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May 30, 2008

This paper uses a unique data set containing detailed micro-information on organisations, managers, workers and volunteers belonging to public, private forprofit and private nonprofit institutions delivering social services in Italy. The analysis aims to estimate the determinants of wages across organisations at a sector level focusing on the role of hiring and job search methods, including informal networks. We find that, independent of the organisation type, being hired through public competitions brings with it a substantial wage premium (ranging from 7 to 32%). Informal networks bring with them a wage penalty (-6.5%) in the state sector, where formal hiring methods are common, and a wage premium (6.3%) in social cooperatives and religious institutions, where formal hiring methods are not common. Interestingly, the differences in hiring and in job search methods between state and private organisations explain from 50% to 100% of the conditional wage differentials across organisation types. Our interpretation of these findings is that nonprofit organisations prefer informal recruitment methods not for nepotistic reasons, but to better select the most motivated workers, those who share the nonprofit mission. This paper adds to the previous literature by suggesting that in addition to lower than average monetary compensations, informal recruitment methods are part of the process of self-selection of motivated workers in nonprofit organisations.

The proportion of herbal cannabis has increased markedly in recent years. In 2002 it was estimated that it represented around 30% of police seizures of cannabis (Reference 2), but by 2004/5 (Reference 3) this had increased to 55%. In the present study, herbal cannabis accounted for over 80% of all cannabis seized by the police on the street when giving a warning. Furthermore, almost all of that material was sinsemilla. There has been a decline in the prevalence of cannabis resin, and traditional imported herbal cannabis is now rarely seen (Table 2). Some sinsemilla is imported from other European countries and some is domestically-produced. This rise in the market share of herbal cannabis over the past six years has also been reported in samples submitted to the FSS (Reference 4) and LGC Forensics (Reference 5) for evidential purposes, although they may be less representative of what is available at street level. The median potency of sinsemilla in this study (15.0%) was only marginally greater than the median value (13.98%) reported by Potter et al. (Reference 3) for samples collected in 2004/5. Since 1990, when intensively-grown cannabis first appeared in the UK its potency has slowly increased, but this appears to have stabilised. By contrast, the mean/median potency of cannabis resin and imported herbal cannabis has remained largely unchanged over many years (Reference 2). Although the potency of sinsemilla is, on average, 2-3 times that of imported herbal cannabis or cannabis resin, the various populations show considerable overlap (Figure 6).

A review of the current literature on the mental health issues of children and
youth in foster care reveal that said children are at a greater risk of having psychological,
social and developmental delays as compared to children in the general population. The
regularity and severity of emotional problems among children in foster care seem
strongly related to their history of deprivation, neglect and abuse, and the lack of security
and permanence in their lives. (Child Welfare League of America [CWLA], n.d.) As
reported in the Surgeon General’s 1999 report on mental health (U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services), treatment of many serious emotional and mental disorders
is effective. According to the report, psychotherapy, behavioral intervention,
psychopharmacology, and other interventions have been demonstrated to be effective for
many childhood disorders. Moreover, there is a consensus that early identification and
treatment can help children with mental health problems reach their full potential.

SSA field offices largely met work demands between fiscal years 2005 and 2007 despite operating with fewer staff and an increased demand for services, but staffing reductions may have had some adverse effects. Field offices were able to minimize the impact of staffing reductions on work because staff productivity increased by 4.9 percent. SSA and its field offices used various strategies to manage its work with fewer staff. Field offices shared work among offices and redirected staff to meet critical needs. SSA also encouraged customers to make greater use of Internet and other electronic services. Additionally, SSA deferred work that it deemed a relatively low priority, such as conducting reviews of beneficiaries’ continuing eligibility. Deferring these reviews, means that beneficiaries who no longer qualify for benefits may still receive payments—which may decrease SSA’s chances of recovering the erroneous payments. Despite SSA efforts to manage the staffing reductions, customers experienced longer waiting times and more unanswered calls to field offices, according to SSA data. Also, staff reported experiencing high stress levels and insufficient time for training.

This revised code of practice provides guidance to registered medical practitioners, approved clinicians, managers and staff of hospitals, and approved mental health professionals on how they should proceed when undertaking duties under the Mental Health Act 1983.

May 29, 2008

In the event that a child must be separated from his/her parents’ care it is imperative that family connections are preserved for that child. One such way to ensure that this occurs is through placement of children or youth in a home with a relative caregiver (also commonly referred to as a kinship caregiver). “Keeping children with family members sustains their connection to their family roots; usually they are in close proximity to other relatives, including siblings, which allows them to receive family support that is unavailable or infrequent with non-kin placements.” (Whitley & Kelley, 2007, pg. 5) Additionally, relative foster placements may be beneficial as they “may minimize trauma by providing the child with a sense of family support.” (Scarcella, Ehrle, & Geen, 2003, pg. 1) There are three unique types of kinship foster placements for children.

We use a unique data set on post-release behavior of former Italian inmates to estimate the effect of prison conditions on recidivism. By combining different sources of data we exploit variation in prison conditions measured by: 1) the extent of overcrowding at the prison level, 2) the number of deaths in the facility of detention during an inmate’s stay and 3) the distance of the prison from the chief town of the province where the prison is located. By considering inmates who served their sentence in a jurisdiction different from the hometown in which they live after release, we can include province of residence fixed effects and account for the main source of unobserved heterogeneity correlated to prison conditions. We find that a harsher prison treatment does not reduce former inmates’ criminal activity. The extent of overcrowding and the number of deaths do not decrease the probability to be re-arrested. Instead, we find evidence that the degree of isolation measured by distance from the prison of detention to the chief town of the province where the prison is located increases recidivism.

The number of uninsured in the United States is a large and growing problem. In 2006, 46.5 million nonelderly people –about 18% of the population under age 65—lacked health coverage, which represented an increase of 3.5 million people since 2004. As health coverage becomes increasingly unaffordable, especially during downturns in the economy, the number of uninsured is likely to continue to increase. Research shows that the uninsured have reduced access to health services and worse health outcomes, making expanding health coverage a key health policy issue.

This report covers the eighth in a series of annual surveys that investigate the circumstances of British families with dependent children. Topics covered include family characteristics, health, education, work, income, benefits and tax credits and social capital.

Welcome to the Tune In for Child Safety Training, a comprehensive training program created to promote the safety and protection of children in New York City. This training was designed to help group child care center staff in New York City learn the indicators that may signal possible abuse and maltreatment. It also outlines what to do if you suspect that a child in your program might be abused or maltreated. It is your responsibility to keep the children you care for safe; this training will help you take on this responsibility with the knowledge you need to make important decisions.

Despite limitations of current research, we can draw some conclusions about adolescent mental health. The evidence shows:
• One in five adolescents experience significant symptoms of emotional distress and nearly one in ten are emotionally impaired;
• The most common disorders among adolescents include depression, anxiety disorders and attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder and substance use disorder.

This brief also assesses shortcomings of current data and offers recommendations to address these limitations. We hope this brief helps strengthen systems that monitor the mental and emotional health of young people at national, state and local levels. Monitoring systems are an important component of efforts to promote mental health, and prevent and treat mental health problems. Such efforts promote a healthy adolescence and lay the groundwork for healthy adulthood. Before turning to mental health data, we review definitions of mental health and describe methods for assessing mental health status.

In 2005, the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA), in partnership with the Healthcare Commission, embarked on a joint three-year programme of annual independent assessments as part of an initiative to enhance the quality, consistency and effectiveness of drug treatment services. The two organisations worked jointly to set up the process for the reviews and the work is governed by a memorandum of understanding. The NTA is a specialist sponsor and the Healthcare Commission is the inspector and regulator.

May 28, 2008

Parents Anonymous® mutual support groups for parents are aimed at strengthening families and reducing child maltreatment. NCCD performed a national evaluation to assess whether parent participation in Parents Anonymous® was associated with change in child maltreatment outcomes and in risk and protective factors. The study sought to answer the question: Does Parents Anonymous® work to reduce the risk of child maltreatment and, if so, for all parents or for some more than others? The results of this evaluation show that parents were positively affected in a variety of important ways by their experience with Parents Anonymous®. After attending Parents Anonymous® meetings, parents indicated a statistically significant reduction of risk factors for child abuse and neglect.

Three child fatalities over a 16-month period, between August 2005 and December 2006, raised serious concerns about safety in foster homes verified by Mesa Family Services, a child placing agency (CPA). After the first two child fatalities in Mesa foster homes, the CPA relinquished its license and contract with DFPS. Its foster homes transferred to other CPAs, the majority to Therapeutic Family Life. In December 2006, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) formed a Rapid Response Team to investigate and review risk factors in all foster homes previously verified by Mesa Family Services to ensure the safety of foster children in these homes. The executive-directed Rapid Response project entailed placement suspensions, statewide onsite investigations of 126 foster homes within a two-week period, reverification of detailed background and criminal history check information, additional FBI and local law enforcement checks, and a final review by trained risk assessment staff of all of the gathered information. Although the Rapid Response Teams found the majority of foster homes to be providing safe and adequate care, some homes had minor compliance concerns and some had major safety concerns.

Key points from the report:
- The general public are broadly sympathetic to people with mental health problems and community care.
- However, some attitudes towards people with mental health problems are worse compared to when the Department of Health first commissioned the poll in 1994, including two relating to fears of patients.
- On the other hand, several attitudes that had worsened over the period up until 1997 have since improved.
- Only two attitudes have changed significantly since last year, both an improvement – more think people with mental illness have been subject to ridicule for too long and less think it is easy to tell them from ‘normal people’.

The Home Office have begun a pilot poster campaign to raise awareness amongst male sex buyers of the exploitation and trafficking involved in off street prostitution.

