Call for Papers
Practice: Social Work in Action
Deadline: October 31, 2012
Papers are invited for a special issue of Practice: Social Work in Action on the supervision of Social Work Practice. With its capacity to provide both professional and organisational support, supervision has the potential to offer a mediating relationship between managerially driven forms of organisation, and relationship driven professional practice. Re-instating quality supervision has become an imperative in the current challenging time for social work, as practitioners move away from front-line roles or leave the profession. We invite papers from social work practitioners, practice teachers, managers, educators and academics. Papers are welcome which address any of the following aspects:
* organizational and/or professional ramifications of enhancing supervisory practices;
* narratives which offer reflections upon challenges and innovations in supervisory practices;
* research/theorising in relation to supervisory practices;
* responses to, and implications of, BASW's UK Supervision Policy.
Find out more here.

 

CALL FOR PAPERS
Special Edition of Social Work and Christianity: Towards A Christian Critique of Evidence-based Practice in Social Work
Deadline: September 1, 2012
Guest Editors: Michael S. Kelly, Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work & Cynthia Franklin, University of Texas-Austin
Evidence-based Practice (EBP) is now entering its second decade in social work scholarship and practice. This special issue seeks to add a Christian perspective to the literature on the implementation of EBP in social work practice, policy, and education. Many scholars and practitioners hail EBP's impact on client outcomes and argue that it represents a deepening of our ethical commitment to empowering practitioners with a process and tools that lead to the best possible client care, while other scholars point out the limitations of the EBP approach. This special issue of Social Work & Christianity seeks to expand the epistemological and practical discussions about EBP to add a further (and we believe, necessary) complication to the debate over EBP in social work: namely, how can EBP be practiced in the multitude of Christian social work contexts we see around the world? This special issue seeks to further debate the pros and cons of using EBP in social work by asking simply, "How can Christian social workers incorporate EBP into their work?" Papers for this special issue are encouraged to look at EBP as a process that integrates clinical expertise, client circumstances, research evidence, and client values and to formulate a paper discussing one or all of those dimension from a Christian perspective. Papers can employ a variety of methodologies, though special emphasis will be given to papers that use a conceptual lens to build a foundation to either critique or defend EBP from a Christian social work perspective. Papers can be up to 20 pages, double-spaced and in APA style (6th Ed.). Contact mkell17@luc.edu with any questions and to submit papers as email attachments. 

Call for Abstracts
Global Health & Innovation Conference
Deadline: August 31, 2012
The Global Health & Innovation Conference (GHIC) is the world's leading and largest global health conference as well as the largest social entrepreneurship conference, with 2,200 professionals and students from all 50 states and more than 55 countries. This must-attend, thought-leading conference convenes leaders, changemakers, and participants from all sectors of global health, international development, and social entrepreneurship. Click here for more information. 

Policy Fellowships with the Society for Research in Child Development
Deadline: December 15, 2012
The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) is seeking applications for upcoming Policy Fellowships for 2013-2014. There are two types of Fellowships: Congressional and Executive Branch. Both provide Fellows with exciting opportunities to come to Washington, DC and use their research skills in child development outside of the academic setting to inform public policy. Fellows work as resident scholars within their federal agency or Congressional office placements. Fellowships are full-time immersion experiences and run from September 1st through August 31st. Following a two-week science policy orientation program sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Fellows receive an SRCD orientation to child development and public policy. The SRCD Office for Policy and Communications in Washington facilitates the Fellows' experience and is available as a resource throughout the year. Application Requirements: Applicants must have a doctoral-level degree in any relevant discipline (e.g., Ph.D., M.D., J.D.), must demonstrate exceptional competence in an area of child development research, and must be a member of SRCD. Both early-career and advanced professionals are encouraged to apply. More information about the Fellowships is available online under the Policy and Communications tab, or email policyfellowships@srcd.org. 

Health and Equity in Transportation: Promising Methods and Modes to Improve Health Outcomes
The American Public Health Association (APHA) is hosting a free webinar series on critical health and equity issues within the transportation sector. These three, 60-minute APHA webinars explore the ties between public health and:
·Increased use of public transportation;
·Reduced injuries, particularly for children and young drivers;
·Reduced inequities from increased access to goods and services; and
·Other topics within transportation, such as updates on the federal surface transportation authorization.
Archived webinar recordings and presentation slides are posted here.

