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information for practice April 2009 archives

April 30, 2009

L Best | Heart/Guardian

A new taskforce is setting out plans to free social workers from an IT nightmare and boost their morale.

Briefs from the National Conference of State Legislatures

Dr. Roberta Rehner Iversen is the 2009 recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award in the MSW Program, Standing Faculty, in the School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2).

This report presents the findings of a literature review on financial incentives in welfare systems and family structure. It considers the possible consequences of the tax and benefit system for family life.

S Lee | Guardian

Dr. Martin Knapp, Professor of social policy at the London School of Economics

Courtesy Photo

Despite touting itself as a First World nation, the United States contains areas such as neighboring Kentucky, where Americans themselves live in Third World conditions.

This report explores the potential to raise the attainment of young people in deprived communities by raising aspirations and changing attitudes within these communities.

Specifically, the study is intended to provide evidence on whether alcohol affordability could be a useful policy lever to public authorities seeking to reduce harmful alcohol consumption in Europe. In order to do this, the study: 1) examines the link between the affordability of alcoholic beverages, alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harms; 2) examines the impact of cross-border tax-driven or competition-driven price differentials; and 3) investigates the policy levers that can influence the affordability of alcohol, by providing an overview of current alcohol pricing policies in place across the EU.

PR

Heavy Load ... Britain's first fully disabled punk band will play the new stage.

We asked pupils from different residential schools across the country to give us their views and experiences by using a secure web survey. The schools were picked at random from a national list of residential special schools. Altogether, we received answers from 338 students, from around 40 residential special schools.

Bugnaski | The Kalamazoo Gazette

Three Western Michigan University students, from left, Peter "PK" Kuol, 25, Paul Mawut, 24, and Josephine Graham, 19, are part of the John Seita Scholarship Program, which aims to help students who have aged out of the foster care system

Series of videos by the National Urban Indian Family Coalition addressing urban Indian America. This video features Mary Trimble Norris, Executive Director of the American Indian Child Resource Center, discussing the Indian Child Welfare Act.

• Family Interaction; The Case of Children of Primary School Age with Learning Problems - Social Risk Indicators
• Culture Shock and Adaptation in a Multiethnic City
• Culture Clash: Investigating the Nexus Between Western-Muslim Ideological Dissonance and Islamist Terrorism
• From Mistreatment Towards Anomie. Radicalization and the Eclipse of Western Values. - Totalitarianism on spotlight
• A Tale of Three Incidents

D Levene

Sir Al Aynsley-Green: 'Arrest and transportation to detention takes place with scant regard to children's basic welfare needs'.

This review of research from UK and international studies was commissioned as part of the initial scoping stage of the national play evaluation to look at the available evidence on the outcomes associated with play and how they are measured. The review looked at play provision for children aged eight to 13 years and adult roles in supporting and supervising play.

Internet-and computer-based cognitive-behavioral treatments have been introduced as novel approaches to deliver standard, quality treatment that may reduce barriers to care. The purpose of this review is to quantitatively summarize the literature examining the treatment effects of Internet- or computer-based treatment (ICT) on anxiety. . . . The effects of ICT also were equal to therapist- delivered treatment across anxiety disorders. However, conclusions were limited by small sample sizes, the rare use of placebo controls, and other methodological problems.

April 29, 2009

While doctors do not know why asthma rates are higher in cities, they can treat the disease using medication and allergy shots.

Lecturers boycotted coursework and exams in 2006. University teaching staff have been offered a pay increase of 0.3% for the next academic year - but a lecturers' union called this "derisory".

Almost 72 million working-age Americans—18-64 years old—live with chronic conditions, such as diabetes, asthma or depression. In 2007, almost three in 10, or more than 20 million people with chronic conditions, lived in families with problems paying medical bills—a significant increase from 21 percent in 2003.

Jane Canning: 'My recent job centre interviews have been extremely traumatic, and brought back all the feelings of hopelessness and despair of the 70s and 80s'

This handbook provides information and advice for Tackling Drugs Changing Lives Week, which is being held from 8 to 12 June 2009. The campaign is designed to provide local agencies and police forces with a platform to publicise the work they do to tackle drugs and reduce drug-related crime and to highlight the significant efforts that are being made to keep communities safe.

US data from the CDC

This research was commissioned to examine the potential non-pecuniary benefits of lifelong learning and to identify whether such benefits are evident and consider their implications for policy development.

N Arai | Courtesy of Shoshana Arai

Richard Masato Aoki, shown at a political rally in San Francisco around 1970, was a Black Panther field marshal.

J Brown

Is this simply poor judgment or is this something else?

"An F.A.A. memo last week said information about the exercise “should only be shared with persons with a need to know” and “shall not be released to the public or the media.” . . . . Neither the White House nor the F.A.A. explained why the mission was deemed a secret, even though officials conceded the primary purpose was picture taking."

This paper . . . . is intended to provide a practical description and a case study of the development of public health and human services policy and programs in the United States with special emphasis on emerging trends and an analysis of the impact on services as a result of the implementation of Welfare Reform in 1996

D Levene

Sathana, two, and her mother at a Sure Start project, which helps promote positive parenting.

Tribune | J Reed

Dottie Berger MacKinnon has been a tireless advocate for children of abuse. She recently opened "A Kid's Place" in Brandon, a 60-bed assessment center for children and families.

The Early Experiences Matter Policy Guide is your set of tools for taking action and improving public policies that impact the lives of infants, toddlers, and their families. All of the materials in the toolkit are accessible online, and we encourage you to use them in your work and disseminate them widely.

This is a summary document of international and national evidence of the link between deprivation and educational attainment. It highlights some of the good practice already shown by schools and local authorities and signals future policy direction.

A meta-analytic review of empirical studies that have investigated incubation effects on problem solving is reported. Although some researchers have reported increased solution rates after an incubation period (i.e., a period of time in which a problem is set aside prior to further attempts to solve), others have failed to find effects.

A proposal to close a psychiatric inpatient unit in south Belfast has been rejected by the health trust.

• Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an educational intervention for practice teams to deliver problem focused therapy for insomnia: rationale and design of a pilot cluster randomised trial
• Prevalence, evaluation and management of overactive bladder in primary care
• Disclosure of symptoms of postnatal depression, the perspectives of health professionals and women: a qualitative study
• The external validity of published randomized controlled trials in primary care
• "I should live and finish it": A qualitative inquiry into Turkish women's menopause experience
• Association between risk factors for injurious falls and new benzodiazepine prescribing in elderly persons

Professor Janet treasure explains the complex disorder of bulimia nervosa, how to spot the symptoms and describes the impact it has on a person's life.

April 28, 2009

This report uses national data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) to show that unionization raises the wages of the typical service sector worker by 10.1 percent compared to their non-union peers. The study goes on to show that unionization also increases the likelihood that a service sector worker will have health insurance and a pension.

South Africa's powerful trade unions demanded more action to fight poverty on Sunday, putting pressure on president-to-be Jacob Zuma after the big election victory of his African National Congress.

m popat | arizona daily star

Prof. Ann Weaver Nichols is retiring in August as coordinator of the Tucson component of Arizona State University's School of Social Work, which she established more than three decades ago. She's also an associate professor. Students in this class include Katie Komar, left, and Maria Harris.

Cabell Brand vowed decades ago to commit 20 percent of his time to fostering social change. TAP, his community action agency, launched an effort to bring running water to rural homes in the region
in 1970, and brought a food bank to the Roanoke Valley in 1981.

This paper describes a review of the Department of Work and Pensions’ measures of the persistence of low income. These measures show trends in relation to individuals who are persistently recorded in low-income households. Statistics have also been produced on the likelihood of individuals either entering or exiting low income. The measures are derived from the British Household Panel Survey, a longitudinal survey designed to capture information on a nationally representative sample of the population.

Following the case of ‘Baby P’, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, the Rt Hon Ed Balls MP, acted decisively. On 17 November 2008 he commissioned me to provide an urgent report on the progress being made across the country to implement effective arrangements for safeguarding children.

M WRIGHT | Detroit Free Press

Gates block access to units at Stor & Lock in Vienna Township, where Shylea Thomas' body was found. The discovery stunned her neighbors: "How could someone do something like that to that child?" one asked.

The German Catholic church has been protecting the priest Wolfdieter Weiss, a convicted pedophile, for years.

Attachment is a deep, lasting bond that develops between a caregiver and child during the baby’s first few years of life. This attachment is critical to the growth of a baby’s body and mind. Babies who have this bond and feel loved have a better chance to grow up to be adults who trust others and know how to return affection.

K Jardner

Abandoned: Many East Germans rushed to West Germany as soon as the Wall fell, and after just months, many apartments were deserted and trashed. It was a phenomenon that would come to be known as shrinking cities and continues to this day.

Cary Nelson describes how the shift to a majority contingent faculty is an intellectual sea change for undergraduates as well as faculty themselves.

• 'No we can't'. Crisis as Chance
• Myths of a Near Past: Envisioning Finance Capitalism Anno 2007
• The Production of Informational Objects in Innovation Work: Pharmaceutical Reason and the Individuation of Illnesses
• Philosophy in the Boudoir and the Streets: An Interview with Simon Critchley
• Mystification and Secrecy in Contemporary Corporate Life: A Reflection on Lars von Trier's The Boss of it All
• What I Read About the Global Financial Crisis in 2007 and 2008
• Undisciplined Economies

The meta-analysis revealed sufficient evidence for the effectiveness of attention training after traumatic brain injury and of language and visuospatial training for aphasia and neglect syndromes after stroke. Results provide important quantitative documentation of effective treatments, complementing recent systematic reviews. Findings also highlight gaps in the scientific evidence supporting cognitive rehabilitation, thereby indicating future research directions.

