Requisites for the Establishment, Implementation, and Evaluation of Social Work Treatment Programs for Anti-Social Children

Requisites for the establishment, implementation and evaluation of social work treatment programs for anti-social children are reviewed. Specific items discussed are: how does one ascertain the level at which change efforts should be directed, i.e., individual, group, organizational, or societal; what is the appropriate context for behavioral change; who should act as the change agent; what characteristics should the worker possess; what are the rationale for service provided; how long should the treatment continue; how does one prepare for the termination of treatment and maintenance of behavior; what organizational factors of treatment contexts are pertinent to the constructive delivery of services; what are the requisites for the adequate evaluation of treatment programs, and what are the characteristics of efficacious therapeutic programs for anti-social children. Throughout the manuscript relevant future research issues are reviewed

The Application of Behavior Modification Technology to the Alleviation of Selected Social Problems

The application of behavior modification technology to the alleviation of various social problems is reviewed. Specific items discussed are: energy consumption, pollution control, token economies, architectural control of behavior, welfare, worker performance, social action, crime, and social integration. Where relevant, specific studies are summarized. Future developments and implications for social work practice are reviewed briefly

Procedures for the Maintenance and Generalization of Achieved Behavioral Change

Procedures for the maintenance and generalization of achieved behavioral change in anti-social adolescents are reviewed. A review of follow-up studies which provides the rationale for the incorporation of such procedures in practice is initially elaborated. Specific items discussed are possible avenues to the maintenance and generalization of behavior: social networks, peers, and parents; training socially relevant behaviors; changing the conditions of training; gradually removing or fading the contingencies; delayed reinforcement; and self control procedures. Throughout the manuscript relevant case illustrations are reviewed

Variables Influencing Publication in the Field of Social Work

The manuscript presents a descriptive summary of variables influencing professional publication in four major journals: Social Work, Social Service Review, Social Casework and Clinical Social Work Journal. Data were drawn from a random sampling of the years 1960 to 1976. The following descriptive variables were analyzed: degree, sex, occupation, organizational affiliation, and geographic location of author; topic of article; and single VS multiple authorship. Implications the data have for the production of knowledge in social work and future research questions are briefly educidated

Deinstitutionalization: A Review of the Literature with Implication for Social Work Training and Practice in Rural Areas

The manuscript reviews the social, legal, and political background of the deinstitutionalization movement, reviews successful programs for deinstitutionalized chronic mental patients in the major problem areas of socialization skills training, supportive living, interventions with families, vocational rehabilitation, and medication monitoring. Problems which prevent the successful replication of these programs in rural areas, such as differing characteristics of rural and urban clients, distance and travel, and staff attitudes are discussed. Implications for social work training and practice in rural areas include the increased need for paraprofessional staff development and supervision skills, ability to utilize and mobilize existing community helping networks, and training in behavior modification techniques

Assessing Social Agency Functions: A Model

The assessment of general agency functions is the focus of this manuscript. Initially inventories that may be utilized in the assessment of the relevance and quality of services provided are reviewed. Next, cost benefit analysis is addressed in terms of helping social workers estimate the cost of services provided. The manuscript concludes with a discussion of the issues involved in general agency assessment

Issues in Evaluative Research: Implications for Social Work

Various issues in evaluative research are reviewed according to their relevance for the evaluation of social work practice. Specific items discussed are: plausible studies, what should be changed and why, the change agent, criteria for positive assessment, traditional research designs, time-series designs, organizational aspects of research, researchers vs clinicians, researcher\u27s distance from populations served, incentives for research, and the dissemination of information and application of relevant knowledge. Where relevant, aspects of certain evaluative studies are discussed to illustrate the items reviewed

Delinquency Theories, Group Composition, Treatment Locus, and a Service-Research Model for \u27Traditional\u27 Social Work Agencies

Summary Rehabilitative endeavors within correctional institutions have failed because of overpopulation, high costs, labelling and stigmatization of inmates, low transferability of treatment changes to the outside community, and deviant peer group composition. Community treatment programs have fared little better because they also entail client stigmatization and typically are conducted within the context of deviant peer groups. Consequently, in order to enhance the rehabilitative potential of community treatment, subsequent efforts should be conducted within traditional agencies and within pro-social peer groups. The emphasis upon pro-social rehabilitation environments does not posit any particular assets and/or liabilities of a given socio-economic stratum, thus avoiding a major deficiency of many sociological theories of juvenile delinquency, viz., the tendency to derive particularized etiological and interventive principles from a generalized variable, that is, social class. Instead, our basic assumption is that both anti-social and pro-social environments are to be found within any social stratum, and that the latter ought to constitute the preferred loci for rehabilitative endeavors. A brief overview of major formulations concerning juvenile delinquency reveals at least minimum consonance between their basic assumptions and the proposals set forth here. Moreover, although the proposals envision a broad scale augmentation of rehabilitation resources the operational consequences for individual agencies and their members appear to be minimal. Forthcoming empirical data will permit specific detailed examination of the foregoing proposals. However, as additional agencies choose to adopt or reject them prior to accumulation of all the requisite data one might easily conduct a separate study of considerable merit, the subject of which would be innovation within social work institutions

Client Costs and Early Discontinuance from a Community-Based Treatment Program

In social work circles client withdrawal from a treatment program commonly has been labeled as discontinuance . Discontinuance rates have been inordinately high for both casework and group work endeavors, ranging in some instances to 59Z of all clients following the first interview (Aronson and Overall, 1966; Empey and Erickson, 1972; Goldstein, Heller, and Sechrest, 1966; Levinger, 1960; Overall and Aronson, 1963). Discontinuance represents an obvious and essential concern for social work for one overarching reason, to wit, treatment interventions cannot be implemented should the client(s) withdraw from the therapeutic relationship. Additionally, as some investigators have shown, discontinuance represents a focal concern for evaluative research since valid estimates of treatment success cannot be obtained unless early discontinuers are regarded as instances of treatment failure (cf. Lerman, 1968; Empey and Erickson, 1972). A variety of reasons have been posited for the high rates of discontinuance in social work and allied treatment professions. Among the foremost are inaccurate or incongruent role expectations held by the two people most central to the therapeutic relationship, namely, the therapist and the client (Frank, 1961; Freeman and Simmons, 1958, 1959; Garvin, 1969; Goldstein, 1966; Heine and Trosman, 1960; Kadushin and Wieringa, 1960; Lefton, et al., 1962; Mayer and Timms, 1970; Mechanic, 1961; Olsen and Olsen, 1967; Oxley, 1966; Shapiro, 1971). These and other factors have been posited to result in counter-therapeutic client uncertainties (Erikson, 1957), anxieties (Dibner, 1967), and misperceptions (Sapolsky, 1965; Thomas, et al., 1955) and, consequently, in discontinuance. Interestingly, the great majority of studies concerning discontinuance in social work have focused solely upon endogenous features of the therapeutic relationship per se, that is, upon social variables that emanate from the interaction between client(s) and therapist(s) and that determine their ongoing interaction. For the most part, however, exogenous determinants of that relationship have been ignored in the literature. This is especially unfortunate in the case of group work since the course of treatment may depend upon a variety of socio-cultural attributes and behaviors that the various members bring to the treatment group