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News Archive

Research

  • Iris Chi, a professor at the USC School of Social Work, was named honorary associate director of the Sau Po Centre on Ageing at the University of Hong Kong in recognition of her career accomplishments and commitment to improving the quality of life and welfare of the elderly.

    Launched in 1999 while Chi was a professor at the University of Hong Kong, the centre focuses on bolstering the lives of older people through research, education and policy advocacy. Chi served as director for the centre from 1999 to 2004 and has been a senior advisor since 2009.

  • When a paperwork mix-up caused Kate Barlow to miss her chance to enroll in the social work master’s program at USC, she had two options. She could wait around for another year, or she could start taking classes through the Virtual Academic Center. She chose the VAC.

    The web-based master’s program launched in October 2010 by the USC School of Social Work has experienced success, expanding throughout much of the United States and enrolling nearly 1,000 students (compared to 1,200 on-campus students scattered across four Southern California locations).

  • Maryalice Jordan-Marsh, an associate professor at the USC School of Social Work, has received the American Journal of Nursing’s Book of the Year Award for Health Technology Literacy: A Transdisciplinary Framework for Consumer-Oriented Practice.

    The award honors excellence in book publishing in the nursing field. Jordan-Marsh received her award in the category of information technology, which recognizes a book that explores nursing’s role and the use of electronic media, computer systems, social media or online media.

  • Eugenia Weiss, clinical assistant professor at the USC School of Social Work, has received the International Award for Excellence in the area of health and wellness from the International Journal of Health, Wellness and Society for the paper “The Influence of Military Culture and Veteran Worldviews on Mental Health Treatment: Practice Implications for Combat Veteran Help-Seeking and Wellness.”

    Weiss’ article, which was co-authored by Jose Coll of Saint Leo University, was selected for the award from the 10 highest-ranked papers that emerged from the referee process.

  • Cramped in poor working conditions and dispirited by the austere approach of their employers, workers in a Mexican garment factory were struggling with high levels of work-related stress. Their Korean managers, concerned about the productivity of the factory, felt the workers socialized too much and, due to cultural misunderstanding, perceived them as having a lazy mentality.

  • USC School of Social Work Board of Councilor member Richard (Dick) Thor died on Dec. 18, 2011 at his home in Redondo Beach, Calif., after a battle with cancer. He was 80.

  • Min-Kyoung Rhee, a doctoral student at the USC School of Social Work, first became interested in the employment issues facing older adults when she was living in South Korea during the Asian financial crisis in 1997.

    “I observed massive unemployment and involuntary early retirement for people in their mid-40s and 50s,” she said.

  • For teens without a home, paying the monthly subscription to a data plan for their smart phone is just as important as eating or a drug habit, according to Eric Rice of the USC School of Social Work, whose study was published in the December issue of the Journal of Urban Health.

    Rice sees potential in using existing technology to extend the safety net for homeless youth. Social media and cell phones are tools rarely used today, in part because it was not known if, or how many, children without a home or a job could access the Internet.

  • A new book by Margaret Fetting, an adjunct professor with the USC School of Social Work, draws on her 30 years of clinical experience in chemical dependency treatment to offer a comprehensive and reflective overview of the field, as well as an imaginative treatment model.

    In Perspectives on Addiction: An Integrative Treatment Model with Clinical Case Studies, released this month by Sage Publications, Fetting outlines the underlying causes and consequences of substance use disorders and presents a reader-friendly guide to developing effective treatment skills.

  • Mexican-American neighborhoods are often characterized as areas with high poverty rates, poor access to health care, and low educational and socioeconomic attainment, but they also seem to offer protective health benefits for the older adults who live there, a new USC study finds.

    The study, published in the Journal of Aging and Health, suggests older Mexican-Americans who live in ethnically dense Mexican-American neighborhoods have a lower risk for increased frailty than those who live in more ethnically heterogeneous neighborhoods.