The Social Work Podcast

Episode 56: Today's podcast is on Suicide and Black American Males. Why suicide and Black Americans? Well, there is a belief among most Americans, and particularly among African American adults, that Black Americans do not kill themselves (Joe, 2006). When we think of violent death among Black Americans we think of homicide. Suicide is thought of as a “White” problem. While it is true that suicide...

Episode 55: Today's podcast is about social work with children who have cancer, also referred to as pediatric oncology social work. Although pediatric cancer is relatively rare event, making up less than 1% of the cases diagnosed annually, that single case affects the lives of countless others. From a treatment perspective, when a child is diagnosed with cancer, the whole family is diagnosed with...

Episode 54: Today's podcast, Psychoanalytic Treatment in Contemporary Social Work Practice: An Interview with Dr. Carol Tosone, addresses two questions: First, is psychodynamic treatment relevant in contemporary social work practice? In other words, does it meet the needs of the clients, the agencies, and the funding sources? Second, has clinical social work abandoned social work's historical comm...

Trailer: A few months ago I interviewed a mother and a step-mother, Jennifer Newcomb Marine and Carol Marine, two women whose book, "No One's The Bitch: A Ten-Step Plan for the Mother and Stepmother Relationship" had just been published by Globe Pequot Press. Their book quickly became a best-seller on Amazon.com, briefly reaching the #1 spot in the family category. I was really intrigued by what t...

Episode 53: This is a re-post of the Stages of Change podcast with a link to the correct MP3 file. Much thanks to Social Work Podcast subscriber and social work professor David Beimers of Minnesota State University for pointing out that the MP3 for Episode 52 (Social Work Theories) was loading instead of Episode 53. Today's podcast is on Prochaska and DiClemente's (1983) Stages of Change Model. Th...

Episode 52: Today's podcast looks at the relationship between theory and clinical social work practice. I spoke with Joe Walsh, professor of social work at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), and author of the Brooks/Cole text, Theories for Direct Social Work Practice, which came out in a second edition in 2009. We talked about why social workers should learn practice theories, the differences...

Episode 51: Hello, podcast listener. It is June 21, 2009, the first day of summer. By now all of the schools of social work in the United States have had their spring graduation and unleashed tens of thousands of newly minted social workers into the world. You might be one of these recent graduates. Like those who came before you and those who will come after, you've spent the last 2 - 5 years bec...

Episode 50: Today's podcast is on salary negotiation. In today's podcast I speak with Dr. Cynthia Conley,assistant professor of social work at the School of Social Administration at Temple University, about salary negotiation skills for social workers. Cynthia takes us through salary negotiation from the application to the job offer. Today's podcast is a follow-up to our December, 2008 interview i...

Episode 49: Today's podcast is on social workers and depression. I spoke with Mark Meier, a licensed independent clinical social worker from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mark and I started our conversation talking about how social workers are three times as likely to be depressed as people in the general population. We talked about the personal and professional responsibility social workers have in add...

Episode 48: Today's podcast is on social work with Immigrants and Refugees. I speak with Fernando Chang-Muy, JD, and Dr. Elaine Congress about their new book on the topic. We talk about why it is important to have both social work and legal perspectives, how social workers and lawyers can work together to improve the lives of immigrants and refugees, how social workers can advocate for their clien...

Episode 47: Today's podcast is on salary negotiation. Salary negotiation is a topic that is rarely discussed in schools of social work. Yet, for reasons identified in today's podcast, the social work profession as a whole would benefit if social workers negotiated salaries. In today's podcast, I speak with Dr. Cynthia Conley, assistant professor of social work at the School of Social Administratio...

Episode 46: In today's podcast I speak with Dr. Elaine Congress about her creation, the Culturagram. Elaine and I talk about how and why she developed the culturagram, the ten assessment areas of the culturagram, and how social workers can use the culturagram to improve their services. We end the podcast with a discussion about research and resources about the culturagram. Because Elaine is in New...

