Robert Hawkins

In their own words: Trauma and substance abuse in the lives of formerly homeless women with serious mental illness

In-depth interviews were conducted with 13 formerly homeless mentally ill women to capture their individual life trajectories of mental illness, substance abuse, and trauma in their own words. Cross-case analyses produced 5 themes: (a) betrayals of trust, (b) graphic or gratuitous nature of traumatic events, (c) anxiety about leaving their immediate surroundings (including attending group treatment programs), (d) desire for ones own space, and (e) gender-related status loss and stigmatization. Findings suggest formerly homeless mentally ill women need (and want) autonomy, protection from further victimization, and assistance in restoring status and devalued identity. Avenues for intervention include enhanced provider training, addressing experiences of betrayal and trauma, and more focused attention to current symptoms rather than previous diagnoses.

‘You fix my community, you have fixed my life’: the disruption and rebuilding of ontological security in New Orleans

Using the concept of ontological security, this paper examines the physical and psychological loss of home and community following Hurricane Katrina. This qualitative longitudinal study includes 40 heads of households with school-age children who lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Participants describe a breakdown in their social fabric at the individual and structural/community levels that contributes to a sense of community loss and social displacement, disrupting their ontological security--their notion of safety, routine and trust in a stable environment. Three interrelated reactions were common: 1) experiencing nostalgia for their old neighbourhoods specifically and New Orleans in general; 2) experiencing a sense of loss of people and things that represented a level of security or constancy; 3) initiation of a process for re-establishing ontological security whether or not they returned to New Orleans. The paper concludes that intangible losses have an important psychological effect on community redevelopment and recovery from trauma.

A New Methodology for Assessing Social Work Practice: The Adaptation of the Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation (SW-OSCE)

The Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation (OSCE) methodology was originally developed to assess medical students. OSCE is a carefully scripted, standardized, simulated interview, in which students’ interactional skills are observed and assessed. Here it is examined for its potential use in assessing social work practice skills. The development of the Social Work OSCE (SW-OSCE) and the Clinical Competence-based Behavioural Checklist (CCBC) are described. Findings from a pilot study assessing MSW students’ clinical skills with explicit observable criteria of the CCBC are presented. A quantitative and qualitative mixed-methods data analysis was applied. The CCBC had high internal reliability, for both the overall sample and for the different case scenarios, with Cronbachs alpha values ranging from 0.888 to 0.965. The validity of the instrument was also examined: qualitative content analysis of the taped interviews indicated that clinical skills and cultural empathy are not synonymous. The racial/ethnic match between the student and the ‘client’ did not predict better rapport or more cultural empathy. Examination grades are not necessarily consistent with actual performance in either clinical competence or cultural empathy or vice versa. Nevertheless, the results provide some support for the use of the SW-OSCE as a tool for assessing performance in social work practice. They also indicate its potential for evaluating the outcomes of educational programmes.

Same as It Ever Was, Only Worse: Negative Life Events and Poverty Among New Orleans Katrina Survivors

This study is a qualitative grounded theory examination of the pre- and post-Katrina life of hurricane survivors. Forty heads of households with school-age children who lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina were interviewed 6 to 8 months apart. Findings suggest that low-income study participants had experienced multiple negative life events linked to their poverty status prior to Hurricane Katrina. Participants described negative life events that included social isolation, physical and mental health problems, high debt or financial insecurity, dangerous neighborhoods, witnessing early deaths, experience with or witnessing violence and child abuse, experience with or witnessing incarceration, and teen pregnancy. Implications for practice and policy include a call for more comprehensive approaches to providing services to low-income families.

Outsider in: Race, Attraction, and Research in New Orleans

This article discusses how race, attraction, and a researcher’s identity with a community can both hamper and help qualitative research. Using a critical perspective, the author reflects on the experiences that shaped his research in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. He raises a series of ethical questions about the nexus of race, attraction, and identity in conducting qualitative interviews as a Black man with a largely low-income, female, and African American population. He explores the role that his self-identity played in study design, recruitment, and participation and addresses how he experienced race and dealt with attraction in his attempts to be regarded as an external insider by the community. Research considerations and ethical implications are explored.

Nonacademic Factors Associated with Dropping Out of High School: Adolescent Problem Behaviors

This study uses a social capital and collective socialization lens to examine nonacademic factors in middle school that predict students’ failure to complete high school, and focuses on youth who engage in adolescent problem behaviors of smoking cigarettes, sexual intercourse, delinquency, marijuana use, and alcohol use. Our area of interest was the extent to which these variables were predictive of dropping out of high school measured 6 years later and beyond the traditional variables of school performance and school engagement, which are the target of many dropout prevention programs. Analyses use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to follow a nationally representative sample of children from middle school through the end of the high-school years. Results indicate that engaging in regular smoking and sexual activity during middle-school years predict high-school dropout independent of school performance during middle school. Acts of delinquency during middle school in the context of poverty (i.e., mothers’ receipt of welfare was proxy for poverty) are also predictive of high-school dropout. These findings suggest the importance of factors that reach beyond school performance and school engagement as possible targets for dropout prevention programs.

A CROSS-CURRICULAR, PROBLEM-BASED PROJECT TO PROMOTE UNDERSTANDING OF POVERTY IN URBAN COMMUNITIES

This article describes the use of problem-based learning to teach students about the scope and consequences of urban poverty through an innovative cross-curricular project. We illustrate the process, goals, and tasks of the Community Assessment Project, which incorporates community-level assessment, collection and analysis of public data, and social policy analysis and planning. Students in three masters classes (Social Work Research I, Ending Poverty: Models for Social Change and Social Action, and Advanced Social Policy in Aging) worked in self-directed groups to explore the impact of economic insecurity on our most vulnerable clients. The project engaged students, linked research and policy practice, and helped to educate the next generation of social workers about urban poverty and strategies for community-based research and practice.

Everyday conflict and stress among older african american women: Findings from a focus group study and pilot training program

Abstract Older African American women are at high risk for morbidity due to anger suppression and stress. Yet sources of everyday stress and conflict in the lives of older African American women have not been documented. Such information is essential for developing health promotion programs. A focus group study was conducted with older African American women on everyday stress and conflict. Everyday stress stemmed from worries about functional disability and about accessing transportation. Everyday conflicts occurred with adult children, teen-aged grandchildren, and older neighbors or peers. Conflicts with adult children centered on how the adult child was raising his/her children. Conflicts with grandchildren centered on social respect. Conflicts with neighbors/peers centered on perceived rudeness or past transgressions. Participant strategies for dealing with stress and conflict tended to be avoidant. A training program in constructive conflict strategies for older African American women is presented that draws on information gained in the focus groups.

Race, Space, and the Urban South: Then and Now

More than half a century after Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and the Civil Rights Movement, the cities at the heart of America’s racial conflict with itself have changed socioeconomically, culturally, and politically. Although many of these changes resulted in quality–of-life improvements for racial minorities, some questions remain about lingering bastions of segregation in the South. Using a critical race theory (CRT) lens, in this article we investigate four cities that were important to the Civil Rights Movement—Greensboro, North Carolina, Little Rock, Arkansas, Memphis, Tennessee, and Montgomery, Alabama—to examine demographic, economic, and sociocultural trends and how they affect racial minority groups. We find that, despite considerable improvement in terms of poverty rate, unemployment, and income, blacks continue to remain substantially behind whites in these cities, indicating that desegregation and access to opportunity has done little to close the black-white opportunity gap.