and 1974 by the Social Security Administration with the cooperation of the Bureau of the Census.     

A New Approach to Community Care for the Elderly

Summary Organisations can absorb successfully only a few fundamentalinnovations within a short period of time. It is therefore importantfor the designers of innovations to ensure that they directlyand substantially contribute to solving important problems,and for agencies to concentrate their innovative activity onthose that do so contribute. The first aim of this paper isto analyse the policy context so as to clarify the nature ofthe problems that make innovation in the care of the elderlyimperative and show how features of the Community Care Projectcontribute to their solution. The second aim is to provide somepreliminary evidence of the success of the scheme. The analysisof data for seventy persons in the experimental and controlgroups shows that the experimental group fared better in a numberof important ways; and that the gains appear to have been madeat no extra cost to the social services department. Therefore,it is concluded, the adoption of the scheme may contribute tothe technical progress needed in the provision of social serviceto the elderly with needs at or above the margin for residentialcare.     

小组工作在社区长者服务中的运用--以南国颐景老年公寓为例

小组工作是社会工作的一种专业方法,它不仅是社会工作者经常运用的工作方法之一,同时还是一个重要的中介,贯通和连接着宏观社会工作和微观社会工作。运用小组工作的专业手法为社区长者开展小组工作是我们教学实践的一种新的尝试,通过小组活动和互动交流的方式,使长者放松心情,享受欢乐,体现了社区专业工学结合植根于社区的教学理念,也为小组工作服务社区长者提供了经验。     

A Nonprofit Community Service and Academic Collaboration to Increase Outreach to Older Adults With Cancer: Lessons Learned

This article describes the lessons learned by social work practitioners and nurse researcher faculty from a unique partnership between a 501(c) 3 nonprofit community service organization (cancer helpline) and an academic facility to improve outreach to older adults with cancer. In preparing the research proposal, carrying out the procedures, and instituting a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach lessons learned included the importance of experienced researchers/writers, unpredictability of research activities, importance of collecting complete data, communicating underlying discipline and role-oriented assumptions, and effectiveness of CBPR to increase outreach to older adults with cancer in Delaware's eight cancer clusters.     

The Senior Outreach Program of Park Ridge Mental Health

Abstract

Availability and accessibility of mental health services for the elderly is woefully inadequate, failing to recognize the diversity of needs in the older adult population. Stigma, confusing and exclusionary insurance regulations and restrictive mental health center policies have both limited and discouraged treatment interventions. Through innovative case finding, programming and funding arrangements, the Senior Outreach program of Park Ridge Mental Health in Rochester, New York, has proven effective in identifying and providing outreach mental health services to elderly individuals. The program utilizes a human services agency model, yet operates within a large heath care system as part of a continuum of psycho-geriatric services.     

开展社区老年人教育的途径研究

随着社会不断发展,人口老龄化问题日益突出.大多数老年人精神层面的需求提升,使得老年人教育问题得到社会的重视.现阶段,为老年人提供丰富的精神文化内容可以使老年人享受到社会发展的成果.通过开展老年人教育,为老年人提供新鲜知识,是时代发展的必然要求.该文对老年人教育展开分析,针对如何开展社区老年人教育提出有效的措施,为完善老年人教育提供发展思路.     

Incentives to Families Caring for Disabled Elderly:

This paper is a preliminary report from the Community Service Society Natural Supports research and demonstration project. The programmatic goal of the project is to provide services to families in order to strengthen their capacity to care for their aged member(s). The program itself is described, and a picture of selected characteristics of the 90-plus families is presented. Central service and policy issues are identified.     

Housing for the Frail Elderly

No abstract available for this article.     

The Crimes Against the Elderly

No abstract available for this article.     

Alcohol and the Elderly:

This paper provides an overview of what is currently known about elderly alcohol use and abuse. It identifies areas of social work practice that need to be improved to meet the needs of elderly problem drinkers, and makes recommendations regarding identification, treatment, and coordination of services for this population.     

Developing a Geriatric Mental Health Outreach Unit in a Rural Community

No abstract available for this article.     

Family Caregivers of the Elderly

Two groups of primary family caregivers were interviewed; one whose older relatives received assistance from an inhome chore services program, the other whose relatives had been terminated from service due to budget reductions. Both groups of caregivers were found to be actively involved in providing care to their older relatives. The assistance that caregivers provided was similar whether or not their relative received chore services. No significant differences were found in the type of tasks they provided nor in the amount or length of time they have provided care. The data suggest that there may be limits to the assistance that these caregivers can provide and that care of the elderly beyond such limitations needs to be supplied by other sources. Caregiving may be influenced both by the particular circumstances of the caregiver and the individual needs of the older relative. These findings support the notion that there is a need for shared responsibility between the family and government, based on an understanding of the tasks that family caregivers are best able to provide.     

Services for the Rural Elderly

This paper examines the interaction between social policy and community characteristics as they relate to the development of formal long-term care services for the rural elderly. A model for the conversion of policy opportunity into actual services for the rural elderly is presented. This model suggests that while social policy in rural areas is a constant, selected community level characteristics contribute to or impede service development.