Caroline L. Burry

Providing Comprehensive Case Management Services to Urban Women with HIV/AIDS and Their Families

Women continue to be disproportionately affected with HIV. Women with HIV/AIDS are also more likely than their male counterparts to be single heads of households and primary providers for their children. Social workers are ideally suited to recognize the psychosocial complexities that HIV/AIDS entails for women and how such circumstances can interfere with medical management and meeting children’s needs. This article discusses the literature relevant to women with HIV/AIDS and case management and describes a community-based case management program that was designed to serve urban women with newly diagnosed or newly disclosed cases of HIV/AIDS and their families.

Child Welfare in the Court: A Collaboration Between Social Work and Law Faculty to Prepare Social Work Students for Work With the Courts

This article reports on an innovative interdisciplinary short course in which social work students at a masters level work with law and social work faculty and law students in a simulated child welfare court experience. Social workers are called to work in a range of court settings including child welfare, criminal justice, and custody hearings. Social work students show interest in gaining knowledge and skills to raise their comfort level and gain competence necessary to work in these settings. The goals and structure of the course developed at the University of Maryland are described, in addition to lessons learned in its implementation. This description is followed by more general recommendations that have come from experience with the program and feedback received from participating students and faculty.

Teaching Motivational Interviewing to Child Welfare Social Work Students Using Live Supervision and Standardized Clients: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Objective: Motivational interviewing (MI) has demonstrated effectiveness with varied populations; however, methods of training students in MI vary. The present study tests the efficacy of a brief experiential training approach used to teach MI to child welfare social work students. We hypothesized that students exposed to the experimental training would demonstrate more MI adherent behaviors, experience less decay in skills at follow-up, and report higher levels of self-efficacy and positive attitude toward using MI. Method: Using a randomized controlled trial design, 54 students were assigned to either live supervision (LS) training with standardized clients (SC) or teaching-as-usual (TAU) online self-study. Students were assessed at 4 time points through self-reports and SC interviews. Audiotapes of interviews were coded using the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity coding system to determine MI skills, adherent behaviors, and proficiency level. Results: No significant demographic differences were found between groups. The LS group demonstrated overall positive change across time and consistent improvement trends on MI skills. Although no statistical difference existed between groups on baseline proficiency levels, at the 5-month follow-up, a higher percentage of the LS group had maintained or improved compared with the TAU group, suggesting overall, less decay over time. No differences were found between groups or over time on self-efficacy or empathy, whereas self-reported attitudes towards MI improved in both groups over time. Conclusions: Results indicate LS is effective in teaching early stages of MI skills and is a promising training approach for social work students. Implications for social work education and future research recommendations are discussed.

Evaluating Maryland's Response to Drug-Exposed Babies: SB 512 Children in Need of Assistance--Drug-Addicted Babies.

The “crack epidemic” of the mid-1980s presented new challenges to the helping professions, along with the legal and policy fields. Concerns were raised about infants born with exposure to crack and other drugs. States began to react to these concerns with policy and legal changes. In Maryland, the General Assembly passed the Drug Addiction at Birth Act in 1997. This law is examined from several perspectives, including its stated purpose, its relationship to other parts of the Maryland Code regarding child abuse and neglect, its implementation in one major hospital, its congruence with informed consent statutes, its constitutionality, and its practical implications.

Individual and Community Predictors of Maternal Smoking in the City of Baltimore: What Can Be Learned From a Predominantly Minority Case Controlled Study?

This case control study of 1,000 birth certificates examined what individual and community factors predicted maternal smoking in Baltimore, Maryland. Conditional multinomial logistic regression results indicated women who were White were more likely to start smoking at a young age, but as they got older, they were less likely to smoke. Minority women were more likely to start smoking at a later age. Also, White women were more likely to smoke as the rate of poverty increased, while for minority women, smoking was unrelated to whether they lived in higher or lower poverty areas. Medical assistance status, community education level, and crime rate were not found to be related to smoking status.