Jaime Alvelo:
CLASS OF 1958
Crotona Park West Public School 4Class of 1958
Bronx, NY
University of Puerto RicoClass of 1989
Rio piedras,
Columbia University - Social WorkClass of 1986
New york, NY
University of Puerto RicoClass of 1972
Rio piedras,
W.W. Niles Middle School 118Class of 1961
Bronx, NY
Jaime's Story
Life
Went to PS4 in 1956; JHS 118 until 1960; went to PR in 1960; finished HS in my hometown Aibonito, PR; graduated from Catholic University in Ponce 1969; did MSW at UPR in 1972; married in 1971; three daughters; went back to New York to study in 1979. Graduated from Columbia University in 1986 with DSW. Associate professor at Barry University in 1986-87; went back to PR in 1987; taught at UPR School of Social Work until 1989; started at San Juan VA in 1990. Live in Carolina near San Juan Airport. Now 56 and still healthy enjoying my life. Jaime
Military
Did 10 years in National Guard at Aibonito, Puerto Rico. Went to OCS Class #13 at Salinas, Puerto Rico, 1976. Went to Infantry Basic Officer Course in Ft. Benning about 1977. Took a leave to study my doctorate and went on to inactive reserve about 1982.
My profession
I'm a social work researcher in the Veterans Administration at San Juan Puerto Rico. As a researcher I've specialized in adapting standardized assessment tools for our Spanish speaking population. This has been an interdisciplinary effort between clinical social workers, psychometricians, psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical nurses, a bio statistician and supporting staff. It has required: formal funding from the Veterans Administration; authorization of the copyright holders of the scales; support from the faculty and students of social work schools; endorsement by the local NASW Chapter and other local social work organizations. It has, most of all received support from our clinical social workers, who find useful having standardized assessment tools for their Spanish speaking clients and allowed testing these instruments with them. For this to have happened our Veterans Administration social work managers at all levels provided time-off, motivation and formal endorsement as a requirement for approval in our local Research & Development Committee and the Veterans Administration Health Services Research and De...Expand for more
velopment Service in Central Office. Once the scales were validated it has also required publishing the results in several social work journals to disseminate the efforts and make known the availability of such scales. In addition, training workshops have been required to prepare social workers for their use again with the collaboration of social work schools and organizations.
Q. Why did I become a social worker?
I came to choose social work as a career after having been four years in a Catholic seminary studying to be a priest. Realizing that celibacy was not something I was cut-out for I searched other fields where I thought I could help others in need. Thus there was this basic instinct to go out there and help people out which led me to complete a BA with a concentration in Social Work, get an MSW from an accredited School of Social Work and later on, enjoy the privilege of doing a Doctorate in Social Welfare at Columbia University through a scholarship for minority students from National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
Important Issues Regarding Hispanics
Just in Puerto Rico we have over 150,000 Hispanic veterans that have served in all major wars and conflicts during the past 100 years. Although most veterans can understand and speak English our cultural milieu is Hispanic and Spanish is spoken at home. Thus in a profession that prides itself of approaching practice from a person in environment perspective, language and culture play a major role in our assessment and interventions. To be effective we can not only treat the individual in isolation but also intervene appropriately in their social systems. Thus adapting standardized instruments for assessment and practice evaluation with Hispanics is not only a practical necessity but it also becomes an ethical issue as well. It behooves our profession to support formal efforts to continue developing standardized assessment tools for all cultural groups in this multi-cultural society.
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