BOOK AND MEDIA REVIEWS

Abstract

HOMESHARE IN EUROPE. By Anne-Lotte Kreickemeier and M^aAsuncion Martinez Roman. Alicante: University of Alicante, 2001. Reviewed by Johan Galtung.

ABOUT SCHMIDT. A Film by Alexander Payne (Director). New Line Cinema, 2002. Reviewed by Liz Larkin.

THE LIVING MAYA: THE MOPAN AND Q'EQCHT OF THE TOLEDO DISTRICT, BELIZE, CENTRAL AMERICA. By Anne-McheUe Marsden. Belize: MayaViewkeeper, 2002. Reviewed by David Burdick.     

Must Schools of Social Work be Freestanding? Yes!

Abstract

Point/Counterpoint is a regular feature of the Journal of Social Work Education. Its purpose is to provide a vehicle for the expression of contrasting views on controversial topics in social work education. Our goal is to illuminate important debates and explore the diverse perspectives that are shaping social work education.

In each issue of the Journal, social work educators are invited to comment on a topic about which they have differing viewpoints. Each commentator is given an opportunity to make a brief rebuttal. In this issue, Barbara Shank (Chair, Department of Social Work, University of St. Thomas and the College of St. Catherine), Irving Piliavin (Director, School of Social Work, University of Wisconsin-Madison), and Marsha Seltzer (Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison) address the question: Must schools of social work be freestanding?     

MEDIA REVIEWS

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN [Motion Picture]. United States: Focus Features & Universal Studios. 135 Minutes. Ossana, D., Schamis, J. (Producers), & Lee, A. (Director), 2005. Reviewed by Brian L. Ott, Susan A. Sci.

LESBIAN WIDOWS: INVISIBLE GRIEF. Whipple, V. New York: Harrington Park Press, 2006. Reviewed by Karma R. Chávez.

SONS TALK ABOUT THEIR GAY FATHERS: LIFE CURVES. Gottlieb, A. New York: Harrington Park Press, 2006. Reviewed by Rafael Cervantes.

TRANSAMERICA [Motion Picture]. Moran, L., Bastian, R., and Dungan, S. (Producers) & Hunter, D. (Director). Solana Beach, CA: Genius Products, 2005. Reviewed by Isaac West.     

Saraband

Abstract

SARABAND (2005). Ingmar Bergman (Director), Sony Picture Classics. Reviewed by Rina Youngner.     

Social Work in the Emergency Department—Implementation of a Domestic and Family Violence Screening Program

Abstract

Women who have experienced domestic and family violence use health services more frequently than women who have not. Early identification and intervention by the health system may reduce health problems associated with domestic and family violence and lead to savings for the health sector. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of a new domestic and family violence screening program, which was based on an ecological model and introduced by a social work team in the Emergency Department of a major metropolitan hospital. The evaluation method included an audit of social work case files to assess the effect on referral rates and a survey of Emergency Department staff to obtain perceptions of the impact of the program on the staff and clients. In the 3-month period following the introduction of the program, the rate of referral to social work increased by 213%. Staff agreed that the Emergency Department is an appropriate place to ask about domestic and family violence, under certain conditions. Findings suggest that an ecological social work model provides an approach to screening for domestic and family violence that not only contributes to increased identification and supportive client interventions but may also contribute to more sustainable systemic change.     

Competing demands,competing solutions,differing constructions of the problem of recruitment and retention of frontline rural child protection staff

Abstract

This article reports on a study conducted in rural Victoria. It examines the problem of recruitment and retention of frontline staff in the Victorian Child Protection program. The article delineates those factors identified by managers and supervisors as influencing workers to enter, stay and leave the program. Managers and supervisors have collective responsibility for recruiting and retaining staff. It is for this reason that their viewpoints are considered crucial in responding to the problem. What this study found was that, while managers and supervisors recognise that the problem is complex, they differ in the emphasis placed on facets of the problem, thus their approaches to solving it. As solutions are contested the problem is exacerbated. The argument advanced is that any response should recognise the complexity of the problem and solutions be considered in a coordinated way.     

Chemo Killed the Small-Talk Gene

Urvashi Vaid is a community organizer and writer active in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) and social justice movements for over three decades. She is currently Director of the Engaging Tradition Project at the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia University Law School. She is founder of LPAC, the first lesbian political action committee, and sits on the Board of Directors of the Gill Foundation. Vaid's past positions include Executive Director of the Arcus Foundation, Deputy Director of Governance and Civil Society Unit for the Ford Foundation, Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and staff attorney for the ACLU National Prison Project. She is author of the books Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Race, Class and The Assumptions of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Politics, and Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay & Lesbian Liberation, and co-editor of the book Creating Change: Public Policy, Sexuality and Civil Rights. Urvashi has had thyroid cancer and stage III breast cancer.     

