Alexa Smith-Osborne

A systematic review of effectiveness of complementary and adjunct therapies and interventions involving equines.

OBJECTIVE This systematic review examines the empirical literature in an emerging body of evidence for the effectiveness of biopsychosocial interventions involving equines across populations with chronic illness or health challenges. METHOD Selected quantitative studies published in peer-reviewed journals were reviewed for inclusion; the gray literature and white papers were also explored. Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome (PICO) criteria and Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) were applied to all studies. Fourteen full reports meeting a priori inclusion criteria were extracted from 103 studies accessed through 16 electronic databases and a hand search. Data were synthesized in relation to three research questions informing evidence-based practice. RESULTS No randomized clinical trials were located. Two studies provided a moderate level of evidence for effectiveness. Nine studies demonstrated statistically significant positive effects. Three studies did not find significant psychosocial effects for the target group, although one found significant positive effects for the comparison group. CONCLUSION In the aggregate, the evidence is promising in support of the effectiveness of complementary and adjunct interventions employing equines in the treatment of health challenges. Future studies are needed that utilize rigorous and creative designs, especially longitudinal studies and comparisons with established effective treatments.

Assessing Resilience: A Review of Measures across the Life Course

Through this systematic review the authors analyze scales used to measure resilience in individuals across the life course. The scales were obtained according to a priori inclusion criteria through searches using electronic databases, cited references, and requests to human services researchers currently engaged in research utilizing a resiliency theory framework. Eleven measurement tools meeting study inclusion criteria were located within the existing literature. Currently validated instruments measure specific populations and vary in length and format. The need for an analytical approach to measuring resilience is long overdue. This assessment is intended to aid social work practitioners working with populations that have faced adversity.

Mental health risk and social ecological variables associated with educational attainment for gulf war veterans: implications for veterans returning to civilian life.

This study examines how post-secondary educational attainment among young veterans of the first gulf war affects their mental health status. The all-volunteer military attracts recruits by offering them veterans’ educational benefits. Education should help veterans adjust to civilian life. Few studies have shown whether education following military service helps improve veterans’ mental health, however. Viewing resiliency, life span and life course, and social geography theories through the lens of social ecology, it is hypothesized that selected contextual factors in the personal, interpersonal, and organizational domains could mediate or moderate the relationship between education and veterans’ mental health. Informational social networks showed an association with obtaining mental illness treatment. Recent treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) showed an association with use of veterans’ educational benefits. Residing with a small nuclear family in conjunction with having higher levels of health and educational benefits and a higher family income was associated with higher educational attainment.

Prefrontal responses to digit span memory phases in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): A functional near infrared spectroscopy study

Neuroimaging studies of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-related memory impairments have consistently implicated abnormal activities in the frontal and parietal lobes. However, most studies have used block designs and could not dissociate the multiple phases of working memory. In this study, the involvement of the prefrontal cortex in working memory phases was assessed among veterans with PTSD and age-/gender-matched healthy controls. Multichannel functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was utilized to measure prefrontal cortex hemodynamic activations during memory of neutral (i.e., not trauma-related) forward and backward digit span tasks. An event-related experimental design was utilized to dissociate the different phases (i.e., encoding, maintenance and retrieval) of working memory. The healthy controls showed robust hemodynamic activations during the encoding and retrieval processes. In contrast, the veterans with PTSD were found to have activations during the encoding process, but followed by distinct deactivations during the retrieval process. The PTSD participants, but not the controls, appeared to suppress prefrontal activity during memory retrieval. This deactivation was more pronounced in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during the retrieval phase. These deactivations in PTSD patients might implicate an active inhibition of dorsolateral prefrontal neural activity during retrieval of working memory.

The Place of Political Diversity within the Social Work Classroom

This article examines political ideology and its implications as a newer diversity variable within social work education. Responding to internal assessments and external critiques of social work education, the dynamics of how diverse political ideologies might manifest in 5 core course concentrations—human behavior in the social environment, research, practice, field education, and policy—are highlighted. The authors offer a series of critical questions, a typology for addressing political ideology, and a set of educational guidelines to assist educators, administrators, and students as they grapple with attending to political diversity in a variety of social work classrooms.

