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This paper discusses the need for social workers to commit themselves to working with persons with developmental disabilities and the need for social workers to gain expertise in the field of developmental disabilities. Problems within the social work profession and the field of developmental disabilities that have prohibited the meeting of these two realms are addressed, and personal stories are shared to further illustrate these barriers to cooperation. A model is presented for involving university schools of social work with developmental disability agencies through field experience programs. The paper stresses the benefits of social worker engagement with individuals with disabilities, including social justice for persons with developmental disabilities. (Contains 22 references.) (CR)

This article examines foster care and adoption, health, and education of poor Indian children. The paper first explains the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, gives a historical overview of injustices done to American Indians, and reviews recent court rulings and federal and state action in regard to the Indian Child Welfare Act. The paper then has a section on health issues concerning Native Americans, including: lack of prenatal care; alcohol abuse; smoking; state money for Indian clinics; and health insurance. The final section discusses education of American Indian children, including: dropout rates; curriculum improvement; and cultural sensitivity training for teachers. (Contains 17 references.) (TD)

A social worker recounts the experiences of a long term support group of 12 (later 10) parents of children with neurological impairments. Originally begun as a time-limited parent group of children attending a therapeutic nursery program, the parent group has continued to meet into the children's adolescence. The group was initially led by two co-therapists but has continued with one leader. Although the parents have increasingly managed many aspects of the meetings, they continue to prefer an outside "expert" in the formal role of leader. Over the years, the focus of the group has changed from being completely about the children to covering the range of issues faced by the parents, including a marital breakup. This group's experience has led the agency involved to conclude that parent support groups may frequently be the treatment of choice for parents of special needs children. (DB)

This essay examines the youth policies and programs of the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Sweden, and Norway in an effort to provide examples that may be of assistance in the development of such policies in the United States. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the topic, noting that the focus is on younger adolescents between the ages of 10 and 15, especially those in high risk or at-risk environments, and that the central themes are youth development, youth as participants, and the formation of "human capital." Chapter 2 summarizes youth policies and services in the five nations considered, examining historical contexts, goals, structures, policies, funding, and youth workers. Chapter 3 examines the dimensions of youth services on a supranational and thematic basis, considering: (1) purposes and goals; (2) policies and programs; (3) structure and finance; (4) youth workers and training; and (5) information and research. Chapter 4 makes recommendations relevant to youth policies and programs in the United States in these five categories. It is noted that policies and programs in the five countries studied tend to be developmental, broadly based, inclusive, and participative, whereas U.S. youth policy is more oriented toward remediation of individual difficulties than broad development and socialization. (Contains 116 references.) (MDM)

This report presents the results of a conference held by the Family Resource Coalition (FRC) in October 1991, which brought together an interdisciplinary group of academics and family resource practitioners to address questions of quality in family support and, more specifically, in staff development and personnel. The report provides the rationale for convening the conference, examines challenges facing the family support movement, and describes desirable program characteristics. Current training programs and delivery systems are also discussed. The report then recommends: (1) gathering information for the development of a best practices statement; (2) developing these best practices into specific training programs; (3) developing a training cadre to disseminate such programs; (4) continuing work on the integration of various cultural values into training programs; (5) continuing work on the refinement of terminology used in the family support field; and (6) studying further the current family support delivery systems. Two appendixes present an update on best practices projects undertaken by the FRC and a list of conference participants. (MDM)

Social service programs for children and families have often distanced themselves from issues of religion and spirituality. However, in recent years, children's services and family therapy have gradually moved toward stronger emphases on ecosystemic influences, including those from organized religions. The overlapping and interacting roles of spirituality/religion and family therapy include a desire to foster a sense of perspective, give meaning to life, provide rituals, provide social support, structure society and set norms, give members an identity and heritage, facilitate positive change in individuals, protect members' welfare, and educate members. Religious parents and their children come into service agencies with a system of values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors prescribed by their religious orientation. One's religious/spiritual orientation may foster healthy or pathological behavioral patterns in children and families. Child services can help revitalize the family's spiritual energy and motivation, and search for and affirm the meanings of the family relationship. Child therapists and others can use therapeutic disclosure of spiritual self, incorporate the family's spiritual world view and metaphors, and reframe issues. When appropriate, explicitly religious/spiritual practices may be used. Religious/spiritual strategies can be contraindicated at times for ethical and legal reasons. When explicitly spiritual activities are not appropriate, child service providers can foster child and family's spiritual values of trust, patience, repentance, forgiveness, and acceptance. Service providers should be aware of one's religious/spiritual self and its limits, respect clients' religious authority, observe church-state boundaries, and avoid imposing religious values on clients and practicing beyond one's professional competence. (Contains 35 references.) (KB)