This document draws on evidence from local authority youth services inspections. It reports on the quality and impact of youth work. The report tracks recent but early developments in the introduction of integrated youth support.

April 27, 2009

Senate Bill (SB) 758 requires the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to develop a pilot program for contracting for case management services in up to 5% of Child Protective Services (CPS) cases. DFPS was directed to develop a pilot program for the competitive procurement of case management in one or more geographic areas of the state on or before September 1, 2008.

This report evaluates a pilot of LinkAge Plus, a programme that has brought local authorities together with their partners in health and the voluntary and community sector to find innovative ways to break down traditional organisational and financial barriers and to join up services for older people.

Civilian Conservation Corps workers cut dead wood in Sequoia National Park, California, in 1933. Similar work awaits those in a new Ohio conservation program.

In Kabul, Afghan women rally against laws that restrict their rights, while angry throngs of men voice harsh disapproval.

Liz North is project manager at 5050 Vision

President Obama and the new Congress have worked diligently to enact a recovery package that will bring this country out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. As that process unfolded, some deficit hawks began to promote the notion that the short-term costs of the economic downturn and the recovery plan ought to be linked to long-term reductions in Social Security and Medicare. They have characterized expenditures for these critical programs as representing an “entitlement crisis” or a “long-term fiscal crisis.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

NY Times

Focuses on the labor market situation in selected countries for the most recent year available; some charts also show trends.

I Tabakov | MT

Hundreds of people waiting in line for a free hot meal outside the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian in central Moscow on a recent Wednesday.

This report describes the agreed upon assumptions, the process used, the resulting prioritized groups of social worker tasks and the alternative methods discussed for reducing lower priority tasks from case carrying social workers workload.

AFP

The crisis in the automobile industry has hit Detroit hard.

Only fluoxetine (Prozac) should be used and only then in severe cases, the committee said.

Mental health and substance use disorders among children, youth, and young adults are major threats to the health and well-being of younger populations which often carryover into adulthood. The costs of treatment for mental health and addictive disorders, which create an enormous burden on the affected individuals, their families, and society, have stimulated increasing interest in prevention practices that can impede the onset or reduce the severity of the disorders.

A systematic review (58 studies, 5,009 individuals) is presented of associations between psychopathological dimensions of psychosis and measures of neurocognitive impairment in subjects with a lifetime history of nonaffective psychosis. Results showed that negative and disorganized dimensions were significantly but modestly associated with cognitive deficits

In October 2007 Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs lost two discs containing a copy of the entire child benefit database. Suddenly issues of privacy and data security were on the front page of most newspapers and leading the TV news bulletins. The old line ‘if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear’ was given a very public rebuttal. The millions of people affected by this data loss, who may have thought they had nothing to hide, were shown that they do have much to fear from the failures of the database state.

• Comparison of temporal changes in psychological distress after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation among the underlying diseases of Japanese adult patients
• Panic disorder and locomotor activity
• General practitioners' responses to the initial presentation of medically unexplained symptoms: a quantitative analysis
• The ventro-medial prefrontal cortex: a major link between the autonomic nervous system, regulation of emotion, and stress reactivity?
• The reliability and validity of a Japanese version of symptom checklist 90 revised
• High-utilizing Crohn's disease patients under psychosomatic therapy
• The relationship between health-related quality of life and social networks among Japanese family caregivers for people with disabilities
• A prospective study of the psychobehavioral factors responsible for a change from non-patient irritable bowel syndrome to IBS patient status

A cognitive behaviour therapy expert explains how this psychological treatment works and who could benefit from it.

Robert Searle, who killed social worker Philip Ellison

April 26, 2009

DPA

French workers protest at the headquarters of tyre manufacturer Continental in Hanover: Will the economic crisis cause social unrest in Germany?

One of the most common forms of violence against women is that performed by a husband or an intimate male partner. This is in stark contrast to the situation for men, who in general are much more likely to be attacked by a stranger or acquaintance than by someone within their close circle of relationships.

Congresswoman Roybal-Allard speaks about military social work at USC.

AFP

Sudanese children at a camp in Chad: Between 3,000 and 5,000 youth from other countries are believed to have sought refuge in Germany.

Adult social care services are increasingly developing home care re-ablement services. Findings from a new study of four councils with adult social services responsibilities indicate that re-ablement may reduce the subsequent use of home care services.

AFP

Detroit's poor wait in line to receive gifts of food, personal care, household items and toys

Best known for stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, Robin (depicted by some as a commoner, and others as the dispossessed Earl of Huntingdon) and his Merry Men (a group of "three score", or 60, outlawed yeomen, according to an early source) have become symbols of justice against greed and tyranny.

Recent research suggests that working while in high school reduces the amount of time students spend doing homework. However, an additional hour of work leads to a reduction in homework by much less than one hour, suggesting a reduction in other activities.

ABC News Photo Illustration

The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday it would accept, not appeal, a federal judge's order that lifts Bush administration restrictions limiting over-the-counter sales of "Plan B" to women 18 and older.

Summarizes the research on childhood stress and its implications for adult health and well-being. Of particular interest is the stress caused by child abuse, neglect, and repeated exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV). This publication provides violence prevention practitioners with ideas about how to incorporate information on childhood stress into their work.

• HIV/AIDS awareness and risk behavior among students in Semey, Kazakhstan: a cross-sectional survey
• "One country, two systems": Sociopolitical implications for female migrant sex workers in Hong Kong
• "I never had the money for blood testing" – Caretakers' experiences of care-seeking for fatal childhood fevers in rural Uganda – a mixed methods study

Conclusion: Overall, stress-management interventions for HIV+ adults significantly improve mental health and quality of life but do not alter immunological or hormonal processes. The absence of immunological or hormonal benefits may reflect the studies' limited assessment period (measured typically within 1-week postintervention), participants' advanced stage of HIV (HIV+ status known for an average of 5 years), and/or sample characteristics (predominately male and White participants).

One avenue of investigation not previously explored is the variation in labor force activity of older workers across different states. In South Dakota, nearly 90 percent of men aged 55-64 are in the labor force compared to only 40 percent in West Virginia.

REUTERS

Germany's leading economic institutes are predicting a gloomy 2009, with GDP shrinking by 6 percent.

Women in the workforce is the subject of this 1930s video. It starts out on a positive note but then warns of the perils facing country girls seeking jobs in New York City during the Great Depression.

April 25, 2009

IIllustration, Beggars Receiving Alms at the Door of a House, Rembrandt at Open Eye Gallery

In a previous report, Access Denied (March 2007), we found that 56 million Americans lacked adequate access to primary health care because of shortages of such physicians in their communities. Today, we find the number of medically disenfranchised has reached 60 million, despite that fact that health centers added 2 million people to their patient rolls over the same period.

This Applied Research paper provides a review of the current literature on screening women for sexual violence in health care facilities, and discusses the reasoning and rationale behind screening women for sexual violence.

AFP

Newly homeless couple Tammy and Keith Day wait for their dinner to cook in the Sacramento tent city.

M Kepka | The Chronicle

Al Gore and Richard Blum (second and third from left) help break ground for the Richard C. Blum Center for Developing Economies, which Blum founded as a faculty-student think tank.

This guide describes CDC's public health activities and research to prevent violence against women.

Providence Journal | C Grosch

Donalda Carlson, administrator of child and family support services at the Department of Human Services

CBS

Jon Phillips, left, Sarah Berry, right

In 2006, U.S. state and local child protective services(CPS) investigated 3.6 million reports of children being abused or neglected.

• The Tragic Meaning of Blood”: Symbol, Myth, and the Construction of Criminology
• Do Guns Matter? A Multi-level Cross-National Examination of Gun Availability on Assault and Robbery Victimization
• An Integrated Model of Juvenile Drug Use: A Cross-Demographic Groups Study
• Self-Control and Ethical Beliefs on the Social Learning of Intellectual Property Theft
• Family Structure and Parental Behavior: Identifying the Sources of Adolescent Self-Control

Do job attitudes cause performance, or is it the other way around? . . . . Effects of performance on subsequent job attitudes were elusive (ß = .00 across all studies), which suggests that job attitudes are more likely to influence performance than vice versa.

Waxman, who represents California's 30th district in the U.S. House of Representatives, delivers the keynote lecture at the California Social Welfare Archives Annual Luncheon, speaking about the misguided priorities of elected leaders to protect private wealth over the need to provide for the least advantaged.

Mary Hanafin: Speaking in Dáil about cuts

Protect the Ones You Love: Child Injuries Are Preventable is a CDC initiative to raise parents' awareness about the leading causes of child injury in the United States and how they can be prevented. Working together, we can keep our children safe and help them live to their full potential.

April 24, 2009

This Applied Research paper provides information on core concepts relevant to media campaign evaluation strategies and showcases several sexual violence prevention campaigns that have completed evaluations at various stages of the implementation process.

Beyond those dealing with layoffs and plummeting 401(k)s, there's another group of Americans who are being hurt by the troubled economy - kids.

