Facilitating Transition Among Transgender Clients: Components of Effective Clinical Practice

Although transgender clients seek services in a number of settings in which social workers practice, there is a dearth of scholarly literature available to guide effective clinical practice with this population. When transgender issues are included in the practice literature, the trend has been to consolidate the needs of transgender clients with those of the larger lesbian, gay, and bisexual community or to simply focus on increasing the comfort level of clinicians working with this population. This is concerning because transgender individuals represent a vulnerable subgroup of clients with unique and specific treatment needs related to the transition experience. Social workers play a critical role; they may serve transgender clients and their families in many ways: as advocate, educator, diagnostician, and individual, couples or family therapist. The purpose of this article is to identify several key components of trans-specific clinical practice and the role of social workers in supporting and facilitating client transition. Specifically, the authors will discuss: (a) relevant definitions and terminology, (b) emerging issues related to depathologizing the needs and experiences of transgender individuals, (c) the critical elements of trans-specific clinical assessment, and (d) clinical advocacy associated with the medical legal and social aspects of the transition process. Specific recommendations for trans-affirmative social work practice will be offered.     

Elucidating transgender students’ experiences of microaggressions in social work programs: next steps for creating inclusive educational contexts

Social work education globally expresses an unwavering commitment to promoting social justice and the amelioration of oppression. Nevertheless, mounting research suggests that social work programs (SWPs) may inadvertently perpetuate microaggressions toward individuals who are transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC). This qualitative study elucidates experiences of TGNC social work students in North America. Grounded theory analysis revealed six key themes related to students’ experiences of microaggressions within their SWPs: (1) structural oppression, (2) cisgender bias, (3) faculty knowledge gaps, (4) visible discomfort, (5) pervasive nature of transphobia, and (6) social exclusion. Despite the existence of educational and professional policies aimed at fostering transgender inclusive social work education and practice, results from this study underscore the need to take a closer look at the ways in which knowledge gaps, implicit cisgender biases, and existing practices and policies within SWPs inadvertently privilege the experiences of cisgender students and marginalize TGNC students. Key findings from the current study can be used to inform the implementation of transgender affirmative changes, contributing to efforts to eradicate transphobic bias within SWPs.     

Indirect behavioral measures of cognition among sexual offenders

Indirect measures of cognition have become an important tool in research on sexual offending. Such methods allow the exploration and testing of models of cognitive processes that might underpin sexual preferences and, in turn, sexual offending. The article reviews studies that have used a large range of indirect techniques (e.g., Implicit Association Test, Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure, Choice Reaction Times, Stroop Interference, Rapid Serial Visual Presentation, Lexical Decision Priming Task, and Viewing Times), and aims to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this research.     

Disability Considerations for Measuring Poverty in Canada Using the Market Basket Measure

Social Indicators Research - Persons with disability (PWD) in Canada experience disproportionately high poverty rates. Poverty measures are often used to benchmark income assistance levels and...     

Poverty and macroeconomic performance across space,race, and family structure

We examined the effects of macroeconomic performance and social policy on the extent and depth of poverty in America using state-level panel data from the 1981-2000 waves of the Current Population Survey. We found that a strong macroeconomy at both the state and national levels reduced both the number of families who were living in poverty and the severity of poverty. The magnitude and source of these antipoverty effects, however, were not uniform across family structures and racial groups or necessarily over time. While gains in the eradication of poverty, in general, were tempered by rising wage inequality, simulations indicated that female-headed families and families that were headed by black persons experienced substantial reductions in poverty in the 1990s largely because of the growth in median wages. An auxiliary time-series analysis suggests that the expansions in the federal Earned Income Tax Credit of the 1990s accounted for upward of 50% of the reduction in after-tax income deprivation.     

Health and Cultural Determinants of Voluntary HIV Testing and Counseling Among Middle-Aged and Older Latina Women

The rate of cases of HIV/AIDS in older people is increasing; indeed one out of every four people with HIV/AIDS is over age 50. This study describes the correlates of HIV Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) using structural equation modeling techniques for a sample of 135 middle-aged and middle-aged and older Latinas in South Florida. Over 60% of participants had been tested for HIV. Provider endorsement was found to be the strongest predictor of VCT (odds ratio [OR] = 6. 38), followed by having a clinic as a regular source of healthcare (OR = 3.88). Social work implications are provided.     

Interruption and Forgetting in Knowledge‐Intensive Service Environments

An increasing barrier to productivity in knowledge‐intensive work environments is interruptions. Interruptions stop the current job and can induce forgetting in the worker. The induced forgetting can cause re‐work; to complete the interrupted job, additional effort and time is required to return to the same level of job‐specific knowledge the worker had attained prior to the interruption. This research employs primary observational and process data gathered from a hospital radiology department as inputs into a discrete‐event simulation model to estimate the effect of interruptions, forgetting, and re‐work. To help mitigate the effects of interruption‐induced re‐work, we introduce and test the operational policy of sequestering, where some service resources are protected from interruptions. We find that sequestering can improve the overall productivity and cost performance of the system under certain circumstances. We conclude that research examining knowledge‐intensive operations should explicitly consider interruptions and the forgetting rate of the system's human workers or models will overestimate the system's productivity and underestimate its costs.     

The determinants of living wage rates

Several cities have recently adopted living wage ordinances which mandate that firms contracting with the city pay their workers an hourly wage at or above the legislated “living wage rate” set by the city. Following the literature on minimum wage rate determination, I explore factors influencing living wage rates. Using a sample of 39 cities, the results show that living wage rates are particularly sensitive to per capita income, fair-market rent, the minimum wage rate, the proximity of the city to other living wage cities, and the year that the city adopted the living wage ordinance.