The present definition of social services for young people should be extended beyond the provision of counseling and therapy to include the provision of help for those who do not have psychological problems. For example, the role of probation officers should include helping probationers find a job and keep it, return to school, or obtain other needed services. It is a fact, however, that the dominant form of social services to youth is counseling. Such an emphasis seems misplaced when the single greatest need of millions of young people is in the area of employment. In this respect, the work experiences created for teenagers should be evaluated to see if they provide worthwhile experiences and the educational needs of these young people should be reviewed with renewed care. Many youth will need job readiness preparation in addition to skills and extensive support services while on a job, whether the job is subsidized or not. Additional problems demanding discussion are the role of social services in relation to the schools; the system of income maintenance and welfare assistance; juvenile justice policy; services to troubled youth at the community level; and federal foster care policy. (Author/SS)

This paper provides a checklist of 10 potential ethical problems associated with intervention in families through home-based programs. Problems which directly involve program participants are (1) pressure on parents to join the program, (2) violation of confidentiality, (3) intrusiveness, (4) need to respect the family's style of living, (5) giving assistance in matters beyond the home visitor's areas of expertise, and (6) giving more services than the home visitor can deliver and more than the participants want. The last four ethical considerations pertain to the ethics of program evaluation: the need for definitions of goals and method; for monitoring the quality of delivering the method; and for systematic program evaluation to provide evidence of program success. (Author/RH)

Rural social workers occupy a number of statuses, such as professional social worker, organizational employee, rural community denizen, and private citizen/family member. Different groups may assign different priorities to the tasks that workers perform. Different audiences or groups may be at odds about definitions that are used in everyday life. The fact that cycles of peak activity vary from group to group can work to the worker's advantage or can cause even greater strains. Types of intensive, short-term therapy may be theoretically sound but situationally inappropriate. In a rural setting a worker is likely to be seen as a social worker 24 hours a day. One tool for reducing role strain is the rural-based professional group, where helping professionals band together to form support groups that are not only able to address community problems dynamically, but are also able to assist one another in ventilating frustrations and in searching for answers to practice dilemmas. Rural workers are also experimenting with old and new technologies to develop ways of moving information rather than people. Because of their relative freedom from bureaucratic constraints, techniques developed by rural workers may serve as the basis for assisting urban and suburban workers in the future. (BRR)

Recently, there have been some major changes in the theory and practice of social services, social welfare, and social work. However, instead of the major educational modifications necessary to accompany these changes, minor curriculum changes have taken place. The need to modify education programs is severe at the undergraduate level, and associate and bachelor degrees need to be reflective of a more modern multi-faceted reality. Education must be provided in a manner that will maximize students' facility in adjusting to the realities of the workplace, and programs must be developed to permit increased vocational mobility, permit students to move from social work to allied fields, and allow others to move to social work from related areas. The most glaring deficiencies in the programs have been in business related skill development. Students need to be able to understand how the agencies in which they will work operate financially and where and how agencies obtain funding and should have enough business skills to prepare budgets for departments and clients and write grants and proposals that include financial justification. In a society where there is competition among social service and allied health agencies, a basic understanding of marketing is necessary for agencies to survive. A multi-tracked program which includes urban community studies with a business emphasis, computer skills, and social services components has been developed for the two year associate degree program as both an applied and transferable program. (AEM)

Social work, ideologically speaking, is a profession grounded in principles of integration and interaction. The principles are embedded in curriculum policies for acceditation. They span interdisciplinary information, person and environment, research and practice, practice and policy, and theory and practice. The values, knowledge, and skills integration that is proposed may not be successfully implemented for three reasons. Two reasons are specific to social work: the impossibility of carrying out all of the activities expected of social work educators and the fact the social work professionals are conflicted concerning their commitment to integration at all levels and fields of practice. Integration is not really respected or rewarded in either practice or academic arenas. Research reveals that integration is unlikely for any profession in the absence of an integrative structure. The establishment of a national social work linkage service is proposed. The service could focus on the integration of research, policy, and practice while including several areas of integrative concern. Such a service could provide the missing link that has kept social work from realizing its integrative purpose and identity, establishing social work as a visibly authentic profession. (Author/NB)

Responds to Rubin and Knox's (1996) article concerning data analysis in single-case evaluations. Refutes the assertion that ambiguous data patterns discourage clinicians from doing single-case evaluations, and questions the assertion that emphasis on single-case designs should be reduced in the social work curriculum. (JPS)

Responds to Rubin and Knox's (1996) article concerning data analysis in single-case evaluations. Asserts that their conclusions are based on confusions between research and practice, misunderstandings and misstatements of the relative utility of single-case and group designs for both, and neglect of the basic literature regarding single-case designs and visual analysis. (JPS)

