John R Belcher
Biographic Data
| ID | 242242 |
|---|---|
| NAME | John R Belcher |
| GIVEN NAMES | John R |
| FAMILY NAME | Belcher |
| SIGNATURE | BELCHER J R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Maryland, Baltimore |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7261-6256 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 118 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Financialization and Systemic Income Inequality: A Call to Action for Social Work Educators and Practitioners
The transition to a financialized economy has had a devastating impact on workers and consumers and exacerbated wealth and income inequality in the United States and around the world. In this article, the authors explain financialization, a two-fold economic strategy whereby individual corporations invest in the financial market- rather than make capital improvements- to earn a profit and global and domestic economies heavily invest in and depend…
The Great Recession of 2007: An Agenda for Social Justice
The Great Recession, the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression, officially began in December 2007 with an 8 trillion dollar housing bubble and lasted until June 2009, resulting in loss in consumer spending and collapse in the nation’s business investment. For American workers, the Great Recession had far-reaching implications: unemployment, underemployment, pay cuts, and cutbacks in household spending. Although social work has a …
Integrating spirituality with practice and social justice: The challenge for social work
We know that people come to spirituality or faith differently and develop different ways of spiritual understanding and faith, something that is true of clients but also of social work practitioners. At the same time, we are not always willing to publicly discuss these issues. One reason is that when spirituality is discussed, people fear its meaning can be lost. However, this is an important issue for social workers, as clients often want to tal…
Power and Social Work: A Change in Direction
This article examines the elite model of conceptualizing poverty. The authors contend that elites frame the discussions about employment and poverty; consequently, they prevent any meaningful examination of the root causes of poverty and circumvent any proposals that shift the balance of power. The challenge for social work is that the elite model considers the profession as an agent responsible for executing social policy that supports the statu…
Social Stigma and Homelessness: The Limits of Social Change
We examine the issues around the stigmatization of homelessness and how it links to capitalism. Society focuses on the individual as the cause of his or her own state of homelessness, blaming the victim rather than focusing on the larger antecedent social and economic forces, such as unemployment, limited affordable housing, and breakdowns in kinship networks. Social stigma occurs in situations where there is unequal social, economic, and politic…
Protestant Church Charity: History, Trends, and Implications
This paper explores the history and current trends of the Protestant church as a provider of social services. It describes how Protestantism has historically provided temporary assistance in a manner that supports Christian witness and conversion while maintaining social order. Using an historical overview as a backdrop, current trends in providing assistance are examined. Implications for social work policy, practice and research are discussed
Where Have All the Teachers Gone? The Selling Out of Social Work Education
This article addresses a significant challenge in social work education: the move to emphasize research and the downgrading of teaching and practice. We argue that this is a disturbing trend that has the potential to diminish the education of social work students. Grant-funded research has become the end all of social work education. We propose that the profession needs to endorse the scholar-teacher-practitioner that will be able to combine scho…
Charismatic/Pentecostal Christians, Spirituality, and Treatment: The Revival Phenomenon
This article examines the practice of revival as a means of “treating” people with addictions. Revival is practiced widely in Charismatic/Pentecostal circles and many people believe that that their recovery from addictions would not have been possible without it. The practice is reviewed and suggestions are made as to how to provide evidence-based practice while recognizing the contributions of revival practice
Faith-Based Social Services: The Challenges of Providing Assistance
Many faith-based organizations (FBO) provide services to poor people. A major challenge for these organizations is to determine who is eligible to receive services. Thus, these organizations seek to make sure that that the poor are “truly worthy” and do not take advantage of a particular charity. The purpose of the study is to determine the kinds of barriers to service delivery that confront volunteers as they provide services to the poor. Volunt…
Issues of Divine Healing in Psychotherapy: Opening a Dialog
Despite Biblical and empirical support for divine healing, there are several barriers to accepting it as an aspect of psychotherapy for many professionals and religious people. Two of the major barriers to the acceptance of divine healing are professional ideologies and theories. These professional stances likely play a critical role in the disinterest in religion and spiritual experiences reported by the majority of professionals that conduct ps…
Why Has the Social Work Profession Lost Sight of How to End Homelessness
This paper explores the subject of homeless from the perspective of researchers. The authors show that the prevailing model of social science inquiry tends to overlook the broader systemic causes of homelessness. As an alternative, the authors propose the use of participatory action research. Over time, this approach should bring together victims of homelessness with researchers of homelessness and efforts to address the problem of homelessness s…
Is Christian Religious Conservatism Compatible with the Liberal Social Welfare State
This article examines the rise of Christian religious conservatism and explores whether the theological views of the conservative Christian movement are compatible with the liberal social welfare state. The authors conclude that the driving force behind social change should remain with the state, even though faith-based initiatives can provide some basic supports that the social welfare state can use.
