Fabricio E Balcazar

• Doctor of Psychology
• Professor at University of Illinois Chicago

Objective to reflect on the contribution of using a Cultural Competence Framework by health professionals in providing care for refugee women in situations of violence. Method a reflective study which considered the theoretical model of the Conceptual Framework of Cultural Competence by Balcazar et al., which was developed to work with ethnic mino...

Objective to reflect on the contribution of using a Cultural Competence Framework by health professionals in providing care for refugee women in situations of violence. Method a reflective study which considered the theoretical model of the Conceptual Framework of Cultural Competence by Balcazar et al., which was developed to work with ethnic mino...

Despite an increased application of social theory in assistive technology (AT) outcomes research, there continues to be a gap in integrating AT conceptual models in research design, data analysis, and results interpretation. This paper merged two preexisting AT models, the Human Activity Assistive Technology model (HAAT) and the interdependence fra...

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the incidence of all-cause mortality, institutionalization, and condition improvement among participants of a state home- and community-based services program (HCBS). Methods: We evaluated the follow-up data of 11,444 individuals with disabilities aged 45–59 years at application who received serv...

Vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies often encounter challenges to help persons with disabilities successfully attain their employment goals. This study was conducted to understand how VR counselors define “success” and what practices they deem to be most successful. Ninety-one VR counselors from a Midwestern state were asked to write about a ty...

Community psychologists have made significant contributions to the study of civic engagement, yet scarce studies have examined the impact of civic engagement training among youth with a history of dropping out. We describe an effort to promote civic education and action through a curriculum implemented at an alternative school that focuses on (a) d...

People living with physical, sensory, intellectual, and/or developmental disabilities experience complex social, environmental, political, and cultural challenges along with stigma and marginalization in education, employment, and community life. These multiple and complex barriers often hinder their full and effective participation in society. In...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the youth version of the program Parents Taking Action in Bogota, Colombia, using a quasi-experimental design. We hypothesized that parents in the treatment groups would improve in levels of knowledge, empowerment, self-efficacy, and use of strategies related to topics of adolescence and sexuali...

Purpose/Objective: Entrepreneurship is increasingly emerging as a viable employment option for many people with disabilities. It provides opportunities to develop interests, skills, and passion for starting a business. We conducted multiple interviews with various stakeholders to identify the perceived supports and barriers that people with disabil...

Behavioral community psychology focuses on studying issues that matter to communities, unpacking contextual factors that impact people’s behaviors, and identifying strategies to address such issues. Goal setting is one such strategy often used by behavioral psychologists. Grounded in the values of behavioral community psychology and a behavior anal...

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches to promoting justice focus on working from the ground up and giving a voice to marginalized communities regarding their concerns, potential solutions, and how to address social justice issues that matter to them. The pursuit of justice is often related to efforts to attain personal as well as...

The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Disability provides a timely and comprehensive overview of the wide range and depth of sociological theory and research on disability-brought together for the first time in one volume. Each section of the Handbook incorporates a uniquely sociological perspective, presented by an international group of experts...

The significant increase in the Latinx population in the USA has also resulted in an increase in Latinx persons with disabilities. This chapter provides an overview of the prevalence and the most common types of disability in the Latinx population and a review of the health care status and barriers to health care experienced by Latinx persons. Empo...

Addressing health disparities and promoting health equity for Roma has been a challenge. The Roma are the largest disadvantaged ethnic minority population in Europe and have been the victims of deep social and economic injustices, institutional discrimination, and structural antigypsyism over many centuries. This has resulted in a much worse health...

Addressing the complex needs of migrants and ethnic minorities is a challenge for host communities, where the cultural competence of service providers is an important asset for combating inequities and encouraging well-being. However, efforts focused on promoting cultural competence have not been very effective in generating real changes to profess...

Objective To investigate the incidence of successful rehabilitation, defined as 90 successive days in employment, within individuals with disabilities receiving occupational/vocational training (OVT) service. Method The follow-up records between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2012 of 5313 individuals aged 15–55 who obtained OVT in the vocational...

