About

Carolyn Peabody, Ph.D., LCSW, is a Clinical Professor at Stony Brook University School of Social Welfare where she also serves as the Director of the Community, Policy, and Political Social Action Specialization. Her areas of interest include advocacy and empowerment theory and practice, feminist theory and practice, mental health, lesbian and gay issues, the development of political identity among oppressed populations, and the impact of sexual abuse histories among mental health populations. Dr. Peabody's work focuses on addressing social justice issues through community engagement and policy advocacy, emphasizing empowerment and support for marginalized groups.

Selected publications

• Isolation in the midst of a pandemic: social work students rapidly respond to community and field work needs

  Social Work Education · 2020 · 42 citations

  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Public relations

  In the midst of a pandemic, many social work students are currently displaced from their field education, while the needs of their communities are exacerbated. Due to stay-at-home orders, the risk of experiencing social isolation and loneliness, already a major social problem prior to the crisis, has increased, especially for older adults. Seeking to step up in the context of a public emergency, graduate social work students in the United States created a project called GiftsofGab.org, which is a volunteer call-based companion coordination project that connects social work students with those in need of social interaction. We provide a case study of this project and argue that this kind of student-initiated action learning project can provide a workable alternative field placement model in times of crisis and is consistent with the community practice mission of social work.

  PublisherDOI

• Using Photovoice as a Tool to Engage Social Work Students in Social Justice

  Journal of Teaching in Social Work · 2013-06-10 · 63 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  In order to ensure that social workers graduating from social work programs embrace social justice's central role in their professional careers, educators must find creative, theoretically grounded, practice-relevant ways of conveying this value and socializing social work students. This article describes the use of Photovoice as one tool for helping convey that value and describes its theoretical underpinning and use in a social work course. Originally developed as a participatory action research approach largely in public health, Photovoice can also serve as a powerful social work tool that facilitates the development of critical consciousness among community members who photograph and discuss elements of their lives and community. The author describes using this strategy with social work students, asking them as community members themselves to engage in the process of documenting, discussing, and transforming their analysis into an advocacy plan using the photographs. Through this process, the students learn about the power of collaborative creativity and strategic messaging. In the process of demonstrating the importance of relationship and the power of “problem-posing” the professor, as facilitator, role-models while teaching and engendering increasing critical consciousness among class participants.

  PublisherDOI

• Stony Brook University Campus Climate Survey Report: 2004-05

  SUNY Digital Repository Support (State University of New York System) · 2005-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Undetected Abuse Among Intensive Case Management Clients

  Psychiatric Services · 1991-05-01 · 101 citations

  article

  A study of the first 89 clients referred to an intensive case management program revealed substantial previously undetected physical and sexual abuse, yet none of the clients had ever been asked about their abuse experiences. Fifty percent of the clients were adult children of alcoholics, and 34 percent were childhood sexual abuse victims. The adult children of alcoholics experienced significantly more of every kind of abuse, including incest and childhood physical and sexual abuse, than clients whose parents were not alcoholic. Substance abuse problems were reported by more than half of the clients and by 75 percent of the adult children of alcoholics. Self-mutilation and heavy use of mental health services were also correlated with having an alcoholic parent. The authors suggest that mental health providers make routine inquiry about clients' family history of alcoholism and history of physical and sexual abuse.

  PublisherDOI