Approximately 2.3% of parents in the United States have an intellectual disability (ID). The children of these parents disproportionately enter foster care – which is, in turn, associated with long-term negative outcomes for mental health, substance use, education, and employment. Though parents with an ID may have challenges with housing, finances, and parenting skills, new research led by Astraea Augsberger, assistant professor at Boston University School of Social Work (BUSSW), shows that a social work intervention was able to improve parenting skills for individuals with an ID, and greatly reduce the likelihood of their children entering the foster care system.

Augsberger, along with Wendy Zeitlin of Montclair State University, Trupti Rao and Danielle Weisberg of the Westchester Institute for Human Development (WIHD), and BUSSW doctoral student Noor Toraif, evaluated the efficacy of Project IMPACT (Improving Parenting Achievements Together), which is based in Valhalla, NY. The program was created by WIHD’s Child Welfare Program in 2006 to educate and provide support to parents in Westchester County with cognitive disabilities and prior reports of child maltreatment.

A mixed-methods study of 133 families enrolled in the program from 2018-2019 found statistically significant improvements in parenting skills, with 97% of families remaining together one year after the intervention concluded. The program consisted of social workers visiting clients’ homes three times a week for four to six months to provide parenting skills training through verbal instruction, visual aids, and hands-on practice. Topics included parent/child interaction skills, basic child care, child development, safety, home management, and problem solving/planning skills. The curriculum was tailored to fit individual family needs and children’s ages.

“Keeping children in their home with their parents is the ideal choice when it is safe to do so,” says Augsberger. “We hope that this data will encourage other child welfare programs to invest in the services needed to help parents with intellectual disabilities and their children thrive.”

This research was funded by the Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health.

Read more:

• Examining a Child Welfare Parenting Intervention for Parents with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, in Research on Social Work Practice. 
• Measuring Parenting Skills: Validating the Skills Assessment for Parents with Intellectual Disability, in Journal of Evidence Based Social Work.
• Supporting Parents with Intellectual Disabilities through Community & University Collaboration, in Children’s Voice.

Photo credit: Pexels. 

School nurses provide critical care to thousands of immigrant and refugee children, and a new report outlines their experiences as they face challenges such as language barriers, incomplete medical records, and supporting children who are stressed and traumatized by their move to a new country. 

Report co-author Christina Lee, associate professor at Boston University School of Social Work and research core director at the Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health, is a co-author of the report, “Experiences of School Nurses Caring for Newly Arrived Immigrant and Refugee Children,” which was published in the International Journal of Educational Reform.

“School nurses…play a pivotal role in engaging families and helping to manage the children’s healthcare needs and are uniquely positioned to provide needed care,” the report reads. “Many of these families are living in abject poverty, with the credible fear of deportation. Laws and policies related to immigration affect newly arrived children’s physical health, mental health, and psychosocial well-being. Therefore, it is incumbent on all school personnel to consider what may be at stake if newly arrived children do not receive effective health services and interventions to promote well-being and academic achievement.”

Researchers surveyed 20 nurses who work in urban public schools in Massachusetts between February and June 2019. The nurses relayed their experiences working with children whose families face housing instability, fear of deportation, trauma and emotional stress, and, in some cases, unique physical and behavioral health needs. Researchers found that the nurses serve as a vital link between children newly-arrived in the U.S, their families, the school and necessary medical care.

Read more:

Experiences of School Nurses Caring for Newly Arrived Immigrant and Refugee Children, in the International Journal of Educational Reform.

Photo credit: RODNAE Productions, Pexels.

Jorge Delva, BU School of Social Work dean and CISWH director, and Tamara Cadet, associate professor at Simmons University School of Social Work, led a symposium entitled “Building the evidence to demonstrate social work’s role in the integration of social and health care: Using recommendations from the 2019 NASEM Report and the 2020 Health Affairs Special Issue” at the annual meeting of the Society for Social Work and Research on January 19, 2021.

The purpose of the symposium was to describe the findings of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report and Health Affairs special issue with a focus on highlighting the existing knowledge base on successes and challenges to the integration of the social care/human services and health sectors. Delva and Cadet described national efforts by social work groups to influence policy at the local, state, and federal levels including through congressional briefings and engaged in discussions on how social work researchers can contribute to building the evidence to support the integration of these sectors.

Read the reports:

• Integrating Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care: Moving Upstream to Improve the Nation’s Health
• Health Affairs: Integrating Social Services and Health Special Issue

Giving Tuesday is December 1st! Please consider making a donation to the Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health to help us expand the impact of social work in health care and public health, in order to improve health equity and the health and well-being of vulnerable populations nationally and globally.

Just a few of our current efforts and research projects include: 

• A Health Equity Speaker Series, which provides free continuing education credits to social workers
• Analyzing and fostering leadership opportunities for social workers in health care and public health
• Integrating social work into medical care in Nicaragua 
• Understanding suicide and opioid use
• Improving care for children and youth with special health care needs
• Providing technical assistance to health centers that serve people with HIV, to understand how to integrate health, housing, and employment services to improve health outcomes.

Learn more about our current projects and mission. 

When making a donation, please choose the Garriott Fund for Innovation (CISWH).