The purpose of this study was to explore how social work practitioners employed in schools perceive their level of competency in suicide prevention, assessment, and intervention and to identify educational and professional challenges specific to this area of inquiry. This study sought to explore the following research questions: 1) How do school social workers perceive their level of competency in suicide prevention, assessment, and intervention with at-risk suicidal children and youth? 2) What are school social workers educational or professional challenges in providing suicide prevention, assessment, and intervention? This research study was predicated on a qualitative research design and conventional content analysis. The research design allowed for an in-depth examination of school social workers’ ability to make critical decisions when providing suicide prevention, assessment and intervention to youth at risk of suicide. The findings of this study suggest that, despite past and current education, training, and clinical practice experience working with at-risk suicidal youth, continual training is necessary in increasing perceived professional competency and addressing familial, organizational and societal challenges pertinent to at-risk suicidal youth. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Chemical substance abuse remains a major global health and social problem in a South African context. Social workers are one of the professionals who provide social welfare services to adolescents abusing chemical substances. However, social workers are not prepared enough in terms of training and workshops to provide drug dependency treatment to adolescents abusing chemical substances. This study therefore contributes to an emerging body of literature on chemical substance abuse, as there is a lack of information within the Department of Social Development in Lepelle Nkumpi Municipality of Limpopo concerning social workers’ preparedness, experiences and challenges in rendering services to adolescents abusing chemical substances. Furthermore, the study will generate new information that will assist the Department of Social Development to make necessary changes to social welfare services rendered to adolescents abusing chemical substances, and consideration will be given when drafting a framework for treating chemical substance abuse. A qualitative approach was adopted to explore, describe and contextualise social workers’ preparedness, experiences and challenges experienced during their work. Participants were selected using a non-probability technique of purposive sampling. As a data collection method, in-depth, one on one semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven social workers working with adolescents abusing chemical substances. Data was analysed using Tesch’s eight steps and verified using Guba and Lincoln’s model to test the trustworthiness of the data. Ethical considerations adhered to throughout this study were informed consent, right to privacy, avoidance of deception, debriefing of participants and management of information. Findings of the study confirmed that there are no clear guidelines in rendering social welfare services to adolescents abusing chemical substances by social workers. The study further revealed that social workers’ training is generic in nature, therefore they are not well trained to render services to adolescents abusing chemical substances. They therefore lack resources and support to adequately execute social welfare services to adolescents abusing chemical substances. Lack of services for adolescents was also identified as a burning issue. Furthermore, treatment and prevention of chemical substance abuse is overlooked. Based on the research findings, recommendations pertaining to social work practice, social work training and education, social welfare policy, and further research were put forward. / Social Work

Given the social work profession's commitment to serving individuals with disabilities and cultural competence, the promotion of favorable attitudes toward persons with disabilities within social work education is critical. This study examined the question: "what are the attitudes of undergraduate social work students at three universities toward individuals with physical disabilities as measured by responses on the Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons Scale Form B (ATDP-Form B; Yuker et al., 1960, 1966) and Interactions with Disabled Persons Scale (Gething, 1991)?" It explored the following hypotheses, that participants who: 1) have had prior positive contact with persons with physical disabilities; 2) have higher perceived levels of knowledge about issues affecting persons with physical disabilities; and 3) have had more social work classes will respond with more positive attitudes than other participants. Sociodemographic data about gender, ethnicity, country of origin, religion, and university affiliation was also collected to measure the possible impact of these characteristics on student attitudes. The primary aim is to learn more about the way undergraduate social work students generally view individuals with physical disabilities and feel about interactions with this population.

"Being a member of an embryonic graduate school of social work, the author became well acquainted with the difficulties of selection of students of Florida State University. As a result of the relatively undefined method of selection, the author became aware of the factors which caused students to withdraw from school. The faculty agreed with the author that there is much need for work in the relatively unexplored area of methods of selection"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "May, 1950." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master of Science under Plan II." / Advisor: Margaret B. Bailey, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 52-56).

Globalization has increased the interconnectivity in all aspect of life worldwide. The role of local state and local politics are questioned due to the increasing influences of variety of global forces. Social policies have been passed from place to place through different networks and actors. Policy transfer is one of the concepts used to study this complicated social reality by scholars from different disciplines. Existing researches of policy transfer tend to focus on state actors and international organizations. However, some scholars call for attention to local forces including action of the non-state actors that influence the policy transfer process in the bottom level. It is argued that researches should problematize actions that different actors adopted to compete for alternative policy meaning. Moreover, existing researches tend to focus on successful cases of policy transfer. There is lack of comparison of factors that facilitate or constraint non-state actors to transfer foreign policy ideas. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the discussion of policy transfer by the exploration on the various actions of non-state from the local NGOs, to transfer foreign policy ideas to compete for alternative policy meaning. In Hong Kong, committing to policy advocacy is a convention of the field of community social workers. Introduction of foreign policy ideas is one of the ways that social workers adopted to challenge existing policy. However, the neoliberal restructuring of welfare services had limited capacity for policy advocacy. This contradictory situation is met by community social workers who are involved in the policy process of urban regeneration. Community social workers have been traditionally assigned by the government to serve neighborhood affected by urban regeneration. It is found that they do not only advocate for policy changes, but also strengthen the policy ideas promoted by the government. Comparison of different actions of them can demonstrate factors that influence whether the non-state actors of local NGOs to transfer foreign policy ideas to compete for alternative policy meaning. This research is designed as a qualitative research. With the use of the Agency, Structure, Institution, and Discourse Approach, semi-structured interviews with 21 community social workers and key informants sampled by theory-guided sampling, secondary data analysis of 678 official documents, and participant observation to a major advocacy coalition were conducted. Data were coded and analyzed by using the qualitative data analysis software program-MAXQDA. Through initial coding, focused coding and theoretical coding, 27 and 7 codes and 6 themes were generated. This research suggests that action by non-state actors of local NGOs is a way of policy transfer. Comparison of the various actions between them can illustrate the dynamic of complicated meaning making process of policy transfer. It demonstrates different kinds of institutions may have different impact to the actors. They may facilitate the actors to compete for alternative policy meaning by the transfer of policy ideas, or constraint them to follow the dominant policy ideas.

