The Coalition of Institutionalized Aged and Disabled (CIAD)

Introduction
Geoff Lieberman, Executive Director of CIAD

Presenters
Woody Wilson, President of CIAD
Margueritte Wilkins, President of Resident Council and Member of Board of Directors of CIAD
Norman Bloomfield, President of Surf Manor Resident Council and Member of CIAD Policy Committee

The Coalition of Institutionalized Aged and Disabled (CIAD) is a non-profit, consumer-led advocacy organization that was established in 1973 to bring pride, purpose and self-determination to residents of adult and nursing homes.  Since then, CIAD has provided residents with the information and skills they need to advocate for themselves, to protect and promote the rights of residents, and to improve the quality of their lives and their care.

CIAD was born out of residents' sense of disenfranchisement and isolation. Institutional policies and regimens were slowly eroding their personal autonomy and robbing them of their independence, individuality and decision-making power. They were dependent upon a system that neither met their needs nor consulted them on how their needs could best be met. CIAD has given the means and support to help thousands of adult home residents with psychiatric disabilities in New York to find their hope, their dreams and their voice.

In recent years, it has helped residents fight to improve their basic rights, nutrition and health concerns, access to air conditioning, increases in their personal needs allowance and most of all, ability to leave the homes for more appropriate and independent community housing! See their tremendous videos and other efforts at http://www.ciadny.org/

Mary Funnye Goldson Memorial Program:
Hit or Miss: Participation and Allocation of the NYS Noncustodial Parent Earned Income Tax Credit

Welcoming Remarks
Reverend Dr. Calvin O. Butts III, Pastor

Keynote Address
Dr. Ronald B. Mincy, Maurice V. Russell Professor of Social Policy and Social Work Practice, Columbia University School of Social Work

Panel
Robert Carmona, President/CEO, STRIVE International
Stephen P. Forrester, Esq., Assistant Executive Director, The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
Frances Pardus-Abbadessa, Executive Deputy Commissioner, NYC Human Resources Administration — Office of Child Support Enforcement
I-Hsing Sun, Director of Programs, NYC Department of Consumer Affairs — Office of Financial Empowerment

The keynote address provided as a part of the Mary Funnye Goldson Memorial Program that was held at Abyssinian Baptist Church on January 24, 2012. The address, "Hit or Miss: Participation and Allocation of the New York State Noncustodial Parent Earned Income Tax Credit" was provided by Professor Ronald B. Mincy, Maurice V. Russell Professor of Social Policy and Social Work Practice and Director of the Center for Research on Fathers, Children, and Family Well-Being. It was followed by a community forum on this underutilized tax credit (EITC) program featuring representatives from city-wide fatherhood initiatives, financial empowerment programs, workforce development organizations, and child welfare agencies.

Co-sponsors of the event were the Abyssinian Baptist Church <http://www.abyssinian.org/>, the Abyssinian Development Corporation <http://www.adcorp.org/>, the Center for Research on Fathers, Children and Family Well-Being <http://crfcfw.columbia.edu/>, and the Columbia University School of Social Work <http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ssw/>.

Troy Davis Teach-In

Co-Sponsored by Criminal Justice Caucus, Latino/a Caucus, Black Caucus, the Office of the Dean, the Criminal Justice Initiative and the Office of Student Services.

Troy Davis's execution reminds us of the extensive and life threatening flaw in the criminal justice system in this country. This teach-in provided an opportunity to learn more about the death penalty in the United States and specifically the Troy Davis case. The pursuing discussion raised questions regarding the intersections of race, socio-economic status, and involvement in the criminal justice system.

The Troy Davis Teach-In focused on racism and criminal justice reform, themes that tie directly into the Contemporary Social Issues curriculum and the ISMs laboratory. The Teach-In featured professional community organizers and advocates. Other related topics include advocacy, self-awareness/cultural competency, and community organizing.

Speakers include

Amanda Geller from the Population Center at the School of Social Work who has done research on race and the death penalty.

Russel Neufeld is a criminal defense lawyer who has spent much of his work defending people charged with potential death penalty cases. He was key in the political and legal struggle to get rid of the death penalty here in New York State and currently represents defendants facing the death penalty at the federal level.

Thenjiwe McHarris works with Amnesty International and worked extensively on Troy Davis's case. She helped organize the Troy Davis Memorial at Riverside Church.

Lawrence Hayes worked very closely on the Troy Davis case, spending time in Georgia during the clemency/pardons period.  He was with the Davis family and at the funeral.  He is currently working with a group that is both organizing a boycott against Georgia corporations to try and end the death penalty in Georgia and is working to continue investigating the Troy Davis case.

