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Ecology of Suicide: Envisioning a Social Work Approach in Suicidology
No full textSuicide is a prevalent problem in the United States and throughout the world. Although many professions attempt to understand and intervene on this issue, there has arguably been limited success in decreasing the overall rate of suicide, especially among marginalized and vulnerable populations. Social work is uniquely poised to address this issue due to the broad scope of practice approaches and settings within which social workers are employed. This Banded Dissertation highlights social work’s potential to proffer new insights, understanding, and practice recommendations regarding working with suicidality. This dissertation includes three products: (1) a research paper primarily exploring the ways in which behavioral health professionals understand suicide, with a secondary aim focusing on how social work differs from other professions with regards to conceptualizing and treating suicide; (2) a conceptual paper that demonstrates the applicability of a central social work theory—ecological systems theory—to understand how social workers can intervene with suicide through use of multiple social work roles; and (3) a continuing education curriculum developed to enhance practitioner training in suicide assessment, management, and treatment that utilizes an ecological systems framework to demonstrate how providers can conceptualize and intervene with suicide through various systems
Factors Influencing Implementation of Enterprise-level Technical Transformation in a Healthcare Organization: An Action Research Collaborative Inquiry Study
Full text linkSuccessfully implementing enterprise-level technical transformational programs is a primary goal for large-scale healthcare organizations. As an open system, healthcare organizations must constantly adapt to a highly volatile marketplace where technology underpins services\u27 supply and demand. External drivers include adapting to changing customer demographics, healthcare market standards, and federal regulations; a prime example is a recent response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These external factors drive internal transformation that translates into developing new product lines, business processes, and technology, requiring strategic orchestration to survive and thrive in the marketplace. This study found that employing a transformational change approach can help healthcare organizations respond to the demands of the dynamic healthcare industry, proactively reshape their business strategy and process, and improve work culture while meeting market demands. The purpose of the action research study was to qualitatively investigate and explore the experience of a healthcare organization’s participants engaged in a multi-year, enterprise-level technical transformation program to identify the factors for successful implementation utilizing an action research collaborative inquiry approach. The results of Lessons Learned and Stakeholder Satisfaction surveys document the transformation program\u27s performance and satisfaction throughout the program\u27s multiple phases. The researcher collected data, coded it, and identified common themes analyzed by the research group, which consisted of the researcher and six Transformation Program team members who volunteered to participate in the research group based on their lived experience of the Transformation Program. The research findings identified organizationally strategic, structural alignments, and leadership accountability emerging themes which are delivered utilizing Kate and Galbraith’s (2007) Star Model for Innovation
Growing Through Connection: A Phenomenological Study of High School Cultural Immersion Programs
Full text linkThis phenomenological study examined how alums made meaning of their cultural immersion programs during high school. I selected 10 participants (five men and five women) who graduated from a Midwest private high school between 2012 and 2021 and attended at least one of the Guatemala or Ethiopia immersion programs between 2012 and 2019. Data collection comprised surveys, semi-structured interviews, artifacts, and researcher’s notes. The first theme generated by data analysis revealed participants’ motivations to join the programs. The second theme indicated that while abroad, participants experienced discomfort before overcoming communication challenges and appreciating the host culture. The third theme showed the enduring effects of the programs. Contact theory (Allport, 1954) explained the role of personal interactions participants develop during their cultural immersion programs. Intercultural competency theory (Bennett, 1986, 2017) helped analyze participants’ intercultural competency development. The findings of this study indicate personal contact is an essential element. Also, study abroad programs increase participants’ intercultural competency skills. School leaders should encourage high school students to participate in at least one immersion experience. Future research should expand on this study to understand how differences in identity, such as race and gender, affect individuals’ cultural immersion experiences
Sleep Quality Mediates the Relationship between Traumatic Events, Psychological Distress, and Suicidality in College Undergraduates
No full textObjectives: To determine whether sleep quality mediates the relationship between traumatic life events and psychological wellbeing in college students. Methods: 40,646 undergraduate responses from the Spring 2017 National College Health Assessment II were evaluated for relationships between two predictor variables: satisfactory sleep and traumatic life events, and two outcome variables: psychological distress (a composite of anxiety, exhaustion, feeling overwhelmed, depression, sadness, loneliness, hopelessness, and anger) and suicidality (composite of self-harm behaviors, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts). Linear mediation regression analysis via structural equation modeling was used to test these relationships. Results: Each additional traumatic life event students reported experiencing was associated with a 27.6% − 58.9% increase in the odds of reporting indicators of psychological distress or suicidality. Satisfactory sleep significantly mediated this negative relationship (proportional effects between 10.6 and 12.5%). Conclusions: Healthy sleep mediates the impact of traumatic life events on psychological distress and suicidality