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information for practice July 2009 archives

July 31, 2009

Elderly people represented almost a quarter of Scotland's poor in 2007/8

The current economic crisis could exacerbate the obesity epidemic. Food prices, particularly for more nutritious foods, are expected to rise, making it more difficult for families to eat healthy foods. At the same time, safety-net programs and services are becoming increasingly overextended as the numbers of unemployed, uninsured and underinsured continue to grow. In addition, due to the strain of the recession, rates of depression, anxiety and stress, which are linked to obesity for many individuals, also are increasing.

Exploratory research with members of the public involved in the 2008 project suggests that even in today’s tough economic climate, people maintain their view of what things are needed to participate fully in society. As such, this is an important contribution to debates about what is happening to living standards and poverty during the recession.

The 2009 Kids Count Databook compiled by the Annie E. Casey Foundation profiles the well-being of children across the country. It ranks Indiana 31 out of 50.

This guidance supports the achievement of the public service agreement on smoking prevalence and health inequality targets for 2010. It provides primary care trusts and local authorities with a firm rationale as to why targeting routine and manual smokers will in turn help reduce smoking prevalence.

LINC was the first social club for adults with a severe and persistent mental illness in Maine. It was formed in 1976 by a group of individuals with mental illness at the time of the founding of Motivational Services, Inc. LINC and its affiliate, Waterville Social Club, are peer support and recovery programs. The art programs were initiated to promote the role of creativity in rehabilitation and recovery from mental illness.

BOP Times

An Auckland primary school principal thinks child abuse would be better tackled by boosting social welfare services than banning smacking.

This evaluation explores the practitioner research initiative of Children 1st and the Glasgow School of Social Work which was aimed at supporting practitioners to develop and undertake their own small-scale research projects. The project sought to have an impact at individual, team and organisation level. The findings discuss the consequences, benefits and outcomes at each of these three levels.

Using data from years one and three of the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study, changes in depressive and anxious symptoms are compared for mothers and fathers who: 1) dissolve a cohabitating union versus remain intact; 2) dissolve a marital union versus remain intact; and 3) dissolve a cohabiting as compared to a marital union. In order to take into account potential sources of third variable bias from selection factors that differentiate those who are in cohabitations from those who are in marriages, mothers and fathers were matched on several sociodemographic control variables that research has demonstrated to be related to union formation and mental health outcomes.

Sir Roger Singleton used his first interview in the post to warn ministers that too many Ofsted staff lacked the skill and experience to hold social workers to account and drive up standards. If matters did not improve and inspectors failed to win the respect of social workers it would be “all too easy” for their judgments and recommendations to be ignored, he warned.

Conclusions: Despite the considerable interest in applying shared decision-making (SDM) clinically, little research regarding its effectiveness has been done to date. It has been argued that SDM is particularly suitable for long-term decisions, especially in the context of a chronic illness, and when the intervention contains more than one session. Our results show that under such circumstances, SDM can be an effective method of reaching a treatment agreement. Evidence for the effectiveness of SDM in the context of other types of decisions, or in general, is still inconclusive. Future studies of SDM should probably focus on long-term decisions.

Star | C Wells

Joan Burke, minister of Child Youth and Family Services, speaks to Crystal Foote, a social worker, at a meeting in Corner Brook to discuss the new department with front line staff Friday.

NIDA Director, Nora Volkow meets with 100 students in Harlem, at the High School for Math Science and Engineering at City College in New York City for an open discussion.

• Tracking of leisure-time physical activity during adolescence and young adulthood: a 10-year longitudinal study
• Television, physical activity, diet, and body weight status: the ARIC cohort
• Differences in physical activity and sedentary time in relation to weight in 8–9 year old children
• What do parents and preschool staff tell us about young children's physical activity: a qualitative study
• A qualitative examination of home and neighborhood environments for obesity prevention in rural adults
• Will web-based research suffice when collecting U.S. school district policies? The case of physical education and school-based nutrition policies
• Effects of calorie labeling and value size pricing on fast food meal choices: Results from an experimental trial
• Factors related to leader implementation of a nationally disseminated community-based exercise program: a cross-sectional study
• Aerobic physical activity and resistance training: an application of the theory of planned behavior among adults with type 2 diabetes in a random, national sample of Canadians

July 30, 2009

In January 2009 some 221,670 (or 2.7 per cent of) pupils across all schools in England had statements of SEN, slightly lower than last year. In 2009 there were some 1,433,940 pupils with SEN without statements representing 17.8 per cent of pupils across all schools. This is an increase of 0.6 percentage points from 2008.