This study describes an intervention developed to implement several best transition practices with a high risk/high need population. In all, 116 students with disabilities from a charter school for dropouts participated. All students were interviewed at different points in time to track their progress as they completed the program. Records of parti...

Objective. To determine pharmacy students' impressions of their faculty's interactions with diverse student and patient populations.Methods.Three student focus groups were convened. Eighty-four page transcripts were coded, and emergent themes were identified by qualitative analysis.Results.Students defined diversity as multidimensional beyond tradi...

The country of Colombia, South America, has an official incidence of disability rate of 6.3% or 2,624,898 individuals (Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social [MINSALUD], 2014a). Colombia has undertaken a substantial effort to implement the community-based rehabilitation (CBR) matrix from the World Health Organization (WHO) originally formulated in...

The objective of this study was to assess whether successful vocational rehabilitation (that is, obtaining employment) among people with disabilities was affected by residential arrangement. Five groups of residential placement were considered: individuals living in a private residence, community or group residential, correctional and rehabilitatio...

Objective To investigate the employment outcomes of vocational rehabilitation (VR) services for youth with disabilities in a targeted, enhanced, and contract-based secondary transition program as compared to the traditional VR transition services. Methods A population-based study was conducted on 4422 youth with physical, intellectual, learning, me...

Purpose: To investigate the risk factors for failure of individuals with disabilities to enter the vocational rehabilitation (VR) programme, including the cases where they had been formally accepted but were yet to receive any service. Methods: We used prospective cohort data from a Midwestern US state, and analysed 126,251 and 94,517 individual...

In this paper, the authors discussed the nexus between the Americans with Disabilities Act and the founding of the field of Community Psychology. Contributions of the latter and future areas of research are reviewed here in three areas of importance to both fields: Community living and participation, employment, and transition from high school. Com...

For several decades, community interventions have promoted community development with strategies involving capacity building, advocacy, social change, and empowerment. Although community interventions intend to ameliorate social and economic inequalities, there is still a need to evaluate the outcomes of Participatory Action Research (PAR). PAR app...

Purpose: To examine the outcomes (rehabilitated vs. nonrehabilitated) of youth with disabilities (ages 14–22 years) participating in the transition program from a midwestern state. Method: Five years of vocational rehabilitation transition data (N = 6,252) were analyzed to determine what demographic and system-level factors were related to rehabili...

For several decades, community interventions have promoted community development with strategies involving capacity building, advocacy, social change, and empowerment. Although community interventions intend to ameliorate social and economic inequalities, there is still a need to evaluate the outcomes of Participatory Action Research (PAR). PAR app...

This chapter presents a mixed methods approach to community development that combines the concerns report (a qualitative approach)—a survey that is developed in a participatory way by a group of community members—with a behavioral functional analysis (a quantitative approach). They describe how multiple factors play a role in the process of address...

Compared to individuals without disabilities, those with disabilities experience inequalities in finding and sustaining employment that are more profound among women and minorities. The purpose of this study is to examine differences in employment outcomes for African American and white women with disabilities who received vocational rehabilitation...

Background: Community Rehabilitation Providers (CRPs) are not-for-profit organizations that provide employment services to individuals with disabilities as subcontracts to vocational rehabilitation (VR) offices. Objective: The purpose of this studywas to identify facilitators to successful employment among individuals with disabilities. Methods:We...

Abstract This special issue of the Journal of Psychosocial Intervention pursues to contribute to the understanding of human well-being as a matter of social justice. Inequities in health and well-being are closely linked to social inequalities and addressing them involves the improvement of the quality of life and living conditions of communities....

Las personas con discapacidades están muy poco representadas en la fuerza de trabajo, con frecuencia sufren discriminación por parte de los empleadores y raramente el Sistema de Rehabilitación Profesional de los EE.UU., que se ocupa sobre todo de conseguir trabajo a las personas con discapacidades, les atiende debidamente. Además, muchas de estas p...

This special issue of the Journal of Psychosocial Intervention aims to contribute to the understanding ofhuman well-being as a matter of social justice. Inequities in health and well-being are closely linked tosocial inequalities and addressing them involves the improvement of the quality of life and living conditionsof communities. Although reachi...

