Background and Purpose: The use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs during adolescence and emerg... more Background and Purpose: The use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs during adolescence and emerging adulthood possesses far reaching consequences. Research findings on the factors that influence substance abuse and substance-related behaviors indicate that effects occur at multiple domains (i.e., genetic, cellular, hormonal, individual, family, community). Accordingly, further development of prevention efforts is reliant on findings that attempt to assess the effects of these relationships across biopsychosocial domains. Employing a biosocial conceptual framework consistent with person-environment theorizing this study assessed cross-level interactions in predicting polydrug use and associated substance-related problems. Methods: Data for this study come from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) DNA subsample. Following prior researchers analyzing the genetic subsample of the Add Health (e.g., Haberstick et al., 2005), we removed one twin from each MZ t...
Background and Purpose: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has been used in the United ... more Background and Purpose: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has been used in the United States for decades. Recently interest has grown in understanding who uses CAM, in what circumstances, and the relationship between alternative and conventional therapies. CAM use is important for social workers because it is a critical but under examined aspect of the mental health delivery system. Only a handful of studies on CAM have focused on CAM use among those with a mental disorder and even fewer have examined racial and ethnic differences in CAM use among this vulnerable group. The objective of this study is to examine the prevalence of CAM use among adults who meet diagnostic criteria for a mood, anxiety, or substance disorder and the racial/ethnic differences in CAM use among this group. This study expands understanding of help-seeking among vulnerable populations who are a significant proportion of social work caseloads and often underutilize conventional mental health and sub...
Background This paper presents results from a systematic review that identified, summarized, and ... more Background This paper presents results from a systematic review that identified, summarized, and critiqued quantitative measures of interorganizational collaboration (IOC) among children’s service agencies, as a step toward informing research on public-private partnerships in child welfare. Given the joint role of public and private agencies in child welfare, agency administrators in both sectors are required to document IOC, and collaboration-based outcomes for families. However, these efforts have been limited by scant scholarly attention to measurement of public-private collaboration in child welfare. In the broader organizational literature, measures focus on structure and reciprocity of voluntary collaborative relationships. However, public-private collaborations are distinct - they are often contractual (Van Slyke, 2007), and may not be reciprocal or mutually beneficial. This review examines IOC measures in children’s services and we conclude with recommendations for improving...
One of the most critical gaps in mental health services research is between the implementation of... more One of the most critical gaps in mental health services research is between the implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) and what is known about the sustainability of these practices once implemented. This area is further complicated by a lack of data that allows researchers to identify characteristics of organizational practices associated with successful sustainability of EBPs. Discovering what organizational factors affect sustainability of EBPs will support the uptake of these interventions at the local, regional and state levels within public mental health systems. This statewide study used a mixed method approach to uncover the organizational factors that drive sustainability and those that create barriers to sustainability. The State had completed two years of grant funding to support all of its regions in implementing EBPs with fidelity. Two of these practices, Integrated Dual Disorders Treatment (IDDT) and Family Psychoeducation (FPE) were adopted in all regions of...
Prezi is an online presentation service provider that offers dif-ferent types of accounts and opt... more Prezi is an online presentation service provider that offers dif-ferent types of accounts and options for creating and storing digital presentations. Traditional presentation software requires preparing a linear story line using a storyboard approach. Prezi, on the other hand, allows for both a ...
Despite increasing acknowledgment that the social work profession must address environmental conc... more Despite increasing acknowledgment that the social work profession must address environmental concerns, relatively little is known about the state of scholarship on environmental social work. This study provides a scientometric summary of peer-reviewed articles (N = 497) pertaining to environmental topics in social work journals between 1991 and 2015. We find that theoretical and empirical scholarship on environmental social work is growing, though this growth remains limited to specific geographical regions and topics. We note the need to clarify the relationship between environmental social work as a theoretical paradigm and as a research topic.