Religious Education and Pastoral Counseling: The Classical Pentecostal Experience
Substance Abuse, Homelessness, Developmental Decision-Making and Spirituality: A Women's Health Issue
A qualitative methodology was used to examine the relationship between homeless women's spirituality, substance abuse, moral reasoning and developmental decision-making. Findings indicated that a lack of development in spirituality and the ability to make decisions in childhood is related to homeless, addicted women's inability to maintain abstinence and achieve social independence. Spirituality impacted decisions to abstain from substance abuse …
Helping the Homeless: What About the Spirit of God
Healing and Psychotherapy: The Pentecostal Tradition
Managed Care and Pastoral Counseling: An Opportunity for Spiritual Growth
Welfare Entitlements: Addressing the New Realities
Crowing resistance to redistribution through welfare entitlements confronts social work professionals interested in closing the poverty gap. New political and economic realities require that social workers give more attention to the potential of the Internal Revenue Code in stimulating job growth and in making work more financially rewarding for welfare recipients and low-income workers. Because welfare entitlements are increasingly politically u…
Gender differences among homeless persons: Special services for women
Data from a survey of men and women in urban shelters for the homeless revealed that, while women were more likely than men to request a variety of services, most of the difference was accounted for by the subgroup of women accompanied by children. Homeless men and women without children exhibited few differences in the number of services they requested
Assisting Unemployed Older Workers to Become Reemployed: An Experimental Evaluation
Unemployed older workers face significant labor market obstacles when attempting to find employment. Social workers employed in community-based gerontology settings often intervene with older workers as they search for employment. This article presents the findings from an evaluation and replication of a Job Club intervention strategy designed to assist older workers in regaining employment. Using an experimental pre-post control group design, th…
How to Help the Working Poor Develop Assets
This article explores the inability of the working poor to withstand income shocks. Because they often lack assets, the working poor are increasingly vulnerable to increasing deprivation. Interestingly, the welfare state enables the middle-class to develop and maintain assets through institutional arrangements. It is argued that solutions to the problem of poverty must include ways for the working poor also to develop and maintain assets
The Employed Homeless: A Crisis in Public Policy
Departing from the conventional wisdom of who constitutes the homeless, the "employed homeless" emerge as a subgroup of the homeless population in a state-wide Maryland Study (n= 178) at 25 shelter facilities. Twenty-four percent. of the homeless were found to work fulltime and eleven percent part-time. Gender disability, health, previous mental health hospitalization, military experience and education were significantly associated with employmen…
Poverty, Homelessness, and Racial Exclusion
This article reviews the societal forces that have made homelessness the end result of racial exclusion and inner city isolation. It is argued that significant societal change is necessary to reduce racial exclusion and prevent homelessness
Keeping homeless families together: Examining their needs
A social work response to the international division of labour
Social Stigma and Homelessness: The Limits of Social Change
We examine the issues around the stigmatization of homelessness and how it links to capitalism. Society focuses on the individual as the cause of his or her own state of homelessness, blaming the victim rather than focusing on the larger antecedent social and economic forces, such as unemployment, limited affordable housing, and breakdowns in kinship networks. Social stigma occurs in situations where there is unequal social, economic, and politic…
Are jails replacing the mental health system for the homeless mentally ill
Strategies for overcoming barriers to community-based housing for the chronically mentally ill
Is Christian Religious Conservatism Compatible with the Liberal Social Welfare State
This article examines the rise of Christian religious conservatism and explores whether the theological views of the conservative Christian movement are compatible with the liberal social welfare state. The authors conclude that the driving force behind social change should remain with the state, even though faith-based initiatives can provide some basic supports that the social welfare state can use.
