Grading Papers

I'm teaching macro social work this semester and just read a stack of papers about social problems.  I learned so much that I just have to share...

Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC)

• In the U.S., human trafficking is a 32 billion dollar industry and is estimated to involve over 100,000 children (CA Child Welfare Council, 2012)
• Trafficking involves the recruitment, harboring, provision, or transportation of a person for forced labor or services through force, fraud or coercion (Ijadi-Maghsoodi et al., 2014)
• Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC) is closely related to sex trafficking and it involves crimes of a sexual nature committed against juvenile victims for financial or other economic reason.  These crimes include trafficking for sexual purposes, prostitution, sex tourism, mail-ordered-bride trade, early marriage, pornography, stripping and performing in sexual venues such as peep shows or clubs (Greenbaum et al., 2015)
• There are 13 high intensity CSEC areas in the US identified by the FBI, three of the areas are in CA including, San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles. In all of the CA cities, more than 75% of the CSEC had prior or current involvement with the Child Welfare System (CA Child Welfare Council, 2012).

Domestic/Interpersonal Violence

• According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, domestic violence is defined as willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated against one intimate partner on another.
• Abuse may include threats, harm, injury, harassment, control, terrorism, or damage to living being or property (McCue, 2007)
• Domestic violence is defined as any incident of threatening behavior, violence or abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between adults who are or have been intimate partners, regardless of gender or sexuality (Baird, 2011)
• A variety of tactics are used to maintain power and control, including verbal abuse, minimizing, denial and blame, intimidation, coercion, threats, isolation and using children (Gaines, 2008)
• In most cases, perpetrators initiate violence through emotional and psychological abuse; they will also isolate their victims from friends and family and in some cases they appear charismatic, responsible and educated.  They become in control of the victim and the family unity.  Perpetrators become increasingly violent when they feel they are losing control over the victim or if the victim begins to reach out to family and friends for support (Ingram, 2007)
• On 10/2/15, the LA Times posted an article that read, "Sheriff's deputies in the high desert have been known for a harsh brand of policing that singles out blacks and Latinos..."
• The definition of Teen Dating Violence used by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the following:  the physical, sexual, psychological, or emotional violence within a dating relationship, including stalking. It can occur in person or electronically and might occur between a current or former dating partner.
• Domestic violence is a public health emergency that affects 1 to 4 million women in the US each year and is responsible for approximately 30% of female murders (Dioloreto, 2001)

Childhood Obesity

• Latinos have represented the largest at-risk group in the community of children with obesity and consequent chronic illness (Ogden & Carroll, 2010)
• In Los Angeles, 40% of the Latino children are overweight or obese (DMH, 2010)
• According to the American Heart Association, nearly 20% of Latino preschoolers are overweight.

Arts Education in Public Schools

• "We have decimated arts education in this district, and access to arts education has really become not a right, but a privilege for the affluent or the lucky." --Steve Zimmer, LAUSD school board member (Plummer, 2015)
• Political, societal values, and economic factors have manifested an 'educational apartheid' in which low-socioeconomic and minority students 'are systematically denied exposure to subjects' which has created less capable and competent urban students when compared to more affluent students (Heilig et al., 2010)
• If the youth of the community have not experienced arts education they are unlikely to have the capacity to create art that is representative of the community's culture.  A population that does not have the knowledge or ability to express itself through its own lens may fall victim to the dominant cultures representation of their community. Therefore, without portraying their community accurately, those within the community may come to identify with the negative dominant portrayal of their community, creating a lack of pride and ownership within community members.
• Art has the potential to connect students to their inherent human ability to create.  This connection fosters an interest in education and numerous studies have shown art has the capacity to increase the development of the imagination, create greater motivation to learn, lower dropout rates and increase social skills (Melnick, Witmer & Strickland, 2011)

HIV among Latinas in Los Angeles County

• According to the Los Angeles County of Public Health, the annual HIV surveillance report in 2011 shows that Latinos represented 47% of those newly diagnosed with HIV
• Among the newly diagnosed HIV cases in Los Angeles County in 2011, 186 were female and 47% of these newly diagnosed cases were females who identify as Latina.
• The annual HIV surveillance report shows that 80% of Latinas living with HIV reported contracting the virus through heterosexual contact.
• Despite the fact that Latinas are the females most impacted by HIV in Los Angeles County, research has shown that Latinas are reporting low-risk sexual and drug using behavior compared to their non-Latina counterparts and that other factors, such as their sexual partners may be contributing to their high rate of positive diagnosis (Wohl et al., 2010).

