Florence Netting

Virginia Commonwealth University | VCU · School of Social Work

This study explores strategies used by the nation’s Long-Term Care (LTC) Ombudsman Programs (LTCOP) to perform their grass roots, investigatory, sentinel defense advocacy during the near total COVID LTC lock out from March 13th 2020 through September 17th, when the “ban” was conditionally lifted. Our layered systematic searches by title, subject, a...

Over 30 years since Alternative Social Agencies (Perlmutter, 1988) was published, scholars from a range of disciplines have studied alternative approaches to human service administration, management, and leadership. In this paper, we pull the historical threads of alternative voices into the web of contemporary practice and memorialize Perlmutter's...

The high elder care death toll of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, pushed the federally mandated Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program (LTCOP) into the unsought and unforeseen realm of disaster preparedness. This new role was an extension of the LTCOP’s historic resident’s rights investigative case advocacy. To assess if, how, and to what extent local ombudsm...

This teaching case explores challenges faced by a nonprofit Area Agency on Aging (AAA) director struggling to extend traditional elder service and support functions (case and care management, nutrition, transportation, etc.) to include disaster preparedness. The director is torn by the desire to promote disaster safety by supporting the Long Term C...

In this article, we introduce prosopography, a valuable historical research method that can be used by feminist social work scholars. While feminists in various fields use this methodology to investigate background characteristics of women in history through collective studies of how they have established relationships and networks to influence cha...

The authors focus on a collective biography of 12 women social work educators, all either tenured or in tenure lines, from five different universities at the time of the study. The participants represent several aspects of macro practice including administration, planning, community practice, and policy. Beginning with reflections about coming into...

Studying the intersectionality of religion and social welfare in Richmond, Virginia requires going back to the beginning of the Virginia colony. In the crucible of the colony, the religious and social welfare functions of a parish community were one and the same. However, after the Revolutionary War it was just a matter of time before the entire sy...

An interpretive analysis of 38 state dementia plans compares similarities and differences in diagnostic framing (problem identification/trends/issues), prognosis framing (addressing the problem), and motivational framing (calls for action) across plans. In framing diagnosis, only 6 plans used dementia alone in their titles. In framing prognosis and...

Using a prospective, randomized, single-blinded clinical design, we enrolled dog owners (DOs) and their dogs presenting to a veterinary referral hospital in a two-phase trial to determine whether veterinarian-initiated counseling increases physical activity and leads to secondary health benefits for DOs and their dogs. In Phase I, self-reported hea...

Studies focused on a continuum of service delivery forms that target Asian Americans are examined: (a) ethnic agencies serving Asian and other ethnic groups, (b) pan-Asian ethnic agencies, and (c) ethnic agencies targeting specific Asian groups. Culturally responsive strategies being used to develop these Asian-specific service programs are identif...

In this article, we raise two feminists (Minor and Hatcher) from erasure by recognizing the importance of their roles in the development of professional social work education. First, we tell a story of how emerging semiprofessions were intertwined, only to become separate over time. Next we focus on the influence of two feminists who came from othe...

This article is the story of the simultaneous feminization and corporatization of universities, themes that emerged in a test of a collective biography, a qualitative research method. Organizers brought together 12 macro social work academic women across generations and, through sampling, attempted to avoid the intergenerational splitting that seem...

A telephone survey of 43 state long-term care ombudsmen (LTCO) assessed their familiarity with relevant long-term care disaster resources, their provision of disaster aids and training to staff, and their perceived preparedness to lead their programs during public crises. Thirty-four directors (78%) reported being fairly well to fully prepared to s...

In part of a larger pilot study of dog walking as a physical activity intervention we assessed levels of attachment, social supports, and perceived mental health of 75 dog owners, identified through a tertiary- care veterinary hospital. Owners completed the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) Social Support Survey, mental health component of the Short-For...

This paper examines organized religion as a driving force within the social welfare state and looks at religious organizations as human service providers. Following a brief historical overview, the contemporary significance of organized religion for special population groups is discussed. Information is presented on religious institutions, religiou...

The benefits of human–animal interaction have been discussed extensively in the literature. In this paper we take a slightly different strategy in documenting that some humans acknowledge the importance of pets by actually referring to them in human obituaries. We begin with a brief overview of the human obituary, followed by the potential for pets...

Female faculty at Arizona State University's School of Social Work joined forces to revise syllabi for required MSW courses with the intent of integrating content on women. They argue that integration can be achieved only through the development of new paradigms that include women's experiences. They propose an approach based on a historico-structu...

Obesity is a parallel problem in canine and human populations. We describe health perceptions and levels of companion animal attachment in a cohort of dog owners. As part of a larger trial examining the impact of veterinary counseling on activity levels of dog owners and their pets, owners presenting to a veterinary referral center were asked to se...