The fourth in the four-part series of programs focused on the child welfare workforce throughout March— National Professional Social Work Month. Large caseloads, long hours, low pay and high staff turnover are prime factors that contribute to burnout among child welfare workers—forcing many to leave the profession altogether. On this week’s program, guests discuss the need for better pay and innovative approaches for keeping more workers in the field. Call in with your questions or comments.

While there is some general agreement that children who experience child abuse/neglect may experience a range of developmental delays across developmental domains, little is known about the true extent of developmental problems of children substantiated for abuse/neglect, and those subsequently removed from parental custody and placed in an alternative living environment. This dearth of information is in part due to the inconsistencies in child welfare practice across jurisdictions; variability in state and jurisdictional eligibility criteria for infants and toddlers for Part C services (Shackelford, 2006); differential policies, procedures, and practice competencies of public child welfare workers; and the differential availability of resources to serve children once identified. Further complicating the issue is the requirement under Part C that states must provide services to children who meet the state criterion for eligibility, but states may also choose to serve children who are “at risk of having substantial developmental delays if early intervention services are not provided.” Only five states (CA, HI, MA, NM, & WV) currently serve such at risk children.

Drug misuse wastes lives, destroys families and damages communities. It costs taxpayers millions to deal with the health problems caused by drugs and to tackle the crimes such as burglary, car theft, mugging and robbery which are committed by some users to fund their habit. The drug trade is linked to serious organised crime, including prostitution and the trafficking of people and firearms. Drugs remain a serious and complex problem that we – along with all modern societies – must face.

May 27, 2008

The Medicaid Buy-In program is part of a broader federal effort to improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities. Authorized by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999, the Buy-In program allows states to expand Medicaid coverage to workers with disabilities whose income and assets would ordinarily make them ineligible for Medicaid. States can customize their Buy-In programs to their unique needs, resources, and objectives. This flexibility leads to considerable state-to-state variation in three outcomes that are key measures of program performance: enrollment, employment, and earnings. This variation also creates an ideal opportunity not only to examine the relationship between program design features and program outcomes, but also to identify which features can lead to improved employment outcomes for people with disabilities.

Health care has emerged as a major issue in national debates leading up to the 2008 presidential election, with surveys finding that it ranks among the top three issues for voters, after the economy and the war in Iraq. For some voters, health care costs also play a role in economic anxieties, so that economic and health care concerns are expanding the reach of the issue. At least in part because of public interest in the issue, the presidential candidates have developed plans to address the challenges of the rising uninsured rate in the nation and the unabated growth in health care costs.

South Australia has an area of 985,335 square kilometres (12.8% of the total Australian land mass) and shares a border with all other mainland states and the Northern Territory. South Australia is the driest of the Australian States and Territories and supplements its water supply with water piped from the River Murray, the only major river in the State. The estimated population at June 2007 was 1,584,513 or 7.5% of the total Australian population.

Until recently, the issue of permanence for youth has lacked sufficient attention by the child
welfare community and misconceptions about the issue abound, including:
A) People don't want to adopt teens
B) Teens do not want to be adopted
C) Placements of teens are unsuccessful.
Research on homelessness and poverty found that 49% of youth who aged out of care in 2002
and 2003 were homeless at some point over the next three years. 43% of youth were high
school dropouts with a median income of $598.33 per month. 37% percent had children of
their own.2 These findings dovetail with Courtney's3 findings that youth who “age out” of the
child welfare system often struggle to stay in school, find stable housing, support themselves
financially, and secure medical services.

The "Universe of Competencies" is Ohio's comprehensive listing of all the knowledge and skills required for child welfare staff to do their jobs. This "Universe" is the essential driving force behind the OCWTP's comprehensive, competency-based inservice training (CCBIT) system. The competencies are the criteria used to assess individual training needs, from which aggregate training needs for an agency, county, region, or the whole state are determined. In addition, the competencies guide the development of all of the OCWTP's training courses and curriculum content and determine what training expertise are needed in the OCWTP's trainer pool.

Context
• At 30 September 2007 there were 44,200 children who had been looked after continuously for at least twelve months by English local authorities. This is the same figure as at 30 September 2006.
• 33,600 of these children were of school age and of these 28% had SEN statements, 13% missed at least 25 days of school, and 1% received a permanent exclusion.

Key Findings
- ERA's implementation, which faced difficulties in the first year of operation, improved considerably over time, as staff grew more skilled in delivering a post-employment intervention.
- Working lone parents in ERA were much more likely than those in the control group to receive retention and advancement-related help or advice from Jobcentre Plus staff.
- Most ERA customers were aware of ERA's financial incentives, although many did not meet the conditions for receiving them.
- Lone parents earned substantially more than they would have without the programme, and New Deal for Lone Parents (NDLP) customers experienced a 24 per cent increase in earnings.
- ERA had positive impacts on earnings, largely because it increased the proportion of lone parents working full time.
- ERA increased the length of time that lone parents worked full time by accelerating entry into such jobs.
- Lone parents on ERA were more likely to combine training or education with employment, and were more likely to take steps to advance in work. However, there is yet little impact of movement into 'better' jobs or an increase in qualifications.

May 23, 2008

Care homes provide a 24-hour service. Many research projects have focused on day-time care and provision in care homes, but little is known about night-time care practices and provision, especially the views and experiences of residents and the views and practices of night care staff. The aim of this action research study was to explore night-time care more closely. The first stage of the study was exploratory, using interviews and observations to identify the main concerns and issues. In stage two, the researchers worked with the night staff to implement and evaluate changes based on stage one. Recommendations are based on the findings from both parts of the study.

Latinos in the United States continue to be affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, accounting for a greater proportion of AIDS cases than their representation in the U.S. population overall, and the second highest AIDS case rate in the nation, by race/ethnicity. The epidemic has had a disproportionate impact on Latinas and young adults, and the impact of HIV/AIDS among Latinos varies across the country and by place of birth. Moreover, studies have shown that Latinos with HIV/AIDS may face additional barriers to accessing care than their white counterparts. Today, there are approximately 1.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S, including about 200,000 Latinos. As the largest and fastest growing ethnic minority group in the U.S., addressing the impact of HIV/AIDS in the Latino community takes on increased importance in efforts to improve the nation’s health.

This report provides a first look at introduced legislation in 2008 and presents selected examples of enacted laws relating to immigrants and refugees. This process of legislative tracking and reporting is based on a comprehensive and inclusive methodology and captures all state legislation in which immigrants – whether authorized or unauthorized, temporary migrants, aliens and refugees – are affected. As of March 31, 2008, at least 1,106 bills have been considered in 44 states this year. Twenty-six states have enacted 44 laws and adopted 38 resolutions or memorials.

Women have been affected by HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic, but the impact on women has grown over time. Women of color, particularly Black women, have been especially hard hit and represent the majority of new HIV and AIDS cases among women, and the majority of women living with the disease. Many women with HIV/AIDS are low-income and most have important family responsibilities, potentially complicating the management of their illness. Research suggests that women with HIV face limited access to care and experience disparities in access, relative to men. Women are also more biologically susceptible to HIV infection during sex, and experience different clinical symptoms and complications. Given these trends and issues, efforts to stem the tide of the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic will increasingly depend on how and to what extent its effect on women and girls is addressed.

Women have been affected by HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic, but the impact on women has grown over time. Women of color, particularly Black women, have been especially hard hit and represent the majority of new HIV and AIDS cases among women, and the majority of women living with the disease. Many women with HIV/AIDS are low-income and most have important family responsibilities, potentially complicating the management of their illness. Research suggests that women with HIV face limited access to care and experience disparities in access, relative to men. Women are also more biologically susceptible to HIV infection during sex, and experience different clinical symptoms and complications. Given these trends and issues, efforts to stem the tide of the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic will increasingly depend on how and to what extent its effect on women and girls is addressed.

The New York State Legislature required the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) to develop a comprehensive study that: (1) estimates the prevalence of sexually exploited children within New York State, (2) identifies the unique needs of sexually exploited children, (3) specifies the types of programs and services that best meet such needs, and (4) evaluates the capacity of the current children’s service system to meet the needs of commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC). Under contract with OCFS, Westat designed and conducted a prospective survey to estimate the prevalence of these children in the current service system and to specify available and needed services.

The primary function of Ontario child protection agencies is to determine if children have been maltreated, or if they are at risk of maltreatment, and then to provide services to mitigate the risk in cases where child protection concerns exist. These child protection agencies across the province carry out the various components of their work in different ways. Some agencies use the generic model of service delivery in which one worker takes primary responsibility for a case from the investigation that follows the initial referral and throughout any ongoing services that are provided. Others use the specialized model in which two or more workers each assume responsibility for various components of the investigation and ongoing aspects of the services.

May 22, 2008

- More than half (57%) of Indigenous respondents were under 25 years of age.
- On average there were 3.2 people per Indigenous household.
- An Australian Indigenous language was spoken at home by less than 1% of Indigenous respondents.
- 35% and 21% of respondents aged 15 years and over stated Year 10 and Year 12 or equivalent respectively as their highest level of schooling.
- 54% of Indigenous respondents aged 15 years and over were in the labour force. Of these respondents, unemployed persons accounted for 19%.
- The most common Occupations reported were Labourers, Community and Personal Service Workers, and Technicians and Trade Workers (19%, 16% and 13% respectively).
- The most common Industries of employment reported were Health Care and Social Assistance (14%) Public Administration and Safety (10%), and Education and Training (9%).
- 59% of Indigenous households were living in rented dwellings and 36% of households were living in dwellings that were owned with or without a mortgage.

Member institutions of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities are witnessing measurable success in identifying and implementing cost containment strategies in order to reduce operating costs. Nearly all survey respondents at AASCU institutions place high importance on cost containment, with most having implemented cost control strategies in multiple operational areas. As a result, a majority of the state colleges and universities participating in this study indicated sufficient satisfaction with their cost containment efforts.