In this year of Charles Darwin celebrations, it is worthwhile to reflect on the his contribution to psychology, through brief consideration of his writing on that enigmatic and, as Darwin noted, uniquely human expression, the blush.

State by state analysis.

This paper contributes to the evaluation of the change in divorce laws by examining a less studied area: the long-term effects of this policy change on the well-being of men and women who were young adults when the laws were changing

Figure. Depression Ups Care Barriers for Military Spouses

The Food Stamp Program reduces benefits to households as their earnings rise. This reduction is affected by household participation in other Government assistance programs (cross-program effects) and by the wide variation in State-specific reduction rates for earnings in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). This study shows that, for food stamp recipients who also received cash benefits through TANF in 2005, an extra dollar of earnings led to a change in food stamp benefits ranging from a reduction of 36 cents to an increase of 9 cents.

M Argles | Guardian

Moira Gibb, the chair of the new social work taskforce, whose interim report is expected to recommend radical change to boost the image and morale of the profession.

M DiBATTISTA | The Review

Verna and Gary Dell at the Family and Children's Services Niagara office. The Dells have acted as volunteer drivers for seven years. Verna also acts as a telephoner, co-ordinating drives for the agency.

The Well Being Project (WBP) is a pilot mental health service for unaccompanied asylum seeking young people (UASC). The project is funded by a 2-year grant from the Department of Health (12) and delivered through Central and North West London Mental Health Foundation Trust Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in Hillingdon.

Psychoanalysis was popularized in the 1940s by such Hollywood films as "Spellbound" (1945). This video excerpt from that era provides a documentary view.

The News Journal | S PEDERSON

At St. Michael's School and Nursery in Wilmington on Wednesday, children listen to the teacher during reading time. The children are (clockwise from top left) Shane Lopez, Kaitlyn Kohr, Clifton Jackson and Darrell Johnson. Delaware children should get high-quality learning experiences from birth, a state report says.

This on-line fact sheet provides statistics and general information on dating violence.

At the aggregate level, 72% of girls and 63% of boys had a clinical elevation on at least one MAYSI-2 scale. Our meta-analytic technique indicated that the sex differences across sites were even larger than these numbers imply. Conversely and counter to existing evidence, race-related differences were generally small or nonexistent.

• Nurse-led motivational interviewing to change the lifestyle of patients with type 2 diabetes (MILD-project): protocol for a cluster, randomized, controlled trial on implementing lifestyle recommendations
• Do knowledge infrastructure facilities support Evidence-Based Practice in occupational health? An exploratory study across countries among occupational physicians enrolled on Evidence-Based Medicine courses
• Guideline adherence and patient satisfaction in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disorders – an evaluation study
• Analysis of research output parameters: Density equalizing mapping and citation trends
• Barriers to healthcare utilization in fatiguing illness: a population-based study in Georgia
• Knowledge brokering: Exploring the process of transferring knowledge into action
• Perception of primary health professionals about Female Genital Mutilation: from healthcare to intercultural competence
• Factors associated with utilization of traditional Chinese medicine by white collar foreign workers living in Taiwan
• Effects of job rotation and role stress among nurses on job satisfaction and organizational commitment
• What promotes sustainability in Safe Community programmes?

April 23, 2009

ATUS data provide insight into which workers were the most likely to do some work at home, and also yield information on the share of total weekly work hours people spent at their workplace, at home, and at other locations.

The premise of Baby Shaker was to quiet a baby by shaking the iPhone. But the animation suggested a player was silencing the baby by murdering it: A successful shake caused two large red Xs to appear on the baby's eyes.

Betty Figg is wheeled away by social workers who accused her family of abducting her from her care home

Comparisons are made using the victimization experiences of other racial and ethnic groups. Findings include violent victimization rates by victim characteristics and property victimization rates by household characteristics. Crime characteristics (weapon use, victim injuries, and police reporting) and trends in violent and property victimization are also discussed.

R Galbraith | Reuters

People with opposing viewpoints on Proposition 8 demonstrate outside the California Supreme Court in San Francisco, California

This publication is a simple guide that provides information for providers working with young people who may be eligible for education maintenance allowance.

Frances Perkins Papers

Public life: Frances Perkins shares a joke with incoming president Franklin D. Roosevelt on Jan. 1, 1933. Perkins, the first woman in a presidential Cabinet, had worked for Roosevelt since 1928.

G Jeffrey

Chris Kelly says a foster parent's role is to give children a sense of belonging.

Journal | J Rotenizer

DeWarren Carter pets Rex, a hound dog mix, at the Forsyth Correctional Center. Carter is training Rex under the guidance of the Forsyth County Humane Society.

Early New Deal policy

This fact sheet provides a basic overview of teen dating abuse. It is intended for the general public.

• Too many Japanese university students are still smoking tobacco
• The historical decline of tobacco smoking among United States physicians: 1949–1984
• Designing a tobacco counter-marketing campaign for African American youth
• A profile of teen smokers who volunteered to participate in school-based smoking intervention
• The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and Japanese anti-tobacco measures
• Tobacco use and asking prices of used cars: prevalence, costs, and new opportunities for changing smoking behavior

The search strategy yielded 29 articles for eight outcome measures that met the inclusion criteria for the review. . . . These findings suggest that a range of measures is required to evaluate activity, and assessment should be tailored to the individual needs of children with CP.

April 22, 2009

An IFP councillor for Mpumuza near Sweetwaters has criticised the Social Development Department and the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) for failing to provide shelter at a pension point in Mpumuza

Costs of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women in 1995 exceeded an estimated $5.8 billion. These costs included nearly $4.1 billion in the direct costs of medical and mental health care and nearly $1.8 billion in the indirect costs of lost productivity (CDC 2003). This is generally considered an underestimate because the costs associated with the criminal justice system were not included

Dean Flynn introduces Congresswoman Roybal-Allard.

This document describes current research findings on the effects of childhood and adulthood sexual victimization on women's mental health. Existing data on understudied communities and risk factors for mental health problems are discussed.

G Farthing

John Beghtol, community services director at Western State Hospital, speaks March 27 in his office.

The Aradale site, which closed as a mental asylum in 1993, has 63 buildings and 100 hectares of land.

These guidance notes support the collection of national prison health performance indicators. The document contains statements of good practice, rationale for the inclusion of the indicators and evidence that may be gathered to support the indicators.

Walsh was found guilty of five offences of fraud

Social workers deal with common human needs. They work to prevent or alleviate individual, group and community problems, and to improve the quality of life for all people. In doing so, they seek to uphold the rights of the individuals or groups with whom they are working.

D Mansell

Children and staff in the playground of a children's home in Chelmsford, Essex.

A successful response to disaster begins months, or even years, in advance, when you sit down to develop a plan. This manual is designed to help you construct that plan. In the following pages, you will have the opportunity to answer questions or complete worksheets. Various templates are also included in the appendices to add to your own disaster preparedness binder.

The centerpiece of early New Deal legislation was the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (later voided by the Supreme Court). Under this legislation, businesses were placed into cartel-like structures, seen as instruments of economic planning. Codes of good conduct were to guide business operations. The codes included a general right to collective bargaining that were later formalized in the Wagner Act of 1935. Cooperating firms could display the "Blue Eagle." This video clip from a Hollywood musical makes the message clear to audiences of the time: flag-Roosevelt-eagle.

• The Lausanne cohort Lc65+: a population-based prospective study of the manifestations, determinants and outcomes of frailty
• A water-based training program that include perturbation exercises to improve stepping responses in older adults: study protocol for a randomized controlled cross-over trial
• Haemoglobin, anaemia, dementia and cognitive decline in the elderly, a systematic review
• A new approach to physical activity maintenance: Rationale, design, and baseline data from the Keep Active Minnesota trial
• The MOBILIZE Boston Study: Design and methods of a prospective cohort study of novel risk factors for falls in an older population
• DeLLITE Depression in late life: an intervention trial of exercise. Design and recruitment of a randomised controlled trial

Recent changes in PQSW education mean that information regarding the programmes and their subsequent impact is becoming increasingly important. As yet, little work has been published on impact although early work by McCloskey (1) on evaluating PQSW programmes found they had a positive effect on personal, team and organisational development, with implications for social workers and organisational performance being particularly powerful. Other initial research, e.g. Doel et al (2), concludes that the key to successful PQSW education is the partnership between course providers, employers and social workers.

Providing pediatric asthma education reduces mean number of hospitalizations and emergency department visits and the odds of an emergency department visit for asthma, but not the odds of hospitalization or mean number of urgent physician visits.

L Neal | AFP/Getty Images

Jersey Police in the grounds of the Haut de la Garenne

April 21, 2009

Darrel Regier, M.D.: "The definition of a mental disorder] has not been determined yet [for DSM-V]. It is an imprecise art coming to such a definition."

This paper consolidates knowledge about the damaging interplay between homelessness and sexual violence. It clarifies steps researchers, policy-makers, and service providers can take to intervene with victims and prevent future sexual assaults.

IFSW asserts that health is an issue of fundamental human rights and social justice and binds social work to apply these principles in policy, education, research and practice. All people have an equal right to enjoy the basic conditions which underpin human health. These conditions include a minimum standard of living to support health and a sustainable and health promoting environment.

F Miller

Lengthening dole queues: while the long-term jobless must be assisted, it is also vital to focus on those still in the early months of unemployment if its duration is to be limited.

