Identifying anger levels among caregivers who report symptoms of depression is warranted. Reducing depression in caregivers who report high levels of anger may result in reductions of PHB. Screening for resentment is warranted, as the relation between resentment and anger is similar to that between depression and anger.
Objective: This study was designed to test the effectiveness and acceptability of using standardized clients (SCs) to provide social work students with opportunities to practice assessment skills prior to contact with real clients. Method: Effectiveness was examined utilizing a 3-year nonequivalent control group design in the same master of social work mental health course. In Year 1, the no-intervention control group, SCs were not included in classroom instruction. In Years 2 and 3, instruction included SCs in the classroom. For pretest and posttest, each student independently conducted a 30-minute videotaped assessment and treatment planning interview with an SC. Videotape raters were blind to pretest/posttest, experimental/control status. Results: Repeated measures analysis of variance and post hoc tests showed that the three groups were similar at entry into the program (pretest). These hypotheses were partially supported: Students exposed to SCs (Years 2 and 3) improved over the baseline usual role-play Year 1 students. Conclusions: Standardized clients can provide unique experiential learning opportunities that would be difficult to achieve in any other way. SCs provided an opportunity to control the content of case presentations, oversee the interaction of students with a range of client types, and evaluate students' skill acquisition.Social work education aims to create competent practitioners who understand social work values and theory and know how to put them into practice. Role-play has evolved over the years to provide students with opportunities for development and rehearsal of their skills in the safety of the classroom. 364
The gap betwccn classroom prcparation and field performance continues to be a major problem to social work educators. "Standardized Clients" (SCs) have been accepted by medical educators since the 1970s but have not becn systematically integrated into social work education. This paper advocates the feasibility and effectivcncss of using SCs, in both the education and evaluation of social work students, and in a wide variety of applications, thereby significantly strengthening competency-based, direct practice training in Schools of Social Work. SCs are nonprofessionals trained to simulatc a wide range of physical signs, emotions and affect, symptoms and behaviors, and able to recall a breadth of scripted medical, psychiatric, and social information with a high degree of realism. Thcy can provide behavior-based evidence, frec of the potential for risk to "real" clients, that skills have been mastered. We are proposing that this incthod of instruction and evaluation is eminently suited to the goals and objectives of social work education as a means of providing students with opportunities to practice their interviewing and assessment skills prior to contact with clients in thc field. [Ariicle copies available for a f i e /iorri 77re Haworih Docrtererit Delivery Sewice: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail addiws: geiiifojo@liaworfli. conr]
Approximately 1 million older persons have a severe mental illness (SMI) and this number is expected to double in the coming decades. While research studies have examined the experiences of family members of younger persons with SMI, very little is known about caregivers of older SMI clients. This study examined the characteristics, burdens, and rewards of 60 caregivers of older SMI clients using a modified version of family caregiver scales of Tessler, Fisher, & Gamache (1992). Hierarchical linear regression analyses indicated that increased client symptoms, higher levels of help provided, increased caregiver income, and knowledge about the care recipient's diagnosis were predicative of caregiver burden. Decreased number of client symptoms, care recipient being female, and greater experience of the presence of God predicted caregiver rewards. Implications of these findings are discussed.
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