The Implications of the Failure of Congress to Pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Karen Narasaki
President and Executive Director Asian American Justice Center

Congress has failed twice in the past four years to pass any meaningful immigration reform, pushing over 11 million undocumented immigrants and their families deeper into the shadows of our communities. The resulting void has provoked a slew of hostile proposals on a federal and local level that threaten immigrant workers and their children. These over-reaching policies generate collateral damage to immigrants here legally, the citizen children of immigrant parents and people of color generally. Karen Narasaki, the President of the Asian American Justice Center and Vice Chair of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, will talk about both positive and adverse policies being proposed in Washington and around the country; what is at stake for those who are working to improve the social welfare of these communities; and what those concerned about civil and human rights can do.

Building a Safety Net that We Can Love

Dr. David B. Grusky
Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality, Stanford University

In many countries, perhaps especially the United States, there’s a rather strong strand of pragmatism underlying poverty and inequality policy. If an antipoverty program can be shown to work at low cost (i.e., reduce poverty), then that’s enough for us and we will embrace it. This pragmatist movement to identify “what works and what doesn’t” elevates to center stage the very simple empirical question of whether a given program has its intended effects. It’s surely important to know whether a program works. But the typical evaluation exercises, almost by definition and certainly by convention, don’t ask whether the program under study resonates well with our larger ideals. The United States would be well served by an ideology, a “constitution” of sorts, that underlies its reform apparatus, just as it has an ideology underlying its efforts to fashion a more productive economy. The purpose of this talk is to tease out how we might build a safety net and labor market that’s consistent with our most fundamental values.

Helping Families Understand the Neurobiology of Borderline Personality Disorder: The Road to Compassion

Valerie Porr
President & Founder of the Treatment and Research Advancements National Association for Personality Disorder

Ms. Porr is the author of Overcoming BPD, a Family Guide for Healing and Change, co-author of New Hope for People with BPD, co-editor of the BPD Journal of the California Alliance of the Mentally Ill and has published numerous articles on family experiences and BPD advocacy issues. She is intensivley trained in both DBT and Mentalization and has developed a curriculum combining DBT and Mentalization which teaches family members how to help their loved ones with BPD while helping themselves.

Plenary Session: Cradle to Prison Pipeline

Rev. Emma Jordan-Simpson,
Executive Director, Children's Defense Fund-NY

Dismantling New York?s Cradle to Prison Pipeline: African American children in New York City are 32 times more likely to be incarcerated than White children. The Department of Justice issued a scathing report in 2009 against the state?s juvenile justice system highlighting its rampant abuse and the lack of appropriate mental health services for the young people detained in its centers. This presentation will help participants to understand the framework of New York?s cradle to prison pipeline crisis and what can be done to challenge its hold on our children.

In 1992, the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) established an office in New York City, a city where 30% of children live in poverty and children account for 43% of the homeless population. CDF serves as a resource & partner for children, families & organizations throughout the tri-state area & are recognized as an authority in the endeavor to protect children and strengthen families. CDF utilizes a unique approach to improving conditions for children by combining research, public education, policy development, community organizing & advocacy activities, that has made CDF an innovative and tireless leader for New York's children.

Intergroup Anxiety Effects on Minority and Majority Group Members: Implications for Self-Regulation and Health 

Dr. David M. Amodio
Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neural Science, New York University

Intergroup interactions often elicit stress and anxiety for both minority and majority group members. Although the basic biological stress response is similar for members of both groups, its implications for self-regulatory processes and health may be very different. Dr. Amodio will discuss some implications of intergroup anxiety for Black and White Americans. Among Black Americans, intergroup anxiety associated with discrimination may affect health through two major routes. First, stress associated with discrimination may interfere with normal endocrine and immune function. Community-based data from Dr. Amodio?s lab links greater perceived discrimination among Black and Latina women to profiles of baseline stress hormones and proinflammatory cytokines that are associated with health vulnerabilities. Also, Dr. Amodio proposes that discrimination stress modulates the neural processes involved in self-regulation in a way that may promote decisions favoring short-term rewards over healthier long-term goals. Among White majority group members, intergroup stress modulates self-regulatory processes in a similar way, but with different consequences. Dr. Amodio will describe research in which Whites? fear of appearing prejudiced in an interracial interaction impaired their ability to control the expression of racial stereotypes, despite their egalitarian intentions. This broad program of research is intended to elucidate basic mechanisms of emotion and self-regulation while contributing to our understanding of racial disparities in health.

