Stephanie Boys

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https://hdl.handle.net/1805/6685

Law and Social Work: Providing Holistic Services to Benefit Students, the University and the Community

In 2012, Carrie Hagan and Stephanie Boys developed a new service learning opportunity through an interdisciplinary partnership between the schools of Law and Social Work. The purpose of the project was to enhance the joint JD/MSW program, as well as the experiences of JD and MSW students respectively. The researchers redesigned a Civil Practice Clinic, which had formerly involved only law students, to now pair law students and social work students in order to serve the holistic needs of clients. Referrals for the clinic are obtained through Indiana Legal Services, and many clients do not have resources to retain legal counsel or services by other means. The law students address the clients’ legal issues and the social work students ensure the clients are connected with appropriate social services, such as domestic violence counseling and social welfare benefits. The teamwork between students increases law students’ aptitude in client-centered lawyering, and familiarizes social work students with the legal rights and resources available to clients. The investigators have adapted pedagogies of engagement, most notably through problem-based and peer-led interdisciplinary team teaching and learning. Students more effectively and efficiently serve community members in need of legal counsel and social services, resulting in a clinic that is beneficial for both students and community members.

Dr. Boys' work to create an interdisciplinary partnership to better serve clients of the Civil Practice Clinic is another example of how IUPUI’s faculty members are TRANSLATING their RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.