Children in the child welfare system constitute a particularly vulnerable group with significant mental health risks and needs (Halfon, Mendonca, & Berkowitz, 1995). These children have been exposed to multiple risk factors, such as poverty, violence, homelessness, abuse and neglect, alcohol and drug abuse among their caregivers, and often the emotional trauma of separation from their families. It is well established that traumatic experiences occurring in early childhood, such as abuse or neglect, affect children’s ability to achieve stage-salient developmental milestones across subsequent age periods (e.g., secure attachment, autonomy, self-regulation, peer acceptance, academic achievement), resulting in a variety of problem outcomes (Cicchetti & Toth, 2000).

Local authority implementation of Every Child a Reader is most effective where early reading and improving the quality of literacy intervention has been defined as a strategic priority for the local authority, linked to its identified key issues – for example, boys’ achievement, narrowing the social class attainment gap, early intervention to help children achieve all the Every Child Matters outcomes, tackling high levels of social exclusion in particular communities. Once it has been identified as a strategic priority, Every Child a Reader is effective when there is subsequent high-level and overt support for the programme.

May 21, 2008

Welcome to the premier issue of Philanthropy Annual, a new yearly publication that highlights the news, people, organizations, and giving trends that shape our field. Supporting the Foundation Center’s goal to build wide public understanding of philanthropy, this volume will benefit anyone with an interest in the nonprofit sector.

- More than one-third of U.S. adults -– over 72 million people -- were obese in 2005-2006. This includes 33.3 percent of men and 35.3 percent of women. The figures show no statistically significant change from 2003-2004, when 31.1 percent of men were obese and 33.2 percent of women were obese.
- Adults aged 40-59 had the highest obesity prevalence compared with other age groups. Approximately 40 percent of men in this age group were obese, compared with 28 percent of men aged 20-39, and 32 percent of men aged 60 and older. Among women, 41 percent of those aged 40-59 were obese compared with 30.5 percent of women aged 20-39. Women aged 65 and older had obesity prevalence rates comparable with women in the 20 to 39 age group.

Of the nearly 3.0 million youth who graduated from high school between October 2006 and October 2007, about 2.0 million (67.2 percent) were attending college in October 2007. The college enrollment rates were 68.3 percent for young women and 66.1 percent for young men. . . Among recent high school graduates enrolled in college in October 2007, 93.2 percent were enrolled as full-time students. The labor force participation rate (the proportion of the population with a job or looking for work) was 37.3 percent for full-time students and 72.7 percent for part-time students. About 64.1 percent of recent high school graduates enrolled in college were attending 4-year institutions. Of these students, 31.4 percent participated in the labor force; in contrast, 54.7 percent of students enrolled in 2-year institutions were in the labor force.

Hate crime and violence against some of the most vulnerable members of our society, our homeless neighbors, continue to persist and have increased across the country over the past year. Since 1999, the National Coalition for the Homeless has been tracking the epidemic of violent and brutal attacks against homeless persons. In our first joint report on the topic, the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty have documented how this growing trend has played out in 2007. Homeless persons are particularly vulnerable to violent attacks when they are living outside in public spaces. Most of our communities do not have adequate affordable housing or shelter space to meet the need, leaving many homeless persons forced to live outside. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 44% of our homeless population is unsheltered. Without proper action to deal with the crisis of homelessness as a whole, our homeless neighbors will continue to be vulnerable to brutal attacks.

In Oregon, there were 11,255 reported victims of child abuse or neglect in 2005-06; in 2006-07 there were 12,043 total victims, an increase of 7% overall. This finding reflects a trend over the past 5 years of increasing numbers of maltreatment reports and victims in Oregon. The increase in child maltreatment has been attributed to two primary factors:
1. The dramatic increase in methamphetamine abuse among Oregon families;
2. The reduction in funding for DHS child welfare, and other, services during the 2004-06 biennium.

Jessica is 6 weeks old. She weighed two pounds at birth. She was born 3 months premature. She was in the hospital for the first month of her life. When Jessica was born, she was not breathing continuously to get oxygen. Her central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) that controls breathing was not yet mature enough to allow nonstop breathing. The medical condition is apnea of prematurity. Jessica’s breathing abnormalities began 2 days after she was born. Even though she is now at home, it is anticipated that the condition will exist for up to 2 to 3 months. So, she was discharged with an apnea monitor.

May 20, 2008

A third wave of DH funding for IDTS from 2008/09 onwards has been approved for the development of enhanced clinical services for drug treatment in a further 38 prisons.

This publication is the sixth in the series of reports on the health and welfare of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. By drawing on recent data available from a variety of sources, it aims to provide a comprehensive picture of the health and welfare of Australia's Indigenous population. It covers a range of topics regarded as important for improving the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The definition of health that underpins the publication is a holistic one put forward in the National Aboriginal Health Strategy Working Party report: ‘Not just the physical well-being of the individual but the social, emotional and cultural well-being of the whole community. This is a whole of life view and it includes the cyclical concept of life-death-life’ (National Aboriginal Health Strategy Working Party 1989).

The foreclosure crisis – fueled by the subprime loan meltdown – is increasingly well documented. Nationally, more than two million foreclosures were reported in 2007. Nearly the same number is projected for 2008-2009. [See Appendices 1 (2007) and 2 (2008-09)]. The resulting downward spiral has reduced home prices in some areas by nearly twenty percent. In turn, this has the sent the local city and county revenues based on local property taxes into freefall. Nearly forgotten in this crisis are the thousands of homeowners and renters who have become homeless once their equity is exhausted. Having no other financial resources, they are moving in with relatives or friends, are turning up in local emergency shelters or have actually found themselves on the streets. Equally disturbing is that when local revenues plummet, the first budget cuts are typically to health, mental health and emergency programs. Often these are the very programs those who become homeless will need to survive.

A strong link exists between U.S. graduate education, the production of knowledge, and economic and social prosperity. The United States needs a cadre of highly skilled leaders and experts in a variety of fields to address current and future challenges. Increasingly, graduate school is where future professionals obtain the knowledge and skills needed to solve big, complex problems. But fundamentally, graduate education is about people. This report tells the stories of people with graduate degrees from U.S. universities and why their education matters to them and the nation. The benefits of graduate education extend beyond the economic realm; graduate education also plays a central role in producing an educated citizenry that can promote and defend our democratic ideals.

This article, the first of a multipart series, argues that a major rift runs across many of our major policy debates based on our attributional tendencies: the less accurate dispositionist approach, which explains outcomes and behavior with reference to people's dispositions (i.e., personalities, preferences, and the like), and the more accurate situationist approach, which bases attributions of causation and responsibility on unseen influences within us and around us. Given that situationism offers a truer picture of our world than the alternative, and given that attributional tendencies are largely the result of elements in our situations, identifying the relevant elements should be a major priority of legal scholars. With such information, legal academics could predict which individuals, institutions, and societies are most likely to produce situationist ideas - in other words, which have the greatest potential for developing the accurate attributions of human behavior that are so important to law.

Children in the child welfare system have an extremely high prevalence of physical and behavioral health problems. This issue brief examines the complex physical and behavioral health care needs and associated costs for children in child welfare and outlines critical opportunities and challenges within Medicaid to better manage care for this high-risk, high-cost population.

Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA) clearly and unequivocally establishes three national goals for children in foster care: safety, permanency, and well being. ASFA was in part “a response to the fact that more children were entering the foster care system than were exiting.” Five principles underlie the ASFA and apply to professionals working with families through public and private agencies as well as state courts. These principles are:
- Safety is the paramount concern that must guide all child welfare services.
- Foster care is temporary.
- Permanency planning efforts should begin as soon as the child enters care.
- The child welfare system must focus on results and accountability.
- Innovative approaches are needed to achieve the goals of safety, permanency, and well-being.

May 19, 2008

In February of 2007 the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts brought together a working group of thirty-seven experienced practitioners and researchers to identify and explore conceptual and practical tensions that have hampered effective work with families in which domestic violence has been identified or alleged. Five central sets of issues were raised at the conference and are discussed in this report. These include the following: differentiation among families experiencing domestic violence; screening and triage; participation by families in various processes and services; appropriate outcomes for children; and family court roles and resources. The report emphasizes the need for continued multidisciplinary collaboration in order to better serve families affected by domestic violence and it includes an appendix of consensus points as well as suggestions for formation of ongoing work groups.

The prevalence among men was 0.72% and was significantly higher than the prevalence in women 0.22%. Adults aged 40–49 years were more likely to be HIV positive compared with those aged 18–29 years. Approximately 0.61% of adults aged 40–49 years were HIV positive, compared with 0.55% of 30–39 year-olds and 0.25% of 18–29 year-olds.

- Based on SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health, mothers were more likely than fathers to be aware of their child's substance use in the past year regardless of the household having only the mother or both parents.
- Fathers in two parent households were more likely than fathers in father-only households to be aware of their child's substance use in the past year.
- The older the child, the more likely that parents were aware of their child's alcohol and cigarette use in the past year.
- Past year substance use by youth was higher in one-parent households than those with both parents.
- Within one-parent households, substance use by youth was generally higher among youth in father-child pairs than mother-child pairs.

Homelessness among families has become a growing phenomenon. Beginning in the early 1980s, families with young children became one of the fastest growing segments of the homeless population and now comprise 34 percent of the homeless population (i.e., 23% children and 11% adults) (Burt et al., 1999). In a given year, this means that 420,000 families, including 924,000 children, experience homelessness in the United States. These numbers reveal that, over the course of a year, approximately 1.8 percent of all families are homeless at least one day, including eight percent of all poor families.

