The Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative aims to focus the profession's attention on how social work can play a larger role in mitigating contemporary social problems. Yet a central issue facing contemporary social work is its seeming reticence to engage with social problems, and their solutions, beyond individual-level interventions.…

A report from the Interprofessional Education Collaborative and another from the Institute of Medicine cite working as part of interdisciplinary teams as a core proficiency area for improving health care. This article discusses the core competencies of interprofessional education and the essential role for social workers as leaders and…

If some practitioners are more research minded than others, then promising approaches for bridging the research to practice gap may be developed by describing research-minded practitioners and examining how to locate and support them. This article follows this basic logic in providing an overview of organizational development and practitioner…

This qualitative study explores how 14 institutional agents (graduate diversity officers or GDOs) work towards improving retention for graduate students of Color. Consistent with Lovitt's framework of graduate student retention, findings reveal GDOs implement diverse strategies that promote opportunities for academic integration, social…

Despite huge investment over the past 10 years, improving outcomes for looked-after children remains elusive. A challenge for practitioners, researchers and policy-makers alike has been the absence of a shared conceptual framework for considering and responding to the needs of looked-after children. A second challenge relates to the measurement of…

Despite the significant attention that drugs and alcohol receive on college campuses, few resources and supports are available to students who are recovering from an addiction. Student affairs professionals are uniquely positioned to support these students with a variety of strategies. This article summarizes what is currently known about college…

In the United States, about 17% of adolescents meet diagnostic criteria for mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) disorders. Six million young people receive treatment services annually for mental, emotional, or behavioral problems. These problems affect one in five families and cost $247 million annually. Some strategies for preventing MEB…