The Graduate College of Social Work (GCSW) at the University of Houston, prepares diverse leaders in practice and research to address complex challenges and achieve sustainable social, racial, economic, and political justice, locally and globally, through exceptional education, innovative research, and meaningful community engagement.
We are proud to share the many accomplishments of our faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community of supporters in the third annual edition of Noteworthy, our year-end publication. Covering the 2018-2019 academic year, Noteworthy showcases the very best of the UH Graduate College of Social Work.
TBSW/MSW education funded by Title IV-E of Social Security Act ("Title IV-E Child Welfare Education") is an important incentive to encourage social workers to stay in the child protection field. This book describes this partnership between universities and public child welfare agencies.
The book contains essential research results with a focus on the impact of Title IV-E Child Welfare Education to improve worker capacities and case outcomes, as well as on the process and results of social work education in promoting public child welfare work. There are eleven articles by renowned researchers in public child welfare who applied rigorous quantitative and/or qualitative methodologies to clearly describe measures used, data sources, outcome variables, and implications for education, practice, policy, and research. These evidence-based articles address the following child welfare topics: training partnerships and worker outcomes, effective pedagogy and online education, workplace climate and retention factors, and other topics connecting BSW/MSW education to public child welfare practice.
This collection will inform child welfare educators, administrators and legislators on the impact of Title IV-E Child Welfare Education on the development of public child welfare and make recommendations to improve the child welfare curriculum in social work education. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Public Child Welfare.
Patrick Leung , PhD, is Gerson & Sabina David Endowed Professor for Global Aging and Director of the Office for International Social Work Education at the Graduate College of Social Work, University of Houston, USA. Dr. Leung is Principal Investigator and Evaluator of numerous research projects in child welfare and family services.
Monit Cheung, PhD, LCSW, is Mary R. Lewis Endowed Professor in Children & Youth at the Graduate College of Social Work, University of Houston, USA. She is Director of the Child & Family Center for Innovative Research and Principal Investigator of the Title IV-E Child Welfare Education Project in Houston, Texas.
This social work book is the first of its kind, describing practical steps that social workers can take to shape and influence both policy and politics. It prepares social workers and social work students to impact political action and subsequent policy, with a detailed real-world framework for turning ideas into concrete goals and strategies for effecting change. Tracing the roots of social work in response to systemic social inequality, it clearly relates the tenets of social work to the challenges and opportunities of modern social change. The book identifies the core domains of political social work, including engaging individuals and communities in voting, influencing policy agendas, and seeking and holding elected office. Chapters elaborate on the necessary skills for political social work, featuring discussion, examples, and critical thinking exercises in such vital areas.
Suzanne Pritzker, PhD is an Associate Professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, where she teaches courses in policy analysis and advocacy in the MSW and PhD programs. Her research focuses on young people’s civic engagement and on strategies to increase political participation. She has authored over 20 publications on topics specifically related to policy and civic engagement. Her political social work experience includes working as a Virginia Governor’s Fellow, as an appointee in the Office of the Virginia Secretary of Education, and as an analyst with the Virginia General Assembly. Suzanne earned her BA in History and M.Ed. in Social Foundations of Education from the University of Virginia, MSW from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a PhD in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis. At the University of Houston, she coordinates the College’s Austin Legislative Internship Program, through which graduate social work students are competitively selected to intern full-time in the Texas Legislature, founded and leads a monthly Policy Insider Series that brings social work policy experts to campus monthly, and chairs the College’s Political Social Work Specialization. She is a member of the Council on Practice Methods and Specializations with the Council on Social Work Education, an ally of the Special Commission to Advance Macro Practice in Social Work, and a member of the board of Influencing Social Policy (ISP).
Shannon R. Lane, LMSW, PhD is Associate Professor at the Adelphi University School of Social Work, where she teaches policy and research in the BSW, MSW, and PhD programs. Her research includes efforts to increase the political involvement of social workers and underserved populations and her advocacy focuses on issues such as health care access and gender based violence. Her political social work experience includes eight years with Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle. Shannon earned her BA in Psychology from George Washington University, MSW from the University of Michigan, and PhD in Social Work from the University of Connecticut. She is affiliated with the Humphreys Institute for Political Social Work at the University of Connecticut, where she contributes to the Annual Campaign School for Social Workers, an evaluator of the Voter Empowerment Program, and chairs the Board Committee on Research. She is also a member of the Council on the Status and Role of Women in Social Work Education with the Council on Social Work Education, an ally of the Special Commission to Advance Macro Practice in Social Work, and a member of the advisory board of the Congressional Research Institute for Social Work and Policy (CRISP).
