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Pittsburgh's Social Services

Social Work - Jane Addams

School of Social Work

Yamatani
Hide Yamatani
Professor of Social Work
office: 412-624-1573 or 412-624-0071
hzy@pitt.edu
Faculty Bio


For assistance
in reaching this faculty member, contact:
Sharon Blake
office: 412-624-4364
cell: 412-277-6926
blake@pitt.edu

Areas of Expertise

Reducing recidivism in prisons

Research by Professor of Social Work Hide Yamatani has revealed that offering support services to inmates at the Allegheny County Jail lessens the odds that the prisoner will be headed back to jail within that same year.

Yamatani and his team studied a group of 300 adult male inmates who had received such in-jail services as drug and alcohol treatment, GED preparation, stress and anger management, parenting skills, and vocational training. Upon their release, the men were encouraged to seek support services from more than 60 community-based organizations. The former inmates, who were tracked and interviewed for one year, had a 50 percent lower recidivism rate (16.5 percent) compared to another group of inmates (33.1 percent) who did not receive help..

Larry E. Davis

Dean of the School of Social Work and director of the school's Center on Race and Social Problems
office: 412-624-6304
ledavis@pitt.edu
Faculty Bio

For assistance in reaching the faculty member, contact:
Sharon Blake
office: 412-624-4364
cell: 412-277-6926
blake@pitt.edu

Areas of Expertise

Race, diversity, and gender and class issues; interracial group dynamics; the impact of race gender and class on interpersonal interactions; African American family formation

Background

The inaugural holder of Pitt's Donald M. Henderson Professorship, Davis is director and founder of Pitt's Center on Race and Social Problems, the first research center on race at any school of social work in the nation. The center and its programs look at how race affects economic and education gaps, relations between groups of people, mental health, criminal justice, youth and families, and the elderly.

As dean, Davis has recruited to the University faculty who conduct research on race, and he has encouraged other Pitt schools and departments to do the same. He has added several new courses on race issues to the social work curriculum and has created a new Journal on Race and Social Problems, expected to be published this year. He is the coauthor of Race, Gender and Class: Guidelines for Practice With Individuals, Families and Groups (Prentice Hall, 1989) and the author of Working With African American Males: A Guide to Practice (Sage Publications, 1999) and Black and Single: Finding and Choosing a Partner Who is Right for You (Agate, 3rd edition, 2004). Most recently, he has served as coeditor of the 20th edition of the Encyclopedia of Social Work (NASW Press and Oxford University Press).

university center for social and urban research (UCSUR)

Richard Schulz
Director of UCSUR and its gerontology program and associate director of the Pitt/UPMC Institute on Aging
office: 412-624-5443
schulz@pitt.edu
Pitt Web site
REACH Web site

For assistance in reaching the faculty member, contact:
Morgan Kelly
office: 412-624-4356
cell: 412-897-1400
mekelly@pitt.edu

Areas of Expertise

Gerontology, physical and emotional issues of the elderly and caregivers, Pittsburgh social issues

Background
Richard Schulz is director of Pitt’s University Center for Social and Urban Research and its gerontology program and associate director of the Pitt/UPMC Institute on Aging.

Pittsburgh hosts one of the United State’s highest concentrations of senior citizens. Schulz primarily investigates the physical and emotional problems of the elderly and their caregivers. He is the principle investigator for the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) research initiative, Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer’s Caregiver Health (REACH), which was launched in 1995 to develop and test new ways to help families manage the daily activities and the stresses of caring for people with Alzheimer’s disease or a related disorder.

Schulz’ landmark study, “How TLC Makes You Sick: Caring for Loved Ones Endangers Health,” was the first research to show that being a strained caregiver is a risk factor for mortality. As one of the nation’s preeminent gerontologists, Schulz is currently involved in numerous studies related to health care for the elderly, including projects supported by the NIH, the Alzheimer’s Association, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute on Aging, and the National Institute of Mental Health. He also sits on federal review panels, serving as chair of the NIH Center for Scientific Review Study Section. In addition, Schulz has served as editor or editorial board member of various gerontological journals.