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In collaboration with Dr. Joan Berzoff,
who received a Social Work Leadership Grant from the Soros
Foundation's Project on Death in America, the Center has
supported three projects to deepen clinical social work skills in
end-of-life care and to demonstrate the leadership potential of clinical
social work in multidisciplinary settings: 1) the first post-Masters
Advanced Practice Certificate Program in End-of-Life Care (ELC); 2)
the first comprehensive textbook on end-of-life care for social work;
and 3) the introduction of an ELC clinical practice course and related
internships in the masters program.
A key partner in the
ELC Certificate Program has been Cancer Care, Inc., a national
leader in clinical social work practice with the terminally
ill and their families. In the first year, Cancer Care, Inc. provided
all clinical supervision for the first class of students on an in-kind
basis. For the second and current class, the Center received
funding from The Kenneth B. Schwartz Center to cover the costs of
supervision.
To date, 72 students have entered the
Program, many from leading institutions such as: Sloan Kettering,
Johns Hopkins, Duke Medical Center and the M.D. Anderson
Cancer Center at the University of Texas, as well as a range of community-based
agencies. Graduates are already demonstrating leadership.
Two graduates received a Project on Death in America grant to develop
masters' social work curriculum in end-of-life care in their school;
three graduates submitted chapters for the end-of-life care textbook;
and one graduate introduced a social work-led interdisciplinary group
into a leading national health center, now used center-wide. Others
have been invited to serve on ethics committees within their institutions
and/or develop training programs.
The
end-of-life care textbook has 48 chapters written by leaders
from multiple disciplines. Joan Berzoff co-edited the book
with Phyllis Silverman, Ph.D., a social work researcher/scholar, and
author of such seminal publications as Continuing Bonds and
Never Too Young to Know. The textbook has been published by Columbia
University Press. For information on ordering the textbook, go to: www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.
Faculty
Director: Joan Berzoff, Ed.D, MSW jberzoff@smith.edu.
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In the Fall
of 2001, SCSSW was awarded a three-year contract by the
Annie E. Casey Foundation to study the implementation of
Casey Family Services Family Resource Centers at six sites
in New England and one in Baltimore, Maryland.
Known for its foster
care and post-adoption service delivery and leadership,
Casey Family Services has broadened its scope and continuum
of services with the implementation of their Family Resource Center
(FRC) Initiative. Located in both urban and rural settings, the FRC
Initiative addresses some of the most critical child welfare issues
facing American children and families today and promises to complement
the agency's existing services and further promote its mission.
Establishing
new partnerships and visibility in diverse high-need communities
has been a component of the Initiative, as well as shifting
from a casework focus to a broader community context. Instead
of focusing primarily on casework, FRCs have encouraged the exploration
of methods of both prevention and promotion of assets. Casey
has become increasingly interested in what interventions can be employed
to address the needs of children and families from a strength-based
perspective in order to prevent situations leading to foster care,
as well as exploring how to further integrate community-based services
with their traditional clinical services. The application of family
support philosophy and programming within a child welfare context
is also of particular interest.
In seeking to enhance child and family
well-being through strengthening communities, the Family
Resource Center Initiative also seeks to promote social supports
for families, family economic self-sufficiency, and access
to quality services. Engaging parents and youth in leadership and
partnership roles is a critical component of FRC programming.
The Implementation
Study being conducted by the School for Social Work is
a first step in assessing the effectiveness of the FRCs.
It will focus on documenting and conceptualizing the process of their
implementation, including identifying challenges encountered and strategies
employed. The research process includes site visits, interviews, observations,
and the development of comprehensive Community Profiles by
local Diarists (trained observers) connected with the project. Implementation
study results will provide useful information and guidance for Casey
in understanding this ambitious new initiative as well as lay the
groundwork for determining viable outcome measures and possible future
replication of FRCs in other locations.
The first phase of the current
research has focused on a number of dimensions, including:
1) how these Centers have developed and/or are developing;
2) common patterns as well as differences; 3) how the Family Resource
Centers relate to the Casey Family Services child welfare mission;
4) what impact Family Resource Centers have on the lives of its participants
and the local community; and 5) how to integrate support
services and community empowerment with needed clinical services.