Providing information to employees about their past performance is a widely used strategy in organizations. The effects of performance feedback, however, have not been previously systematically evaluated. A total of 126 applications of feedback in organizations was reviewed. Each feedback application was evaluated in terms of the consistency of its...

• The application of ecological theory and community psychology principles and values has contributed to the advancement of multicultural psychology theory and research (see Trickett, Watts, & Birman, 1994). In particular, ecological and community perspectives have expanded and contextualized our theoretical understanding of the cultural embeddedne...

People with mental illness often experience major difficulties in finding and maintaining sustainable employment. African Americans with mental illness have additional challenges to secure a job, as reflected in their significantly lower employment rates compared to Caucasians.OBJECTIVE: To examine the factors that contribute to racial disparities...

This study describes the development and validation of the Evaluation Capacity Assessment Instrument (ECAI), a measure designed to assess evaluation capacity among staff of nonprofit organizations that is based on a synthesis model of evaluation capacity. One hundred and sixty-nine staff of nonprofit organizations completed the ECAI. The 68-item me...

An analysis of vocational rehabilitation (VR) data over a period of five years from a Midwestern state was conducted to identify predictors of employment and college attendance outcomes for youth with disabilities receiving transition services. The database included 26,292 transition cases. Transition outcomes were identified for 4,010 youth (15.3%...

The purpose of this study was to gather information on employment outcomes achieved by Community Rehabilitation Providers (CRPs). Thirty-two Program Directors/CRP Specialists participated in an on-line survey. The results indicated that most clients served by CRPs were placed in the service sector and that once they reached the critical 90-day clos...

This study describes the results of a program developed to improve the transition outcomes of low-income minority youth with disabilities. The program relies on case management support to facilitate interagency collaboration. The participants included 164 graduates from special education and 26 youth from an equivalent comparison group. Two case ma...

A review of vocational rehabilitation (VR) data from a Midwestern state was conducted to identify predictors of rehabilitation outcomes for African American consumers. The database included 37,404 African Americans who were referred or self-referred over a period of five years. Logistic regression analysis indicated that except for age and disabili...

A review of vocational rehabilitation (VR) data from a Midwestern state was conducted to identify predictors of rehabilitation outcomes for African American consumers. The database included 37,404 African Americans who were referred or self-referred over a period of five years. Logistic regression analysis indicated that except for age and disabili...

Peer-mentoring can be a helpful tool for rehabilitation counselors promoting the community reintegration of hard to reach clients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the benefits of a peer-mentoring intervention implemented at an urban rehabilitation hospital where six peer mentors were hired to serve the needs of 28 young men with violently...

Latino immigrant families with children with disabilities experience multiple sources of oppression during their settlement process in the United States. Unfair social structures and dominant cultural values and norms and the way they influence the immigrants' personal life stories generate a cycle of oppression very difficult to break. This paper...

White Privilege is described as an advantage that a group of people experience based exclusively on physical and social characteristics. Such experiences are the result of conditions of oppression across society along the years. White Privilege is not earned through talent or effort, but rather is granted, and the advantages are not common or unive...

The purpose of this second article in the special topic issue from the National Training Initiative on Self-Determination is to provide detail with regard to how we understand the self-determination construct and to discuss moderator variables and how such variables impact the design and implementation of interventions to promote self-determination...

This issue of FOCUS describes a systematic review that was conducted to address a critically important research question about cultural competency by taking stock of the current literature and evidence. The review examined whether cultural competency interventions improve rehabilitation outcomes for ethnically and linguistically diverse individual...

Child mortality has been a problem in developing countries for many years. This article summarizes the factors that were identified as contributing to the sustainability of a community-based growth-monitoring program for the prevention of child mortality in Honduras. The program used community volunteers to measure children's growth from birth unti...

The current study was conducted to identify challenges in engaging consumers with disabilities from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds and effective strategies to overcome these challenges in the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) system. Twenty one VR counselors from a large Midwestern state were nominated by their supervisors to participate in s...

To explore the perceptions of medical staff on the rehabilitation of spinal cord injured individuals, who became disabled from street violence. A total of 16 medical staff members from two rehabilitation hospitals were interviewed, using a semi-structured interview. The interview recorded demographic information about the staff and probed at differ...