Taking on Postracialism: Racial Justice and Asian Americans Today

Rinku Sen
President and Executive Director, Applied Research Center

Close to 150 social workers, mostly CUSSW field instructors and educational coordinators, came together to reflect on work in a time of economic struggle and crisis, and dialogue together on some creative solutions for moving forward.

Opening Remarks: Charyl Franks, Assistant Dean, CUSSW & Jeanette Takamura, Dean, CUSSW

The keynote address was delivered by Kirstin Downey, award-winning journalist and acclaimed author of the new book, "The Woman behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and his Moral Conscience."

This was followed by a distinguished panel representing academia, the private and non-profit sectors and labor.

Economic Panel: Philip Berry, Philip Berry Associates LLC; Cynthia Chin-Marshall, District Council 37 Health and Security Plan Administrator; Barbara Davis, Chief Operating Officer, Actors Fund; Neeraj Kaushal, Associate Professor, CUSSW.

Turnitin Presentation for Students

Jennifer Jackson
Columbia University

Social Work and Religious Diversity: Problems and Possibilities

Paul Knitter, PhD
Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture Union Theological Seminary, New York

Dr. Knitter will explore the need for social workers to engage in their clients' diverse religious visions and values.This will include how a social worker's personal religious beliefs can influence their practice, the implications of a clients' religious beliefs in relation to fatalism, abandonment or responsibility, exploitability, sexism or homophobia, and how religion can provide a reminder to either religious or non-believing social workers to maintain "inner resources" for the hard labor of social work. Dr. Knitter is the Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions, and Culture at Union Theological Seminary, New York. Previously, for some 30 years, he taught theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH. He received a Licentiate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (1966) and a doctorate from the University of Marburg, Germany (1972). Most of his research and publications have dealt with religious pluralism and interreligious dialogue.

Internalized Oppression and Self-Care

Willie Tolliver, PhD
Associate Professor, Hunter College School of Social Work and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Dr. Willie Tolliver is an associate professor of Hunter College School of Social Work (HCSSW) and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York teaching organizational design in the Social Welfare PhD program. In the MSW program, he teaches in the social welfare policy and the social work practice lab sequences. Author of books on leadership in the public and non-profit sector, Dr. Tolliver is also the co-convener of the HCSSW faculty on "Undoing Racism." Dr. Tolliver has kept his lifetime commitment to children through ongoing work with New York's lead child welfare agency, the Administration of Children Services (ACS) in New York City. His most recent work involves collaboration with the Research Center for Leadershp in Action at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service to develop the ACS Leadership Academy for Child Safety.

CBT and Service Delivery Systems for Hoarding

Gail Steketee, PhD
Dean and Professor, Boston University School of Social Work

Dr. Gail Steketee has conducted numerous research studies on the psychopathology and treatment of anxiety and related problems. This work includes NIMH-funded research projects on familial factors that influence treatment outcomes for clients with anxiety disorders, and on the development and testing of cognitive and behavioral interventions for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), body dysmorphic disorder, and most recently and most extensively, hoarding problems. She has published over 180 articles and chapters and 8 books, mainly focused on evidence based treatments for OCD and related disorders such as hoarding, as well as cognitive aspects of OCD.

Buried in Treasures: Status of Our Understanding and Interventions with Hoarding Disorder

Gail Steketee, PhD
Dean and Professor, Boston University School of Social Work

Dr. Gail Steketee has conducted numerous research studies on the psychopathology and treatment of anxiety and related problems. This work includes NIMH-funded research projects on familial factors that influence treatment outcomes for clients with anxiety disorders, and on the development and testing of cognitive and behavioral interventions for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), body dysmorphic disorder, and most recently and most extensively, hoarding problems. She has published over 180 articles and chapters and 8 books, mainly focused on evidence based treatments for OCD and related disorders such as hoarding, as well as cognitive aspects of OCD.

Social Enterprise

John Herron, MSW, MBA
CEO, Harbor City Services, Inc.

Harbor City Services is a very successful social enterprise in Baltimore providing document management, storage and moving services to health care organizations and others. It provides training and employment to people from various social service populations. Mr. Herron, its founder and CEO, talks about his experiences in founding and managing Harbor City Services.

Interviewed by James Mandiberg, MSW, PhD

Religion, Democracy, and Identity

Akeel Bilgrami, PhD
Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University Philosophy Department

Dr. Akeel Bilgrami explores some basic issues about secular liberal politics and its responses to religiosity and to identity politics based on religion, looking at some of these issues as they are relevant to a wide range of phenomena -- from Islam in the Middle East, to Islam in Europe where Muslims are a minority, as well as to the conservative Christianity in the heartland of America.

