Showing papers in "Social Work in 2010"

Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking in the United States

Abstract: By now, most social workers are familiar with the issue of human trafficking. However, many are likely unfamiliar with research indicating that youths constitute the most vulnerable group in the United States for becoming victims of sex trafficking and that most women in prostitution actually entered as minors. Some experts are now referring to the sex trafficking of U.S. children and youths as "domestic minor sex trafficking," or DMST. This article seeks to acquaint readers with what is currently known regarding the extent of DMST, who is at risk for becoming a victim, and implications for the social work profession in addressing this tragedy.

Listening to the Voices of Children in Foster Care: Youths Speak Out about Child Welfare Workforce Turnover and Selection

Abstract: Child welfare workforce turnover rates across private and public child welfare agencies are concerning. Although research about the causes of child welfare workforce turnover has been plentiful, empirical studies on the effects of turnover on child outcomes are sparse. Furthermore, the voices and experiences of youths within the system have been largely overlooked.The purpose ofthis study was, first, to explore the experiences and opinions about child welfare workforce turnover and retention of youths in the child welfare system; second, to explore a relationship between the number of caseworkers a youth has had and his or her number of foster care placements; and third, to harness the suggestions of youths in resolving the turnover problem. Youths in the child welfare system (N = 25) participated in focus groups and completed a small demographic survey. Findings suggest that youths experience multiple effects of workforce turnover, such as lack of stability; loss of trusting relationships; and, at times, second chances. The article concludes with suggestions for caseworkers, state trainers, local and state administrators, and social work researchers on engaging with youths in relationships that facilitate genuine systems change around social work practice and the child welfare workforce crisis.

Social Work Practitioners and the Human—Companion Animal Bond: A National Study

Abstract: Extensive research documents powerful relationships between humans and companion animals, and 62 percent of U.S. households report having a companion animal. Social workers are likely to work with individuals and families with companion animals; thus, the inclusion of such animals in both practice and research as a natural extension of social work with humans, and their challenges, coping mechanisms, and resiliency factors, seems called for. Yet there is little in the social work literature that identifies what social workers are doing in this area. Thus, this descriptive study sought to explore nationally what social work practitioners know and are doing in the area of the human and companion animal relationships. Findings include that social work practitioners appear to have basic knowledge of the negative and positive relationships between humans and companion animals. About one-third are including questions about companion and other animals in their intake assessments, and a little less than 25 percent are including companion and other animals in their intervention practice. The vast majority have had no special training or coursework to do so. Implications for these and other findings are discussed, and recommendations for social work research, education, and practice are offered.

A reasonable Semantic Web

Abstract: The realization of Semantic Web reasoning is central to substantiating the Semantic Web vision. However, current mainstream research on this topic faces serious challenges, which forces us to question established lines of research and to rethink the underlying approaches. We argue that reasoning for the Semantic Web should be understood as “shared inference,” which is not necessarily based on deductive methods. Model-theoretic semantics (and sound and complete reasoning based on it) functions as a gold standard, but applications dealing with large-scale and noisy data usually cannot afford the required runtimes. Approximate methods, including deductive ones, but also approaches based on entirely different methods like machine learning or nature-inspired computing need to be investigated, while quality assurance needs to be done in terms of precision and recall values (as in information retrieval) and not necessarily in terms of soundness and completeness of the underlying algorithms.

Five challenges for the Semantic Sensor Web

Abstract: The combination of sensor networks with the Web, web services and database technologies, was named some years ago as the Sensor Web or the Sensor Internet. Most efforts in this area focused on the provision of platforms that could be used to build sensor-based applications more efficiently, considering some of the most important challenges in sensor-based data management and sensor network configuration. The introduction of semantics into these platforms provides the opportunity of going a step forward into the understanding, management and use of sensor-based data sources, and this is a topic being explored by ongoing initiatives. In this paper we go through some of the most relevant challenges of the current Sensor Web, and describe some ongoing work and open opportunities for the introduction of semantics in this context.

