Elizabeth M. Tracy, MSW, LISW, Ph.D.
Professor
Elizabeth M. Tracy is a Professor at the Mandel School of Applied
Social Sciences and Chair of the PhD Program. She teaches courses in direct social work practice
methods and child welfare in the master level program and models of social work practice in the
doctoral program. She also directs the school social work program that leads to licensure
through the Ohio Department of Education for master level and post master level students.
Reflecting her interest in schools and families, she serves on the advisory board to the
Center for Math and Science Education, UCITE and the Schubert Center for Child Development.
Dr. Tracy’s research focus has been the development and evaluation of
social work practice models and methods which support families, make use of natural helping
networks, and incorporate environmental helping strategies. Her scholarly work has focused on
clinically useful ways to assess social support and social networks, the development of key
practice skills for social network interventions, and the role of social network and other
environmental helping strategies in program implementation. The body of her work on social networks
and social support has been applied by other researchers to family preservation programs,
residential settings for youth, early intervention, and community mental health case management
programs.
Drawing on her practice experience with social network interventions,
she co-authored a social work practice text
“Person-environment practice: The social ecology of interpersonal helping” which addresses
a core but long neglected dimension in social work – environmental assessment and
intervention.
Dr. Tracy’s interest in the role of supportive relationships
coincides with her study of services to strengthen and support families within the child welfare
system. She conducted an evaluation of Ohio’s Family Stability Incentive Fund, designed
to encourage collaborations to keep at-risk families intact. She has also studied the process
of and criteria for decision making for referrals to family preservation services in Cuyahoga
County. She facilitated the efforts of a National Family Preservation Working Group, which
developed a sourcebook on the teaching of family preservation practice. She has a family centered
practice text recently published by Columbia University Press,
“Social Work Practice with Children and Families”, the purpose of which is to help social
work students and practitioners understand and work with vulnerable families and children, and
intervene at multiple levels and with different systems. Subsequent to a NIAAA Faculty Development
Program, she focused on integrating knowledge of alcohol and other drug abuse with her
specialization on family preservation. She is currently Principal Investigator of a NIDA
funded pilot research study on “Personal Social Networks and Women with Co-occurring Substance Use
and Mental Disorders”.
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Substance Use and Co-occurring Mental Disorders
·
Social support and social networks
·
School Social Work
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