Responds to Rubin and Knox's (1996) article concerning data analysis in single-case evaluations. Takes issue on three points: misrepresentation of single-case experimental designs, logical inconsistencies, and skewed portrayal of weaknesses existing in single case designs. Discusses possible reasons why single-case designs are often misinterpreted. (JPS)

Responds to Rubin and Knox's (1996) article concerning data analysis in single-case evaluations. Suggests that the conclusions to be drawn from the limitations of single-case design should be to redefine issues and strategies so that more emphasis is placed on the integration of research and practice. The focus suggested for empirical practice is on individual practitioners within social service agencies. (JPS)

Data analysis problems, particularly involving the likelihood of obtaining visually ambiguous graphs, pose a barrier to efforts to promote increased use of single-case evaluation by practitioners. Uses findings from an evaluation of a cognitive-behavioral intervention with adolescent sex offenders to illustrate data analysis problems. (JPS)

Discusses public perceptions of street youth, characteristics of street youth workers, frameworks for healthy youth development, and training for street youth work. Argues that multiple philosophies for street youth work be acknowledged with their ethical implications. Suggests that youth work as a vocation includes reciprocal development of youth and community. (KDFB)

Most gang membership research studies males; few examine the etiology of female gang membership. Presents themes of female gang membership gathered from interviews with 15 young women. Examines demographic material, family structure, initiation rites, and criminal behaviors. Explores implications for social work practice and research. (FC)

Discusses proposed changes in housing appropriations by Congress in the fiscal year 1996. Two key factors are missing from the debate: (1) lack of public awareness and vocal constituency for funded projects; and (2) lack of understanding that affordable, safe, nontransient, and habitable housing is fundamental to meeting all basic needs. (FC)

Responds to C. Aaron McNeese's (1995) article, "Family Social Work Practice: From Therapy to Policy." Suggests that it is time for family therapists to shift to a new paradigm, one which encompasses both policy and practice interests of social work, and that, for the purposes of public policy, that a definition of family be confined to that of the traditional nuclear family. (JPS)

Because welfare entitlements are increasingly unpopular, social work advocates need to place greater emphasis on job growth and alternate mechanisms for wealth redistribution, including refundable tax credits for working poor people. The Internal Revenue Code can be an effective weapon in combating poverty if antipoverty approaches in the code are incorporated into a national industrial policy. (JPS)

Discusses four types of clinical decision situations used by social workers in a health-care context--operational, strategic, authoritative, and crisis--and presents a model to assist in analyzing their components and requirements. Case vignettes drawn from practice illustrate each type of decision-making process. (JPS)

Discusses the prevalence of cancer-related pain and identifies the barriers that undermine effective pain relief. Develops a model for social work intervention in terms of communication, assessment, problem solving, and psychological support for the patient. Emphasizes skills such as communication, assessment, problem solving, and psychological support. (JPS)

Describes the five largest psychotherapy occupations (psychiatrist, clinical/counseling psychologist, clinical social worker, marriage and family therapist, clinical mental health counselor) and looks at training requirements, types of practices, trends, and related occupations. Lists professional associations and references for further information. (JOW)

Addresses the need for cultural sensitivity by social workers in practice and research. Discusses the need for professional self-examination and awareness of personal biases and prejudices to enhance sensitivity to cultural diversity. Also addresses issues surrounding cultural sensitivity in the context of client-participant attendance, needs, attitudes and trust, values, and motivations. (DR)

Examines the relationship between political correctness, social work, and breakdown of the child abuse system. Examines groups that stand to gain from perpetuating the myth of classlessness. Investigates high turnover rates among social workers, declassification of public welfare jobs, and problems in screening and provision of services to families and children. (DR)

Identifies the major themes that have emerged in this special issue on child welfare in Canada, and presents a critique of the policies and practices now dominating the Canadian child welfare enterprise. Outlines the changes required to move child welfare from its residual stance into an enterprise that develops a capacity for innovative practice. (MDM)

Discusses the widespread, planned destruction of foster care files in social service centers in Quebec, focusing on the issues for the former clients, for the agencies involved, and for the social work profession. Argues that, for social workers, the destruction of the files represents an abandonment of their professional principles. (MDM)

Examines the presence, visibility, and influence of women in the child welfare system, as clients, workers, and decision makers. Explores impediments to the reconceptualization of child welfare as a feminist issue. Four directions for change are discussed, including consciousness-raising, organizing, infusing child welfare with feminist forms, and reshaping feminist thought. (Author/MDM)

Summarizes claims data drawn from the records of the National Association of Social Workers Insurance Trust from 1969 to 1990. Provides data for frequency and cost of claims for various claims categories and offers suggestions for minimizing the occurrence of liability claims. The majority of claims against individual practitioners involve incorrect treatment or sexual impropriety. (JPS)

