Social workers working for adult protective services (APS) face many clinical challenges to ensure the safety and well-being of older adult clients. APS social workers often interact with older adults who engage in self-neglecting behaviors that compromise their ability to function in a healthy and independent manner. The purpose of this research study was to explore challenges in direct social work practice to identify how APS services can be improved when working with the older adult population, particularly individuals who engage in hoarding behaviors. Using action research methodology, 2 focus groups were conducted to explore the experiences and knowledge of social workers who are trained in APS and in-home supportive services programs and work directly with the older adult hoarding population when investigating cases of self-neglect. The theoretical framework of cognitive behavioral theory guided the analysis of focus group data to provide insights into understanding the core manifestations of hoarding and how social workers working with this population can provide appropriate services. The overall findings of the study resulted in identifying improvements to APS service interventions. Study findings inform recommendations that allow APS social workers to effectively work with older adults who exhibit hoarding behaviors, while also advancing professional development in the field of social work. Understanding practice challenges to appropriately serve older adults that exhibit hoarding behaviors is essential in effecting positive social change in the lives of vulnerable and disadvantaged older adults, APS agencies, and communities.

Children who suffered parental abuse or neglect can be returned home if their safety can be ensured following offender treatment. However, some caregivers will continue to abuse or neglect their children upon return home, leading to additional treatment, state involvement, and harm to the child. This study assessed personality differences between child abusers and neglectors who were caregivers by applying a binary logistical regression analysis to the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Second Edition (MMPI-2) scores sampled from archival data for 215 caregivers. Analysis showed that the abusers had statistically significant higher scores on the F Scale ('Faking Bad'), but significantly lower scores on Scale 6 (Paranoia) than neglectors. While trait theory asserts that personality aspects are fundamentally fixed, there are treatment implications for differing personality defects. Even though caregivers who had their children removed for abuse or neglect are currently treated homogenously by the legal system, it was hypothesized that the two groups, abuse or neglect, would have different personality traits. Greater insights into the caregiver personalities can lead to more specific treatment, with separate components tailored to the individual, and improved case outcomes for caregivers reunited with their children after child protective services involvement. The social change implication of this study is the continued safety of children through improved treatment for the caregiver, a decrease in recidivism, and lowered child maltreatment rates in the community through a better psychological understanding of the offending caregiver.

Research has suggested that behaviors beginning in childhood or adolescence may play a mediating role in the relationship between childhood maltreatment and involvement in prostitution. It is currently unknown how poor self-concept and low self-efficacy play a mediating relationship in this association. The primary purpose of this correlational study was to evaluate early youth problem behaviors such as poor self-concept and reduced self-efficacy as possible mediators in the association between childhood abuse/neglect and participation in prostitution during young adulthood. The central research questions explored the association between childhood maltreatment and involvement in prostitution, as well as how self-concept and self-efficacy mediate the association between childhood maltreatment and engagement in prostitution in young adulthood. The Eco-developmental theory provided the theoretical framework for the study. Data consisted of 4,882 adolescents in Grades 7-12 in the United States during the 1994-1995 school year from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, 61 of whom self-reported activity in prostitution. Results from Pearson correlations and Structural Equation Models indicated a relationship between childhood maltreatment and prostitution during young adulthood; self-efficacy and self-concept did not mediate this relationship. Childhood abuse was not a significant predictor of self-efficacy and self-efficacy was not significantly related to prostitution. Childhood maltreatment was a significant, negative predictor of positive self-concept. By demonstrating that childhood maltreatment is linked to prostitution in young adulthood, this research can foster positive social change, by showing the value of creating intervention programs that target childhood abuse in order to reduce involvement in prostitution in young adulthood.

The current study examined the relationship between program fidelity, or adherence to the program model, and program outcomes using the Healthy Family America Program Model. Specifically, 103 program sites were evaluated based on their adherence to the program model. The outcome indices included the percentage of children with updated immunizations and the percentage of children with primary care physicians. First order correlations, multiple regression, and canonical correlation were used to analyze the data. The results of the study are mixed. Specifically, an overall index of fidelity is positively related the percentage of children with updated immunizations, but not to the percentage of children with primary care physicians. Additionally, only one of the 11 facets of fidelity was related to the percentage of children with updated immunizations. Both the implications for these findings and future avenues for research are discussed.