Parental Acceptance and Illegal Drug Use among Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Adolescents: Results from a National Survey

Abstract: Although gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) adolescents face many of the same developmental challenges as do heterosexual adolescents, they must also deal with the stress of being part of a stigmatized group The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which family support and involvement with the queer community may buffer the effects of life stress on substance use among GLB youths Drawing on a large national online survey, the authors examined drug use in 1906 GLB youths 12 to 17 years of age Overall, 20 percent of the youths reported using illegal substances in the past 30 days Results from multivariate analyses revealed that stress, as measured by suicidal ideation, significantly increased the risk of drug use A positive reaction from the mother to the youth's coming out served as a significant protective factor, whereas involvement in a queer youth group had no effect The authors found evidence that, for GLB adolescents, parental acceptance of sexual identity is an important aspect of a strong family relationship and, thus, has important ramifications for their healthy development Implications of the findings for social work practice are discussed

Mentoring for Young People Leaving Foster Care: Promise and Potential Pitfalls

Abstract: Mentoring for youths transitioning out of the foster care system has been growing in popularity as mentoring programs have enjoyed unprecedented growth in recent years. However, the existing empirical literature on the conditions associated with more effective youth mentoring relationships and the potential for harm in their absence should give us pause, as meeting these conditions may be especially challenging when working with transitioning youths. Using the social work professional lens to examine the potential and challenges of mentoring approaches for foster care youths, the authors review the literature on the effectiveness of youth mentoring programs and on the psychosocial outcomes and needs ofyouths leaving foster care. They offer a set of considerations for maximizing the potential benefits of mentoring for transitioning youths. The authors suggest that although mentoring may serve as an important component of a larger complement of services for transitioning youths, an individual-level intervention such as this does not eliminate the need for more systemic action to meet the many needs of these vulnerable youths.

Creating knowledge out of interlinked data

Abstract: Over the past 3 years, the Semantic Web activity has gained momentum with the widespread publishing of structured data as RDF The Linked Data paradigm has therefore evolved from a practical research idea into a very promising candidate for addressing one of the biggest challenges in the area of the Semantic Web vision: the exploitation of the Web as a platform for data and information integration To translate this initial success into a world-scale reality, a number of research challenges need to be addressed: the performance gap between relational and RDF data management has to be closed, coherence and quality of data published on the Web have to be improved, provenance and trust on the Linked Data Web must be established and generally the entrance barrier for data publishers and users has to be lowered In this vision statement we discuss these challenges and argue, that research approaches tackling these challenges should be integrated into a mutual refinement cycle We also present two crucial use-cases for the widespread adoption of Linked Data

Towards a pattern science for the Semantic Web

Abstract: With the web of data, the semantic web can be an empirical science Two problems have to be dealt with The knowledge soup problem is about semantic heterogeneity, and can be considered a difficult technical issue, which needs appropriate transformation and inferential pipelines that can help making sense of the different knowledge contexts The knowledge boundary problem is at the core of empirical investigation over the semantic web: what are the meaningful units that constitute the research objects for the semantic web? This question touches many aspects of semantic web studies: data, schemata, representation and reasoning, interaction, linguistic grounding, etc

Environmental impacts of improper solid waste management in developing countries: a case study of Rawalpindi City

Abstract: Solid waste damps are seriously spoiling the environmental conditions in developing countries. Negative environmental impacts from improper solid waste dumping can be easily observed everywhere in the developing world. In Pakistan, due to a lack of proper planning and funding, the solid waste management scenario is becoming worse day by day. To highlight the main causes of improper solid waste management in developing countries, Rawalpindi city is selected as a case study. This city is facing miserable solid waste management crises due to rapid industrialization, urbanization and insufficient funding. Improper solid waste dumps are spreading different diseases in the study area. It is investigated during the research that due to rapid growth in population, increments in solid waste generation rate, management deficiencies, lack of legislative implementation and funding, the solid waste management systems of Rawalpindi are not working effectively. The major causes for the inefficient municipal solid waste management systems in Rawalpindi are the unintended invasion of the city, severe weather conditions, lack of social awareness/community involvement, improper resources including improper equipment and lack of funds. An inefficient municipal solid waste management system may create serious negative environmental impacts like infectious diseases, land and water pollution, obstruction of drains and loss of biodiversity.

