The purpose of this project is to explore the field of hospital social work to see what, if any frustrations, problem areas, and/or dissatisfactions exist among those who work in this profession. In order to accomplish this task of exploration, the project is composed of three parts. The first segment is the literature review (Chapter II). It is divided into a brief history of hospital social work and other studies that have been done on hospital social workers. It is hoped that the combination of both of these components will reflect the struggles, strengths, and problems of the profession, therefore giving the reader a sense of the profession's background. Secondly, by attempting to capture some of the "roots" and research involving hospital social workers, hopefully, a context will be provided as the project takes a look at hospital social workers in Portland, Oregon. The second part of the project consists of a research study. It attempts to assess the attitudes of hospital social workers in Portland toward the environment in which they work. By doing this, the research portion will contribute, more specifically, to the overall purpose of the project. This section includes the design and methodology of the research (Chapter III) as well as the findings (Chapter IV). All of the eight hospitals in the Portland area having social service departments are involved in the study. In addition, the ten second year MSW students from Portland State University who were placed in hospital settings for their second year of field placement, are also included in the research segment of the project. The third part is comprised of the conclusions and recommendations. It is hoped that this section will bring together both the first and second parts of the project and in so doing, formulate the end results of the intended task, an exploration into the field of hospital social work. Finally, a short section will follow on recommendations for the future.

Incorporating spiritually-involved interventions into the treatment process for chronically ill patients is a trending subject in the field of medical social work. Literature suggests the integration of spirituality with patients diagnosed with a chronic medical illness appear to influence patient’s resiliency level. However, the lack of information and knowledge on the topic suggests medical social workers are still in the process of learning how to utilize spirituality as a form of intervention. This study explores how medical social workers in the Inland Empire perceive the practice of spirituality on resilience levels in adults diagnosed with a chronic medical illness. The data is collected through audio recordings from individual interviews with each participant. The audio recordings are transcribed into transcripts to identify themes and common categories among the participants. The results analyzed call for future research to continue on how to incorporate spirituality into the social work practice in the Inland Empire.

No description available.

This study explored the Master of Social Work (MSW) student perception of access to documentation training in their program. When a student graduates with a degree, there is an expected level of competency in regards to documentation when entering the field. Currently, there is literature available about the risk of poor documentation and the need for additional documentation training in the field of social work but the literature focusing on the perceptions of the student is very limited. The study contributed to the academic literature on social work documentation by providing awareness of the student perception of where they received documentation training in their graduate program. The research design for this study is qualitative and exploratory due to insignificant literature available. A survey was administered to graduating MSW students through a California State University School of Social Work. The findings suggested that MSW students would benefit from additional clinical documentation training from their MSW program since the student perceptions are there is limited access to training within the program. There are numerous of implications to the field of social work in regards to the lack of documentation training in MSW programs. The absence of training from students may include not having a full understanding of risk management that corresponds with documentation and will have to assume to be ethically responsible for when the student graduates from their program. This can be detrimental to the student’s professional development and can overall create a decrease in the quality of graduating MSW students.

Parental incarceration is a serious problem in the United States, due to the significant number of parents and children impacted by incarceration. The sizable number of individuals incarcerated in the United States has resulted in the development of forensics as a growing field that requires social workers to integrate a working knowledge into their professional practice. The researcher hypothesized social work students who had personal and/or professional experience with the criminal justice system have a more favorable attitude towards incarcerated parents and are more willing to work with this population. Quantitative data was collected via surveys constructed and administered through the online Qualtrics data collection program from a sample of 79 social work students attending a school of social work at a university in Southern California. The data was analyzed using a Chi-Squared statistical analysis test using the SPSS data analysis software program. Significant findings were found that supported the hypothesis. A significant relationship was found between the status of having visited someone in jail or prison for personal reasons, as well as having someone close who was previously incarcerated, along with having the willingness to work with children of incarcerated parents in the future. Also, a significant relationship was found between a participant’s ethnicity, wanting to work with children of incarcerated parents in the future, with believing incarcerated parents and their children are an underserved population, and believing social workers are an important part of the rehabilitation process for incarcerated parents. Participants’ gender and the belief incarcerated parents could benefit from learning parenting skills was also found to be significant. This study also found having personal experience with incarcerated individuals may impact a social work student’s willingness to work with incarcerated populations. Lastly, the results and findings of this study contribute to the body of research focused on introducing social work students, who have a willingness to work with incarcerated populations, to the field of forensics with the goal of increasing the number of social workers working with incarcerated parents.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of spirituality in the social work practice and social worker’s perspective on it. This project focuses on spirituality in social work and the role that it plays in a social workers practice. The data collected for this research project consists of qualitative data in which the researcher conducted one-on-one interviews of eight different clinical professionals in the social work field. The study employed a purposive sampling by recruiting LCSW’s, MSW’s, ASW’s, and other clinical professionals in the Northern California area. The average years of experience amongst the participants was 19.375 years. Each participant has a broad range of experience from individual clinical one-on-one counseling, working with groups, and supervision.