AP | G Broome

The Butner Federal Correctional Complex is seen in Butner, N.C., where Bernard Madoff is serving his sentence.

Individuals can claim Social Security at any age from 62 to 70 although most claim at 62 or soon thereafter. Those who delay claiming receive increases that are approximately actuarially fair. We show that expected present value calculations substantially understate both the optimal claim age and the losses resulting from early claiming because they ignore the value of the additional longevity insurance acquired as a result of delay.

D Toulgoet

Liz James survived addiction and incarceration before joining the SHARP program to share her life experiences. Now studying to be a social worker, she saw an opportunity to use her strength and life experience to help others.

M Argles | Guardian

Barry Sheerman MP, Chairman of the children, schools and families select committee.
Social workers stand accused of many things. They are, inter alia, too quick to intervene, too slow to intervene, too sloppy, too inflexible, too politically correct, too scruffy and, of course, much too keen on the Guardian.

In 2003, the Institute for Families at the University of Denver (IFDU), Graduate School of Social Work received a five-year federal grant from the Children's Bureau to improve recruitment and retention at pilot sites in Colorado, Arizona, and Wyoming. Called the Western Regional Recruitment and Retention Project (WRRRP), the purpose of this five-year, federally funded training project was to increase organizational capacity to recruit, select, and retain quality child welfare staff. Secondary trauma is one of the issues that affects retention so this training will help supervisors learn how to more effectively address secondary trauma within their units.

S Rhodes

Marching against the California budget cuts in San Francisco. California's state political leaders approved cuts totaling a staggering $15.5 billion. From conservatives to liberals, lawmakers chose to steal resources from programs meant to help students, infants and children, the elderly, the disabled, the poor and the working poor--instead of raising taxes on the state's rich and California corporations to cover the budget shortfall. . . . MISSING FROM the mainstream discussion of the budget crisis is the fact that some of the world's most profitable corporations--including Apple, Genentech, Intel, Paramount Pictures, Walt Disney and Warner Brothers Entertainment--are getting away scot-free.

This brief analyzes changes in the displacement of older and prime-age workers since the mid-1990s and the effect of three factors – tenure, educational attainment, and employment in manufacturing – identified as having a significant effect on displacement risk. The results show that all three factors contributed to the rising dislocation risk older workers face and their rising risk vis-à-vis prime-age workers.

Plans for on-the-job training to attract high-quality candidates into social work in the wake of the Baby P case are due to be unveiled.

This paper describes the intent and objectives of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, and considers what is required under the "active efforts" provision in the law. It begins by discussing how Indian children in Michigan and elsewhere were taken from reservations by social workers without investigation and key provisions of the law meant to safeguard Indian families and tribes. Court cases and decisions are reviewed, and the legislative mandate that requires State agencies to provide "active efforts" before the termination of the rights of Indian parents to their children is explored.

Study found evidence to support respite care having a positive effect on carers but, because of the variety of interventions identified and the uncertainty in the evidence, it was not possible to determine the effectiveness of different models of respite care provision

Narrated by Public Information and Liaison Branch Chief, Carol Krause

The purpose of this practice guide is to provide information, advice, and tools to assist New South Wales Department of Community Service (DoCS) workers in out-of-home care services to accurately assess needs and supports that may be required by culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) children, young people, and families. It begins by reviewing the needs and supports of CALD children and families, including: children and young people, birth parents and families, carers, and children from specific communities. An overview of relevant needs and key assessment areas is provided, including a CALD Assessment Checklist.

• A mental health first aid training program for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples: description and initial evaluation
• Decentralization matters – Differently organized mental health services relationship to staff competence and treatment practice: the VELO study
• International observatory on mental health systems: structure and operation
• Evaluation of psychological support for victims of sexual violence in a conflict setting: results from Brazzaville, Congo
• Community perceptions of mental health needs: a qualitative study in the Solomon Islands
• Knowledge, attitudes and practice pertaining to depression among primary health care workers in Tanzania
• Mental health and the workplace: issues for developing countries
• Is psychiatric emergency service (PES) use increasing over time?
• International Observatory on Mental Health Systems: a mental health research and development network
• Mental hospital reform in Asia: the case of Yuli Veterans Hospital, Taiwan

This publication presents an overview of what parents can do to create an environment that builds resilience in their children during times of economic stress or other hardships. It also presents strategies that parents can use at different stages of their children's development.

July 29, 2009

The National Retirement Risk Index (NRRI) measures the percentage of working-age households that are at risk of being unable to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living in retirement. It addresses one of the most compelling challenges facing the nation today — ensuring retirement security for an aging population.