Developing Effective Social Work University—Community Research Collaborations

Abstract: In many instances, departments of social work in universities and community-hased social services agencies have common interests in improving professional practice and advancing knowledge in the profession.Effective university-community research coUahorations can help partners achieve these goals joindy, hut to he effective these coUahorative partnerships require considerahle effort and understanding hy all partners involved.This article provides to novice investigators and social work agencies new to research partnerships an integrated discussion of important issues to develop the groundwork necessary for huilding and maintaining effective university-community social work coUahorations.Through experience gained from a series of social work research partnerships, as well as an overview of relevant literature, the authors offer a set of strategies for huilding and sustaining research coUahorations between university and community-based social work professionals. The general topics discussed are technology exchange, adopting a longitudinal perspective, knowing your partners, and practical contracting/budgetary issues. The article has relevance to beginning social work researchers, social work educators, and social work practitioners seeking to engage in collaborative partnerships that improve social work practice through research and advance the knowledge base ofthe profession.

The role of space and time for knowledge organization on the Semantic Web

Abstract: Space and time have not received much attention on the Semantic Web so far. While their importance has been recognized recently, existing work reduces them to simple latitude-longitude pairs and time stamps. In contrast, we argue that space and time are fundamental ordering relations for knowledge organization, representation, and reasoning. While most research on Semantic Web reasoning has focused on thematic aspects, this paper argues for a unified view combining a spatial, temporal, and thematic component. Besides their impact on the representation of and reasoning about individuals and classes, we outline the role of space and time for ontology modularization, evolution, and the handling of vague and contradictory knowledge. Instead of proposing yet another specific methodology, the presented work illustrates the relevance of space and time using various examples from the geo-sciences.

Caregivers, School Liaisons, and Agency Advocates Speak Out about the Educational Needs of Children and Youths in Foster Care

Abstract: Children in foster care comprise a population of students at great risk for school failure. The child welfare agency, schools, and home must all work together to provide the services and supports required to achieve better results. The purpose of this study was to conduct focus groups with participants from each sector to discuss their views on the educational problems and needs of students in foster care and their recommendations for what is needed to improve the academic prospects of foster students. The article provides details of the distinct themes identified by caregivers, school liaisons, and agency advocates and reveals how each group-while recognizing that foster students face substantial school problems-operates independent of each other and lacks a shared view on what is needed. The article concludes with recommendations for designing a model program that involves all the sectors and provides an arena for strategically addressing barriers to school success.

Inductive learning for the Semantic Web: What does it buy?

Abstract: Nowadays, building ontologies is a time consuming task since they are mainly manually built. This makes hard the full realization of the Semantic Web view. In order to overcome this issue, machine learning techniques, and specifically inductive learning methods, could be fruitfully exploited for learning models from existing Web data. In this paper we survey methods for (semi-)automatically building and enriching ontologies from existing sources of information such as Linked Data, tagged data, social networks, ontologies. In this way, a large amount of ontologies could be quickly available and possibly only refined by the knowledge engineers. Furthermore, inductive incremental learning techniques could be adopted to perform reasoning at large scale, for which the deductive approach has showed its limitations. Indeed, incremental methods allow to learn models from samples of data and then to refine/enrich the model when new (samples of) data are available. If on one hand this means to abandon sound and complete reasoning procedures for the advantage of uncertain conclusions, on the other hand this could allow to reason on the entire Web. Besides, the adoption of inductive learning methods could make also possible to dial with the intrinsic uncertainty characterizing the Web, that, for its nature, could have incomplete and/or contradictory information.

Parental Experiences of Children's Disabilities and Special Education in the United States and Japan: Implications for School Social Work

Abstract: Cultural beliefs about disability and related systems of special education affect the experience of children with disabilities and their parents. This article reviews research on the perceptions and experiences of parents who have preschool or elementary school-age children with disabilities in the United States and Japan. Parents' experiences affect their children's development--for example, through caregiving and advocacy for appropriate services. Existing research suggests that U.S. and Japanese parents report similar difficulties, including difficulties establishing relationships with professionals providing services for their children, but that they have different expectations regarding these relationships. Japanese parents are more likely to emphasize the importance of emotional connections, such as empathy, with professionals and to express feelings of stigma, whereas U.S. parents are more likely to assert that their children are entitled to receive appropriate educational resources. These experiences reflect structural differences in U.S. and Japanese special education services. Parents' perceptions also have the potential to recreate cultural beliefs and eventually modify service delivery systems to reflect those beliefs. Discussion of U.S. and Japanese concepts of disability suggests ways in which services in both countries may be strengthened. The Japanese case suggests ways of strengthening empathy and trust, and the U.S. case provides a positive model of inclusion.