Baorong Guo is in the social work faculty at the University of Missouri-St Louis and she is a fac... more Baorong Guo is in the social work faculty at the University of Missouri-St Louis and she is a faculty associate at the Center for Social Development (CSD) at Washington University in St Louis. Her current research focuses on inclusion of the poor in asset-building, human service non-profits and socio-economic development. Her recent research projects include the effects of household assets
Management of chronic pain is one of the most common reasons given by individuals seeking medical... more Management of chronic pain is one of the most common reasons given by individuals seeking medical cannabis. However, very little information exists about the concurrent use of cannabis and prescription pain medication (PPM). This study fills this gap in knowledge by systematically comparing medical cannabis users who use or do not use PPM, with an emphasis on understanding whether concurrent use of cannabis and PPM is associated with more serious forms of alcohol and other drug involvement. Data from this study were collected from a medical cannabis clinic in southwestern Michigan (N = 273). Systematic comparisons were made on measures of sociodemographics, reasons for substance use, pain, functioning, and perceptions of PPM and medical cannabis efficacy. PPM users tended to be older and reported higher levels of pain and lower levels of functioning. The overall sample exhibited higher lifetime and past-3-month rates of alcohol and other noncannabis drug use than did the general pop...
Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation allowing for the use of me... more Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation allowing for the use of medical cannabis for those individuals with qualifying medical conditions, which include posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for a growing number of states. Little information is available regarding PTSD among medical cannabis patients. This study seeks to provide initial data on this topic by examining the prevalence and correlates of positive PTSD screens among a sample of patients seeking medical cannabis certification for the first time (n=186). Twenty-three percent (42/186; 95% confidence interval [CI] =17%-29%) of the patients in the study sample screened positive for PTSD. Moreover, the group that screened positive for PTSD had higher percentages of lifetime prescription opioid, cocaine, prescription sedative, and street opioid use, as well as a higher percentage of recent prescription sedative use, than the group that screened negative for PTSD. These findings highlight the relati...
Background and Purpose: The use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs during adolescence and emerg... more Background and Purpose: The use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs during adolescence and emerging adulthood possesses far reaching consequences. Research findings on the factors that influence substance abuse and substance-related behaviors indicate that effects occur at multiple domains (i.e., genetic, cellular, hormonal, individual, family, community). Accordingly, further development of prevention efforts is reliant on findings that attempt to assess the effects of these relationships across biopsychosocial domains. Employing a biosocial conceptual framework consistent with person-environment theorizing this study assessed cross-level interactions in predicting polydrug use and associated substance-related problems. Methods: Data for this study come from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) DNA subsample. Following prior researchers analyzing the genetic subsample of the Add Health (e.g., Haberstick et al., 2005), we removed one twin from each MZ t...
Background and Purpose: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has been used in the United ... more Background and Purpose: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has been used in the United States for decades. Recently interest has grown in understanding who uses CAM, in what circumstances, and the relationship between alternative and conventional therapies. CAM use is important for social workers because it is a critical but under examined aspect of the mental health delivery system. Only a handful of studies on CAM have focused on CAM use among those with a mental disorder and even fewer have examined racial and ethnic differences in CAM use among this vulnerable group. The objective of this study is to examine the prevalence of CAM use among adults who meet diagnostic criteria for a mood, anxiety, or substance disorder and the racial/ethnic differences in CAM use among this group. This study expands understanding of help-seeking among vulnerable populations who are a significant proportion of social work caseloads and often underutilize conventional mental health and sub...
Background This paper presents results from a systematic review that identified, summarized, and ... more Background This paper presents results from a systematic review that identified, summarized, and critiqued quantitative measures of interorganizational collaboration (IOC) among children’s service agencies, as a step toward informing research on public-private partnerships in child welfare. Given the joint role of public and private agencies in child welfare, agency administrators in both sectors are required to document IOC, and collaboration-based outcomes for families. However, these efforts have been limited by scant scholarly attention to measurement of public-private collaboration in child welfare. In the broader organizational literature, measures focus on structure and reciprocity of voluntary collaborative relationships. However, public-private collaborations are distinct - they are often contractual (Van Slyke, 2007), and may not be reciprocal or mutually beneficial. This review examines IOC measures in children’s services and we conclude with recommendations for improving...
