A review of the literature strongly suggests that poor family dynamics play a critical role in an adolescent's choice of suicide. This thesis examines the literature and research findings on adolescent suicide and family functioning. It will bring together recent findings to help professionals access the information on adolescent suicide as it relates to the family. The psychosocial and cognitive theories of development are explored to provide a framework for understanding adolescents and the reasons for the choices and problem solving they make in their quest for identity. Since social workers are increasingly implicated in the prevention of youth suicide, the thesis applies the argument to prevention from a social work perspective.

This study describes the factors influencing user satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the quality and delivery of services at by the Montreal Association for the Blind (MAB). It involved the development of a 119-item questionnaire which was administered to a stratified sample of 60 users served by four organizational multidisciplinary teams. The data were collected through users' records via the MAB computer data base and face-to-face structured interviews. High levels of satisfaction were reported, both overall and for individual aspects of services; highest for the Early Intervention Program and lowest for User Empowerment. Older respondents were significantly more satisfied than younger respondents with general services. Younger and better educated users were found to be the least satisfied with the attention given to their questions and overall needs, and with the information provided. Low User Empowerment scores suggest that the Users' Committee may wish to explore various ways to communicate information.

Street youth can be viewed as an oppressed population based on the fact that most street youth experience one, if not all of the five faces of oppression. Using an anti-oppressive framework, this thesis examines whether the oppression of street youth is ever inadvertently contributed to, reproduced, or perpetuated by services that youth access voluntarily. In addition, this research also explores what possible reasons or conditions might be promoting or perpetuating the oppression of street youth through helping agencies or by helping professionals. Lastly, youth were asked what anti-oppressive practices they could identify in current services, as well as how they would begin to define anti-oppressive practice with street youth. This exploratory research used an anti-oppressive research design and a focus group methodology with a grassroots street youth run advocacy group in Vancouver.

The purpose of this study was to explore the potential link between quality of life and social support networks, among clients with mild to borderline intellectual handicaps. This study also explored differences between how the clients assess their quality of life and support networks and how primary caseworkers asses the quality of life and support networks of their clients. / Thirty intellectually handicapped adults (18 men & 12 women) and their primary caseworkers were randomly selected to participate in the study. Significant differences were found between client and primary caseworker evaluations of clients' quality of life and their social support networks. Friends as support providers was strongly associated with better quality of life. The findings also indicated that there were significant differences in female and male client satisfaction with quality of life.

This study analysed why children under four years old were admitted to care, and whether they suffered harm due to abuse or neglect, based on file documentation regarding all 175 admissions, involving 129 children and 93 mothers, by one Ontario Children's Aid Society between 1992 and 1996. Using the Ontario Child Welfare Eligibility Spectrum to classify reasons for admission, more admissions were due to risks defined under Caregiver Capacity than Harm by Commission or Omission. Mothers' background and lack of resources were common factors. Evidence of harm was often hard to establish but was rated as clear or extreme in 12% of cases. Differences related to fathers' status, number and age of children in the home, and history of agency involvement were found between cases where children suffered severe harm due to abuse or neglect, and cases where they did not, but these differences were not statistically significant.

Despite calls for increased attention to religion and spirituality in social work education and practice, the topic remains a neglected area. This small exploratory study seeks to examine barriers that cause religion and spirituality to continue to be on the periphery in social work education. Involved are six faculty members, teaching a range of social work courses. Insights into some of the controversial issues that arise in the classroom when religion and spirituality are discussed are offered. Findings suggest a lack of uniformity in teaching approaches, indicating that educators may be unclear about how to address the topic.

This thesis explores the experiences of aging parents caring for adult children with acquired brain injury regarding future care needs. Seven parents representing four adult disabled children, were individually interviewed using the Family Support and Coping Interview. The parents then participated in three groups sessions to discuss the commonality of 'never-ending' parenthood. The parents, who average 70.9 years of age, have been sole caregivers for middle-aged children. Their displaced life cycle responsibilities, their vision of a solution and the need to socially publicize their predicament were major themes requiring advocacy with policy makers and government funders. Research into the care of those who cannot manage independent living is imperative, particularly as social thinking and fiscal policies espouse the benefits of the autonomous family.

The present study examines the use of formal and informal supervision as it relates to determining burnout in child welfare social workers. This was measured by using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Respondents were social workers in a small child protection agency. Using descriptive data and frequencies, results were used to focus directions for further research. The results indicate that only the length of formal supervision is significant in reducing emotional exhaustion in social workers (p < .05). Higher education levels were also seen as a protective factor against depersonalization (n = 16).

The effects of marital separation or divorce on children have been widely researched, often relying on clinical samples, and the short-term and long-term consequences have been documented. Research findings are divergent: some studies suggest that adolescents are not adversely affected while other studies show that adolescents' functioning is affected in a permanent way by parental separation. Ambert and Saucier (1983) reviewed adolescents' perceptions of parents, controlling for gender and parental marital status. Their findings suggested that adolescents perceive their parents differently on the basis of marital status and gender. / Inspired by Ambert and Saucier's research, this exploratory study was based on interviews with eighteen adolescents, in an attempt to understand how family composition and gender influences adolescent perceptions of parents. The subjects were from divorced and intact families and the results were analyzed qualitatively. It was assumed that adjustment to parental separation or divorce would be reflected in the adolescents' perceptions of their parents. / Contrary to expectations, the findings of this study indicated that adolescents from both intact and divorced families perceived their parents in a similar way. These findings are attributed to several factors, including the absence of interparental hostility, the length of time since the separation and economic stability within these families.

This thesis analyzes the degree of cultural relevance in the Asha Gram Mental Health Program in Barwani, India. The focus is on the role of community mental health workers as bridges between a professional culture of psychiatry and the local cultural understandings of mental health. Processes of cultural interaction are analyzed on a continuum from negotiation, defined as interaction without fundamental cultural change, to accommodation, defined as interaction with cultural change. Accommodation at the level of the vision of mental health disorders was limited while there was an active negotiation that resulted in some transformation of the social vision. Negotiation with communities at the level of relationships underpinned this transformation and contributed to a social accommodation with local forms of relationships. Although, professional and class power were important obstacles to achieving cultural relevance, the Program also demonstrates the necessity to subvert this power in order to create social change.