Annotated Bibliography 1

Running head: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Annotated Bibliography Warren Miller Howard University School of Social Work

1. Tarakeshwar, N., Pearce, M. J., Sikkema, K. J. (2005) Development and implementation of a spiritual coping group intervention for adults with HIV/AIDS: A pilot study. Journal of Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 8, 179-190 Retrieved February 2, 2009, from Academic Search Premier Tarakeshwar et al, (2008) developed a pilot study of spiritual coping group intervention for adults living with HIV/AIDS. One of the usefulness of this item is that it provides a intervention layout for practitioners to incorporate into their practice with people living with HIV/AIDS. Another useful item is that the authors provide recommendations for spiritual coping groups. This may be useful for the spiritual support group that has been implemented in my agency. Some of the limitations of this particular item included a small sample size and insufficient follow-up time to gather follow-up data. The authors reported that group members of this pilot study reported increased positive spiritual coping. Qualitative and quantitative measures were used in this study. This item would be ideal for further exploration in the spiritual support group in my agency. In which, evaluation of the support group may be improved.

Zanis, D. A, Cnaan, R. A. (2006) Social service research and religion: Thoughts about hot measure intervention-based impact. Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work, 5, 83-104. Retrieved on February 2, 2009, from Academic Search Premier

Zanis and Cnaan (2006) examine how and why social service agencies that practice faith-based interventions should improve their outcomes and assess the cost benefits to society. So, the authors explain that faith based interventions offer a vital and new way to effective deal with social problems but it is usually not supported by empirical based evidence. This article may be useful in the sense that it provides agencies with measures to assess their intervention practices through random clinical controlled trials. The authors further points out that there were a number of methodological limitations to the above study. This article will be useful because the spiritual support group classifies as a faith-based intervention conducted by this agency. Evidence of effective intervention is always needed.

Tuck, I., (2003) Development of a spiritual intervention to promote healing. Journal of Theory Construction & Testing, 8, 67-71. Retrieved February 2, 2009, from Academic Search Premier.

Tuck (2003) focuses on spiritual intervention development in this article including examples of group spiritual interventions. One useful idea that Tuck displayed in the article is that there is a scarcity of spiritual interventions. Tuck suggest that the scarcity develops from the nonconsensus of the definition of spirituality across professional disciplines. She also goes into how to develop a spiritual growth groups by giving an example of her group SPIRIT and how it

affected the individuals of the group. The author also alludes to the importance of incorporating spiritual interventions by giving details of spiritual groups conducted with several populations and the results. Those studies found that implementation of spiritual intervention produced a better quality of life for the participants, reduced negative outlook, and improved coping and functional well being. This article could add vital information about spiritual interventions and spirituality to my evaluation assignment.
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Hodge, D. R., (2006) spiritually modified cognitive therapy: A review of the literature. Journal of Social Work, 51(2), 157-164. Retrieved February 2, 2009 from Academic Search Premier.

Hodges article point out that spiritual intervention is implemented by practitioners on a regular basis. He also looked at several research studies on spiritual interventions and their effectiveness in case practitioners wished to employ them in their practice. Hodge posit that spiritual interventions have been used with depression but will the Americas Psychological Association recognize spiritually modified cognitive therapy as useful treatment. He reviews studies that suggest the use of spiritually modified cognitive therapy and how it differs from cognitive therapy. This author reviewed many studies that focused on depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, neurosis, OCD, perfectionism, and stress but I am not sure that that information will be helpful in my evaluation assignment. However, the information gleaned from the studies on spiritual intervention, religion and spirituality may be vital in my assignment.
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Williamson, S. A, Hodges, V.G., (2006) It kind of made me feel important: Client reflections on faith-based social services. Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work, 25(2), 43-57. Retrieved on February 2, 2009, from Academic Search Premier.

The authors explain that the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity and Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) led to a change in welfare policies and practices. Therefore, leading many clients served by social workers to seek help from different entities such as faith based social services agencies. The authors examined the work of a faith based model of intervention called Families First. Qualitative methods were used in this study over two sites in North Carolina. The authors posit that one of the major limitations was that the findings cannot be generalized to other participants of the Families First program. On the other hand, the authors gleaned very useful information about the emotions of the participants. Many of the participants included that the faith based intervention provided emotional and instrumental support. This study will not be the basis of my evaluation but the information produced by the authors may be useful in identifying outcomes of faith based interventions.