Medical-legal partnerships (MLPs) integrate legal services into the health care setting to resolve legal issues that have a negative impact on patient health. These partnerships between attorneys and health care professionals have traditionally focused on physicians. Despite early success and expansion of the MLP model, the literature is only…

Spiritual needs often emerge in the context of receiving health or behavioral health services. Yet, despite the prevalence and salience of spiritual needs in service provision, clients often report their spiritual needs are inadequately addressed. In light of research suggesting that most social workers have received minimal training in…

This article reviews recent theory and research on geographic disparities in mental health and their implications for social work. It focuses on work emerging from the fields of mental health geography, psychiatric epidemiology, and social work, arguing that a wide range of spatial disparities in mental health are important to understand but that…

Increasing numbers of women are found in the military, and they are now performing roles very similar to those of male service members. More returning servicewomen and veterans have been exposed to stressful and traumatic experiences, such as combat and difficult living circumstances, and military sexual trauma is common. These experiences have…

Self-determination is a primary ethical principle underlying social work practice in health care settings. Since the 1970s, a right-to-die movement that shares the social work commitment to self-determination has grown and influences end-of-life care decisions. However, the role of culture is notably absent in discussions of the right to die. A…

At the turn of the century, the Joint Commission--the nation's largest health care accrediting organization--began requiring spiritual assessments in hospitals and many other mental health settings frequented by Native Americans. Despite high levels of service use, culturally unique forms of spirituality, and a history of oppression in mainstream…

An exploratory survey indicated that the depression prevalence among Chinese Americans is 17.4 percent. Of 516 respondents, 34.9 percent preferred seeking advice from friends or relatives, followed by 30.2 percent not showing any preference when facing a mental health problem. Logistic regression results pointed to three contributing factors:…

This article discusses social work practice areas for civilian social workers who provide services to military service members, veterans, and their families. These practice areas include education, child welfare, domestic violence, mental health, health care, substance abuse, and criminal justice. The authors examine the impact of the contemporary…

Health planning in the United States is rapidly approaching a fork in the policy road, with one direction leading the nation toward a universal plan with strong government involvement and the other direction strengthening existing market-based reforms and preserving a commercial health insurance industry. "Consumer-driven health care," a slogan…

At best, mainstream mental health services are often ineffective with Native American clients, and, at worst, they are a vehicle for Western colonization. As such, the authors explore the notion of abandoning the Western therapeutic project and rebuilding the helping process on the basis of indigenous knowledge foundations. To this end, they…

Evidence-based practice (EBP) has contributed substantially to the advancement of knowledge in the treatment and prevention of adult mental health disorders. A fundamental assumption, based on documented evidence of effectiveness with certain populations, is that EBP is equally effective and applicable to all populations. However, small sample…

Although most social work professionals may expect that women who experience partner violence will sustain acute physical injuries, social workers may be less knowledgeable about the chronic health problems with which violence survivors often struggle. To inform social work practice, we reviewed and synthesized the recently published research on…

Although significant numbers of social service clients experience mental health problems, virtually no research has examined the responsiveness of social service agencies to mental disorder. This article examines the extent to which client depression is reflected in records of a public social service agency, community long-term care (CLTC).…

Controversial proposals to establish health organizations could drastically change the delivery of health services. Understanding the issues in this controversy can help professionals in the human services see what is needed in health reform and legislation. (Author)

Overdiagnosis or misdiagnosis of schizophrenia among African American clients is a longstanding and critical disparity in mental health services. Overdiagnosis of schizophrenia is detrimental because it increases the potential for treatment with the wrong medications. Inadequate assessment of mood disorders, co-occurring substance abuse, and…