This study examined health/mental health status, family functioning, and resiliency among a sample of bereaved parents (N = 503). Participants were recruited from an online support community to complete an online survey instrument (response rate = 51.75%). The questionnaire contained an array of self-report instruments, such as the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist-25 (HSCL-25), the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), and the Family Assessment Device (FAD), as well as open-ended questions. Many respondents scored over the clinical cut-off for the HSCL-25 (51.3%, n = 258) and IES-R (42.3%, n = 213). IES-R scores were negatively correlated with years-since loss (r = -0.24, p < .05). In narrative responses, participants described a wide range of deeply impactful mental and physical health problems. The results indicate significant clinical distress in this sample of bereaved parents, with many reporting enduring psychological, familial, and health consequences following the death of a child.
As defined by the International Federation of Social Workers, social work is a human rights profession. This is explicitly stated in the professional codes of ethics in many nations. However, the most recent version of the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers continues to exclude any mention of human rights, fitting in with the history of U.S. exceptionalism on this subject. Social workers around the world have a long history of working for the achievement of human rights, including an explicit grounding of practice in human rights principles: human dignity, nondiscrimination, participation, transparency, and accountability. Utilizing these principles, U.S. social workers can move from the deficit model of the needs-based approach to competently contextualizing individual issues in their larger human rights framework. In this way, social work can address larger social problems and make way for the concurrent achievement of human rights. This article explains these principles and provides a case example of how to apply them in practice.
Purpose: This review examines the effectiveness of narrative exposure therapy (NET), a short-term intervention for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in survivors of mass violence and torture, who have often suffered multiple traumas over several years. Methods: Randomized control trials were reviewed if they measured PTSD outcome and were published in Englishlanguage, peer-reviewed journals since 2000. Eight studies reviewed here report results with 482 diverse participants, including Sri Lankan children, Rwandan orphans, adult African refugees, and elderly Romanian prisoners. Results: NET produces a significant decrease in PTSD as compared to other treatments, waitlist, or treatment as usual (TAU). Study strengths include treatment fidelity, use of standard measures, and experimental design. Applications to Practice: Preliminary evidence supports use of NET; evidence may be strengthened by larger trials, independent researchers, and further attention to blinding. Social workers who are concerned with refugee mental health should be trained to use effective methods.
A B S T R A C T Objective: This article reports the initial validation of the Human Rights Lens in Social Work (HRLSW) scale, a tool designed to measure a social work er's ability to see individual and social problems as resulting from human rights violations. The purpose of the research was to gather evidence regarding the valid ity of this multidimensional measure of a new construct, i.e., human rights lens. Method: Data from a convenience sample of 1,014 licensed clinical social workers were collected by electronic survey, and the sample was split to conduct discrete exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The exploratory factor analysis was performed on half of the sample (n 5 507) to establish the underlying factor struc ture of the construct; the other half of the sample (n 5 507) underwent a confirma tory factor analysis to examine the subsample's psychometric properties. Results: A respecified model using only one error covariance fit the data very well. All fit indi ces were within their critical values (x 2 /df ratio 5 1.5; CFI 5.99; TLI 5 .99; RMSEA 5 .03; SRMR 5 .03). Thus, factor analysis confirms a two-factor, 11-item model for the HRLSW scale, consisting of two subscales, clients seen as experiencing rights viola tions, and social problems seen as rights violations. Conclusions: This scale is a useful tool for educators, researchers, and practitioners who want to practice-or promote the practice of-social work as a human rights profession. K E Y W O R D S : social work, social workers, human rights, human rights practice, validation studies
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