A Franco | NY Times

Joe Reddick has written two paperback novels under the pen name Joe Black. He is polishing a third novel that he wrote in prison.

This report looks at the impact quality ratings have had on people who choose, purchase or commission care services.

The demographic trends and the resulting shrinking of the labour force in the future emphasize the importance of shifting from a passive compensation system to an active integration programme and making best use of the available workforce. People with disabilities can represent a significant addition to the labour force and thus contribute to economic production.

Figure. Few VA Patients Get All Monitoring Visits

M Jory | Times-Herald

Social services manager Karl Porter addresses a group of foster parents and Solano County social services workers during a Recruiting, Developing and Supporting Resource Families workshop held in Fairfield.

This report discusses the results of two surveys of youth in foster care, the Annual Random Youth Survey and the optional Youth Questionnaire. This report also describes the ongoing efforts toward program improvement undertaken by Child Protective Services. These results are being shared with community partners, CPS management and staff, and the adolescents themselves in the interests of further improving the foster care experience for all children.

This research provides original empirical evidence from a PhD study, which investigated the affect on the support relationship of the direct employment of personal assistants by direct payment users. The study compared the experiences of direct payment users and their personal assistants with homecare users and their workers.

Complex interventions can help elderly people to live safely and independently, and could be tailored to meet individuals' needs and preferences.

This Pentagon produced item is about the USC School of Social Work's Military Social Work program. The program is opening an academic center in Rancho Bernardo, California, near the military bases in San Diego.

AP | M Rourke

In this photo taken on Feb. 26, 2009, aeration basins are seen in operation at the Wilmington Wastewater Treatment Plant in Wilmington, Del. Scientists took samples from the Delaware River nearby and found elevated concentrations of the painkiller codeine that are prompting them to try and track the source of the drug; this treatment plant handles sewage from a nearby pharmaceutical factory that makes codeine.

• Imagining Social Justice amidst Guatemala’s Post-Conflict Violence
• Corporeal Dimensions of Gender Violence: Ladina’s Self and Body in Eastern Guatemala
• Women in Guatemala’s Metropolitan Area: Violence, Law, and Social Justice
• Engendering Justice: Constructing Institutions to Address Violence Against Women
• A Socially-Just Internet: The Digital Divide, Cybercultural Agency, and Human Capabilities
• The Sport Nexus and Gender Injustice
• Just Above the Fray - Interpretive Social Criticism and the Ends of Social Justice

April 20, 2009

CASASARDSM is the first major system level test of the chronic disease management approach to addiction and its results suggest that it should be extended immediately to other states.
CASA’s evaluation shows, for the first time, the ability of intensive case management to effectively address addictive disorders in the welfare population--increasing participation in treatment and recovery which is a necessary precondition to achieving and sustaining employment.

J Imel | Daily News

Crista Creekmore is a social worker at Commonwealth Health Specialty Hospital.

Randall W. Hill, Jr., executive director at the Institute for Creative Technologies.

He attended high school in Haifa and became an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces. He later graduated from the Bar Ilan University School of Social Work and obtained an LLB degree from Ono Academic College.

In determining whether people will be able to work longer, it is not simply measuring how long they will live, but rather how much longer they will be capable of working. Life expectancy may be increasing, but can the same be said for healthy, disability-free life expectancy?

Government policy requires organisations providing social care to promote choice and control. We recently carried out an intensive study observing what happens from day-to-day in the lives of people with learning disabilities in services. One major obstacle to the promotion of empowerment was that the choice and control agenda is seen by many staff as conflicting with other policies, agendas and rules at play within services. We recommend a process of ‘myth-busting’ in individual services.

Howard Zinn on class in America Pt 3 - social turmoil is not bad if it leads to something good

Kent School faculty and staff join Dean Terry Singer (bottom center)

“Terry’s service is much more that can ever be expected from a dean,” said Anna Faul, Kent school professor and associate dean for academic affairs. “Normally a dean needs to be involved in community service, but in essence Terry Singer lives the principles of service that is one of the pillars of our profession.”

“Terry’s service is much more that can ever be expected from a dean,” said Anna Faul, Kent school professor and associate dean for academic affairs. “Normally a dean needs to be involved in community service, but in essence Terry Singer lives the principles of service that is one of the pillars of our profession.”

The statistics, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show an average 10.9% vacancy rate in the 96 councils that responded to our national survey – equivalent to 8,317 unfilled posts.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious, preventable public health problem that affects millions of Americans. The term "intimate partner violence" describes physical, sexual, or psychological harm by a current or former partner or spouse.

The ire of some Tribal Council members was raised Thursday after learning they were not consulted about an Indian Child Welfare bill introduced by state Rep. Ronnie Sutton last month.

Another group of young people who enter care more frequently and stay in care longer is LGBTQ youth. These young people are more frequent victims of family violence and run away or are kicked out of their homes at higher rates than their peers. Sadly, LGBTQ youth often end up in foster care only to experience additional maltreatment from peers, community members, and even caregivers.

• Responses to language barriers in consultations with refugees and asylum seekers: a telephone survey of Irish general practitioners
• The role of the General Practitioner in weight management in primary care – a cross sectional study in General Practice
• What are the roles involved in establishing and maintaining informational continuity of care within family practice? A systematic review
• Lifestyle counseling in hypertension-related visits – analysis of video-taped general practice visits
• Familiarity between patient and general practitioner does not influence the content of the consultation
• Ambivalence related to potential lifestyle changes following preventive cardiovascular consultations in general practice: A qualitative study

Theories that childhood sexual abuse has a central or causal role in the development of self-injurious behaviour are not supported by the available empirical evidence. Instead, it appears that the two are modestly related because they are correlated with the same psychiatric risk factors.

Social workers, by virtue of their training, their commitment to human rights, and the fact that they are uniquely placed within a wide variety of health and welfare settings, can play a very effective role in the global effort to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

This video shows early discussion of the development of the British welfare statement after World War II including the National Health Service. William Beveridge - whose report/plan for social insurance was very influential - is interviewed. His name is now used by economists for the "Beveridge Curve," the relationship between the unemployment rate and the vacancy rate. However, Beveridge did not invent this curve; his name is affixed to it because he equated "full employment" (a goal of the welfare state) with a situation where the number of vacancies = number of unemployed.

Marcia Gay Harden, left, plays Sendler’s supportive mother, Janina.

April 19, 2009

An unidentified man (upper) who was armed with a knife, accepts the hand of a police negotiator as he alights from a railing, after threatening to jump from the 49the floor of the Immigration Tower in Hong Kong in 2008. These are dangerous times: suicide rates go up in the Spring and during an economic downturn, an analysis of suicide trends published Friday shows.

In its gradual approach to economic transition, China deferred the difficult process of restructuring state owned enterprises (SOEs) until the mid-1990s. When restructuring of large scale SOEs accelerated after 1997, China witnessed sharp declines in the employment of urban residents.

Welcome from Dean Marilyn Flynn

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is abuse that occurs between two people in a close relationship. The term “intimate partner” includes current and former spouses and dating partners. IPV exists along a continuum from a single episode of violence to ongoing battering.

L Navidi

A homeless man camps with others Thursday along Foremaster Lane between Las Vegas Boulevard North and Main Street. A kind of tent city has occupied Foremaster for decades, to the chagrin of business owners and city officials.

D Lange | Courtesy Library of Congress

If we're in the middle of a new Great Depression, then why are we still ordering $17 cocktails?

A gardening project on the outskirts of Aberdeen which employs people with mental health problems is facing the threat of closure, it has emerged.

Reuters

A member of Massachusetts General Hospital's Child Protection Team looks at an x-ray of a child's hand in Boston.

This guide from the NH Adoption Advisory Council provides information and resources to support successful permanency for children, and can be used by foster parents, those considering adoption, adoptive parents, community partners and agency serving youth and families.

• From the Editor
• The Impact of Restorative Justice on the Development of Guilt, Shame, and Empathy among Offenders
• Jail Visitation: An Assessment of Organizational Policy and Information Availability
• Death Penalty Attitudes in an Increasingly Critical Climate: Value-Expressive Support and Attitude Mutability
• A Local Case Study on Students' Perceptions of Truancy and Delinquent Behaviors

Conclusions: Methodological concerns limit the strength of inference regarding the impact of providing PRO information to clinicians. Results suggest great heterogeneity of impact; contexts and interventions that will yield important benefits remain to be clearly defined.

Mainichi

Tamaki Saito

Voice developed exit questionnaires in three secure children's homes. Analysing the results of these revealed the following: young people were generally positive about their care and identified good outcomes, particularly in education aspects of daily living caused the greatest dissatisfaction young people tended to lose contact with their "home" peer groups and 10% had no clear discharge plan. Unit managers and advocates were generally positive about the impact of the process on practice.

UC Davis Center for Healthy Aging presents Larry Dawes offers an engaging presentation for seniors on tools for keeping their memory alive and well.

April 18, 2009

The term drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) has been recently coined to describe victims who were given a drug by an assailant and subsequently sexually assaulted. Previous studies that have attempted to determine the prevalence of drugs in sexual assault complainants have had serious biases. This research was designed to better estimate the rate of DFSA and to examine the social aspects surrounding it.

J Shane | Daily Record

Dozens of people showed up for free groceries Monday morning at Loaves & Fishes.

