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Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are electronic tools used to convey, manipulate and store information. The exponential growth of Internet access and ICTs greatly influenced social, political, and economic processes in the United States, and worldwide. Regardless of the level of practice, ICTs will continue influencing the careers of social workers and the clients they serve. ICTs have received some attention in the social work literature and curriculum, but we argue that this level of attention is not adequate given their ubiquity, growth and influence, specifically as it relates to upholding social work ethics. Significant attention is needed to help ensure social workers are responsive to the technological changes in the health care system, including the health care infrastructure and use of technology among clients. Social workers also need ICT competencies in order to effectively lead different types of social change initiatives or collaborate with professionals of other disciplines who are using ICTs as part of existing strategies. This paper also identifies potential pitfalls and challenges with respect to the adoption of ICTs, with recommendations for advancing their use in practice, education, and research.

This study described the complexity of service need co-occurrence among foster care-involved families and identified prevalent patterns of needs to inform future evidence-based service planning research. We utilized state administrative child maltreatment records, and restricted data to cases where the child entered foster care in 2019 and the caseworker indicated the presence of at least one need from the Family Assessment of Needs and Strengths (FANS; n = 1631). We extracted all unique combinations of needs (i.e., needs profiles), and we used association rule mining to identify patterns within these profiles. A total of 780 unique needs profiles emerged among the 1631 cases, which we condensed into 78 patterns. Although the variability and complexity of needs profiles makes evidence-based service planning difficult, the present analysis mapped prevalent needs patterns to guide future research intended to assist caseworkers in this task. Identification of maltreatment determinants among families involved in foster care, and future research into the needs within different needs patterns that might undermine treatment effectiveness, may result in a better balance between parsimonious service plans and a full consideration of co-occurring service needs.

Childhood exposure to domestic violence (CEDV) is widely understood as potentially harmful to children. Accordingly, many child welfare systems in the United States construe CEDV as maltreatment when the exposure results in harm or threatened harm to the child. The purpose of the current study was to investigate substantiated child welfare referrals directly related to CEDV to better understand the prevalence and patterns of CEDV-related maltreatment and how child welfare workers respond under the "harm or threatened harm" standard. Data were drawn from 23,704 substantiated referrals between 2009 and 2013 in a large Midwestern child welfare system. Approximately 20% of substantiated referrals were CEDV related. A plurality of CEDV-related referrals included both a male caregiver and female caregiver who were co-substantiated for maltreatment. The most common maltreatment types substantiated for these referrals were neglect based rather than abuse based, and just under a quarter (23%) of CEDV-related referrals were formally opened for services. Referrals involving co-occurring substance abuse were most likely to be opened for services based on predicted probabilities derived from multilevel modeling. Implications for policy and practice are considered.

Early childhood trauma increases the risk of academic difficulties. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of early contact with child protection services (CPS) and to determine whether early exposure to maltreatment investigations was associated with important academic outcomes. The authors focused specifically on standardized test scores (math and reading), grade retention, and special education status in third grade. The sample was diverse and included all children born between 2000 and 2006 and enrolled in Michigan's public schools ( N = 732,838). By the time these students reached third grade, approximately 18% were associated with a formal CPS investigation. In some school districts, more than 50% of third graders were associated with an investigation. African American and poor students were more likely to be investigated for maltreatment. Children associated with maltreatment investigations scored significantly lower on standardized math and reading tests, were more likely to be identified as needing special education, and were more likely to be held back at least one grade. These findings indicate that involvement with CPS is not an infrequent event in the lives of young children and that within some school districts, maltreatment investigations are the norm. Child welfare and educational systems must collaborate so that the early academic struggles experienced by victims of maltreatment do not mature into more complicated difficulties later in life.

Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation allowing for the use of medical cannabis for those individuals with qualifying medical conditions, which include posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for a growing number of states. Little information is available regarding PTSD among medical cannabis patients. This study seeks to provide initial data on this topic by examining the prevalence and correlates of positive PTSD screens among a sample of patients seeking medical cannabis certification for the first time (n=186). Twenty-three percent (42/186; 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = 17%–29%) of the patients in the study sample screened positive for PTSD. Moreover, the group that screened positive for PTSD had higher percentages of lifetime prescription opioid, cocaine, prescription sedative, and street opioid use, as well as a higher percentage of recent prescription sedative use, than the group that screened negative for PTSD. These findings highlight the relatively common use of other substances among medical cannabis patients with significant PTSD symptoms, even when compared with other patients seeking medical cannabis for the first time. As a growing number of states include PTSD among the list of qualifying medical conditions for medical cannabis, additional research is needed to better characterize the longitudinal relationship between medical cannabis use and PTSD symptoms.