Dr. Michael S Campbell

Purpose: This study explores the alignment between themes identified by Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered tools and those from a traditional, manual scoping review, focusing on generative AI’s role in streamlining time-intensive research processes
Materials and Methods: Thematic findings from a human-driven scoping review on peer support specialists in medical settings for opioid use disorder (OUD) were compared with outputs from NotebookLM, UTVERSE, and Gemini. Fifteen peer-reviewed articles were uploaded to each AI tool, and a standardized prompt directed the generative AI to identify themes using only the provided articles, which were then compared to the human-coded findings.
Results: The AI models identified between 53% and 80% of the themes found in the original manual analysis. While AI tools identified novel themes that could broaden the scope of analysis, they also generated inaccurate or misleading themes and overlooked others entirely.
Discussion: The variability in generative AI performance highlights its potential and limitations in thematic analysis. AI identified additional themes and misinterpreted or missed others. Human expert review remains necessary to validate the accuracy and relevance of generative AI, while addressing ethical considerations in alignment with the values of the social work profession.
Conclusion: A hybrid approach that combines generative AI with expert review has the potential to support current manual research approaches and establish a robust methodology. Continued evaluation, addressing limitations, and establishing best practices for human-AI collaboration and transparent reporting are crucial for the social work research field.

This AI-enhanced scoping review examined the impact of supervision on certified peer support specialists (CPSS) treating Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) in medical settings. A search of PubMed, EBSCO, and Elicit AI identified 20 articles. The literature primarily focuses on peer relationships with individuals with OUD and supervision, revealing barriers to effective treatment and supervision. While highlighting the potential of supervision to enhance access and the use of peer-modified evidence-based practices, few studies directly address the interplay of peers, OUD, medical settings, and supervision. The review concludes that supervision is vital for optimizing peer support in OUD medical contexts, emphasizing the need for further research in this understudied area.

Higher education institutions have a role to equip students with skills for community engagement and civic participation through a variety of methods. Social work educators aim to prepare students with the knowledge, skills, and values to promote social justice and human rights through practice, research, and advocacy. For some students, a limited understanding of advocacy can influence their community engagement and identity as agents of change. Studies show that learning experiences connecting students to the community promote active citizenship, social justice, and human rights efforts. Events such as Legislative Education and Advocacy Day (LEAD) expose social work students to the legislative and advocacy process with the intention to promote civic engagement and enhance social work advocacy skills. This study utilized photovoice as a community-based action research approach to explore the impact of LEAD on social work students' engagement, advocacy skills, connection to the social work community, and perceptions of advocacy. Participants were asked to take photographs of their experiences, provide insight into the photos, and participate in a debriefing session. An analysis of the discussion around the photographs identified ten thematic codes suggesting that events such as LEAD can be a tool utilized by social work educators to enhance student understanding of advocacy (approaches, perspective, and engagement), development of advocacy skills (skills and processes), social work identity (purpose, support for the voiceless, and community), and social justice efforts to create agents of change.

Effectively supporting school social workers (SSW) in using data to make evidence informed decisions can be challenging for many reasons. This study examines how SSW utilize data across each step of the data engagement framework and, explores the confidence level of SSW in identifying data as well as specific types of data being utilized in the school setting. Data were collected though mixed-methods survey items with social workers in one district in central Florida asking about the different ways in which SSW were engaged with data usage. Results from the study indicate that SSW felt more comfortable in identifying interventions and their ability to intervene than having the right data, making meaning of data, or evaluating the impact of their interventions. These themes were further explored using the qualitative items which identified specific aspects of data engagement including identification of the right data, accessing data, interpreting results, deciding interventions, monitoring implementation and how SSW learn about interventions.

The Opioid epidemic and the subsequent Opioid use disorders (OUD) stemming from this epidemic have devastated individuals, families, and communities. These impacts have an outsized effect on rural communities and are exacerbated by the discrepancy in best practice recommendations that call for a resource-intensive framework of integrated treatment options and the limited treatment resources found in rural communities. This pilot study explores data collected from several members (n=45) of an establishing ambulatory clinic-based treatment team (composed of medical, behavioral health, and administrative staff) from a network of five primary care sites, which were developed to address OUD in rural America Appalachia. Participants completed the Assessment for Collaborative Environments (ACE-15) and four open ended questions about team integration. The findings call for changes to OUD treatment from policy makers and providers, adaptations to higher education focus in social work, competency-based learning, a call for action in stigma reduction, and interagency collaboration. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has fractured social connections across all industries, including higher education. Some social work departments were forced to shift from traditional on-ground learning to adopt virtual delivery methods, while others voluntarily made this shift to join the emerging online education trends. When the pandemic restrictions abate, online programs may seek to promote social connections through targeted activities such as adopting a grounded residency. Online programs in social work and other fields have varied application in using residencies to bridge the online and on-ground modalities for learning. Students often report asynchronous online platforms foster a reduced sense of engagement in learning and low levels of connected engagement with faculty and peers. In social work programs, these residencies build on explicit and implicit curricular aims and have an argued externality of building engagement. This paper explores data collected from students (n=131) in a master's in social work program before the initiation of pandemic social distancing protocols and their perceptions of engagement related to their grounded residency experience in one online social work program in the southeastern United States. Results of survey data (quantitative and qualitative) are presented and analyzed with a discussion of the relative impact residency efforts may have on students' reported levels of engagement and opportunities to increase social connection in a post-pandemic environment.

The Nebraska Panhandle Creators' Game event (CG) was a grassroots-driven community engagement project for the Nebraska Panhandle region, a largely rural region with a vibrant American Indian (AI) population. The CG event explored the role social workers can play in leveraging a youth sport (lacrosse) as a convening platform for public health messaging and to embrace the fundamental fact that the AI people live with an intimate connection to their community, the land, and their people. This connection is pivotal for self-directed change in communities that actively comingle with American Indian people. A feasibility study was done to explore respondents' perceptions of the impact of the event on youth development, community engagement, and cultural connections. The pilot data collected for this project supports the literature on participatory research as a key to engaging AI communities. Data trends are provided, and the implications of these findings are discussed.

The opioid epidemic has wreaked havoc in rural America. Evidence-based approaches have been found to limit overdose and death related to the opioid crisis. We explore the current trends in treatment for Opioid Used Disorder (OUD) and present an argument that social workers in rural settings play a vital role to help facilitate the linkages needed for clients seeking OUD care. The fable of Stone soup is used to link the power of community connections in rural settings and potential that social workers play in convening the "right ingredients" for success in OUD management.

Institutions of higher education are encountering shifting Retention; online education; trends in student enrollment and must embrace interdisciplinary graduate social work; MSW aapproaches to address student recruitment and retention. This study explores reasons why students choose to leave an online MSW program. Data were collected through telephone interviews with students leaving the program during a five-year period. A thematic coding analysis indicated life issues, communication from faculty and administration, internship difficulties and work-life balance were among the most frequently expressed reasons affecting student retention. Results indicate online programs must account for a balance between academics and external factors in order to address the needs of adult students.