What's the Point of the Assessment Phase in Macro SW?

When I was in grad school at Berkeley, I was given a one paragraph case study and I wanted to jump to interventions that alleviated the client's problems and pain. Now I understand the value of engagement, assessment, diagnostic formulation and treatment planning before jumping in to intervene.

It's no different in macro-level social work practice (that is, bringing about change in communities and organizations).

Helpful points to consider when dealing with problems at the community or organizational level:

• When anxious to make change, it is tempting to begin at the point of proposing solutions. This risks coming up with simplistic solutions.
• Professionally guided change efforts make certain that a range of alternative/multiple perspectives and possible causes are adequately explored before proposing a solution
• Quick solutions without adequate study is the opposite of professional practice
• Quick and easy solutions are based on the assumption that the problem has one primary cause
• Changing social conditions always means addressing more than one contributing factor

From Social Work Macro Practice, 5th edition

Netting, Kettner, McMurtry & Thomas

2012

Pearson Education, Inc.

Macro-level Interventions in Social Work

     I'm teaching macro-level interventions this semester.  Some students are interested in macro-level social work and others are at least "open" to it.  In my work experience, the connection between micro to macro has been seamless.  

     When I think about working with families in urban communities, I can't help but use a public health approach because some problems are so widespread.  Take the rates of PTSD for example. At LAUSD, students are reporting rates of PTSD at 32% to 50%.  One-on-one and small group approaches are just not feasible to meet the need.  That got me thinking...

     In studies about the relationship between disclosure and health, James Pennebaker has given the following writing instructions to college students, children, elderly, layed-off white collar workers, prisoners, and so on:

"For the next 3 days, I would like for you to write about your very deepest thoughts and feelings about an extremely important emotional issue that has affected you and your life. In your writing, I'd like you to really let go and explore your very deepest emotions and thoughts. You might tie your topic to your relationships with others, including parents, lovers, friends or relatives, to your past, your present, or your future, or to who you have been, who you would like to be or who you are now. You may write about the same general issues or experiences on all days of writing or on different topics each day. All your writing will be completely confidential. Don't worry about spelling sentence structure, or grammar. The only rule is that once you begin writing continue to do so until your time is up."

     Participants wrote for 3 to 5 days, 15 to 30 min each day. Although it might be painful to write about stressful or traumatic events, participants who did reported improvements in mood and well-being. For example, students showed improvement in grades, senior professionals who had been laid off got new jobs more quickly after writing, university staff had improved work attendance, students experienced a reduction in the number of physician visits, immune system markers improved, and so on.

     Even though a large number of participants report crying or being deeply upset by the experience, the overwhelming majority report that the writing experience was valuable and meaningful in their lives.

With PTSD rates at epidemic levels in urban public schools, I wonder what would happen if all public school English teachers gave this assignment? 

Pennebaker, J. (1997). Writing about emotional experiences as a therapeutic process. Psychological Science, 8(3), 162-166.

Not an Easy Target

we want what we want, when we want it.  that's human and not pathological.

but sometimes, we try to push it.

a writer suggested a book called, "who's pulling your strings? how to break the cycle of manipulation and regain control of your life" - an important read.

it turns out the best protection against manipulation is resistance.  but to be able to resist you gotta be grounded in your own self-love and you gotta know yourself better than the potential manipulator. you gotta be whole.

we got blind spots. they are pretty common and universal. the manipulator knows them, plays on them and uses them as bait:

money
power
position/status
security
love
sexual fulfillment
approval
acceptance
commitment
family
spouse
children
life partner
long-term relationship
happiness
freedom from worry
job/career attainments
praise
reassurance
material possessions/gifts
friends/companionship
success/achievement
good physical and emotional health
relaxation
laughter
self-esteem
freedom
education
competence

Ask yourself, what do i want most or need at this point in my life?  how bad do i want it? what am i willing to sacrifice for it?

a manipulator uses any of these wants or needs as blackmail.  i give you this thingie that you really, really want and you give me what i want.  except you don't ever get what you want, no matter how much you give. what you get is the promise of what you want (the carrot) or the threat of never getting what you want (the stick). it's the promise and/or the threat that keeps you in the game until you decide to walk away.

one day you realize that you can get what you want or need without the manipulator. that's your freedom. sometimes the realization takes months, years, decades.  the longer it takes, the harder it may be to walk away. so much time invested. maybe it's easy - because you are tired of waiting for godot.

whatever it is you really, really want, you can do it. i believe in you.