Intercountry adoption has undergone a radical decline since 2004 when it reached a peak of approximately 45,000 children adopted globally. Its practice had been linked to conflict, poverty, gender inequality, and claims of human trafficking, ultimately leading to the establishment of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption (HCIA). This international private law along with the Convention on the Rights of the Child affirm the best interests of the child as paramount in making decisions on behalf of children and families with obligations specifically oriented to safeguards in adoption practices. In 2004, as intercountry adoption peaked and then began a dramatic decline, commercial global surrogacy contracts began to take off in India. Global surrogacy gained in popularity owing, in part, to improved assisted reproductive technology methods, the ease with which people can make global surrogacy arrangements, and same-sex couples seeking the option to have their own genetically-related children. Yet regulation remains an issue, so much so that the Hague Conference on Private International Law has undertaken research and assessed the many dilemmas as an expert group considers drafting a new law, with some similarities to the HCIA and a strong emphasis on parentage. This ground-breaking book presents a detailed history and applies policy and human rights issues with an emphasis on the best interests of the child within intercountry adoption and the new conceptions of protection necessary in global surrogacy. To meet this end, voices of surrogate mothers in the US and India ground discourse as authors consider the human rights concerns and policy implications. For both intercountry adoption and global surrogacy, the complexity of the social context anchors the discourse inclusive of the intersections of poverty and privilege. This examination of the inevitable problems is presented at a time in which the pathways to global surrogacy appear to be shifting as the Supreme Court of India weighs in on the future of the industry there while Thailand, Cambodia and other countries have banned the practice all together. There is speculation that countries in Africa and possibly Central America appear poised to pick up the multi-million dollar industry as the demand for healthy infants continues on.
Nicole F. Bromfield , is Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston. Her research interests are on women and children’s health and social wellbeing, with most projects being driven by community needs with the desired outcome being social policy change. She has a PhD in public policy with a specialization in social and health policy and holds an MSW with a community organization concentration. Bromfield’s dissertation research was on the development of federal human-trafficking legislation in the USA, where she interviewed over 20 key policy players involved in its making. She has published on issues relating to human trafficking and has more recently taken an interest in global surrogacy arrangements, as well as social issues occurring in the Arabian Gulf nations.
Karen Smith Rotabi is Associate Professor of Social Work at the United Arab Emirates University. Her work combines historical, sociological, and ethical dimensions in a policy analysis framework, especially considering the human rights of vulnerable populations. She has published extensively on intercountry adoption and relevant laws, particularly focused on the USA and its powerful interface with impoverished countries such as Guatemala where she has worked in a variety of initiatives to include rural health promotion programming for children. Her research agenda is focused on global social work practice, child protection, and family support, to include families impacted by war. She has consulted on child-protection initiatives in a number of countries including Belize, India, and Malawi and co-edited the 2012 book Intercountry Adoption: Policies, Practices, and Outcomes, which was awarded a Choice Outstanding Academic Title in 2013. Rotabi was involved in the early stages of USA implementation of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption as she assisted in the accreditation process from 2008-2012, evaluating dozens of US-based adoption agencies to ensure that they were effectively practicing within international standards. More recently, she has turned her attention to commercial global surrogacy as a replacement for intercountry adoption. Today, Rotabi’s service work in this area includes joining an expert group on child rights and global surrogacy, convening under the leadership of International Social Services in Geneva, Switzerland.
Designed for students of social work, public policy, ethnic studies, community development, and migration studies, Immigrant and Refugee Children and Families provides the best knowledge for culturally responsive practice with immigrant children, adolescents, and families. This textbook summarizes the unique circumstances of Asian/Pacific Islander, Latino, South Asian, African, and Middle Eastern immigrant and refugee populations and the challenges faced by the social service systems, including child welfare, juvenile justice, education, health, and mental health care, that attempt to serve them. Each chapter features key terms, study questions, and resource lists, and the book meets many Council on Social Work Education Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) competencies. The book addresses the policy landscape affecting immigrant and refugee children in the United States, and a final section examines current and future approaches to advocacy.
