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Heart failure is a global epidemic with debilitating effects. People with heart failure need to actively participate in home self-care regimens to maintain good health. However, these regimens are not as effective as they could be and are influenced by a variety of factors. Patients from minority communities like African American (AA) and Hispanic/Latino (H/L), often have poor outcomes compared to the average Caucasian population. In this paper, we lay the groundwork to develop an interactive dialogue agent that can assist AA and H/L patients in a culturally sensitive and linguistically accurate manner with their heart health care needs. This will be achieved by extracting relevant educational concepts from the interactions between health educators and patients. Thus far we have recorded and transcribed 20 such interactions. In this paper, we describe our data collection process, thematic and initiative analysis of the interactions, and outline our future steps.

Introduction Heart failure (HF) is a public health problem, and self-care remains poor, especially among minorities. Access to personalized educational material via an interactive dialogue agent (DA), a system intended to converse with humans in natural language, has the potential to improve self-care. This abstract outlines the initial steps of developing an artificial intelligence-based DA to assist African American (AA) and Hispanic/Latino (H/L) HF patients with their self-care needs. Hypothesis Analysis of HF education sessions between health educators (HE) and patients can provide insight into the topics that AA and H/L patients value. Method In this IRB approved pilot study, we have recorded, transcribed, and verified 20 (18 AA and 2 H/L) HF education sessions between HE and HF patients. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), a topic modeling algorithm and Empath, a text analysis tool were used to identify common discussion topics in the transcripts. An initiative analysis was performed to identify conversation drivers where each turn (unit of speech by a single speaker, without interruption from the other speaker) was classified as either a question (ending with ‘?’), a prompt (having only filler words like umm, okay) or an assertion/command (others). Lastly, we compared the transcripts against a HF ontology published by the National Center for Biomedical Ontology and the Consumer Health Vocabulary (CHV) available in the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) to identify the term overlap. Results On average, HE took 117 turns comprising 205 sentences and 2281 words per conversation, whereas patients took 108 turns comprising 131 sentences and 850 words. Per conversation, HE asked 26 questions and had 17 prompts as opposed to 3 questions and 39 prompts by the patients. LDA identified HF and heart function, effects of HF, low salt diet, and follow-up appointment and medication as the top 4 most common topics discussed by the HE. When looking at the entire transcripts, Empath identified eating, health, and cooking as the most common topics for both the HE and the patients. Patients frequently discussed children and family, whereas HE focused on providing HF information as indicated by LDA. Lastly, only 2.1% of HE terms overlapped with the HF ontology. Our analysis revealed that 25% and 22% of the terms (without stop words such as at, the) used by the patients and HE respectively match with the ‘preferred label’ in the CHV. For both, the high frequency terms included heart, heart failure, salt, water, and fluid. This also correlated with our topic analysis findings from Empath and LDA. Conclusion Our analysis helps triangulate the kind of information HE and HF patients value. Though mostly HE dominated the conversation, it is essential to incorporate the topics that patients brought up into the DA and use culturally sensitive vocabulary while communicating them. Next, we will collect more recordings, conduct focus groups, and evaluate the usability of our prototype DA.

School bullying is a serious social problem, which has received widespread public, media, and research attention over the years. The first study of bullying was published in 1969 by a school physician named P. P. Heinemann (Olweus, 1999), which was subsequently followed by extensive empirical inquiry since the 1970s in Scandinavia led by Dan Olweus (Vaillancourt et al., 2008). In subsequent decades, social scientists have developed a rich theoretical and empirical body of knowledge with regards to children and adolescents’ experiences in bullying. Scholars conceptualise bullying as a sub-category of aggression (Smith et al., 2002), characterised as being purposeful, including an imbalance of power, and being repetitive (Hunter, Boyle & Warden, 2007; Smith, 2014). Bullying has for the most part been explored from a psychological perspective, providing insights into proximal risk factors, such as individual traits and behaviours. However, bullying is a complex, multifaceted problem, and consideration of theoretical frameworks from outside psychology is necessary to fully explain why certain individuals (or groups of individuals) are involved in bullying. Scholars have therefore come to realise the importance of integrating psychological theories with social environmental perspectives (sociological, anthropological, political-economic; Lawson & King, 2012). This has the potential to broaden perspectives on the etiology and outcomes of bullying, introduce innovative methodologies, and raise important questions about new approaches to prevention and intervention (Holt et al., 2017).This chapter will provide an overview of multiple social science theories and perspectives in explaining bullying. It is divided by theories and perspectives represented by four major branches of social science: psychology, sociology, anthropology, and political-economics.