Dr. Bilgrami holds the Johnsonian Chair of Philosophy in the Philosophy Department at Columbia University. He is a founding member of the Committee on Global Thought and the Director of the Heyman Centre for the Humanities. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and has a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His publications include ?Belief and Meaning? (Blackwell, 1992), 'Self Knowledge and Resentment' (Harvard University Press, 2006), 'Politics and the Moral Psychology of Identity' (Harvard University Press, 2010) and he is currently commissioned to write two short books 'Gandhi, the Philosopher' (Columbia University Press) and 'What is a Muslim?? (Princeton University Press), as well as numerous papers in subjects papers ranging from philosophy of language and mind to politics, culture, and moral psychology.

Social Work and Social Justice: The Challenge of Political Pluralism

Micheal B. Friedman, LMSW
Columbia University

John Robertson
Columbia University

A joint presentation by Professor Michael Friedman and Professor John Robertson exploring the nature of the obligation that social workers have to fight against social injustice and to advocate for social justice in the context of a politically pluralistic society and profession. Professor Friedman provides an overview of the obligations contained in the NASW Code of Ethics as well as an overview of competing philosophical and political conceptions of social justice and social welfare policy. Professor Robertson presents the view that a common conception of social justice can be built on the base of human rights and provides illustrations about how a rights perspective can guide social work practice. Professor Friedman then uses the theory of justice Amartya Sen presents in The Idea of Justice to argue for a non-utopian definition of social justice and a practical standard for fulfilling the duty to pursue social justice.

Office of Disability Services

Colleen Lewis
Director

Update on Higher Education Opportunity Act

Stephen A. Rittenberg
Senior Vice Provost of Columbia University

Universal Dimensions of Social Cognition: Why Warmth and Competence matter to Social Work

Susan T. Fiske, PhD
Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology, Princeton University

Dr. Fiske discusses how social cognition reflects social evolutionary pressures. In encountering others, social beings need to know, immediately, whether the “other” is friend or foe (that is, intends good or ill) and, next, whether the “other” can enact those intentions (that is, capability). New data from various labs confirm these two universal dimensions of social cognition: warmth and competence.

Wellness Self Management: Developing and Implementing Curriculum Based Group Approaches to Manage Mental, Physical and Life Challenges

Anthony Salerno, PhD
Co-Director, Evidence Based Practices Initiative NYS Office of Mental Health

Dr. Salerno discusses the core competencies needed by social workers to effectively implement curriculum based approaches that assist individuals to effectively manage mental, physical, and life situation challenges. These core competencies include motivational enhancing strategies, education/teaching approaches and basic cognitive behavioral techniques.

Ego Psychology and Social Work Practice

Eda Goldstein
Professor Emeritus of Social Work, DSW

Ben Whitfield ’04, Policy, CSI 

Mr. Whitfield talks about his impressive career working as a Disaster Recovery Specialist for New York City’s Office of Emergency Management and now for Doctors Without Borders.

Clinical and Criminal Justice Perspectives on Disabiltiy and Abuse

Barrier Free Living

Molly Burke Freyer
Assistant Director, Barrier Free Living, Non-Residential Domestic Program for People with Disabilities

Catherine Jones
Brooklyn's District Attorney Office, Barrier Free Justice Partnership, Barrier Free Living

Barrier Free Living (BFL) opened its Non-Residential Domestic Violence Program in 1986, becoming one of the first programs in the country to specialize in working with disabled survivors of domestic violence. Ms. Freyer and Ms. Jones will discuss their criminal justice work in addressing issues of disability and domestic abuse.

Community Collaborative Research: Interdisciplinanry Conceptual and Methodological Approaches

Mapping the Ecology of Community-Researcher Collaboration
Rogério M. Pinto, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work. He is an expert in community-focused collaborative health and mental health research, and has been awarded an NIMH Mentored Research Development Award to examine factors that facilitate community-researcher collaborations. His research in both Brazil and New York aims to examine service providers’ role in prevention research.

Biostatistics in the Emerging Brave New World
Naihua Duan, Ph.D. is Professor of Biostatistics, Departments of Psychiatry and Biostatistics at Columbia University and the Director of Biostatistics and Data Coordination at NYS Psychiatric Institute. His research interests include health services, HIV prevention, sample and experimental design, model robustness, transformation and multilevel modeling, regression methods, and environmental exposure assessment.