Exploring Shared-Savings Programs
Shared-savings programs are gaining traction as an alternative way of paying health care providers. Unlike traditional fee-for-service-in which providers are paid more for delivering a higher volume of services, regardless of medical need-providers in a shared-savings model are rewarded for delivering high-quality care at lower cost by receiving a share of the net cost savings. A new Commonwealth Fund report by author Michael Bailit and colleagues examines six case studies of shared-savings initiatives across the country. The programs vary considerably along several fronts: patient populations, the health care services covered, the way in which cost savings and provider payouts are determined, the use of performance targets, and performance measurement. Despite these differences, the authors also identified common themes, including a willingness to absorb start-up costs, as well as a belief that shared-saving programs must evolve to include shared risk. Click here to read more.

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) provides leadership and training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis for a diverse and expanding social science research community. Below is a selected list of new data collection additions to the ICPSR data archive:
-32450 Surveys of Consumers, September 2003
-33584 After the JD 2: A Longitudinal Study of Careers in Transition, 2007-2008, United States
-34003 Afrobarometer Round 4: The Quality of Democracy and Governance in Lesotho, 2008
-34006 Afrobarometer Round 4: The Quality of Democracy and Governance in Mali, 2008
-34013 Afrobarometer Round 4: The Quality of Democracy and Governance in Uganda, 2008
-34309 Measures of Effective Teaching: Section-Level Analytical Files, 2009-2011
Click here to read more. 

CASD Research and Practice Brief #7
The Center on Adherence and Self-Determination (CASD) conducts research aimed at promoting choice and full engagement in services that help people with serious mental illness achieve their recovery goals. An example of our work in the area of empowerment and self-determination for people of the Asian culture with serious mental illness is the attached Research & Practice Brief (R&PB). This is the seventh in a series. These R&PBs are meant to summarize the CASD's research into succinct statements that might be used by advocates, policy makers, and other interested parties to promote the agenda of self-determination. Click here to read the full Brief.

Collecting Wage Data by Gender, Race, and National Origin
(From the the national Academy of Sciences)
A new report from the National Research Council examines the possible effects of legislation -- known as the Paycheck Fairness Act -- on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Click here to read more. 

 

Publication of Special Edition of Advances in Social Work
Global Problems/Local Solutions
Guest Editors: Khadija Khaja, Indiana University School of Social Work; Joseph Varga, Indiana University Labor Studies Program
Many of the problems faced by the populations both social work and labor studies serve are, if not new, then at least historically located in the emergent global order. However, most solutions are being worked out at the local level, through some combination or coalition of actors attempting to fashion problem-solving institutions and methods that empowered at-risk populations. Thus was born the Global Problems and Local Solutions issue of Advances in Social Work. In an effort to bring some order from a diverse collection of 15 articles written by a group of national and international scholars, we identify three main paths to local solutions on offer in the case studies: government policy, legislation and state institutions; non-governmental organizations (NGOs); and grassroots and community-based organizations. What each study shows is that no solution, local, regional, state-centered, or grassroots, fits every aspect of our global problems, and not even the most empowering bottom up effort will satisfy everyone involved. Advances in Social Work is an online, open-access journal. Click here to freely access the contents of this special issue and all past issues. 

New Web Page for Evaluation of CHIPRA Quality Demonstration Grant Program
A new Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Web page offers information about the national evaluation of a Quality Demonstration Grant Program to identify effective strategies for enhancing quality and delivery of care for children. The grant program, which funds efforts in 18 states, was funded by the Children's Health Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA), and AHRQ is overseeing its national evaluation. The new AHRQ Web page includes descriptions of the 51 projects being implemented, which fall into these categories:
-Using quality measures to improve child health care
-Applying health information technology for quality improvement
-Implementing provider-based delivery models
-Investigating a model format for pediatric electronic health records (EHRs)
-Assessing the utility of other innovative approaches to enhance quality
Click here to learn more as the projects progress and to sign up for ongoing email updates.