David P. Fauri

Social Workers' Political Participation: Strengthening the Political Confidence of Social Work Students.

This article reports on a survey of the political activity of 242 professional social workers. The research found that social workers are more politically active than the general public. Survey respondents engaged in a range of activities from voting to campaigning, but the most politically active respondents were engaged in professional associations and were more likely to feel capable of affecting the policy process. The authors suggest that social work educators can use strategies based on social learning theory to increase students’ political participation in the future.

Family-centered care: a resource for social work in end-of-life and palliative care.

Abstract Recent trends in medicine reflect an attempt to be more patient-centered and while this is progress from the disease- or provider-focused model familiar in healthcare, the experiences and contributions of family as caregivers continue to be overlooked in some settings. The family-centered care model, developed most notably in pediatrics, but emerging in HIV, cancer, and aging, is presented as a resource to increase family involvement at the end of life. In this paper, family-centered care is defined, caregiving trends including support needs of formal and informal caregivers are discussed, and barriers to family-centered services are identified. Reintroducing family into the focus of care at the end of life is the primary goal of this paper. The family-centered model of care offers an appropriate framework for understanding the value of family in end-of-life care and fits well with social work perspectives that understand individuals in the context of their family system and greater environment.

BEREAVEMENT SERVICES IN ACUTE CARE SETTINGS

Families of acute care patients who die while receiving care face loss and grief in unfamiliar institutional environments. Informal bereavement assistance may occur in acute care settings, but formally organized service and planned follow-up work with bereaved family members is less common. A literature review revealed little discussion of acute care-related bereavement services. The detrimental effects of long term, unresolved grief, however, are well-documented. Bereavement services help to reduce immediate physical and emotional distress while ameliorating long-term morbidity associated with unresolved grief. They may also reduce eventual costs for services and discomfort of illness by reducing the likelihood of stress-related illnesses occurring among survivors. Health care workers such as social workers, psychiatrists, chaplains, and nurses, who are familiar with the psychosocial needs of families and the structure and staffing of these settings, are well-positioned to organize assistance for those experiencing sudden loss. Developing a formal bereavement program in acute care settings involves description of the need, presenting the rationale for the service, identification of program elements, and determination of resource needs. Even in situations in which full services may not be possible, the provision of basic assessment and referral services will be beneficial to survivors while offering the institution several benefits.Families of acute care patients who die while receiving care face loss and grief in unfamiliar institutional environments. Informal bereavement assistance may occur in acute care settings, but formally organized service and planned follow-up work with bereaved family members is less common. A literature review revealed little discussion of acute care-related bereavement services. The detrimental effects of long-term, unresolved grief, however, are well documented. Bereavement services help to reduce immediate physical and emotional distress while ameliorating long-term morbidity associated with unresolved grief. They may also reduce eventual costs for services and discomfort of illness by reducing the likelihood of stress-related illnesses occurring among survivors. Health care workers such as social workers, psychiatrists, chaplains, and nurses, who are familiar with the psychosocial needs of families and the structure and staffing of these settings, are well-positioned to organize assistance for those experiencing sudden loss. Developing a formal bereavement program in acute care settings involves description of the need, presenting the rationale for the service, identification of program elements, and determination of resource needs. Even in situations in which full services may not be possible, the provision of basic assessment and referral services will be beneficial to survivors while offering the institution several benefits.

A Missing Tradition: Women Managing Charitable Organizations in Richmond, Virginia, 1805–1900

Historical research on charitable organizations in Richmond, Virginia, reveals the roles women played in founding, managing, and developing agencies that have survived since the 1800s. Findings from an examination of the records of 24 agencies and associated secondary sources suggest that many of the ways in which women worked reflect characteristics that writers would later describe as alternative, collectivist, and feminist. Women created traditions in Richmond that nurtured the growth and development of sustainable health and human service cultures. The study concludes that one such tradition, missing from the literature, describes typical patterns of work in charitable agencies. More than merely an alternative approach, this missing tradition has been obscured by dominant approaches that became privileged in human services management.

Practice with the Frail Elderly in the Private Sector

Older people in need of care benefit by receiving help in ways that do not lessen their independence in their homes and their communities. There is an increasing opportunity for social work practitioners who are in private practice to provide such help.

Resurrecting Nannie Minor and Orie Hatcher Emergence of Professional Social Work Education in One Southern City

In this article, we raise two feminists (Minor and Hatcher) from erasure by recognizing the importance of their roles in the development of professional social work education. First, we tell a story of how emerging semiprofessions were intertwined, only to become separate over time. Next we focus on the influence of two feminists who came from other semiprofessions than social work and were instrumental in cocreating a School of Social Work. Minor and Hatcher’s erasure in the formal histories of the School demonstrates the gendered nature of the professional education process.