Psychological symptom profiles were obtained on 1,601 children of soldiers deployed during Operation Desert Storm (ODS). The profiles were obtained from reports of the parents who stayed at home with the children. Certain symptoms such as sadness were common, but very few parents considered their children's problems serious enough to require counseling. The strongest predictor of children's receiving counseling during ODS was a previous history of being in counseling for emotional problems.
The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic andStatistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) is both dominant and controversial as a clinical tool for social workers. However, few studies have assessed how social workers actually use DSM-IV in their clinical practice. A national study using a 72-item questionnaire was conducted with a random sample of 558 of the 7,000 social workers listed in the 1999 Register of Clinical Social Workers. The questionnaire assessed frequency and importance of using DSM-IV. Findings reflected that 78.9% of social workers used DSM often to always, 85.9% gave a DSM diagnosis often to always, but only 50% of social workers would use DSM if not required. Most common reasons for using DSM were to bill insurance (92.6% rated often to always) and to assess clients (78% rated often to always). Likewise, when rating importance of using DSM, the two most important reasons were to bill insurance (90.9% rated very to
Paul Frazer and Iris Phillips are Assistant Professors in the
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SOCIAL WORK IN MENTAL HEALTHextremely important) and to assess clients (58% rated very to extremely important). Agency social workers rated 6 of 11 reasons more important than private practice social workers although both settings rated billing for insurance as most important. Study confirms the importance of DSM in assessing clients and billing for insurance. The authors recommend research to better understand how social workers define assessment and clarify insurance/employer pressure to use DSM.
The development and validation of a new rapid assessment instrument, the Clinical Anxiety Scale (CAS), is described. The CAS has good reliability and validity and is compatible in format with a number of other rapid assessment instruments designed for human service professionals who wish to evaluate the effects of their interventions with clients experiencing dysfunctional anxiety.
This article presents results of an exploratory study of how Army military spouses with children cope with everyday stresses varies based on ethnic background. The study used data from 4,464 respondents of the 2001 Survey of Army Families IV (SAF IV). SAF IV, fielded April through July 2001, was used to reduce the confounding associated with the Iraq war. The results of five-stepwise regressions indicated that there were four common predictors and four ethnically specific predictors of how spouses cope. It was also found that the major sample (Caucasian) was most reflective of the analysis of the total sample of 4,464. Two of the primary predictors of spouse coping were the Problems Experienced Scale and the spouses’ ability to keep themselves well informed about the Army. Study findings suggest that while similarities in coping exist between ethnic groups, there are also important ethnic differences in coping relevant to family policy and practice. These differences warrant further study based on a larger sample of spouses
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