The Common Factors Model: Implications for Transtheoretical Clinical Social Work Practice

Abstract: Direct practice social workers today are challenged to address the requirements of the complex array of professional, organizational, institutional, and regulatory demands placed on them in the broader socioeconomic context of fewer resources and diminished public support for social welfare services in the United States. The common factors model provides an accessible, transtheoretical, empirically supported conceptual foundation for practice that may help to resolve this conundrum and support effective practice. Common factors are conditions and processes activated and facilitated by strategies and skills that positively influence practice outcomes across a range ofpractice theories. The model provides an expanded conceptualization of the "active ingredients" required for change to include a focus on conditions and processes as well as practice strategies and to focus on all who are involved in the work. The model is described and implications for practice are discussed.

Semantic search on the Web

Abstract: Web search is a key technology of the Web, since it is the primary way to access content on the Web. Current standard Web search is essentially based on a combination of textual keyword search with an importance ranking of the documents depending on the link structure of the Web. For this reason, it has many limitations, and there are a plethora of research activities towards more intelligent forms of search on the Web, called semantic search on the Web, or also Semantic Web search. In this paper, we give a brief overview of existing such approaches, including own ones, and sketch some possible future directions of research.

Community Health Workers and Their Value to Social Work

Abstract: Community health workers (CHWs) play a vital and unique role in linking diverse and underserved populations to health and social service systems. Despite their effectiveness, as documented by empirical studies across various disciplines including public health, nursing, and biomedicine, the value and potential role of CHWs in the social work practice and research literature has been largely absent. Thus, this article introduces social workers to CHWs, their role in promoting culturally appropriate practice, and their utility in collaboration with social workers in community settings. This integrative review also discusses current challenges identified by the CHW literature, including potential barriers to the expansion of CHW programs, as well as issues of training, certification, and sustainability. The review also discusses the close alignment of CHWs with social work values and principles of social justice, suggesting opportunities for enhanced social work practice and research.

Political Activities of Social Workers: Addressing Perceived Barriers to Political Participation

Abstract: Although social workers are expected to advocate for their clients, many social worker activities revolve around individual advocacy For example, Ezell (2001) found that 90 percent of social workers reported advocacy as part of the professional role of social work, but 75 percent of social workers who performed advocacy practiced individual, or case, advocacy (Schneider & Lester, 200l) Far fewer social workers become involved in political, or class, advocacy (also known as policy practice)--participating in the political system on a larger scale, either within or outside of their jobs There are many reasons for this, including lack of training, not feeling competent to perform policy-related tasks, restrictive employment settings, and fear of losing one's job Although there are legal restrictions on how much social workers can participate politically, depending on their place of employment, social workers can advocate substantially more than they sometimes assume they can This article reports the research that has been conducted on what makes social workers more likely to participate in the political process and the barriers that social workers perceive to becoming politically active Barriers may be internal (for example, feelings of inefficacy) or external (for example, potential legal restrictions) We first address internal barriers to participation and provide resources designed to increase practitioners' feelings of competency to perform policy-related activities Next, we analyze external barriers, including the Hatch Act and the Internal Revenue Service (INS) regulations for 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, to understand how these laws affect social work political participation Finally, we draw conclusions on what types of political advocacy social workers can perform within and outside of their places of employment, both for public and nonprofit organizations DEFINING POLITICAL ACTIVITY Throughout this article, the terms policy practice, political advocacy, and political participation are used interchangeably to mean political activities performed within the political system, such as lobbying, educating the population on a social problem or a piece of proposed legislation through community awareness, or working on a political campaign Thus, other types of political activity, such as demonstrations, protests, and other forms of social action designed to make change are not addressed in this discussion There are three reasons why we define political activity in a more narrow sense in this article First, research that reports on the political participation of" social workers defines political activity as social workers participating within the political arena, which is different from activism in a social action role; second, the skill sets are different, depending on how one defines political activity; and third, the laws that currently affect social workers in nonprofits and public agencies address lobbying and partisan political activity (for example, election campaigning), which are part of mainstream political pursuits but not social action pursuits Thus, we narrow our focus to working within the political system for brevity's sake, not necessarily because it is the only, or best, way to create change POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND SOCIAL WORKERS Because social workers are ethically bound to advocate for oppressed populations and, indeed, are among the few professionals who speak for disenfranchised populations, the extent to which they participate in the political arena has been a topic of concern in the profession for several decades In the early 1980s, Wolk (1981) found that social workers were more politically active than the general population, although one-third of the social workers who responded to his survey were not active at all His analysis noted that the most active social workers were those who were linked to a professional association, and the least active were social workers in direct practice …