The Supreme Court has ruled that certain professionals have immunity from civil rights lawsuits, but has not considered any cases involving social workers. A split view regarding the extent of social workers' immunity in investigating child abuse cases has appeared in two courts of appeals. Discusses immunity, the case in these two circuits, and implications for social workers. (JPS)

Evaluates Scottish social work in terms of three issues: (1) argues that a market economy enfeebles social work and calls for needs-led and user-controlled social work; (2) suggests that social workers should take a more active role in advocating equitable distribution of wealth; and (3) argues that the Scottish justice system should incorporate children's needs. (AJH)

Child welfare practice and substance abuse treatment have become overlapping areas for many human service professionals. This article stresses the importance of combining the two perspectives to deal with both the mother's recovery and the child's well-being. Changes in attitudes, knowledge, and skills are required on the part of both child welfare and substance abuse practitioners. (MDM)

Calls spiritual perspective important but relatively unexplored area in social work practice. Presents Jung's analytic psychology as theoretical framework for understanding spirituality within individual. Discusses practitioner's ability to conceptualize spirituality as construct that transcends religious or philosophical ideologies. (Author/NB)

Contends that case managers engage in the practice of management. Employs Mintzberg's seminal research on chief executive behavior to argue that case managers' work is similarly characterized by brevity, variety, and fragmentation. Notes that case managers perform the 10 roles developed by Mintzberg. Describes roles and presents case managers' tasks associated with each role. (Author/NB)

Discusses the requirements of culturally competent practice with African-American social service clients. Notes that ethnic identity, differential levels of cultural assimilation, social class, and cultural values affect the provision of clinical services in family foster care. Examines possible points of stress between African-American case workers and African-American clients, and Caucasian case workers and African-American clients. (MDM)

Notes that maps that have helped form worldviews of social workers and clients reflect ethnocentric biases that reinforce historic patterns of world dominance. Discusses ways for practitioners to recognize this subtle source of ethnocentric bias, which may affect their work with clients. Notes that understanding of these biases illuminates concepts in theory of practice. (Author/NB)

Notes that many clinicians are under pressure to find ever-briefer forms of treatment for all clients, regardless of individual's symptoms or circumstances. Presents supportive gesture for social work practitioners who are struggling with questions about long-term treatment. Discusses health care trends and contraindications for short-term therapy. Presents clinical case to illustrate points. (Author/NB)

Examines problems inherent in social worker's self-conscious commitment to care. Discusses feminine view of ethics and female social workers. Notes that feminist scholarship has recently given considerable attention to moral development of women based on relational model of care. Examines arena of caring, traditionally considered women's domain, as rational field of inquiry requiring further theoretical development. (Author/NB)

Provides guidelines from social work perspective on how social workers and health care professionals can provide bereavement counseling for families whose relatives have died in emergency room. Discusses providing family with privacy and accessibility; keeping family informed; using understandable terminology; speaking directly about death; dealing with denial and self-blame; recognizing the spirituality of death; and guiding family after death. (NB)

Addresses differences among competence, commitment, and mental illness; the right to privacy; and the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Reviews professional motivations in relation to both sides of controversy over rights of psychiatric patients to refuse medication. Presents position for social work profession that stands for balance and common sense. (NB)

Notes that overriding a mentally ill person's refusal to take medications may pose a dilemma around the issue of patients' rights, despite opinion of many authorities that refusal is often illness related. Presents information to help promote understanding of reasons why those who work with mentally ill people should be ready to override their refusal of medication. (NB)

Notes that intractability of many of today's problems creates unusual stress for social workers. Focuses on preparation of social workers for effective work in today's complex social environment and suggests five major areas that need to be emphasized in teaching, supervising, and training. (Author/NB)

Examines physicians' emotional reactions to patients and reviews recent medical literature regarding role of those reactions in labeling of difficult patient. Conceptualizes labeling of patient as difficult as relationship problem between physician and patient. Examines implications for social worker efforts to humanize this relationship and presents strategies for increasing social worker collaboration with physicians. (Author/NB)

Describes six languages that scientifically minded and practice-competent social workers need to be fluent in lay language of client, abstract language of theorist, empirical and often quantitative language of researcher, categorical language of information scientist, technical terminology or jargon used by helping professionals, and preferential language that conveys values. (Author/NB)

Notes that mediation as problem-solving intervention in social work became widely used in child custody and divorce cases, child-parent conflicts, and family disputes. Argues that mediator role is inherent in social work, and examines context for and assumptions underlying it. Discusses nature of conflicts, issue of neutrality within social work value base, and power-retention qualities of mediation. (Author/NB)