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    Progress through partnership: Providing Holistic Services VIA SERVICE LEARNING to Benefit Students, the University and the Community
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2014-04-11) Hagan, Carrie A.; Boys, Stephanie K.
    In 2012, the presenters developed a new service learning opportunity through an interdisciplinary partnership between the schools of Law and Social Work. The purpose of the project was to enhance the joint JD/MSW program, as well as the experiences of JD and MSW students respectively. The presenters redesigned a Civil Practice Clinic, which had formerly involved only law students, to now pair law students and social work students in order to serve the holistic needs of clients. Referrals for the clinic are obtained through a variety of partner referrals. All of the clinic’s clients do not have the resources to retain legal counsel or services by other means. The law students address the clients’ legal issues and the social work students ensure the clients are connected with appropriate social services, such as domestic violence counseling and social welfare benefits. The teamwork between students increases law students’ aptitude in client-centered lawyering, and familiarizes social work students with the legal rights and resources available to clients. The presenters have adapted pedagogies of engagement, most notably through problem-based and peer-led interdisciplinary team teaching and learning. Students more effectively and efficiently serve community members in need of legal counsel and social services, resulting in a clinic that is beneficial for both students and community members. The partnership resulted after years of witnessing law students struggle with interpersonal skills how to handle client emotions (and a perceived inability to help connect to services) while social work students struggled with an awareness of the law, litigation process/strategy and the roles/responsibilities involved in legal case management. Key to this partnership was not only the development of the interdisciplinary model and structure, but also assessing both disciplines and the success of the pairings. Quantitative data is gathered through an interpersonal skills survey pretest and posttest research design, and qualitative data is gathered through a survey of open ended questions. All students were given the same questions, and responses were anonymous, with surveys administered by a third party. Using the generated responses, the presenters reformat the course each semester based upon feedback, as well as promote the use of this sort of model to other institutions and at various conferences. Other interdisciplinary partnerships are also explored based on student feedback, client and clinic needs. The initial surveys focused on a main goal of increasing law students’ interpersonal skills – as far too often law students’ focus is on the legal tasks and not the human components of interactions with clients. Data analysis found a statistically significant improvement in law students’ interpersonal skills, and level of comfort in dealing with clients in emotional situation. The second round of surveys have been submitted to both disciplines and hope to show two increases: 1) that the law students’ interpersonal skills maintain improvement; and 2) that social work students have a better understanding of the law and legal processes via their participation in the interdisciplinary clinic.
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    Social Work and Law: The Educational Benefits of Collaboration
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2013-04-05) Boys, Stephanie K.; Hagan, Carrie A.
    Low income clients seeking civil legal services are rarely in need of only legal assistance. Instead, the issues that drove them to seek an attorney typically overlap into multiple mental health and social service needs. The poster will explain how a newly piloted clinical partnership between the School of Social Work and the School of Law improved the educational outcomes of students, and also enhanced the services offered to clients. The clinic historically served the legal needs of low income clients in Indianapolis. In 2012, an interdisciplinary collaboration involving law and social work students and faculty from both fields was implemented in order to provide holistic services to clients. The poster will describe the model, including how the clinic is structured and the roles for students and faculty. Preliminary data on the educational benefits for both law and social work students will be provided. The clinic has been found to address both student learning needs and the needs of clients in the local community.
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    Social Work and Law Interdisciplinary Service Learning: Increasing Future Lawyers’ Interpersonal Skills
    (Taylor and Francis, 2015) Boys, Stephanie K.; Quiring, Stephanie Q.; Harris, Evan; Hagan, Carrie A.; Robert H. McKinney School of Law
    Social workers and attorneys both interact with persons from diverse backgrounds every day, yet although interpersonal skills are an essential focus of social work education, these skills are not addressed in legal education. Interdisciplinary courses in which social workers and lawyers learn interpersonal skills together and have an opportunity to practice them through service learning opportunities are a way to remedy a gap in legal education. The authors describe a project recently piloted at a large midwestern university in which law and graduate social work students participated in an interdisciplinary course with a service learning component requiring students to work together on cases. As one component of the clinic’s assessment, all students were pre- and posttested via an interpersonal skills survey. The law students showed statistically significant improvement in interpersonal skills at the end of the course. The results indicate a need for increased support for interdisciplinary education, specifically partnerships between the professions of law and social work.
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    Catching Fire: A Case Study Illustration of the Need for an Interdisciplinary Clinical Case Partnership and Resulting Student Successes
    (Sage, 2015-01) Hagan, Carrie A.; Boys, Stephanie K.; Robert H. McKinney School of Law
    There is an increasing pressure calling for legal education’s evolution into building more practical competencies to better prepare law students for practice upon graduation. Collaborative learning between law students and social work students in a clinical setting enriches their respective educations well beyond their respective traditional curricula. By working together, the students learn other methods on how to handle different clients and their unique situations and how to work with someone of a different disciplinary expertise with the same client. This article begins with a law student’s mishandling of an initial client interaction, discusses the advantages of an interdisciplinary education with social work students and then reimagines the initial encounter after the law student has been taught by an interdisciplinary partnership between law and social work schools. Law students gain a better and broader perspective when working alongside social work students to tackle problems that they not only face in a clinical setting, but also will encounter both in practice and in life.
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    Establishing community collaborations in Marion County: Benefits and challenges
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2015-04-17) Boys, Stephanie