Salem-News | T King

AP

A homeless man walks with his belongings at a park in Tokyo, Japan.

There is a need for attention to be directed to the conditions in which rural populations live, and ways have to be found to improve them. This is because rural communities throughout the world are caught up in a process of socio-economic and political change over which they have little or no control. This has led to a situation where rural communities have little direct opportunity to be involved in the process of decision-making on matters that may affect their own well-being. It also means that many rural communities are left out of the mainstream of national development. The main policy issue for social workers therefore, is to ensure that those who are directly affected by change are involved in the decision-making process.

This article considers the findings of research regarding the low educational achievement of children in care. Better practice should be informed by asking these children to consider the factors that are affecting their education, as well as an understanding of successful strategies by listening to those who have attended university after a period in care. While more research is needed, effective guidelines for future practice have been identified.

T FUKADA PHOTO

Digging deeper: Experts and journalists discuss the widening gaps between prosperous and poor regions both in Japan and Europe in the EU-Japan Journalists' Conference in Niigata

A study conducted by the European Centre in 2006/2007 using interviews with experts and male youth shows the challenges posed in the work with boys, their experiences with sex education,their respective information demands as well as how they may be best addressed by relevant offers. An important result of the study is that socially disadvantaged youth as well as migrants have sexual contacts at an earlier stage than other youth but provide of fewer information resources.

DM Sanders | USA TODAY

Savana Redding, now 19, was strip-searched as an eighth-grader at Safford Middle School in Arizona on suspicions she might have ibuprofen. No drugs were found.

• Breast cancer in Iran: need for greater women awareness of warning signs and effective screening methods
• The impact of a GP clinical audit on the provision of smoking cessation advice
• Under-diagnosis of alcohol-related problems and depression in a family practice in Japan
• Domestic violence management in Malaysia: A survey on the primary health care providers

This brochure explains how adoptees, adoptive parents, and birth family members can access the information they are entitled to about adoptions that have taken place in Vermont.

The Department of Social Welfare are seeing new office accommodation in Drogheda.

Lawrence Scahill, Professor of Nursing and Child Psychology at Yale, examines the effectiveness of certain study designs and provides some useful techniques for improving clinical trial studies.

April 17, 2009

How should the social work profession reconcile adopting a positive approach to including disabled people with meeting the increasing concerns about professional fitness to practice? This is an important question given the recent implementation of the Disability Equality Duty which requires employers to promote disability equality at the same time as high levels of stress are reported within the social work profession generally.

Andy Frey, Kent School of Social Work

Many rely on grandparents to watch their children

[I]n the mid- and late 1990’s, ethnographers and rape crisis centers began hearing reports of drugs, often referred to as “roofies” and “liquid ecstasy,” being administered clandestinely to immobilize victims, impair their memory, and thus facilitate rape. Two drugs in particular were mentioned in these reports: Rohypnol (the pharmaceutical trade name for flunitrazepam) and GHB
(gamma-hydroxybutyrate).

Potentially incompetent or dangerous social workers are able to carry on working with vulnerable people because councils fail to report misconduct, the industry watchdog has warned.

Howard Zinn: In the United States we are brought up to think there's only one class

Even before the sharp financial downturn, working longer had emerged as perhaps the most attractive response to the contraction of the nation’s retirement income system. . . . This brief addresses the question of whether men in the bottom third of the educational distribution – a proxy for earnings levels – can be expected to work longer.

REUTERS | H Romero

Homeless people sit on the pavement as they wait to receive handouts in Mexico City's historic Zocalo Square

The typical American woman, who wants two children, spends about five years pregnant, postpartum or trying to become pregnant, and three decades—more than three-quarters of her reproductive life—trying to avoid pregnancy.

Tribune | S Strazzante

Sebastian Joachin, 6, follows his brother, Ricardo, 3, up a flight of stairs in Lincoln United Methodist Church in the Pilsen neighborhood. The boys' father, Roberto Lopez, was deported to Mexico, and their mother has been relying on food baskets and public aid to support the family.

L Carter | Staff

Linda West Conforti, a registered nurse and a foster parent, plays with a foster child Wednesday at her Lake Arrowhead home. Conforti is the founder of Angels in Waiting, a nonprofit organization that provides nursing-care services to medically fragile infants and children in the foster-care system.

This brochure describes how DCF works with schools to protect children. It includes information about who mandatory reporters are, what their legal responsibilities are for reporting suspected cases of child abuse or neglect, Vermont's definition of child abuse and neglect, and how to make a report.

• Marginalized Youth. An Introduction
• Disconnected Youth? Social Exclusion, the ‘Underclass’ & Economic Marginality
• Marginalized Youth, the ‘Modern’ Professional and the ‘Modern’ Workplace: A note on the Need for a Critical Approach to ‘Modernizing’ Strategies
• Marginalization of the Youth – a Current Societal Development?
• Tackling Youth Exclusion in the UK: Challenges for Current Policy and Practice
• Research in Youth Culture and Policy: Current Conditions and Future Directions
• Social Integration Policies for Young Marginalised: A Capability Approach
• What’s the Problem? Precarious Youth: Marginalisation, Criminalisation and Racialisation
• Women in Prostitution and Social Responsibility
• Anti-Feminist Backlash and Violence against Women Worldwide
• Professionalism and Information Technology: Positioning and Mediation
• Homelessness, Social Work, Social Policy and the Print Media in Australian Cities
• Jane Addams (1860-1935): Social worker and Peace Builder
• Social Development

Kishore came to the children's home after his father was killed

The study draws on the success story of a regional drug policy that is based on the organisational combination of the drug-related activities of the city ("cross-sectional policy") and the professionalisation of the drug services, with the aim of social reintegration.

The research was heterogeneous, making overall synthesis of results inappropriate. The review demonstrates that research on the impact of the performing arts on young people is at a relatively early stage.

Two "License to Freedom" leaders share their tales of helping non-Latina immigrant women who are victims of domestic violence. Their unique approach? Teaching these women to drive so that they can have access to jobs, classes, and support groups that alleviate their sense of helpless isolation. This is the first in a series on UC San Diego students learning about effective social activism.

April 16, 2009

Guy Luttrell III, 25
Lancaster police allege Luttrell threw a "Molotov cocktail," or a homemade gasoline bomb, into a car belonging to Fairfield County Job & Family Services worker Alishia Snoke.

This paper examines the effect of changes in immigrant eligibility for Supplemental Security Income in 1996 on the employment and retirement behaviors of foreign-born elderly persons. I find that denial of SSI was associated with a 5 percentage point (15 percent) increase in the employment of non-citizen elderly men and a 5.6 percentage point (11 percent) decrease in their retirement rate.

AP

Some officials and activists say spending $30,000 to buy BlackBerrys is a misuse of anti-poverty funds.

A more integrated world community brings both benefits and problems for all; it affects the balance of economic, political and cultural power between nations, communities and individuals and it can both enhance and limit freedoms and human rights. Social workers, by the nature of their work, tend to meet those who are more likely to have suffered the damaging consequences of some aspects of globalisation.

A century ago in Vienna, madness and creativity existed side by side. The artists and thinkers who gathered there would shape the modern world

A controlled research study in care homes showed that depression in older people could be reduced by care staff working for 8 – 12 weeks on modest life-improvements, chosen by depressed residents. Care staff followed a simple, structured, joint care-planning approach, which they learned during four training sessions and weekly one-to one mentoring sessions with a mental health specialist.

This article presents information collected during a needs assessment of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to highlight the issues facing children with ASD and their families. It identified fragmented support, a lack of appropriate support, and poor knowledge of the disorder among some professionals.

Photo (cc) sean94110

In New York City's social service structure, two major institutions wield the power to separate families in the name of safety. With the aim of protecting society as a whole, criminal justice agencies sweep up parents through courts and prisons, while the Administration for Children's Services, charged with safeguarding individual children from harm, routinely removes young people from troubled homes.

The recent study approaches the changed drinking habits of young people with qualitative methods. It was carried out in an metropolitan area - in Vienna - and in an provincial and rural area - in Lower Austria - , which as East-Austrian wine-growing states show a comparable drinking culture. The conspicuous consumption by young people in groups, which are described here as "juvenile alcohol scenes", is at the focus of attention.

Xiao Mei was born with heart problems. She is up for adoption at a foster home in Beijing.

This handbook focuses on Oregon's special needs adoption assistance program.

Findings indicated an association between physical abuse experiences and depressive symptoms. However, the association of other risk factors, including other types of abuse, with depressive symptoms confounded this relationship.

Harvard labor economist Richard Freeman explores how social inequality and globalization are threatening the foundation of democracy in the United States in this Jefferson Memorial Lecture at UC Berkeley.

M Vasconcellos | The Enterprise

Gianna Torres, 2, is held by her mother, Christine, as her dad, Jorge, holds the family dog, Tia.

Nationally recognized expert, Kathleen M. Foley, MD, talks about the assessment and treatment of pain in cancer patients, as well as developing policies for pain and palliative care worldwide. Dr. Foley is an Attending Neurologist in the Pain and Palliative Care Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and the Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Chair.