Increasing Marital Satisfaction as a Resilience Factor Among Active Duty Members and Veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)

Supportive relationships are protective against a number of prevalent health risks among military populations, including post-traumatic stress disorder. Increasing marital satisfaction and strengthening that relationship is an important avenue for maintaining health among returning service members and their families. The current study builds upon two earlier studies that were limited to National Guard personnel from one state. An exploratory survey was employed to identify variables that influenced marital satisfaction among Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom veterans. Using regression analysis, the statistically significant predictive model included five variables. In addition to the identification of this predictive model, other variables found to be non-predictive are reported.

Veterans' Informal Caregivers in the "Sandwich Generation": A Systematic Review Toward a Resilience Model

Social work theory advanced the formulation of the construct of the sandwich generation to apply to the emerging generational cohort of caregivers, most often middle-aged women, who were caring for maturing children and aging parents simultaneously. This systematic review extends that focus by synthesizing the literature on sandwich generation caregivers for the general aging population with dementia and for veterans with dementia and polytrauma. It develops potential protective mechanisms based on empirical literature to support an intervention resilience model for social work practitioners. This theoretical model addresses adaptive coping of sandwich- generation families facing ongoing challenges related to caregiving demands.

An Intensive Continuing Education Initiative to Train Social Workers for Military Social Work Practice

Specific standards exist for social work practice with service members, military families, and veterans, whether in civilian or military practice settings. Based on these standards, a continuing education certificate for practitioners was designed with companion military social work coursework in the advanced graduate curriculum and field instruction training modules in the undergraduate and graduate programs. This study examined outcomes for 268 participants in the certificate program using a quasi-experimental posttest-only design. The majority demonstrated mastery of advanced practice knowledge and behaviors in each required content area and in the overall certificate program requirements. Findings suggest that implementation of a large-scale, standard-adherent, and self-supporting military social work certificate is feasible and can support sustained evidence-based practice with military populations.

Perceived Influence of Adoption of Personal Electronic Response Systems by Students With and Without Disabilities and Limited English Proficiency in Small Social Work Classes

This study investigates the perceived influence of adoption of personal electronic response systems (clickers) on undergraduate and graduate social work education by students with and without disabilities and limited English proficiency (LEP). A mixed methods exploratory quasi-experimental (posttest only) design was used in this study of instructional technology in social work education. Self-report questionnaires were completed by 30 undergraduate and graduate students, and follow-up telephonic interviews were conducted with a subsample of 6 students with disabilities or LEP. Correlates examined were student status, level of life stress, and usage status. Qualitative themes emerged suggesting that students with LEP and with varied sensory, cognitive, and physical disabilities found clickers to be helpful in increasing their class participation and as assistive technology to support their learning. Student status and achievement associations with clicker use perception were explored to determine whether these important student characteristics suggested a profile of clicker user attitudes. Quantitative findings suggested that overall perceptions of clicker use were positively correlated with student status (r = .53; p = .03), with graduate students holding more favorable opinions than undergraduates, and that first-time clicker use was inversely correlated with Grade Point Average (GPA) (r = −.53; p = .03 for current GPA and r = −.57; p = .04 for cumulative GPA), suggesting that first-time clicker users had higher GPAs than nonfirst-time users likely accounted for by the higher required GPAs of graduate students, who were more likely to be first-time users. No significant correlation was found between these stressors and perceptions toward adoption of classroom electronic response technology.

Comparative Theoretical Perspectives on a Social Problem: Psychopathology and Middle-Class Teen Female Shoplifters

Abstract Shoplifting is a serious social problem in America, with adolescents representing 40–50% of all store-apprehended shoplifters. Middle-class shoplifting, regardless of age, has been found to be linked to psychiatric disorders, including anxiety disorders, substance abuse, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and, among adolescents, externalizing behavior disorders such as ADHD, oppositional-defiant disorder, and conduct disorder. Life span and Marxist-feminist theory can enhance our comprehension of these juvenile offenders and their associated clinical conditions, thereby contributing to appropriate sentencing and treatment, as well as prevention.