To describe the development of a conceptual framework for cultural competence that could help and guide the training of rehabilitation practitioners, students and researchers. A systematic review of the literature yielded 259 usable documents that were further reviewed by two independent readers to identify 32 publications that described cultural c...

Europe is in the process of building a more participative, just, and inclusive European Union. The European Social Fund, which is an initiative developed to actively promote multinational partnerships that address pressing social issues, is a good example of the European transformation. This article describes the steps taken to develop and evaluate...

This study identified effective strategies to promote employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities (consumers) from diverse cultural backgrounds. Twenty-one vocational rehabilitation counselors participated in semistructured interviews. Data revealed 5 major themes: (a) implementing an empowerment approach to case management; (b) establish...

Occupational therapists confront issues of cultural diversity more than ever before because of the increased number of clients seen in their professional practice who are of differing racial or cultural backgrounds. In this study, we examine perceived cultural competence in a sample of 477 occupational therapists. The study's results indicate that...

To examine differences in employment outcomes among Hispanics and Caucasians with Spinal Cord Injuries at one year post-injury. Retrospective study. Longitudinal dataset of the SCI Model Systems. 11,424 Individuals diagnosed with spinal cord injury (1369 Hispanics and 10055 Caucasians) that were enrolled in the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistic...

This article describes a participatory needs assessment process in which Colombian immigrants in Chicago collaborated with university researchers to identify their common concerns and implement self-help efforts to address some of their most pressing needs. A total of 261 Colombians completed a needs assessment survey, and 46 attended a public foru...

People from around the globe rely on the Internet for daily use in a variety of ways from downloading information and staying connected with friends and family to collecting data for research purposes. Although the authors have seen rapid growth in access to the Internet among multicultural populations, some groups are still far behind. In particul...

This study examines the effects of socio-economic, attitudinal, and support-related variables on the employment status of young adults with disabilities who participate in community-based and facility-based work settings. It was based on a nationally representative sample of 1,899 young adults with disabilities, ages 18 to 26, from White, Black/Afr...

Capacity building is an effective strategy for promoting organizational change and/or improving the quality of social services. In this article I present an empowerment approach to capacity building. In doing so I propose a number of principles that can promote capacity building and collaboration between social service agencies and universities fro...

This study assessed compliance with the public accommodations provisions (Title III) of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Title III of the ADA requires the removal of physical, procedural, and attitudinal barriers that prohibit people with disabilities from entering public establishments and accessing their goods and services. The physical...

This article describes the cultural competence training approach used by the Center for Capacity Building on Minorities with Disabilities Research with agencies that serve people with disabilities from different cultural backgrounds. The outcomes of the training on participants' individual levels of cultural knowledge, physical environment, attitud...

This study identified challenges and available supports for conducting research and engaging in outreach and dissemination activities with people with disabilities from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Seventy nine researchers funded by the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) participated in the study. The results indica...

Community psychologists have called for research on human diversity and interactions between individuals and society with a focus on oppression. This study examines learning disabilities as they co-occur with other sociopolitical minority statuses. We examined dominant cultural narratives of and individual responses to learning disability, race/eth...

In this study we analyzed employment-related supports provided by case managers in a transition program for urban ethnic minority youth with disabilities. We further assessed the influence of these supports on employment outcomes. Urban ethnic minority youth with disabilities often have lives that are complicated by a host of factors related to liv...

Participatory approaches to empowering people with disabilities to increase control over decisions that affect their lives have been suggested in the literature in a variety of disciplines. However, little is known about participatory strategies to promote personal empowerment as it relates to health promotion. This chapter will suggest a contextua...

Whereas mentoring programs are well received as support services, very little empirical research has been conducted to assess the effectiveness of these programs to meet the diverse needs of different special populations of youth. Potentially useful theoretical orientations (attachment, parental acceptance-rejection, social support, adult developme...

This research project on participatory social action aimed to increase the physical accessibility of communities by engaging sixteen ethnic minorities with disabilities in promoting change. Participants attended a one‐day workshop and were provided with detailed information about effective ways to enforce compliance with the public accommodations p...

