Social workers engage with many professionals to address complex social problems. This includes leveraging the power of social work to support quality interventions on interprofessional teams. While generalist social workers are prepared to apply multidisciplinary theoretical frameworks and rely on interprofessional collaboration, specialized…

Rural Appalachia encompasses a region of the United States represented by unique cultural strengths and systemic challenges. To meet their students' career and college needs, school counselors working in rural Appalachia must understand the cultural nuances of the region. Consensual qualitative research (CQR) methodology revealed five domains and…

Certain student populations including youth formerly in foster care, first-generation college students, those with mental illness and substance abuse issues, and racial and ethnic minority students, face persistent challenges to their pursuit of college education, contributing to low graduation rates compared to their peers. This article details…

The current brief provides an overview of the 2021-2022 school year student-to-school psychologist ratio for every United States territory, using the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) counts of school psychologists. In addition to this, data are presented on the percentage change in student-to-school psychologist ratio from the…

The importance of gerontology-focused classroom and field education has been emphasized heavily in social work education for decades as the population of older adults continues to expand, as does the need to provide services to support the health and well-being of older adults. Although the need for social workers and other professionals who…

This study sought to determine if a relationship exists among high school counselors' specific demographics, the educational experiences (i.e., professional development, training, and other coursework) of public high school counselors, the factors that influence public high school counselors to advise college-bound students to enroll in career and…

This study used quantitative measures to explore child abuse reporting trends for early career school counselors and to examine factors influencing their decisions to report suspected child abuse. Thematic coding was used to analyze recommendations for additional training needs regarding child abuse reporting and for the challenges school…

Licensing has been a dynamic tension for the social work profession for many years, specifically in social work education. Increasingly, social work programs are using factors related to social work licensing (pass rates, number of test takers, etc.) as an indicator of programmatic success. Yet few, if any, published papers examine curricular…

This paper examines a developing model for building an international social work placement that meets the needs of the host agency and community first. The paper addresses the challenges for social work departments to develop a strong learning environment while also keeping primary the needs of the host community and agency.

Study determines the extent to which counselors in Kentucky schools have adopted computers. The rate at which computer technology is growing is making their effective use difficult and expensive because older models lack the ability to run programs designed for counseling-related applications. Computers represent a resource that is not being used…

This article describes the early stages in the implementation of the competency-based employment-counseling model in a local employment office in Kentucky. Preliminary steps taken at both the state and local levels are discussed. The conclusions provide several key factors to successful initial implementation. (Author)

Due to the frequent occurrences of violence in schools across America, one must wonder how a school and a community will cope in the face of a crisis. This paper examines the role of the school counselor in crisis intervention by having school counselors in Eastern Kentucky complete a survey concerning their competence in fulfilling this role. The…

The juvenile offender population presents a significant challenge to residential group workers. One strategy to address this challenge is structured psychoeducational group work. The Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, in collaboration with Western Kentucky University, has established the Group Work Training Certification Program for…

A study was conducted to ascertain the job requirements and training needs of juvenile service unit workers. A training needs assessment inventory questionnaire was mailed to all juvenile service unit workers in the Kentucky Department of Child Welfare (DCW). Data from 146 questionnaires were analyzed to provide job descriptive information, which…