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The Impact of Neuroscience Advances
Advancements in biotechnology, bioengineering, neuroscience, genetics and other medical specialties have dramatically altered the way people are diagnosed and treated for injury or disease. This discussion explores how recent discoveries in neurosciencerelated technology—particularly neuroimaging—might be used in child and family behavioral health care, and what the costs of such an approach may entail. Only recently have behavioral health researchers begun exploring the application of such technology in the diagnostic and treatment practices of human service providers. One such approach is the use of imaging technology to enhance therapy by observing changes in the functioning of the brain. Since there is little current use of imaging in children’s behavioral health at the provider level, and because there is little research that demonstrates the efficacy of using neuroimaging to diagnose and treat mental disorders, there are no best practice protocols for its use. Published by the Alliance for Children and Families with a grant from the Pioneer Group of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation., this white paper is a preliminary attempt to examine the current use and potential of imaging technology as a behavioral health care intervention, and to quantify the costs of doing so. To read the full report, click here.
The New Age of Aging: Building Competency and Capacity in Human Services
Underwritten by a $2.6 million grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies, the New Age of Aging and its partners will work to bridge the gap between the human services community and the dynamics associated with an aging population. Through this unique project, the Alliance and its members will develop new ideas to address the challenges and plan for the physical, social, and emotional needs of the new generation of older adults. Additionally, the initiative will enable the Alliance to capitalize on the opportunities, experiences, and talents of our aging population. Some of the program activities include: Mentoring Initiative matching expert member organizations with agencies prepared to improve their aging services. The purpose of this initiative is to build capacity and leadership within the Alliance membership through encouraging a culture of peer-to-peer mentoring. Leadership Academies in which experts on aging will lead presentations, workshops, and discussions focused on human services and older adults. Presenters and attendees will include leaders in the field of aging, such as representatives from Boston University Institute for Geriatric Social Work and the New York Academy of Medicine’s Center on Aging Policy. For more information on this grant, click here. 2007 Annual Index The complete 2007 journal index (Volume 88; January—December 2007) is available on the FIS Web site for download. In order to assist you in finding articles, this index is in multiple parts: Authors, Subjects, Book Reviews and Letters and Comments. Article digital object identifiers (DOIs) are 10.1606/1044-3894.XXXX, with the four digit suffix numbers provided in parentheses for each article in the index. As a reminder, all articles, editorials, book reviews and letters published since 1980 are available on the FIS Web site: www.familiesinsociety.org.
To view the latest newsletter on the art of social work, click here.
Ways to Work
Faces of Change
In the wake PRWORA, the
National Family Week 2007
Alliance for Children and Families and UNCA National Conferences
United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA) is partnering with the
Incarceration and Reentry: The Impact on Women Offenders and Their Families
This Webinar provides an overview of the impact on families and communities, the systems and people involved in reentry, points of intervention, and policy reforms and recommendations.For additional information and to order a CD-Rom of this Webinar, click here.
Working But Poor: Special Issue Web Section
This Web section has additional information and links related to the Working But Poor: Next Steps for Social Work Strategies and Collaborations special issue. Available resources include an issue overview, editorials, article abstracts, contributor biographies, Practice and Policy Focus newsletter, and ordering page for additional print and CD-ROM copies. Click here to visit this section.
The Impact of Welfare Reform
Revisit the first wave of reports on the impact of welfare reform and the transition for low-income families from AFDC to TANF. This special section from the Alliance for Children and Families Magazine includes reports on those affected by welfare reform, innovative programs helping families with their transition to work, and policy recommendations for future directions. Click here to read this report.
2007 Senior Leadership Conference The Alliance for Children and Families’ 39th Annual Senior Leadership Conference, “Valuing the Past and Looking to the Future”, provided participants with three developmental tracks: programmatic, leadership, and organizational. Browse the online post-conference materials for sessions like “A Platform for Strengthening Families”, “Developing a Political Advocacy Strategy”, and “Maintaining an Energized Workforce Requires Creativity and Innovation”.
Public Policy and Program Development New national initiative to strengthen social services for older adults
“We are committed to informing and influencing how the nonprofit human services workforce thinks about and responds to issues of aging in America,” explains Peter Goldberg, president and CEO of the Alliance. A preliminary planning study conducted by the Alliance in 2006 suggests that, while aware of the advancing wave of aging Americans and the challenges associated with a rapidly aging population, the country’s social and human services workforce needs further preparation to meet the anticipated expansion of needs.
Taking Social Services Education to a New Degree: A Collaborative Model
Implementing the GBT Model in a Residential Care Setting This teleconference, hosted by the American Association of Children’s Residential Centers (AACRC), provides first-hand perspectives and realities of program replication from the staff of several youth residential centers as they implemented a new model of care in their facilities. Discussed are their experiences regarding the planning and preparation for this change, the trials and challenges associated with the implementation, and the individual results and outcomes. Click here to access the Web conference playback. Click here to access the PowerPoint presentation slides only. Spreading the Pain: The Social Cost of Incarcerating Parents The Alliance for Children and Families Research and Evaluation Services presents a collection of various studies that examine the concept of social cost and its application to incarceration. An overview is provided of a broad range of literature documenting the direct and indirect effects of incarceration on individuals, families, communities, and the public at large. Spreading the Pain is a report that includes a comprehensive itemization of the elements of social cost and social benefit, and application of the analysis to a cohort of drug felons in New York State.
