...between psychology, psychiatry and social work that is.

It seems strange that these mental health disciplines don't share more in terms of their training; it would seem that an integrative approach to training would benefit all.

From my experience working at a hospital, I can see why some of my first year professors trash-talk the other two disciplines as over-pathologizing. But that experience also demonstrated how little social workers seem to know about anatomy, neuroscience and psychopharmacology unless they take an elective on the subject or are on an interdisciplinary unit.

And why such different experiences between the professions? Could social workers do brief 2-3 month rotations rather than full year placements? It definitely would provide a wide breadth of experience.

At the same time, I can say my full year experience on an in-patient psychiatric unit provided a lot of growth and I learned a lot in watching new psychiatric residents and psychology interns rotate in and make the same mistakes and insights I had. In group therapy supervision, it became I found it useful to process feedback made towards the residents, that I hadn't been able to fully digest when it had been directed at me (perhaps due to feeling overwhelmed, defenses or simply less to draw upon).

Some readings I did recently for my Integrative Practice course informed me to how recently (the 1970s) social work has grown as a major mental health discipline in the US. My understanding from those reading was that psychiatrists differentiated themselves with the rise of non-psychiatric practitioners, withdrawing largely from psychotherapy. I wasn't able to find out what those non-psychiatric practitioners did not become more psychiatrically knowledgeable.

Managed care has found no one discipline besting the other in terms of providing psychotherapy - which means we're just as bad or good as each other - so why not work together in developing best practices? To that end, why does the American Psychiatric Association make the main diagnostic manual, rather than making it collaboration with the American Psychological Association and the National Association of Social Workers?

Sure, three-ways make for complicated relationships. And there is the tricky part of making everybody feel cared about and not having one party (ahem, American Psychiatric Association) baskin' in the lovin'.

But hey, we're mental health professionals...can't we work it out?

Then maybe we can go to the next task: resolving the lack of love between the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM IV-TR) and the The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10).






See how nice collaboration can be...

I'm pretty excited about a grant proposal I'm submitting for a program I'm attempting to develop on my own.

It aims to reshape how clients are linked up with social service agencies and public services, speeding up and simplifying the whole process.

Here it is. I'd love to get any suggestions, critiques or parties interested in being involved in the early stages of this.

Techno-Empowerment

Peace is more than simply creating a state of stability. Ideas and peoples find themselves in a complicated world of micro- and macro-level concerns, of collaboration and conflict. Our definition of peace must recognize that reality, though it presents a greater challenge – one that is holistic in bridging a long-term vision of peace with complex and real immediate needs.
This is informed by my background in journalism and social work in the United States and South Africa. My decision to become a social worker is not too different from what drew me to become a journalist -- a belief in social justice, empathy, raising awareness to social problems and fighting for appropriate social policy. My hope is to continue with both careers - aiming to use my background in print, radio and online journalism to work on the macro-level (advocating for policy changes), while using my training in social work to provide micro-level change (via direct-service).

Rather than seeing these as separate tasks, this project presents a marriage of the two, a multi-faceted approach. In New York City and more broadly, this can be seen within social services, where services/resources elude clients unless they are highly capable.

Proposed Project

A central feature of this database is that it is a collaborative, wiki project - whereby clients and agency workers share their experiences and Rolodexs for more comprehensive, culturally competent, speedy referrals and information for treatment, services and assistance navigating and advocating within agency processes. The project will develop an online database through a partnership with an Indian web-based software-development company that recently won an award for e-inclusion and e-community.

Key features of this project can be found in its format. One example which can be found nowhere else is the ability for public comment on agency practices, that can be accessed by the public. This allows for critique, commentary and much more. The database provides a simple format for locating a given agency. Hard to obtain information can be found including intake forms and applications for services. These could be filled out before arriving at a given agency, shortening wait time. People can also seek a given service that is individually-tailored to their situation, such as someone seeking outpatient drug treatment for fellow Spanish-speaking single mothers, that accepts Medicaid and meets on evenings to avoid job conflicts. Research finds that poor families are more likely to show resilience when they receive information, social supports and instrumental support, such as in locating material resources (Juby & Rycraft, 2004). The database would ameliorate the situation for clients that are unfamiliar with agency policies and practices, unaware of available resources, or reluctant to seek them out.

The movement to an online system is where many services are headed. But social and governmental services currently lag and are uniformly closed within a vertical hierarchy where the organization maintains and edits information. Users are thus completely dependent on the agency that created the database for accurate, constantly updated information. Within this system there is also no possibility for public input or comment on an agency, practice or treatment modality. One significant feature of the proposed project is that it is recognizes this issues and proposes a decentralized model. By making this site with a collaborative wiki feature, agencies and members of the public keep information current and useful - as agencies close, change their practices and so on. This gives clients the ability to prepare and gauge time commitments and puts people in control of what options are available to them. Such collaboration has been found to be central to increasing the effectiveness of any positive change effort (Gibelman & Furman, 2007). Comments on an agency’s public profile may affect client and staff referrals. Thus, there is an incentive for agency reform that is attentive and responsive to client needs. A 2008 study found such e-governance to strengthen democratic institutions and processes, providing a choice-laden, participatory platform for service that cuts down the red tape found in normal systems that are open to inefficiency, poor coordination and a lack of transparency (Subramanian & Saxena, 2008). Projects of e-participation improve citizen engagement in public affairs as well as the quality of public services, especially in city governments. (Alonso, 2009)

Resource manuals are sometimes created at social service agencies, however they are rarely updated. They are rarely used as a result. Moreover, they are not accessible to the community. By putting all our resources in one pot, referrals are likely to be more expedient and comprehensive. This also saves agencies time and money. A 2009 study finds that online mental health services provide "the possibility of treatment that is more cost-effective and therefore reducing therapist time, reducing waiting lists, compensating for the lack of trained professionals, and relieving the burden often experienced by service providers in meeting demands" (Richards, 2009, p. 232). Information can be found within the proposed online database, rather than having to call, e-mail and meet with staff in searching for referrals. When advice is needed, it may be found in the comments of other database users.

A certain quantity and quality of database content is required to serve as an incentive for public and private utilization of this project. This content will be organized and made public by the end of the summer in 2010. Much information has been obtained over the past two years by multiple social work students who have agreed to assist with this database’s development. This project intends to encourage more social work students to become involved, as many start graduate school internships and first jobs without any knowledge of resources. Efforts will be made to verify all information by phone and via site visits to agencies as well as to enlist partnership from relevant interested agencies – the NYU School of Social Work and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). Those involved in the early stages of this project will initially oversee the content and scope of it to ensure veracity, before opening the project up – much as Wikipedia.org has done.

This is a project that seeks to begin and sustain a peaceful process – not just create a flicker of it. A variety of funding options will be explored to this end, including grants from interested parties. The creation of a separate, smaller wiki-styled database listing private practitioners is a notable side-feature that financially contributes to the long-term management and development of this project. Such a service does not exist. Usage by private practitioners may increase contributions to the larger database of agency services. For clients, this provides an opportunity to learn and voice past experiences with a practitioner and a space for state licensing violations to be highlighted for their protection.

Example of client benefit

A single, pregnant 18 year old is seeking shelter for herself and her 2 year old child after being kicked out of her family's home. She could find the eligibility process for shelter online and learn the relatively unknown fact that she would be denied shelter by the City of NYC (Any housing lost due to non-abusive, relational problems over the past 2 years aren’t considered lost and make you ineligible for shelter). The online database would show the few private, local maternity shelters available, as well as those which she is eligible for (some specify parent and child ages required). This information could be found on the database by her or a caseworker at the onset of the shelter process, saving time for both her and the agency. If she is without important information (i.e. a birth certificate, social security card, state I.D.) or cannot be reached by phone (there are little known programs that provide free voicemail and free cell-phones w/ minutes) applications for these services can be completed all at once, saving her travel time and money that may impede the completion of other tasks, like interviewing childcare providers, meeting with an OBGYN, maintaining her employment or student status. Note that the database would also be the only current place, outside of a courtroom, for her to advocate for a change in city policy or make that policy gap more widely known by social service professionals.