Notes on Storytelling

• "...neuroscience reveal that our brain is hardwired to respond to story; the pleasure we derive from a tale well told is nature's way of seducing us into paying attention to it. In other words, we're wired to turn to story to teach us the way of the world."

• "Our neural circuitry is designed to crave story. The rush of intoxication a good story triggers...makes us willing pupils, primed to absorb the myriad lessons each story imparts."

• "...it turns out that a powerful story can have a hand in rewiring the reader's brain - helping instill empathy, for instance - which is why writers are, and have always been, among the most powerful people in the world."

• "Writers can change the way people think simply by giving  them a glimpse of life through their characters' eyes...reveal subtle universal truths that just might alter their entire perception of reality. In ways large and small, writers help people make it through the night."

• "Art is fire plus algebra."  --Jorge Luis Borges

• "Story originated as a method of bringing us together to share specific information that might be lifesaving."

• "A recent brain-imaging study reported in Psychological Science reveals that the regions of the brain that process the sights, sounds, tastes, and movement of real life are activated when we're engrossed in a compelling narrative. That's what accounts for the vivid mental images and the visceral reactions we feel when we can't stop reading..."

• "Here's how neuroscientist Antonio Damasio sums it up: 'The problem of how to make all this wisdom understandable, transmissible, persuasive, enforceable - in a word, of how to make it stick - was faced and a solution found.  Storytelling was the solution - storytelling is something brains do, naturally and implicitly...[I]t should be no surprise that it pervades the entire fabric of human societies and cultures."

• "We think in story.  It's hardwired in our brain.  It's how we make strategic sense of the otherwise overwhelming world around us.  Simply put, the brain constantly seeks meaning from all the input thrown at it, yanks out what's important for our survival on a need-to-know basis, and tells us a story about it, based on what it knows of our past experience with it, how we feel about it, and how it might affect us."

• "Other people's stories are as important as the stories we tell ourselves.  Because if all we ever had to go on was our own experience, we wouldn't make it..."

• "Stories allow us to simulate experiences without actually having to live through them."

• "Story evolved as a way to explore our own mind and the minds of others, as a sort of dress rehearsal for the future.  As a result, story helps us survive not only in the life-and-death physical sense but also in a life-well-live social sense."

• "Renowned cognitive scientist and Harvard professor Steven Pinker explains our need for story this way:  'Fictional narratives supply us with a mental catalogue of the fatal conundrums we might face someday and the outcomes of strategies we could deploy in them.'"

• "...the story's ability to provide information on how we might safely navigate this earthly plane."

• "...plunk someone with a clear goal into an increasingly difficult situation they then have to navigate. When a story meets our brain's criteria, we relax and slip into the protagonist's skin, eager to experience what his or her struggle feels like, without having to leave the comfort of home." 

• "A story is how what happens affects someone who is trying to achieve what turns out to be a difficult goal, and how he or she changes as a result."

• "Stories are about how we, rather than the world around us, change."

• "As readers, we eagerly probe each piece of information for significance, constantly wondering, 'What is this meant to tell me?'

• "It's said people can go forty days without food, three days without water, and about thirty-five seconds without finding meaning in something - truth is, thirty-five seconds is an eternity compared to the warp speed with which our subconscious brain rips through data...we are always on the hunt for meaning..."

• "We are always looking for the why beneath what's happening on the surface.  Not only because our survival might depend on it, but because it's exhilarating. It makes us feel something - namely, curiosity.  Having our curiosity piqued is visceral.  And it leads to something even more potent: the anticipation of knowledge we're now hungry for, a sensation caused by that pleasurable rush of dopamine. Because being curious is necessary for survival, nature encourages it.  And what better way to encourage curiosity than to make it feel good? This is why, once your curiosity is roused as a reader, you have an emotional, vested interest in finding out what happens next."

