Provides information on all things social work, including direct practice (both clinical and community organizing), research, policy, education... and everything in between.
[Episode 145] Today’s episode is the third of a three-part series on research design (and the second of a two-part series on Experimental Research Design) with Dr. Bruce Thyer, Distinguished Research Professor and former Dean with the College of Social Work at Florida State University.
Dr. Thyer is a Distinguished Research Professor and former Dean with the College of Social Work at Florida State University. He is also an Extra-Ordinary Professor with North-West University in the Republic of South Africa and an adjunct faculty member with the Tulane University School of Social Work. Previously he held the position of Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Georgia. Dr. Thyer received his MSW from the University of Georgia and his Ph.D. in Social Work and Psychology from the University of Michigan. He is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Florida and Georgia and he is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Dr. Thyer has been a long-term promoter of the evidence-based practice model within social work. His work is largely informed by social learning theory and has taken a recent turn in the direction of exposing and discouraging pseudoscientific theories, interventions and assessment methods within social work practice.
[Episode 144] Today’s episode is the second of a three-part series on research design (and the first of a two-part series on Experimental Research Design) with Dr. Bruce Thyer, Distinguished Research Professor and former Dean with the College of Social Work at Florida State University. Today's episode is all about experimental research
Dr. Thyer is a Distinguished Research Professor and former Dean with the College of Social Work at Florida State University. He is also an Extra-Ordinary Professor with North-West University in the Republic of South Africa and an adjunct faculty member with the Tulane University School of Social Work. Previously he held the position of Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Georgia. Dr. Thyer received his MSW from the University of Georgia and his Ph.D. in Social Work and Psychology from the University of Michigan. He is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Florida and Georgia and he is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Dr. Thyer has been a long-term promoter of the evidence-based practice model within social work. His work is largely informed by social learning theory and has taken a recent turn in the direction of exposing and discouraging pseudoscientific theories, interventions and assessment methods within social work practice.
[Episode 128] Today's episode of the Social Work Podcast is a conversation with Dr. Holly Oxhandler (https://hollyoxhandler.com/).
I speak with Holly about the definitions of religion and spirituality, similarities and differences in religious and spiritual affiliation between social work professionals and their clients, how to address religion and spirituality in practice, and her experience as the co-host of the CXMH podcast (www.CXMHpodcast.com).
[Episode 103] Today's Social Work Podcast is about the Grand Challenge initiative for social work. In today’s interview I asked Dr. Barth if there was a plan to bring practitioners, educators and policy makers on board with the Grand Challenge initiatives – he said they were already on board. I asked him to walk us through a Grand Challenge topic – he picked the challenge Ensure Healthy Development for All Youth. I asked him if he hopes the Grand Challenge Initiative will make more funding available to the profession – he said that he hopes for more resources, not just funding. I asked him if he thought doctoral students should hitch their wagons to the Grand Challenges. He was very diplomatic, but basically said “yes.” I asked him about the challenges coordinating between the major social work organizations, NASW which represents practitioners, CSWE which represents educators, and SSWR which represents researchers. He said he’s never seen organizations working together so closely as they have with the Grand Challenges. I asked him if there were topics that people would be surprised to find out were not Grand Challenge topics. He said, there were several and then explained why. As an author of a Grand Challenge paper, I know that we were asked to conceptualize what could be accomplished in the next 10 years. So I asked Dr. Barth what he hoped he would be able to say at the 10 year anniversary event of the Grand Challenges.
Here's what the AASWSW website says about the Grand Challenge Initiative:
"The Grand Challenges for Social Work represent a dynamic social agenda, focused on improving individual and family well-being, strengthening the social fabric, and helping create a more just society. Explore each of the 12 Grand Challenges for Social Work below:"
[Episode 94] Today’s episode of the Social Work Podcast is on Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) for social work. My guests, Marion Bogo and Mary Rawlings, and their co-authors Ellen Katz and Carmen Logie, are pioneers in the development, implementation, and evaluation of OSCE adapted for social work.