Alan J. Dettlaff is a professor and former dean of the Graduate College of Social Work, University of Houston.
Rowena Fong is the Ruby Lee Piester Centennial Professor at the University of Texas at Austin and president of the Society for Social Work and Research. With Alan J. Dettlaff, Joyce James, and Carolyne Rodriguez, she is the editor of Addressing Racial Disproportionality and Disparities in Human Services: Multisystemic Approaches (Columbia, 2014).
The most comprehensive and current evidence-based coverage of suicide treatment and assessment for mental health students and practitioners, this book prepares readers how to react when clients reveal suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The components of suicide assessments, empirically-supported treatments, and ethical and legal issues that may arise are reviewed. Vignettes, role play exercises, quizzes, and case studies engage readers to enhance learning. Intended for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in suicide assessment and prevention, crisis intervention, crisis counseling or assessment, or advanced techniques taught in social work, counseling, psychology, public health, nursing, and medicine, this book is also appropriate for mental health and health professionals in these areas.
Dana Alonzo, PhD, LCSW is an Associate Professor at Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service and a Founder and Director of the Suicide Prevention Research Program. She has many years of clinical experience working with individuals with suicidality in a variety of settings. Dr. Alonzo's research focuses on examining risk and protective factors related to suicidal ideation and behavior and developing interventions aimed at facilitating the treatment engagement and adherence of individuals at risk for suicide.
Robin E. Gearing , PhD, LCSW is Professor and Director of the Center for Mental Health Research and Innovations in Treatment Engagement and Service at the University of Houston. Dr. Gearing’s research and clinical expertise focuses on improving the mental health outcomes of adolescents and young adults with serious mental illnesses, and their families. His research is driven by an interest in informing and improving engagement and adherence to empirically-supported psychosocial and medication treatment, and developing evidence-based interventions.
Be prepared for your future role in a service-oriented agency. This textbook provides practical guidance on program evaluation while avoiding replicating other course material. Drawing on over 40 years of subject knowledge, Allen Rubin describes outcome designs that are feasible for service-oriented agencies, and that match the degree of certainty needed by key users of outcome evaluations. The utility and easy calculation of within-group effect sizes are outlined, which enhances the value of evaluations that lack control groups. Instructions are also given on how to write and disseminate an evaluation report in a way that maximizes its chances of being used. Conducting focus group interviews and capitalizing on the value of non-probability samples will become second nature after following the effective and pragmatic advice mapped out chapter-by-chapter.
Allen Rubin, PhD, has been teaching courses on program evaluation for over 40 years. He is the Kantambu Latting College Professor of Leadership and Change at the University of Houston's Graduate College of Social Work, past president of the Society for Social Work and Research, and a fellow in the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.
In Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System, Alan J. Dettlaff presents a call to abolish the American child welfare system due to the harm and destruction it causes Black families. Dettlaff traces the origins of the modern child welfare system, which emerged following the abolition of slavery, to demonstrate that the harm and oppression that result from child welfare intervention are not the result of "unintended consequences" but rather are the clear intents of the system and the foreseeable results of the policies that have been put in place over decades.
By tracing the history of family separations in the United States since the era of slavery, Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System demonstrates that the intended outcomes of those separations--the subjugation of Black Americans and the maintenance of white supremacy--are the same intended outcomes of the family separations done today. What distinguishes contemporary family separations from those that occurred during slavery is that today's separations occur under a facade of benevolence, a myth that has been perpetuated over decades that family separations are necessary to "save" the most vulnerable children.
Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System presents evidence of the vast harms that result from family separations to make a case that the child welfare system is beyond reform. Rather, the only solution to ending these harms is the complete abolition of this system and a fundamental reimagining of the way society cares for children, families, and communities.
Alan Dettlaff, PhD, is a professor and former dean of the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. Dettlaff began his career in the child welfare system, where he worked as a caseworker and administrator. Today his work focuses on ending the harm that results from this system. In 2020, he helped to create and launch the upEND movement, a collaborative effort dedicated to abolishing the child welfare system and building alternatives that focus on healing and liberation. He is also the co-founding editor of Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal dedicated to developing and disseminating an abolitionist praxis in social work.