Cultural Considerations for Social Service Agencies Working with Muslim Clients

Abstract: Social service agencies and practitioners are continually challenged to provide services that are effective for, and reflective of, cultural and religious diversity. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 50 social work practitioners in four Canadian cities to gain insight into methods of practice that are culturally sensitive for work with Muslim clients. No hard-and-fast rules are identified, but the findings point to some cultural values and issues to consider (in particular the roles of faith and spirituality, community, family, gender, and perceptions of service seeking) and ways that agencies can be responsive to the cultural needs of Muslim clients (in particular by understanding pathways to care, explaining cultural difference, and providing culturally sensitive services). Implications for agencies providing services and future research directions are discussed.

Theoretical foundations and engineering tools for building ontologies as reference conceptual models

Abstract: Perhaps the most fundamental notion underlying the desiderata for a successful Semantic Web is Semantic Interoperability. In this context, ontologies have been more and more recognized as one of the enabling technologies. This paper defends the view that an approach which neglects the role of ontologies as reference conceptual models cannot meet the requirements for full semantic interoperability. The paper starts by offering an engineering view on ontology engineering, discussing the relation between ontologies as conceptual models and ontologies as codification artifacts. Furthermore, it discusses the importance of foundational theories and principles to the design of ontology (conceptual) modeling languages and models, emphasizing the fundamental role played by true ontological notions in this process. Finally, it elaborates on the need for proper tools to handle the complexity of ontology engineering in industrial scenarios and complex domains. These tools include ontological design patterns as well as well-founded computational environments to support ontology creation, verification and validation (via model simulation).

Can we ever catch up with the Web

Abstract: The Semantic Web is about to grow up. By efforts such as the Linking Open Data initiative, we finally find ourselves at the edge of a Web of Data becoming reality. Standards such as OWL 2, RIF and SPARQL 1.1 shall allow us to reason with and ask complex structured queries on this data, but still they do not play together smoothly and robustly enough to cope with huge amounts of noisy Web data. In this paper, we discuss open challenges relating to querying and reasoning with Web data and raise the question: can the burgeoning Web of Data ever catch up with the now ubiquitous HTML Web?

Sub-Saharan African Women Living with HIV/AIDS: An Exploration of General and Spiritual Coping Strategies

Abstract: From a global perspective the typical person living with HIV/AIDS is likely a sub-Saharan African woman Yet despite calls from NASW to adopt a global outlook on the HIV/AIDS crisis little research has examined how such women cope In this study the authors used a mixed-methods approach to explore how one sample of sub-Saharan African women (N = 162) attending an AIDS clinic in Entebbe Uganda cope with their circumstances The results reveal the importance of indigenous service providers spirituality and to a lesser extent social support Approximately 85 percent of the women reported that spirituality played some role in their ability to cope Among these 43 percent indicated that spirituality was the most important factor that kept them going The most widely used spiritual coping strategies consisted of support from other believers prayer and trusting in God

“We Are Not Criminals”: Social Work Advocacy and Unauthorized Migrants

Abstract: Using semistructured interviews and participant observation, this two-year pilot study of male Mexican migrants in Freehold, New Jersey, explored how day laborers perceive their struggles to support families despite escalating anti-immigrant legislation at virtually all levels of government. In particular, the author looks at efforts by Mexican migrants to contest characterizations of them as "illegal," a term that has clear connotations of criminality, and to distance themselves from others who commit crimes. Migrants questioned the moral legitimacy of U.S. immigration laws, an indicator that vigorous legal efforts to thwart their arrival could prove fruitless. This finding is critical for social work, which must find the means to serve this vulnerable population. Language: en

Factors Contributing to Disproportionality in the Child Welfare System: Views from the Legal Community

Abstract: A critical shortcoming in the existing body of research addressing racial disproportionality in the child welfare system is the lack of inclusion of external stakeholders in attempts to understand and address this issue.This article reports the results ofa study designed to develop a deeper understanding of disproportionality from the views of the legal community, a critical stakeholder in child welfare. Using a qualitative approach, with focus groups as the method of data collection, data were collected to provide a greater depth of information that could be used alongside existing studies to develop an enhanced understanding of disproportionality in the child welfare system. Factors contributing to disproportionality include cultural bias, a fearful agency climate, communication barriers, ineffective service delivery, and workforce issues. Recommendations from focus group participants and implications are presented.

