According to the Pew Research Center, as of 2012 Austin ranked among the top 20 Hispanic metropolitan areas. About thirty percent of Austin Hispanic residents are foreign-born. Leonor Vargas (MSSW ’89) works with many immigrant families in her position as director of the Family Resource Center-The Austin Project, at Consuelo Mendez Middle School. We talked with […]
Issues
White House report on campus sexual assault
Noël Busch-Armendariz provided expertise to the White House Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault, which this past April released its first-ever report, “Not Alone.” The report lists the School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin as one of the three schools in the nation that are conducting research to better […]
Fall 2014 Class Notes
Ruth McRoy is the Ruby Lee Piester Centennial Professor Emerita at The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work, and holds the Donahue and DiFelice Endowed Professorship at the Graduate School of Social Work at Boston College. She has been a strong contributor to the field of child welfare for more than three decades. […]
Fall 2014 Community
Endowments: Susan McCartney Finnegan Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Social Work, Tu-Ting and Rachel Tsan Endowed Presidential Scholarship; Why I Give: Mary Mulvaney.
Changing health outcomes, one person at a time
Lisa* checked into her primary care clinic to get treatment for an injured ankle. While at the clinic, she was also seen by Cassie, a social worker who introduced herself as a behavioral health specialist with the program CHOICES. Cassie asked Lisa a few questions about her drinking habits and whether she used birth control. […]
When the clinic is the classroom
Last fall, master’s student Griselda Onofre was interning at a homeless clinic in downtown Austin. As part of her internship, she participated in “team huddles,” where doctors, nurses, and behavioral health specialists got together to discuss patient cases. “It was very eye-opening to see this interaction,” Onofre says. “One time there was this patient, and […]
It’s all about teamwork
With much of the nation’s healthcare system fragmented and uncoordinated, patients are often left struggling to receive optimum care. Interprofessional education, an emerging field of teaching and research involving social work and other academic disciplines, is addressing the need for coordinated healthcare by developing teamwork models for health practitioners that will provide optimal, safe, and […]
Power to the people (of South East Austin)
Neighborhood revitalization initiatives can address various issues affecting underserved communities. We talked with Alba Sereno, MSSW ’11, who is the community programs coordinator for Go! Austin/Vamos! Austin (GAVA) in South Austin. GAVA targets communities with higher than average childhood obesity rates, and employs place-based health models to improve the environment that causes the health issue. […]
Restoring Rundberg: One Running Man at a time
By David Springer Broderick James, better known as “The Running Man,” can be found at the corner of Rundberg Lane and Lamar Blvd., spreading optimism and hope through the power of dance. He has been an informal promoter of community engagement for an improved Rundberg area for over seven years, and he dreams of a […]
Spring 2014 Community
Endowments: Leon and Julie Stone Payne, Erin Koechel and Jeff Duchin, Kathryn Wambach, and Sheral Trousdale Skinner; Why I Give: Bob Teague