Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Louisville, 2009. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Kentucky, 2009. / Kent School of Social Work, University of Louisville. College of Social Work, University of Kentucky. Vita. "December 2009." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-124).

<p> The purpose of this project was to locate a potential funding source and write a grant to increase the positive educational outcomes of unaccompanied minors entering the school system as English Language Learners. This proposed program addresses the scarcity of resources for these students, proposing a comprehensive program that will address the distinctive needs of this vulnerable population. The goal of this project is to implement a program that will provide the tools needed to help improve the educational attainment of unaccompanied minors through the provision of mental health services, employment opportunities, mentorship, and linkages to community resources. </p><p> As the number of Mexican and Central American unaccompanied minors entering United States schools increases, it is important to provide supportive services that will help ameliorate the various stressors faced by this population. The W.M. Keck Foundation was selected to fund a comprehensive program to provide services to unaccompanied minors enrolled at James Monroe High School through the Child and Family Guidance Center in the San Fernando Valley. The proposed program will employ a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a BA Employment Specialist and recruit two social work interns to carry out this program in efforts to improve the academic outcomes of these students.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this project is to design a program, identify potential funding sources and write a grant to fund a mentoring-dropout prevention program. The mentoring-dropout prevention program targets Cambodian youth residing in the city of Long Beach, California. An extensive literature review increased awareness of the acculturative and psychosocial challenges that affect Cambodian youth and specific issues impacting the Cambodian community. Relevant theories and best practices among mentoring programs are also used to guide the planning of the proposed mentoring program. Next, a search for potential funding sources was conducted using various methods including Internet searches, grant databases and consultations with professional grant writers. The Ford Foundation was selected as the best funding source for this project. A grant proposal was then written to support the need for a culturally sensitive mentoring-dropout prevention program targeting Cambodian youth.</p><p>

In 2009, the Government introduced measures to improve social work training and practice in response to having analysed findings from Serious Case Reviews in the aftermath of a series of child deaths. One of the most significant of these improvements was the introduction of a new training framework, entitled the ‘Professional Capabilities Framework’ (The College of Social Work, 2012d). Emotional resilience was, for the first time, identified as a required capability within the ‘Professionalism’ domain of the framework. The aim of this research was to identify what emotional resilience was in the context of social work practice in order to meet the requirements of the Professional Capabilities Framework, thus addressing the Government’s new directives for improved social work education and training. A research study was undertaken to collect data relating to emotional resilience within a social work context involving ten focus groups of between 3-5 participants. The participants were chosen because of their experience in relation to emotional resilience and social work, either through being employed, studying or working in partnership with the University of Derby. The groups comprised, social work team managers, newly qualified and experienced Social Workers, practice educators, lecturers, social work students from all three years of the Social Work Degree Programme and service users and carers. All of the focus group discussions were audio-taped, transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. The study produced a definition of emotional resilience specifically for Social Workers which identified core traits of optimism, self-awareness, empathy and stability as well as the ability to remain calm and demonstrate appropriate empathy. The necessity for Social Workers to be emotionally resilient was confirmed, and causal factors in the development of emotional resilience such as adversity in life, reflective supervision and a supportive working environment, were highlighted. Valuable information was also obtained about how students might be educated and trained to become emotionally resilient professionals, in order to meet the requirements of the Professional Capabilities Framework. The findings indicated that challenging role plays, self-awareness activities, preparation for practice modules, the use of explicit case studies, reflective supervision and statutory placements, were all effective mediums for promoting emotional resilience. Keywords: emotional resilience, Professional Capabilities Framework, social work education and training, social work curriculum.

M.A. (Social Work) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.A. (Social Work) / The workplace, as an arena for social work practice, demands a paradigm of service delivery, addressing needs on both a micro and macro level. The social worker is in the ideal position to facilitate organization development by addressing individual and environmental issues. Social workers are however trained in generic social work practice and therefore do not necessarily posses the required skills to work on a macro level Within the workplace. A training programme to train social workers in organization development therefore needed to be developed. During the literature study it was found that the ecological perspective provides a useful theoretical framework when bringing about organizational development in social work practice. Due to the dual focus. on the person and environment, the ecological perspective as discussed in chapter two, serves as the basis for a programme in organizational development. An overview of organization development, as intervention strategy, is given in chapter three. The functions, characteristics and underlying values are discussed, and the development process is positioned within the ecological perspective. The final chapter of the literature study focuses on an organization development programme, suitable for the social work practitioner within the workplace. The training model is described in chapter five and chapter six offers an overview of the research methodology used. An integrated developmental research model serves as methodology whereby this research is conducted. The training model is designed and a pilot test conducted to determine the social worker's attitude towards this intervention strategy in organizational development. The analysis of research data (See chapter 7) obtained from administering the questionnaires showed that social workers (westem Province Command, South African National Defence Force) found in-service training for social workers practising within the workplace as a necessity. Proper contextualisation of individual problems is essential to address issues on macro level. The final chapter deals with specific conclusions and recommendations regarding in-service training of social workers wtthtn the workplace. The value of a macro orientation to social work practice inthe workplace was found necessary for effective service delivery.

M.A. / In social work, the focus is on the care for others, but the issue of self-care is neglected. There is no internship requirements for students to learn about selfcare and the consequences that a lack of self-care behaviours will have on them personally and professionally. This research study had the dual purpose of teaching social work honours students Autogenic Training (AT) as a practical method of self-care and to measure and evaluate the personal and professional value of AT for them. Autogenic training is a deep relaxation technique with an autonomic and cognitive focus, and formed the basis of the self-care programme that was presented in 10 weekly sessions. An availability sample was used, and a combined quantitativequalitative approach adopted, by using a pre-test post-test group design. A validated self-report instrument was used to measure the impact on somatic, behavioural and cognitive anxiety symptoms, while a phenomenological enquiry was used to evaluate the personal meanings and experiences of the students as a result of engaging with this programme. The high drop-out rate reflected poorly on the overall results of the self-report instrument, however, the programme proved to be a successful psychosocial intervention, as it impacted positively on the students’ physical and emotional awareness, the awareness of the impact of their past and current traumatic stresses on their physical, mental and emotional functioning, and an awareness of self-care needs. They also learned and mastered an effective stress management skill, and participation in the group was valued by the students for the emotional support it provided to help them cope with their current stresses more effectively. An experiential self-care programme could be a beneficial component of the curriculum. Future research should involve such studies as part of the curriculum to allow sufficiently sized samples and prevent the high drop-out rate.

M.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This study was undertaken as a first step in measuring effectiveness of the Oregon State Public Welfare Orientation Center program in teaching principles of the casework relationship as conceptualized by Felix P. Biestek. This anticipated the development of a reasonably reliable instrument, improvement and validation of which would be undertaken in a subsequent study. The population tested was made up of male and female college graduates, newly hired by the State, who were then entering a four week orientation program for caseworkers. Their education and experience varied, but all had passed the State Civil Service examination for this position. Learning was tested on concepts of purposeful expression of feelings, controlled emotional involvement, acceptance, individualization, .non-judgmental attitude, client self-determination, and confidentiality. From constructed test questions, two tests were formulated and administered in a pretest. Following evaluation of the pretest, the questions were revised and used for two versions of the test which were administered to two orientation classes before and after training. Internal and inter-test reliability, item analysis, and sensitivity were determined for the instrument. Pre-training and post-training differences within and between groups were estimated statistically. Statistical analysis of the data indicated that the tests were moderately reliable both internally and with each other. The testing instruments were able to discriminate between before and after scores. There was significant learning in that scores were higher after completion of the training session beyond chance.

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