Resources Database

This paper is an analysis of 76 research studies looking at the availability and quality of mental health services provided to persons from historically disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups. The research found that interventions targeted to specific cultural or ethnic groups, including in native language, was four times more effective than interventions provided to groups consisting of clients from a variety of backgrounds. 

This study examines the role of professional associations in a changing, highly institutionalized organizational field and suggests that they play a significant role in legitimating change. A model of institutional change is outlined, of which a key stage is "theorization," the process whereby organizational failings are conceptualized and linked to potential solutions. 

The article reports on the findings of a review of empirical studies examining the implementation of evidence-based practice (EBP) in the human services. 

Effective recruitment and selection is essential to successful training outcomes. The aim of this paper is to optimize the fit between the needs of child welfare job applicants and the organization; that is, to identify candidates most likely to be satisfactory job performers and least likely to leave the organization.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of alliances and partnerships for initiating health promotion, well-being in populations in a sustainable manner, and for promoting individual health-related behavior change. 

This article discusses the relationship between coping strategies (problem-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidance), internal resources (dispositional optimism and mastery), demographic and work characteristics, and secondary trauma symptoms among 160 social workers in public agencies who are treating clients who were victims of trauma.

This paper looks at the counterarguments to objections to evidence-based practice, which is currently recognized as the best evidence in making decisions about the care of the clients. Objections could result in premature dismissal of this new form of practice and education that offers potential benefits to social work and its clients. The research may help to increase understanding of barriers to use of practice-related research findings in the helping professions and honoring related requirements described in codes of ethics.

More than 40 different needs assessments were analyzed regarding their goals, methods and findings. The study found that many needs assessments provided snapshots of programs but did not provide recommendations for the future. Most of the needs assessments were conducted in different formats and to different standards, making it difficult for cross-comparison.

The process of developing a code of ethics is assessed because of the role it plays in gaining consensus on professional values and ethical norms. After discussing some of the weaknesses in current approaches to professional self-regulation, several new private and public initiatives are proposed

This paper describes research assessing the effects of educational meetings on professional practice and healthcare outcomes. The authors found educational meetings, alone or combined with other interventions, can improve professional practice and healthcare outcomes for the patients. They also describe strategies to make healthcare meetings more effective.

This study surveyed 289 alumni of a specialized Title IV-E program that prepares undergraduate social work students for careers in public child welfare. Findings indicate that graduates of this program were less likely than other caseworker to leave their positions.

The article aims to assess the effects on mortality, viral suppression, and other health outcomes and quality indicators for streamlining tasks from doctors to other health care workers. 

This paper examines whether decentralization increases the responsiveness of public investment to local needs using a unique database from Bolivia. Empirical tests show that investment patterns in human capital and social services changed significantly after decentralization. These changes are strongly and positively related to objective indicators of need. Nationally, these changes were driven by the smallest, poorest municipalities investing devolved funds in their highest-priority projects.

Given the vital part that practicum education plays in the social work profession, understanding the views of field instructors on this subject is essential. The George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University surveyed 283 field instructors within 180 agencies and found that the majority (87%, N=235) viewed it as a useful practice idea. However, most of the indicators employed to assess use of scientific evidence in social work practice revealed that it occurs too infrequently.

This paper details a study that provides an integrated architecture framework for e-government that represents the alignment of IT infrastructure with business process management in public sector organizations and to classify the barriers that might complicate the implementation of the proposed architecture framework.  It identifies requirements of information and communications technology tools, highlighting the importance of the organizational management resources and the impact of barriers.

The objective of this paper is to provide better a understanding of the determinants of geographical imbalances in the distribution of health personnel, and to identify and assess the strategies developed to correct and enhance them because vulnerable population do not have access to skilled personnel and other necessary inputs.

The article argues that the globalization of the economy and the internationalization of the state are affecting social work education and practice in Britain through the competency-based approach being promoted by CCETSW and the government. This is leading to the demise of the autonomous, reflective practitioner, creating instead, a fragmented, deprofessionalized workforce that is poorly placed to meet the requirements of anti-oppressive practice.

Exploratory qualitative research was conducted among health workers in two provinces in North Viet Nam as an entry point for developing strategies that would improve their performance by identifying their major motivational factors. The study found that motivation was influenced both by financial and non-financial incentives. The main motivating factors for health workers were appreciation by managers, colleagues and the community, a stable job and income and training.

The status of the practicum (learning by doing) in educational administration preparation programmes is discussed. Research on this topic has so far been limited and the paper presents some possible new directions which the research may take.

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) uses the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) to accredit baccalaureate- and master’s-level social work programs.  The goal is to shape the profession’s future through the education of competent professionals, the generation of knowledge, and the exercise of leadership within the professional community.