<p> The purpose of this project was to write a grant proposal seeking funds for a program that utilizes service dogs as a supplementary intervention for veterans diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The literature review addressed the prevalence of PTSD in the United States and among our veterans. In addition, PTSD challenges, risk factors, and direct consequences were explored. Pet therapy, service animals, and animal companionship were researched and reviewed to further analyze the effectiveness of their support with humans. </p><p> The service dog program will be implemented at The Veterans Affair (VA) Health Care System in Long Beach, California. The program seeks to provide additional support to veterans who are utilizing mental health services at the VA. The intervention is projected to have the following outcomes, decreased PTSD symptoms, increased community integration, and decreased feelings of suicidal ideation. The actual submission and/or funding of this grant were not a requirement for the successful completion of this project.</p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to write a grant proposal to create, implement, and test the effectiveness of an innovative support and psycho-educational group program for adult survivors of childhood maltreatment. This pilot program is geared to alleviate trauma related symptoms that impair their ability to be successful members of society. Adult survivors of childhood abuse and neglect are often times undetected and not considered as obvious targets for prevention and intervention programs. For this reason, this pilot program was named Interventional Strategies for Imperceptible Survivors of Childhood Maltreatment (ISISMA) to recap their increased need for mental health services and the need to strategize concurrent and comprehensive prevention and treatment approaches. </p><p> To address the gap in services and budgetary limitations, this pilot program was delineated to provide services in a group-community setting. It is tailored to mitigate their unique needs and challenges of this marginalized population living in Anaheim and surrounding areas. This pilot program is expected to be an innovative platform for planning, expansion, and implementation of other replicated support and psycho-educational group programs.</p>

<p> Auditory hallucinations or hearing voices is one symptom that individuals with schizophrenia may experience. Although the majority of people with schizophrenia may hear voices, the vast majority of voice hearers do not have schizophrenia. </p><p> This study interviewed 15 voice hearers residing in and around Long Beach, California. Each voice hearer participated in an in-depth interview to explore how they perceive their voices and to gather voice hearers' recommendations for mental health professionals.</p><p> The present study found that many voice hearers expressed a desire for mental health professionals and social workers just to "listen" to them without asserting opinions and judgment. This study also discusses social stigma as a treatment barrier to individuals who hear voices. The findings in this study suggest that more education on voice hearing is needed within the field of social work and mental health.</p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to develop a program that would deliver 3 years of mental health services to a charter school. The school selected for this project was Youth Opportunities High School (YOHS) in Watts, California. The program developed was Mental Health for Youth Opportunities (MHYO). MHYO was designed to provide one full-time, bilingual, master of social work (MSW) practitioner to YOHS for 3 years. The assigned practitioner will be responsible for individual therapy, group therapy, case management, and enrichment services. The actual submission and/or funding of this grant were not a requirement for the successful completion of this project.</p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to design a 2-year program aimed at addressing the mental health needs of veterans transitioning from deployments in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom to civilian life. The program will address prodromal symptoms of psychosis. With the prevalence of psychotic features in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the veteran population is particularly at risk. The program will offer individual and group therapies to assist in symptom management and will utilize case management supportive services to assist in addressing additional needs that the participants may have that hinder help seeking activities, such as housing and substance abuse referrals. The National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health was selected as the funding source for this grant. The actual submission and/or funding of this grant were not a requirement for the successful completion of this project.</p>

<p>The purpose of this project was to locate a potential funding source and write a grant to develop a school mental health program. An extensive literature review was performed to investigate the best way to provide culturally competent services to children and families. A search was conducted to locate an appropriate funder for a school mental health program that will attempt to close the gap between student mental health needs in Catholic schools. The program will employ a staff who will provide case management, individual and group mental health services to students and families in a low-income Catholic school in the city of Santa Ana, California. The goal of the proposed program will be to develop and implement preventive approaches to improve the students' mental health, academic achievement and social competence. Actual submission and/or funding of the grant proposal was not required for successful completion of this project. </p>

<p> Research on homelessness has tended to be divided theoretically between looking at personal pathology and emphasizing structural forces, but both have focused on street and shelter life. While there is a growing consensus in Anthropology that research should place homelessness within structural context, homelessness continues to be framed within the discourse of medicalization. This discourse continues into supportive housing programs for the formerly homeless, an area that has not yet been focused on much in research.</p><p> Based on ethnographic research conducted at Lamp Community in Los Angeles, California this thesis examines the continuity of struggle and vulnerability that continues even once the homeless are placed in supportive housing. It explores how this vulnerability has structural origins and how various levels of subjective and objective violence play out in the course of people's lives to maintain that vulnerability. By reuniting the issues of extreme poverty and homelessness, current measures to address homelessness are called into question.</p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to locate a potential funding source and write a grant for the funding of a program for significant others of sexual violence victims. Based on the literature review, individuals who interact with primary victims may be impacted by the sexual violence experience, making them secondary victims. A psychoeducational group will be developed to meet the needs of secondary trauma victims. This group will take place at Peace Over Violence, in Los Angeles, California. The selected funding source for this project will be the Marisla Foundation which takes a special interest in human services programs.</p><p> The project goals include networking with community organizations, engaging families or significant others who are experiencing challenges related to the sexual violence experience, and to reduce secondary trauma symptoms among secondary trauma victims. Actual submission and/or funding of the grant proposal was not required for successful completion of this project.</p>

<p> Coordinating care is of particular concern in Alaska due to expansive geography, difficulty of travel, and often limited behavioral health care resources. This study explored how individual, organizational, and systemic factors influence clinicians' use of video teleconferencing to conduct "live" discharge plans from urban psychiatric facilities to rural communities. </p><p> Semi-structured key informant interviews were conducted, in person and by telephone, with urban clinical staff (n = 10), urban administrative staff (<i>n</i> = 6), and rural outpatient staff (<i>n</i> = 14). Two researchers analyzed the transcribed interviews in a recursive manner using a grounded theory methodology. </p><p> Participants described infrequent, but generally positive experiences with live discharge planning: connecting patients to providers, temporarily joining treatment teams, evaluating patients for appropriate placement, engaging patients in their own care, addressing medication issues, and coordinating with family and village resources. Providers recommended hiring interns or dedicated staff, installing equipment "on unit," or using wireless tablets. Rural participants ascribed a greater value to emergency psychiatric consultations at admissions than coordination at discharge. </p><p> Continued selective use of live discharge plans is indicated with patient length of stay being an important consideration in determining feasibility. Future implementation should involve dedicated resources and use video teleconferencing to formally enhance other transitional services. Once issues of organizational readiness are addressed, a Knowledge-Attitudes-Behavior framework may be useful for managing providers' underuse. Future research could evaluate rural, village-based intensive case management supported by consultation with the psychiatric hospital via video teleconferencing.</p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to locate a potential funding source and write a grant to provide home-based mental health services to Latino older adults for Beach Cities Health District, in Redondo Beach, California, the host agency for this program. An extensive literature review was conducted to investigate the best way to provide non-traditional therapeutic services to older adults. The Archstone Foundation was chosen as the most appropriate funding source. </p><p> The population of Latino older adults is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. Many in this population suffer from depression but fail to access services due to language barriers and other obstacles. This program was developed to improve knowledge of depression and improve coping skills, as well as reduce symptoms of depression. </p><p> If funded, this program could provide social workers an opportunity to bridge the gap the need for and the receipt of mental health services among older Latinos. Submission of the grant was not a requirement for the thesis project.</p>