2 Gibelman, M. & Furman, R. (2007). Navigating Human Service Organizations: Essential Information for Thriving and Surviving in Agencies (2nd ed.). Chicago, Il: Lyceum Books.

3 Subramanian, M., & Saxena, A.. (2008). E-Governance in India: From Policy to Reality. a Case Study of Chhattisgarh Online Information System for Citizen Empowerment (CHOICE) Project of Chhattisgarh State of India. International Journal of Electronic Government Research, 4(2), 12-26.

4 Alonso, N. (2009). E-Participation and Local Governance: A Case Study. Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management, (12), 49-62.

5 Richards, Derek (2009) 'Features and benefits of online counselling: Trinity College online mental health community', British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 37: 3, 231 — 242

I won't lie, some of it was dry. But I still think every social worker needs to take some law school classes. There are some important implications for our profession.

For example, if a social worker decides to help a survivor of domestic violence look for something in their home related to the violence (i.e. her partner's loaded gun), that social worker becomes a witness if they actually find it. The significance of that you've taken on another role (the NASW Code of Ethics warned you about dual roles) and your confidentiality can now be breached.

That academic lesson is a hard one to grasp. I've witnessed/engaged in imperfect exchanges over the past two years as a MSW student, with consistent advisement that I should highly consider how critiques or activism might negatively impact my job prospects. Perhaps it's naivete, but you'd think the dynamics would be different in an profession that bills itself as borne out of activism and social change.

Several times I've been given the impression that maintaining passive, good relations is a far greater priority, and a "common sense" one - even when it neglects/opposes established theory, research and the law.

Note that as I write this post, I've not explicitly named any names or provided the context of any of these situations -- as a result of these politics.

Despite not existing within the purview of confidentiality, I've picked up a desire within the profession (correct me if I'm wrong) to have general, vague conversations, because specific and direct are not sought. This seems like an odd dynamic, again for social workers, who challenge our clients to be substantive over superficial and celebrate stories of individual resilience (a decent portion of my 1st year of MSW reading).

And then what happens when your national association of social workers, gets it tremendously wrong? Uganda's NASW is a good example right now.

The National Association of Social Workers in Uganda (NASWU) put out a press release in support of a proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill, that aims to make being gay, lesbian or bisexual punishable by life imprisonment or death and banning government and public institutions and NGOs from serving this community.

The NASWU says the bill should be amended, stating that social workers can change a person's sexual orientation through psychological services (We can? That's quite the magic trick.)

The International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) responded with a press release stating that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill should be withdrawn as it is a violation of international human rights conventions. Responding to claims in the bill and made by the NASWU in their press release, the IFSW said "It is misguided and an abuse of human rights to imply that the expression of sexual orientation and ill-treatment of children are the same or related. They are not."

It's ironic that the NASWU cites as evidence of their claims, articles by the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), as NARTH's mission statement (unless it's bogus) states that they "do not support coercive therapy," like that being proposed by the NASWU.

Reflecting on this issue in Uganda, it's easy to feel that social workers in Uganda that don't believe in discriminating against LGBT folks should become activists for change, especially in their own NASW. But in the face of such dilemmas, where would our allegiances lie if similar situations are localized to the U.S. NASW?

We're a profession that uses a diagnostic manual that has the cojones to believe people who are transgender are suffering from a mental illness*, and claims we're trained to fix them. I guess we have those magic powers too -- Ugandan social workers can make everybody only attracted to people of the opposite sex, and we can change people's gender.

* I wrote a paper on the subject of working with transgender children, their families and the debate on the "Gender Identity Disorder" diagnosis for my Ethnocultural studies course.

One of the challenges I've come across as a student of social work and as an intern is teaching and learning cultural competence.

Case in point, I took a class on cultural competence as an evidence based practice that stated supposed traits of "Hispanic-American, African-American, Gay, Asian-American" peoples (the terms were not my choice). My feelings are that such reductionistic thinking is poop.

The underlying message presented is that if we are teaching about these groups, but not about Whites, European-Americans or straight people, who are we assuming we are teaching? I'm guessing the idea is this is new information for white, straight social workers. But what about the other social workers? Can't they get to learn about the great heterogeneity of whites or European Americans (no, not all white people are alike)? Can we learn about the cultural roles commonly taken up by white women and white men? Are straight people often promiscuous, concerned with fashion? If this information is (or is not) useful for learning about minority groups, why is it not just as useful (or not) for majority groups?

To my eyes, cultural competence is about seeking to understand and empathize with different (and perhaps previously unknown) cultural understandings while at the same time assuming diversity - no culture is all encompassing; there are subcultures and sub-subcultures and so on.

Ultimately the key is not to confuse the issue and think cultural competence is about race, sex, sexuality or nationality. It's infinitely more broad than that because people are more complicated and take on so many different roles.

Reflecting on an encounter with one of my first clients in my first year at NYU, I offered parenting advice to a mother of a 16 month old in our first session. The issue wasn't that I'm a man giving a mother advice on parenting. It's that I'm giving advice on parenting to a parent - a pretty &$%!@#$ inconsiderate move. I only started to recognize my mistake as I became an uncle a couple months later and found similar "helpful" comments given my way as took care of my newborn nephew.

As for the client, I never saw her again. Surprise, surprise.

A big part of our profession getting respected involves taking these hard looks at ourselves and raising the bar. Over the past two years, NYU has instilled the idea that we are trying to further professionalize our profession.

That seems daunting at times with the choices our profession sometimes make. The NASW has a social work blog that sometimes highlights the exact opposite of client-centered, strength-based, person-in-the-environment values. One of my favorite examples provides 10 reasons why some marriages are superfantastic and others end in divorce, when relationships are infinitely more complicated then this - that's why we talk so much about a biopsychosocial perspective.

According to that blog post, good marriages involve people who: "Are both truly happy, optimistic people who know how to problem-solve." When we venture into these simplistic accounts, we are being culturally incompetent about marriage, and ultimately presenting our profession as if we are in the easy to advise/condemn, insta-therapy of Jerry Springer or "Dr." Phil. Here's another quick fix provided on the NASW blog.

I want to reiterate, such advice-giving is tempting and I've been guilty of delving into it. Even two years in, I can see this is a difficult profession to do without dipping into feelings of apathy, cynicism and omniscience (to name a few).

I'm not sure this can be broadly corrected by my stringent licensing requirements, code's of ethics or school of social work syllabi. It seems essential to take hard looks at ourselves (when we are not with our clients so they need not carry that burden).

But how do keep ourselves somewhat vulnerable and open to being reflective? How do you instill social workers with a desire to be self-critical and with growing interest, in a non-voyeuristic sense?

And perhaps the central question, for a profession borne and bred out both desire and achievement of radical social change, how do we turn that inwards towards ourselves?

Donnie Darko - Exposes Jim Cunningham

©Deed Up | MySpace Video

March is National Social Work Month. Who knew? It's also National Women's History Month.

I guess we'll share.

We also have World Social Work Day tomorrow and Social Work Day at the United Nations on March 29.

This year's theme to Social Work Month is "Social Workers Inspire Community Action," which apparently is aimed at leadership development (NASW Press Release).

I still have no idea what this all means. It's a day/month of recruitment? Increased training? Advocacy? Education?

Sure...I like the last one.

I've sat through a few lectures on social work history in the U.S. But so far, nothing on life and times of social work outside of the U.S.

I actually asked a human behavior professor who grilled us on what she felt was our poor knowledge of social work history.

"Any questions?"
My hand went up. I asked something to the effect of: "Do we have any leaders in social work in Africa, Asia, Latin America? What contributions have those continent made to social works history and development?"
The professor responded: "There aren't. The field was developed in the U.S. and Europe and emanated out from there."

Well, I did a bit of reading for this blog. It's pretty difficult to track down information on social work history that isn't skewed completely towards the U.S..

Harrison (2009) points out that linguistically this is also the case, quoting two social workers who studied respectively in the Phillippines and Hong Kong as saying:

"The language of social work is basically English, and all the books have been
influenced by US and Great Britain.

All the textbooks are in English. Occasionally you may get recommended
some reference books in Chinese, but most of the textbooks are from
America." (p. 1088)

Perhaps, increased use of international texts would improve competency on the international contributions to social work.