The Risk-Based Allocation Design in Evaluation Research
Bruce Levin, Ph.D. is Professor and Chair of the Department of Biostatistics at the Columbia University School of Public Health. His interests include innovative clinical trial designs using selection procedures.  He is co-author of two well-known textbooks, Statistics for Lawyers, 2nd Edition (with Michael O. Finkelstein) and Statistical Methods for Rates and Proportions, 3rd Edition (with Myunghee Cho Paik and the late Joseph L. Fleiss).

Qualitative Methods in Collaborative Research and Empowerment
Deborah Padgett, Ph.D. is Professor at NYU’s School of Social Work. She is anthropologist and mental health services researcher, editor of The Qualitative Research Experience (2004), Qualitative Methods in Social Work Research (2nd ed., 2008), and co-author of Program Evaluation (5th ed., 2009). She has been awarded a 4-year NIMH R01, “Qualitative Study of Dual Diagnosed Homeless” ('04-'08).

Comprehensive Dynamic Intervention Trials
Bruce Rapkin, Ph.D. is Professor in the Division of Community Collaboration and Implementation Science at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. A community psychologist, his interests include developing and the studying community-academic partnerships for cancer and HIV/AIDS research, and new designs and assessment methods supporting participatory evidenced-based interventions in public health.

Mary McKay, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychiatry and Preventive and Community Medicine Head, Division of Mental Health Services Research. As a social worker, she has employed community collaborative approaches to examine innovative service-delivery strategies to meet mental health and HIV prevention needs of poverty-impacted and traditionally under-served communities.

Collaboration between communities and researchers will be critical to 21st Century research. The last presidential election opened possibilities for a bottom-up approach to governance, further empowering communities and researchers to pursue collaborative agendas.

NIH Peer Review Changes: Preparing Responsive Research Grant Applications

Steven Schinke, PhD
CU SSW Professor and the Chair of the Risk, Prevention & Intervention for the Addictions Study Section within the Risk, Prevention & Health Behavior Integrated Review Group, Center for Scientific Review, NIH.

In his presentation, Steven describes current and forthcoming changes to NIH peer review criteria and processes, giving particular attention to the implications of these changes for the preparation of competitive research grant applications.

Housing First: Consumer Choice, Recovery, and Community Integration

Sam Tsemberis, PhD
Founder and Executive Director, Pathways to Housing

The Pathways' Housing First program is an effective consumer-driven program for providing housing and treatment to people who are homeless and dually diagnosed. This presentation will focus on the program values and components contributed by consumers who were invited to participate as program planners. The discussion will examine issues of program fidelity and dissemination.

Pushing the Limits of the Impact Factor

Rebecca Kennison
Columbia University?s Center for Digital Research and Scholarship (CDRS)

The Impact Factor is an influential yet controversial metric of citations to science and social science journals. It is widely used as a short hand indicating the relative importance of a scholarly publication. This talk describes how the Impact Factor is calculated and why this metric is problematic. An alternative model will be presented for your consideration.

The Secrets of Grant-Getting: A Master Class
A Workshop for Students and their Field Instructors

Jane Geever
Author, The Foundation Center's Guide To Proposal Writing

Dr. Eri Noguchi
Chief Program Officer of the Association to Benefit Children

Ms. Geever and Dr. Noguchi deliver a special workshop specifically for AGPP and SEA students and their field instructors. This workshop will go beyond the basics focusing on the importance of due diligence within the grantmaker's process, building relationships with grantmakers, and the tricks of the trade that will improve your grant getting.

Clinical Issues in Working with Veterans

Jeffrey Fine, MD
Director, PTSD Clinical Program at the New York Veterans Medical Center

Michael Kramer, PhD
Clinical Psychologist, New York Veterans Medical Center

Dr. Fine and Dr. Kramer discusses evidenced-based treatments for PTSD, including the use of Cognitive Behavioral therapies, Prolonged Exposure treatments, Virtual Reality, Imaginal therapies, and Group therapy.

Processes and Complexities of Searching for Mechanisms of Change in Behavioral Treatments for Alcohol Use Disorders

Dr. Richard Longabaugh
Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Warren Alpert School of Medicine, Brown University

Dr. Longabaugh focuses on the conceptual, analytic and empirical complexities of identifying mechanisms of change in behavioral treatments for alcohol use disorders. Illustrative materials will be drawn primarily from Motivational Interviewing. How the approach can be applied to studying mechanisms of change with other disorders is explored.

