Health & social work
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Health & social work · Oct 2019
The Impact of State Firearm Laws on Homicide Rates among Black and White Populations in the United States, 1991-2016.
This study aimed to investigate the potential differential effects of state-level firearm laws on black and white populations. Using a panel design, authors examined the relationship between state firearm laws and homicide victimization rates among white people and black people in 39 states during the period between 1991 and 2016. ⋯ Laws that prohibit firearm possession among people convicted of a violent misdemeanor or require relinquishment of firearms by people with a domestic violence restraining order were associated with lower black homicide rates, but not with white homicide rates. Author identification of heterogeneity in the associations between state firearm laws and homicide rates among different racial groups has implications for reducing racial health disparities.
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Health & social work · May 2017
The National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics and Cultural Competence: What Does Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Teach Us Today?
This article discusses limitations in the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics conceptualization of "cultural competence." It uses the case example presented in Anne Fadiman's classic (2012) work, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, to explore the conventional markers of cultural competence, as taught in contemporary graduate-level social work education curricula, and their implications for socially just practice. Furthermore, it proposes that an expanded commitment to antiracist practice is necessary to deliver care and craft policies that, in the spirit of the NASW Code of Ethics, truly respect the "dignity and worth" of the individual.
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Health & social work · Nov 2016
Comparative StudyHealth-Related Quality of Life of Low-Socioeconomic-Status Populations in Urban China.
Previous researchers had not yet examined the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in urban China. The present study attempts to assess HRQOL of lower-SES populations in urban China in comparison with middle- and high-SES populations, and then to examine the mediating role of sense of control between SES and HRQOL. ⋯ Sense of control could partially mediate the association between social class and HRQOL. These findings will generate significant policy and practice implications for identifying those at particular risk for lower HRQOL and, accordingly, suggesting ways to improve their HRQOL through specific social work interventions in urban China's context.
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Health & social work · Feb 2016
Multicenter StudyImpact of Death Work on Self: Existential and Emotional Challenges and Coping of Palliative Care Professionals.
Palliative care professionals, such as social workers, often work with death and bereavement. They need to cope with the challenges on "self" in working with death, such as coping with their own emotions and existential queries. In this study, the authors explore the impact of death work on the self of palliative care professionals and how they perceive and cope with the challenges of self in death work by conducting a qualitative study. ⋯ Similarly, emotional coping (for example, accepting and managing personal emotions) and existential coping (for example, rebuilding and actualizing life-and-death assumptions) strategies were identified. This study enhances the understanding of how palliative care professionals perceive and cope with the challenges of death work on the self. Findings may provide insights into how training can be conducted to enhance professionals' self-competence in facing these challenges.
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Health & social work · Nov 2014
Rethinking family caregiving: tailoring cognitive-behavioral therapies to the hospice experience.
Hospice family caregivers experience significantly higher rates of psychological distress than demographically similar noncaregivers. Interventions based on cognitive-behavioral therapy have been shown to reduce psychological distress in the general population by providing tools to modify thinking patterns that directly affect emotions and behavior. Such interventions might reasonably be incorporated into hospice social work; however, numerous contextual factors must be taken into account to ensure that any interventions are appropriate to the unique needs of clients. ⋯ Following a modified grounded theory approach, researchers engaged in a secondary analysis of data from a larger study provided in a subsample of 90 audio-recorded conversations between hospice family caregivers and interventionists. Findings indicated that distressed caregivers engaged in five dominant thinking patterns: (1) "should" statements, (2) catastrophizing or minimizing, (3) personalizing, (4) absolute thinking, and (5) making assumptions. Implementing cognitive-behavioral therapies based on identified caregiver thinking patterns will allow hospice social workers to empower caregivers to cope more effectively with the numerous stressors they encounter while caring for a dying loved one.