I did find some good information in International Social Work by Lynne M. Healy.

So here a few fun facts from the Healy (2008) text:
It appears social work was not founded in the U.S. Training courses existed earlier in England and the first school of social work was in Amsterdam in 1899, though schools of social work popped up within a few years of this in London, New York City and Berlin. The first person hired as a social worker was Mary Stewart in London.

Healy finds that social work was introduced to African and Asian nations by the U.S. and European experts focused on "underdevelopment".

The first school of social work in Latin America was in Santiago, Chile, founded in 1925 by a physician, Alejandro del Rio, with help from a Belgian physician. While the first school of social work didn't come to Argentina until the 1930s, the Charity Society, which served women, children and the elderly had been around for over a century. During Argentina's military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s, social work educators and practitioners were fired, jailed, killed or fled in exile.

Africa's first school of social work began in Cape Town, South Africa in 1924, focusing narrowly on poverty among white people. In keeping with the struggle with the racist system of Apartheid to come, early social work education was linked towards strengthening ethnic boundaries and opposing cultural assimilation. A tradition of liberalism that focused on general poverty would grow, in contrast to the racist focus on services only for whites. The first school there to focus on educating nonwhites for social work was formed in 1941. And the second school of social work in Africa was in Egypt in 1936.

Something resembling a settlement house was founded in Bombay, India in 1926 by Dr. Clifford Manshardt, an American Missionary, who by his own account was viewed as idealistic, but religiously open-minded (that was considered a bad thing) by church officials that employed him.

A hospital social work department was founded in Beijing, China in 1921 by American social worker Ida Pruitt. Social work education stopped in 1952 with the banning of social sciences from universities following the communist takeover, but came back again in the early 1980s.

The unification of Europe in the 1990s brought provisions for social workers to work in any member country.

Sattareh Farman Farmaian founded the first school of social work in Iran in 1958, inventing the Farsi word for social work, madadkar or "one who helps." She went into exile to the U.S., after the overthrow of the shah, where she was charged with raising the living standard in Iran. The idea apparently was that deceasing poverty slowed the overthrow of the shah.
---

It's hard to find a description, at length of social work development outside of the U.S. There's a there a international social work student conference coming up this Sunday at Fordham. Hopefully, I can get some more answers there.

One great resources I know of is South Africa's Human Science Research Council Press (HSRC Press) which posts free books, including texts on mental health. Here are a few I found:

Promoting mental health in scarce-resource contexts
Mental Health and HIV/AIDS
Psychosocial conditions of orphans and vulnerable children in two Zimbabwean districts
Psychosocial issues affecting orphans and vulnerable children in two South African communities
Reflective Practice: Psychodynamic ideas in the community

If you have any resources, feel free to comment.

References:

Harrison, G. (2009) Language Politics, Linguistic Capital and Bilingual Practitioners in Social Work. British Journal of Social Work 39, 1082–1100

Healy, L. M. (2008) International Social Work. 2nd Edition. Oxford University Press

My Original Motivation To Study Social Work At NYU

A big part of my motivation in going to school for social work was to improve my clinical skills so that I could do improved direct service work with people who were survivors of domestic violence and homeless. I’d done a significant amount of volunteering and conscious raising work in urban and rural towns in the U.S. and in South Africa. To a certain extent, going to social work school felt like becoming a professional volunteer.

Additionally, with my background in journalism covering struggles of mentally ill folks cycling through the prison system and varied stories of homeless and domestic violence in print and radio, I thought social work would better inform my work. I already thought I was pretty open minded and critically thinking, and endured and witnessed some traumatic experiences in South Africa that could prove useful. I wrote that I believed “to truly understand human behavior, it is crucial to understand life circumstances and the varied social problems facing people.” But my fear was that I’d come and go through this program with a credential, and little practical skills than a greater understanding of concrete services.

Changes in Understanding with Experiences at NYU/Placement

My understanding of the professional social work role was significantly lacking and I was largely uncertain about how it differentiates itself from other similar professions like psychology. I seem to have almost lucked out in discovering that the client-centered, strength-based, person-in-the-environment values of social work coincide with my own values. However, I was challenged by what these values actually suggest, nor the complexity of exploring issues of transference and countertransference. For example, I was largely unaware of how diagnostic labeling can be seen as reductionistic, overgeneralzing, pathologizing and sometimes seemingly scientifically unsupported (i.e. gender identify disorder) and that varying levels of recovery and experience exist with people with severe mental illness and the challenges of working from where a paranoid client with auditory hallucinations is at.

My work on an in-patient psychiatric unit and friendship with an intelligent and insightful friend who has survived multiple "services" for folks diagnosed with mental illnesses (and amazingly has risen in spite of her illness, those services and every other knick-knack that life through her way) had a huge influence on how I interpret the social work role – being sensitive to not discriminate against a severely mentally ill patient by failing to offer them a voice in their treatment, paying attention affective communication or believing in the viability of a therapeutic alliance there. From this experience, I found cultural competence to include mental status, among other things. As I developed an independent study on clinical work with people who committed sex offenses, I realized even discussing treatment with sex offenders, much like labeling someone a “schizophrenic”, failed to recognize the individuality of clients and the heterogeneity of those offenses.

Developing that level of empathy was foreign to me; I was not aware of the lengths social work aims to go to. I was surprised to find the countertransferential challenges to such empathic and client centered work. Especially when it involves demonstrating empathy in a family or group setting for all parties, even when an individual appears to be the faulty part of the family system, such as in ways to support both a child and her/his parents when a child voices an identity that the parents are unwilling to accept. The notion of developing a therapeutic relationship as the essential ideal over and supporting all parties where they are at were unique concepts to engagement.

As a journalist, I figured my interviewing skills were strongly developed. But as I reflect on my first semester reading of Susan Lucas’ book Where to Start And What to Ask, I realize I was looking for specific questions to ask as if questioning and follow up questioning was all that was necessary. Being aware of looking for affect, safety, overdisclosure, transferential issues, open-ended/close-ended issues, universalizing and reframing have been incredibly useful tools in understanding the client and, significantly, making the client feel understood. Canning & Mullin (2008) point out a progression I observed in integrating these subjects in my field placement, supervision and process recordings; I proceeded from learning how to learn, to learning from my observations/supervision to, finally, carrying my past supervisions with me as I reflect on my client work in the here-and-now and later on.

Among other realizations about the nature of professional social work, was the common encounter with ethical challenges. As someone who is passionate about providing concrete services, it was important to recognize that seemingly self-less dual or multiple relationships could have negative effects on the client and agency, and should be carefully considered (Reamer, 2003). Strom-Gottfried (1999) points out that research has found a wide range of interpretations of various standards of conduct. Similarly, I’ve vacillated between thinking self-disclosure and humor should be avoided in the name of professionalism to understanding the importance of context and the great potential for these tools to benefit clients if wielded properly. One of the key lessons to this end occurred recently, as I faced what research has found to be one of the most challenging pieces of self-disclosure – self-disclosure that involves shame. In this case, I once contacted a former patient's family member after learning second-hand that the client had died shortly after discharge. I wanted to offer support or share how I could relate to his feelings of loss. The bigger challenge was I really didn’t know what to say. Saying that turned out to provide the most comfort to the client's family member, who responded positively to that disclosure.

It’s daunting to learn that social workers have an assortment of bodies to be accountable to: clients, insurers, agencies, other agency providers, courts and utilization review bodies (Reamer, 2005). It’s a difficult balance between community protection and confidentiality, whether in cases like Jafee (1996) or in making records available to clients without causing serious harm to the client nor violating the confidentiality of others (Lens, 2000). While as a journalist, I’m strict about note-taking during an interview, social work presents a conundrum in a world where a client’s fantasies can be used against the client if a spouse subpoenas the record in a child custody dispute (Reamer, 2005).