Leading the research are Joyce Everett,
Ph.D., as the Principal Investigator jeverett@email.smith.edu; James Drisko,
Ph.D., as Co-Principal Investigator, jdrisko@email.smith.edu; and Kerry
Homstead, Ed.D. as full-time Project Director, kchomste@email.smith.edu.
In addition, doctoral research assistants
are part of the research team.
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Working with two
SCSSW adjunct faculty, Ellen-Pulleyblank Coffey, Ph.D and
Mary Olson, Ph.D., the Center pulled together a consortium
of public, private, and nonprofit mental health representatives to
explore the impact of managed care on family-based practice. Representatives
on this consortium included the Assistant Commissioner of Mental Health,
Western Massachusetts; Director of the State Mental Health
Department, Western Massachusetts; Divisional Director of the State
Department of Social Services; Director of Community-Based Services
for the State Department of Medical Assistance (Medicaid); Assistant
Vice-President for the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership;
executives of two major nonprofit mental health agencies; and the
director of a Western Massachusetts-based parent advocacy group. The
project was also supported by Phebe Sessions, Ph.D. and Anita Lightburn,
Ed.D., from the SCSSW faculty.
This consortium focused on a study of
ten innovative community- and family-based programs in
Massachusetts, looking for common patterns of best practices.
The study was jointly funded by the Irene E. and George B. Davis Foundation,
the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, a grant from
the Clinical Research Institute at the SCSSW, and the Center. The
final report of the Consortium is available through the Center.
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One of the projects that
emerged from the Collaboration for Community- Focused Family-Based
Practice was a partnership with the Massachusetts Behavioral
Health Partnership (MBHP), a progressive managed behavioral
care organization which has a five-year contract with the Massachusetts
State Medical Assistance Agency to provide mental health services
for children and adults receiving Medicaid in the Commonwealth. The
Center, in conjunction with the SCSSW Field Department, launched experimental
masters level internships at MBHP. Two second-year students
were jointly placed in a traditional mental health setting and at
the MBHP, in order to: 1) increase the SCSSW knowledge of public sector
managed care, as well as potential new roles for clinical social work;
2) introduce students and the SCSSW to the use of technology in supporting
clinical social work practice; 3) help students integrate
developing clinical skills with system-wide clinical decision-making;
and 4) better understand how field supervision can support the development
of clinical practice in our current public sector managed
care environment.
The two students have developed their
masters theses on publicly-supported behavioral managed care.
Funding for the project comes from a contract with
the MBHP and funds established by a private donor for innovative
field placements.
Faculty Leaders: Phebe Sessions, Ph.D,
psession@smith.edu, Carolyn DuBois, MSW, Field Director, cdubois@smith.edu.
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Working with the Dean, Dr. Joyce Everett,
and Dr. Dorothy Harper Jones, the Center Director completed
a multi-phased ten-month study exploring what motivated persons of
color to enter clinical social work practice and to select SCSSW as
the choice for professional preparation. The study also explored directions
in mental health practice with persons of color, as well
as what Smith needs to do to strengthen its program to be more responsive
to the mental health needs of persons of color and attract more persons
of color to the field.
The study engaged a number of constituencies
of the School: 1)adjunct faculty; 2) students of color;
3) alumni of color; 4) selected field agencies across the country
who have demonstrated a strong track record in attracting and developing
clinicians of color; 5) reviews of the literature; 6) major professional
associations; and 7) a structured exploration and informal discussion
with faculty and administrators on where the School is
in relation to becoming an anti-racism institution, where it needs
to go, and how it will get there.
Preliminary drafts of the report have been reviewed by
the Dean, Associate Dean, administrators some resident
and adjunct faculty members, and the Chair of the Standing Committee
for the Alumni of Color. Final revisions are being made. An Executive
Summary and Full Report was published in July 2003. Specific
findings and recommendations in the report also have been distributed
to the appropriate committees and bodies of the school for further
discussion, research, and action.
Key findings from the study:
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