News Archive
Research
-
Set against the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean, Clinical Professor of Field Education Steve Hydon presented “Secondary Traumatic Stress: Causality and Impact” at the California Public Defenders Association’s annual retreat in Monterey, Calif. About 200 public defenders from across the state were in attendance.
-
Depression affects more than half of all mothers in Early Head Start programs, damaging their parenting abilities and increasing the vulnerability of their children to poor school and life outcomes.
Ferol Mennen, an associate professor with the USC School of Social Work, will use a new $2.5 million grant from the Administration for Children and Families to test a promising approach to alleviate that depression as a strategy to improve the lives of both mother and child.
-
When Romeo Dallaire was young, his family lived in hell.
Back then, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was not common knowledge. What Dallaire’s family did know, however, was that his father—an officer with the Canadian Army—had become an alcoholic, and “it was never predictable what we would find when we got home.”
Peace would only come on the nights his father could chat with his Army buddies.
“That night he would be serene—because he had had his therapy,” said Dallaire, a Canadian senator and retired Lieutenant-General with the Canadian Army.
-
Assistant Professor Jeremy Goldbach has been elected a member-at-large to the Board of Directors of the Society for Social Work and Research, a professional society devoted to the involvement of social workers, social work faculty and social work students in research, and to the promotion of human welfare through research and research applications.
-
With their first semester under their belts, the eight new USC School of Social Work doctoral students are surely feeling a tremendous feeling of pride … and relief.
For some of these students, entering the doctoral program was a successive continuation of their educational careers. However, for most, the decision to enter a classroom after a long respite was based on years of professional experience.
-
Since 1972, the American Public Health Association (APHA) has honored many eminent scientists who have made significant contributions to the understanding of the epidemiology and control of mental disorders with its Rema Lapouse Award. This year’s recipient is William Vega, provost professor and executive director of the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging at the USC School of Social Work.
-
As the profession of social work becomes increasingly specialized and focused on clinical practices that help individuals and groups, two faculty members at the USC School of Social Work are hoping to bring renewed attention and energy to a wider perspective of the field.
A new book authored by Clinical Professor Murali Nair and Assistant Professor Erick Guerrero seeks to increase understanding of the higher-level forces that affect social work practice and impart proven strategies that help professionals work closely with communities, agencies and other complex entities.
-
By age 12, Maurissa Sorensen had experienced abuse, depression and much uncertainty. She knew something needed to change. So Sorensen made an adult decision: she advocated to enter herself into the foster care system to seek a better life, one that didn’t include mental hospital visits and an abusive home.
“I figured out early on in life that I needed the support of people, and I knew if I stayed with my mom that I would have never gotten better,” Sorensen said.
-
Iris Chi, the Chinese-American Golden Age Association/Frances Wu Chair for the Chinese Elderly at the USC School of Social Work and a senior scientist at the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging, has been named a fellow to the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, the first national society honoring excellence in the research and practice of social work.
“It’s a great honor to be elected to the academy,” said Chi, who also holds a joint appointment in the USC Davis School of Gerontology. “It is one of the highest honors in the social work profession.”
-
Transitioning into new schools and coping through a parent’s wartime deployment can increase the risks that military children are victimized by other students and are carrying weapons to school, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Southern California.