Rapid Response to a Conjunctivitis Outbreak: The Use of Technology to Leverage Information

Abstract

When an outbreak of conjunctivitis was identified at a rural New England college early in 2002, the college health center medical staff used various information management and communication systems to alert the community to the situation. They called upon the state Department of Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help them understand and manage the outbreak. Technological systems already in place at the college allowed for rapid collection of data by means of a survey delivered over the Internet and a carriage study facilitated by a Web-based appointment and communication system. Within days, the data were collected and analyzed and an immediate response to contain the outbreak was launched.     

Developing Culturally Responsive Supervision Through Yarn Up Time and the CASE Supervision Model

ABSTRACT

This article explores a culturally focused supervision training program supporting Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal supervisors to provide cross-cultural supervision for Aboriginal staff within mainstream and Aboriginal community and human service organisations. The key features of the training program, Yarn Up Time and the CASE supervision model are a culturally respectful approach to cross-cultural professional supervision practice with the purpose of contributing to the development of culturally responsive supervision with Aboriginal staff and their clients. The article concludes with feedback from participants who attended the training and supports the future advancement of cross-cultural supervision practice and models in Australia.

IMPLICATIONS

• There continues to be a need for more culturally responsive supervision for Aboriginal staff and for non-Aboriginal social work practice with Aboriginal people.

• Yarn Up Time and the CASE model is a culturally appropriate approach for supervising Aboriginal staff and non-Aboriginal social workers’ supervision of social workers’ practice with Aboriginal communities.

• Social work supervisors need to be able to use an effective cultural supervision model to support Aboriginal staff in Yarn Up Time.

     

Methodology out of context: Getting Zimbabwean entrepreneurs to participate in research

This paper reports on a project carried out in Zimbabwe in 1998. The aim of the work was to develop a methodology, based upon participative techniques, which could be adapted for use by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) in assessing entrepreneurs' perception of government and non-government business support services. The overriding purpose of the project was to improve DFID's policies towards facilitating an enabling environment for the private sector. The project was commissioned in order to alter the conventional donor agency approach to businesses in Africa of using questionnaires. Instead, the project team developed a system of semi-structured interviews with individual entrepreneurs and managers, supplemented by a variety of visual techniques and collective workshops incorporating the participants themselves, government representatives and agency staff. Whilst the techniques used are not in themselves unique, the approach certainly is, within an African context.     

Computer Management in a Substance Abuse Resource Center

Summary

This paper describes the use of computers to manage the Connecticut Clearinghouse, a resource center on alcohol and other drugs. Software packages were used to manage information on resources; to develop a database for monitoring client activities; to create a mailing list; and to publish a newsletter.

The paper addresses the selection process, equipment requirements and technical support for computer software. It focuses on introducing computer technology to a small staff, including staff resistance and techniques to overcome barriers to implementation.

Discussion centers on the role for supervisors in providing support and making training available to staff to facilitate computerization.     

Abstract

Abstract

Edmunds M W: Structure and nurse practitioner performance. The Nurse Practitioner 4: (3)42, May/June 1979

Are you a “new” nurse practitioner (NP) returning to your “old” practice setting? Are you a staff nurse, physician, receptionist in the “old” setting, wondering how to cope with this “new” nurse? This article is a MUST.

Simply and clearly, Ms. Edmunds illustrates the ingredients necessary to facilitate successful role transition.

Structural aspects requiring consideration are drawn from A. Donabedian and include:

1. adequacy of physical structure, facilities and equipment—office, exam room and equipment, telephone;

2. staff qualifications and organization-different mixes and levels of staff and/or reallocation of functions may be required;

3. fiscal arrangements—economic contributions to the practice should be recognized financially;

4. administrative, organization and/or programatic structures need to be reevaluated. Daily routine, patient assignment, collaboration-consultation time, development of new modes of health care delivery are examples.

Problems that may prove to be barriers to the role transition must be assessed and defined. Solutions potentiated should include attending to the structural aspects of the practice milieu. Ms. Edmunds offers valuable suggestions to avert or resolve “reentry” problems.     