    The co-presenters direct an innovative experiential learning experience for law and social work students in which they provide legal and social services for low-income Marion county residents. Students are exposed to a variety of situations in which they interact with residents in our community. As the class examines these experiences, a few questions emerge – what is our community? How do we define community? What does our involvement consist of, and why? What limitations exist for us interacting with our community? The session poster will explore collected data over the two semesters this new clinic has been offered. Data presented will include who is in our community, how do we determine who is in our community, and why are some excluded? How do class, power, agency affiliation and court contact/interaction affect who makes up our community? What are the values that underlie decisions we make to engage with some community organizations or courts over others? How then do we resolve conflicts with courts and partner agencies when differences arise over the best options for our clients and/or our students? What decision making goes into picking a reliable community partner? The research will be presented in a way to spark interdisciplinary conversations with session attendees.
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    Social Work Skills Can Fill the Gaps in Legal Education: Law Student Opinions of their Preparation for Practice with Clients
    (2015-01) Boys, Stephanie K.; Quiring, Stephanie Q.; Hagan, Carrie A.; Robert H. McKinley School of Law
    Legal education focuses on case analysis, without instruction on practice with clients. Social workers argue the client, as the consumer of services, is the best source of knowledge when assessing needs. Therefore, the authors conducted a qualitative study of law students, as consumers of services, regarding whether law school prepares them for practice and what additional training they need. The responses indicate that law curricula do not prepare students for practice, and that students desire training in interviewing and human behavior. The respondents were enthusiastically receptive to interdisciplinary instruction. Therefore, the time is ripe for social work and law schools to further explore interdisciplinary collaborations, which will ultimately result in better served clients.
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    Faculty perceptions of multicultural teaching in a large urban university
    (2012-06) Bigatti, Silvia M.; Gibau, Gina Sanchez; Boys, Stephanie; Grove, Kathy; Ashburn-Nardo, Leslie; Khaja, Khadija; Springer, Jennifer Thorington
    As college graduates face an increasingly globalized world, it is imperative to consider issues of multicultural instruction in higher education. This study presents qualitative and quantitative findings from a survey of faculty at a large, urban, midwestern university regarding perceptions of multicultural teaching. Faculty were asked how they define multicultural teaching, how they engage in multicultural teaching, what they perceive to be the benefits of multicultural teaching, and what barriers to implementing multicultural teaching they experience. Results indicate faculty members most frequently define multicultural teaching as using diverse teaching pedagogies and materials. In line with their definitions, faculty also report engaging in multicultural teaching through use of inclusive course materials. Faculty identified positive learning outcomes for all students as a primary benefit to engaging in multicultural teaching. The primary barrier reported by faculty is an anticipated resistance from students. Variations in responses based on academic discipline and rank of faculty member are discussed.
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    The Dilemma of Spare Embryos After IVF Success: Social Workers’ Role in Helping Clients Consider Disposition Options
    (Advances in Social Work, 2017-02-17) Boys, Stephanie; Walsh, Julie
    Social work services for persons undergoing the in vitro fertilization process (IVF) has greatly lagged behind the medical technology opportunities provided to these clients. Advocacy for social work services for persons undergoing IVF was advanced upon the procedure’s initial development, but there has been a stark lack of recent scholarship regarding social work in fertility health services. The existing literature suggests several talking points regarding the IVF process to be discussed with persons considering IVF, especially the medical and psychological risks of failure. This article discusses a newer and necessary topic to cover in pre-IVF counseling: the possibility of too much success in the form of excess embryos. Although the topic must be covered with sensitivity to the relatively low rate of IVF success, persons receiving care through assisted reproductive technology (ART) need to be prepared for the difficult moral questions raised when IVF procedures result in even more embryos than intended. Social workers need to be prepared to explore the pros and cons of each disposition option with IVF clients.
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    IVF and the Anti-Abortion Movement: Considerations for Advocacy Against Overturning Roe v. Wade
    (IU School of Social Work, 2019) Boys, Stephanie K.; Harris, Evan M.; School of Social Work
    As the anti-abortion movement gains ground in the United States, it is important to explore the potential impact of overturning Roe v. Wade (1973) on the practice of IVF (in vitro fertilization). If the United States Supreme Court abandoned the legal right to early pregnancy terminations, it would open the door for states to enforce laws defining life to begin at conception. In all likelihood, legally establishing life to begin at conception may make IVF far less likely to be successful, significantly more expensive, more likely to result in high risk pregnancies with multiples, and more medically invasive. As the prevalence of IVF grows, this is a practice that should no longer be ignored in the political discourse on abortion. Instead, the unintended consequences of life at conception bills on the cost, availability, safety, and success rates of IVF can provide a strong argument in the toolbox of strategies for social workers lobbying against anti-abortion legislation.
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    Legal Education for Human Rights Work: Social Work Practicum Students in Forensic Placements
    (Springer, 2021-03) Harris, Evan M.; Boys, Stephanie K.; School of Social Work
    The Council on Social Work Education tasks social work programs to ensure students illustrate competency with regard to advocating for and advancing human rights. Given the three generations of human rights experience differing levels of guarantee and protection, multiple tools are needed in order to advance human rights across the board. As human rights cannot be sufficiently realized until they are protected by law, many of those tools are made more useful when combined with knowledge of the legal system and processes. Advocacy is a key aspect of social work practice, and therefore social work education provides a solid foundational understanding on the legislative branch of government. However, as all three branches of government have the ability to impact human rights law, social work programs are advised to integrate more opportunities for students to learn about the judicial and executive branches as well. Recognizing that not all programs are positioned to inject forensic social work education into their curriculum, an interprofessional practicum model that integrates social work students into university legal clinics is provided.