The social work role I did not expect as a potentiality was as a supervisor. Far from my volunteer experiences where supervision largely included providing a basic tasks to be completed or an initial training, social work supervision calls for significant investment. Homonoff (2008) summarizes some of these as including teaching assessment, intervention and integration of theory and practice, encouraging reflection, developing an integrative model of supervision, applying research to practice, providing support to interns and following the mission of field education. Beginning supervision seems similar to the beginnings of social work training, where the aim is to be strengths-based but it’s easy to fall within the trap of simple advice-giving. Agass (2002) adds the important parallel that just as its important to contain clients’ disturbances to render them more understandable and manageable, “supervision [can] offer a containing experience for the worker…struggling with thoughts and feelings he cannot understand…whilst maintaining…a very clear distinction between supervision and personal therapy” (p. 132).

I also can see I failed to fully appreciate the emotional challenges of this work, believing naively in my own unending resilience to protect me from burnout and secondary traumatization. The potential painfulness of termination, with feelings of loss, hopelessness and betrayal, surprised me (Anthony & Pagano, 1998). I had not concerned my role as a positive object in people’s lives and being considerate to that fact in determining how deeply to delve in a given session or in brief, emergency treatment. I’ve also been shaken by how great the challenge the social worker role is when a client dies, specifically in self-care and managing feelings to ensure safety and appropriate care for clients. Training to this end helped me understand how feelings of disbelief, denial, anger at other staff, self-blame, emotional numbing were common (Ting, Sanders, Jacobson & Power, 2006). I've seen staff at agencies deal with traumatic events and client deaths by taking on many of these reactions and witnessed some staff attempting to buckle down and continue work with clients, despite the inappropriateness of doing some when they are still reacting emotionally.

My learning of social work over the past two years has brought some unexpected realizations into the profession of social work. The complexity of the role is daunting. However, similarly to how a law degree is often heralded as yielding a legal mind, even if not put into practice, I can clearly see places of professional and personal development that has come with an understanding of the overall perspectives and values of social work. Many of the goals written in my personal statement stand fulfilled. To my benefit, I seem to have gotten more than I bargained for.

References

Canning, J.J. & Mullin, W.J. (2008). Student process recording practice with children. The Clinical Supervisor 27(1)61-74.
Dolgoff, R., Lowenberg, F.M. & Harrington, D. (2009). Ethical decision for social work practice (8th edition). Itasca, IL: F.E. Peacock.
Lens, V. (2000). Protecting the confidentiality of the therapeutic relationship. Social Work 45 (3), 273-276.
Reamer, F. (2003). Boundary issues in social work: Managing dual relationships. Social Work, 48(1), 121-131.
Reamer, F.G. (2005). Documentation in social work: Evolving ethical and risk-management standards. Social Work, 50(4), 325-334.
Strom-Gottfried, K. (1999). Professional boundaries: An analysis of violations by social workers. Families in Society, 80(5), 439-449.

I know, snore, right? But it turns out I picked quite the Friday.

Don't believe me?

Check the fight scene at 1:10pm and arrival at NYPD at 1:25pm.

6:30AM Say bye-bye to my girlfriend and go back to my place at the International House

6:45AM Shower, shave, dress and grab a book for my subway ride (Today's selection: How to work with sex offenders by Rudy Flora, LCSW). I'm doing an independent study this semester of clinical work with people convicted of sex offenses.

7:15AM Read The New York Times while listening to a bit of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

7:30AM Grab lunch and head over to subway

7:51AM Hop on the subway and start reading my book

8:25AM Get off on the subway and walk a few blocks to the hospital where I work (intern), going to its in-patient psychiatry unit

8:30AM Go to the Morning Meeting where a nurse gives us* an update on last night's events
*3 attending psychiatrists, 2 social workers, 1 psychologist, 4 resident doctors, 1 psychology intern, 1 medical student and a social work intern

8:45AM-9:15AM My treatment team (one third of the 22 patients) meets and we all go over our work with these patients, discharge plans, family meetings, medical issues, etc. I have a caseload of four clients, usually working with them for about 2-3 weeks before discharge.

9:15AM-12:20PM Meet with each of my clients with different psychiatric illnesses, phone their family members to schedule family meetings, have a family session and later have my client join, do paperwork, apply for an intensive case manager, discharge a client to drug rehab, call a client's probation officer.

12:20PM-1:00PM Supervision with my supervisor

1:00PM Lunch! I usually grab something at the luxurious Montefiore Medical Center cafeteria and go back to the Psychiatry Unit. But I bump into two psychology interns I know and join them.

1:10 A seemingly random guy, who I'd later learn was actually a former client of mine, walks up to me as I'm sitting:

Random: "Hey man." (puts his fist in my face, as I'm sitting, for my to "pound" fists with him)
Me: "Hi."
Random: "Come on? Bronx 5?"
Me: questioning glance

Random guy punches me in the left jaw, unexpectedly.

I'm fine and unbruised.

Psychology Intern: "That's not appropriate!"

Random guy walks away and psychology intern gets security. I finish eating my potatoes and peas (the vegetarian selection at the cafeteria leaves a lot to be desired).

This is a reasonable facsimile of how it happened, as portrayed by the 1992 movie Encino Man.

Within 2-3 minutes, I heard that security had the guy in custody and the head of hospital security came and talked to me to ask what happened and informed me NYPD was coming to take a statement from me. The hospital's head of medical staff came and I showed that him that I was unfazed and uninjured.

1:25PM Two NYPD officers arrive and questions me on what happened, asking if I knew the person and if I wanted an order of protection. I said I didn't recognize the person but could they get his name, because it's possible he's a former patient. They ask me to wait.

2:01PM I phone the in-patient psychiatry unit to tell them that I'd been punched by someone in the cafeteria, I'm fine, NYPD has the person in custody and that I don't know when I'll be back up because NYPD is waiting to interview me further.

2:05PM My supervisor, the head of the hospital's psychiatry department and one of the psychiatrists ask me what happened. The psychiatrist asked me "if your teeth are lined up normally when I bite down?"

2:10PM A police officer gives me the name of the guy who hit me and I identify him as a former psychiatric patient and advocated for him being brought to a hospital psychiatric unit rather than a holding cell as the incident was more than likely a result of not taking his medications. The officer says OK and that she'll be right back.

2:40PM I leave my contact information with the front desk as the police did not return from their car. My supervisor offers to have me leave work early.

2:45PM I'm back on the in-patient unit and a new ethical dilemma presents itself. All of the staff has heard I got socked in the face and wants to know what happened. Who was he? Was he a former patient? What was his story? In a closed staff area, outside of the locked unit, I shared what happened with the clinical staff who'd worked with him and supervise me. But then nurses asked what happened.

The question remained for me about the ethical dilemma in terms of patient's right to privacy and confidentiality. Sure, there were safety concerns, but that was going to hospital security.

And surely there have been more than a few clients with a history of violence who could act similarly if they weren't on the medication, if staff saw them on the street. And we won't know where this (or for that matter any client) will be next month, next year, next decade, as people can be in different places in their recovery.

If disclosure is necessary, how much disclosure is necessary? I talked about this some with my supervisor which was helpful. (What do you think?)

3:00PM Sheesh. I realize I don't have time to do a lot of the work I need to get done by 4:30pm, when I'm supposed to finish. I write up some progress notes, meet up with a client and do some paper work. On the bright side, a patient's family brought pastries for staff and I had more than my share.

5:15PM I'm done for the day. Time to get back home.

5:30PM-6:05PM Half-sleeping on the subway. Processing my feelings after the days work. I feel pretty good about how I handled things. (critiques/advice welcomed)

6:05PM Call my momma and my sister to share the main event for the day, in the same fashion I present here. I'm a stickler for not providing identifying information even to my social worker momma and my fellow NYU social work student sister.

6:15PM Arrive at home and have dinner.

6:45PM Check my e-mail and read some newspapers online. Watch the rest of The Daily Show.

7:00PM Do some more reading for my independent study on clinical work with people convicted of sex offenses.

9:00PM Check out the display of my photographs at a women's leadership event at the International House

9:05PM Watch some of the performers at the Women's Leadership Event. Some awesome jazz singing.

9:30PM Back to reading and writing some of the things I planned to put into this blog entry (oh, it's a process) en lieu of one that I'd already written and planned to post.

How could I past up on a blog entry with a fight scene...let alone where I could showcase the movie Encino Man?

11:00PM Go to the bar at the International House to see my girlfriend and her friends, dance and play twister in the bar.