2007 National Leadership Conference on Child Welfare Issues
Browse the post-conference materials from the Alliance for Children and Families' annual event featuring nationally recognized experts and experienced peers. The 2007 meeting focused on family-centered practice in out-of-home care settings, outcomes and benchmarking for sibling groups, supervisory development, benchmarking for continuous improvement and performance, and the key to performance based contracting. More information.
IFCO Biennial International Foster Care Conference
Overview of Risk-Management Issues in Social Work
Click here to access the Web conference playback. Click here to access the PowerPoint presentation slides only.
Counseling Services: Necessary or Irrelevant?
Click here to access the PowerPoint presentation slides only. Hot Topic Teleconference:
In a recent 'Hot Topic' presentation, Susan Foster of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) provided an important overview and discussion on how women and girls are affected by addiction. This subject is particularly relevant to Foster’s current work as CASA recently released a new book, "Women Under the Influence" that includes analysis of substance abuse and traces the paths to abuse and addiction for girls and women, and details their differences in vulnerabilities, risks and needs compared with boys and men.
Dreyfus, Alliance COO, says that the association views the focus on workforce issues …as "timely, imperative, and critical to the improvement of child welfare outcomes.” The white paper includes a series of observations and concrete recommendations for actions that developed out of an Alliance member focus group session held last January in St. Petersburg, FL, just prior to the Alliance’s 2006 National Leadership Conference on Child Welfare Issues. The ultimate goal of the paper, says Dreyfus, is to “further a dialogue that will lead to effective solutions.”
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The Impact of Neuroscience Advances on Nonprofit Behavioral Health Care: Financial Modeling of Neuroimaging Utilization
A comprehensive overview is available for the Alliance for Children and Families’ five-year project to help its membership of family service agencies and their workforce prepare for the needs of older adults.
Each edition of this supplement to Families in Society addresses a specific issue affecting social workers and other social service and health practitioners in the field. The new issue addresses the role of artistry in social work practice. Articles by practitioners and educators are highlighted with an extended FIS article bibliography further reading.
A new national evaluation of 
Learn more about family advocacy networking through 
Alliance
UNCA Family Strengthening Mini-Conference 
Women remain less than ten percent of those who are incarcerated; however they constitute the fastest growing population in prison, surpassing the growth rate of the male population in every state. Improving outcomes for released female offenders and their families entails examining practices that affect women’s entry into prison, their treatment while in prison, and their access to services after release from prison.
A $2.6 million grant intended to improve the readiness of the nation’s nonprofit human and social services workforce has been awarded to the Alliance for Children and Families by The Atlantic Philanthropies. The five-year program will help member organizations with training, staffing, and programs. 
This essay looks at a unique collaboration between Girls and Boys Town, a national leader in services to abused and abandoned children, and Bellevue University, a nationallyaccredited institution specializing in adult learning and online education. Wanting to bring its effectiveness and efficiency to a higher level, as well as to contribute towards their employees’ continued professional development, the agency partnered with Bellevue to create a new online degree program for a Master of Science in Family and Youth Services. 
Families in Society will be recognized at the meeting of the 2007 International Foster Care Organisation (IFCO) for the joint IFCO/FIS special issue "Family Foster Care: Voices From Around the World." This special collection of articles, edited by IFCO advocate Rosemarie Carbino, highlights family foster care programs from various countries and includes new articles by child welfare administrators and practitioners, foster parent associations, educators, and researchers. 
This 'Hot Topic' Webinar by Dr. Frederic Reamer provided participants with a basic overview of ethical and risk-management issues encountered in social work. Using extensive case material, participants were acquainted with complex practice-based ethical dilemmas and practical strategies designed to protect clients and prevent professional malpractice and liability.
In response to a commitment to directly engage citizens impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the 2006 Gulf Coast Listening Initiative conducted a study to help determine what the most pressing needs are. The study was commissioned by Leadership 18, a coalition of America’s largest and most-respected charitable organizations including Families in Society publisher, the Alliance for Children and Familes.
A Webinar for those in clinical practice or program development with adolescent mental health services explored unplanned termination, or treatment dropout, as experienced and described by clinicians. Based on her FIS article “Revisiting Unplanned Termination: Clinicians’ Perceptions of Termination From Adolescent Mental Health Treatment” (April–June 2006), Dr. Diane Mirabito discussed factors contributing to treatment dropout, and offered recommendations for positive practitioner and agency responses such as taking a greater proactive role in orchestrating the termination process with adolescents. 
To download the audio file of this teleconference, 
The Alliance for Children and Families, publisher of Families in Society, is releasing Child Welfare Workforce: Implications for the Private Nonprofit Sector, a white paper addressing what author Susan Dreyfus says is a crisis that must be addressed immediately by the sector. This report was made possible with funding from Houston-based Cornerstone for Kids.
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