This dissertation explored changes in structure, governance, perception and practice within Florida's child welfare system over a ten-year period (2001-2011) inclusive of two concurrent, statewide reform efforts: the privatization of child welfare services and implementation of a Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration. Using an anthropological perspective and holistic approach, the child welfare system is presented as a type of meta-organizational culture inclusive of subsystems and subcultures which are all embedded in historical and socioeconomic context that involves alternations between child safety and family preservation approaches to care. Guided by a grounded theory approach to qualitative data analysis, content analysis of child welfare organization documents, child welfare stakeholder interview transcripts, community governance partner surveys, and observational field notes was performed. Findings are presented within a systems theory framework and include emphasis on (1) systems change as a nonlinear, evolving process that takes time to sustain real change, 2) externalities and emergencies, as well as response to crises as ever present influential factors impacting system change and the creation of shared meaning and perceptions of, 3) the challenges involved in aligning structural views on poverty with practice models that more often employ the idea that poverty is individual, 4) the merit of privatization for social services if the reform is designed to create a public private partnership inclusive of caring for all children and families in a community, and 5) the value of flexibility and variance in local system design in order to best match a community's needs and resources.

This ethnography explores the varied contours of a national health care system and how it is used in conjunction with traditional forms of health care in Toledo District, Belize, focused on the largest town of Punta Gorda (P.G.), In a medically plural environment, a variety of health care options are used based on a wide range of social, economic, and structural factors that shape people's choices and decisions. The convenience of and experience with low-cost home- and self-care options make these the most common first choice during an illness event in P.G., however a deeper exploration of health behavior reveals that people will exhaust all options in their quest for health. In an era when neoliberal trends have a direct effect on people's lives, including a negative impact on health and well-being, Belize stands out as an interesting case. The small Central American/Caribbean nation has taken actions that appear to be contradictory to broader neoliberal policies that encourage privatization of government services, by implementing a national health care system that provides low-cost and free health services to its citizens. While new health facilities have been opened, and health services have become more widely available throughout Belize, an analysis of how and why the health care system functions shows that such programs may actually function as mechanisms of control and surveillance, thus aligning with neoliberal aims such as decentralization and privatization of services. As it has been implemented in southern Belize, the national health care system also replicates and extends an historic trend of marginalization and neglect to the region, showing that from the perspective of the State, and by extension, the powerful and elite of the nation, the citizens of P.G. are seen as less deserving of the quality of health care services that are necessary to lead healthy and productive lives.

<p>There are many children in Sweden today, approximately 200 000, who have parents or a parent that abuses alcohol or other drugs. The aim of this study was to investigate how group leaders in support groups for children with addicted parents relate to this sort of support groups. What are their advantages and disadvantages, according to the group leaders?</p><p>The method used was qualitative and the empirical material was collected through group interviews. We have interviewed eight persons who are social workers and the interviews were carried out at three work places. The analysis of the material takes a survey of previous written literature as the point of departure. The theoretical framework was eclectic, combining a child perspective with a holistic approach to the situation of children with addicted parents. The interview material was interpreted with the help of hermeneutic theory. Furthermore, Antonovsky’s salutogenic theory, system theory and theory on social change have been used in the analysis.</p><p>The analysis shows that the group leaders’ position is that children that have parents or a parent, who abuse alcohol need support groups. The group leaders of support groups bring up that the most important thing for these children is to have other children that they can talk to and trust. However, it was clearly more difficult for the interviewees to discuss possible disadvantages. Drawing upon a holistic perspective, we argue that one disadvantage is how group leaders see children as individuals instead of seeing the family as a whole and the need to deal with the children’s main problem, their parents’ addiction. We also discuss the fact that it seems as if a case worker with overall responsibility rarely monitors the child’s situation. Drawing upon theories on social change we argue that although support groups may empower children to some extent, support groups cannot in themselves be regarded as a way of creating social change.</p>