What strategies did early boards of managers of charitable human service agencies pursue to build capacity in a way that sustained their efforts for more than a hundred years? Using primary and secondary documents to focus on two organizations- The Male Orphan Asylum (1846) and the Protestant Episcopal Church Home (1875)-three norms emerged: run it...

This article discusses the emergence and development of women’s fund-raising for charitable centenarian agencies in a southern city. These activities set the stage for the diversification of strategies that still have gender and racial overtones in the contemporary fund-raising activities of the city. The findings reveal that women did whatever the...

An overview of available instruments that assess characteristics of human–animal interactions is provided, followed by a matrix of 140 tools, what they measure, information on structure and properties, original published sources, and a citation, when available, to another study in which the tool was also used. Using Anderson's (2007) book Assessing...

This article is based on increasing requests we have received to help staff of faith-related agencies face challenges posed when dedicated volunteers have “aged in place” and change is needed. We begin by identifying challenges faced when dedicated volunteers “age in place” within established organizations, defining concepts such as psychological c...

This conceptual paper is based on interdisciplinary work the authors have participated in as part of the renewed push for civic engagement, the various forms it takes, and the multiple constituencies involved in its promotion. We focus on what theoretical and empirical content could be incorporated into courses on aging so that students can be prep...

A multi-dimensional agency assessment instrument designed to assist administrators who are interested in engaging in the process of planned organizational change was tested in this study. A sample of workers playing a variety of helping roles within two social service organizations—one large public child welfare organization and one private nonprof...

It is important to bridge the work of feminist scholars who toil in their respective fields and are not always directly connected to one another because they publish in a plethora of different outlets. Beginning with a brief background on the emergence of critical gerontology, the work of feminist activists is briefly reviewed and the scholarship o...

Three central and enduring themes related to the construction and reconstruction of the organizational identities of 24 charitable organizations in a Southern city are examined: communicating founding legends, adapting language to the times, and structurally responding to change. These themes within the stories of these organizations are retold thr...

Recent attention on community organizing in national politics provides an opportunity for social work educators to revisit and enhance community practice as a core practice of the profession. Drawing from social work's rich tradition of community practice this article provides a practical aid to understand the variety of strategies currently used b...

A brief reflection is provided on three very different articles by Thibault, Bushfield, and Monod et al. which focus on moving from variable to application. The basic paradox that emerges in attempting to intervene with elders in terms of dedicated suffering and spiritual mapping is revealed. In an evidence-based practice environment that privilege...

Community movements and local organizations often begin with talented and committed people who believe enough in some cause or change that they push for action. Everyone has a story about how founders and initiators seized opportunities to make something happen. If these efforts survive in the form of a program or organization, chances are that the...

The paper describes the development of the Child Health Initiative Project-Substate (CHIP-S), a community-based program in Missouri, CHIP-S was intended to address maternal and child health problems identified by the state of Missouri in a more efficient and cost effective manner. Funded as a planning project by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation,...

When the name Flexner is mentioned in schools of social work, it is typically a reference to Abraham Flexner, who spoke to the National Conference on Charities and Corrections in 1915. Yet, his daughter Eleanor wrote the definitive history of the women’s rights movement in the United States, and her work was influential in the transition between fi...

A niece tells the story of serving as a co-executrix in settling her aunt's modest estate. Lessons learned include recognizing that when named persons in a will die, it is wise to have a list of their children; that a will from one state may be seen as foreign in an adjacent state; that ethical issues have to be considered in the settlement process...

As the older population increases in the United States, more and more congregate living options are emerging, particularly for persons who may need some combination of housing with social support and health care services readily accessible. Continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) are one such option. This chapter focuses on CCRCs in the U.S....

The long-term care ombudsman program (LTCOP) is federally mandated to investigate complaints about the care that people receive in LTC facilities. This chapter provides a brief history of the program's origins and legislative authority, and the program' s mission and functions. It then describes the structure of the LTCOP, how complaints are handle...

This essay invites community developers to integrate the use of a selected set of mental maps or conceptual frameworks as guides to more effective practice. Frameworks selected for this essay include: a systems approach to appreciating the interrelatedness of elements of the practice context; practice as drama; the need to develop reflective practi...

Historical research on charitable organizations in Richmond, Virginia, reveals the roles women played in founding, managing, and developing agencies that have survived since the 1800s. Findings from an examination of the records of 24 agencies and associated secondary sources suggest that many of the ways in which women worked reflect characteristi...

Volunteerism is changing, and traditional ways of coordinating volunteers need re-examination in order for human service programs to survive. Our practitioner/academician team has been using well-known frameworks to reveal deep-seated assumptions about how people volunteer at the dawn of the 21st century and how changes in volunteering influence th...

