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Social work's conceptualization as to what it is that entitles an individual or entity to moral consideration, or as having moral status, is thoroughly anthropocentric, and is articulated in complete disregard of the context of our fundamental evolutionary continuity and our embeddedness within an evolving natural world, and flies in the face of the reality that we already inhabit mixed communities and a wider household. It is deemed to be obvious that we are islands of moral value in an otherwise valueless natural world.

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-127)

Over the past 20 years researchers and health care practitioners have come to realize in addition to high prevalence rates, individuals with co-occurring disorders did not represent a homogeneous group (Drake, et al., 1998: 2001; Lehman, et al., 1994: 2000; Mueser, et al., 2000). It is essential to consider the heterogeneity of co-occurring disorders when considering new treatment modalities. Thus, it becomes pivotal to identify these differences for treatment approaches and program goals. Research shows that heterogeneity of treatment populations can be reduced through empirically-derived homogeneous groups based on multivariate analysis (Ries, et al., 1993; Lehman et al., 2000; Mueser, et al., 2000). The purpose of the current study was to address a significant void in knowledge on the heterogeneity of co-occurring disorders by determining if homogeneous subgroups exist within an outpatient population presenting for treatment and if so how many groups exist and what makes up group membership. Identification of subgroups can provide a mechanism to better understand the interrelationships between determinants that contribute to the etiology and problem severity at an individual and group level. Secondly, in an effort to improve service delivery, empirically-derived subgroups hold important clinical implications for treatment models. The exploratory research was conducted through a retrospective analysis seeking a parsimonious model of subgroups made up of individuals with co-occurring disorders entering an outpatient program using a latent class analysis (LCA). The best fitting statistical model in the latent class analysis was one in which the overall sample was composed of three (3) subgroups. The three-class model that included alcohol use, illegal drug use, education level and serious depression was identified as best fitting the data.

Late-life depression is a significant public and geriatric mental health concern and one of the most prevalent and common emotional disorders for all older United States citizens. This study examined how relationships with close friends and close relatives affected depressive symptomatology among African American and White older adults and explored how health, social and religious factors modified that relationship. The sample consisted of participants from the New Haven, CT cohort of the population-based longitudinal study, The National Institute on Aging project entitled “The Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly” [EPESE]. Respondents were ages 65-75 and older (mean age = 72.3), of which approximately 82% were White and other Non-African American, 19% all African American and 2.2% other than White (N = 2,812). A linear multiple hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to test the association between the severity of depressive symptoms (Radloff, 1977; Engel and Schutt, 2005), close friendships and close relatives for community-dwelling older adults while controlling for demographic, health, social support and religious covariates. Data were analyzed using SPSS 16 for Windows with an assigned significance level of p = .05 (two-tailed). The results of the analysis of the correlation coefficients, (ΔR² of .002, F (2, 2324) = 3.185, p = .042) suggested our hypothesis to be true in that the relationship between social support and depression depended upon race. However, we specified that the relationship between social support provided by family and friends would each be stronger for African Americans than Whites. Contrary to this, outcomes indicated the relationship provided by family members to be the same for both races while the relationship provided by friends to be stronger for Whites. These findings are substantial in fulfilling the request for evidence-based empirical research. Increased scientific research is needed in comprehending how specific social support and health-related factors might impact depressive symptomatology particularly among large samples of African American and White older adults.