Social workers can help advance public health through increased acceptability of harm reduction principles and practices. This study evaluated Master of Social Work students' attitudes towards harm reduction before and after a substance use and social work practice course and assessed differences in students' attitude outcomes across multiple…

University student support services are broad and varied. These services are generally located centrally on campus rather than in a specific academic area. Offering a decentralized, college-specific student support and retention model that partners with academic and student affairs allows for a more holistic, integrated approach to student support…

Objective: This study examines the impact of the PC 3-sessions Training Project (PC-project), designed to improve professional competency among social workers in China. Methods: Using a quasi-experimental approach, 170 social workers from social work organizations (SWOs) or community organizations (COs) participated. The experimental group (Group…

Substance use is a chronic social issue that has a substantial effect on social welfare topics in the United States. As one of the primary professions responsible for providing mental health services in the United States, it is imperative that social workers are prepared to meet the challenges presented by this ongoing epidemic. However, several…

Legislative advocacy is an important and long-standing skill in social work. However, this role cannot be left solely to social workers who specialize in macro and policy practice. Rather, clinical social workers who assist clients as they face "private" troubles (Mills, 1959) also need to face the structural barriers that contribute to…

This study surveyed 289 alumni of a specialized Title IV-E program that prepares undergraduate social work students for careers in public child welfare, examining factors such as turnover rates, adherence to strengths-based practice principles, perceptions of work conditions, and intent to stay. Findings indicate that graduates of this program…

For many years, schools of social work have engaged in partnerships, especially with public child welfare agencies, to prepare a competent and professional child welfare workforce through the mechanism of Title IV-E training. In 2008 the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI) established an additional resource for preparing students in…

Introduction: Previous literature has shown that multifaceted, interactive interventions may be the most effective way to train health and social care professionals. A Train-the-Trainer (TTT) model could incorporate all these components. We conducted a systematic review to determine the overall effectiveness and optimal delivery of TTT programs.…

Attention to preparing social workers for our aging society has increased with concern that there may be insufficient professionals to meet the need. Interest in training gerontologically-savvy social work students had led to the development of models to achieve this end. This article reports on a collaboration among a university's school of…

This article describes an innovative project that combined service learning and community-based partnerships to teach macro practice skills to social work students and citizenship skills to primary school students. The partners, a small social work program, several primary schools, and an internationally recognized civic engagement program,…

Family members provide the majority of care for individuals with disabilities in the United States. There is growing recognition that family caregiving deserves and may require societal support, and evidence-based practices have been established for reducing stress associated with caregiving. A substantial research literature on family support has…

Objective: The purpose of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of a comprehensive, strengths-based model of case management for clients in drug abuse treatment. Method: 503 volunteers from residential or intensive outpatient treatment were randomly assigned to one of three conditions of Iowa Case Management (ICM) plus treatment as usual…

There is a national shortage of social workers who have the knowledge and skill competencies needed for practice with our rapidly growing older adult population. In the last decade, research has identified many reasons for the lack of interest in gerontological social work and steps that could be pursued within social work education to remedy the…

This study examined the current case management system in Minnesota and the functions performed by case managers. Data were collected from 206 case managers, 66 case manager supervisors, and 60 county directors of human services agencies. The questionnaires solicited information on different aspects of case management, including training, case…

There is ample evidence that points out that the majority of social work students have little interest in social policy analysis. In this study, the impact a classroom-based policy construction exercise had on the interest level in policy of a differentiated sample (N = 43) of MSW students, in which participants were enrolled in either a…