Marvin D. Feit

Graduate Social Work Education: A Review of 2 Decades of Empirical Research and Considerations for the Future

In this article we review the current state of empirical research on graduate social work education, focusing on the major curriculum content areas of research, practice skills, human behavior and social environment, policy, values, and field instruction. We address what has been accomplished to date and which areas are especially in need of quality research investigations.

Adolescent Preventive Health and Team-Games-Tournaments: Five Decades of Evidence for an Empirically Based Paradigm

The problematic behaviors of teenagers and the subsequent negative consequences are extensive and well documented: unwanted pregnancy, substance abuse, violent behavior, depression, and social and psychological consequences of unemployment. In this article, the authors review an approach that uses a cooperative learning, empirically based intervention that employs peers as teachers. This intervention of choice is Teams-Games-Tournaments (TGT), a paradigm backed by five decades of empirical support. The application of TGT in preventive health programs incorporates elements in common with other prevention programs that are based on a public health orientation and constitute the essential components of health education, that is, skills training and practice in applying skills. The TGT intervention supports the idea that children and adolescents from various socioeconomic classes, between the ages of 8 and 18 and in classrooms or groups ranging in size from 4 to 17 members, can work together for one another. TGT has been applied successfully in such diverse areas as adolescent development, sexuality education, psychoactive substance abuse education, anger control, coping with depression and suicide, nutrition, comprehensive employment preparation, and family intervention. This article reviews the extensive research on TGT using examples of successful projects in substance abuse, violence, and nutrition. Issues are raised that relate to the implementation of preventive health strategies for adolescents, including cognitive aspects, social and family networks, and intervention components.

Social service research : Efficacy, necessity and effectiveness

Abstract This article and each of the articles in this journal discuss general social service research applications with different populations at risk. While sharing much in common with respect to many of the technical characteristics of the research process, each of these articles was selected through a peer-review process because of its applicability to the field. Understanding phenomena requires an openness and exposure to a complex array of methods designed to address the identified problem, the clients or the systems reaction, the social service providers handling of the situation, and identification of the expected surrounding circumstances and outcome(s). A brief review of the state-of-the-art for social service research is provided along with suggestions for facilitating future research endeavors.

Substance Use and Abuse: Screening Tools and Assessment Instruments

In recent years, accountability has become a primary issue in the social services field. Accurate assessments of clients’ strengths and difficulties are essential for effective case management, treatment, and accountability. Technology is now available to assist workers in assessing clients and in referring those clients for effective interventions. Screening instruments, in particular, equip the worker with the fundamental tools necessary for accurate assessment. An inaccurate assessment, or lack of assessment, regardless of what powerful techniques the change agent possesses, results in ineffective, irrelevant, or duplicated interventions.

A Life Cycle Model of Public Policy Issues in Health Care: The Importance of Strategic Issues Management

Abstract Public policy affects health and social services organizations. Senior management has a responsibility to prevent inappropriate demands of stakeholders from predominating and to influence the outcome of public policy to the benefit of their organization through the strategic issues management process. This article presents a public policy issue life cycle model, life-cycle stages and suggested strategies, paths issues can take in the life cycle, and factors that affect issue paths. An understanding of these dynamics can aid senior managers in shaping and changing public policy issues and lessening external environment threats to their organization.

Evidence-informed assessment and practice in child welfare

Preface.- Section One- The Context for Providing Evidence-Informed Assessments for Children and Families.- Educating BSW and MSW Social Workers to Practice in Child Welfare Services.- Legal Requisites for Social Work Practice in Child Abuse and Neglect.- Child Development.- Contributing Factors to Child Sexual Abuse.- The Integrated Model for Human Service Delivery in Child Welfare.- Section Two- Field-Tested Evidence-Informed Assessments.- Risk Assessment: Issues and Implementation in Child Protective Services.- Assessment Methods.- Substance Use and Abuse: Screening Tools and Assessment Instruments.- Section Three- Field-Tested Evidence-Informed Interventions.- The process of Intervention with Multi-problem Families: Theoretical and Practical Guidelines.- A Comprehensive Treatment Model for Child Maltreatment.- Child Maltreatment.-Parent Training.- Adolescent Employment Intervention.- The Empirical Base for the Implementation of Social Skills Training with Maltreated Children.- Preventative Services for Children and Adolescents.

Attachment Theory and Substance Abuse: Etiological Links

Some often describe substance abuse as a disease with no cure. An alternative etiology of substance abuse may be examined through a modern attachment theory lens. Examining substance abuse as a symptom of an underlying problem rather than a stand-alone disease leads to discussing alternative treatments. This article explores substance abuse as a faulty activation of attachment strategies stemming from insecure attachment relationships in infancy and early childhood. Attachment theory–based clinical treatment of this disorder could both diminish symptoms and cure the incurable. Implications for practice are also discussed as future research in the area of attachment and substance abuse is greatly encouraged.

The Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970: Retrospective Assessments of Disparate Treatment and Consequential Impact

ABSTRACT Although the basic paradigm of the U.S. federal drug policy targeting the supply and demand reduction has not changed since its enactment in 1970, there have been seriously undesirable disparate treatments and impacts among various population groups. Although U.S. Congress could not define what is discrimination, it did provide two major criteria for the assessment of discriminatory practices as follows: (a) disparate treatment—basing a key decision on association with any of the five prohibited individual’s demographic classifications (race, color, religion, sex, or national origin); and (b) disparate impact—correlation between any of the five prohibited demographic classifications and the key outcomes. In reference to those criteria, this article describes evidence-based indicators of national failure of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act.

African American Parents and Attitudes About Child Disability and Early Intervention Services

ABSTRACT Few studies have explored the attitudes of African American parents about child disability and early intervention services. Research and data suggest that early intervention services are effective in preparing preschool-aged children identified with disabilities for school. However, the underrepresentation of African American children enrolled in early intervention is an ongoing policy concern. This exploratory study examined the perceptions and attitudes of African American parents about child disability and early intervention services. In-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with ten African American mothers with preschool-aged children, ages birth to five, who were diagnosed with a developmental disability. Parental social support, parental spiritual connection, healthy parental childhood experiences with disability, parental comprehension of early intervention policy, and involvement of the childs father were significant findings identified by the mothers as contributors to positive attitudes about child disability and early intervention services. Human service workers must take into account the need to acquire culturally sensitive policies and practice skills to identify effectively, recruit, and retain African American families and their infants into early intervention services.

How Policy Improves Health

A discussion of health equity should be intricately examined in policy and practice discourse about the healthcare industry. This article addresses health equity with strategies to institutionalize it through policy implementation. This discourse is relevant to social work because social workers are charged with elucidating conditions that are maniacal and disadvantageous to racial groups, undocumented workers, immigrants and women. Social workers engaged in policy practice should consider how these stakeholders are excluded from health equity, because of the lack of transformative policy implementation that addresses industry practices that encourage disparity and maintain equity. This article hopes to provide a helpful view of health equity.