A youth’s departure from home marks the beginning of adulthood and a new stage in a young adult’s life. This critical juncture and the surrounding years, often referred to as the transition to adulthood, is increasingly recognized as a distinct developmental stage between adolescence and adulthood (Arnett, 2004). Youth who reach this stage and are living in foster care are often at a significant disadvantage. In 2005, over 24,000 youths found themselves in this circumstance (DHHS, 2006). They “aged out” of the foster care system and entered into the world of adulthood relatively alone. Studies of former foster youth who age out of care find that these youth generally experience high unemployment, unstable employment patterns, and earn very low incomes in the period between ages 18 and 21 (Cook, 1991; Courtney et al., 2001; Dworsky and Courtney, 2001; Goerge, Bilaver, Lee, Needell, Brookhart and Jackman, 2002). The Department of Health and HumanServices (DHHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) requested this study to examine employment and earnings outcomes for youth, through their mid-twenties, who age out of foster care. The key question and focus of the study is whether foster youth catch up or continue to experience less employment and significantly lower earnings than their peers even into their midtwenties.

- The percentage of infants who were ever breastfed increased from 60% among infants who were born in 1993-1994 to 77% among infants who were born in 2005-2006.
- Breastfeeding rates increased significantly among non-Hispanic black women from 36% in 1993-1994 to 65% in 2005-2006.
- Breastfeeding rates in 1999-2006 were significantly higher among those with higher income (74%) compared with those who had lower income (57%).
- Breastfeeding rates among mothers 30 years and older were significantly higher than those of younger mothers.
- There was no significant change in the rate of breastfeeding at 6 months of age for infants born between 1993 and 2004.

May 16, 2008

One person in eight is a girl or young woman age 10–24. Young people are the fastest growing segment of the population in developing countries, and their welfare is a fundamental input for key economic and social outcomes -- including the size and competitiveness of tomorrow's labor force, future economic growth, improved governance, and healthy civil societies. But girls in developing countries are in trouble. They face systematic disadvantages over a wide range of welfare indicators, including health, education, nutrition, labor force participation, and the burden of household tasks. Because of deprivation and discriminatory cultural norms, many poor girls are forced to marry at very young ages and are extraordinarily vulnerable to HIV, sexual violence, and physical exploitation. Lacking a full range of economic opportunities and devalued because of gender bias, many girls are seen as unworthy of investment or protection by their families. This report . . . describes why and how to initiate effective investments that will give adolescent girls in developing countries a full and equal chance for rewarding lives and livelihoods.

Black Americans have been disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS since the epidemic’s beginning, and that disparity has deepened over time. Blacks account for more HIV and AIDS cases, people estimated to be living with AIDS, and HIV-related deaths than any other racial/ethnic group in the U.S. The epidemic has also had a disproportionate impact on Black women, youth, and men who have sex with men, and its impact varies across the country. Moreover, Blacks with HIV/AIDS may face greater barriers to accessing care than their white counterparts. Today, there are approximately 1.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S, including more than 500,000 who are Black. Analysis of national household survey data found that 2% of Blacks in the U.S. were HIV positive, higher than any other group.

This paper considers evidence indicating the cost to the public purse of having one in five of Scotland's million children in poverty. Its central aim is to give an idea how much public money would be saved by improving the economic situation of these children. It also considers how much we are spending on supporting children in poverty, how much more it would cost to lift them out of poverty through the benefits and tax credits system and what alternative means may be available to prevent poverty through early intervention or by helping parents into work.

Sponsored by the Office for Disability Issues

Extended schools and children’s centres are designed to provide extra learning opportunities, childcare and easy access to a range of services for all children and young people and their families. For families with disabled children extended activities offer new opportunities for participation in their community. But for how many is this a real offer? Disability discrimination legislation requires all services to make reasonable adjustments and places a disability equality
duty on ‘public authorities.’ It is essential that children’s centres and extended schools are developed in a way that is accessible to disabled children and that all staff have the confidence and support to ensure that disabled children are able to participate fully.

May 15, 2008

This Statistics release presents updated information on applications made to local authorities under the homeless persons legislation during the period April to September 2007. It includes information on the characteristics of applicant households, local authority assessments and the action taken in respect of cases that were concluded. Snapshot data on households in temporary accommodation at 30 June, 30 September and 31 December 2007 are also presented in this release, together with data on the implementation of the Homeless Persons (Unsuitable Accommodation) (Scotland) Order 2004.

Social Security has significantly reduced elderly poverty. The elderly poverty rate has fallen from 35% in 1959 to an all-time low of 9% in 2006, in large part because of Social Security. If Social Security benefits did not exist, an estimated 44% the elderly would be poor today assuming no changes in behavior. The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, also provides benefits to the poorest elderly, many of whom do not qualify for Social Security benefits. However, despite these programs, about 3.4 million elderly individuals remained in poverty in 2006. The Social Security system faces a long-term financing problem. The Social Security Trustees project cash-flow deficits beginning in 2017 and trust fund insolvency in 2041. Many recent proposals to improve system solvency would reduce Social Security benefits in the future. Benefit reductions could affect the lowincome elderly, many of whom rely on Social Security benefits for almost all of their income. Such potential benefit reductions could lead to higher rates of poverty among the elderly compared to those projected under the current benefit formula. Because the low-income elderly are especially vulnerable to benefit reductions, many recent Social Security reform proposals have included minimum benefits or other provisions that would mitigate the effect of benefit cuts on the elderly poor. This report analyzes the projected effects of four possible approaches to mitigating the effects of Social Security benefit reductions on elderly poverty in 2042, the first full year of projected trust fund insolvency. The options are compared to a payable baseline, which assumes current-law benefits would need to be cut across the board to balance Social Security's annual income and spending at the point of insolvency. The four options examined are (1) a poverty-line Social Security minimum benefit; (2) a sliding-scale Social Security minimum benefit; (3) a povertyline SSI benefit; and (4) a poverty-line SSI benefit with liberalized eligibility. Major findings include the following:

- Based on SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2006 an estimated 30.5 million persons aged 12 or older reported driving under the influence of alcohol at least once in the past year and 10.2 million reported driving under the influence of illicit drugs during the past year. Illicit drugs included marijuana/hashish, cocaine, crack cocaine, inhalants, hallucinogens, heroin, or prescription-type drugs used nonmedically.
- Combined data from SAMHSA's 2004 to 2006 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health were used to produce average annualized data on driving under the influence of alcohol or illicit drugs in the past year for each State based on self reports by adults aged 18 or older.
- Based on the combined 2004 to 2006 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health data from current drivers aged 18 or older, 15.1% had driven under the influence of alcohol during the past year and 4.7% had driven under the influence of illicit drugs.
- States with the highest rates of driving under the influence of alcohol in the past year among adults aged 18 or older were Wisconsin (26.4%), North Dakota (24.9%), Minnesota (23.5%), Nebraska (22.9%), and South Dakota (21.6%).
- The highest rates of driving under the influence of illicit drugs in the past year among adults aged 18 or older were in the District of Columbia (7.0%), Rhode Island (6.8%), Massachusetts (6.4%), Montana (6.3%), and Wyoming (6.2%).

Mental disorders are common in the United States and internationally. An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.1 When applied to the 2004 U.S. Census residential population estimate for ages 18 and older, this figure translates to 57.7 million people.2Even though mental disorders are widespread in the population, the main burden of illness is concentrated in a much smaller proportion — about 6 percent, or 1 in 17 — who suffer from a serious mental illness.1 In addition, mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and Canada for ages 15-44.3 Many people suffer from more than one mental disorder at a given time. Nearly half (45 percent) of those with any mental disorder meet criteria for 2 or more disorders, with severity strongly related to comorbidity.

Recent years have brought both technical progress and increased political commitment to global public health and nutrition. There is growing recognition, however, that overcoming the remaining challenges facing mothers and children – and reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – will require radical changes to the scale and scope of effective strategies. This is where the Countdown comes in. Countdown to 2015 is a collaborative effort to track progress
in maternal, newborn and child survival in high mortality countries. Involving a range of institutions and individuals, it highlights the progress, obstacles and solutions to achieving MDGs 4 (child survival) and 5 (maternal health).

Description: This report, prepared for the Social Transition Office of the USAID Bureau of Europe and Eurasia, is the result of a desk top study—a secondary analysis of regional and country-specific reports on the evolution of family-focused, community-based social services for vulnerable groups in the region. Paralleling the region’s transition from a command economy to a market-oriented society is a shift in the social contract from a state to a shared state-community responsibility for care of vulnerable groups. This study provides a framework for analyzing common elements in the transition of the social service delivery system that cut across different vulnerable groups. The report identifies internationally recognized standards of practice and describes examples of promising practices in community-based social services emerging in the region.

May 14, 2008

Description: Social work must examine its professional practice and educational agenda through the lens of democratic principles. Social tolerance and social civility are two central concepts that promote strong social welfare directions for democracies. These concepts are used to address some of the challenges encountered by emerging democratic countries that were formerly part of the former Soviet block.

This report maps some of the key features of the ‘care workforce’ – defined as Social care and Childcare workers. They are contrasted with four other occupational groups: Nursing workers; Education workers; occupations with high levels of female workers; and all women workers. Education and Nursing workers, with the ‘care workforce’, constitute the ‘human services’ workforce. The mapping exercise is based on secondary analysis of the Labour Force Survey (LFS), combining data over five years (from 2001-2005). It separately covers England and Scotland.

Retirement continues to change in many ways. This is certainly evident in terms of its timing,
given the declining rate of labour force participation among older men between the 1970s and
mid-1990s and its reversal in more recent years (Marshall and Ferrao 2007). Likewise, the process appears to be changing, given phenomena such as post-retirement employment (Schellenberg et al. 2006), phased retirement and diverse pathways into retirement (Nouroz and Stone 2006). Retirement is also changing in the extent to which it is being navigated by dual-earner couples.