Grass-Roots Advocacy - CIAD's Resident Leaders Talk About What Works in Adult Homes

Michael Friedman
Chair, Geriatric Mental Health Alliance of New York
Geoff Lieberman
Director, CIAD
Woody Wilson
President of the Board, CIAD
Norman Bloomfield
President of the Surf Manor Resident Council
Jennifer Stearns
Director, CIAD Media Team Project

The presentation provides a background and overview of the adult home system in New York State, which houses thousands of people with mental illness. Resident leaders Woody Wilson and Norman Bloomfield describe how life in adult homes infantilizes residents, and how?in contrast?CIAD works to empower residents by informing them about their rights, supporting their efforts to run strong resident councils, and helping them lobby for reforms at the state level. CIAD shows five videos reported by residents on adult home issues.

Psychology Without Borders

April Naturale, PhD
Chief Executive Officer, Psychology Without Borders

April discusses community and clinical practice in various cultures with providers and survivors following community trauma.

Making the Connection: Applying a Motivational Interviewing Peer-Driven Intervention at a Community Based Organization

Temi Aregbesola, MPH
Street Smart Plus Coordinator, Bronx Community Pride Center

Marion Riedel, PhD, LSCW
Associate Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia University School of Social Work

The presenters discuss Street Smart Plus, an evidence-based HIV prevention strategy that combines motivational interviewing, social learning theory, and peer-driven intervention. Originally developed for and implemented with heterosexual adolescents, Street Smart Plus has been adapted for use with gay and transgender youth of color living in the South Bronx. The presenters discuss the key change elements, the adaptation process used to best meet the needs of this population, and the challenges of implementing the project in a community based organization.

The Evolution of Motivational Interviewing

Dr. William R. Miller
Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico

Dr. Miller, who introduced motivational interviewing (MI) in a 1983 article, will trace the development of MI from its birth in a barbershop in Norway to a now widely-practiced evidence-based treatment method. Along the way he will also address the lingering question, "Why does MI work?"

Understanding Mediators, Moderators and Confounders

Dr. Gina Lovasi
Research Scholar at Columbia University's Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy and the Mailman School of Public Health.

Dr. Lovasi discusses the theoretically and practically distinguishing variables in the causal pathway from those that distort or modify the association of interest. Examples of each will be given, along with consideration for why such distinctions matter for advancing theory or developing practical strategies to change the outcome of interest.

Microfinance

Nicola Armacost
Managing Director & Co-founder, Arc Finance

Arc Finance was formed in the spring of 2008 to link the fields of microfinance and energy. Nicola Armacost discusses Arc Finance's mission to promote and expand access to financing for clean energy, water and other basic needs to build the income and assets of poor people around the world.

Evidence-based HIV Prevention with Spanish Speaking Clients: Implications for Practice

Rosa Bramble Weed, LCSW
Director, Positive Life Program

Rogério Pinto, PhD
Assistant Professor, Columbia University School of Social Work

Ms. Bramble Weed and Dr. Pinto discuss the advantages and disadvantages of CDC-funded HIV prevention interventions. What is the role of community in designing these interventions? Are available interventions applicable to all racial/ethnic groups? How can these interventions be adapted to Spanish speaking populations? These questions are discussed with examples.

Advocacy for the Human Rights of Children Around the World

Lois Whitman
Founder and Director, Human Rights Watch, Children's Rights Division

The Human Rights Watch's Children's Rights Division, is an expert in children's rights issues. Lois Whitman has conducted human rights investigations and led missions to countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean and has written reports on abuses of children in Liberia, Northern Ireland, and Turkey. She will discuss the research of human rights abuses and discrimination against children around the world and the work that Human Rights Watch is doing to end or decrease them.

Policy Research

Lori L. McNeil, Ph.D.
Director of Research and Policy, Homelessness Outreach and Prevention Project at the Urban Justice Center.

Ms. McNeil discusses her experiences in doing policy research and using that research to influence policy.

Effective Communication of Statistical Findings

Dr. Jane Miller, Ph.D
Professor, Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research and the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University

Dr. Miller is an authority on quantitative communication having published two books and numerous articles on the topic. The workshop is designed for investigators interested in improving writing skills in developing research grant proposals and academic articles. 

Preparing the 44th President

Dean Jeanette Takamura
Columbia University School of Social Work

Dean Jeanette Takamura recently served on the Obama transition team that reviewed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She shares her perspectives of the road that lies ahead and its implications for CUSSW, its students, and its alumni. The Dean also shares some highlights from the inaugural activities.