A Measure of Accountability: Clients' Perceptions of a University Mental Health Service

Abstract

The University Counseling Center at the State University of New York at Stony Brook has developed a psychodynamic model for brief therapy in order to meet increased demands for service with limited staff resources. Because the center has both a multidisciplinary staff and graduate student training program, the aim of the model was to translate already existing theories of time-limited psychotherapy into practical, usable, teachable techniques. A major issue addressed was the reluctance to accept brief therapy because of its perception of being superficial and amenable only to symptom relief as opposed to “preferred” long-term treatment, seen as providing in-depth change and personality reorganization.

The model developed is based on one or two assessment sessions followed by eight sessions of treatment. The major distinguishing characteristic of the model consists of the explicit setting of two goals with the patient. Goal I is based on an assessment of the presenting problem and is directed toward symptom relief. Goal II is based on a characterological-thematic assessment of the patient and is directed toward major theme-process issues in which the presenting problem is imbedded. The eight treatment sessions are seen as a dynamic whole. Both goals I and II are explicitly contracted for, and each session number is announced by the therapist.

Experience with the model to date has shown that eight sessions produce characteristic initial, middle, and late sessions, with planned termination, a powerful, dynamic feature not usually utilized with many psychotherapies in which natural or calendar events tend to provide motivation for termination. In addition, major characterological changes can begin when the patient participates in the ego-synthesizing function of understanding the thematic issues within which specific behaviors and emotional reactions are a part.     

MEDIA REVIEWS

Abstract

DADDY & PAPA: A STORY ABOUT GAY FATHERS IN AMERICA. Johnny Symons (Director/Producer), Lindsay Sablosky (Co-Producer), and Kim Roberts (Editor). HarNew Day Films, 2002, Time 56:40 minutes, http://www.daddyandpapa.com. Reviewed by Colleen M. Connolly.

TRANSGENDER SUBJECTIVITIES: A CLINICIAN'S GUIDE. Leli, U., and J. Drescher (Eds.). Binghamton, NY: Haworth Medical Press, 2004, 162 pp., $39.95. Reviewed by Jerry Saltzman.     

A Survey of Problematic Sexualized Behaviors of Children in the New York City Child Welfare System: Estimates of Problem,Impact on Services,and Need for Training

ABSTRACT

Forty-eight of 52 (92%) agencies contracted with the New York City Administration for Children's Services (ACS) responded to a survey about problematic sexualized behaviors (PSB) of children in different levels of care within the child welfare system. Results revealed that almost all agencies reported PSB within their foster boarding home and residential treatment centers. A majority of agencies perceived PSB to be a significant problem for which staff and families were not sufficiently trained. These findings highlight many avenues for advocacy, clinical intervention, and staff development.     

Creative solutions: Innovative use of the arts in mental health settings

A recent study of occupational stress on the unit (Clare, 2004) highlighted that staff valued the importance of the socialization process in reducing their stress levels. This process incorporates the need for peer support and acceptance, and an understanding of what is expected of them (e.g., roles and responsibilities), supported by a culture of learning, problem solving, and working together. This process is similar to the approach taken by the arts project in nurturing ideas and initiatives in a safe, respectful way. It is apparent that the arts project has been more than just a creative activity; it has had wider implications for both staff and service users in reducing stress. It has: * Enabled staff retention. In fact, there is a waiting list of nurses wishing to work on the unit. * Reduced incidents of damage to property. * Reduced use of p.r.n. medication. * Enhanced the good reputation of the service, which is often commented on by visitors to the unit. The arts project promotes well-being and lifelong learning for the ward community through meaningful engagement in creative activity.     

The Compact of Free Association: An Impact Analysis for Hawaii

Abstract

Available evidence suggests that homelessness in Hawaii is a substantial problem. Among this population, migrants under the 1986 Compact for Free Association have been especially susceptible to homelessness. The three major objectives of this study were to (1) determine the characteristics of COFA migrants who utilize homeless shelter services in Hawaii (2) assess the impact of COFA on Hawaii (3) identify unique features of the COFA migrant population in Hawaii that lead to recommendations as to how better serve them.

This study targets homeless service providers and community stakeholders most burdened by the problem of COFA migrant homelessness in Hawaii. Drawn from the 2003 supplemental census, intake data at the Institute for Human Service and community meetings with stakeholders, general demographic characteristics of COFA shelter users were collected and analyzed. Further, qualitative data was collected through a series of interviews with shelter staff and clients through a series of open-ended interviews and participant observation.