Health Services Social Workers\u27 Activities with People with Disabilities: Predicters of Community Practice

The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which hospital based social workers were actively involved in community practice on behalf of disabled people. The study attempted to identify what variables influence social workers in health settings to engage in community practice. A sample of 286 social workers employed in 57 different hospital and rehabilitation settings participated in a survey that focused on advocacy and related topics. A questionnaire explored participants\u27 perspectives and the levels and kinds of practice activities they engaged in relation to the needs of people with disabilities. Most respondents indicated that community practice was part of their professional responsibility and that disabled clients needed such assistance. Regression analyses showed that self-reports of community practice activities were nevertheless highly related to selfreported advocacy activities. However, their reports of their actual advocacy activities consistently fell below their recognition of need

Older Latina Women and HIV/AIDS: An Examination of Sexuality and Culture as they Relate to Risk and Protective Factors

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in the Journal of Gerontological Social Work in 2009, available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01634370802561950From publisher: Older Latina women are one of the least studied American demographic groups with regard to social, health, or sexual behavior. This could leave social workers and other geriatric professionals unprepared for dealing with HIV/AIDS in this population. Currently, older Latina women are one of the fastest growing groups of new AIDS cases. Twenty percent of all women ever diagnosed with the disease are Latina and 5.5% of Latinas infected with the virus are older. The number of diagnosed infections is increasing in older women, including Latinas, in spite of recent declines in infection rates with younger populations. There are also a potentially large number of cases that go misdiagnosed or undiagnosed. This article also addresses risk and protective factors related to gender roles, traditional Latino family values, religion, socioeconomic factors, health, and health care, with special attention to the triple jeopardy faced by this population by virtue of being female, seniors, and minorities. The article concludes with recommendations for the development of culturally competent practices with older Latinas and the development of a research agenda to better understand their risk-related and health-seeking behavior

The Miami-Dade Juvenile Assessment Center National Demonstration Project: An Overview

Demonstration Project (NDP) is serving as a national model for the transformation of front end services in the juvenile justice system in a unique sociocultural setting. We discuss the background and vision of the NDP, its implementation and accomplishments in sixmajor programareas: (1) screening and assessment, (2) post-arrest diversion, (3) gender specific services, (4) a new service for the younger siblings of serious habitual offenders, (5) Haitian juvenile arrestee services, and (6) an information resource center. We end our discussion by presenting current and future plans for the NDP. We hope the experiences of, and procedures, protocols and program designs developed by, the NDP will be helpful to other jurisdictions with centralized intake facilities in improving their screening, assessment and intervention services