Although specialized formal services are becoming more prevalent in addressing the needs of the older LGBT community, little is known about informal groups that have organized to meet the needs of this population. This article presents two case examples that depict the efforts of older lesbians to meet the social and care needs of members of their...

Human service agency cultures are often difficult to understand. Competing values and paradoxical assumptions add to that difficulty. In this study, we use a well-established framework for organizational analysis to establish a tool to assess differing values and assumptions in diverse field agencies. A total of 200 MSW field instructors responded...

Teaching policy analysis is compared to teaching research skills. Both involve the selection of an appropriate analytical tool to be used with multiple units of analysis; and in both, the selected instrument must fit the purpose of the analysis or the product is not useful. Policy analysis frameworks characteristically address policy process, conte...

Findings, issues, and lessons learned about program evaluation are examined from a national qualitative study of 15 faith-based human service programs targeting those in need in urban areas. Using a grounded theory design, five properties emerge as part of the evaluation network: (1) philosophy of accountability, (2) legitimacy, (3) evaluation desi...

The need for using evidence-based macro practices is examined. EBP is viewed as practitioners recognizing client values and then using the most promising research to guide programmatic, organizational, community, and policy activities to facilitate change. There are multiple ways to search for evidence. The nature of evidence in macro practice will...

The authors examine one of the earliest systematic forms of qualitative inquiry to identify some of the boundaries needed in grounded theory designs to provide a small corner of clarity in the discourse about what is acceptable science from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) perspective. Beginning with an overview of grounded theory research as i...

Program planning is about creating a means of guiding policy implementation. The impetus to engage in program planning may come through enacted policies, community needs, funding initiatives, or other incentives. We identify two major types of program planning, both of which engage participants in advocacy activities, but in different ways. Focused...

Built on the assumption that both rational and nonrational thought go into problem solving, but only rational approaches have been presented as appropriate technology for program development, this article offers an alterative way of designing social programs. We call this approach “emergent planning.” Our aim is to provide a conceptualization of pl...

This article examines the issues of long-term planning and decision-making among midlife and older gay men and lesbian caregivers. Using a qualitative methodology, in-depth interviews were conducted with 19 gay men and lesbians over 50. Participants reported on their long-term planning and decision-making processes. All but four persons reported th...

Despite a nearly 20-year-old legislation to strengthen social work (SW) coverage within nursing homes and decades of literature exploring the need for SW training, untrained and undertrained social workers dominate American nursing homes. Many persons who call themselves social workers are not educated as such, but nevertheless, must work in comple...

This grounded theory study of 15 faith-based programs in four urban cities examines how initiators and founders find homes for their visions of addressing unmet community needs, especially those of children and their families. Founders can be congregations, individuals, or groups with diverse characteristics. This study suggests that they place the...

Using a grounded theory design and methods, 65 key informants in 15 faith-based organizations having promising programs in four urban areas were interviewed. Respondents were asked what makes their direct service programs faith-based. A story emerges, motivated by mission-driven visions tied to forces beyond local programs and steeped in deep tradi...

Nine demonstration projects were funded under the John A. Hartford Foundation's Generalist Physician Initiative. This article focuses on how these nonprofit grantees dealt with shortterm funding and the approaches they used to integrate program elements into parent health care systems. Continuation strategies included leveraging with foundation dol...

This exploratory study identifies three language domains within the boards of directors of nonprofit human services agencies: mission, operations, and manners languages. These languages are connected to values and express ideology. Findings suggest that operations concerns tend to displace mission considerations, with manners language facilitating...

Results from a survey of nonprofit human service agencies in Arizona are presented. Most agencies reported steady or declining revenues, increased competition with other agencies, and rising demand for services from clients who cannot pay. The strategies used to adapt to these changes ranged from small-scale productivity enhancements to responses i...

This article reviews the literature on research using teams, including interdisciplinary teams, teams that span universities and are geographically distant, and teams using qualitative and mixed methods. It reports experiences of two multi-year, externally funded, multiple-university research teams that used both qualitative and quantitative method...

Three traditions of women’s organizations emerged in the 1800s: benevolence, reform, and rights. This article focuses primarily on women who founded the forerunners of today’s nonprofit health and human service agencies. Using Richmond, Virginia, as an example, it draws from historical documents, as well as the literature, to reframe the importance...

In this article, the authors take a systematic look at transaction costs and barriers to a university-community partnership during the design and implementation of a Geriatric Interdisciplinary Team Training Certificate. The development of the authors’ university-community partnership was fueled by a funding source that enabled the Virginia Geriatr...