Fin.

So there aren't any LMSW materials that can be found at NYU's Bobst library, the New York or Brooklyn Public Library (though NYU provides us some practice exams for the LMSW that I can't post here, what with copyright laws and all) But there is some stuff available to students everywhere. Here's what I found:

1) There's a LMSW/LCSW group that's formed via Meetup.com that posts some useful materials here

Some of the files there include: A Social Work Vocabulary List, Practice Questions, Study Material for Clinical Practice

They have monthly meetings and weekly study groups for the LMSW/LCSW exams. It costs $6.50/meeting to cover photocopying costs.

2) Ask for help from your field instructors as part of your training. That's how I got a free photocopy of a LMSW practice exam booklet.

3) Go into the Silver School of Social Work's library on the basement level. Yes, we do have one. It's in the closet in the Main Lounge by the fliers on the wall on the west side. Unfortunately, those are all guides to the LMSW exam back in 2000. However, for future or first year MSW students, you should check out that closet if you haven't already. There are a ton of books you'll need to use in your courses.

Anybody else have any advice?

But please....not this... (it's kinda scary, weird...enjoy):

I'm a big fan of humor. Outside of work, I'm a relatively constant practitioner with relative success. Inside of work, I dabble.

But does it have a place in social work? In groups sessions, I feel an inclination to become serious. I vacillate between concerns that I'm relating poorly with members of the group, modeling a stiff, lifeless exchange, and anxiety human can be easily misunderstood as well as sacrifice professionalism and my status.

Does it have a place with specific clients?

All clients?

With staff?

How often?

Yikes!

Siporin (1984) wrote that social workers need not continue their fun deficiency, finding humor useful for cognitive, emotional and behavioral change as well as helping both therapist and clients to deal with and distance themselves from symptoms and problems and defuse angry and violent feelings. He wrote that “to laugh is not only to last, but also to have fun, to grow, to be free and human. If social work humor were more widely known, it would help improve our public image and enhance the community’s
understanding of, and support for, our work" (Siporin, 1984, p.464).

Craig (2009) found the benefits of humor to include “protecting dignity; preserving sense of worth; humanizing communications; humanity reflecting; pain-reducing; self-coping humor receptivity, promoting efficacious perceptivity, emotional expressivity, and human effectivity; and providing tension relief from tensions of uncertainty, embarrassment and dehumanization” (p. 28). But she warns basically to be a good comic - one that knows your audience and is careful not to come of as an insensitive, arrogant jerk.

Craig (2009) says to be careful with this tool, as “white coat aloofness,” dominating, sardonic and belittling humor aren’t funny. Humor can be useful for our own sanity as professionals in stressful jobs. But the point is that it manages, not exacerbates, the situation of our clients who come first.

Olliffel, Ogrodniczuk, Bottorff, Hislop & Halpan (2009) found humor proved a very useful tool in prostate cancer support groups, “promoting inclusiveness, marking the boundaries mark the boundaries for providing and receiving mutual help, and develop masculine group norms around men’s sexuality” (p.1). And when humor goes badly, they found that consensus among group members that it was the group leaders responsibility to be aware of it and manage it.

Van Wormer & Boes (1997) say there’s no reason for social workers to not follow the lead of other professionals in Emergency Rooms as well as empirical evidence in medicine, business and other fields. They reiterate the benefits to client and clinician, concluding that “the struggle against burnout is constant. Those who survive emotionally learn to share in a boundless sense of the absurd and to enjoy the spontaneity of the moment. Creative and clever and sometimes cruel and tasteless, [humor] is essential to reducing tension in this line of work” (Van Wormer & Boes, 1997, 92).

References
Craig, Kathy. (2009) Hitch up Your Humor Suspenders, Case Managers. Professional Case Management Vol. 14, No. 1, 18–29 Wolters Kluwer Health. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

Oliffe1, J.L, Ogrodniczuk, J., Bottorff, J.L., Hislop, T.G. Halpin, M. (2009) Connecting humor, health, and masculinities at prostate cancer support groups Psycho-Oncology 18: 916–926

Siporin, Max. (1984) Have You Heard the One About Social Work Humor?
Social Casework: The Journal of Contemporary Social Work Family Service America

Van Wormer, K., Boes, M. (1997) Humor in the emergency room: A social work perspective Health & Social Work; May 1997; 22, 2

It got me thinking about how diverse social workers are linguistically; how many languages we speak in comparison to the general population, our clients. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to track anything down via the NASW or a journal search (let me know if you find something).

But I did find some interesting articles on the challenges of being a bilingual social workers. I'm only sorta bilingual (Spanish), but that doesn't keep me from beeing called on to occasionally translate.

Perez Koenig (2000) wrote how bilingual social workers may be overworked, taking on roles of translator and consultant to their English-only co-workers, without additional compensation. She cites a survey of Latino social workers given to the NASW-NYC chapter at a roundtable in 1999.

Similar results were found in a 2004 survey by NASW-Connecticut of Latino and Asian-background social workers, feeling there was a lack of qualified people to translate accurately with nuance; written agency materials in multiple languages; and non-social workers used for translation while neglecting "issues of privacy and confidentiality, as well as the social psychological, and cultural meaning of client needs," all contributing to larger caseloads and burn out (NASW-Connecticut Latino/Latina Social Workers Network, 2004).

The report quotes two social workers:

“As a bilingual social worker I have the same caseload as everyone else (non-bilingual). Most of my clients are Spanish-speaking. Most of the forms and documents are in English. It is very time consuming to translate the forms to my clients and to translate accurately my client’s responses. I know for a fact that I spend much more time working with my clients than those whose clients are only English speaking. Add to that fact that I need to translate letters and other documents. These are not listed as part of my job description”.

“Not all bilingual people are competent to translate. There are many levels of language dominance at academic and social levels and the educational experience/level of the translator. Employers need to be very careful”.
(NASW-CT, 2004, p. 3)

Calling all bilingual social workers! What's your experience been?

References:
Perez Koenig, R. (October 2000) Latino Social Workers in the Workplace. Accessed on Feb. 1, 2010 from: http://www.naswnyc.org/d15.html

NASW-Connecticut Latino/Latina Social Workers Network (July 2005) Report of BiLingual/BiCultural Survey Findings On Workplace Standards NASW-Connecticut. Accessed on Feb. 1, 2010 from: http://www.naswct.org/associations/7821/files/Latinoworkplacereport.doc

Q: "im 14 years old and i have always wanted to work with kids because i dont think its their fault they've been put in care. However when i told my friends what i was considering doing as a job they told me i should just keep my eye open for other things. Do you agree with them? Also how old were you when you realised what you wanted to do? Finally do you think working in a care home is better as i would be working with different types of children?
thank you Nicolle

Hey Nicolle,

So far, I've enjoyed doing social work. It's been challenging and rewarding. At 16 years old, I decided I wanted to be a journalist...and I am one. At 18 years old, I thought social work and journalism would make an nice mix...I'm four months from finishing a degree in social work. At age 23, I decided to try dancing for the first time and discovered an untapped skill and joy for it...I'm teaching and performing a few nights per week.

The reason why I share all this is that there ARE a bunch of opportunities available, and I'm an advocate for exploring all the ones that interest and don't interest you. The poopy part of the question: "what do you want to be when you grow up?" is that everyone gets the opportunity to be a lot of different things (working and in life) as a teenager and adult.

The point is that you try stuff out. As a 25 year old, I'm still trying new things and explore different opportunities within social work and outside of it. Right now, you seem hungry for knowledge about social work, and even within that field there are a lot of different types stuff to do (i.e. with kids, adults, families in schools, non-profits, hospitals, prisons, etc.). I'd say, feed that hunger. You may like what you find...or not...or find something else that's more interesting. I think as long as you keep on feeding that knowledge and experience beast, you'll do well.

I want to call out the readers of this blog to share their answers to Nicolle's questions (as well as critiques of mine) below.

Since this feels sort of like a high school commencement speech, here's my favorite:

Transcript for the last two minutes:
"And so we say what have we learned? Well we’ve learned a lot, I think. We’ve learned that we should avoid jelly fish no matter what. And we’ve learned that pain, if it’s severe enough, trumps all logic in the human brain. And I think we’ve also learned that having urine put on your face is probably not as bad as we thought it would be.