A Guide for Deans and Directors Prepared by Dr. Sharon Kreigher, Mary Van Hook, Sue Tebb, Esther Langston, Katharine Briar-Lawson with assistance from Anita Rosen (CSWE) and Joan Zlotnik (IASWR).

The Mental Health Act 2007 (Commencement No. 5 and Transitional Provisions) Order 2008 - S.I. No. 2008/800 (C.39) - brings section 44 of the Mental Health Act 2007 (the 2007 Act) on places of safety into effect on 30 April 2008. Under sections 135 and 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 (the 1983 Act) a police officer may remove a person who is believed or appears to be suffering from a mental disorder to a place of safety. Section 44 of the 2007 Act amends these sections of the 1983 Act to allow a person to be taken from one place of safety to one or more other places of safety during the 72 hour maximum overall period during which they may be detained under either of these two sections. They may be taken between places of safety by a police officer, an approved social worker (until approved social workers are replaced in this role by approved mental health professionals in due course) or someone authorised by either of them. Section 44 of the 2007 Act comes into force on 30 April 2008. NHS bodies and local social services authorities will need to ensure that their staff are aware of the change and that it is reflected in local policies.

May 13, 2008

The key points will cover:
- The number of children looked after continuously for at least 12 months
- Absences and exclusions
- Achievements at key stage 1, 2 and 3
- Year 11 children who obtained at least 1 GCSE (or equivalent)
- Year 11 children who obtained at least 5 GCSEs at A*-C (or equivalent)
- Employment status at end of Year 11
- Cautions and convictions
- Immunisations, dental checks and health assessments
- Substance misuse

In the last decade more and more of the world's leading corporations have sought and found ways to join in the fight against global poverty. In an increasingly interdependent world, there are many opportunities to do good while doing well commercially. Yet the approaches taken, and the logic of different tactics by different companies, have not been much studied. This new report, based on interviews with 15 corporations that have been active in "development" work in poor countries, offers a menu of six approaches.

Although both Social Security and Medicare have experienced enormous public support in the past, in the last decade critics have called the programs into question as bad investments, financially unsustainable, and ready for major reforms. At the policy elite level, the discussion about Social Security and Medicare has gone from a politics of consensus in which there was widespread support and relatively few public expressed differences of opinion to what might be called a politics of dissensus where disagreement has been heated. At a time when the debates about Social Security and Medicare are likely to continue and when various reform proposals are being discussed, the purpose of this paper is to step back and assess where the public's views of the two programs stand and what reforms, if any, the public favors. To what extent do the two "pillars of public opinion" on which the programs rest—commitment to the purpose of the programs and belief that they are affordable public expenditures—remain strong? Using dozens of public opinion polls over a number of years, we find that members of the public are highly committed to the two programs but have concerns about the programs' financial situation. To address their financial concerns, members of the public have voiced support for a few incremental changes and opposition to a number of others. We conclude by suggesting that it behooves policymakers to take a careful look at where the public stands and build on that support in order to overcome the current politics of dissensus.

Like many public policy debates, the discussion about whether foreign aid works takes place in two worlds. Within the research world, it plays out in the form of papers full of technical language, formulas, and numbers. Outside, the arguments are plainer and the audience broader, but those academic studies remain a touchstone. While avoiding jargon, this paper reviews recent, contending studies of how much foreign aid affects country-level outcomes such as economic growth and school attendance rates. Such studies are ambitious: it is far easier to evaluate a school-building project, say, on whether the school was built and children filled its seats than to determine whether all aid, or large subcomponents of it, improved national school enrollment or made the economy grow faster.

Survey respondents from 49 states reported investigating complaints of youth maltreatment in residential facilities in 2006, including physical abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse, and 28 states reported deaths. There were no discernable patterns in the types of facilities involved, including whether facilities were operated by government or private entities, or located in urban or rural areas. State officials said that the number of maltreatment incidents was greater than the total reported to HHS—1,503 incidents in 2005--due to barriers in data collection and reporting, including inconsistent funding and authority. States license and monitor residential facilities, but state agencies reported oversight gaps that may place youth in some facilities at higher risk for maltreatment and death.

Since 1997, the UK Government has sought to tackle disadvantage across a large number of fronts, stressing the importance of employment and personal responsibility, the scarring effects of childhood poverty and the enabling effects of strong neighbourhoods and social inclusion. For the most part, policies targeted directly at individuals – person-based policies – have developed separately from policies designed to tackle neighbourhood deprivation – place-based policies. This separation partially reflects the interests and agendas of the different government departments implementing policy, particularly the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Communities and Local Government (CLG). While many of the policies have been evaluated, little is known about what kinds of policy are most effective or about the cumulative impact of policies targeted at people and places. The objective of this review was to evaluate the effectiveness of selected policies implemented since 1997 that tackle disadvantage. The policies included were those that addressed material poverty via increased employment, better education and directly through higher incomes. The policies are further distinguished according to the relative importance of people and place in objectives, targeting and delivery.

May 12, 2008

Description: This report, prepared for the Social Transition Team of the USAID Bureau for Europe and Eurasia (E&E), is the result of a study of promising practices in community-based care for vulnerable groups conducted in five countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Romania, and Russia) in the E&E Region between September 2004 and March 2005. Of particular interest is how these countries are moving from residential care to family-focused, community care models utilizing internationally recognized standards for children and youth, elderly, disabled, and minority groups (with an emphasis on Roma).

Over the last 30 years there have been major economic, demographic and social changes in Australia (see Box 1). These changes, together with associated government income support policy responses, have been important factors driving trends in the proportion of workforce age people receiving income support. This Background Note outlines these income support policy developments. It also provides data on changes over the same period in the proportion of the workforce age population who receive income support, including the proportion receiving the different types of income support payments.

Specifically recommended are strategies which:

Expand geriatric funding through the federal sources, along with private foundations,
in order to develop best practice models, policies and procedures, which will increase
competencies and efficiencies in geriatric social work education and practice.

Enhance the geriatric sensitive social work education programs that are currently
being funded by John A. Hartford

Maximize incentives for social work students to pursue careers in geriatric social
work through curriculum development, training and employment opportunities, and
salary compensation.

Support schools and departments of social work in their building and expansion of
specializations in geriatric social work

Educate the marketplace on the benefits of geriatric social work education and
training

Identify and disseminate model programs (e.g. curriculum and faculty development
programs developed by the John A. Hartford Foundation and CSWE)

Coordinate state and local funding sources around geriatric social work education and
training

Partner with other geriatric education/training professional advocacy organizations
(e.g. pharmacists, nursing, physicians, direct care worker organizations)

Improve research and data collection on the impact of geriatric social workers on care
outcomes for the elderly, their quality of life, cost-effectiveness of services

Address regulatory barriers (e.g. what it means to be a trained social worker in
different settings: aging service agency, nursing home, assisted living facility,
hospitals, etc.)

Develop core-competencies (by setting) based upon a results oriented model that
could be replicated nationally

As the report reflects, H-2B guestworkers are systematically exploited because the very structure of the program places them at the mercy of a single employer and provides no realistic means for workers to exercise the few rights they have. The H-2B (non-agriculture) guestworker program permits U.S. employers to import human beings on a temporary basis from other nations to perform work when the employer certifies that "qualified persons in the United States are not available and … the terms of employment will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of workers in the U.S. similarly employed." Those workers generally cannot bring with them their immediate family members, and their status provides them no route to permanent residency in the U.S. In practice, the program is rife with abuses.

Of the nearly 3.0 million youth who graduated from high school between October 2006 and October 2007, about 2.0 million (67.2 percent) were attending college in October 2007. The college enrollment rates were 68.3 percent for young women and 66.1 percent for young men. . . Among recent high school graduates enrolled in college in October 2007, 93.2 percent were enrolled as full-time students. The labor force participation rate (the proportion of the population with a job or looking for work) was 37.3 percent for full-time students and 72.7 percent for parttime students.

Description: Introduces the concept of using dialogue as a group approach for multinational multicultural learning experiences to facilitate personal and professional growth.This paper explores the use of dialogue groups as a potentially valuable tool in international social work in two ways. First, the theory and practice nature of dialogue groups is presented. Second, two examples of international dialogue groups will be presented and serve to illustrate how this model can be useful in international social work practice.

May 9, 2008

This report is part of the effort of the Population Division to disseminate the information resulting from its monitoring activities. It provides an overview of population policies and dynamics for 195 countries for which data are available around the middle of the decade for the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s—that is, near the time of the convening of the United Nations population conferences at Bucharest, Mexico City and Cairo—as well as for 2007.

Based on data drawn from a variety of sources, the estimated annual cost of child abuse and neglect is $103.8 billion in 2007 value. This figure represents a conservative estimate as a result of the methods used for the calculation. First, only children who could be classified as being abused or neglected according to the Harm Standard in the Third National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-3) are included in the analysis. The Harm Standard requirements, compared to the Endangerment Standard requirements used in NIS-3, are more stringent (Sedlak & Broadhurst, 1996). Second, only those costs related to victims are included. We have not attempted to quantify other costs associated with abuse and neglect, such as the costs of intervention or treatment services for the perpetrators or other members of the victim’s family. Third, the categories of costs included in this analysis are by no means exhaustive. As examples, a large number of child victims require medical examinations or outpatient treatment for injuries not serious enough to require hospitalization; maltreated children are at greater risk of engaging in substance abuse and require alcohol and drug treatment services; and youth with histories of child abuse and neglect may be at greater risk of engaging in risky behaviors such as unprotected sexual activities as well as greater risk of teen pregnancy.

A final rule was published on February 26, 2008 in the Federal Register (73 FR 10338) which amends the Federal regulations at 45 CFR 1356. The final rule implements the data collection requirements of the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 (P.L. 106-169) as incorporated into the Social Security Act at section 477, and requires States to collect and report data to the Administration of Children and Families on youth who are receiving independent living services and on the outcomes of certain youth who are in foster care or who age out of foster care. In this final rule, we have made revisions to the proposed rule, published in the Federal Register on July 14, 2006 (71 FR 40346), in response to the many comments we received.