This document answers questions related to the Arizona Division of Children, Youth and Families' processes for (1) evaluating job performance and (2) addressing poor job performance and inappropriate behavior of Child Protective Services (CPS) employees, in particular, CPS specialists who are responsible for ensuring child safety, assessing allegations of child abuse and neglect, and providing ongoing case management. Specifically, it provides information on the Division's implementation of the performance evaluation process and the number of CPS specialists being considered for disciplinary action

Bereft and alone: Ng looking daze as he is interviewed by Lim at the Penang Hospital recently.

Getty

Members of the public make their way to the Job Centre Plus in Westminster

During the latter half of the 20th century, there were notable increases in the age at first marriage among Americans and related increases in the proportion of unmarried and never-married adults. . . Research finds that, in comparison with unmarried persons, married persons tend to exhibit greater physical, emotional, and economic wellbeing, although the association may vary by outcome, sex, and other factors

Comely people make more money, plain people less. Michael T. French, professor of health economics at the University of Miami, wondered whether the well-documented “beauty premium/penalty” applied to grade-point average.

This issue is focused on permanency and aging out of foster care for adolescents and includes recommended practice approaches and resources to assist those working with adolescents in the child welfare system.

The health trust that runs Broadmoor high-security hospital in Berkshire has been criticised over its high suicide rate and failure to protect patients.

Dan Mungas, Associate Director of the UC Davis Alzheimers Disease Research Center, explores healthy brain aging. He addresses the diversity in cognitive aging, describes how the brain changes with aging and gives some strategies for healthy brain aging.

Designed for teachers, this brief reviews characteristics of foster children, risk factors for foster care, and issues foster children might be coping with as a result of separation and placement. Characteristics of types of foster care placements are reviewed and information is provided on the trouble foster children have in dealing with a lack of stability and transitions. Strategies are discussed that teachers can use to help foster children cope in school.

• Indirect bullying: Predictors of teacher intervention, and outcome of a pilot educational presentation about impact on adolescent mental health
• Partitioning the variance in scores on classroom environment instruments
• Positive Psychology at the movies: Using films to build virtues and character strengths
• Reckless behaviour and sexual practices of emerging adult women
• Can children with AD/HD learn relaxation and breathing techniques through biofeedback video games?

July 28, 2009

With the current financial crisis wreaking havoc on retirement savings, many older people have had to reassess their retirement plans – they may decide to work longer or, if already retired, to re-enter the workforce. For those currently in the labor force, working longer increases monthly Social Security benefits. Social Security benefits are actuarially adjusted so that, on average, lifetime benefits remain the same whether a person retires at any age between 62 and 70. So the later a person retires, the higher the monthly benefit. For those thinking of re-entering the workforce, Social Security provides for higher benefits later in exchange for withholding benefits while they are employed. For those under the Full Retirement Age (currently 66), this adjustment is accomplished automatically through the annual retirement earnings test. For those over the Full Retirement Age, the adjustment can be made through the voluntary option of “claim and suspend.”

Deere Art Collection

When asked to picture farm life, many people envision idyllic settings similar to this fall plow scene painted by renowned Iowa artist Grant Wood. While such images are often accurate, they also obscure the real stresses that make up the daily lives of rural residents.

Employers have long had a significant impact on workers’ retirement prospects. Aside from Social Security, employer retirement income plans are the most important source of income for the great majority of retirees. How long workers can stay employed also largely depends on employer hiring and retention and retirement decisions. Both of these functions – retirement income support and the separation process – are now in flux given scheduled declines in Social Security replacement rates, the shift from traditional defined benefit pensions to 401(k)-type defined contribution plans, and the decline in career employment relationships.

In this paper we investigate the effect of relative income on marital status. We develop an identity model based on Akerlof and Kranton (2000) and apply it to the marriage decision. The empirical evidence is consistent with the idea that people are more likely to marry when their incomes approach a financial level associated with idealized norms of marriage. We hypothesize that the "marriage ideal" is determined by the median income in an individual's local reference group. After controlling flexibly for the absolute level of income and a number of other factors, the ratio between a man's income and the marriage ideal is a strong predictor of marital status-- but only if he is below the ideal.

AP

The Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, scene of this year's budget scramble.

R HARTFORD | HARTFORD COURANT

In this photo from August 2008, Hartford activist Ned Coll gives a thumbs-up to a driver as he protests against Mayor Eddie Perez on Park Street. (

AW EDLUND | TIMES-DISPATCH

Social worker and community activist Anne Rosenberg Fischer, who died last year, and her family agreed to the gift-purchase arrangement with the museum.

