Richard Sullivan

A Model Curriculum for Occupational Social Work

Social issues in the workplace are of increasing concern to social services agencies, Corporate America, and organized labor. Increasing numbers of social workers are practicing in occupational and industrial settings, but the profession is still struggling with conceptualizing and implementing a curriculum that will prepare students for these careers and, at the same time, will be consistent with social work values and ethics. Few U.S. schools of social work, however, offer courses in the area, and even fewer offer a concentration or a specialization in occupational social work. The University of Southern California School of Social Work was one of the pioneers; it has offered a concentration in industrial/ occupational social work since 1982. During the decade of its existence, the faculty teaching in the concentration have developed a comprehensive model for teaching social work in work-related settings. The authors present a model curriculum for teaching occupational social work in a master’s program ...

The Politics and Ethics of Same-Sex Adoption

While Canadas Civil Marriage Act assures same-sex couples the right to equality of treatment before the law and challenges provincial authority to make revisions in areas of family policy that abrogate that equality, there is a long way to go before that legislation can ensure equality of treatment by the many professions with legislative mandates to serve families. This study reports on unexpected findings from a study of barriers to adoption in which experienced social workers practicing in the field of adoption reported that same-sex couples were now being approved for adoption in equal proportion to heterosexual applicants but were not being matched to children awaiting placement in the same proportion. This finding necessitates a discussion of further research questions to uncover the sources of this discrepancy. This paper also proposes some ethical criteria for assuring that adoption remains child centered.

The role of child protection in cannabis grow-operations

BACKGROUND This unique social work research examined the rationale for child protection interventions with families found living in illegal cannabis grow operations, based on the assumption of risk in the presence of probable medical harm. METHODS The study examined the household, family and individual characteristics of 181 children found living in cannabis grow operations in two regions in British Columbia, Canada. Data was collected on-site on the physical characteristics of the homes, the health characteristics of the children, and their prescription drug history. Comparison of prescription drug use was also made with a group of children from the same geographic areas. RESULTS This study found that there was no significant difference between the health of the children living in cannabis grow operations and the comparison group of children, based on their prescription history and their reported health at the time. CONCLUSION The findings of this study challenge contemporary child welfare approaches and have implications for both child protection social workers and the policymakers who develop frameworks for practice.

Adoptable but Still in Limbo: The Forgotten Children in Canada

Thousands of children in Canada are available for adoption, but not being adopted, while many Canadian families are adopting overseas. This study presents a model incorporating four explanatory factors for overseas adoption preferences, and reports on preliminary efforts to test the model. One frequently-heard explanation is that families wanting to adopt are only interested in healthy infants, while crown wards tend to be older children, many with special needs. A sample of 119 families who filled in questionnaires in response to a public awareness campaign did not fit this stereotype; many would be willing to consider a child with special needs, or an older child. Results of a focus group, made up mainly of adoption professionals, suggest that the most significant barriers to adoption may lie in the funding and organization of the agency system. Plans for future research are discussed.

Helping Young People Stay Afloat: A Qualitative Study of Community Resources and Supports for LGBTQ Adolescents in the United States and Canada

ABSTRACT LGBTQ youth are at increased risk of poor health outcomes. This qualitative study gathered data from LGBTQ adolescents regarding their communities and describes the resources they draw on for support. We conducted 66 go-along interviews with diverse LGBTQ adolescents (mean age = 16.6) in Minnesota, Massachusetts, and British Columbia in 2014–2015, in which interviewers accompanied participants in their communities to better understand those contexts. Their responses were systematically organized and coded for common themes, reflecting levels of the social ecological model. Participants described resources at each level, emphasizing organizational, community, and social factors such as LGBTQ youth organizations and events, media presence, and visibility of LGBTQ adults. Numerous resources were identified, and representative themes were highly consistent across locations, genders, orientations, racial/ethnic groups, and city size. Findings suggest new avenues for research with LGBTQ youth and many opportunities for communities to create and expand resources and supports for this population.

The Manifest and Latent Functions of Differential Response in Child Welfare.

Although previous research has explored the efficacy of differential response (DR) programs in child welfare, there have been no studies to date about coding decisions between designations by child protection service agencies. Research has explored client satisfaction with DR as well as rates of recidivism and removal/placement but with limited attention paid to the rationales behind coding decisions and recoding, once an initial designation pathway is assigned. This descriptive study uses data previously gathered by child protection social workers to qualitatively evaluate the fidelity of implementation of family development response (FDR) in British Columbia and the integrity of the program with regard to its stated objectives. Based on a random sample of intakes, decision-making fidelity to code as FDR or investigation (INV) was examined by exploring rationales behind coding at critical decision points and mechanisms for recoding during family involvement with child protective services. Subsequently, this study examined whether cases that had been coded as FDR differed substantially from INVs in terms of service provision, outcomes, and appropriateness of FDR for high-risk cases.

Sylvia K. Fisher, Jeffrey M. Poirier, & Gary M. Blau (Eds.). (2016).. Improving emotional and behavioral outcomes for LGBT youth: A guide for professionals (2nd ed.). Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing Co. 318 pp.

Originally published in 2012, this second edition meets the promise of its title in providing professionals with strategies for improving outcomes for LGBT youth. The editors are to be commended for achieving a parallel structure in each chapter that helps readers anticipate what they will learn. As a result, the book truly reads as a guide, and a variety of professionals in public health, medicine, social work, education, the developmental sciences, social planning, and advocacy will find it eminently useful. From the very first chapter, the focus is on interventions at the community level in order to enhance health, resilience, and well-being. Framed within an ecological model, this public health perspective formulates the role of families and others as either blocking or facilitating access to those services and experiences that will optimize the life prospects of LGBT youth. In Chapter 2, the reader is introduced to an important construct woven throughout the book: cultural and linguistic competence. This casts the provision of services within a framework that acknowledges the intersection of race, sexual orientation, and culture in compounding oppression. It also casts LGBT youth culture within that intersection and requires linguistic and cultural competence and safety within the provision of services. As with all public health approaches, this includes the necessary assessment of strengths and needs in the organization and community as well as in service consumers. Key tasks of development for competent service providers include (a) the provision of a safe and welcoming environment; (b) the enhancement of organizational capacity; and (c) engagement of the community. Specific research studies are used to illustrate the process. Each chapter starts out with a review of the literature, including best practices supported by evaluative research, and follows with recommendations for professionals. There is a clear differentiation between problems arising within a young person’s developmental experience associated with community features and those associated with their unique personal characteristics. Best practices are enumerated at both the clinical and community levels. Included are guidelines for supporting families and their children, casting this within an assessment framework inclusive of strengths, needs, and cultural and linguistic competence at each concentric circle within an ecological context. The centrality of prosocial integration as a unifying tenet marks the approach itself as founded in values of social justice and social inclusion. Building on that, the reader is provided a current synopsis of the state of best practices with respect to problems encountered in the developmental experiences of LGBT youth. The covenant of obligation to “Do No Harm” to subsequent generations also informs the book’s emphasis on strategies to achieve social inclusion through organizational and community change. Some chapters are longer than others for reasons made evident in the review of complex challenges faced by some LGBT youth. Not surprisingly, the chapter on transgender and gender-nonconforming children is among the longest. Clinical, familial, and community considerations in the developmental experience must all be assessed and addressed in