All 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Territories have mandatory child abuse and neglect reporting laws that require certain professionals and institutions to report suspected maltreatment to a child protective services (CPS) agency. Examples of these mandatory reporters include health care providers and facilities, mental health care providers, teachers and other school staff, social workers, police officers, foster care providers, and daycare providers. The initial report of suspected child abuse or neglect is called a referral. Approximately one-third of referrals are screened out each year and do not receive further attention from CPS. The remaining referrals are "screened in" and an investigation or assessment is conducted by the CPS agency to determine the likelihood that maltreatment has occurred or that the child is at risk of maltreatment. After conducting interviews with family members, the alleged victim, and other people familiar with the family, the CPS agency makes a determination or finding concerning whether the child is a victim of abuse or neglect or is at risk of abuse or neglect. This determination often is called a disposition. Each State establishes specific dispositions and terminology. Each State has its own definitions of child abuse and neglect based on minimum standards set by Federal law.

Historically, putative fathers have had fewer rights with regard to their children than either unwed mothers or married parents. Over the past several decades, putative fathers have used the Fourteenth Amendment to challenge the termination of their parental rights when the birth mothers relinquish their children for adoption. Nevertheless, States have almost complete discretion to determine the rights of a putative father at termination of parental rights or adoption proceedings. The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed the constitutional protection of a putative father's parental rights when he has established a substantial relationship with his child. The Court defined a substantial relationship as the existence of a biological link between the child and putative father, and it defined the father's commitment to the responsibilities of parenthood as participating in the child's upbringing.

This report represents the first step in the process of identifying initiatives intended to assist TANF recipients living with disabilities to obtain and maintain employment that may be worthy of further study. The outcomes and impacts of such initiatives are of substantial interest to program administrators and policymakers for several reasons. First and foremost is the concern over the well-being of these recipients and their families. Second, these initiatives often require considerable staff effort and intensive services and, therefore, can be costly to implement. Third, states and localities are under growing pressure to meet increased federally mandated work participation rates and recipients living with disabilities are one of many groups that program administrators and policymakers may consider targeting to increase those rates. To assist program administrators and policymakers in deciding how they should spend limited resources, it is critical to know whether the initiatives are, indeed, producing their desired effects. The time may be ripe for rigorously testing the impact of employment initiatives for low-income families living with disabilities and this report presents some potential options for doing so.

Beginning with the passage of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) in 1974, the U.S. Congress has implemented a number of laws that have had a significant impact on State child protection and child welfare services.1 Such legislation frequently requires Federal departments and agencies, such as the Children's Bureau within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to issue or amend Federal policy and regulation.2 New legislation also prompts responses at the State level, including enactment of State legislation, development or revision of State agency policy and regulations, and implementation of new programs. The largest federally funded programs that support State and Tribal efforts for child welfare, foster care, and adoption activities are authorized under titles IV-B and IV-E of the Social Security Act (the Act). These programs are administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and include the title IV-B Child Welfare Services and Promoting Safe and Stable Families (formerly known as Family Preservation) programs, the title IV-E Foster Care Program, the title IV-E Adoption Assistance Program, and the title IV-E Chafee Foster Care Independence Program. The Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) is authorized under title XX of the Act and funds a wide range of programs that support various social policy goals. To provide a framework for understanding the Federal legislation that has shaped the delivery of child welfare services, this publication presents a summary of Federal legislation since 1974 that has had a significant impact on the field. It provides an overview of each act and its major provisions.

It is hard to believe that in 21st century Britain, four out of 10 children are living in poverty in one of the richest cities in the world. And yet in London it is not just that child poverty rates are higher than elsewhere in the country, families are more likely to be deeper in poverty, more likely to be without a job, to have fewer choices about their housing and to face multiple disadvantages. The government has boldly pledged to abolish child poverty in a generation, setting a target of halving it by 2010/11. The other political parties too have pledged to address child poverty. Indeed, there has been progress nationally: 600,000 children taken out of poverty, a fall in severe deprivation and a rise in the number of lone parents in work. But more recently progress has stalled nationally and in London it has come to a halt with no significant improvement since 2000.

May 8, 2008

Information is covered for families of veterans returning from deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and other emotional and behavioral problems that veterans may face. Before developing this pamphlet, companion to CP-534-IADIF (Post-Deployment Stress: What You Should Know, What You Can Do), RAND surveyed a couple hundred existing educational materials on these topics. The researchers then coded and classified these materials and reviewed them to identify gaps in information and to isolate the best materials from which to draw upon. Based on these refined materials, the booklet was further improved by feedback from RAND Corporation experts, other military mental health experts, and nine focus groups including service members and their families.

The nineteenth century witnessed dramatic improvements in the legal rights of married women. Given that these changes took place long before women gained the right to vote, they mounted to a voluntary renouncement of power by men. In this paper, we investigate men’s incentives for sharing power with women. In our model, women’s legal rights set the marital bargaining power of husbands and wives. We show that men face a tradeoff between the rights they want for their own wives (namely none) and the rights of other women in the economy. Men prefer other men’s wives to have rights because men care about their own daughters and because an expansion of women’s rights increases educational investments in children. We show that men may agree to relinquish some of their power once technological change increases the importance of human capital. We corroborate our argument with historical evidence on the expansion of women’s rights in England and the United States.

As the U.S. Constitution has been interpreted, states have the primary obligation to ensure child welfare. However, Congress provides significant federal funds to help states exercise this responsibility ($7.9 billion appropriated in FY2008). Most of this support is provided for children who are in foster care and who meet specific federal eligibility criteria. This report discusses the federal framework for child welfare policy; reviews the scope of activities, and children and families served, by state child welfare agencies; summarizes several child welfare-related hearings that were held in 2007; describes child welfare and related legislative proposals that have been introduced in the 110th Congress; and reviews child welfare programs for which funding authorization has expired or is set to expire on the last day of FY2008. Child welfare agencies seek to ensure the well-being of children and their families, including protecting children from abuse or neglect and ensuring that they have a safe and permanent home. In FY2005 child protection agencies found more than 899,000 children to be victims of abuse or neglect. Some of these children were removed to foster care, some remained in their homes and received services, while others received no further follow-up from the agency. After reaching a recorded high of 567,000 on the last day of FY1999, the number of children in foster care has
declined by about 10%, and on the last day of FY2006, an estimated 512,000 children were in foster care. Less than half of these children are eligible for federal foster care support under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act. Legislation that would respond to a number of the concerns raised in the child welfare hearings held during 2007, including proposals to change the federal child welfare financing structure, has been introduced in the 110th Congress.

This study used 1999-2004 Current Population Survey data in conjunction with the Urban Institute’s Transfer Income Model (TRIM3) to quantify the impact of the 2002 Farm Bill’s eligibility restorations. About half the estimated impact came from increases in newly eligible families, while the rest came from increases in eligible family members within already-eligible families (usually within families with citizen children). By 2004, the restorations had extended eligibility to roughly 1 million legal immigrants and 148,000 additional families. The extension in eligibility reached around two-thirds of those made ineligible by the 1996 welfare reform law rules and not covered by the 1998 restorations. The estimated participation gain over the period was 780,000 individuals and 139,000 legal immigrant families. The restorations took place in an era of large increases in food stamp caseloads overall; even so, the share of families containing legal immigrants increased substantially.

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, as amended (42 U.S.C. 5106a), requires States to make provision for the cooperation of State law enforcement officials and State agencies providing human services in the investigation, assessment, prosecution, and treatment of child abuse or neglect. All 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories have statutes specifying procedures that State agencies must follow in handling reports of suspected child abuse or neglect. In most States, these procedures include requirements for cross-system reporting and/or information sharing among professional entities. Typically, reports are shared among social services agencies, law enforcement departments, and prosecutors' offices.

The data presented in this report were compiled between November 2006 and June 2007. Sources included papers in peer-reviewed medical and social science literature, reports from national agencies and international organizations, and direct communication with contacts either in the country of interest or at the agencies and organizations responsible for managing or funding treatment programs and HIV relief efforts. Most of these articles and reports were in English, but some foreign language materials were reviewed, especially when information was not available in English. Data for each of the countries covered in this report were analyzed to identify the extent of the opioid addiction problem and the extent to which maintenance therapy programs meet this need. In cases of conflicting data, conclusions were based on the preponderance of evidence, but if alternatives were credible, these were reported as well. In this report, we focus our attention on 12 countries in Asia, Africa, and eastern Europe that have experienced significant increases in reports of injection drug use, injection-related HIV, or both during the past decade. These countries also receive significant aid from the United States either directly through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief or through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

One in seven people go to bed hungry every day. That’s 854 million people worldwide. Hunger is one of the world’s major problems and therefore one of its most important challenges. People who are forced to live from hand to mouth are denied a life of dignity. The 2007 Global Hunger Index illustrates that this problem has assumed an alarming scale in 36 countries: twenty-five of these countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa, nine in Asia, on in the Middle East and Latin America respectively. There is some progress in the fight against hunger in specific regions throughout the world, and the Millennium Development Goal agreed upon by 189 heads of state in 2000 to halve worldwide hunger by 2015 could be achieved. In fact, if the current trend continues, there will still be around 580 million people going hungry in 2015 – a situation we won’t accept. Without public pressure little can be done to alleviate worldwide hunger. There is no shortage of know-how, but there is a lack of political will. The Global Hunger Index (GHI), developed by IFPRI and made public last year for the first time, is an ideal tool to record hunger and support lobby work and advocacy on both national and international platforms.