And so as you go out into the world, beware of those inexperienced fools who offer easy, exotic solutions to painful and complicated problems. Do your best to learn from all your experiences, not just the sting of your failures but also from the joyful accidents that will occur along the way.

But most of all, learn what is the true essence of what you love about life, and if you can and if you’re able to, do what you love to do. For if through your imagination, you can see the world and your life as an epic, great adventure, then from each sunrise to each sunset we can be turning another page in the bible of our own lives. Telling the greatest story that has ever been told and living the greatest life that has ever been lived. So thank you for giving me another great moment in my life, and I wish you all the love and all the luck that there is possible in the world.

And I’ll see you somewhere out there, as we do what we love."
- Wayne Coyne, The Flaming Lips

There aren't many men in the classroom at NYU's School of Social Work. One in 7 MSW students (15%) are male, according to a flyer by the school that cites 2008 data. With students in 2008, that makes for 68 fellas and 382 women.

Despite these numbers, I've found men talking in classes disproportionately more than their women counterparts. I haven't had any silent guys in my classes. And many seem to take over in terms of classroom participation and get into conflicts with multiple gals in class, persisting "well, I still think...".

Two competing thoughts pop into my brain when I see this happening:

Thought A: "Well, no shit guys are going to talk more. It's part of the imbalanced gender relations in broader society (read: male privilege) and we're a product of the culture we live in."

Thought B: "Yeah, but this is a graduate level degree that aims to train people to be cognizant of present biopsychosocial issues as well as transference and countertransference. If we're replicating it in the classroom, is anything different going to happen in the field. It's a cop out to blame culture when we're paying to overcome that to be skilled, culturally competent social workers."

Thought A: Very true, my friend. But we are just in the beginning of our training as social workers, what do you expect?

Thought B: But we are also being supervised and taught. Shouldn't their be some improved behavior by students or effective management of this is our classes by professors?

Within the field, there still seems to be a big status differential. I'm an ambitious bloke, but I've noticed in my first year that I seem to get more staff praise for my efforts and comments that they see me as a clinical director down the road. Maybe this is me being overly critical, but my fellow interns at those placements didn't get the same complimentary comments, nor as often.

I haven't been able to track down social worker specific data on gender composition and income in New York (and equal financial respect doesn't necessarily mean equal social respect) but here's what I did find.

STATE AND NATIONAL TRENDS
All New Yorkers are: (U.S. Census Data 1, U.S. Census Data 2)
- 47.7% male, mean salary of $69,683
- 52.3% female, mean salary $55,355
Translation: On average, a woman gets paid 21% less than a man in NY.

In contrast, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found NY women to be paid 16% less than NY men, in comparison to the a 20% national differential.

Mean salary for those with professional degrees in NY: (U.S. Census Data)
Male: $78,668
Female: $61,898
Translation: On average, a woman with a professional degree gets paid 21% less than a man with a professional degree in NY.

People working in Health Care Field (625,840 people)U.S. Census Data
- 23.8% male, median salary of $41,283
- 76.2% female, median salary of $31,084
Translation: One average, a woman in the health care field gets paid 25% less than a man in the health care field in New York.

SOCIAL WORKERS
NATIONALLY (2004 study by the NASW Center for Workforce Studies)
- Average social worker salary: All men: $58,400, All women: $49,100
Translation: On average, women social workers get paid 84% of what a male social work does.
- Average MSW holding social worker salary: Men: $61,200, Women: 58,400
Translation: On average, women social workers get paid 95% of what a male social work does.

- Social workers in study were: 17% male, 83% female
- Low earners (>$30,000) were 11% male, 89% female (half of all low-earners only had a BSW)
- High earners (<$80,000) were 43% male, 57%, female
- Traits of social workers with higher salaries: were mostly older, male, held an MSW as their highest degree, were licensed in multiple states.

Male v. Female traits, Licensed Social Workers (2004 study by the NASW Center for Workforce Studies, 1, 2)
- Similar racial diversity (83-5% white, 8% black, 3-5% Latino, 2-3% other)
- Similar number with MSW and Doctoral Degrees: Men (86%, 5%), Women (83%, 2%)
- Most employed in private non-for-profit sector: Men (38%), Women (37%)
- Most Men with MSW degrees work in behavioral health clinics (18%), while most women with MSW degrees work in hospital centers (13%)
- 42% of male social workers identify mental health as primary practice area, while 33% of female social workers say that
- Male social worker stay for an average of 9 years with the same employer, in comparison to 8 years for female social workers

Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008
Found there to be 639,000 social workers
21% male, 79% female
On average, female social workers earned 96% as much as male social workers

One theme kept coming up: That I shouldn't worry, no one can do all the reading provided. Do as much as you can, but don't stress.

Reading that pissed me off. I'm a nerd. I'll do all the reading, thank you.

Well....it turned out after my first semester that they were right. I hadn't done all the reading. But, I have a plan to make sure it does get done, albeit on my own schedule (not NYU's).

So here's my index card: Take all the reading you have for your course each semester, save a copy of them to your computer and then upload the whole shabang onto Dropbox.com (a neat Web 2.0 site that allows you to access and easily organize 2GB worth of info from any computer). It's password protected, so there's no worry about infringing on copyright laws.

The idea I like about keeping my reading in this format is that they don't get abandoned. Sure, much of my MSW education thusfar has come from teachers and experiences in the field. But it'd be useful to not essentially burn my degree after I've completed it. For the expense of a graduate education, it seems silly to neglect the resources provided to me.

Anybody have any suggestions they'd like to share for current and future students?

I don't know how well I'll do keeping myself motivated to do the insane amount of reading I've lined up for myself for this independent study. But on the other end, I'm really interested in this subject matter and, because I defined the subject matter and nature of this course, I feel much more committed to it.

I'll be sure to share the highlights from my readings, thinking/experiences and site visits (to agencies that work with people who committed sex offenses) in future posts. But I get the sneaky suspicion this is something that might be useful for other students to try.

As I prepare to leave graduate school, hopefully this helps me figure out how to independently motivate myself for continued learning after graduation.

Clinical Work: People Convicted of Sex Offenses

This course will attempt to develop skills in best practices for assessment and individual, family, group work with people convicted of sex offenses from a biopsychosocial perspective that recognizes the heterogeneity of this community.

This will be achieved through course reading on past and present local, national and international research/texts as well as potentially organizing interviews/site visits to NYC agencies that do clinical work with this population in in-patient, out-patient and prison settings, individually and as a family.

Care will be made to look at the effects this work can have on clinicians and attempt to empower both the clients (people convicted of sex offenses) and those impacted by them (if applicable, i.e. possession of child pornography) in terms of treatment approaches sought.

At a policy level, this course will look at local, state, national and international public policy as a means to understand how those factors affect clients and clinical work and potential avenues for reform/advocacy.

Texts:
1. Coleman, E. & Miner, M. (Eds.) (2000) Sexual Offender Treatment: Biopsychosocial Perspectives. USA. The Haworth Press.
2. Flora, R. (2001) How to work with sex offenders: a handbook for criminal justice, human service, and mental health professionals. USA. The Haworth Clinical Practice Press.
3. Houston, J. & Galloway, S. (2008) Sexual Offending and Mental Health Multidisciplinary Management in the Community. London & Philadelphia. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
4. Marshall, W. L., Fernandez, Y. M., Marshall, L. E., Serran, G. A. (Eds.). (2006) Sexual Offender Treatment: Controversial Issues. Great Britain. Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire.
5. Saleh, F. M., Grudzinskas, A. J., Bradford, J. M., Brodsky, D. J. (Eds.). (2009) Sex Offenders: Identification, Risk Assessment, Treatment And Legal Issues. USA. Oxford University Press