The audience for today's episode is social work faculty, specifically practice instructors who are interested in learning more about how to objectively evaluate their student's skills. Today's episode reviews the origins of OSCE adapted for social work, how it is implemented in different types of social work programs, some findings from the research that has been conducted on OSCE, and some recommendations for faculty who are interested in learning more about this approach.
[Episode 86] Hey there podcast listeners. Today's social work podcast is about addressing suicide risk in schools. When we think about suicidal youth, we tend to think about hospitals and emergency rooms, or outpatient therapy. When we think about schools we think about standardized testing, or unfortunately the increasingly common mass shooting. But schools are an ideal place to address suicide risk in schools. That's why I was so excited to talk with two of the leading experts on youth suicide in schools. Jim Mazza, Ph.D. and Dave Miller, Ph.D. Jim is at the University of Washington and director of their school psychology program. Jim is the past-president of the American Association of Suicidology. Dave Miller, is at SUNY Albany in the educational and counseling psychology program. He is the president-elect of the American Association of Suicidology and author the highly regarded text, Children and Adolescent Suicidal Behavior: School Based Prevention and Intervention published in 2011 by Guilford Press
I spoke with Jim and Dave in April 2014 at the American Association of Suicidology conference. We talked about what is known and not known about what works to address suicide risk in schools, some of the barriers to implementing effective suicide prevention programs, and the value in framing school-based suicide prevention and intervention in a broader context, both as a way of selling the idea to school administrators and parents, as well as to think beyond just addressing students in a suicidal crisis. As an example, Jim talked about a curriculum he has been developing that uses concepts from Dialectical Behavior Therapy that is intended to improve emotion regulation and other issues in all students. [Update May 2016: Now available: DBT® Skills in Schools: Skills Training for Emotional Problem Solving for Adolescents (DBT STEPS-A)]
A couple of notes about the interview. I recorded it in my conference hotel room and you might hear some street noises in the background. Right before we recorded the interview we had been in the hotel lobby talking with Marsha Linehan, developer of Dialectical Behavior Therapy. This is important, not because I like to name drop, but because you'll hear Dave and Jim reference Marsha and the conversation they were just having with Marsha downstairs. It all made great sense in the moment, but could understandably be a bit confusing if you weren't with us. Downstairs. With Marsha Linehan. At one point Jim mentions research that he is doing with his wife, but doesn't mention her name. She is Elizabeth Dexter-Mazza, licensed psychologist and expert in Dialectical Behavior Therapy.
And now, without further ado, on to episode 86 of the Social Work Podcast, Addressing suicide risk in schools: Interview with James Mazza, Ph.D. and David Miller, Ph.D.
[Episode 81] In today's social work podcast I spoke with Rebecca J. Macy, Ph.D., ACSW, LCSW. Rebecca is the L. Richardson Preyer Distinguished Chair for Strengthening Families and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the UNC at Chapel Hill School of Social Work.
I started our conversation asking Rebecca how she became interested in identification of sex trafficking victims in human service delivery. Most of our conversation focused on how to identify and respond to victims of sex trafficking. We talked about the interdisciplinary nature of sex trafficking; how it involves representatives from law, medicine, social services, and how social workers can and should take the lead in coordinating efforts to help victims. And, as is the custom, we ended our conversation with resources for social workers, the Polaris project in particular. Rebecca was kind enough to send me a list of references and resources that I have posted to the socialworkpodcast.com website.
Since 2004 there has been a 150% increase in the number of searches for the term "sex trafficking." During the same period, there has been no appreciable change in the number of searches for the terms "modern day slavery" or "labor trafficking."
Risk for suicide among gay youth has caught a lot of attention in the American media as of late. There have been a number of youth who have been bullied because they have been gay or perceived to be gay and who have consequently died by suicide. Dan Savage and friends and colleagues and supporters have put together an amazing project called "It Gets Better" (http://www.itgetsbetterproject.com/) focusing on the issue of youth suicide for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, question and queer teens.