May 7, 2008

The study discussed in this monograph focuses on post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression, and traumatic brain injury, not only because of current high-level policy interest but also because, unlike the physical wounds of war, these conditions are often invisible to the eye, remaining invisible to other servicemembers, family members, and society in general. All three conditions affect mood, thoughts, and behavior; yet these wounds often go unrecognized and unacknowledged. The effect of traumatic brain injury is still poorly understood, leaving a large gap in knowledge related to how extensive the problem is or how to address it. RAND conducted a comprehensive study of the post-deployment health-related needs associated with these three conditions among OEF/OIF veterans, the health care system in place to meet those needs, gaps in the care system, and the costs associated with these conditions and with providing quality health care to all those in need. This monograph presents the results of our study, which should be of interest to mental health treatment providers; health policymakers, particularly those charged with caring for our nation’s veterans; and U.S. service men and women, their families, and the concerned public.

The emphasis on placing TANF recipients into paid employment quickly is consistent with employment assistance approaches employed by several recent demonstration projects (outside of TANF) for youth and adults living with a disability. However, because TANF recipients living with a disability may have other deficits such as low education levels and limited work experience that further limit their employment prospects, they may not be successful at finding paid competitive employment within the time allotted. When this occurs, TANF agencies may choose to create work opportunities outside of the competitive labor market as a first step towards permanent unsubsidized employment. In this practice brief, we profile three programs that use different approaches (unpaid work experience, subsidized employment, and unsubsidized transitional employment) to create work opportunities for TANF recipients who are living with a disability and have not been successful in finding competitive employment.

About 6.5 million children under age 18 – or nearly 9 percent of all U.S. children – received part of their family income from Social Security in 2005. They include 3.1 million children who receive benefits as dependents of deceased, disabled, or retired workers and an estimated 3.4 million other children who do not themselves receive Social Security but live with relatives who do. Social Security benefits often make the difference in lifting children out of poverty. Of the 6.5 million children in families that received Social Security, fully 1.3 million were lifted out of poverty by Social Security income. Social Security is the most widespread form of life insurance for American families. Almost all U.S. workers – including men and women in the armed forces – have life insurance through Social Security when tragedy strikes. For example, Social Security continues to pay benefits to more than 2,000 children whose parents died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Graduation rates have become a prominent feature in the landscape of high school reform and within the larger world of educational policy. Studies conducted over the past several years have repeatedly demonstrated that far fewer American students are completing high school with diplomas than had previously been realized. Whereas the conventional wisdom had long placed the graduation rate around 85 percent, a growing consensus has emerged that only about seven in 10 students are actually successfully finishing high school. Graduation rates are even lower among certain student populations, particularly racial and ethnic minorities and males. That same conventional wisdom also suggests that the type of community in which a student lives and attends school will exert a strong and pervasive influence on a variety of educational outcomes. This connection between place and performance applies to both the experiences of individual students and the collective performance of schools and school systems. Striking differences between schools situated in urban and suburban environments, for instance, have frequently been documented in the area of tested achievement. An analysis by the EPE Research Center also shows that high school graduation rates are 15 percentage points lower in the nation’s urban schools when compared with those located in the suburbs. Despite the acknowledged importance of such contextual factors, apart from attention to broad national-level patterns, there has been limited detailed investigation into the connection between where a young person lives and his or her chances of graduating from high school. This report takes a geographically-informed approach to the issue of high school completion.

This summary presents the findings of a public consultation exploring the social evils facing Britain today. In 1904, Joseph Rowntree identified what he believed were the worst social evils. The new list is the result of a web survey of 3,500 people and discussions with groups whose voices are not usually heard. It reveals a strong sense of unease about some of the changes shaping British society.

May 6, 2008

A logic model is a map or simple illustration of what you do, why you do it, what you hope to achieve, and how you will measure achievement. It includes the anticipated outcomes of your services, indicators of those outcomes, and measurement tools to evaluate the outcomes. . . . The Logic Model Builder will take you step-by-step through the process of developing a logic model so you can plan program evaluation activities for child abuse and neglect prevention, family support, and parenting programs.

Some TANF recipients may have disabilities that would qualify them for the specialized employment preparation services Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agencies provide. TANF recipients may seek out VR services on their own, or be referred to VR by a TANF case manager on his or her own accord, however, because VR is an unfamiliar service system, few may be inclined to do so. Creating a formal partnership between the agencies can ensure that all TANF recipients who can benefit from VR services have access to them. Though linking the services of these two agencies through formal cooperative agreements is not a widespread strategy, some states have had such partnerships in place for many years and other states are developing them. This practice brief explores the benefits and challenges of linking TANF and VR services, describes partnerships that have been formed in Vermont and Iowa, then discusses key features that appear to be critical to developing a successful partnership.

In 2004, the California legislature passed a bill that tightened the participation requirement for California's welfare program, the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids Program (CalWORKs) and mandated a study of CalWORKs sanction policy for participant noncompliance in the welfare-to-work program. RAND was asked by the California Department of Social Services to carry out this study. Findings show that county welfare caseworkers' implementation of the state's statutory sanction policy makes the sanctions weaker in practice than might have been expected given stated policy. Both caseworkers and higher-level county welfare department employees are strongly reluctant to sanction clients. Furthermore, caseworkers perceive the statutory noncompliance process to be burdensome. Implementation of sanction policy varies widely across California's 58 counties. RAND researchers note three possible directions for reforming California's sanction policy and practice: (1) swifter sanctions, (2) stronger sanctions with greater financial penalties, and (3) safer sanctions, to ensure that clients are not inappropriately sanctioned due to some combination of caseworker error, lack
of knowledge of how to remedy the sanction, or the existence of undisclosed serious barriers.

Since October 2001, approximately 1.64 million U.S. troops have been deployed for Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) in Afghanistan and Iraq. Early evidence suggests that the psychological toll of these deployments — many involving prolonged exposure to combat-related stress over multiple rotations — may be disproportionately high compared with the physical injuries of combat. Concerns have been most recently centered on two combat-related injuries in particular: post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. With the increasing concern about the incidence of suicide and suicide attempts among returning veterans, concern about depression is also on the rise. The study discussed in this monograph focuses on post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression, and traumatic brain injury, not only because of current high-level policy interest but also because, unlike the physical wounds of war, these conditions are often invisible to the eye, remaining invisible to other servicemembers, family members, and society in general. All three conditions affect mood, thoughts, and behavior; yet, these wounds often go unrecognized and unacknowledged. The effect of traumatic brain injury is still poorly understood, leaving a large gap in knowledge related to how extensive the problem is or how to address it.

Many State legislatures have enacted legislation to address infant abandonment and infanticide in response to a reported increase in the abandonment of infants. Beginning in Texas in 1999, "Baby Moses laws" or infant safe haven laws have been enacted as an incentive for mothers in crisis to safely relinquish their babies to designated locations where the babies are protected and provided with medical care until a permanent home is found. Safe haven laws generally allow the parent, or an agent of the parent, to remain anonymous and to be shielded from prosecution for abandonment or neglect in exchange for surrendering the baby to a safe haven. To date, approximately 47 States and Puerto Rico have enacted safe haven legislation. The focus of these laws is protecting newborns. In approximately 15 States, infants who are 72 hours old or younger may be relinquished to a designated safe haven. Approximately 14 States and Puerto Rico accept infants up to 1 month old. Other States specify varying age limits in their statutes

This report brings together resources and research about maintaining family ties for children of prisoners. It provides a review of literature from the past fifteen years as well as examples of practice from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland of what works to support children and their families.The findings highlight the negative impact parental imprisonment can have on children. This area of work cuts across a number of sectors and requires a multi-disciplinary readership and response if outcomes for this group of children are to be improved.

May 5, 2008

Personal and work supports can be instrumental in helping TANF recipients living with disabilities prepare for and maintain employment. For many TANF recipients living with disabilities, the path to self-sufficiency is encumbered by personal and family challenges that interfere with steady employment. Recognizing that these TANF recipients may require more intensive support than is available through traditional employment programs, some TANF agencies have increased the intensity and/or types of supports available to those living with disabilities. Such supports may include intensive case management, rehabilitative services, job coaching, and support groups, among others. In this practice brief, we profile four programs that provide specialized personal and work supports to help TANF recipients living with disabilities succeed in competitive employment.

This the second report in the Hunger Safety Net series which is designed to track trends in hunger and create research-based solutions to hunger and poverty throughout the five boroughs of New York City. The report includes findings on New York City residents who rely on emergency food programs (EFPs), including soup kitchens and food pantries; the operations, resources and services of EFPs; and an analysis of New York City residents’ access to private and government food assistance at varying poverty levels, including a spatial analysis of need and services. This research updates and expands upon results from Hunger Safety Net 2004: Measuring Gaps in Food Assistance in New York City.

When the state takes an abused or neglected child from their parent, a court names the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) the legal custodian of the child—essentially making the state the parent of the child. The state must then do for the child what any parent must—provide food, clothing, and shelter. 1 Since January 2007, however, the state has had to keep over 500 abused and neglected children for at least one night, some for more, in a state office or a hotel room. Every region in the state has had to use offices or hotels, though some more than others. This is only one manifestation of a growing problem—the state does not have enough foster homes. This policy page examines this problem and makes recommendations for capacity building.

Assessment often is the first step in helping TANF recipients living with a disability find and maintain employment. While some TANF recipients living with a disability enter TANF fully aware of their disability, many do not. There are multiple strategies that TANF agencies can employ to identify recipients whose program participation or employment difficulties may be influenced by the presence of a disability or to develop an appropriate employment plan once a disability is identified. In this practice brief, drawing on the experiences of six different TANF initiatives targeted to recipients living with a disability, we describe five different approaches to assessment: disability screening, psychosocial assessments, clinical and psychological assessments, functional needs assessments and vocational assessments.