• Comparison of temporal changes in psychological distress after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation among the underlying diseases of Japanese adult patients
• Panic disorder and locomotor activity
• General practitioners' responses to the initial presentation of medically unexplained symptoms: a quantitative analysis
• The ventro-medial prefrontal cortex: a major link between the autonomic nervous system, regulation of emotion, and stress reactivity?
• The reliability and validity of a Japanese version of symptom checklist 90 revised
• High-utilizing Crohn's disease patients under psychosomatic therapy*
• The relationship between health-related quality of life and social networks among Japanese family caregivers for people with disabilities
• A prospective study of the psychobehavioral factors responsible for a change from non-patient irritable bowel syndrome to IBS patient status

April 15, 2009

Meeting Survivors’ Needs finds that the services provided to residents (as well as nonresidential program clients) have become complex and comprehensive.

C Riley | Times-Herald

Cori LaBredo, 80, a member of the Vallejo Commision on Aging, is upset about the rent hikes at the Solano Vista Senior Apartments in Vallejo.

Essex County Council: Advertising jobs to Australians and New Zealanders

Current media representations of drink spiking tend to ignore the realities of most sexual assaults that occur in the context of heavy alcohol consumption. To avoid the re-emergence of victim-blaming stereotypes, drink spiking must be situated in the broader context of drug and alcohol facilitated sexual assault.

E Ouslander | UMBC

When tears are removed digitally from photograph of a crying face, the expression seems not only less sad but also emotionally ambivalent. A neuroscientist says that the “tear effect” represents an evolutionary breakthrough for humans.

Sexually active women who are not seeking pregnancymay nonetheless practice contraception poorly ormay not use amethod at all. A wide range of reasons explain this seeming contradiction, including personal feelings and beliefs; experiences with methods; fears about side effects; partner influences; cultural values and norms; and problems in the contraceptive care system.

Photo courtesy of the Farmer family

Star Ledger Editorial Page Editor John Farmer grew up in Jersey City during the Great Depression. In this photo taken sometime in the mid 1930's, John (right, with striped shirt), is pictured with his cousin Bob Magee.

With the economy sliding ever deeper into recession, questions arise about how older workers are faring and how their fate relative to younger workers compares to the past. The answer to these questions turns out to be a little complicated. Two forces are at work.

Step by step guidance from the New York State Office of Children & Family Services

C Lewis | Buffalo News

Darren Brown, left, Chris Hall and Roshaun Brown-Hall look at their family portrait by Jennifer Sannes at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo

• Factor Analysis of Diversity of Revenue Source in Nonprofit Corporations: From a Perspective of Self-Sustainability of Nonprofit Organizations
• Government Measures Taken in Response to the Problem of Street Children in Vietnam and the Potential for NGO Contribution
• Research on Information Gathering Processes during Natural Disasters: The Case of the Kashiwazaki City Office in the Niigata Chuetsu-oki Earthquake

Originally approved in 1993 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only for adjunctive treatment of partial complex seizures, the manufacturer of gabapentin (Neurontin), an AED, promoted its off-label use for treatment of psychiatric disorders, including bipolar disorder. The efficacy of the drug for this indication had not been demonstrated, nor had the manufacturer sought FDA approval for the indication.

The particular challenges of cross border reproductive service provision involve balancing the reproductive rights of involuntarily childless adults seeking to build a family through forms of assisted conception that are dependent on the involvement of a third party as a donor or surrogate, and their right to impartial advice with protection from exploitation and harm of (1) potential donors and surrogates – the latter almost invariably young women in the world’s least wealthy countries – and (2) any child who may be conceived or affected by the procedure.

Valerie McFarland, whose son Cal has autism wants insurance companies to cover treatments for the disorder.

Are your friends making you fat? Or keeping you slender? According to a recent study, obesity is socially contagious or spreads from person to person in a social network. James Fowler, PhD, coauthor of the study, and Michael Gottschalk, MD, join our host, David Granet, MD, for a lively discussion on social networks and how they influence weight staring in childhood through adulthood.

April 14, 2009

Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell unveiled the plan yesterday to “help” drunks get sober.

STAR-LEDGER

A photo from the Newark Library captioned "Depression - Apples - symbol of the depressed '30s"

The Cleveland Achieve program is unique among the ERA programs in that it provided services to employees at the workplace. The evaluation of the program used a design in which employers, rather than individuals, were randomly assigned to either a program or control group. Achieve targeted long-term nursing care facilities and provided services designed to help increase retention among their low-wage workers.

L Embry | U-T

Angela Nguyen, 22, and Andy Nguyen, 21, UCSD students who are not related, gazed into each other's eyes as part of a class exercise.

This paper examines recent trends in retirement behavior in 21 rich countries. It proposes three straightforward measures of labor force exit, and it estimates labor force exit rates using a variety of labor supply indicators, including the labor force participation rate, the employment rate, average work hours in the population, and average weekly earnings in the population.

State mental health agencies (SMHAs) are responsible for funding and providing mental health services to more than 6 million persons every year. The backbone of their service infrastructure is the information technology (IT) systems that support SMHA functions such as paying providers for services rendered, assessing clients’ access to care, evaluating the quality of care provided, planning for adequate system capacity, and monitoring outcomes. SMHAs vary widely in their IT system capacities and structures. This report reviews the current status of mental health IT in the States and their efforts to improve these critical systems.

This emphasis has neglected examination of the wider issue of 'intoxication' and 'intoxicated behaviours'. But to understand youthful binge drinking and associated behaviours, and to find ways of intervening to prevent or reduce harm, it is necessary to understand the prevailing concept(s) of acceptable and unacceptable forms of intoxication and intoxicated behaviours and its/their wider social and cultural determinants.

W Davis | NY Times

A SHARED SITUATION Darryl McDaniels, the rapper also known as DMC of Run-DMC, and Zara H. Phillips, a singer-songwriter, both residents of New Jersey, wrote and recorded “I’m Legit,” a song intended to promote a bill that would give adult adoptees access to their birth records.

Dr. Henry Combs labeled sex offender by state, but still licensed

The International Federation of Social Workers is concerned about the conditions of displaced individuals, the very existence of displacement and the political strategies and programmes, which may have caused it. We deem the conditions harmful to the fulfilment of human rights and contrary to the principles of the social work profession and its International Federation.

YCAP makes sure that young people and their families get the support they need as early as possible so they can get back, and stay, on track. It aims to guard against re-offending by ensuring that young people who do break the law are held to account for what they do, while also giving the public adequate protection from the harm caused by crime.

MA Pember

Tiano Stately, 11, of the Ojibwe tribe plays at the Minneapolis American Indian Center

This online booklet gives a general overview of the adoption process and options open throughout Ohio.

Brady | Roanoke Times

Roanoke's Department of Social Services has files of tens of thousands of clients who have been seeking assistance. The numbers increase daily, although the city's resources are overburdened, too.

Anne Hastings, Executive Director of Fonkoze, Haiti's largest microfinance institution, has searched the globe for a solution to the problem of extreme poverty. In countries as far apart as Bangladesh and Haiti efforts to combat even the most extreme types of poverty are now proving effective at relatively little cost per family. Based on her review of experimental and innovative approaches worldwide, Hastings describes the role that microfinance, education, health care, and case management play in eradicating poverty.

• Mnesic imbalance: a cognitive theory about autism spectrum disorders
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of attention processes in presumed obligate carriers of schizophrenia: preliminary findings
• Increased plasma homocysteine levels in patients with multiple sclerosis and depression
• Costs and effects of paliperidone extended release compared with alternative oral antipsychotic agents in patients with schizophrenia in Greece: A cost effectiveness study
• Stigmatising attitude of medical students towards a psychiatry label
• Adaptation of the Emotional Contagion Scale (ECS) and gender differences within the Greek cultural context
• Self-help interventions for depressive disorders and depressive symptoms: a systematic review
• Association between antipsychotics and weight gain among psychiatric outpatients in Pakistan: a retrospective cohort study
• Alcohol significantly lowers the seizure threshold in mice when co-administered with bupropion hydrochloride

Results: Solution-focused brief therapy demonstrated small but positive treatment effects favoring SFBT group on the outcome measures (d = 0.13 to 0.26). Only the magnitude of the effect for internalizing behavior problems was statistically significant at the p < .05 level, thereby indicating that the treatment effect for SFBT group is different than the control group.

[t]he authors found that the intervention studies produced meaningful and clinically important positive effects for about one-third of the variables. The majority of outcomes evidenced no meaningful change, positive or negative. The authors conclude that school bullying interventions may produce modest positive outcomes; that they are more likely to influence knowledge, attitudes, and self-perceptions rather than actual bullying behaviors; and that the majority of outcome variables in intervention studies are not meaningfully impacted.

April 13, 2009

More than half of the world's workforce lacks job security or benefits, and the number is growing during the downturn.

Previous literature on social security reform has used a variety of period utility functions and calibrated values for the intertemporal elasticity of substitution (IES) in labor. In this paper, we extensively study various preferences and values for IES in a general equilibrium model with overlapping generations.

E Gardner | P-D

A statue sits outside of Jane M. Buri's home parish, St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church, in south St. Louis. She went to Mass every Sunday, Tuesday, Friday and first Saturday of the month. She sat in the fifth or sixth row. Buri worked as a social worker for the St. Louis Public Schools for decades and died an unlikely millionaire.

43 million women of reproductive age, or 7 in 10, are sexually active and do not want to become pregnant, but could become pregnant if they or their partners fail to use a contraceptive method.