This study shows that a large fraction of the uninsured could likely afford health coverage. In addition, it shows that the involuntarily uninsured are demonstrably different from the privately insured. Finally, the authors show that while the uninsured use fewer health services, they still receive a large amount of care, and there is little discernable difference in mortality based on insurance status.

These materials were adapted from a manualized group program called the Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools, or CBITS, which was developed and initially evaluated in the Los Angeles Unified School District. That program was developed for use by school-based mental health professionals, whereas the Support for Students Exposed to Trauma (SSET) program, the subject of this book, can be used by any school personnel with the time and interest to work with students affected by trauma.

m argles

Clara Salaman's mother and father raised her within an austere spiritual organisation. The society came first – even before family. She rebelled and the fall-out continues

Study found that presumed consent legislation alone is unlikely to explain the variation in organ donation rates between different countries, with other factors such as transplant capacity and gross domestic product and health expenditure per capita also associated with organ donation rates

Charles Taylor, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, McGill University treats the term "secular" with several different meanings which, for a variety of reasons can't be simply ironed out and reduced to one, hence the inevitability of confusions and cross-purposes.

This study examines the degree to which key players in the child welfare, early intervention/preschool special education (EI/Preschool SPED) and early care and education (ECE) systems (e.g. Head Start, preschool, child care centers, family child care homes) collaborate to meet the developmental needs of children ages 0 to 5 who are involved in the child welfare system. This research includes an analysis of data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing (NSCAW) as well as a case study in Colorado involving interviews with key stakeholders and statewide surveys of caseworkers and foster parents.

BV Brug | LA Times

Some convicts could be granted early release and others could be sent to county jails rather than state prisons.

• Community health assessment using self-organizing maps and geographic information systems
• Spatial patterns of natural hazards mortality in the United States
• AccessMod 3.0: computing geographic coverage and accessibility to health care services using anisotropic movement of patients
• Spatial event cluster detection using an approximate normal distribution
• An effective and efficient approach for manually improving geocoded data

July 27, 2009

The potential for stress does not go away just because you retire. In fact, it can become more intense. In order to minimize that stress, you must have a solid plan for managing money during your retirement years. This Tip Sheet offers 5 steps to take to create a plan.

Balls accepts "some responsibilty" for not listening enough to social workers, but in the line above that he claims social workers "must speak up".

Early Release of Selected Estimates Based on Data From the 2008 National Health Interview Survey

Eastern Mauritania's magical green valleys draw visitors from home and abroad during the fall season.

RAISE is a large-scale, NIMH research project that seeks to fundamentally change the way schizophrenia is treated by developing and testing innovative and coordinated intervention approaches in the early stages of the illness when symptoms may be most responsive to treatment.

Some 11.3 million people in Britain have used an illicit drug at least once in their lifetime. Cocaine and heroin are the most damaging illicit drugs in terms of health impacts to dependent individuals and the cost of drug related crime. This POSTnote looks at the treatments currently available for heroin and cocaine dependency, assesses the prospects for new treatments, and examines the issues these raise. . . . The government estimates that class A drug use generates £15.4 billion in crime and health costs each year

This report illustrates how effective strategies and services help improve the quality of life for care leavers and assist them to make successful transitions into adulthood and independence. It is a small-scale survey based on visits to six local authorities and four secure provisions; it also draws on evidence from social care inspection and takes account of care leavers’ views and experiences. The report identifies how barriers to positive outcomes for care leavers have been overcome.

RII

A father of four who was forced out of his own home by social workers over unfounded allegations of sexual abuse has been reunited with his family.

LA Times

Dae'von Bailey was found beaten to death in his South L.A. home. “He smiled when he would see me,” a neighbor said.

This article briefly reviews research findings that link adequate staffing to improved child safety and well-being, and presents approaches for evaluating agency workforce needs and managing workforce capacity. It illustrates how agency managers can accomplish the following: (a) identify common symptoms of agency understaffing; (b) estimate existing workforce capacity; and (c) estimate agency workload demand and understaffing.

These program standards are intended to achieve statewide consistency in the development and application of CFS core services and shall be implemented in the context of all-applicable laws, rules and policies. The standards will also provide a measurement for program accountability.