- Labor has proposed action steps that one-stops may take to link employers and older workers and has ongoing efforts to promote employment for older workers to a wider audience. While Labor knows little about the results of these efforts, planned evaluations may provide some information about the impact of WIA services onolder workers.
- Based on our survey results, we estimate that most one-stops took multiple actions to link employers and older workers. One-stop officials identified some actions as most effective, such as training staff to assist older workers, and often used multifaceted approaches. Several factors, for example, the local economy, might affect what actions one-stops take to serve older workers. One factor, performance measures, may create disincentives for serving older workers.

Access to scientific literature is very important for the scientific work in developing countries . As a result of different projects a large collection of e-journals is now available for researchers in developing countries. The number of Open Access Journals is growing steadily as we can see in the Directory of Open Access Journals. Major UNO organizations like WHO, FAO and UNEP have their specific programs for the scientific institutions in low-income countries. Finally a lot of universities, institutes and other organizations are supporting access programs. The most important are INASP, eIFL and eJDS. All these programs and projects have their own website and/or search engine. With the Open Science Directory IOC/IODE, with the support of EBSCO and Hasselt University Library, is creating a unique access point to all the journals contained in the different programs.

May 2, 2008

Cancer care today often provides state-of-the-science biomedical treatment, but fails to address the psychological and social (psychosocial) problems associated with the illness. This failure can compromise the effectiveness of health care and thereby adversely affect the health of cancer patients. Psychological and social problems created or exacerbated by cancer--including depression and other emotional problems; lack of information or skills needed to manage the illness; lack of transportation or other resources; and disruptions in work, school, and family life--cause additional suffering, weaken adherence to prescribed treatments, and threaten patients' return to health. Today, it is not possible to deliver high-quality cancer care without using existing approaches, tools, and resources to address patients' psychosocial health needs. All patients with cancer and their families should expect and receive cancer care that ensures the provision of appropriate psychosocial health services. Cancer Care for the Whole Patient recommends actions that oncology providers, health policy makers, educators, health insurers, health planners, researchers and research sponsors, and consumer advocates should undertake to ensure that this standard is met.

The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme has one principal aim - to help PCTs implement NICE Guidelines for people suffering from depression and anxiety disorders. The Government is committed to improving access to psychological therapies and announced additional funding to increase services over the next three years. This Commissioning Toolkit is designed to help PCTs improve or establish stepped care psychological therapies following NICE guidelines. The toolkit is structured around the commissioning cycle and is specifically linked to the World Class Commissioning competencies. It brings together a wide range of existing tools and guides and includes positive practice examples throughout.

This report outlines seven ethical principles of caregiving that can help guide policy makers and other stakeholders in their efforts to ensure that the country meets its obligations to the dependent elderly and their caregivers. From this principled foundation, we can better envision and design specific policy strategies. The seven principles are:
- An Ecological Ethic: Recognizing the interconnectedness of people, systems, and policies.
- Respect for Human Dignity: Respecting the unique worth of all people and their pursuit of a good life at all stages.
- Beneficence: Maximizing benefits, including health and security.
- Compassion: Demonstrating concern for the well-being of others, especially the vulnerable.
- Reciprocity: Appreciating and compensating those who give back to society.
- Temperance: Taking a long view rather than looking for short-term fixes.
- Social Justice: Treating all people fairly and equally and building just social institutions.

A state-by-state examination of trends in income inequality over the past two business cycles ffinds that inequality has grown in most parts of the country since the late 1980s. The incomes of the country’s highest-income families have climbed substantially, while middle- and lower-income families have seen only modest increases. In fact, the long-standing trend of growing income inequality accelerated between the late 1990s and the mid-2000s (the latest period for which state data are available).
• On average, incomes have declined by 2.5 percent among the bottom fifth of families since the
late 1990s, while increasing by 9.1 percent among the top fifth.
• In 19 states, average incomes have grown more quickly among the top fifth of families than
among the bottom fifth since the late 1990s. In no state has the bottom fifth grown significantly faster than the top fifth.
• For very high-income families — the richest 5 percent — income growth since the late 1990s has been especially dramatic, and much faster than among the poorest fifth of families.

Teens typically fail to use contraceptives consistently, which contributes to high rates of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among this age group. Existing research has focused primarily on how teens’ own characteristics are related to contraceptive use, but has paid less attention to how the characteristics of teens’ relationships and partners might influence contraceptive use and consistency. Using survey data from high school students, this Fact Sheet presents findings from recent Child Trends research examining how multiple dimensions of teens’ sexual relationships and sexual partners may influence their contraceptive use and consistency. A better understanding of these issues can help parents, program providers, and teens themselves reduce high rates of unintended teen pregnancy, childbearing, and STIs in the United States.

- SAMHSA's 2005 and 2006 National Surveys on Drug Use & Health were combined to examine the quantity and frequency of alcohol use among drinkers under the legal age, i.e., drinkers aged 12 to 20.
- Based on combined data from SAMHSA's 2005 to 2006 National Surveys on Drug Use & Health, an annual average of 28.3% of underage drinkers (10.8 million persons aged 12 to 20) drank alcohol in the past month.
- Underage drinkers who drank in the past month used alcohol an average of 5.9 days in the past month and consumed an average of 4.9 alcoholic drinks per day on the days they drank in the past month.
- Person under the legal age consumed, on average, more drinks per days on the days they drank in the past month than drinkers of legal age (4.9 drinks vs. 2.8 drinks).

Helping you through a hospital stay helps older people to understand and manage the feelings, anxieties and concerns they may have when they are entering or leaving hospital. It suggests how they can be involved in their treatment and care, and in planning for return home. The booklet has been written and developed with the input of an advisory group of older people who have firsthand experience of going into hospital. It covers all aspects of the hospital stay including how to prepare for the hospital visit, essential things to pack, what to expect from doctors, nurses, social workers and other professionals, and includes an extensive list of useful contacts for both pre and post hospital care. It will also be an invaluable aid for carers, relatives and friends.

May 1, 2008

Canada’s declining poverty rate over the last decade is evidence of substantial social policy success, which should be reflected in future policy approaches to battling poverty. Over the last decade, Canada’s unemployment rate has fallen; the employment rate has risen; and the overall poverty rate has declined. While not all is right with Canadian social policy, these trends suggest that some things are going well. A combination of favourable labour-market changes and effective policy changes has had a beneficial impact on poverty in Canada. In particular, the link between Canada’s rising employment rate and falling poverty rate over the last decade has been very strong. The impact on employment among those at high risk of incurring poverty should always be a criterion for assessing proposed policy reforms, and policies that embody powerful incentives to enter the labour market usually make sense. For instance, the introduction of new provincial welfare protocols probably explains much of the last decade’s increase in the employment rate among groups with high rates of poverty. At the heart of new protocols has been a stricter exercise by social workers in judging whether a welfare applicant is or is not employable. Admittedly, making these judgments is prone to error, and good welfare policy means much more than restricting access among those classified as employable. However, in three of the four large provinces the changes in welfare policies and the magnitude of decline in caseloads have been dramatic.

While most evidence suggests that immigration has had a modest negative effect on black employment, especially for those without a high school diploma, changes in immigration law will probably not improve job prospects for young blacks, Senior Fellow Harry Holzer told the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He offered six suggestions for policymakers looking to improve outcomes for young African Americans, such as improving their early work experience and occupational training with high-quality career and technical education.

The primary goal of this research is to determine the size of the drug-involved offender population that could be served effectively and efficiently by partnerships between courts and treatment. Despite a growing consensus that substance abuse treatment promotes desistance, few arrestees receive sufficient treatment through the criminal justice system to reduce their offending. Strict eligibility rules and scarce resources limit access to treatment, even in jurisdictions that embrace the principles of therapeutic jurisprudence. The result is that existing linkages between the criminal justice system and substance abuse treatment are so constrained that at best only small reductions in crime can be achieved. The limited access to treatment for the criminal offender population appears to be based on subjective judgments of both the risks of treating offenders in the community and the benefits of treatment. Risks are assumed to be high for most offenders, and the benefits of treatment are assumed to be low. As a result, almost all drug-involved arrestees are determined to be ineligible for participation in community-based treatment programs. An important question for the nation's drug policymakers is whether a substantial expansion of substance abuse treatment would yield benefits from reduced crime and improved public safety. A related question is whether evidence-based strategies can be developed to prioritize participation, given limited resources.

The vision for the school is to celebrate difference while ensuring that all children feel special and have an understanding and appreciation of each other’s culture and lifestyle. The school has high aspirations for all children and recognises that Traveller children, in view of their transience, need to see themselves and their culture reflected from the minute they walk into the school in order to feel that this is a place where they will be supported and welcomed.

This briefing focuses on factors contributing to either stress or resilience in families where one or both parents have mental health problems. It considers the position of parents and children focusing upon issues of stress or resilience arising from individual and ‘informal’ sources. While recognising the role that services have in mediating either stress or resilience, the briefing does not consider service interventions or evaluations, as these are the subject of a SCIE systematic review to be published separately.

Every year, millions of children and adolescents are exposed to violence—either as direct victims or as witnesses of violent events—in their homes, schools, and communities. In the past 15 years, researchers and practitioners have come to recognize that such exposure can negatively impact a child’s development and functioning. Children and young people who face early and prolonged exposure to violence are at greater risk for a range of learning and social difficulties as well as for perpetuating violence within their own families. Children confront tense and frightening events all the time, whether it is going to school for the first time, experiencing the death of a beloved grandparent, or becoming hospitalized. According to the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child at Harvard University, worrying situations fall on a continuum, ranging from short-term, tolerable, and even beneficial stress to prolonged, uncontrollable stress, that is toxic to the child’s development. How a child responds to uncontrollable stress, such as being exposed to violence, may be sudden or gradual, visible or invisible, transitory or long lasting. The response depends on the frequency, intensity, and history of exposure as well as on environmental supports.

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