Search

Introduction: Emergency department (ED) utilization for psychiatric disease is increasing, and a lack of health insurance has been identified as a potential cause of preventable or avoidable ED use. Through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), more uninsured individuals gained health insurance; however, the effects of increased health insurance coverage on ED utilization for psychiatric disease have not been examined.Methods: We performed a longitudinal, cross-sectional analysis of data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample, the largest all-payer ED database in the US, which contains data on over 25 million ED visits each year. We examined ED utilization for psychiatric disease as the primary reason for visit among adults aged 18-64. We compared the proportion of ED visits with a psychiatric diagnosis during post-ACA years (2011-2016) to pre-ACA (2009) using logistic regression adjusted for age, gender, payer, and hospital region.Results: The proportion of ED visits with psychiatric diagnosis increased from pre-ACA (4.9%) to post-ACA years (ranging from 5.0-5.5%). There was a significant difference in the proportion of ED visits with a psychiatric diagnosis when comparing each post-ACA year with pre-ACA, with adjusted odds ratios ranging from 1.01-1.09. Among ED visits with a psychiatric diagnosis, the most common age group was 26-49 years, and patients were more likely to be male than female and to have visited urban rather than rural hospitals. During post-ACA years (2014-2016), private and uninsured payers decreased, Medicaid payers increased, and Medicare payers increased in 2014 and decreased in 2015-2016 compared to pre-ACA.Conclusion: With the ACA more people gained health insurance, yet ED visits for psychiatric disease continued to increase. These results suggest that increasing access to health insurance alone is not sufficient to reduce ED utilization for patients with a psychiatric disease.

The authors focus on a collective biography of 12 women social work educators, all either tenured or in tenure lines, from five different universities at the time of the study. The participants represent several aspects of macro practice including administration, planning, community practice, and policy. Beginning with reflections about coming into macro practice, we highlight memories about first teaching experiences and examine cultural shifts discovered in our academic journeys. We feature students who inspired us and perceptions of challenges in curricular development affecting the preparation of students. This article includes comments that emphasize the themes and focus of our collective reflections. Finally, we place what we learned in the context of a report from the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration calling for the visibility of and advocacy for macro social work education.

Educators secure funding for MSW students to become a grant-making entity and provide monies to address local needs. An exploratory research design is used to obtain quantitative and qualitative data from students participating in the course-based project. Feedback suggests that students perceived increased abilities in the area of community needs assessments, grant writing, grant making, fund raising, public relations, and professional interest in efforts to secure monies. The merits and challenges of implementing a course-based grant-making and philanthropic project in the social work education are examined. (Contains 1 table.)

Recent attention on community organizing in national politics provides an opportunity for social work educators to revisit and enhance community practice as a core practice of the profession. Drawing from social work's rich tradition of community practice this article provides a practical aid to understand the variety of strategies currently used by instructors and students. It proposes a framework that differentiates the underlying assumptions of three community practice paradigms--traditional, collaborative, and radical--with very different goals or visions for organizing. It examines multiple dimensions of practice within each paradigm including purpose, power, politics, and evaluation standards. In addition, it provides suggestions about how the framework can be used in the classroom. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

The authors examine one of the earliest systematic forms of qualitative inquiry to identify some of the boundaries needed in grounded theory designs to provide a small corner of clarity in the discourse about what is acceptable science from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) perspective. Beginning with an overview of grounded theory research as it was originally conceived and extended, the challenges for establishment of a uniform standard are put forth. Within this background and context, the authors report the results of a content analysis of a sampling of dissertation abstracts claiming to use grounded theory. Results reveal the need to clarify standards for different types of grounded theory research to help those facing IRB oversight. The authors assert that there are two useful sets of standards that should be applied to the assessment of the quality of a grounded theory design and researchers should not confuse the two. (Contains 3 tables.)

As faith-based organizations and congregations are increasingly relied upon for social service provision in the United States, the collaborative relationships formed for human service purposes regularly include one or more faith-related organizations. Despite the growing attention on faith-based organizations and their history of participation in social service delivery, research concerning their interaction with others in the public and private sectors remains quite sparse. This article describes the findings of a qualitative post hoc analysis of a national study examining fifteen diverse faith-based social service programs. Findings emerged in three categories: partners, purposes, and relationships. KEYWORDS collaboration, organizational relationships, faith-based organizations, faith-based social services, congregations

This study examined the impact on children of services delivered through a collaborative initiative designed to provide supports to working poor families who are homeless or at immediate risk of becoming homeless. Overall, a number of positive findings can serve to inform the development of promising intervention strategies for children in homeless families and highlight areas for further research. Along with improved housing status, there was a statistically significant improvement in the economic self‐sufficiency of the families served, regardless of whether they completed the full programme cycle. In addition, youth self‐report data indicated significant improvements in externalizing and internalizing behaviour. The ability to combine programme data with school data for participating children also made it possible to explore school performance outcomes. Although these results did not indicate a change in participants’ levels of attendance or reading performance, there was a statistically significant improvement in students’ math scores. Moreover, when participating children were compared with a group of students matched on their level of academic performance at baseline who had not received housing or homeless services, no significant differences were detected between groups post‐intervention, indicating that services may help reduce the risk of homeless students’ falling further behind their peers academically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communities nationwide have formed cross-sector partnerships to face the needs of an aging population, particularly for the purpose of improving long-term supportive service systems. Research is limited on how evaluation strategies are incorporated into partnership work, especially in the field of aging. This retrospective qualitative study reviewed administrative and key informant interview data to examine how 15 community partnerships (CPs) within the Community Partnerships for Older Adults (CPFOA) national program incorporated evaluation into their work. The four overarching lessons drawn from our inquiry suggest that effective CPs: (a) incorporate both formative and summative methods into evaluation, (b) use and develop the knowledge and skills of its members, (c) support flexible and creative evaluation methods and strategies, and (d) use internal and external resources to support evaluation efforts, particularly with nontraditional partners. There is a need for continued research to capture the methodological complexity of partnership evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This manuscript explores the experiences of a group of female macro social work academics using the collective biography process (Davies and Gannon, 2006). The narrative includes remembrances that the authors believe shaped who we are as macro social work academics and the work that we do. The shared stories are presented in a chronological manner and include analysis of the themes we identified as being important to the development of each academic within the group. Themes emerged pointing to a common understanding of the experiences and perhaps a view of the world. This suggested something unique in the development and socialization of women who become macro social work academics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The earliest days of social service in American history included elements of religion and government, working together in efforts to address human needs. In recent years, with devolution, privatization, and an overall reduction of public spending on human services, government entities have acknowledged their shared role with religious organizations in efforts addressing human needs. Recent social policies, known as faith-based initiatives, have emphasized these relationships, calling for more involvement from religious organizations and more public support of these organizations. This paper offers initial analysis of qualitative data that focuses on the nature of relationships between government entities and religious organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The homeless population is aging faster than the general population in the United States. As this vulnerable population continues to age, addressing complex care and housing needs will become increasingly important. This article reviews the often-overlooked issue of homelessness among older adults, including their poor health status and unique care needs, the factors that contribute to homelessness in this population, and the costs of homelessness to the U.S. health care system. Permanent supportive housing programs are presented as a potential solution to elder homelessness, and Hearth, an outreach and permanent supportive housing model in Boston, is described. Finally, specific policy changes are presented that could promote access to housing among the growing older homeless population.