Making Meaning of Urban American Indian Identity: A Multistage Integrative Process

Abstract: The cultural identity and tribal connectedness of American Indians are commonly believed to have been negatively affected by the urbanization process in which American Indians have been involved during the past half century. This phenomenological study examined the processes through which cultural identity was formed and maintained by a group of American Indians who had lived since childhood in urban areas, away from their reservations or tribal communities. Seven urban Indian adults, each from a different tribe, shared their experiences related to coming to understand what it means to be American Indian and the development of their American Indian cultural identity. Four themes emerged from participant interviews and were seen to correspond to stages that participants passed through, from their teens through their 30s, that led to understanding and integration of their American Indian identity. Findings point to the importance of considering issues of cultural identity development when providing social work services to urban American Indian young adults.

Growing Together: Expanding Roles for Social Work Practice in Early Childhood Settings

Abstract: In the United States, interest in early childhood development has grown dramatically over the past two decades and continues to expand.Increasing public support for programs and services that address the needs of young children and their families provides numerous opportunities for social work intervention.This article describes three major early childhood systems-early intervention, Early Head Start, and early care and education-and discusses ways that social workers can strengthen programs within these systems and improve outcomes for participating children and families. Social workers' understanding of and commitment to family-centered practice and cultural competence are highlighted. Opportunities for social workers to become involved in advocating for, developing, and leading high-quality early childhood programs and implications for social work education are also discussed.

Examining the Premises Supporting the Empirically Supported Intervention Approach to Social Work Practice

Abstract: Over the past decade, federal, state, and local policymakers, funders, and human service system architects have increasingly organized human service delivery functions around empirically supported intervention (ESI) guidelines. The rising popularity of the ESI approach, defined as the selection and implementation of scientifically validated therapeutic interventions, has been partly in response to public demands for cost-effective programming and partly in furtherance of improving the quality and performance of clinical programs serving historically disadvantaged client populations (Gambrill, 2006; Rizzo & Fortune, 2006; Zlotnick, 2007). ESI standards are now commonly used to organize service provision in the major fields of practice employing social workers, including the child welfare, health, mental health, and substance abuse treatment sectors (Chaffin & Friedrich, 2004; Gray, 2001; Norcross, Beutler, & Levant, 2005). Partly in response to these trends, the Oregon legislature passed an ESI requirement law (Senate Bill 267) in 2003. The bill requires that state agencies providing human services dedicate increasing proportions of their biennial budgets to the implementation of ESIs. According to the law, an ESI is an efficacious intervention whose components are based on scientific research, including the use of systematic, empirical methods that draw on experiments or observation; rigorous data analysis methods to test formal hypotheses; and measures, research designs, and observational methods that allow for reliable and valid data collection. Under the law, the Department of Corrections, Department of Human Services, Oregon Commission on Children and Families, and Oregon Youth Authority are required to devote 25 percent of their program funding to ESIs in fiscal years (FYs) 2005--07, 50 percent in FYs 2007-09, and 75 percent in FYs 2009-11. These agencies serve the great majority of children, youths, and families requesting human services in Oregon. The Oregon case represents a trend in which human service systems are devoting increasing training, resources, and personnel to the ESI approach. Although other evidence-based models (Gambrill, 2005; Gibbs, 2003; Shlonsky & Stern, 2007) and consumer-centered models (Linhorst, Eckert, & Hamilton, 2005; Segal, Silverman, & Temkin, 1993) have been proposed for use by social work scholars, these models may in the future be crowded out by the ESI approach. In such a scenario, social work practitioners in certain fields of service may be required to select and implement programs that meet the stringent criteria of ESIs. It is therefore important to critically examine whether the national trend toward ESIs is scientifically supportable and clinically and culturally appropriate. That is, is the evidence base sufficient for an ESI approach to social work practice? This article presents four major arguments concerning the ESI approach and examines the evidence for each argument. EXAMINING THE VALIDITY OF THE ESI APPROACH IN SOCIAL WORK To be considered an ESI, a therapeutic intervention must meet specific evidentiary criteria: It must be subjected to evaluation under randomized clinical trial conditions by at least two independent investigators and found to be associated with positive client outcomes (Walker, Briggs, Koroloff, & Friesen, 2007). In addition, program delivery should adhere to a treatment fidelity protocol, as prescribed by the original program designers and researchers, which is generally in the form of a manual detailing intervention components and forms to use while implementing specified program procedures and a description of the specific sequence in which these activities are to occur (Lonigan, Elbert, & Johnson, 1998; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999). The ESI model has been promoted by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and other federal funding agencies; private accrediting bodies, including the Joint Commission and the Council on Accreditation; and professional membership organizations such as the National Association of Social Workers, the National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators, and the American Psychological Association. …