Now there is good reason for this. According to the U.S. Government’s Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Youth Suicide, gay and lesbian youth bear an increased risk of suicide, substance abuse, school problems, and isolation because of a "hostile and condemning environment, verbal and physical abuse, rejection and isolation from [peers and family]" (Gibson, 1989). Social worker and pioneer gay and lesbian researcher Caitlin Ryan, found that lesbian, gay, and bisexual young adults who reported higher levels of family rejection during adolescence were 8.4 times more likely to report having attempted suicide, 5.9 times more likely to report high levels of depression, 3.4 times more likely to use illegal drugs, and 3.4 times more likely to report having engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse compared with peers from families that reported no or low levels of family rejection (Ryan, Huebner, Diaz, & Sanchez, 2009).
So, here’s the thing. Families who reject their kids are doing their kids a huge disservice. And that’s the point of today’s podcast. Today I’m talking with Dr. Cynthia Conley about the concerns of heterosexual parents of gay and lesbian youth.
Today’s Social Work Podcast is on Suicide and Black American Males. Why suicide and Black Americans? Well, there is a belief among most Americans, and particularly among African American adults, that Black Americans do not kill themselves (Joe, 2006). When we think of violent death among Black Americans we think of homicide. Suicide is thought of as a “White” problem. While it is true that suicide was not a leading cause of death for African Americans 40 years ago, today it is the third leading cause of deaths among African Americans 15 – 24 years of age. So why Black American Males specifically? Well, among all racial and ethnic groups, the suicide rate is lowest among Black American females. Given that Black American males, particularly youth, are over-represented in social services, social workers need to be aware of the risk for suicide, and prepared to provide potentially life-saving services. One thing that makes social workers professionals is that we are trained to see things that others do not. Most of us have not been trained to see suicide as an important issue in the Black American community. It is my hope that after hearing today’s guest, Dr. Sean Joe, you will be more likely to see suicide among Black American males as an important clinical and programmatic issue.
Sean Joe, PhD, MSW, joined the Brown School in Fall 2014 as the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development. His research focuses on Black adolescents' mental health service use patterns, the role of religion in Black suicidal behavior (NIMH), salivary biomarkers for suicidal behavior, and development of father-focused, family-based interventions to prevent urban African American adolescent males from engaging in multiple forms of self-destructive behaviors (e.g., suicidal behavior). When this interview was recorded, Dr. Joe held a joint position as associate professor in the School of Social Work and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan's School of Medicine. He also served as a faculty associate and Associate Director for Research and Training at the Program for Research on Black Americans at the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. Dr. Joe is a nationally recognized authority on suicidal behavior among African Americans. He is the 2009 recipient of the Edwin Shneidman Award from the American Association of Suicidology for outstanding contributions in research to the field of suicide studies and the 2008 recipient of the Early Career Achievement Award from the Society for Social Work and Research. He has published in the areas of suicide, violence, and firearm-related violence. Dr. Joe served on the board of the Suicide Prevention Action Network (SPAN USA), the scientific advisory board of the National Organization of People of Color Against Suicide, and the editorial board of Advancing Suicide Prevention, a policy magazine. He is the Founder and Director of the Emerging Scholars Interdisciplinary Network, a national interdisciplinary and mutli-ethnic professional development network for early career social and behavior scientist.
In today's podcast, Sean talks why it is important to look at the suicide rate among Black American males, specifically adolescent males. He talks about how recent research has started to put together a profile for Black American Males most at risk for suicide, and the factors that seem to protect against suicide. He talks about some of the social and historical factors associated with the increase in suicide rates among Black Americans. Sean gives an example of how he talks with Black Americans about suicide and stigma. We talked about recommendations for social workers who are working with Black American males who might be suicidal, including talking about faith, valuing that child, having a vision of that child as an adult, and healthy masculinity. Sean discussed some resources for social workers interested in learning more about this topic. We ended the interview with Sean extending an invitation to social work clinicians and researchers to join him to better understand suicide and suicidal behaviors in Black Americans.