There is significant documentation showing that health disparities experienced by underserved persons can be mitigated through the provision of quality integrated healthcare. This research project was grounded in social support theory and how support influences improvements in physical, psychological, and overall health. Social workers in integrated healthcare are in a unique position to be the source of social support for individuals experiencing health disparities, yet there is little research concerning how these social workers are providing services and how they affect health outcomes. This research addressed gaps in the literature concerning social worker roles in order to improve integrated healthcare for underserved populations. Data was gathered from social workers employed by Federally Qualified Health Care integrated facilities in Colorado that treated underserved populations. An action research methodology was used to investigate social worker roles through the utilization of a focus group (N = 4); there were 4 emergent themes. These themes were: social workers supporting patients and staff, influencing quality healthcare integration, possessing certain characteristics and competencies, and performing role responsibilities. Support through the use of personal characteristics, competencies, and role responsibilities was identified by stakeholders as the foundation of quality integrated healthcare. The potential impact of understanding social worker roles may include improved health outcomes for individuals served, improved social work practice, improved integrated healthcare provision, gaps in the literature filled, positive social change, and contribution to a wider body of knowledge.

acase@tulane.edu

This exploratory study examined delinquency among the Seminole Indians of Florida. First, it measured a variety of delinquent acts committed by Seminole youths residing on and off the three Florida Reservations. Second, it applied concepts central to social control theory. The control variables examined were attachment, commitment, and belief The data came from one primary source, a self-administered questionnaire anonymously filled out by youths aged 10 to 17. The 129 completed questionnaires represent 70 percent of the Seminole youth population in that age range. Even though the findings are known to underrepresent delinquency in the population, the self report data reflected very high rates of delinquency on all three Reservations. In addition to statistical data, unstructured interviews were used to provide illustration The study found that Seminole youths who commit delinquent acts are free to do so inasmuch as they believe that their behavior is not wrong and that the consequences for their law-breaking will not be severe Further, the findings suggest that conventional ideas about bicultural socialization and Indian marginality must be questioned. Seminole youth have skillfully acquired functional behaviors for both Indian and non-Indian cultures and may be viewed as transcultural / acase@tulane.edu

Community organization continues to be a viable part of the social work profession, involved in influencing others in order to achieve social change. Many of those who are a part of the change process give of their time, their material donations and/or their financial contributions. As the trend toward fewer government services for disadvantaged and ill individuals continues, the need for others to give on a voluntary basis continues to increase. Failing to address the factors that motivate people to give may cause a decline in the free talent of volunteering, the material donations of in-kind goods, or the monetary resources of financial contributions The present study has an aim to describe the main motivational factors that influence voluntary giving to a non-profit community agency in Clinton, Mississippi. The purposes of this study were (1) to explore the underlying motivational factors of people who give voluntarily to community agencies through volunteering, in-kind (material) donations, and/or financial contributions and (2) to explore the sociodemographics of voluntary givers with the purpose of identifying a target population of voluntary givers for further recruitment, replacement, and retention The results of the present study supported considerable extensive existing research on factors that motivate people to give. This study's results also verified portions of the research that certain socio-demographic characteristics were present in the majority of those voluntary givers who participated in the study. This study's results demonstrate the need for more attention by researchers to comprehend the nature of volunteer motivation more holistically in order to recognize what it means to those who give and what causes them to remain committed. Understanding what motivates people to become and remain voluntary givers will be valuable to social workers, who are in the community setting, to use as a tool to analyze and compare different levels of voluntary giving to community agencies. The study provides a rationale for developing empirical-based social work interventions that can be used with community agencies and voluntary givers Index words. Volunteer Motivation Inventory, voluntary giver, volunteer, in-kind (material) donation, financial contribution, community organization, Social Work / acase@tulane.edu