In the 21st century, substantial advancements have been made across the globe that positively affect the ability for school-based social workers in the fields of practice, policy, and research to meet the needs of the world’s youths. Nonetheless, children continue to suffer from poverty-stricken environments, absence of basic needs, poor or no health care, and insufficient access to quality education. The purpose of this article was to review recent trends in children’s rightsto education, psychological and behavioralhealth, and physiological health and to provide social workers with a contextual landscape for progress. Specific suggestions about how school-based social workers can make improvements across the globe are offered.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a pervasive developmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication skills as well as repetitive, restricted or stereotyped behaviors (1). Early interventionists are often found at the forefront of assessment, evaluation and early intervention services for children with ASD. The role of an early intervention specialist may include, assessing developmental history, providing group and individual counseling, working in partnership with families on home, school, and community environments, mobilizing school and community resources and assisting in the development of positive early intervention strategies (2, 3). The commonality amongst these roles resides in the importance of providing up-to-date, relevant information to families and children. The purpose of this review is to provide pertinent up-to-date knowledge for early interventionists to help inform practice in working with individuals with ASD, including common behavioral models of intervention.

Previous research suggests that serious maternal mental illness is associated with adverse youth outcomes. However, this research is of limited ability to inform appropriate social work and social policy responses for at least two reasons. First, it is based on samples that are not racially or ethnically diverse and that do not target low‐income families; second, it does not examine whether differences in the level of father involvement or the severity of maternal mental illness matter. This study involves a low‐income, racially and ethnically diverse sample of mothers with a serious mental illness and their 11–18‐year‐old children and examines parent effects on youths. Fathers were in contact but mostly were not live‐in parents. Structural equation modeling yields three key results: better maternal functioning and more paternal involvement predict better academic outcomes; less paternal involvement and more maternal health problems predict higher youth‐reported affiliative skills; and more paternal invol...

Actively engaging community members in the revitalization of their neighborhoods is a goal of numerous planning initiatives. In this article, we provide a case example of how the solution-focused brief therapy's “miracle question” was used to engage members of a major metropolitan community in visualizing their dreams and planning strategies for change. Similar to outcomes with therapy clients, community members participated actively and were enthusiastic in communicating their outcomes. Dreams were realistic and important to participants, and suggested strategies were oriented toward first steps and recognized as involving effort by the community. Engagement and retention were sufficient to move forward with immediate actions and longer-term preparation. Benefits and suggested modifications are offered for community practitioners and researchers employing this method.

Children of parents with mental illness are an at-risk population according to research on psychiatric outcomes using White, middle-class samples of depressed parents and infants and preschool children.The current study expands this evidence byexploringwithin-group heterogeneity across psychosocial outcomes, in a racially diverse, low-income sample of adolescent children of mothers with mental illness ( N = 166). Using measures of mental health, academics, behavior problems, and social relationships—and employing cluster analysis methodology—we identified five meaningful subgroups of these youth. Two of five identified clusters evidenced mental health symptoms (15%) or possible behavioral problems (27%).The largest cluster (30%) appeared quite socially and academically competent; another cluster (22%) presented as average in their functioning but adult-oriented. A final small cluster (4.8%) was distinguished by members' social isolation. Cluster membership related to maternal substance abuse history, father's relationship to youth, and social support available to mothers. Implications for planning preventive interventions are discussed.

In the past few decades, deinstitutionalization and community-based rehabilitation and support programs have increased the likelihood that women with serious mental disorders will be parents and will raise their children. This review describes what is known about the parenting of these women, focusing on diagnosis, child characteristics, and other contextual effects.