The needs of depressed homeless persons: Designing appropriate services
Rights Versus Needs of Homeless Mentally III Persons
Journal Article Rights Versus Needs of Homeless Mentally III Persons Get access John R. Belcher John R. Belcher John R. Belcher, PhD, is Assistant Professor, School of Social Work and Community Planning, University of Maryland-Baltimore Campus, 525 West Redwood Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Work, Volume 33, Issue 5, September-October 1988, Pages 398–402, https:/…
Why Has the Social Work Profession Lost Sight of How to End Homelessness
This paper explores the subject of homeless from the perspective of researchers. The authors show that the prevailing model of social science inquiry tends to overlook the broader systemic causes of homelessness. As an alternative, the authors propose the use of participatory action research. Over time, this approach should bring together victims of homelessness with researchers of homelessness and efforts to address the problem of homelessness s…
Assisting Unemployed Older Workers to Become Reemployed: An Experimental Evaluation
Unemployed older workers face significant labor market obstacles when attempting to find employment. Social workers employed in community-based gerontology settings often intervene with older workers as they search for employment. This article presents the findings from an evaluation and replication of a Job Club intervention strategy designed to assist older workers in regaining employment. Using an experimental pre-post control group design, th…
Keeping homeless families together: Examining their needs
Helping the Homeless: What About the Spirit of God
Poverty, Homelessness, and Racial Exclusion
This article reviews the societal forces that have made homelessness the end result of racial exclusion and inner city isolation. It is argued that significant societal change is necessary to reduce racial exclusion and prevent homelessness
Social Work and the Casualties of Capitalism: Empowerment of the Urban Poor
The greatest burdens of capitalism fall on the urban poor, as they attempt to integrate themselves into the economic mainstream. This article explores the forces that produce such casualties of capitalism and considers how empowerment-based policy can address the imbalance in resources and power that characterizes the U.S. economic system. It is suggested that empowerment is a process that can occur within a climate ol equity and justice to produ…
Moving into Homelessness After Psychiatric Hospitalization
A six-month follow-up study of 132 former patients of a state hospital examines those subjects who become homeless and compares them with those subjects who do not. A quantitative and qualitative approach is used to document the process of homelessness that occurs after psychiatric hospitalization. A set of policy options is resented that can respond to the special needs of homeless mentally ill persons
Where Have All the Teachers Gone? The Selling Out of Social Work Education
This article addresses a significant challenge in social work education: the move to emphasize research and the downgrading of teaching and practice. We argue that this is a disturbing trend that has the potential to diminish the education of social work students. Grant-funded research has become the end all of social work education. We propose that the profession needs to endorse the scholar-teacher-practitioner that will be able to combine scho…
Welfare Entitlements: Addressing the New Realities
Crowing resistance to redistribution through welfare entitlements confronts social work professionals interested in closing the poverty gap. New political and economic realities require that social workers give more attention to the potential of the Internal Revenue Code in stimulating job growth and in making work more financially rewarding for welfare recipients and low-income workers. Because welfare entitlements are increasingly politically u…
Financialization and Systemic Income Inequality: A Call to Action for Social Work Educators and Practitioners
The transition to a financialized economy has had a devastating impact on workers and consumers and exacerbated wealth and income inequality in the United States and around the world. In this article, the authors explain financialization, a two-fold economic strategy whereby individual corporations invest in the financial market- rather than make capital improvements- to earn a profit and global and domestic economies heavily invest in and depend…
The Great Recession of 2007: An Agenda for Social Justice
The Great Recession, the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression, officially began in December 2007 with an 8 trillion dollar housing bubble and lasted until June 2009, resulting in loss in consumer spending and collapse in the nation’s business investment. For American workers, the Great Recession had far-reaching implications: unemployment, underemployment, pay cuts, and cutbacks in household spending. Although social work has a …
Power and Social Work: A Change in Direction
This article examines the elite model of conceptualizing poverty. The authors contend that elites frame the discussions about employment and poverty; consequently, they prevent any meaningful examination of the root causes of poverty and circumvent any proposals that shift the balance of power. The challenge for social work is that the elite model considers the profession as an agent responsible for executing social policy that supports the statu…
Healing and Psychotherapy: The Pentecostal Tradition
A social work response to the international division of labour
Rights Versus Needs of Homeless Mentally III Persons
Journal Article Rights Versus Needs of Homeless Mentally III Persons Get access John R. Belcher John R. Belcher John R. Belcher, PhD, is Assistant Professor, School of Social Work and Community Planning, University of Maryland-Baltimore Campus, 525 West Redwood Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Work, Volume 33, Issue 5, September-October 1988, Pages 398–402, https:/…
Are jails replacing the mental health system for the homeless mentally ill
On becoming homeless: A study of chronically mentally ill persons
A naturalistic study that focuses on the process of homelessness after psychiatric hospitalization is presented. The posthospital adjustments of 132 former patients were examined for 6 months. Thirty-six percent of these individuals became homeless, and a qualitative research approach was used to frame four categories that described how individuals in each category moved into homelessness. Categories identified were the Wanderers, Tenuous Planner…
Strategies for overcoming barriers to community-based housing for the chronically mentally ill
The needs of depressed homeless persons: Designing appropriate services
Social Work and the Casualties of Capitalism: Empowerment of the Urban Poor
