Research News

Our faculty and students are engaged in important research seeking to solve the world’s most pressing problems. Each year, faculty and students make important contributions to the field which result in them participating in a wide-range of research projects, publishing peer-reviewed articles, and presenting important findings at conferences.

Research Brief: Evaluating Stop to Live

The Ohio State University College of Social Work is evaluating Stop to Live, a developmentally appropriate prescription drug use and misuse curriculum designed specifically for students with special needs to learn not to share their prescription medications or use medications prescribed to someone else.

Click here to view a PDF with full details.

Research Brief: Empowering Communities to Reduce Fatal Opioid Overdoses in Rural Ohio

The goal of this intervention is to reduce the number of fatal opioid overdoses within six rural Appalachian counties in southern Ohio: Athens, Gallia, Highland, Jackson, Meigs, and Vinton counties. These counties have been disproportionately affected by the opioid crisis and have more than 19.9% of persons living in poverty. This intervention is designed to further develop an evidence-base of strategies that will reduce and prevent opioid overdose deaths. The goal is that this work can be replicated in additional counties with the same benefit.

Click here to view a PDF with full details.

College of Social Work Well Represented at 2019 SSWR Conference

Congratulations to College of Social Work faculty, staff and students who will be presenting at this year’s SSWR conference. Check out who’s presenting and what topics will be covered here.

Research Brief: Career Implications of Doctoral Social Work Student Debt Load

Although research has been conducted in other professional disciplines, social work has yet to explore how doctoral student debt load influences career development. This exploratory mixed methods study surveyed 281 social work doctoral students and recent graduates, 75 BSW and MSW program leaders, and 24 doctoral program leaders about student debt load, career choices, financial anxiety, and programmatic responses. The companion paper—“Career Implications of Doctoral Social Work Student Debt Load”— was chosen as the JSWE Best Empirical Article of Volume 53, highlighting the importance of this research for the social work profession.

Click here to view a PDF with full details.

Research Brief: Mapping Nepali Diaspora Engagement in the Post-Earthquake Era

There is a limited understanding of how diaspora—the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland—leads to change in home and host societies. The purpose of this study is to explore the lived experiences of the Nepali diaspora at the intersection of migration, immigration policy, and disaster response engagement in the post-earthquake (2015) and the US post-election (2016) context.

Click here to view a PDF with full details.

Take the survey at: Nepali Diaspora Engagement Survey

Intergenerational Center Highlighted Throughout National Report

A report recently released in Washington, D.C., by Generations United and The Eisner Foundation recognized the significant and impressive work of the Champion Intergenerational Enrichment and Education Center (IGC). IGC students, staff and participants are represented in the report, All in Together: Creating Places Where Young and Old Thrive, as well as those from Ohio State, Columbus Early Learning Center, National Church Residences and other intergenerational programs across the nation.
The IGC, established in 2015, is a project supported in part by the College of Social Work. It provides a safe place for older adults to socialize and get medical care and a developmentally rich environment for young children to prepare for school.

The report also highlights findings from a national survey conducted by the College of Social Work’s Dr. Shannon Jarrott and Dr. Holly Dabelko-Schoeny to identify those, like Champion, that operate as intergenerational shared sites where youth and elders receive services and share programming at one location. Across the United States, 105 programs responded, indicating goals of improving attitudes towards youth, elders and other groups, such as disabled persons and immigrants. Programs are challenged to document and communicate their impact, but they pursue intergenerational shared site services to support participants’ development, utilization of local talent, money savings, improvement in workplace climate, and easing of caregiver stress.

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How do children react when they see a loved one overdose? New Toolkit Offers Answers

Congratulations to Ashley Bennett (MSW 18) and PhD student Karla Shockley McCarthy (MSW 18) who have developed an Opioid Overdose Family Support Toolkit to help families recognize the signs of trauma in children and how to help them.

This toolkit was developed to address a gap from many practitioners about the lack of resources for families, especially children, who have witnessed or were aware of an overdose by a family member. In support of the toolkit, the students conducted a needs assessment, analyzed the results, and used that information to provide tools to help families who have experienced an opioid overdose.

Two brochures mark the end of this project: The Trauma of Witnessing an Opioid Overdose: How to Help Children, developed by Bennett and Shockley McCarthy, a Narcan Q & A, developed in conjunction with colleagues from the College of Pharmacy, as well as a website with helpful information and resources.

The College of Social Work’s Dr. Bridget Freisthler, professor and associate dean of research, supervised the project.

For more information, contact Frankie Jones-Harris at jones-harris.1@osu.edu or 614-330-2206.

Findings from the New Americans Project: Assessing the Human Service Landscape in Central Ohio

The City of Columbus has always strived to be an open, inclusive, and welcoming city to many New American populations from all over the globe. The New Americans Project was commissioned by the Columbus City Council. The Ohio State University College of Social Work was tasked to conduct an in-depth assessment of needs and capacity of the human service landscape—formal, informal, and volunteer services—available in central Ohio for New Americans to bolster the New Americans Initiative led by the City of Columbus.

In January 2018, the research team released their findings from their assessment and are pleased to share these resources:

Addressing Infant Mortality through Positive Youth Development Opportunities for Adolescent Girls

Preventing infant mortality is a priority in Ohio. Comprehensive positive youth development strategies that address maternal risk factors are needed, not only to promote better outcomes for adolescent girls but also to impact infant mortality. To continue reading, please click on the image or contact Dawn Anderson-Butcher (anderson-butcher.1@osu.edu).

Research Brief: Food for a Long Life, Year 1 Achievements

Food for a Long Life promotes healthy food knowledge, access, and consumption among preschoolers and their families in food deserts in Columbus, OH and Lynchburg, VA. More information can be found on their website at u.osu.edu/foodforlife/home and a PDF outlining Year 1 achievements can be found by clicking here.