Being with a Person in Our Care: Person-Centered Social Work Practice that is Authentically Person-Centered

ABSTRACT

Person-centered care (PCC) has emerged over the last several decades as the benchmark for providing quality care for diverse populations, including older adults with multiple chronic conditions that affect daily life. This article critiques current conceptualizations of PCC, including the social work competencies recently developed by the Council on Social Work Education, finding that they do not fully incorporate certain key elements that would make them authentically person-centered. In addition to integrating traditional social work values and practice, social work’s PCC should be grounded in the principles of classical Rogerian person-centered counseling and an expanded conceptualization of personhood that incorporates Kitwood’s concepts for working with persons with dementia. Critically important in such a model of care is the relationship between the caring professional and the care recipient. This article recommends new social work competencies that incorporate both the relationship-building attitudes and skills needed to provide PCC that is authentically person-centered.     

Paternal Incarceration and the Housing Security of Urban Mothers

High rates of imprisonment among American fathers have motivated an ongoing examination of incarceration's role in family life. A growing literature suggests that incarceration creates material and socioemotional challenges not only for prisoners and former prisoners but also for their families and communities. The authors examined the relationship between fathers' incarceration and one such challenge: the housing insecurity of the mothers of their children. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4,125) and a series of longitudinal regression models, they found that mothers' housing security was compromised following their partners' incarceration, an association likely driven in part, but not entirely, by financial challenges following his time in prison or jail. Given the importance of stable housing for the continuity of adult employment, children's schooling, and other inputs to healthy child development, the findings suggest a grave threat to the well‐being of children with incarcerated fathers.     

The Reflective Learning Model: Supervision of Social Work Students

A key task for the field education supervisor is to facilitate reflection in beginning practice, and to promote in the student a sense of ownership, mastery and understanding of his or her clinical process. At the same time the supervisor is charged to instruct and guide the student. A major challenge for the supervisor is to balance these two dimensions of supervision and maintain a focus on the student's experience rather than the supervisor's expertise. The authors present a Reflective Learning Model which identifies the importance of both facilitative and didactic interventions within effective supervision. A case study is provided to demonstrate the model in action.     

Supervision of students: A map and a model for the decade to come

This paper proposes a map and a model for the supervision of social work students. The authors have placed renewed emphasis on the somewhat neglected supervisory aspect and include an integration of adult learning theory within the supervision process. This model is located within a 'map' of the placement process and within a broader understanding of the learning milieu of the fieldwork placement. The authors suggest that this model will better meet the needs of practice in the new decade.     

Surveying a Chicago public housing development: methodological challenges and lessons learned

During the winter and spring of 2003, the Survey Research Laboratory conducted a survey of residents of the Ida Wells and Madden Park housing developments on Chicago's near-south side. This article reviews existing research findings on using indigenous interviewers and reports the findings about the benefits and challenges of using residents as interviewers versus drawing from a regular pool of interviewers. Specifically, the authors talk about the challenges faced in using indigenous interviewers and then look at some data quality indicators among these two groups of interviewers, including cooperation rates, item nonresponse, and differences in responses to sensitive questions.     

Why American business demands twenty-first century learning: A company perspective

Microsoft is an innovative corporation demonstrating the kind and caliber of job skills needed in the twenty-first century. It demonstrates its commitment to twenty-first century skills by holding its employees accountable to a set of core competencies, enabling the company to run effectively. The author explores how Microsoft's core competencies parallel the Partnership for 21st Century Skills learning frameworks. Both require advanced problem-solving skills and a passion for technology, both expect individuals to be able to work in teams, both look for a love of learning, and both call for the self-confidence to honestly self-evaluate. Microsoft also works to cultivate twenty-first century skills among future workers, investing in education to help prepare young people for competitive futures. As the need for digital literacy has become imperative, technology companies have taken the lead in facilitating technology training by partnering with schools and communities. Microsoft is playing a direct role in preparing students for what lies ahead in their careers. To further twenty-first century skills, or core competencies, among the nation's youth, Microsoft has established Partners in Learning, a program that helps education organizations build partnerships that leverage technology to improve teaching and learning. One Partners in Learning grantee is Global Kids, a nonprofit organization that trains students to design online games focused on global social issues resonating with civic and global competencies. As Microsoft believes the challenges of competing in today's economy and teaching today's students are substantial but not insurmountable, such partnerships and investments demonstrate Microsoft's belief in and commitment to twenty-first century skills.     

Educating Resilient Practitioners

Many social workers face challenges maintaining professional optimism and personal well-being in their chosen career. The retention of capable practitioners is important to employers and the wider profession. This paper reports on elements of an ongoing study into practitioner resilience in social work in health and non-statutory practice settings. The project aims to explore experienced social workers' understanding of their resilience in the face of workplace demands and stressors. Findings from a small, qualitative study of experienced practitioners in New Zealand suggest that social work education contributes in multi-faceted ways to preparing resilient practitioners. The authors recommend the strengthening of these elements in pre-service education.     

Community health workers on a college campus: Effects on influenza vaccination

Objective: To assess the impact of a campus community health worker program (HealthPALs) on student influenza vaccination. Participants: Undergraduate students at a northeastern US university (enrollment 6650), influenza seasons 2011–2012 through 2015–2016. Methods: Study design: Difference-in-differences analysis of student vaccination at campus dormitory influenza clinics during intervention vs. baseline. Intervention: In the first intervention year, HealthPALs conducted in-person peer outreach at several campus dormitory flu clinics. Subsequent years, HealthPALs conducted an enhanced intervention, with the addition of a personalized, dormitory-specific social media campaign appealing to students' community identity. Results: The initial intervention increased vaccinations by 66% (IRR = 1.66, 95%CI 1.39-1.97) at intervention clinics relative to control. The enhanced intervention increased vaccinations by 85% (IRR = 1.85, 95%CI 1.75-1.96).

Conclusion: Community health workers can be a highly effective, low-cost strategy for increasing influenza vaccination among college students. This model could also be used to address other campus health challenges where student engagement is key.     

Missouri Casino Self-Excluders: Distributions Across Time and Space

According to public health research, exposure to casinos is a risk factor for disordered gambling. Consequently, casino self-exclusion programs, which provide gamblers with the opportunity to voluntarily seek limits on their access to gambling venues, can serve as a barometer of the concentration of disordered gambling in an area. This study reports on the distribution, both temporally and geographically, of 6,599 people who applied to exclude themselves from Missouri casinos between November, 1996 and February, 2004. Analyses used Microsoft MapPoint to plot the location of casinos and self-excluders (SEs) across Missouri and its constituent counties. These regional exposure analyses showed that the Western region around Kansas City is an epicenter of disordered gambling as, to a lesser extent, is the Eastern region around St. Louis. The annual number of SE enrollments increased during the first few years of the Missouri self-exclusion program and then leveled off during the later years. These findings have important implications for public health and the development of public health interventions for disordered gamblers.