• Special Issue Editors’ Introduction -- Urban Women & Problematic Substance Use: Framing the Issues
• “It Fucks Your Insides Up”: The Effects of Australian Urban Women’s Opioid Use on Their Sexual and Reproductive Functioning
• Women’s Stories/Women’s Lives: Creating Safer Crack Kits
• Sex Workers Addressing Treatment
• Mother and Child Reunion: Achieving Balance in Policies Affecting Substance-using Mothers & Their Children

Results: Thirty-two case reports and 13 case series were eligible for inclusion. Analysis of the case reports found no significant difference in outcomes between confrontational and non-confrontational approaches . . . between treatment with psychotherapy compared to no psychotherapy . . . and when psychiatric medication had been prescribed compared with not . . . A trend was observed that a longer length of treatment lead to better outcomes, but this was not significant. . . The consecutive case series demonstrated that many FD sufferers were not engaged in treatment and were lost to follow-up but did not provide any strong evidence regarding the effectiveness of different management approaches.

AP | R Bowmer

Harpist Jane Franz holds the hand of pancreatic cancer patient Carolyn, after playing the harp in her hospital room in Eugene, Ore. Franz, a music-thanatologist on the staff of Sacred Heart Hospital, uses music to bring comfort to the dying.

Popular culture is easy to blame for many of society's problems, but it's a myth. Karen Sternheimer, lecturer in sociology at the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, debunks that myth in a new book, "Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture."

July 26, 2009

CBS

Underage prostitution in Sin City is on the rise. In the last two years nearly 400 girls under the age of 18 have been arrested or detained by the Vegas vice squad

African Americans make up 13% of the general US population, yet they constitute 28% of all arrests, 40% of all inmates held in prisons and jails, and 42% of the population on death row. In contrast, Whites make up 67% of the total US population and 70% of all arrests, yet only 40% of all inmates held in state prisons or local jails and 56% of the population on death row. Hispanics and Native Americans are also alarmingly overrepresented in the criminal justice system.1 This overrepresentation of people of color in the nation’s criminal justice system, also referred to as disproportionate minority contact (DMC), is a serious issue in our society.

Winnie Liu’s son Gordon, 7, with his brother Kyle, 4, had developmental problems after living temporarily with his grandparents in China.

This set of State Health Care Briefs provides a one-page overview of facts on health care data for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Information is provided about each state’s older population, the uninsured, Medicare beneficiaries including those who fall into the “doughnut hole,” hospital re-admissions among Medicare beneficiaries, the distribution of Medicaid long-term care funds, and prescription drug spending.

Residents from Siyathemba township chant revolutionary songs during their protest

During 2001--2005, an estimated annual 79,646 alcohol-attributable deaths (AAD) and 2.3 million years of potential life lost (YPLL) were attributed to the harmful effects of excessive alcohol use. An estimated 5,800 AAD and 189,667 YPLL were associated annually with suicide. The burden of suicide varies widely among racial and ethnic populations in the United States, and limited data are available to describe the role of alcohol in suicides in these populations.

The Oregonian

The jury convicted Carl Worthington of criminal mistreatment, but found Raylene Worthington not guilty on all counts.

M Moran

Child psychiatrist Louis Kraus, M.D., tells AMA delegates that it is not uncommon for parents of an autistic child to refuse vaccination for other offspring because of misinformation.

This study aimed to build on evidence about what works in parenting support in England by reviewing promising activities in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. It also identified key issues and messages to inform practice in England.

University of New Mexico Information Assurance Director Michael Carr discusses dangers and pitfalls students face when sharing information online. Topics include identity theft, problems with networking online and what parents can do to help students stay safe and informed.

Meta-analysis of reports on IDUs published in English in peer-reviewed journals since 1986 that contained data on depression and substance use outcome(s) with no restrictions on range of depression scores to select the sample. . . . Depression is associated with several substance-related behaviors, and select associations are stronger according to gender. Prospective associations of depression with future drug use and impairment are not immediately evident, but could be examined in subsequent research.

Bursaries for England's poorest students will no longer have to cover the gap between grants and fees.

More than 5 million UK households experienced fuel poverty last winter. The Government's statutory target to eradicate fuel poverty, as far as reasonably practicable, in vulnerable households by 2010 (and in all households by 2016) is likely to be missed; highlighting the weakness of a policy which attempts to address fuel affordability issues and domestic energy efficiency simultaneously. The Government should have reviewed its fuel poverty policies earlier given the upward trend in the number of fuel poor and rising fuel prices.

July 25, 2009

On Wednesday, July 22, 2009, public health experts joined FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein, M.D., and Matthew McKenna, M.D., Director of the Office of Smoking and Health for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to discuss the potential health risks associated with electronic cigarettes, also known as "e-cigarettes."

This is a qualitative research report representing findings from the opinions and experiences of respondents identified as ‘harder to engage’ in seeking their views on the Department’s policy areas of Parental Support for Learning; Childcare; and Complaints systems in schools.

The Council was judged to be ‘excellent’ both in work to keep people healthy and independent, and in its capacity to improve. Inspectors also rated as ‘good’ the Council’s personalised care services, as well as steps taken to protect vulnerable adults.