The knowledge reengineering bottleneck

Abstract: Knowledge engineering upholds a longstanding tradition that emphasises methodological issues associated with the acquisition and representation of knowledge in some (formal) language. This focus on methodology implies an ex ante approach: “think before you act”. The rapid increase of linked data poses new challenges for knowledge engineering, and the Semantic Web project as a whole. Although the dream of unhindered “knowledge reuse” is a technical reality, it has come at the cost of control. Semantic web content can no longer be assumed to have been produced in a controlled task-independent environment. When reused, Semantic Web content needs to be remoulded, refiltered and recurated for a new task. Traditional ex ante methodologies do not provide any guidelines for this ex post knowledge reengineering; forcing developers to resort to ad hoc measures and manual labour: the knowledge reengineering bottleneck.

Bridging the Gaps among Social Justice, Research, and Practice

Abstract: As social workers, we are charged with carrying out the ethical promotion of social justice as well as partnering with underserved and oppressed populations to create social change. These populations are largely excluded from major spheres of public and economic life (Strier, 2006). Social justice is, in essence, an organizing value for our work that distinguishes us from other professions. Researchers and practitioners must work together to ensure that our efforts are informed by the core value of social justice. Social work researchers need to collaborate with practitioners in pursuit of the professions' mutual goal of dismantling inequitable access to systems and societal structures. Social work practitioners are vital partners in the social justice and research process. Researchers need these partnerships to understand social issues and factors that affect disproportionate health and mental health outcomes and how societal and organizational structures affect interactions with clients' use (or lack of use) of services. Micro- and macro-level social work practitioners are critical resources in data-collection efforts because they are on the frontlines of service and have relationships with consumers and communities. Enhanced opportunities exist to involve individuals and communities affected by oppression in an active and genuine role in the research process. It goes without saying that much work remains to be done in the area of social justice. Our efforts as a profession should focus on cultivating greater participation between social work researchers and practitioners in conducting meaningful, translatable research that bridges the gaps among social justice, research, and practice. Many scholars have noted that social justice is a much needed goal; however, its conceptual formulation and application are often vague and abstruse. Operationally, there is often no singular definition of the term "social justice." Rather, the conceptualization is vague and open to various interpretations. A working definition of social injustice, provided by Strier (2006), refers to the "systemic subordination of specific social groups through the institutionalized use of unjust power and authority" (p. 860). In addition to what is often viewed as an ambiguous delineation of social justice, there is often sparse information about how to translate social justice concepts into action. When Hong and Hodge (2009) asked social work professors to define social justice, the responses revealed pronounced obscurity regarding conceptualization of the term. Still, several colleagues have made headway in introducing frameworks that assist the profession in methodological approaches and strategies to move us toward a just society (Dempsey, 2008; Fin J Sakamoto & Pitner, 2005; Salas, Sen, & Segal, 2010; Vodde & Gallant, 2002). Because the conception of social justice can differ on the basis of level of practice, the meaning of this term may change depending on whether one is working directly with clients or in an administrative position. Some researchers have referred to this schism as a social work "practice dichotomy" (Salas et al., 2010; Vodde & Gallant, 2002). Some have argued that distinctions between micro and macro practice should be eliminated, that without such unification the path to social justice may be unattainable. In our view, regardless of roles, social work researchers and practitioners must work together to dismantle the systems and structures that function to preserve inequity. Critical theory is an important operating framework that encourages social workers to critically analyze and reflect systematically and contextually about oppression. From this process, a new awareness evolves that must convert reflection into action. Social work researchers can play a unique role in the translation of research to practice by engaging practitioners in the careful analysis of study results and identifying how the implementation of the evidence can dismantle systematic oppression. …