Abraham Lurie

Disabled Women Sexually Abused in Childhood: Treatment Considerations

There is a dearth of literature addressing the issues presented in the treatment of adult disabled women who were victims of childhood sexual abuse. This article focuses on the pertinent issues involved in clinically treating this population, such as the meaning of the traumatic event of sexual abuse for the individual, the disability and how it may have impacted her in terms of dependence, body integrity, and sexuality. Coping strategies and case examples are presented and possible countertransferential reactions are examined.

Prevention principles for practitioners: a solution or an illusion?

SUMMARY The social work profession has sought to eliminate, or at the very least, ameliorate those social ills that were believed to contribute to severe social and personal dysfunction. Prevention programs have been a primary factor in this endeavor. Prevention programs have addressed a vast array of difficulties including adolescent suicide, youth violence, teenage pregnancy, home visiting programs for families at high-risk for neglect and abuse as well as out-of-home placement. This paper addresses the concept of prevention and incorporates the notion of resilience in eight (8) prevention practice principles. Case examples are provided as well as a discussion for future directions for prevention in the field of social work.

Queens Field Instruction Center: A Field Instruction Center for Multilevel Education in Social Work.

Abstract This paper will describe the organization and educational program for undergraduate and graduate social work students in the Queens Field Instruction Center, an administrative unit that provides a closer working relationship between schools of social work and social agencies on all levels. The centers structure and program allow for the concurrent and integrated placement of social work students. Research opportunities are offered to identify and conceptualize the outcome and learning experience for each level. The field instruction program offers further research possibilities in examining whether multimethod training provides students with skills equal to those receiving single-method training.

Humor, Aging, and Life Review: Survival Through the Use of Humor

Humor has been shown to assist in the process of aging, particularly in improving health, reducing stress, and improving psychological well-being. This article addresses the tasks of aging, or what Erickson (1963) terms, “the end stage of life,” through the lens of humor. These issues include: identity, self-esteem, heritage and culture, mortality, loss, and self-worth.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Humor and the Challenges of Aging

Humor, a universal language that transcends generations and cultures, helps people navigate through every stage of life. While humor benefits all people, it brings special benefits as we age. As people are living longer, these benefits gain in importance. In 1900 the average life expectancy in the United States was 49. It is now 77.9 and rising. In the next decade, the baby boomers, who make up a quarter of the population, will be turning 65. Although lives have been extended by medical science, improved nutrition, eradication of diseases and other advances, the ability to improve the quality of these longer lives has not kept up. As people age physical and psychological challenges mount. They are faced with failing health, loss of friends and relatives, loss of meaningful work, the need to move, perhaps to a nursing home, giving up autonomy and becoming increasingly dependent, changes that are often traumatic and challenge the maintenance of self-worth and individuality. For people of all ages, humor and laughter provide more than just fun; they are also good medicine and good therapy. The Greeks knew it. Shakespeare knew it. Freud knew it. And now medical and social science researchers know it. The current interest in humor and its connection to illness was triggered in the 1970s by the breakthrough work of Norman Cousins, a magazine editor, who suffered from an autoimmune disease (1979). Cousins reasoned that if stress could worsen his condition, then its opposite, humor, could improve it. So he prescribed a course of treatment for himself consisting of watching humorous television shows and videos, and ultimately his disease went into remission.

A New Look at Home Care and the Hospital Social Worker

Clinical, administrative and social action reasons for expanding social work services in hospital based home care programs are persuasive. Hospital departments of social work should consider carefully how they may expand services in home care and coordinate and integrate such activities with social work and discharge planning processes occurring throughout the hospital. It is necessary for social work leadership to be present on professional advisory, quality assurance and similar committees and to use these committees as arenas for expanding the social work role in home care.

The Medical Center's Impact in the Network to Sustain the Aged in the Community

A process is described to show how a Social Work Department of a Medical Center ascertained the need to offer a continuum of comprehensive services to a high risk elderly population. This includes aiding and participating with the board and administration of the Medical Center to develop a varied network of services programs. A community based program model is used to show the utilization of individual and group modalities in working with this age population. Clinical material is incorporated to emphasize that aging clients are accessible for psychosocial interventions and can utilize their ego strengths through group living and group counseling. Experiences will highlight that behavioral changes can be brought about through a reintegration of social, emotional, and environmental forces.

Coordination of Services to Methadone Mothers and Their Addicted Newborns

Maternity social workers and workers in hospital methadone clinics often experience conflict about reporting child abuse and neglect. This article discusses how earlier and more aggressive reporting of child abuse and neglect can be accomplished if methadone clinics are integrated into social work departments of hospitals and include social workers on their staffs.