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Existing research suggests a majority of faculty include social justice content in research courses but not through the use of existing quantitative data for in-class activities that foster mastery of data analysis and interpretation and curiosity about social justice-related topics. By modeling data-driven dialogue and the deconstruction of quantitative meaning making related to social justice in and around social work practice topics, we can prepare our students to be agents of change in their social work careers and possibly engage our students in an often difficult course. Specifically, I provide examples for how discussions about socioeconomic justice can be infused in teaching about univariate, bivariate, and multivariate statistical analyses from the perspectives of critical consumption and the production of research.

People with intellectual disabilities (ID) have experienced increasing levels of community participation since deinstitutionalization. This freedom has facilitated community inclusion, access to alcohol and drugs, and the potential for developing substance abuse (SA) disorders. People with ID, who are known to have high rates of co-occurring serious mental illness (SMI), may be especially vulnerable to the consequences of this disease and less likely to use SA treatment. Using standardized performance measures for SA treatment access (initiation, engagement), rates were examined retrospectively for Medicaid beneficiaries with ID/SA/SMI ages 12 to 99 (N = 5,099) and their counterparts with no ID/SA/SMI (N = 221,875). Guided by the sociobehavioral model of health care utilization, age-adjusted odds ratios and logistic regression models were conducted. People with ID/SA/SMI were less likely than their counterparts to access treatment. Factors associated with initiation included being nonwhite, living in a rural area, and not being dually eligible for Medicare; factors associated with engagement included all of the same and having a fee-for-service plan, a chronic SA-related disorder, or both. Social work policy and practice implications for improving the health of people with ID/SA/SMI through policy change, cross-system collaboration, and the use of integrated treatment approaches are discussed.

Childhood injuries lead to increased morbidity and result in significant costs to public insurance programs. People with mental retardation, most of whom are covered by Medicaid, are at high risk for injury, which has implications for community inclusion, a central policy goal. Medicaid data from inpatient, outpatient, and long-term care settings represent an important new resource for injury surveillance in this population. Injury prevalence for 8.4 million Medicaid-eligible children in 26 states was measured using 1999 eligibility and claims data; 36.9% Medicaid beneficiaries ages 1 to 20 with mental retardation had at least one injury claim as compared with 23.5% of those without mental retardation. Prevalence rates are reported by gender and age for a variety of injury types.

The article discusses the call for social work professionals to develop their Disability cultural competence with priorities on inclusion and antiableism as of January 2023. Topics covered include social work's alignment with the intersectional Disability Justice movement, ableism integration with social work education, and four steps to realize antiableism. Also noted are the steps of ableism recognition, generation of relevant data, supporting leadership, and promoting partnerships.

People with intellectual disabilities (ID) have experienced increasing levels of community participation since deinstitutionalization. This freedom has facilitated community inclusion, access to alcohol and drugs, and the potential for developing substance abuse (SA) disorders. People with ID, who are known to have high rates of co-occurring serious mental illness (SMI), may be especially vulnerable to the consequences of this disease and less likely to use SA treatment. Using standardized performance measures for SA treatment access (initiation, engagement), rates were examined retrospectively for Medicaid beneficiaries with ID/SA/ SMI ages 12 to 99 (N = 5,099) and their counterparts with no ID/SA/SMI (N = 221,875). Guided by the sociobehavioral model of health care utilization, age-adjusted odds ratios and logistic regression models were conducted. People with ID/SA/SMI were less likely than their counterparts to access treatment. Factors associated with initiation included being nonwhite, living in a rural area, and not being dually eligible for Medicare; factors associated with engagement included all of the same and having a fee-for-service plan, a chronic SA-related disorder, or both. Social work policy and practice implications for improving the health of people with ID/SA/SMI through policy change, cross-system collaboration, and the use of integrated treatment approaches are discussed. KEY WORDS: access to care; intellectual disability; Medicaid; serious mental illness; substance abuse treatment, In light of high rates of co-occurring substance abuse (SA) and serious mental illness (SMI),behavioral health services provision, and integrated treatment approaches in particular, have received much attention from social [...]

A baseline framework is proposed for social workers to plan a management approach that balances 'dignity of risk' with risk management for people with substance abuse and mental retardation.

Drawing on national, longitudinal Adoption and Foster Care Analysis, and Reporting System data (2005–2015), demographic, health, foster care, and geographic characteristics of decedents (N = 3653) aged 1–17 years were examined. On average, decedents were 6 years old, the highest proportion died as infants, and experienced significant trauma in their short lives either through maltreatment or exposure to parental substance use. A noted increase in Medicaid coverage among decedents over time suggests critical access to concurrent treatment and hospice care, but this is unavailable to children with private insurance. This study has policy implications related to the 2010 Affordable Care Act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]