Participatory action research (PAR) provides a framework in which people with disabilities can take an active role in designing and conducting research. This approach provides individuals with disabilities an opportunity to reshape the rehabilitation research agenda and empowers them to address their independent living and rehabilitation goals. Fou...

We analyzed the role that psychosocial empowerment and social support factors play in the employment status of immigrants who participate in jobreadiness programs financed by the European Social Funds and the Welfare Services of Andalusia, a region in the south of Spain. The goal of these programs is to find new ways to improve immigrants' social–l...

Empowerment is a complex construc with various meanings, steps and actions. Duns, Trivette and LaPointe (1992) propose a theoretical framework integrating three empowerment components: ideology, process and results. They also propose that each one has at least two meanings: As an ideology the empowerment includes philosophy and paradigm whose proce...

This study examines an intervention designed to promote goal attainment among vocational rehabilitation (VR) consumers as part of a university-VR agency collaboration. Eighty nine individuals with disabilities receiving VR services from the state agency were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions: (a) help-recruitment training plus follo...

El incremento de poder (empowerment en ingles) es un constructo complejo asociado con varios significados, pasos y acciones. Dunst, Trivette, y LaPointe (1992) proponen un marco teórico que integra tres componentes del incremento de poder: ideología, proceso y resultados. Ellos proponen que cada uno de estos componentes tiene por lo menos dos signi...

In choosing to implement empowering interventions with marginalized populations, community psychologists often have to merge research and action. We present three case stories that exemplify empowerment efforts in the context of a multi-year school intervention designed to develop the advocacy skills of ethnic minority students' with disabilities a...

In choosing to implement empowering interventions with marginalized populations, community psychologists often have to merge research and action. We present three case stories that exemplify empowerment efforts in the context of a multi‐year school intervention designed to develop the advocacy skills of ethnic minority students' with disabilities a...

We compared the inclusion-related attitudes of community agency staff in the United States and Israel. Samples of 147 (United States) and 74 (Israel) staff members were assessed with the Community Living Attitudes Scale (CLAS). Results showed that higher educational levels, regardless of nation, were associated with higher Empowerment scores, lower...

This study examined attitudes toward disability rights among an ethnically diverse sample of 133 private and public sector representatives. The strength of these attitudes was assessed with an experimental manipulation, whereby respondents obtained negative and neutral presentations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Participants complet...

La psicología comunitaria surgió como respuesta a las limitaciones prácticas y teóricas de la psicología clínica tradicional. Desde un principio asumió un enfoque contextual con el fin de apartarse de modelos de patología individual que tendían a echarle la culpa a las victimas por sus problemas (Ryan, 1971). El otro interés era promover la prevenc...

This paper provides a review of some of the principles and challenges of Participatory Action Research (PAR) as it is utilized in community psychology, including its ideological and epistemological characteristics, and general implementation strategies. The degree of control, collaboration and commitment of the people involved in the research proce...

Objectives: To construct and validate a measure that assesses knowledge of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and to examine ADA knowledge among private and public sector representatives. Study Design and Subjects: A 20-item measure was developed and administered to undergraduates (n = 210) and ADA experts (n = 34) to establish validity and...

This paper provides a critical review of the main characteristics of Participatory Action Research (PAR), including its ideological and epistemological principles, as well as the general implementation strategies. The central activities of participatory action research include not only investigation but also education and action. Community members...

The problem of school absenteeism in childhood has been identified in the literature as a potential precursor of serious academic problems and eventual dropout during adolescence. This is why it is important to intervene early. This entry reviews the issues associated with the definition of school absenteeism, as well as various intervention models...

The Choices-in-Transition Intervention was designed to promote students' attainment of transition-related goals through person-centered goal-setting, help-recruiting skills training, and case management support. Participants were 41 low-income, predominantly ethnic minority high school students with disabilities. The study assessed the types of tra...

This paper explores the evolution of ideologies of race, poverty, and disability. Three models, identified as biological, cultural, and minority-group, are discussed. Throughout the twentieth century, biological and cultural models presented images of race, class, and disability in terms of deficiency and dependence. Biological models represented s...