Video/Audio:
1. The Woodsman (Fiction)**
2. Little Children (Fiction)*
3. Ikenie fujin = Wife to be sacrificed (Fiction)*
4. Law & Order, Special Victims Unit (Fiction)
5. Child Sex Abuse (Documentary)*
6. Male Rape (Documentary)*
7. Breaking Silence (Documentary)*
8. Stories No One Wants to Hear (Documentary)*
9. Searching for Sarah Shelton (Documentary)
10. NPR (News): "Sex Offenders Screened Out of Some Neighborhoods"," ""Sex Offenders Fill Geriatric Wards of U.S. Prisons"
11. WNYC (News): "Underreported: Are Sex Offender Laws Working?," "Con-finement," "The Path to Redemption"
12. Women on the Front Line: Austria (Documentary)
13. KCLU: “Not In My Backyard” (News)
14. Sentencing the Victim (Documentary)
15. It’s Not About Sex (Documentary)
16. NY Sex Offender Management, Criminal Justice Forum (Interview)

*via NYU's Bobst Library
**via NY Public Library

1. Introduction
Saleh, et. al., Introduction, pp 3-49
Flora, pp. 1-64
Houston, J. & Galloway, pp 13-130

Optional Articles:
• “Understanding Sex Offenders: An Introductory Curriculum,” Center for Sex Offender Management
• Sex Offender Management and Treatment Act (SOMTA)
• NY State Office of Sex Offender Management -- Myths & Facts

2. General Issues
Coleman & Miner, pp. 1-10
Marshall, et. al, pp. 3-140
Flora, The Sex Offender: An Introduction, pp. 65-126

Optional Articles:
- Fortney, T., Levenson, J., Brannon, Y., & Baker, J.N. ( 2007). Myths and facts about sexual offenders: Implications for treatment and public policy. Sexual Offender Treatment, 2(1).
- Leclerc, B., Proulx, J. & Beauregard, E. (2009). Examining the modus operandi of sexual offenders against children and its practical implications. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 14, 5-12.
- Campbell, A.M. (2009) False Faces and Broken Lives: An Exploratory Study of the Interaction Behaviors Used by Male Sex Offenders in Relating to Victims.
Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 28(4): 428 - 440.
- Studer, L.H., Alwyn, A.S. (2006) Sexual offender subtyping: the incest offender question. Sex Offender Treatment 1(2)

3. Social/Cultural Issues
Articles:
- Heil, P., Harrison, L., English, K., & Ahlmeyer, S. (2009). Is prison sexual offending indicative of community risk? Criminal Justice and Behavior 36(9), 892-908. (more here: www.jrsa.org/events/conference/presentations-09/Peggy_Heil.pdf)
- Elwood, R.W. (2009) Mental Disorder, Predisposition, Prediction, and Ability to Control: Evaluating Sex Offenders for Civil Commitment Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment. 21(4): 395 - 411.
- Basile, K. C., Espelage, D. L., Rivers, I., McMahon, P. M., & Simon, T. R. (2009). The theoretical and empirical links between bullying behavior and male sexual violence perpetration. Aggression and Violence Behavior, 14, 336-347.
- Ferguson, C. J. and Hartley, R. D. (2009). The pleasure is momentary…the expense damnable?the influence of pornography on rape and sexual assault. Aggression and Violent Behavior.
- Thomas, T. A. and Fremouw, W. (2009). Moderating variables of the sexual ” victim to offender cycle” in males. Aggression and Violent Behavior.
- E. Blake and T. Gannon (2008) Social Perception Deficits, Cognitive Distortions, and Empathy Deficits in Sex Offenders: A Brief Review Trauma Violence Abuse. 9(1): 34 - 55.
- Strickland, S. M. (2008). Female sex offenders: Exploring issues of personality, trauma, and cognitive distortions. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 23(4):474-489.

4. Managing Countertransference & Clinician Trauma
Articles:
- Sanghara, K., K., & Wilson, J., C., (2006), Stereotypes and attitudes about child sexual abusers: A comparison of experienced and inexperienced professionals in sex offender treatment. Legal and Criminological Psychology 11, 229–244.
- Little, L, Hamby, S. L. (2001) Memory of Childhood Sexual Abuse among Clinicians: Characteristics, Outcomes, and Current Therapy Attitudes Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Trauma Vol.13, No. 4
- Drapeau, M. (2005) Research on the Processes Involved in Treating Sexual Offenders Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Trauma Vol. 17, No. 2

5. Part 1 – Individual & Group Treatment (Incarcerated/In-patient) – Historical to Current
Saleh, et. al., Assessment and Diagnosis, pp 49-158

Optional Articles:
- Murphy, W. D. & McGrath, R. (2008) Best Practices in Sex Offender Treatment. Prison Service Journal Issue 178
- Moster, A., Wnuk, D. W., Jeglic, E. L.m (2008) Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Interventions With Sex Offenders Journal of Correctional Health Care; 14; 109
- Glaser, B. (2009) Treaters or punishers? The ethical role of mental health clinicians in sex offender programs. Aggression and Violent Behavior Vol 14, pp. 248-255

6. Part 2 – Individual & Group Treatment (Incarcerated/In-patient) – Historical to Current
Saleh, et. al., Assessment and Diagnosis, pp 158-210 (cont.)
Flora, The Sex Offender: An Introduction, pp. 127-190

Optional Articles:
- Wilson, R. J. & Yates, P. M. (2009) Effective interventions and the Good Lives Model: maximizing treatment gains for sexual offenders. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 14(3), pp.157-161.
- Pfafflin, Friedmann (2006) How to Establish and Maintain Security in the Treatment of Sex Offenders. Sex Offender Treatment 1(1)
- Harrison, K. (2008) Legal and Ethical issues when using Antiandrogenic Pharmacotherapy with Sex Offenders. Sex Offender Treatment 3(2)

7. Part 3 – Individual & Group Treatment (Incarcerated/In-patient) – Historical to Current
Marshall, et. al, pp. 141-240

Optional Articles:
- Levenson, J. S., Macgowan, M. J., Morin, J. W., Cotter, L. P. (2009) Perceptions of Sex Offenders About Treatment: Satisfaction and Engagement in Group Therapy. Sex Abuse 21(1), pp. 35-56 Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers
- Rainy, B. & Harrison, K. (2008) Pharmacotherapy and Human Rights in Sexual Offenders: best of friends or unlikely bedfellows? Sexual Offender Treatment 3(2)
- Duke, G. & Goldman, R. A. (2009) The Impact of Prison-Based Treatment on Sex Offender Recidivism: Evidence from Minnesota. Sex Abuse 21(3), pp. 279-307

8. Part 1 -- Outpatient/Relapse Prevention
Marshall, et. al, pp. 241-278
Coleman & Miner, pp. 19-36
Articles:
- Grossman, L., Martis, B., & Fichtner, C. (1999). Are sex offenders treatable? A research overview. Psychiatric Services, 50(3), 349−361.
- Freeman, N. J. & Sandler, J.C. (2008) Female and Male Sex Offenders: A Comparison of Recidivism Patterns and Risk Factors. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 23(10): 1394 - 1413.
- Doren, D.M. & Levenson, J.S. (2008) Diagnostic Reliability and Sex Offender Civil Commitment Evaluations: A Reply to Wollert Sexual Offender Treatment. Vol. 4, Issue 1

9. Part 2 -- Outpatient/Relapse Prevention (Assessment)
Coleman. & Miner, pp. 65-114
Articles:
- Stalans, L. J. (2004) Adult sex offenders on Community supervision: A Review of Recent Assessment Strategies and Treatment Criminal Justice and Behavior 2004; 31; 564
- Tierney, D., & McCabe, M. (2004). The assessment of motivation for behaviour change among sex offenders against children: An investigation of the utility of the stages of change questionnaire. Journal of Sexual Aggression, 10(2), 237−249.
- Rettenberger, M. & Eher, R. (2007). Predicting reoffence in sexual offender subtypes: A prospective validation study of the German version of the Sex Offender Risk Appraisal Guide (SORAG). Sexual Offender Treatment, 2, 1-12.
- Robbers, M. L. (2009). Lifers on the outside: Sex offenders and disintegrative shaming. Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol, 53(1):5-28.
- Steffens, M.C., Yundina, E. & Panning, M. (2008) Automatic Associations with “Erotic” in Child Sexual Offenders: Identifying Those in Danger of Reoffence. Sexual Offender Treatment. Vol. 3, Issue 2
- Boer, D.P. (2008) Ethical and Practical Concerns Regarding the Current Status of Sex Offender Risk Assessment. Sexual Offender Treatment. Vol. 3, Issue 1