This guide aims to tell the story so far about the personalisation of adult social care services. It is intended to set out our current understanding of personalisation at a very early stage of implementation, exploring what personalisation is, where the idea came from and placing the transformation of adult social care in the wider public service reform agenda.

The Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills committee says knowledge from experts is not being properly used to make informed policy decisions.

Lessons from Literature is an innovative program that enlists English teachers like you — from all across the country — to use the books and material you’re already teaching to facilitate discussion and build awareness about physical, verbal and sexual abuse. Prompted by a growing public interest in and demand for programs that seek to prevent abuse, Lessons from Literature helps address this problem among youth in the classroom and beyond.

iStockphoto/ | A Karelias

Rich lavender field in Provence, France. Scientists in Japan are reporting the first scientific evidence that inhaling certain fragrances alter gene activity and blood chemistry in ways that can reduce stress levels.

An independent report into the death of 23-month-old Brandon Muir is to be made public within days of it being received, Dundee City Council has said.

The overall purpose of this research was to provide evidence to assist DCSF and the Department of Health in revising the guidance on improving the health of looked after children (LAC). The study took a multi-method approach and included 50 individual interviews with key stakeholders at national, regional and local level; an overview of relevant research and statistics; written comments from professionals engaged in implementing the guidance; and an analysis of information in Joint Area Reviews relevant to the health of looked after children.

• Current cigarette smoking among in-school American youth: results from the 2004 National Youth Tobacco Survey
• Social determinants of health in Tunisia: the case-analysis of Ariana
• Policy characteristics facilitating primary health care in Thailand: A pilot study in transitional country
• Socioeconomic inequality in child injury in Bangladesh – implication for developing countries
• The applicability of measures of socioeconomic position to different ethnic groups within the UK
• Social class, marginality and self-assessed health: a cross-sectional analysis of the health gradient in Mexico
• How are individual-level social capital and poverty associated with health equity? A study from two Chinese cities

This article reports results of a meta-analysis of the effects of a set of community coalitions that implemented science-based substance use prevention interventions as part of a State Incentive Grant (SIG) in Kentucky. The analysis included assessment of direct effects on prevalence of substance use among adolescents as well as assessment of what “risk” and “protective” factors mediated the coalition effects. In addition, we tested whether multiple science-based prevention interventions enhanced the effects of coalitions on youth substance use. Short-term results (using 8th-grade data) showed no significant decreases in six prevalence of substance use outcomes—and, in fact, a significant though small increase in prevalence of use of one substance (inhalants). Sustained results (using 10th-grade data), however, showed significant, though small decreases in three of six substance use outcomes—past month prevalence of cigarette use, alcohol use, and binge drinking.

High blood pressure has no symptoms, but if it's not treated it can damage the kidneys, heart and brain

This guidance is being issued under Section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970. The guidance is relevant to all local social services staff and requires specific actions to be taken such as identifying and keeping records on deafblind people in catchment areas

Social mobility has declined along with grammar schools

July 24, 2009

Almost half of Indonesians live on less than two dollars a day

This study forms one strand of a three-year project to take forward work on core principles and standards and support for professional development for outreach in Sure Start children’s centres. The aim of the study was to gather information on identifying and documenting best practice in outreach in the children’s centres.

Many of the issues surrounding Cuban migration are unique but not new. Normal immigration from Cuba has been elusive since Fidel Castro came to power. Over the past 50 years, the practice of Cubans fleeing by boat to the United States has become commonplace, and at some points reached the levels of a mass exodus. Since the last upsurge of boat people in the mid-1990s, the United States and Cuba worked toward establishing safe, legal immigration, which includes returning migrants interdicted by the U.S. Coast Guard. These migration policies, however, are not without critics. The immigration of Cubans to the United States has increased since 1995, although the actual admission numbers have ebbed and flowed over this period.

First and only program in the state to offer non-systemic and non-invasive treatment for depression offers new hope to people living with the disorder

This Special Collection offers information regarding the experiences and needs of individuals who are Deaf or hard of hearing and victims/survivors of domestic and/or sexual violence. The purpose of this collection is to: 1) increase knowledge and understanding of Deaf culture, 2) provide resources to assist helping professionals in direct service work with Deaf individuals, and 3) highlight best practices.

G Yohanan

Herzog visiting welfare bureau

Over the past decade, publicly-funded programs like Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (formerly SCHIP, now called CHIP) have played an important role in providing health coverage to millions of low-income children and their parents. These programs have reduced the rate of uninsured children by one-third in a decade. In large part, these programs have worked effectively because states have made strong efforts to do outreach and to simplify enrollment and renewal procedures.