In this grounded theory research project, face-to-face interviews were conducted with program participants, board members, administrators, coordinators, and collaborators in 15 faith-based programs. Findings concerning the roles played by participants, volunteers, and paid staff reveal the wearing of multiple hats, facilitated by a tendency toward...

Macro social work is social work. History tells us that the profession was birthed from diverse traditions were grounded in different assumptions, spurring different ways of knowing and doing. This versatility is a hallmark of the field and it will serve macro social work well into the future. A profession that seeks to sustain, advocate and change...

This study investigated the effectiveness of a multiyear geriatric interdisciplinary team training (ITT) program conducted by a geriatric education center in cooperation with three large health care systems. Approximately 40 half-day training sessions were planned and implemented by the university-community partnership. The training sessions includ...

This paper provides an overview of how practice courses in an administration and planning concentration have been redesigned to be multi-paradigmatic and to intentionally elevate subjugated knowledge. Rational and nonrational theories are used to guide diverse program designs. Assignments are engaging educators, practitioners, and students in the t...

In this paper, the design and development of a long-distance course on geriatric interdisciplinary teaming are presented. The focus is on the conceptualization of the course, followed by details surrounding developing a design team; designing curricular content; deciding delivery methods; scripting; overseeing and editing videos; and determining as...

Volunteers are key to successful ombudsmen programs. Motivating them and keeping them is difficult. The principal goal of this article is to compare active and resigned volunteer ombudsman perceptions (along with select demographic influences) of factors that either encouraged or discouraged their work. The authors find that former ombudsmen felt m...

In this article, we examine theoretical perspectives and studies on volunteer and paid staff relationships to determine what administrators in social work can glean from theory and research. We also draw from the conceptual literature in the area of volunteerism, as well as our experience with one nationally mandated program that utilizes 90% volun...

Analytical Skills for Community Organization Practice, by Donna Hardina. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. 390 pp., $52.00 cloth.

In this commentary about Sider and Unruh's typology, four questions are raised: (a) When religion is visibly expressed, is it the expression of religion? (b) When organizations move within the continuum, do they move in multiple and even counterintuitive directions? (c) How do beneficiaries benefit? (d) How does the "faith factor" figure into macro...

In an effort to fully understand the role of the office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives, in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Drs. Netting and Ellor went to Washington, DC and interviewed the Director, Elizabeth Seale-Scott. This important dialogue is recorded here to further understand particularly the role of this office as i...

The historical development of the faith-related organization is examined in light of the terminology used to describe these nonprofit groups, beginning with sectarian, moving to religious affiliate, and more recently using the term faith-related as a subcategory of being faith-based. Historical and contemporary research on faith-related organizatio...

A telephone survey of 136 active and 170 former volunteer ombudsmen asked the two open ended questions reported here. Both groups were asked to identify "the most discouraging aspect of the ombudsman's job," and former ombudsmen were also asked why they had left the program. Responses fell into four general groups (each with numerous sub-categories...

Resource centers (RCs) are one strategy used by foundations to provide technical assistance to, and to help disseminate the efforts of, multisite demonstration projects. Foundation goals must fit with RC purposes. Establishing the RC early in project development, carefully defining the scope of responsibilities, and locating leaders who can solve p...

The process of needs assessment, program design, implementation, and institutionalization of a Geriatric Interdisciplinary Team Training Program is examined. Three program components target health care professionals and students/pre-professionals: a video-based geriatric interdisciplinary team training course that has portability and is appropriate...

What happens when grievances are filed against volunteers in complex positions of public trust? Complicat­ing the situation even more, what happens when these volunteers have strong (some would say intrusive) investigative powers, and enthusiastically pursue roles that often anger providers, other government officials, a resi­dent's family member,...

approach are advantageous in a rapidly changing health care system where managed care and integrated services are of increasing importance. A statewide Geriatric Education Center, in cooperation with faculty from multiple disciplines at a state-supported major medical college and other nationally known experts in this area, developed a graduate lev...

In this paper we examine The Geriatric Rotational Education & Training (GREAT) Project, funded by The John A. Hartford Foundation. Created as a bi-regional consortium located in Central and Northern parts of one state, the project was designed to expose social work students to the diversity among older persons, the complexity of their health care i...

This article presents a tactical protocol to guide social workers and ombudsmen in explaining their conflict behavior in fundamentally imbalanced power structures like nursing homes. It is argued that efficient case advocacy requires the selection of tactics based on the confluence of two conditional factors on a low to high continuum in the follow...

If social work education is truly committed to social justice and self-determination, it will have to liberate the knowledge of groups with which it works. To do so, it is necessary to recognize the unique role of practitioners in discovering and interpreting subjugated knowledge, which requires that academicians, practitioners, and consumers of se...