Correcting Government's Mistakes: Administrative Justice in Public Welfare Bureaucracies

Vicki Lens, MSW, JD, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Columbia University School of Social Work

The presentation examines a significant but understudied forum for civil justice and social justice. Professor Vicki Lens reports on a series of studies conducted on the fair hearing system, including an analysis of appeal rates and outcomes, qualitative interviews with administrative law judges and recipients, and ethnographic observations of a fair hearing unit.

Writing and Doing an All-Qualitative R01: The New York Services Study of Homeless Persons with Co-Occurring Mental and Substance Use Disorders

Deborah K. Padgett, MA, Ph.D., MPH
Professor, NYU Silver, Silver School of Social Work

This NIH-funded study centered on comparing ’housing first’ and ’treatment first’ approaches to services for this population from the service users’ perspectives. The focus of this seminar is on the ’process’ of writing and doing large-scale qualitative research.

Implementation Strategies for Improving Uptake of EBPs for Children and Families in a State Mental Health System

Dr. Kimberly Hoagwood
Professor, Columbia University
Director, Youth Services Evaluation Research in the Office of Evaluation Research (OER) at the New York State Office of Mental Health (NYSOMH)

Dr. Hoagwood presents a statewide initiative that she conducted under the auspices of the New York State Office of Mental Health over the last several years to train mental health providers in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy TF-CBT, an evidence-based practice for children. The discussion focuses on the challenges and rewards for clinicians and administrators, as well as for the policy makers.

Challenges of Implementing CBT in Community Based Settings

Annette Hernandez, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Supervising Psychologist, Child, Adolescent and Family Services

Dr. Hernandez outlines the pervasiveness of childhood mental health disorders, and the costs and the need for treatment. Evidence-based treatments (EBTs) focus on specific conditions, are highly structured and designed for short-term treatment. Using practice examples, Dr. Hernandez details some of the issues faced by clinicians attempting to use the many EBTs that are available and how to deal with those issues. The reality is that the target 16-20 week treatment time frame always stretches into six months or more.

Trauma-Focused CBT for Children After Community Disasters

Dr. Judith A. Cohen
Medical Director, Center for Traumatic Stress in Children & Adolescents, Allegheny General Hospital

Using recent examples including the 1994 crash of Flight 427 near Pittsburgh, 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Cohen describes what has learned by researchers about effective treatments for children exposed to disasters.  She also discusses CBITS (Cognitive Behavioral Interventions for Trauma in Schools) and some recent projects that conducted studies comparing various treatment methods.  Resources are provided and the need for disaster preparedness training is stressed.  Q&A follows the presentation.

Treating Traumatized Children:
Where We Are, Where We Need to Go

Dr. Judith A. Cohen
Medical Director, Center for Traumatic Stress in Children & Adolescents, Allegheny General Hospital

Dr. Cohen presents an overview of evidence-based practice studies that have been conducted during the years since the first randomized trial for child trauma in 1996.  The development and components of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) are discussed along with its various overlapping evidence-based treatment strategies.  Future research may take many forms, but the priority for practice should be on training to use the most effective available treatments for individual clients, while dealing with daily crises.  Q&A session follows.

Applying Social Work Skills in the Context of International Health Programs: Examples from the Field

Amie Bishop
Senior Program Advisor, Eastern Europe PATH

Amie Bishop, MSSW, MPH, ’89, presents her work with The Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) in her first return visit to Columbia.  She describes her experiences working in the health field in Tanzania and Ukraine, countries where social work does not exist as a profession.  PATH, along with other organizations supported by the Gates Foundation, has made Seattle a center for international work in health.  Its goals are to advance health technology, strengthen systems and encourage healthy behaviours.   A question and answer session addresses the challenges of finding employment in the field of International Social Work.

How Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) Works in an Adolescent Partial Hospitalization Program

Clare Dacey, LCSW
Therapist, CARES

Ilse M Gómez, LCSW
Social Worker, CARES

The principles of dialectics, acceptance and CBT form the cornerstones of the DBT approach to treatment of adolescents showing signs of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).  When an Alternative Day Program was merged with a Comprehensive Addiction Program in 2002 to form the 65-patient CARES (Comprehensive Adolescent Rehabilitation and Education Service) Program at St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospital Center, DBT became the organizing treatment modality.  Five modes of treatment are employed by the program and their respective techniques and skills are introduced.  Various challenges that occur to patients and clinicians during the implementation of DBT are overcome.