Image courtesy of Brigham Young University

Six-month-old babies can match the sounds of happy and angry barks to pictures of happy and angry dogs.

AP

Alexander Draper was removed from his mother's care because he weighed 555 pounds at age 14.

The term “children in care” includes all children being looked after by a local authority, including those subject to care orders under section 31 of the Children Act 1989 and those looked after on a voluntary basis through an agreement with their parents. This note presents headline statistics on the number of children in care in England, reasons for entering the care system, types of care placement and number of care placements experienced. Estimated costs of service provision are also given as well as outcome indicators relating to educational attendance and attainment and offending behaviour.

Meta-analysis of four eligible studies using pre-cessation patch treatment, located by database search and contacts with cessation researchers. The studies all compared starting treatment with nicotine patch prior to the target quit date to starting active treatment at the quit date, some in the context of concurrent mecamylamine treatment. The primary end-point for the analysis was continuous abstinence for at least 28 days assessed at 6 weeks following quit day; 6-month outcomes were also examined. . . . Across the four studies analyzed, pre-cessation patch treatment was found to produce a robust increase in quit rates compared to current regimens starting patch at quit day. Pre-cessation patch use represents a promising innovation in smoking cessation therapy with potential beneficial implications for improved public health by further increasing quitting success.

• Evaluation of Berhane Hewan: A Program to Delay Child Marriage in Rural Ethiopia
• Inadequate Use of Prenatal Services Among Brazilian Women: The Role of Maternal Characteristics
• The Influence of Early Sexual Debut and Sexual Violence On Adolescent Pregnancy: A Matched Case-Control Study In Jamaica
• The Relationship of Family Size and Composition To Fertility Desires, Contraceptive Adoption and Method Choice in South Asia
• A Response to Critics of Family Planning Programs

iStockphoto | G Perales

Cannabis plant. Injections of THC, the active principle of cannabis, eliminate dependence on opiates (morphine, heroin) in rats deprived of their mothers at birth.

David Carr talks about his memoir The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life. His Own. Carr exposes his years as an addict and chronicles his journey from crack-house to columnist for N.Y. Times. Built on 60 videotaped interviews, legal and medical records, and three years of reporting, this is a ferocious tale.

This research informed the development of strategy to drive parental support engagement in their child’s education. Three deliberative events were commissioned to seek the views of parents and professionals on how the former can be encouraged to become more involved in their children’s learning, both at school and in the home.

July 23, 2009

This guidance supports the achievement of the public service agreement on smoking prevalence and health inequality targets for 2010. It provides primary care trusts and local authorities with a firm rationale as to why targeting routine and manual smokers will in turn help reduce smoking prevalence.

The council said the move had saved £300,000

B Kurzen VII Mentor | NY Times

Even without government involvement, demand for circumcision has surged over the last year in Orange Farm, South Africa.

This Kaiser Family Foundation report documents the persistence of disparities between white women and women of color across the country. It provides a rare and comprehensive state-level look at disparities among women of different races and ethnicities on a broad range of indicators of health and well-being, including rates of diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, AIDS and cancer, and access to health insurance and health screenings.

Rape is violent, destructive, and a crime—no less so when the victim is incarcerated. Until recently, however, the public viewed sexual abuse as an inevitable feature of confinement. Even as courts and human rights standards increasingly confirmed that prisoners have the same fundamental rights to safety, dignity, and justice as individuals living at liberty in the community, vulnerable men, women, and children continued to be sexually victimized by other prisoners and corrections staff. Tolerance of sexual abuse of prisoners in the government’s custody is totally incompatible with American values.

Health Secretary Andy Burnham.
A social care chief has been suspended over a complaints backlog that meant social workers continued to practise despite being a potential public risk.

- The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 applies to everyone involved in the care, treatment and support of people aged 16 and over living in England and Wales who are unable to make all or some decisions for themselves.
- The MCA is designed to protect and restore power to those vulnerable people who lack capacity.
- The MCA also supports those who have capacity and choose to plan for their future – this is everyone in the general population who is over the age of 18.
- All professionals have a duty to comply with the Code of Practice. It also provides support and guidance for less formal carers.

The Government is being sued over the more than 500 cases of alleged abuse at children’s homes

It has long been known that children from certain ethnic backgrounds are over and under-represented among those who are looked after, ‘in need’ or subject of child protection plans. This study aimed to provide further insight into differences between ethnic groups in their contact with child welfare services in England, and to examine possible reasons for this.