10. Part 3 – Outpatient/Relapse Prevention (Client/Worker Resp. to Tx)
Houston, J. & Galloway, pp. 131-279

Articles:
- Langton, C. M., Barbaree, H. E., Harkins, L., Arenovich, T. Mcnamee, J., Peacock, E. J., Dalton, A., Hansen, K. T., Luong, D. and Marcon, H. (2008) Denial and Minimization Among Sexual Offenders: Posttreatment Presentation and Association With Sexual Recidivism Criminal Justice and Behavior. 35(1): 69 - 98.
- Lord, A., & Willmot, P. (2004). The process of overcoming denial in sexual offenders. Journal of Sexual Aggression, 10(1), 51−61.
- Garret, T., Oliver, C., Wilcox, D. T., Middleton, D. (2003) Who Cares? The Views of Sexual Offenders About the Group Treatment They Receive Drapeau, M. (2005) Research on the Processes Involved in Treating Sexual Offenders Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Trauma Vol. 15, No. 4
- Langton, C. M., Barbaree, H. E., Harkins and J., Peacock (2006) Sex Offenders' Response to Treatment and its Association with Recidivism as a Function of Psychopathy Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment. 18(1): 99 - 120.
- Sawyer, S.P. & Pettman, P.J.: Do Clients Retain Treatment Concepts? (2006) An Assessment of Post Treatment Adjustment of Adult Sex Offenders. Sex Offender Treatment. Vol 1. Issue 3.
- Marino. K. M. (2009) Probation Management of Sex Offenders: An Analysis of Co-Facilitators' Perceptions of Offender Progress in Treatment. Criminal Justice Review. 34(3): 382 - 403.

11. U.S. Public Policy: Legal Rights and Restrictions
Saleh, et. al., Forensics, pp 379-445

Optional Articles:
- Human Rights Watch (2007) No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the US, pp.2-142
- Wakefield, Hollida 2006. The Vilification of Sex Offenders: Do Laws Targeting Sex offenders Increase Recidivism and Sexual Violence? Journal of Sexual Offender Civil Commitment: Science and the Law, 1, 141-149. (2006).
- Montaldi, D. (2007) The Logic of Sexually Violent Predator Status in the United States of America. Sexual Offender Treatment 1-28, 20.
- Zgoba, K. M., Levenson, J. & McKee, T. (2009) Examining the Impact of Sex Offender Residence Restrictions on Housing Availability, Criminal Justice Policy Review Vol. 20 No. 1. 91-110
- Tewksbury, R. (2005) Collateral Consequences of Sex Offender Registration. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 21(1)
- Duke, G., Donnay, W. & Tewksbury, R. (2008) Does Residential proximity Matter? A Geographic Analysis of Sex Offender Recidivism. Criminal Justice and Behavior 35 (4), pp. 484-504
- Cohen, M. & Jeglic, E. (2007) Sex Offender Legislation in the United States: What Do We Know? International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 51(4), pp.369-383
- Schiavone, S. K. & Jeglic, E. L. (2009) Public Perception of Sex Offender Social Policies and the Impact on Sex Offenders. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology. 53(6), pp. 679-695
- Vess, J. (2009) Fear and loathing in public policy: Ethical Issue in laws for sex offenders. Aggression and Violent Behavior 14, pp. 264-272
- Tewksbury, R. & Lees, M. B. (2007) Perceptions of Punishment: How Registered Sex Offenders View Registries. Crime Delinquency. 53(3), pp. 380-407
- Craun, S. W. & Theriot, M. T. (2009) Misperceptions of Sex Offender Perpetration: Considering the Impact of Sex Offender Registration. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 24(12) 2057-2072
- Burchfield, K. B. & Mingus, W. (2008) Not in My Neighborhood: Assessing Registered Sex Offenders’ Experiences with Local Social Capital and Social Control. Criminal Justice and Behavior. 35(3), p 356-374
- Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, Readings and Articles
o http://www.atsa.com/pubPPapers.html
o http://www.atsa.com/pubPArticles.html
o http://www.atsa.com/confHandouts.html
o http://www.atsa.com/pdfs/ppSORegNotification.pdf
o http://www.atsa.com/pdfs/ppSOResidence.pdf
o http://www.atsa.com/pdfs/ppSOAdultMaleTx.pdf

12. NY State Policy: ie. Sex Offender Treatment Act
- New York Chapter, Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, Readings and Articles
o http://www.atsa.com/pubPPapers.html
o http://www.nysatsa.com/conference/index.html
o http://www.nysatsa.com/conference/presentations.html
o http://www.nysatsa.com/resources/policy.html
o http://www.nysatsa.com/newsletter/index.html

- Sex Offender Management -- Criminal Justice Forum
http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/pio/cjforum/index.html

13. Working with Juvenile Sex Offenders
Saleh, et. al., Juvenile Offenders, pp 221-261

Optional Articles:
- Veneziano, C. & Veneziano, L. (2002) Adolescent Sex Offenders: A Review of the Literature Trauma Violence Abuse 2002; 3; 247
- Dosio, D. & Boer, D.P. (2007) Constructing Hope: a Multi-Agency Programme model for Young Sex Offenders living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Sexual Offender Treatment, Vol. 2, Issue 2.
- van Wijk, A., van Horn, J., Bullens, R., Bijleveld, C., Doreleijers, T. (2005)
Juvenile Sex Offenders: A Group on its Own? International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 2005 49: 25-36
- van Wijk, A., Vermeiren, R., Loeber, R., ‘t Hart-Kerkhoffs, L., Doreleijers, T., J., Bullens (2006) Juvenile sex offenders compared to non-sex offenders: a review of the literature 1995-2005. Trauma Violence Abuse 2006 Oct;7(4):227-43.
- Righthand, S. & Welch, C. (2001) Juveniles Who Have Sexually Offended: A Review of Professional Literature U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
- Letourneau, E. J. & Miner, M. H. (2005) Juvenile Sex Offenders: A Case Against the Legal and Clinical Status Quo. Sex Abuse 2005; 17; 293
- Mathew, R., Hunter, J. A., Vuz, J. (1997) Juvenile female sexual offenders: Clinical characteristics and treatment issues. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Trauma Vol. 9, No. 3

14. Special Populations
Saleh, et. al., Special Populations, pp 265-378
Flora, Special Populations, pp. 191-216

Optional Articles:
- Boer, D. McVilly, K., Lambrick, F. (2007).Contextualizing Risk in the Assessment of Intellectually Disabled Individuals. Sexual Offender Treatment, 2(2).
- Peugh, J & Belenko, S. (2001) Examining the Substance Use Patterns and Treatment Needs of Incarcerated Sex Offenders. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment. 13(3): 179 - 195.
- Rice, M. E., Harris, G. T., Lang, C., Chaplin, T. C. (2008) Sexual Preferences and Recidivism of Sex Offenders With Mental Retardation. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment. 20(4): 409 - 425.
- Langevin R, Curnoe S. (2007) The therapeutic challenge of the learning impaired sex offender. Sex Offender Treatment. 2:1-10.
----------------------------------------------
Contacts for Organizing Site Visits
1. http://www.nysatsa.com/resources/related/Training%20and%20Treatment%20Resources%20for%20Working%20with%20Juvenile%20Sexual%20Abusers%20in%20NYS.pdf
2. http://www.svfreenyc.org/resource_1009.html
3. http://www.svfreenyc.org/resource_1008.html
4. http://www.svfreenyc.org/resource_1010.html
5. http://www.cpcamerica.com/
6. http://www.svfreenyc.org/resource_47.html
7. http://www.svfreenyc.org/resource_49.html

Places to look for more research:
1. SAGE Journal Search
http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:2495/cgi/searchresults?src=selected&andorexactfulltext=and&journal_set=spjiv&fulltext=sex+offenders
2. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment http://springerlink.metapress.com/content/102080/
Two online trainings by the Center for Sex Offender Management
http://www.csom.org/train/etiology/index.html
http://www.csom.org/train/trauma/1/1.htm