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Volume 4, Number 1 Fall 1998 |
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Steering Our Future Course: Developing an Agenda for Managed Care and Child Welfare As child welfare services are restructured for outcomes which demonstrate efficiency and effectiveness, there is a growing need to help professionals understand the choices and challenges of going to a market-driven approach. Lewin's force field analysis model is used to provide a systematic framework for understanding why managed care is not likely to fade away. An argument is made for a proactive response that is based on a family centered, strengths based approach to child welfare within the context of managed care. Student Disclosures in Social Work Education: Does Your Program Need a Policy? University faculty and administrators are often ill-prepared when the personal problems of students are divulged in the classroom context. The absence of formal policy and procedures in relationship to student disclosures is commonplace in higher education. Using Durkheim's orientation on social change, this article examines institutional responsibility as well as legal, ethical, and pragmatic issues associated with student disclosures in social work education. Programs are encouraged to develop policies and programs to assist faculty in maintaining appropriate professional boundaries with students. Concrete suggestions are provided to facilitate the development of strategies, policies, and programs addressing student disclosures. Issues in Gatekeeping This paper discusses specific gatekeeping issues facing social work educators, both university- and agency-based, and uses case analysis to explain how one undergraduate program handled these issues. The cases highlight procedures used in the gatekeeping process and reflect the difficulty of gatekeeping including many problems that can arise in any educational setting. Focusing on case examples may help educators develop and further refine approaches and strategies for gatekeeping in order to guard the gate to the social work profession. The Combined Use of Video and One-Way Broadcast Technology to Deliver Baccalaureate Education: A Comparative Assessment of Student Learning in a School of Social Work Face-to face instruction remains the dominant teaching method in undergraduate social work education today. However, the technological explosion of the 1980s and 1990s has provided the opportunity to expand our thinking beyond these traditional methods. An increasingly popular method of social work education utilizes various technological media to offer courses that serve students at a distance from the instructor. This article describes a post-hoc assessment of student learning conducted after a course was offered by a school of social work to 462 baccalaureate students. Approximately half of the students were enrolled in the course when it was delivered in a large lecture class format during the standard 15 week term. The remaining students ('distant' students) viewed videotapes of studio-filmed broadcasts of the same 15 week course. This assessment addresses the question, "Can undergraduate students learn as well by videotapes of a broadcast course as from face-to-face instruction?" The Role of a Study Abroad Course in Undergraduate Social Work Education Developing an instructive and useful study abroad course for undergraduate social work students presents an unusual challenge. In this paper, the author addresses issues involving the study abroad course and concludes that such a course can occupy an important place in social work education. The author also provides a model for assisting educators in designing their own study abroad course. Cross cultural and educational exchanges fostered by a study abroad course can promote an ongoing involvement by students and faculty in the international arena of social work. Cross-Cultural Considerations for Social Work Practice In the United State, our increasing populations of ethnic and racial minorities suffering with severe mental illnesses require culturally sensitive and culturally appropriate mental health services. The multiple facets of work involving culturally diverse individuals with severe mental illness challenge social work faculty to prepare students with salient, useful knowledge and skills. This teaching module, which utilizes the International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia: Fiver-year follow-up findings of a large scale, longitudinal study of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia in nine countries. The learning process encourages students to think critically about the cross-cultural applicability of western diagnosis, treatment, and service provision models to learn more about the cultural construction of illness and well-being, and to explore the nature of systematic and other barriers that prevent individuals with severe mental illness from obtaining services. Social Policy Considerations for Community Mental Health Services: A Curriculum Module Integrating Mental Health Research This curriculum module is designed for use in an undergraduate social policy course. It focuses on mental health policy and its impact on services to the chronic mentally ill in the community. Relevant mental health research is integrated in order to provide a basis for comparing traditional service interventions with alternative approaches. Learning outcomes that are critical to social policy analysis are addressed to include: problem identification and analysis; policy reform proposals; implementation concerns; and assessment. These components of social policy are applied to mental health services by specifically comparing family-aided assertive community treatment to longstanding approaches associated with deinstitutionalization. Curriculum Module: Applying Mental Health Research on Psychoeducation with Multiple-Family Groups to Field Work Practice This curriculum module is developed to integrate mental health research with undergraduate field practice. The module is based on a research study of the New York Family Support Demonstration Project which utilized psychoeducation as a treatment modality for schizophrenic patients and their families. The module is designed to make students aware of the importance of reading research studies in their areas of interest, and, of testing research findings in their own practice. The module, as presented here, is designed to be used in field seminar with upper level students. However, the module is appropriate (with modification) for upper level courses in policy, practice, research, and human behavior in the social environment. A Comparison of Supported Employment and Day Treatment Services for People with Chronic Mental Illness: A Curriculum Module for Baccalaureate Social Work Practice Courses Because the mental health field is one of the most common areas of practice for social workers, it is important for baccalaureate social work programs to include content on mental health research and services within the undergraduate curriculum. The following curriculum module, designed for inclusion in practice classes, demonstrates the use of mental health research as a teaching tool. It provides opportunities for developing students' skills in teamwork and critical thinking while exposing students to content on mental illness and mental health services. Teaching About Prevention and Intervention: A Mental Health Curriculum Module Social Work students generalist practice methods will benefit from experiential classroom experiences that focus on the "person-in-the-environment" perspective. Henggeler's research with serious juvenile offenders and their families provides a vehicle for examining practice interventions that incorporate systems theory and client empowerment, and celebrates the diversity of varied professional perspectives working together to help facilitate client change. This module offers an instructional approach that asks students to think critically regarding the most effective and efficient interventions available within a specific context. Use of Mental Health Research in BSW Curriculum: Wraparound Services This module presents an overview of the Yoe, Santarcangelo, Atkins & Burchard article, "Wraparound care in Vermont: Program development, implementation and evaluation of a statewide system of individualized services," Journal of Child and Family Studies 5(1), 23-39, and offers teaching strategies to integrate the knowledge into social work practice courses. This article examines the overall programming and effectiveness of the wraparound service system in Vermont.
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