Across the globe, social workers serve schools in a variety of capacities, providing services such as skills training; individual, group, and family counseling; crisis intervention; home visits; parent support and education; and advocacy for students, families, and school systems. To date, no synthesis of the literature exists examining tier 1 and tier 2 cross-national school-based social work interventions. Therefore, the purpose of this systematic review was twofold: (1) to identify tier 1 and tier 2 school-based interventions that involve social workers and (2) to examine the extent to which the interventions are efficacious with school-based youths. A computerized search with inclusion and exclusion criteria was conducted using several databases. Eighteen studies were included for the final sample in this review. Effect sizes were calculated for all outcomes to determine magnitude of treatment effect. Results indicated that most of the studies were conducted in the United States (n = 14) and half (n = 9) of the included interventions were tier 1. Many positive effect sizes were found. Interventions aimed to treat a variety of outcomes such as sexual health, aggression, self-esteem, school attendance, identity, and depression. More research is needed to determine the effectiveness of school-based social work worldwide.

Although pregnant adolescents often have serious medical and social service needs, prenatal service use by this population is much lower than that by adults. We compared the prenatal care use by mothers of different ages and sociodemographic characteristics in Illinois in 1990, for both first and repeat births. Most of the lack of service use by adolescents is due to delays in initializing care, and the associations of use with race and ethnicity, marital status, and parity are non-uniform across age groups. Implications for service providers are discussed.

This study examines the degree to which social indicators such as rates of employment, divorce, death and population density are predictive of the timing and frequency of prenatal visits among adolescents and young adults. Predictive models are examined separately for urban versus rural women, and by age cohort: early, middle, late adolescents and young adults. Findings suggest that the timing of prenatal care is predominantly influenced by emotional and cognitive factors, whereas he frequency of visits is influenced by economic and logistical phenomena. These phenomena vary with age and urban and rural environments. Specifically, social conditions can have a disproportionate effect on prenatal care use by younger mothers.

The authors discuss the implications of the Preschool and Early Intervention Act (P.L. 99-457) and the requirement of an individual family service plan (IFSP) for the families of infants and toddlers at risk of developmental delays. The article addresses the needs of adolescent parents and their infants, in particular. Suggestions are made for conducting a comprehensive assessment that emphasizes the involvement of teen parents, their families, and the collaboration of an interdisciplinary team of professionals.

This study was conducted to determine whether depressive symptoms exist among behaviorally disordered (BD) pupils. Results indicate that the BD group exhibited symptoms of depression, as judged by themselves, teachers, and parents. Depressive symptoms increased with age, and those BD students in the self-contained special education program were significantly more depressed than those BD students who had been mainstreamed. Implications for assessment, intervention, and social work practice are drawn.

Children who witness parental homicides are emotionally traumatized, stigmatized, and deeply scarred by a terrifying event. They often exhibit debilitating symptoms comparable to those of posttraumatic stress disorder. As attention is focused on the deceased and on the perpetrator of the crime, the child witnesses inadvertently become the neglected victims. A case report of two such children who observed their mother being murdered by their father is presented. Theories of psychosocial development and social learning guided the assessment and intervention phases. Behavioral and expressive therapeutic treatment strategies that helped the children work through the resultant anxiety and underlying grief are delineated, and family intervention practices that served to improve interaction and communication patterns are described. Further discussion focuses on the potential intergenerational cycle of violence and on a sociocultural perspective of family violence within an ecological framework.

This article, based on research and extensive practice experience, calls attention to the adolescent father and his family who are too frequently forgotten in our work with pregnant adoles...

There are considerable data documenting the devastating consequences of school age parenthood on the young mothers life and that of her child. Yet to deal effectively with the increasing incidence of adolescent sexuality more knowledge is necessary regarding the characteristics of young females who effectively use contraceptives and those who are sexually active without protection and become pregnant. Exploratory research focusing on these 2 groups was conducted to provide these data. Profiles of these 2 groups are offered and implications for social work intervention and family planning services are discussed. (authors modified)