One quick word about today’s podcast: I recorded today’s podcast using a Zoom H2 recorder on location at the Society for Social Work Research (SSWR) annual conference. If you listen closely you can hear the sounds of San Francisco in the background: a clock chiming, buses loading and unloading passengers, and even some pigeons congregating outside of the interview room. They don’t detract from the interview, but I wanted to give fair warning in case you were listening to this podcast anywhere were those sounds might be cause for alarm. So, without further ado, on to episode 56 of the social work podcast, Suicide and Black American Males: An Interview with Sean Joe, Ph.D., LMSW
[Episode 55] Today’s Social Work Podcast is about social work with children who have cancer, also referred to as pediatric oncology social work. Although pediatric cancer is relatively rare event, making up less than 1% of the cases diagnosed annually, that single case affects the lives of countless others. From a treatment perspective, when a child is diagnosed with cancer, the whole family is diagnosed with cancer. Children are most likely to get cancer in their first year of life, and least likely between the ages of 5 and 14. If you are white kid in the United States you are nearly two times more likely to get cancer than if you are black. One in 300 boys and one in 330 girls will develop cancer before the age of 20. Every year 2500 children die from cancers with names like Acute Lymphoblastic Lukemia (cancer of the bone marrow - the most common childhood cancer), Hepatoblastoma (cancer of the kidney), neuroblastoma (cancer of the central nervous system), Ewings sarcoma (bone cancer), Hodgin’s Lymphoma (cancer of the lymph nodes), and Wilms tumor (cancer of the kidney). Notice that the most common forms of adult cancer such as lung, breast and colon are not included on this list. And it is not just that children get some cancers and adults get others. Among children, the cancers most often found in infants and toddlers are not the same as the cancers most often found in teenagers. For children today, getting a diagnosis of cancer is not the death sentence it once was. Before 1970 most children who got cancer died. Today, survival rates are nearly 80%. Currently there are about 270,000 survivors of childhood cancer. Consequently pediatric oncology social workers need to know as much about working with survivors of cancer as they do about issues of death and dying.
[Episode 50] In today's podcast I speak with Dr. Cynthia Conley,assistant professor of social work at the School of Social Administration at Temple University, about salary negotiation skills for social workers. Cynthia takes us through salary negotiation from the application to the job offer. Today's podcast is a follow-up to our December, 2008 interview in which Cynthia spoke generally about the importance of salary negotiation to both individuals and to the profession.
[Episode 47] Today's podcast is on salary negotiation. Salary negotiation is a topic that is rarely discussed in schools of social work. Yet, for reasons identified in today's podcast, the social work profession as a whole would benefit if social workers negotiated salaries. In today's podcast, I speak with Dr. Cynthia Conley, assistant professor of social work at the School of Social Administration at Temple University. Dr. Conley's research focuses on salary negotiation, the salary gap between men and women social workers, and leadership skills and social work students. Cynthia and I talk about why salary negotiation is an important topic for social workers and some tips for how to negotiate salaries. I ask Cynthia how realistic it is for social workers to negotiate salaries, especially since many social workers take jobs in agencies where salaries are tied to position, rather than the qualifications of the applicant. Cynthia provides some case examples of successful salary negotiation. We end our conversation with a discussion of Cynthia's research on salary negotiation, and some ideas on where salary negotiation fits in the social work curriculum.
[Episode 44] Today’s podcast is the second in a two part series on measurement for clinical practice and research. In today's podcast I speak with Dr. Mary Rauktis about the difference between measurement in the field and measurement in research settings. We talk about some of the ways that social workers can think about measurement as a tool to improve clinical practice, and some ways that social workers in the field can develop measures that will really benefit their clients. We talk about some of the challenges social workers have using measurement tools because of how rarely measures are integrated into social work courses. We talk about some ideas for how to better integrate measurement into social work education, particularly beyond the required research classes. We end Part II with a discussion of some resources for social workers interested in learning more about measurement.
In Part I, Mary and I spoke about about how she became interested in measurement; some key concepts needed to understand measurement including reliability, validity and error; and how to understand measures used in research articles.
[Episode 43] Today’s podcast is the first in a two part series on measurement for clinical practice and research. In today's podcast I speak with Dr. Mary Rauktis about how she became interested in measurement; some key concepts needed to understand measurement including reliability, validity and error; and how to understand measures used in research articles.