In Sweden, the elderly population above the ages of 65 who can no longer cater for themselves can seek assistance from the social services in their municipalities. A case officer popularly known as biståndshandläggare in Sweden is usually assigned by the municipality to assist in planning, assessing and making decisions on the kind of services which best fits the elderly clients seeking assistance. This study investigated the experiences of geriatric case officers working with grieving elderly clients who are either in hospitals or in their private homes. A qualitative methodology was employed and, interviews were conducted with four geriatric case officers working within elderly care departments in social services around Mid-Sweden. The results were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that these geriatric case officers had insufficient knowledge on how to work with grief and loss. The results also showed that geriatric case officers had both positive and negative experiences when working with grieving elderly clients. To work in elderly care services, a social work degree or related education is a requirement.

Social workers often take on the role of providing case management to Medicaid recipients; however, there is little clinical research on social workers' perceptions of their case management role. The purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of the social worker case management role by exploring social workers' perceptions of their roles when providing case management to Ohio Medicaid managed care enrollees. This action research study was grounded in organizational role theory. A semi structured focus group was facilitated using open-ended questions related to social workers' role perceptions, role conflict, role ambiguity, case management, and managed care. Qualitative data were collected from 5 licensed Ohio social workers working as case managers with clients enrolled in an Ohio Medicaid managed care plan. The data were coded and analyzed using constant comparison analysis to identify relevant themes. Four themes emerged from the data: care coordination, role conflict and ambiguity, lack of social work influence in managed care, and resources. The findings of the study may serve as a step toward filling gaps in the understanding of the role of social workers who provide case management services to Ohio's Medicaid managed care enrollees. The findings may also be used to effect positive social change by increasing stakeholders' understanding of social workers' roles in case management and encouraging stakeholders to take steps to identify and address possible role conflict and ambiguity.

This study investigates attitudes toward working with older clients held by service providers in an urban social service system. Four samples were involved: three of providers (Interview Panel, n = 22; Pretest Sample, n = 89; and Survey Sample, n = 428) and one of providers and their older clients (Encounter Sample, n = 52 providers, 147 clients). The first time samples included 13 provider types: hospital doctors, nurses, and nurses aides; in-home nurses and aides; nursing home nurses and aides; mental health practitioners; and income, nutrition, transportation, housing, and interaction personnel. The Encounter Sample included: in-home nurses and aides, and interaction personnel. All samples came from the Portland (Oregon) SMSA. Data were collected during May 1977 to August 1978. Results are of three types: an analytical model, a set of measurement scales, and research findings. The model consists of elements from the general literature on attitudes which are made specific to the study of providers' attitudes toward working with older clients. Its aim is to promote comprehensiveness and comparability of research in this area, and to suggest research questions. Two kinds of scales were developed: "general attitude" scales (measuring providers' attitudes toward working with older clients in the abstract) and "specific attitude" scales (measuring providers' attitudes toward individual older clients). For general attitudes, 10 scales operationalize cognitions of older clients, 9 scales operationalize cognitions of the job situation, 3 scales operationalize affect toward older clients, 1 scale operationalizes affect toward the job globally, and 1 scale operationalizes behavioral predispositions toward older clients. For specific attitudes, four scales operationalize cognitions of older clients. The scales' internal consistency reliability coefficients range from .50 to .89. The findings address six research questions, focusing on attitude valence, attitude uniformity across provider type, and the relationships between: cognition, affect, and behavioral predisposition; attitudes toward older clients versus the job situation; attitudes and choices of clients; and antecedents (e.g., providers' age) and attitudes. Major findings included: on the average, providers reported moderate positiveness toward both older clients and the job situation; and, across types, providers reported attitudes that were non-uniform in valence.

The study is a survey of attitudes among social work practitioners and educators, both ethnic minority and and non-minority, regarding social work with minority clients. Chapter II presents a statement of the problem and the purpose of the study. Chapter III is a review of pertinent literature. Chapter IV discusses the design and methodology for the research project. Chapter V discusses the findings and limitations of the study, and Chapter VI provides a summary and further recommendations for research and practice.

In order to assess political activity levels of Portland social workers, thirty Master of Social Work (M.S.W.) social workers were interviewed according to a structured questionnaire. The members of the sample were selected from National Association of Social Workers, Oregon Chapter membership and from selected public social service agencies. The results showed, in comparison to previous research findings of Lester Milbrath and Julian Woodward, that Portland social workers are more politically active and knowledgeable than hypothesized. Portland social workers were found to be largely Democrats. The most politically active social workers were found to be those who are employed in private social service agencies, those at agencies employing fifteen people or fewer, those who received their M.S.W. degree prior to 1975, and those age thirty or older. With regard to attitudes, Portland social workers tend to prefer low visibility political tactics and view the political system as being related to client needs or agency functioning only in respect to funding and the provision of services.