• "...you're beautifully, brutally heartless...As a reader, you owe the writer absolutely nothing. You read their book solely at your own pleasure, where it stands or falls on its own merit. If you don't like it, you simply slip it back onto the shelf and slide out another."

• "...neuropsychiatrist Richard Restak writes, 'Within the brain, things are always evaluated within a specific context.' It is context that bestows meaning, and it is meaning that your brain is wired to sniff out.  After all, if stories are simulations that our brains plumb for useful information in case we ever find ourselves in a similar situation, we sort of need to know what the situation is."
• "Elmore Leonard famously said that a story is real life with the boring parts left out.  Think of the boring parts as anything that doesn't relate to or affect your protagonist's quest.  Every single thing in a story - including subplots, weather, setting, even tone - must have a clear impact on what the reader is dying to know:  Will the protagonist achieve her goal? What will it cost her in the process? How will it change her in the end?  What hooks us, and keeps us reading, is the dopamine-fueled desire to know what happens next. Without that, nothing else matters."

• "Storytelling trumps beautiful writing, every time."

from Wired for Story by Lisa Cron

The Warrior

"The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others.  His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless, those who cannot provide for themselves, and above all, the children, the future of humanity."
The Great Sioux Chief, Sitting Bull

Highlights from UCLA Conference for PhD grads

My alma mater hosted a conference for PhD grads, hoping to prepare us for the after-life.  Dr. Peter S. Fiske wowed the crowd with his take on Effective Communication.  Here are the highlights:

• 90% of success is just showing up.  10% is sitting in the front row.  So do you show up as a Starfleet Officer or Beeker (yes, the muppet that always explodes at the end of the sketch)?

• Society has invested in PhD grads with hopes that we will move the forefront of knowledge. This means rigorous scholarship and the ability to be a persuasive and articulate communicator. In short, to be an inspirational leader.

• We err in thinking that most people make decisions based on logic and analysis. Decisions are based on instinct, emotions, subconscious, trust, likeability, authority.

• In order to establish trust when presenting to an audience, try the following:  1) Slow down, speak clearly (connotes confidence and assurance), use silence strategically, pace the delivery of information. 2) Pay attention to your Energy. 3) Use confident body posture and gestures. 4) Make comfortable eye contact (think confident and kind eyes). 5) Read the audience's feelings. 6) Pay attention to attire and be well-dressed.

• In order to be heard, you have to connect.  It is short-sighted to believe that science should speak for itself.  Our human impulse to trust and believe requires warmth, confidence, and engagement with skill, honesty and integrity (KILLER COMBINATION).

• Non-verbal communication skills are critical:  eye contact & facial expressions, voice, words and language, gestures & movement, body language and posture, energy, attire and accessories (such as business cards). Practice! Take an improv class.

• Firm handshake (hand holding stimulates comfort) and good eye contact (make a mental note of the color of their eyes).  

• We are dramatically influenced by non-verbal communication.

• Fake it and you'll make it.  "The play's the thing. Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king." Shakespeare

• Telling stories is powerful Jedi magic.  We are wired for stories.  Storytelling is effective because audience has a vicarious experience.  We put ourselves in the story.  Stories invite the listener to be in the narrative.  Stories disarm a listener's urge to get to the ending.  

• Prepare and deliver great stories about yourself. Use the formula, STAR, to write your stories. ST: situation or task, A: action, R: result.

• You don't get what you want in life by asking once.  Shy, passive, self-doubt, not very persistent, and lack initiative.  If you doubt yourself, then why shouldn't I agree with you?

• Doctoral studies march you to the precipice of human knowledge and ask you to make the next step.  You are experienced in dealing with uncertainty and limited resources with drive and creativity. 

• Peter interviewed successful PhDs in non-academic careers and asked, "Of the many skills you developed while in graduate school, which ones are the most valuable to you now?"
• Finding one's own path and taking initiative with little assistance
• Ability to work in a high-stress environment
• Independence
• Maturity
• Computer skills
• Circumventing the rules
• Learning to seek out problems and solutions
• Ability to persuade
• Ability to create
• Ability to work productively with difficult people
• (and his favorite): Ability and courage to start something even if you don't know yet