In part two of the podcast we talk about the difference between measurement in the field and measurement in research settings. We talk about some of the ways that social workers can think about measurement as a tool to improve clinical practice, and some ways that social workers in the field can develop measures that will really benefit their clients. We talk about some of the challenges social workers have using measurement tools because of how rarely measures are integrated into social work courses. We talk about some ideas for how to better integrate measurement into social work education, particularly beyond the required research classes. We end Part II with a discussion of some resources for social workers interested in learning more about measurement.
[Episode 42] Today’s podcast is the third of three interviews with Kia J. Bentley on psychopharmacotherapy. Kia J. Bentley is Professor of social work at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond Virginia and has published extensively in the area of psychopharmacotherapy (see references below). Psychopharmacotherapy refers to the treatment of psychiatric disorders with the use of medication. But, as Kia pointed out in our interview, psychopharmacotherapy is not just about giving people medication and calling it a day. It is an approach to treatment that acknowledges the strengths and limitations of medications.
In today’s podcast, Kia talked about a recent, and as of this date unpublished, study she did on the meaning that residents of an in-patient psychiatric facility made out of medication. Kia’s study was qualitative, meaning that she analyzed the text of interviews and drawings from the residents. One of the purposes of qualitative research is to develop a deeper understanding of the meanings that people make out of their lives and experiences. Our conversation turned out to be not only a fascinating view into the meanings that the residents made of medication, but it was also a wonderful sketch of Kia’s process of making meaning out of the interviews and drawings. In qualitative research, the researcher is the analytical tool, and Kia’s struggles with making sense of these meanings is central to qualitative inquiry.
[Episode 39] In this episode of the social work podcast, I continue my conversation with author Dr. Allen Rubin. We talked about how he came to co-author Research Methods for Social Work (the most widely used social work research text) and his most recent text - Practitioner's Guide to Using Research for Evidence-Based Practice. We talked about one of his current research projects - the development of a scale that can be used to evaluate how well social workers are learning evidence-based practice. We ended our conversation with Allen talking about a series of books he is co-editing with David Springer that will have practical "how-to" chapters on evidence-based approaches to today's most important clinical issues.
[Episode 38] In today's podcast, I continue my conversation with Dr. Allen Rubin about social work research. Allen shared his advice for young social work investigators - that is social work researchers who are just starting out in their career as researchers. Allen talks about the value of getting a postdoc, the importance of getting hooked up with a federally-funded investigator for social workers interested doing federally-funded research, having good relationships with social work agencies, and the challenges of actually doing social work research. Allen shared his thoughts on the problems with so-called hot methodologies and the realities of pursuing federal funding.
[Episode 37] In today's podcast, I talked with Dr. Allen Rubin about research and social work practice. You might recognize the name Rubin from the widely used social work research text "Rubin and Babbie," or as it is officially known, Research Methods for Social Work. In addition to the Rubin and Babbie text, he has authored well over 100 publications, most recently focusing on evidence-based practice.
Since so many of us have learned research from the Rubin and Babbie text, myself included, I thought it would be appropriate to interview Allen for the first social work podcast on social work research. I'm excited about offering a series on social work research because research is essential to good social work practice. Most practitioners I know have an impressive command of assessment, diagnosis, intervention and the myriad of factors that go into providing services to clients. These same practitioners get fairly lost in even the most basic research articles and couldn't distinguish an ANOVA from a logistic regression to save their life. So, I thought I would take this opportunity to find out what research concepts Allen Rubin thought were essential for social work practitioners to understand.
Cover letter, letter of transmittal or printed cover face sheet form
Abstract or Executive Summary
Table of Contents
Introduction or Background
Need Statement
Proposed Program
Goals
Objectives
Design or Methodology
Location
Staffing
Project Administration
Implementation Time Table
Special needs such as equipment or especially designed facilities
Evaluation of Project
Budget Narrative
Budget
Budgets are simply another way of stating the proposal. The narrative is in sentence and paragraph form. The budget is in numbers, rows, columns and totals. Both sections are necessary, and both sections must be consistent with each other. What appears in the narrative must also appear in the budget. Nothing can be presented in the budget that is not covered in the narrative. Budgets can be technical. They are a topic for another day. In the meantime, technical help is always available from the organization for which you are writing.
