A recent NASW News article on interdisciplinary training in social work featured Cossy Hough, assistant dean for undergraduate programs. Hough highlighted initiatives such as simulations and clinics in which UT Austin social work students collaborate with students in medicine, nursing, pharmacy and law. She said that these initiatives boost social work students’ confidence in their […]
@TexasSteveHicks: Ideas, findings, people
Family Minds
Family Minds is a new brief and practical psycho-educational intervention for foster parents that is based on attachment theory and is designed to help parents understand the emotional needs that form the basis of their child’s behavior. In a recent study, Tina Adkins and colleagues found preliminary evidence that Family Minds helps increase reflective functioning […]
Reframing hope
Telling patients that they have only months to live can be distressing for the healthcare provider, the patient and the patient’s family. But in a recently published article of Palliative and Supportive Care, Jennifer Currin-McCulloch and Barbara Jones suggest that, when framed in the proper context, hope can thrive in conversations about a patient’s terminal […]
Relationships matter
For decades, the child welfare system has worked on the assumption that legal permanency (through adoption, reunification or kinship care) was enough to ensure that children in foster care have a successfully transition to adulthood. A new study by Upbring and the Texas Institute for Child & Family Wellbeing calls into question this assumption and […]
Uniting communities in recovery
In organizing the 2018 Austin’s NEDA (National Eating Disorders Association) Walk, master’s student Niki DuBois’s goal was to create a community for people recovering from eating disorders and substance-use disorders. “As someone who struggled with both disorders, I went so many years switching from one to the other because there wasn’t a facility that will […]
Support for military and veteran families
In a joint effort with colleagues in Dell Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry, social work professor Elisa Borah is leading the new Military & Veteran Family Program. Through this program, university researchers and community members collaborate to develop and test interventions for service members, veterans, and their caregivers and families. The program also partners with […]
Family connections
About 112,000 children and youth in the U.S. foster care system are currently waiting for adoptive families. AdoptUSKids is a national project of the Children’s Bureau that supports child welfare systems and helps connect children in foster care with families through initiatives like a photo-listing website of eligible children and public information campaigns to recruit […]
Support for Puerto Rico
Last fall, students, faculty and staff contributed time, toiletries and money to create hurricane relief kits. In mid October, JetBlue flew donations to Puerto Rico for free, and they included 50 hurricane relief kits from our school completed with handwritten notes of encouragement.
Older adults and suicide
Professors Namkee Choi and Diana DiNitto analyzed 10 years (2005-2014) of data on all older adults who died by suicide in 16 states, and found that physical health problems and untreated depression are often significant drivers of suicide among older Americans. “Rather than a reason for making suicide acceptable, this is a call to take […]
A student-run homeless clinic
The C.D. Doyle Clinic in downtown Austin provides free services to the homeless population and a place for students of medicine, nursing, pharmacy and social work to sharpen their professional skills and connect with the homeless community. “We see clients at the end of their visit to the clinic, and help them with any resources […]