<p> The growing trend for housing individuals who are developmentally disabled has been focused on community based housing; giving them an opportunity to live a less restricted lifestyle. With this shift of care, families who take on caregiving roles deal with insurmountable issues because of limited support and lack of services. Caregivers are faced with challenges such as impulsive behaviors, daily caregiving duties, and concerns about the future. These in turn take a toll on their physical and mental health. The purpose of this project was to develop a curriculum for current and future family caregivers; with the aim of helping them to empower themselves and care recipients, to ultimately reduce barriers of communication within families, to address caregiving concerns, and to provide peer support throughout the curriculum. This curriculum includes three modules that educate caregivers about planning for the future, legal concerns, and community resources.</p>

<p> Child welfare workers are required to practice cultural competency when working with families, in order to appreciate how their values and traditions affects child welfare workers assisting families. Cultural competency does not take into account the personal experiences of the families in the child welfare system nor does it allow the child welfare worker to accept that he may not have all the resources needed due to a lack of cultural understanding. This curriculum will utilize the concept of cultural humility to bring awareness of how the personal experiences and cultural values of the families in the child welfare system can assist in assessment and establishment of positive relationships of Latino families. The curriculum will discuss the differences between cultural competency and cultural humility, Latino values and parenting practice, and will include case studies and role-playing scenarios to practice the concepts learned.</p>

<p> The plight of foster youth having low graduation scores compared to their peers is a prevalent problem depicted in research for years. Statistics show foster youth as being an at risk-group for completing high school education and leading them to a lower quality of life once emancipated from the foster care system. Foster youth face incarceration, unemployment, lower wages, homelessness and substance abuse once adults, and there is a need for the strengthening of educational achievement in this at-risk population. The need for social workers&rsquo; to collaborate with school personnel is a necessary preventative measure to increase the quality of life with foster youth. </p>

This study measured the effectiveness of an international social work course in increasing MSW students’ understanding of global interconnectedness and cultural competence utilizing an exploratory quantitative research design. Data were collected from twelve participants from a social work school in the west coast who completed a survey prior to beginning the course and again after completing the course. The study found that participants had an increase in both cultural competency and global interconnectedness after the course. The results of this study correlate with the limited literature available on the topic of international social work and supports the expansion of study abroad experiences for social work students structured in the manner of the international social work course studied.

Anti-fat bias and the resulting discriminatory behavior is widely documented and impacts almost every aspect of an obese person’s life, including healthcare/insurance, education, employment, interpersonal relationships, and protection under the law. This has serious psychological, social, physical health, and economic consequences for the obese person. The non-social work related literature provides an abundance of evidence that when obese people seek assistance from a helping professional, they are met with the same anti-fat bias and discrimination present in other areas of their lives. Recognizing that anti-fat bias can lead to negative practice behaviors with obese patients and clients, many professional education programs have implemented curriculum modules and trainings focused on bias reduction. Unfortunately, there is little evidence regarding the existence of anti-fat bias among social work professionals and no evidence regarding whether social work education is including obesity and related issues in its curriculum. Utilizing the Anti-fat Attitudes Test (AFAT), the Universal Measure of Bias-FAT (UMB-FAT), and researcher created inventories, this study surveyed 129 social work educators in Appalachia to explore whether they have an anti-fat bias, if they include issues related to fat in their courses, and if so, is curriculum inclusion adhering to the dominant biomedical discourse or taking a social justice oriented approach. Findings suggest that social work educators in Appalachia hold mostly positive attitudes toward fat individuals and when negative attitudes are present they are related to physical attractiveness and romantic attraction. The data also suggest that social work educators from the southern region of Appalachia hold more anti-fat bias than educators from other regions. The study indicates that social work educators feel that obesity and related issues are worthy of attention from the profession, but they are less convinced that they should be addressing the topic(s) in the courses they teach. Social work educators who do include obesity in their courses tend to focus on exposing students to foundational social justice knowledge and how to recognize oppression and discrimination but they do not prepare them to provide services for and advocate for obese clients. Regional differences in curriculum topics are discussed. Results from the study have important implications for professional social work education. Limitations of the study and areas for further research are considered.

South Africa is currently facing a severe shortage of trained and competent social workers. Case loads have reached proportions of such magnitude that social workers in the field are battling to meet the needs of the people they serve, while still maintaining high ethical and professional standards. The impact of HIV/AIDS on the field of social work has currently redirected a major part of the focus of the profession on meeting the needs of child-headed households, to find and train foster parents for these children and generally to assist the poorest of the poor to access various grants applicable to their circumstances. This redirection appears also to have changed the emphasis regarding social work training requirements. Whereas in the past the newly qualified social worker was able to acquire additional skills in the workplace, under the guidance of experienced social workers, today it would seem that the demands of the work place are such that the social worker needs to take on significant responsibilities on entering the field. At the same time the Department of Social Services in South Africa is encouraging universities to increase the intake of social work students, in an attempt to meet this rising need for personnel trained to meet the current requirements of the clients of social work services. This exploratory research will focus on the applicability of UNISA (University of South Africa) social work training to these current requirements of social work by tapping into three different frames of reference: 1) The experiences and perceptions of the final year social work student in their placement setting, and particularly on whether they have felt their UNISA training equipped them for the work they are required to do. 2) The way the UNISA student is perceived by the practice setting personnel (contact person), and whether they meet the requirements of the field setting. 3) Input from the UNISA appointed supervisors responsible for the final year social work students' professional development in the field.The person-centred approach and the developmental approach have been briefly discussed in relation to social work in South Africa in the literature review and form the backdrop to this research, guiding the researcher in the exploration of the perceptions of the three different types of respondents. Post-modern theory is also at the root of the researcher's attempt to find fit between the different perceptions and the implications for social work training at a distance learning institute in South Africa today. / Social Work / M. A. (Mental Health)

South Africa is currently facing a severe shortage of trained and competent social workers. Case loads have reached proportions of such magnitude that social workers in the field are battling to meet the needs of the people they serve, while still maintaining high ethical and professional standards. The impact of HIV/AIDS on the field of social work has currently redirected a major part of the focus of the profession on meeting the needs of child-headed households, to find and train foster parents for these children and generally to assist the poorest of the poor to access various grants applicable to their circumstances. This redirection appears also to have changed the emphasis regarding social work training requirements. Whereas in the past the newly qualified social worker was able to acquire additional skills in the workplace, under the guidance of experienced social workers, today it would seem that the demands of the work place are such that the social worker needs to take on significant responsibilities on entering the field. At the same time the Department of Social Services in South Africa is encouraging universities to increase the intake of social work students, in an attempt to meet this rising need for personnel trained to meet the current requirements of the clients of social work services. This exploratory research will focus on the applicability of UNISA (University of South Africa) social work training to these current requirements of social work by tapping into three different frames of reference: 1) The experiences and perceptions of the final year social work student in their placement setting, and particularly on whether they have felt their UNISA training equipped them for the work they are required to do. 2) The way the UNISA student is perceived by the practice setting personnel (contact person), and whether they meet the requirements of the field setting. 3) Input from the UNISA appointed supervisors responsible for the final year social work students' professional development in the field.The person-centred approach and the developmental approach have been briefly discussed in relation to social work in South Africa in the literature review and form the backdrop to this research, guiding the researcher in the exploration of the perceptions of the three different types of respondents. Post-modern theory is also at the root of the researcher's attempt to find fit between the different perceptions and the implications for social work training at a distance learning institute in South Africa today. / Social Work / M. A. (Mental Health)