Social work, school violence, mental health, and drug abuse: A call for evidence-based practices

As former Secretary of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala challenged our nation to assume "the first, most enduring responsibility of any society"--ensuring the health and well-being of our children (Shalala, 2001). Social work has long been at the forefront of this challenge, working to identify, respond to, and develop better understanding of the risks faced by children and adolescents (Wells, 1995). Because our national policies have yet to place children first, social workers must continue their advocacy and action on behalf of children. A proposed NASW policy statement calls for youths to become a national, state, and local policy priority and for improved services, service systems, and programs that are universally available and accessible (Thompson & Henderickson, 2002). Articles in this issue address three dimensions of crisis for children and youths: school violence, mental health, and drug abuse. Youth violence is now regarded as one of the most serious of public health problems. Although data indicate that youth violence peaked nearly a decade ago (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [DHHS], 2001), recurring scenes of school shootings have heightened daily anxiety and a quest for effective means to keep children safe. The persistence of violence underscores the importance of research on effective prevention and treatment. Indeed, the Surgeon General's report concludes that "the most urgent need is a national resolve to confront the problem of youth violence systematically, using research-based approaches, and to correct damaging myths and stereotypes that interfere with the task at hand" (DHHS, p. 6). Youth violence is a global concern. In Israel, political violence is feared to exacerbate youth and school violence. In this issue's lead article, Benbenishty, Astor, Zeira, and Vinokur report on a study of perceived violence and fear of attending school among Arab and Jewish junior high school students in Israel. Their findings confirm the importance of distinguishing and separately testing factors associated with students' perception of school violence and their fear-related absences from school. They found that students who observed peers using drugs and alcohol, bringing weapons to school, and fighting or harassing one another were more likely to rate school violence as a serious problem. Yet, such observations were not significantly related to personal absenteeism because of fear of school violence. Rather, direct victimization--by staff and by student peers--was associated with missing school because of fear of violence. Additional research on cultural issues is needed, given the apparent differences in how the Arab and Jewish students perceived and experienced school violence. Gender differences were also apparent, with boys' fear of attendance related to staff maltreatment, and girls' fear of attendance affected more by peer victimization. Although violence is no longer viewed as just a criminal justice issue, most violence research has been conducted by criminologists (Elliott, Hamburg, & Williams, 1998). Social workers have much to contribute to understanding violence, given the profession's frontline involvement with family violence, school violence, and community violence. Social work concerns about violence stem, in part, from its disproportionate effect on women, racial and ethnic minority groups, and gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals. Accordingly, research is needed to develop violence prevention and intervention strategies tempered for the needs of different developmental stages and client groups (Pollack & Sundermann, 2001; Small & Tetrick, 2001). Former Surgeon General David Satcher (2000) challenged the United States to ensure that "our health system responds as readily to the needs of children's mental health as it does to their physical well-being' (p. 2). Externalizing behaviors such as those studied by Elze are a particular focus for social work mental health practice and research. …