Evidence-based Pratice: Evolution and Current Status

Edward J. Mullen
Willma & Albert Musher Chair Professor at Columbia University

In this lecture Professor Mullen describes the key concepts defining evidence-based social work practice. He traces the development of evidence based social work practice beginning with its origins in evidence-based medicine up to the present. Important additions are highlighted as this practice model has evolved over the last 20 years.

Central City Concern

Richard Harris
Executive Director of Central City Concern (CCC)

Richard Harris (MSW), the long-time Executive Director of Central City Concern (CCC) in Portland, OR, discusses the strategic development of CCC's various social enterprises. Central City Concern is one of the most successful U.S. nonprofit organizations to operate multiple surplus generating social enterprise businesses. He focuses on CCC's approach to management and business development, versus a detailed description of the operation of each social enterprise.

Hope 2008 The NYC Street Survey

Jay Bainbridge

Jay Bainbridge '02 Ph.D. is currently working at the New York City Department of Homeless Services. He also holds an MPA from Columbia Univeristy's School of International and Public Affairs. His presentation, delivered to a class session of T7144, focused on methods used to count the homeless population. New York City has been in the vanguard of developing these methods and has a model system in place for counting the homeless. Jay talks about how these methods were developed and what they reveal about the current homeless population in New York City. He also discusses the 3 separate populations that comprise the homeless: homeless single adults, homeless families with children, and homeless adult families (without children).

Quick Guide to Legal Issues in Setting Up a Social Enterprise

Barbara Schatz
Clinical Professor of Law & Director of Nonprofit and Small Business Clinic
Columbia Law School

Professor Schatz's lecture addresses the legal issues surrounding social services organizations that engage in income generating activities, e.g., operating a social enterprise business.Starting with a case example of a nonprofit program serving people who are homeless that starts a simple burrito stand, Professor Schatz explores the various incorporation, tax and liability choices that those operating social enterprise businesses have. She also discusses some issues of potential organizational conflict when starting a social enterprise business, operating a social enterprise outside of the U.S. by a U.S.-based NGO, and answers some specific questions from the audience.

PTSD and Group Work with Veterans

Dr. Jeffery Fine and Steven Grossman

In this seminar, psychiatrist and director of the VA hospital PTSD clinic Dr. Jeffery Fine and Steven Grossman, group leader, discuss PTSD and interdisciplinary group work with veterans of World War II through Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dr. Fine gives an overview of the complex symptoms of PTSD.  Mr. Steven Grossman describes his work as a group leader of in support groups for veterans of the Vietnam and Korean wars and the trauma focused groups being conducted at the VA hospital for veterans from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Metastatic Cancer: Issues and Challenges for Patients, Families and Health Care Professionals

Richard Glassman, LCSW
Clinical Social Worker
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Richard Glassman, clinical social worker at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in urology and Genito-Urinary medical oncology, provided an overview of some of the fundamental psychosocial issues faced by individuals coping with metastatic cancer and the related social work skills required to provide clinical services with this unique population. The program included a 25 minute presentation that drew from Mr. Glassman's clinical expertise with individuals and families affected by cancer, video segments from a social worker-facilitated support group for women living with metastatic cancer, which was held at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and a follow-up discussion period after the video, which provided actual clinical material and further stimulated thoughts and feelings in the participants.

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Journey Out of Mental Illness

Gerry Radano
Author, Contaminated: My Journey Out of Obessive Compulsive Disorder

Sandra Bernabei, LCSW, CASACr
Psychotherapist, private practive
Adjunct Professor, Fordham University

Incurable! This was the knockout punch Gerry Radano had dreaded hearing, yet knew in her heart was inevitable. Her psychiatrist had apathetically put a label on her that was tantamount to a life sentence without parole.  Equally devastated by her doctor’s declaration and furious by his cavalier attitude, she vowed on the spot that she would prove him wrong.  Her diagnosis -- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Disproportionality in Child Welfare: Challenges and Solutions

Keynote: Disproportionality in Child Welfare

Dr. Robert Hill

This speech by Robert B Hill, PhD on November16th, 2007 was sponsored by the Field Education Department Advisory Committee for Family and Children’s Services. In presenting this seminal work by Dr. Hill, the Field Education Department was supporting the goals and objectives delineated in the T6920 course, Family and Children Services curriculum. Dr. Hill examines in detail the causes, impact and effects of racial disproportionality in the foster care system nationally. Even factoring in issues of social class, race remains the single factor that will predict if a child is deemed to be in need of protection, if a child is removed from the family and the length of stay in foster care. The goals of T6920 include a close examination of the child welfare system, nationally and locally, a commitment to social justice issues as they impact on children and families, and an emphasis on the impact of various policies on the child welfare system.