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Historically, social workers have been aware of the power of group resources and the importance of networking for their clients and for themselves as professionals. This article is the outgrowth of a collaboration paper presented by the authors at the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors Annual Conference on September 22, 1986 in San Antonio, Texas. Four separate social work education programs within a state university system formed an informal collaborative association to address common concerns, develop strategies to enhance resources and to foster mutual support. The context, developmental process, barriers, activities, issues, outcomes and benefits of the collaborative association are described. © 1989 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This study examined the association among suicide attempts, parental alcoholism, psychopathology and drinking history in a sample of hospitalized alcoholics. Suicide attempters were found to have multiple psychiatric diagnoses (e.g., depression, antisocial personality disorder and substance abuse) and more severe psychiatric symptoms than nonattempters. Alcoholic suicide attempters also tended to have a parental history of alcoholism and began abusing alcohol at an early age. Alcohol abuse symptoms during the month before, and 6 month before, the current hospitalization were generally similar for suicide attempters and nonattempters. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed.

The present study assessed the presence of testing effects arising from the repeated administration of both the Beck and Zung depression scales to a group of 60 inpatient alcoholics. Thirty-seven men and 23 women were randomly assigned to one of three groups and administered the depression scales on one, two or three occasions, in successive weeks of treatment. Although the between group comparisons of initial test administration did not indicate a true change in depression, a within group comparison of initial with subsequent test administrations indicated a clear improvement in depression scores on both scales. Apparently the result of the reactive effects of testing, the within group differences could easily mislead a researcher into believing depression was alleviated when in fact it was not. This sizeable testing effect has obvious implications for studies which repeatedly assess depression. © 1987 Medical Council on Alcoholism.

This paper analyzes the sources of strain between the professions of medicine and social work. The two professions are compared in relation to (1) the organization and socialization process of professional training; (2) perspectives on patient care, illness and role of the health care professional; (3) attitudes toward knowledge and data; (4) attitudes toward and preparation for teamwork; (5) perspectives on the role of the patient; (6) perceptions of social work’s function. © 1985 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Genetic counselling represents a new and important health service, but little is known about how the clients of genetic clinics actually experience and view the genetic counselling process. This paper reports on the evaluations made by clients of a genetics clinic and their recommendations for ways to improve and expand this service. In their comments, clients stressed the need for more time and individual attention from genetic counsellors, additional follow-up and supportive counselling, and increased efforts to educate the general public about birth defects. Their recommendations are discussed in terms of the implications for developing and improving genetic counselling services.

Increasingly, grandmothers are parenting grandchildren in homes where parental presence is sporadic or nonexistent. A disproportionate percentage of African American grandparents fall in this category. The author reviews the literature on the African American grandmother in the context of the African American family and describes a practice model for service provision to those women who seek support as they “parent again.”

Mental health professionals and researchers have emphasized the importance of conducting outreach to locate homeless persons with mental illness, and of creatively engaging these persons into a therapeutic relationship. These outreach and engagement activities raise challenging issues in the areas of client-staff boundaries, professional ethics, and staff safety. While several issues in each of these three key areas have received attention in the growing literature on homelessness, certain issues within each area remain unexplored. The authors draw from the street experiences of outreach staff in a federally funded homeless outreach project to further explore each of these areas, and suggest that experiences of outreach workers are essential in shaping and redefining work activities in these, and other important areas.

This paper examines the factors surrounding the use of alcohol among Latino males. Prevention and treatment strategies for the provision of culturally competent treatment services are proposed, based on an analysis of the literature.

This article reports data collected from a national survey of all accredited social work programs conducted between December 1995 and February 1996. The purpose was to assess current usage of distance learning in social work education. The findings suggest that the use of distance learning has increased, and that the most prevalent issues reported by educators involve adapting instructional material for course presentation and faculty preparation. Implications of the study findings for social work education are also discussed.

Normalization is the use of culturally valued means to enable people with disabilities to live culturally valued lives. In this article, the authors describe an effort to bring normalization practices to acute psychiatric care. They describe a day hospital/crisis respite diversion program that serves as an alternative to acute inpatient hospitalization and sketch the research project that fostered it. The authors argue that a day hospital/crisis respite provides effective clinical care comparable to inpatient hospitalization but achieves greater potential for recovery through a normalizing philosophy and practice. An implication of this finding is that such programs based on the principle of normalization may be both cost effective as well as more empowering for patients.

It is important that the delivery of health and mental health prevention and treatment services within Latino communities be culturally sensitive. This article outlines several ways in which agencies can develop programs that can meet the needs of Latino communities. The most important aspect of the provision of health prevention and treatment services is that the organization integrates itself into the community through outreach, recruitment, and inclusion in decision-making. In addition, the organization needs to be structured so communication and participation from the community and health professionals are open and mixed. Otherwise, the likelihood of success of the provision of services in the community will be diminished. © 1996 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The numbers of children at risk who are referred to child treatment programs are on the rise. This article explores the therapeutic relationship as it develops with such a child, and questions the impact managed care will have on that treatment. Concepts of a holding environment, personalization (the development of self-love, a necessary precursor to object love), the good-enough mother and Else of the therapist as a real person. who furthers development, are highlighted via case material.

The authors hypothesized that schizophrenic communication disturbances reflect specific cognitive deficits in the areas of working memory and attention. They examined the cognitive correlates of communication disturbances, as measured by linguistic reference performance, in schizophrenic (n = 48), bipolar (n = 24), and nonpsychiatric control (n = 23) individuals. Reference performance ratings in the schizophrenic patients were associated with scores on tests of working memory and attention and were not related to performance on concept formation or verbal fluency tests. In contrast, in the bipolar and nonpsychiatric individuals, reference performance was associated with concept formation and verbal fluency test scores but was not related to performance on tests of working memory. Implications with respect to the processes underlying schizophrenic communication disturbances are discussed.