The greatest burdens of capitalism fall on the urban poor, as they attempt to integrate themselves into the economic mainstream. This article explores the forces that produce such casualties of capitalism and considers how empowerment-based policy can address the imbalance in resources and power that characterizes the U.S. economic system. It is suggested that empowerment is a process that can occur within a climate ol equity and justice to produ…
Moving into Homelessness After Psychiatric Hospitalization
A six-month follow-up study of 132 former patients of a state hospital examines those subjects who become homeless and compares them with those subjects who do not. A quantitative and qualitative approach is used to document the process of homelessness that occurs after psychiatric hospitalization. A set of policy options is resented that can respond to the special needs of homeless mentally ill persons
Schizophrenia and social skills: An ?identify and train? approach
Poverty, Homelessness, and Racial Exclusion
This article reviews the societal forces that have made homelessness the end result of racial exclusion and inner city isolation. It is argued that significant societal change is necessary to reduce racial exclusion and prevent homelessness
Keeping homeless families together: Examining their needs
A social work response to the international division of labour
The Employed Homeless: A Crisis in Public Policy
Departing from the conventional wisdom of who constitutes the homeless, the "employed homeless" emerge as a subgroup of the homeless population in a state-wide Maryland Study (n= 178) at 25 shelter facilities. Twenty-four percent. of the homeless were found to work fulltime and eleven percent part-time. Gender disability, health, previous mental health hospitalization, military experience and education were significantly associated with employmen…
Assisting Unemployed Older Workers to Become Reemployed: An Experimental Evaluation
Unemployed older workers face significant labor market obstacles when attempting to find employment. Social workers employed in community-based gerontology settings often intervene with older workers as they search for employment. This article presents the findings from an evaluation and replication of a Job Club intervention strategy designed to assist older workers in regaining employment. Using an experimental pre-post control group design, th…
How to Help the Working Poor Develop Assets
This article explores the inability of the working poor to withstand income shocks. Because they often lack assets, the working poor are increasingly vulnerable to increasing deprivation. Interestingly, the welfare state enables the middle-class to develop and maintain assets through institutional arrangements. It is argued that solutions to the problem of poverty must include ways for the working poor also to develop and maintain assets
Welfare Entitlements: Addressing the New Realities
Crowing resistance to redistribution through welfare entitlements confronts social work professionals interested in closing the poverty gap. New political and economic realities require that social workers give more attention to the potential of the Internal Revenue Code in stimulating job growth and in making work more financially rewarding for welfare recipients and low-income workers. Because welfare entitlements are increasingly politically u…
Gender differences among homeless persons: Special services for women
Data from a survey of men and women in urban shelters for the homeless revealed that, while women were more likely than men to request a variety of services, most of the difference was accounted for by the subgroup of women accompanied by children. Homeless men and women without children exhibited few differences in the number of services they requested
Managed Care and Pastoral Counseling: An Opportunity for Spiritual Growth
Healing and Psychotherapy: The Pentecostal Tradition
Substance Abuse, Homelessness, Developmental Decision-Making and Spirituality: A Women's Health Issue
A qualitative methodology was used to examine the relationship between homeless women's spirituality, substance abuse, moral reasoning and developmental decision-making. Findings indicated that a lack of development in spirituality and the ability to make decisions in childhood is related to homeless, addicted women's inability to maintain abstinence and achieve social independence. Spirituality impacted decisions to abstain from substance abuse …
Helping the Homeless: What About the Spirit of God
Is Christian Religious Conservatism Compatible with the Liberal Social Welfare State
This article examines the rise of Christian religious conservatism and explores whether the theological views of the conservative Christian movement are compatible with the liberal social welfare state. The authors conclude that the driving force behind social change should remain with the state, even though faith-based initiatives can provide some basic supports that the social welfare state can use.
Religious Education and Pastoral Counseling: The Classical Pentecostal Experience
Issues of Divine Healing in Psychotherapy: Opening a Dialog
Despite Biblical and empirical support for divine healing, there are several barriers to accepting it as an aspect of psychotherapy for many professionals and religious people. Two of the major barriers to the acceptance of divine healing are professional ideologies and theories. These professional stances likely play a critical role in the disinterest in religion and spiritual experiences reported by the majority of professionals that conduct ps…
Why Has the Social Work Profession Lost Sight of How to End Homelessness
This paper explores the subject of homeless from the perspective of researchers. The authors show that the prevailing model of social science inquiry tends to overlook the broader systemic causes of homelessness. As an alternative, the authors propose the use of participatory action research. Over time, this approach should bring together victims of homelessness with researchers of homelessness and efforts to address the problem of homelessness s…
Faith-Based Social Services: The Challenges of Providing Assistance
Many faith-based organizations (FBO) provide services to poor people. A major challenge for these organizations is to determine who is eligible to receive services. Thus, these organizations seek to make sure that that the poor are “truly worthy” and do not take advantage of a particular charity. The purpose of the study is to determine the kinds of barriers to service delivery that confront volunteers as they provide services to the poor. Volunt…
Psychology (23 works) · Sociology (21 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (20 works) · Political science (19 works) · Medicine (15 works) · Law (12 works) · Psychiatry (12 works) · Economics (11 works) · Law (11 works) · Social Psychology (11 works)