<p>We came across the discussion about the so-called duty to report (14 kap 1 § SoL) and we found some previous research, showing that preschool teachers are hesitant to report, and that they want real evidence that children are being mistreated, even though the duty to report clearly states that they have to report as soon as they <em>suspect</em> that a child is being mistreated. Our purpose became to study what tendencies and conditions preschool teachers and principals, placed in the municipalities of Hässleholm and Kristianstad, have to fulfil their duty to report according to the social services act, when there is a well founded suspicion that a child is being mistreated.  We split the purpose into the following research questions:</p><p> </p><p> </p><ul><li> Do local guidelines about how preschool teachers should act when suspecting that a child is being mistreated exist, and are they being followed? To what degree does the staff has knowledge about these guidelines? </li><li>How do preschool teachers experience the treatment from colleagues, principals and social welfare officers when they´ve done or wanted to do a report? </li><li>How do preschool teachers experience the reactions of a report from custodians?</li></ul><p> </p><p>We did conversational interviews with two principals, one from the municipality of Hässleholm, and one from the municipality of Kristianstad. We also made focusgroup interviews with the staff, three persons each from one of their respective preschools. Our conclusion is that preschool teachers are unwilling to report mistreatment. They prefer to, together with the principal and other professional people in the municipality, attempt to solve the problems within the organization of the school. The teachers do not stand behind the report themselves, instead it´s the principal. Unless the principal, who´s not always around to see the children in first-hand, thinks that a report should be made, a report will not be done.  We also have seen that the view on reports is homogenous for all the staff within the same workgroup. The staff affects each other, thus creating a norm telling them how to act in situations concerning a mistreated child.</p><p><strong> </strong></p>

This research reviewed the neglect of cities in the mission work of the Reformed Churches in Southern Africa with a special reference to churches of Synod Soutpansberg. The biblical passage, Jeremiah 29:1-14 was used, as a representative of other biblical passages, to shed light on the role of cities in mission work of the church while addressing misconceptions and false theology about the cities and the role they played and still play in the mission work of the church. The same biblical message is confirmed by many missiology literature, including, "Cities, Missions' New Frontier" by R.S. Greenway and T.M. Monsma (1989); "City of God - City of Satan" by R.C. Linthicum(1991) and "Discipling the City" by R.S. Greenway (1992). The biblical message and the missiology literature mentioned above were the basis from which the neglect of the role of the cities in the history of the mission work of the Reformed Churches in Southern Africa was studied. From these basis, the causes, implementations and effects of such neglect in the mission work of the Soutpansberg churches was studied in Chapter 3. The empirical research was conducted using the interview questionnaire in Chapter 4. The empirical results and findings, which were presented in this research, can direct churches towards a remedy of the neglect of the cities in their mission work as far as the strategies is concerned. The neglect of the cities in the history of the mission work of the Reformed Churches in Southern Africa was studied with an aim that churches learn from it and hence avoid the past neglect in their present and future mission plans, strategies and programs. In other words, the lesson is important for churches to view the role of the secular cities as important instruments used by God to speed up not only the planting and growing big holy churches from those secular cities outwards, but also the biblical reformation of the rural - orientated theories, strategies and practice! / Thesis (M.A. (Theology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2008.

<p>The international concern about human rights, gender equality, domestic violence and the increase in the aging populations has brought elder abuse into the public focus. Elder abuse is a complex, multi-faceted health, social, criminal justice, international public health and human rights issue. The widely divergent and varying definitions is a controversial problem to understanding elder abuse. The elderly have been excluded from national gender-based programs on domestic violence and the abuse of women and children. In South Africa victims of elder abuse are often physically and or cognitively unable to speak for themselves which necessitates that the public be empowered and trained to become advocates for the aged. Lachs &amp / Pillemer ( 2004 : 1265 ) states that &ldquo / the physical and psychological impairement of elder persons could be predisposing factors for elder abuse &ldquo / . Statistical evidence on the incidence and prevalence rates of elder abuse is lacking as elderly persons are reluctant to identify care givers for fear of abandonment, retaliation and being left destitute ( Lachs &amp / Pillemer, 2004 : 1265 ). Despite the Bill of Rights as set out in the South African Constitution and the Older Persons Act, No. 13 of 2006 which was developed to deal with the empowerment and protection of elder persons and promote and maintain their status, rights, safety, security and well being the abuse of elder person continues to occur ( Older Persons Act, No. 13 of 2006 ). This qualitative research study is allied with the phenomenological approach in an attempt to understand elder person&rsquo / s perception, viewpoints and perspectives from their lived experiences and personal lives. Three (3) focus group discussions and eighteen (18) one-on-one interviews were conducted with elder persons living in the suburbs of Cape Town. Data from participants were audio-taped, transcribed verbatim before an inductive analysis lead to the emergence of broad themes and patterns. The main findings of the research study concluded that elderly persons were informed but not empowered about financial, emotional and verbal abuse. The abuse of the elder person in old age homes also featured prominently. The findings of the research study can be used to provide education and empower elder persons and the general public on specific aspects related to elder abuse which are : Financial, Emotional, Verbal and the abuse by staff at old age homes. These findings could be utilized by health and social welfare advocates and organisations who offer community educational and development programs to advocate against elder abuse.</p>