Howard Zinn: In the United States we are brought up to think there's only one class

Many people have lost their jobs due to the worldwide financial crisis. In developing countries with no unemployment insurance, they are now forced to work in positions with low pay and no protection, an OECD study says. Women make up the majority of workers in poor quality jobs

The study categorized diversion approaches into three types: programs that provide lump-sum payments to applicants who are employed or have a job offer; TANF applicant requirements to participate in work-related activities during the 30- to 45-day application certification period; and temporary support programs that provide TANF applicants with up to four months of assistance.

Evidence shows that people may be biased towards seeking short-term rewards at the expense of greater long-term benefits. Several factors influence how biased people are likely to be towards the present. Understanding these could inform policies that encourage individuals to make important life choices that affect their own long-term interests.

E Blass | USA TODAY

Montgomery County Community College dental hygiene student Julie McConnell performs a cleaning on Pedro Velazquez of Kennett Square, Pa., at the Community Volunteers in Medicine clinic in West Chester, Pa., a non-profit providing care to the uninsured working poor who live or work the community. The clinic has 10 full-time and six part-time staffers in addition to a team of 200 volunteers that come weekly to provide vital services.

Many children become available for adoption each year in New Mexico. In some cases, foster children may eventually be eligible for adoption. You can choose the age, gender, ethnicity and needs level of the child you wish to adopt. As an adoptive parent you are able to provide a child with a permanent, loving, stable family and the security of a forever family.

D THOMPSON | Sun-Gazette

County Commissioners Jeff C. Wheeland, left, and Ernest P. Larson, right, congratulate Loyalsock Township couple Wayne and Patricia Stover on Thursday, after the pair was recognized for their 20-year service as foster parents. The Stovers, who are retiring from that aspect of community service, were described as “two of the most valued and dedicated foster parents” by Lycoming County Children and Youth Services administrator Mark D. Egly.

Results: Evidence suggests that autobiographical memory impairment does occur as a result of ECT. Objective measures found memory loss to be relatively short term (<6 months posttreatment), whereas subjective accounts reported amnesia to be more persistent (>6 months post-ECT). Electroconvulsive therapy predominantly affects memory of prior personal events that are near the treatment (within 6 months). Autobiographical memory loss is reduced by using brief pulse ECT rather than sine wave-unilateral positioning of electrodes rather than bilateral-and by titrating electrical current relative to the patient's own seizure threshold.

• YOUTH PERSPECTIVE: Reflections on Racism
• POEM: Can You Hear me Through the White Noise?
• Going Back to the Roots: Using the Medicine Wheel in the Healing Process
• Mental Health Promotion as a Prevention and Healing Tool for Issues of Youth Suicide in Canadian Aboriginal Communities
• Occasional Evil of Angels: Learning from the Experiences of Aboriginal Peoples and Social Work
• Utilization of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect in First Nations Child Welfare Agencies in Ontario
• Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Standards: Supporting Children in the Care of Children’s Services
• One Indigenous Academic’s Evolution: A Personal Narrative of Native Health Research and Competing Ways of Knowing
• Metaphorical Reflections: The Colonial Circus of the Drunken Indian and the Kidney Machine
• COMMENTARY: Knowledge Mobilization for the Real World - Seeking Wisdom
• THE LAST WORD: After the Residential School Apology: Why all Canadians Should Care about a Racial Equality Case Before the Canadian Human Rights Commission

Californias aging population is ethnically diverse. Providing culturally appropriate and high quality care to ethnically diverse older adults and their families is an important challenge for our health care system. In this presentation, Dr. Rita Hargrave presents relevant issues in the assessment and management of Alzheimers Disease in ethnically diverse elders and offers practicle solutions.

A Manual for Schools of Social Work and the Social Work Profession. Professional Training Series No 1. UN Centre for Human Rights, IFSW and IASSW. United Nations, New York and Geneva, 1994

The murder of Mark Cummings led to demands for more information

April 12, 2009

P Morenus

Salome Raheim, left, dean of the School of Social Work, meets with representatives from the University of the West Indies, including Peta-Anne Baker, in her office at the Greater Hartford Campus.

This background paper highlights the variety of services and supports needed by individuals with mental illness and Medicaid’s increasing role in mental health coverage. It provides an overview of Medicaid coverage of mental health services and identifies some of the key challenges in providing that coverage.

Federal-budget worrywarts . . . have been fretting for years about the arrival of the Dread Fiscal Year 2017, when Social Security was projected to start becoming a drag on federal finances.

As many as 420 million people live in chronic poverty worldwide, with limited prospects of escape, and at risk of passing their poverty on to younger generations. As the main focus of poverty reduction activity in poor countries, the PRSP approach has the potential to make a major difference to chronic poverty.

THE FUND’S May 4 breakfast will also celebrate the winners of its 2009 Changemakers Awards and the completion of the fund’s 2008 Campaign. Katz founded The Poverty Institute in 1999, together with Nancy Gewirtz, and became a full-time staffer in 2001. As policy director at the institute – now housed at the Rhode Island College School of Social Work – she is responsible for legislative and policy analysis and advocacy on a wide range of programs and public benefits, including welfare, health care, child care and employment and training.

While individuals with long-term disorders represent a small proportion of those who use health services, they account for roughly 75-80 percent of healthcare spending. Yet much of this cost is thought to be avoidable. A 2007 study estimated that even modest improvements in prevention and treatment for the seven most common conditions, including mental illness, could reduce healthcare costs by 27 percent, or $1.1 trillion annually.

Image: www.geocinema.com

Jody Williams came to speak April 2 about putting her beliefs into action. Williams was 1997 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in treaties against land mines. Today, when Williams is not serving as campaign ambassador, she can be found at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work as a notable professor.

MedlinePlus has a multilingual feature, providing access to high quality health information in languages other than English and Spanish? This new service, linked from the MedlinePlus homepage, benefits people who prefer to read consumer health information in their native language.

Leading Roman Catholic adoption agencies have severed their links with the Church so that they can comply with the law and provide a service to gay couples.

As we've evolved, the human stress response has saved our lives. Today, we turn on the same life-saving physical reaction to cope with intense, ongoing stressors - and we can't seem to turn it off. Robert Sapolsky, Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University, reveals just how dangerous prolonged exposure to stress can be in the documentary, "Stress: Portrait of a Killer."

This paper investigates the relationship between drug use and criminal behavior by conducting a systematic review of the literature and a meta-analysis of the strength of the relationship. Results of a review of 30 studies showed that the odds of offending were three to four times greater for drug users than non-drug users.

Adopting a child is a wonderful, intensely emotional and unforgettable experience. It is also a complicated process with many steps.Sorting out the procedural details, while managing a wide array of emotions, can make the adoption process challenging. This book will provide you with comprehensive inform ation about the different kinds of adoption and guide you through the steps in the adoption process.W e have condensed key information about the options available, to help you make informed decisions so you can be confident in your choices.W e wish you well on your journey toward adopting.

P Bradfield

Streets ahead... Annetta and her son Pharrell have a free hot meal at The Arches drop-in centre in London.

• Editorial: Welfare and the Wealth of Nations
• Editorial: “New Age for All Ages”: The Counter-Ageing Society
• The European Social Pension: A Theoretical Exercise
• Intertwining of Ageing and Sustainability in Eastern Europe
• The Transition to Retirement: A Problem or a Resource?
• Pension System Reforms and Trade Union Policies: Overview of Eu — Western Europe
• Potential Labor Supply and Flexible Work Options for All Workers: An Exploratory Essay
• Multidimensional Perspective on the Well-being of Older People
• USA Retirees 2008 Survey: Summary Report
• Medicare in USA: Present and Future
• The Need for Age-Neutral Training in the ‘Silver Society’
• Towards the Improvement in Working Conditions for Older Workers: Empirical Evidence from Maltese Companies
• The Interaction of Public and Private Systems in Health Care Provision: The Italian Two-faced Janus

In this report, we examine the demography of ageing in Thailand, explore the social and economic well-being of the older population, and describe government policies and programs related to population ageing. Particular attention is given to differences in relation to age, gender and place of residence (urban or rural).

April 11, 2009

The latter Vision 2025, developed by Planning commission at that time3, has become the long term development vision in Tanzania, which aims that by 2025 Tanzania will become the middle-income, semi-industrialized country without poverty, and has advocated widely to the general public through national campaign up to the grass roots level.

LV Burke | ftwp

John Gage, left, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, is trying to oust Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue.

S Ryan | NY Times

Quinn Rallins would like to focus on organizing Altgeld Gardens, a public housing development on the south side of Chicago where his father grew up.

An estimated 50,000 persons die annually in the United States as a result of violence-related injuries. This report summarizes data from CDC's National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) regarding violent deaths from 16 U.S. states for 2006. Results are reported by sex, age group, race/ethnicity, marital status, location of injury, method of injury, circumstances of injury, and other selected characteristics.

Results indicate strong negative relationships between POP and job satisfaction and between POP and organizational commitment, moderately positive relationships between POP and the outcomes of job stress and turnover intentions, and a non-significant relationship between POP and in-role job performance.

The role of the public health system cannot be overlooked during the expected 2009 debate on healthcare. Public health agencies are charged with monitoring and improving the nation’s health, with particular emphasis on prevention, early detection and access to treatment for all in need. The issues of wellness, prevention and early intervention must be addressed if we are to ensure that our healthcare system keeps people healthy and remains affordable.