Appendices
Bibliography
Technical data (e.g. census data)
Letters of support
Table of organization
Job descriptions
Vitae
Maps
Bids
Licenses, certificates, permits, etc.
Evaluation instruments
Statements of nondiscrimination, drug-free workplace, etc.
501(c)(3) documentation
Board of Directors
Annual report
Organizational budgets and audited financial statements
Internal Review Board (IRB) approval(s)
The following are “the 5 abilities” Dr. Sites believes that proposal writers should attempt to demonstrate in their proposals:
Singer, J. B. (Host). (2007, August 21). Introduction to grant proposal writing (part II): The narrative, budget and appendices [Episode 23]. Social Work Podcast. Podcast retrieved Month Day, Year, from http://socialworkpodcast.com/2007/08/introduction-to-grant-proposal-writing_21.html
Today's interview with Dr. Edward Sites is the first in a two-part series on the basics of grant proposal writing. In today's episode, I talk with Dr. Sites about strategies for developing and writing a grant proposal. In the second episode, Dr. Sites goes into more detail about the three sections most commonly found in grant applications - the narrative, the budget and the appendices.
Dr. Edward Sites has devoted his entire career of nearly 50 years to child welfare practice, education and research, the last 41 years of which have been as a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work where Dr. Sites was a full professor from 1978 until his retirement in 2006.He was the coordinator of the School’s Child, Youth and Family concentration and the coordinator of the Child Welfare Certificate Program.
Another area of specialization for Dr. Sites has been his expertise and teaching in the area of grant proposal writing.He is a consummate grant proposal writer and was the principal investigator on at least one federal, state or foundation funded grant project every year from 1971 until 2006.He taught grant proposal writing for over 30 years to graduate students from throughout the schools and departments of the University.At his retirement, he was the principal investigator of 9 projects and programs with total annual budgets of over $30 million and a state-wide staff of nearly 100 faculty and professional staff.These projects included research, degree and training programs in collaboration with 16 universities, and provided over 35,000 days of training annually to 4,000 public child welfare employees and 9,000 foster parents in all of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties as well as baccalaureate and master’s degree programs for hundreds of child welfare workers annually.Dr. Sites has not only written hundreds of proposals, but has been a proposal reviewer for the federal government, state agencies, foundations, universities and private agencies.Currently Dr. Sites serves on the board of a foundation and is engaged in institutional advancement work in higher education.
Is this project one in which the author and his/her agency has sufficient interest to pursue to the finish?
If funded, will the staff be able to handle this new project with their other work?
Is the author sufficiently skilled to plan, organize, direct, coordinate, control and evaluate the project? (Keep in mind here that when I say author, I am assuming the author will become the project director, though sometimes proposals are written for hire by proposal writers not expected to be involved in the project if the proposal is funded.)
Are the project goals and objectives sufficiently congruent with those of the parent organization?
Will the parent organization back the project with administrative and other supports?
Are adequate facilities, equipment release time, etc. available?
What risks to the author and organization are there and are these reasonable?
Questions to ask about your finished proposal:
Who are you and what qualifies you to present this proposal?
What is the problem you seek to address?
Have you identified the need?
What do you propose to do about that problem?
How exactly will you go about this and what exactly will you deliver?
How much will it cost?
How will you know if you have accomplished your goals and objectives?
What objective evidence is there of the nature, purpose and capacity of you and your organization and what do other qualified parties think of your idea, your approach to addressing it and your organization?
Singer, J. B. (Host). (2007, August 13). Introduction to grant proposal writing (part I): Strategies and writing tips [Episode 22]. Social Work Podcast. Podcast retrieved Month Day, Year, from http://socialworkpodcast.com/2007/08/introduction-to-grant-proposal-writing.html
