Leaders of human service organizations (HSOs) face significant pressures from policymakers and funders to justify practices and ensure successful outcomes, an issue that has implications for social work practitioners and evidence-informed management practice. Although empirical research has advanced understanding of the factors that improve human service effectiveness and organizational improvement, considerable research-to-practice gaps exist and the use and translation of ... Read More »

A recent issue of the journal Health & Social Work, co-published by NASW Press and Oxford University Press, features an article on the issue of HIV and individuals of transgender experience. Individuals of transgender experience (ITE) in the United States face an elevated risk of HIV infection. Several conditions have been attributed to the high HIV incidence and prevalence within ... Read More »

The community school movement represents a promising approach to school reform that brings much-needed attention to the intersections of child, family, and community well-being. Although the community school movement of today shares many core values and goals with school social work, it has undergone a different developmental trajectory. As a result, operation of the community school model may, no matter ... Read More »

Intimate partner violence is a pervasive problem in the United States. intimate partner violence is often repetitive and may escalate; in a small number of cases, intimate partner violence leads to homicide. In a recent issue of the journal Social Work, co-published by NASW Press and Oxford University Press, an article presented an evidence-based practice model for risk-informed social work ... Read More »

Interest in the construct of grit has increased across disciplines due to its ability to predict success in a wide variety of settings. Grit is a particularly important construct among disadvantaged populations, who typically must overcome a disproportionate number of obstacles to reach their goals. In a recent issue of the journal Social Work Research, co-published by NASW Press and ... Read More »

Hospice provides holistic support for individuals living with terminal illness and to their caregivers during the bereavement period. However, some individuals who enroll in hospice services are decertified as they do not experience a decline in health as quickly as required by current regulations, a practice referred to as a live discharge. The interruption in care can affect the physical ... Read More »

The middle school transition has been identified as a difficult time for youths, resulting in adjustment difficulties across a variety of domains. Although some research has examined strategies that are useful for the adjustment outcomes associated with the transition, more research understanding student perceptions of what is helpful in the middle school transition and adjustment correlations of perceived level of ... Read More »

In recent years, community–academic partnerships (CAPs) have gained traction in academia as a method for bridging the research-to-practice gap and reducing health disparities for marginalized populations. The field of social work may be well poised to enhance its ability to engage in partnerships and research around partnerships given its emphasis on conducting practice research and its historical roots in boundary ... Read More »

Photovoice is a qualitative community-based participatory research method that was first developed to assist rural Chinese women in documenting their everyday health and work conditions. Since its development in the mid-1990s, researchers have used photovoice to engage underserved communities of color who have been wary of research endeavors based on previous adverse experiences. With indigenous groups, photovoice has recently been ... Read More »

Studies on access to health care among Latinx communities have overlooked (a) the use of traditional healers and (b) the role of social networks in seeking traditional healers. A recent issue of the journal Health & Social Work, published by NASW Press, includes an article which describes a study of this issue. Framed within the network-episode model, the study aimed ... Read More »