Episode 45: In today's podcast, I speak with Shaun Eack about schizophrenia and social work. We talk about some basic information that social workers need to know about the diagnosis of schizophrenia; Shaun identifies and describes the positive, negative and cognitive symptoms that are often present in people with schizophrenia. Around 13 minutes into the conversation we switch the focus from diag...

Episode 44: Today's podcast is the second in a two part series on measurement for clinical practice and research. In today's podcast I speak with Dr. Mary Rauktis about the difference between measurement in the field and measurement in research settings. We talk about some of the ways that social workers can think about measurement as a tool to improve clinical practice, and some ways that social...

Episode 43: Today's podcast is the first in a two part series on measurement for clinical practice and research. In today's podcast I speak with Dr. Mary Rauktis about how she became interested in measurement; some key concepts needed to understand measurement including reliability, validity and error; and how to understand measures used in research articles. In part two of the podcast we talk abo...

Update: On June 30th 2008, I posted the 42nd episode in 17 months and the Social Work Podcast was going strong. But, it has been three months since the last podcast. Today's episode is an update on what's been going on and what you can expect from the podcast over the next few months. To read the full transcript of today's podcast please visit The Social Work Podcast website at https://socialworkp...

Episode 42: Today's podcast is the third of three interviews with Kia J. Bentley on psychopharmacotherapy. Kia J. Bentley is Professor of social work at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond Virginia and has published extensively in the area of psychopharmacotherapy. Psychopharmacotherapy refers to the treatment of psychiatric disorders with the use of medication. But, as Kia pointed out in...

Episode 41: Today's podcast is the second of three interviews with Kia J. Bentley on psychopharmacotherapy. Kia J. Bentley is Professor of social work at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond Virginia and has published extensively in the area of psychopharmacotherapy. Psychopharmacotherapy refers to the treatment of psychiatric disorders with the use of medication. But, as Kia pointed out i...

Episode 40: Today's podcast is the first of three interviews with Kia J. Bentley on psychopharmacotherapy. Kia J. Bentley is Professor of social work at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond Virginia and has published extensively in the area of psychopharmacotherapy. Psychopharmacotherapy refers to the treatment of psychiatric disorders with the use of medication. But, as Kia pointed out in...

Episode 39: In this episode of the social work podcast, I continue my conversation with author Dr. Allen Rubin. We talked about how he came to co-author Research Methods for Social Work (the most widely used social work research text) and his most recent text - Practitioner's Guide to Using Research for Evidence-Based Practice. We talked about one of his current research projects - the development...

Episode 38: In today's podcast, I continue my conversation with Dr. Allen Rubin about social work research. Allen shared his advice for young social work investigators - that is social work researchers who are just starting out in their career as researchers. Allen talks about the value of getting a postdoc, the importance of getting hooked up with a federally-funded investigator for social worker...

Episode 37: In today's podcast, I talked with Dr. Allen Rubin about research and social work practice. Allen Rubin is the co-author of the most popular social work research text, "Research Methods for Social Work." I spoke with Allen about what research concepts he thought were essential for social work practitioners to understand in order to be informed consumers of empirical research, including...

Episode 36: Today's podcast is on Race and Social Problems. On January 15, 2008, I spoke with Dr. Larry E. Davis, Dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh, Donald M. Henderson Professor, and Director of the Center on Race and Social Problems. In our conversation, Dean Davis defined racism, the role of race in understanding social problems, and about how issues of race may...

Episode 35: In today's podcast, I talk with Dr. Christina Newhill, a nationally recognized expert on client violence and the author of "Client Violence in Social Work Practice: Prevention, Intervention, and Research," published in 2003 by The Guilford Press. Dr. Newhill defines client violence, talks about why social workers should be concerned with client violence and identifies which social work...

Episode 34: Today's podcast marks the one year anniversary of the Social Work Podcast. Jennifer Luna-Idunate interviews your host, Jonathan Singer, about how the podcast got started, the goal of the podcast, how success is measured and what are some goals for the podcast. https://socialworkpodcast.com