An artist rendering of Anne and Henry Zarrow Hall, which will be the new home of the School of Social Work located at the Elm Avenue and Brooks Street intersection.

D Brack | Bloomberg News

A report depicts stressed workers and weaker customer service at the Social Security Administration.

The report documents considerable progress in many countries in addressing their national epidemics. A six fold increase in financing for HIV programmes in low- and middle-income countries 2001–2007 is beginning to bear fruit, as gains in lowering the number of AIDS deaths and preventing new infections are apparent in many countries.

When adoption is not possible, legal guardianship is another way for a family to build life-long relationships. We know families considering becoming a child’s permanent family need information and answers to their questions about adoption and guardianship. That’s why we’ve designed this booklet especially for you.

R Fremson | NY Times

Melissa Diaz, 19, left the foster care system and is living in a shelter for young people while training to be a nursing assistant.

• Editorial
• Family Interaction; The Case of Children of Primary School Age with Learning Problems - Social Risk Indicators
• Culture Shock and Adaptation in a Multiethnic City
• Culture Clash: Investigating the Nexus Between Western-Muslim Ideological Dissonance and Islamist Terrorism
• From Mistreatment Towards Anomie. Radicalization and the Eclipse of Western Values. - Totalitarianism on spotlight
• A Tale of Three Incidents

Active participation of people important in rural development work

The key question for European, national, regional, and local policymakers concerned with the alleviation of poverty and social exclusion in old age is how to reduce the risk of poverty and social exclusion in old age and how to make these reductions sustainable in the long run.

April 10, 2009

America's dysfunctional health care financing system needs to be reformed. But the goal should not be universal coverage. Reform should simply aim to make health insurance more affordable and portable.

Monitoring the Future has conducted in-school surveys of nationally representative samples of (a) 12th-grade students each year since 1975 and (b) 8th- and 10th-grade students each year since 1991. In addition, beginning with the class of 1976, the project has conducted follow-up mail surveys on representative subsamples of the respondents from each previously participating 12th-grade class. These follow-up surveys continue into young adulthood and beyond.

Janet Jackowski is the 2009 recipient of the Laura Goodale Award, honoring her work as behavioral health supervisor at Eastern Long Island Hospital's Quannacut Addiction Services.

In 1988, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) introduced a proposal to develop a private school data collection that would improve on the sporadic collection of private school data dating back to 1890 and improve on commercially available private school sampling frames. Since 1989, the U.S. Bureau of the Census has conducted the biennial Private School Universe Survey (PSS) for NCES. The PSS is designed to generate biennial data on the total number of private schools, students, and teachers, and to build a universe of private schools in the 50 states and the District of Columbia to serve as a sampling frame of private schools for NCES sample surveys.

J Sywenkyj | International Herald Tribune

Sergei Yeryomin, his wife, Tatyana, and thousands of others lost their jobs at the giant Kirov Metallurgicals Factory in Makeevka on Jan. 1. "If we had a leader to lead us out on the streets, we would go," he said, sitting in his living room and wondering how to support his wife; his son, Anatoli, 15; and his daughter, Ekaterina, 8.

As rates of overweight, obesity, and diet-related chronic diseases climb throughout the population, the Surgeon General as well as doctors and dietitians advise Americans to eat plenty of fresh, healthy, and unprocessed foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains every day. However, all Americans do not have equal access to these recommended foods.

The L.A. city attorney's office said that College Hospital had dumped more than 150 mentally ill patients on skid row -- long a magnet for the region's most vulnerable citizens -- in 2007 and 2008.

It has been well documented in many disciplines that major gaps exist between what is known as effective practices (i.e., theory and science) and what is actually done (i.e., policy and practice).

Comprising a national study and four sub-studies, this report presents a range of data collected from service users, providers, family members, youth advocates, and state and county system leaders across the child serving spectrum. The report then uses these data to identify state- and federal-level policy implications and recommendations with the goal of promoting improved mental health service delivery through policy reform.

In view of America's obesity epidemic, many Americans are seeking ways to lose weight and keep it off. Could ADHD be the reason that some have not been successful?

Intimate labor is work that entails bodily or emotional closeness or personal familiarity. It includes labor from high end nursing to low end housekeeping, and includes sex, domestic, and personal care work. A panel of experts explores the political economy of intimate labor in terms of states, markets and families.

The results for 12 months follow-up show that although single studies generally show no significant effects, the results for pooled data are clearly significant in favor of CBT compared to standard treatment with an odds ratio of 0,69. The reduction in recidivism is about 10% on the average. There is no evidence of effects after 6 or 24 months or when CBT is compared to alternative treatments.

The well-being of older people is an important issue for policy across health, housing and social care, and local authorities are increasingly considering extra care as a way of replacing older models of residential care provision and addressing low demand for traditional forms of sheltered housing.

• Prognosis in Schizophrenia and the Role of Subjectivity
• Desire, Disease, and the Origins of the Dopaminergic System
• Does the Concept of "Sensitization" Provide a Plausible Mechanism for the Putative Link Between the Environment and Schizophrenia?
• Psychosocial Treatment Programs for People With Both Severe Mental Illness and Substance Misuse
• Questioning an Axiom: Better Prognosis for Schizophrenia in the Developing World?
• Is Prognosis in the Individual, the Environment, the Disease, or What?
• Dissecting the Heterogeneity of Schizophrenia Outcomes
• Commentary on Alex Cohen et al: "Questioning an Axiom: Better Prognosis for Schizophrenia in the Developing World"
• What Did the WHO Studies Really Find?
• Cross-National Comparisons: Problems in Interpretation When Studies Are Based on Prevalent Cases
• Issues in Psychopharmacology
• Randomized Controlled Trials for Schizophrenia: Study Designs Targeted to Distinct Goals
• Methodological Issues in Current Antipsychotic Drug Trials
• The Association of Dropout and Outcome in Trials of Antipsychotic Medication and Its Implications for Dealing With Missing Data
• Unanswered Questions in Schizophrenia Clinical Trials

April 9, 2009

N Kazhdan | NY Times

With rising unemployment and dwindling retirement nest eggs, many people, even those who have jobs and relative economic stability, say they are gripped by anxiety and fear. In hard times, marital relationships are subject to a lot of stress. Are they likely to be threatened? Or possibly strengthened?

In this article, I consider methods used to review and synthesize results of multiple studies of the effects of social interventions. Traditional narrative reviews are subject to many sources of bias; thus, there is a burgeoning body of literature on the science of research synthesis. I describe current efforts to bridge the gap between the science and practice of research synthesis and one systematic review that aims to do this.

Older people are the main users of health and social care services in the UK, just as they are in most European countries. They visit their GPs more frequently than younger adults, and are heavier users of both outpatient and inpatient hospital services.

In 1982, the United States experienced the highest annual unemployment rate since the Great Depression – 9.7 percent. In principle, that rate is directly comparable to the 8.1 percent seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for February 2009, and suggests that current unemployment is still not as bad as it was in 1982.

Hurt: Amanda and Phil Peak feel like they're being judged for the death of their beloved boys

‘Indeed we have only the most general ideas of what we are trying to produce, what constitutes the essential skill of the social worker, and consequently still more varied ideas as to how to set about it’ (Younghusband, 1959, p.28).

This publication is part of the work of the WHO Regional Office for Europe to present evidence for health policy- and decision-makers in a clear and understandable form. It explains why health and social services should provide high-quality and targeted home care for disabled and older people. It provides evidence for the effectiveness of home care, shows how it can be improved and explains the need to ensure equitable access.

The Monitoring the Future (MTF) study is an ongoing series of national surveys of American
adolescents and adults that has provided the nation with a vital window into the important, but
largely hidden, problem behaviors of illegal drug use, alcohol use, tobacco use, anabolic steroid
use, and psychotherapeutic drug use.

S Farley | NY Times

When grandma raises baby

• Consultants’ Conflicts: A Case Discussion of Differences and Their Resolution
• A Reconceptualization of the Somatoform Disorders
• Which Measures of Obesity Are Related to Depressive Symptoms and in Whom?
• New Potential Clinical Indicators of Consultation–Liaison Psychiatry’s Effectiveness in Brazilian General Hospitals
• Heart Transplant, Social Support, and Psychiatric Sequelae: A 10-Year Follow-Up Clinical Case Review
• Depressive Symptoms and Heart Failure Stages
• The Role of Anxiety in a Mammography Screening Program
• Interferon-{alpha} in Oncology Patients: Fewer Psychiatric Side Effects Than Anticipated
• Depression and IL-6 Blood Plasma Concentrations in Advanced Cancer Patients

This study used meta-analysis to examine the relationship between childhood exposure to domestic violence and children's internalizing, externalizing, and trauma symptoms.

The extent of traumatic brain injuries among troops serving in the Middle East war zones may necessitate psychiatric and neurological assessment and treatment in civilian as well as military settings.

This guidebook will provide you with basic information on adoption and guardianship, the process for both options, a comparison of adoption and guardianship, and information about how the adoption and guardianship subsidy program works.

Neurologist, Dr. Dee Silver discusses terminology, testing, biomarkers, and treatment of memory loss diseases. Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia are frustrating conditions; but there is progress and hope. The Amyloid cascade is the accumulation of Beta-Amyloid protein in the brain, a hallmark of Alzheimer's Disease.