One of the most critical gaps in mental health services research is between the implementation of... more One of the most critical gaps in mental health services research is between the implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) and what is known about the sustainability of these practices once implemented. This area is further complicated by a lack of data that allows researchers to identify characteristics of organizational practices associated with successful sustainability of EBPs. Discovering what organizational factors affect sustainability of EBPs will support the uptake of these interventions at the local, regional and state levels within public mental health systems. This statewide study used a mixed method approach to uncover the organizational factors that drive sustainability and those that create barriers to sustainability. The State had completed two years of grant funding to support all of its regions in implementing EBPs with fidelity. Two of these practices, Integrated Dual Disorders Treatment (IDDT) and Family Psychoeducation (FPE) were adopted in all regions of...
Prezi is an online presentation service provider that offers dif-ferent types of accounts and opt... more Prezi is an online presentation service provider that offers dif-ferent types of accounts and options for creating and storing digital presentations. Traditional presentation software requires preparing a linear story line using a storyboard approach. Prezi, on the other hand, allows for both a ...
Despite increasing acknowledgment that the social work profession must address environmental conc... more Despite increasing acknowledgment that the social work profession must address environmental concerns, relatively little is known about the state of scholarship on environmental social work. This study provides a scientometric summary of peer-reviewed articles (N = 497) pertaining to environmental topics in social work journals between 1991 and 2015. We find that theoretical and empirical scholarship on environmental social work is growing, though this growth remains limited to specific geographical regions and topics. We note the need to clarify the relationship between environmental social work as a theoretical paradigm and as a research topic.
Baorong Guo is in the social work faculty at the University of Missouri-St Louis and she is a fac... more Baorong Guo is in the social work faculty at the University of Missouri-St Louis and she is a faculty associate at the Center for Social Development (CSD) at Washington University in St Louis. Her current research focuses on inclusion of the poor in asset-building, human service non-profits and socio-economic development. Her recent research projects include the effects of household assets
Management of chronic pain is one of the most common reasons given by individuals seeking medical... more Management of chronic pain is one of the most common reasons given by individuals seeking medical cannabis. However, very little information exists about the concurrent use of cannabis and prescription pain medication (PPM). This study fills this gap in knowledge by systematically comparing medical cannabis users who use or do not use PPM, with an emphasis on understanding whether concurrent use of cannabis and PPM is associated with more serious forms of alcohol and other drug involvement. Data from this study were collected from a medical cannabis clinic in southwestern Michigan (N = 273). Systematic comparisons were made on measures of sociodemographics, reasons for substance use, pain, functioning, and perceptions of PPM and medical cannabis efficacy. PPM users tended to be older and reported higher levels of pain and lower levels of functioning. The overall sample exhibited higher lifetime and past-3-month rates of alcohol and other noncannabis drug use than did the general pop...
Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation allowing for the use of me... more Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation allowing for the use of medical cannabis for those individuals with qualifying medical conditions, which include posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for a growing number of states. Little information is available regarding PTSD among medical cannabis patients. This study seeks to provide initial data on this topic by examining the prevalence and correlates of positive PTSD screens among a sample of patients seeking medical cannabis certification for the first time (n=186). Twenty-three percent (42/186; 95% confidence interval [CI] =17%-29%) of the patients in the study sample screened positive for PTSD. Moreover, the group that screened positive for PTSD had higher percentages of lifetime prescription opioid, cocaine, prescription sedative, and street opioid use, as well as a higher percentage of recent prescription sedative use, than the group that screened negative for PTSD. These findings highlight the relati...
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