• Maternal and perinatal guideline development in hospitals in South East Asia: the experience of the SEA-ORCHID project
• Maternal and perinatal guideline development in hospitals in South East Asia: results from the SEA-ORCHID project
• Human resource management interventions to improve health workers' performance in low and middle income countries: a realist review
• Public funding of health at the district level in Indonesia after decentralization – sources, flows and contradictions
• Evidence in the learning organization
• Progress along developmental tracks for electronic health records implementation in the United States
• Is peer review useful in assessing research proposals in Indigenous health? A case study
• Is U.S. health care an appropriate system? A strategic perspective from systems science

Russell Barkley, Ph.D., focuses on what he terms the Milwaukee Study, which tracks the life course outcomes of individuals with ADHD, as well as covering issues that are to be studied in future ADHD studies.

As digital technologies are expanding the power and reach of research, they are also raising complex issues. These include complications in ensuring the validity of research data; standards that do not keep pace with the high rate of innovation; restrictions on data sharing that reduce the ability of researchers to verify results and build on previous research; and huge increases in the amount of data being generated, creating severe challenges in preserving that data for long-term use.

The primary aims of this paper were to conduct a meta-analysis of the relationship between sexual orientation and adolescent substance use and a systematic review and critique of the methodological characteristics of this literature. . . . The odds of substance use for LGB youth were, on average, 190% higher than for heterosexual youth and substantially higher within some subpopulations of LGB youth (340% higher for bisexual youth, 400% higher for females). Causal mechanisms, protective factors and alternative explanations for this effect, as well as long-term substance use outcomes in LGB youth, remain largely unknown.

On 18 March 1999, Prime minister Tony Blair promised to eradicate child poverty ‘within a generation’. Between 1979 and the mid 1990s, the number of children living in poor households had more than doubled, and by the time Tony Blair made his promise, there were 3.4 million children living in poverty.

July 22, 2009

This note sets out the definitive available statistics on young people Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) and young people Not in Education and Training (NET).

Dr. Roger Roffman, professor of social work at the University of Washington: "Marijuana dependence occurs in 9 percent of Americans who have ever used the drug, and between 33 percent and 50 percent of those who smoke it daily."

The Bookworm by Kariuki

Then, under the influence of a German social worker, Dieter Bartsch, he gradually developed his interest, and honed his technique, moving to Nairobi and joining the Banana Hill studio.

In this narrated slide tutorial, Juliette Cubanski, PhD, principal policy analyst for Kaiser’s Medicare Policy Project describes the design of the Medicare drug benefit program, how it is financed, and the impact of the program to date on Medicare beneficiaries.

Drug statistics keep speaking loud and clear. Past runaway growth has flattened out and the drug crisis of the 1990s seems under control. This 2009 Report provides further evidence that drug cultivation (opium and coca) are flat or down. Most importantly, major markets for opiates (Europe and South East Asia), cocaine (North America), and cannabis (North America, Oceania and Europe) are in decline. The increase in consumption of synthetic stimulants, particularly in East Asia and the Middle East, is cause for concern, although use is declining in developed countries.

E Neikirk | Bristol Herald Courier

Dan Ramey, a social worker who volunteers with the Tennessee Health Care Campaign, talks with those who attended the workshop Friday.

All those things lumped together "just compounds that feeling of helplessness about what is going on," said Suzanne Stauffer, a licensed clinical social worker and manager with Anthem Health Plans of Virginia's employee assistance programs.

This report presents the findings from the fifth annual customer survey carried by research consultants Ipsos MORI for the Disability and Carers Service (DCS). A postal survey was carried out with a representative sample of customers of Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Attendance Allowance (AA), and Carer's Allowance (CA) who had experienced recent contact with the DCS. The survey explored customers' experiences of, attitudes towards, and satisfaction with the service they had received from the DCS. The report also identifies key trends following on from the previous DCS survey in 2007.

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This study brought together the published and grey literature on interventions for children who have experienced physical abuse in order to present a complete picture of all the available evidence and to draw out the implications of this for policy, practice and future research.

Greater Than AIDS inspires hope and promotes the possibility of change in the AIDS epidemic facing Black America through the united actions of individuals, families and communities. The campaign stresses six specific actions: being informed; using condoms; getting tested--and treated, as needed; speaking openly; acting with respect; and getting involved.

J Dixon

Natasha Fuller now has to stay on the benefit. Parents are shocked that Bennett, who gained a social work degree while on the DPB in the 1990s, was the minster to make the cuts.

To better understand the role of meta-analysis scholarship in social work, we analyzed publication patterns of meta-analysis across five disciplines: family studies, nursing, psychology, psychiatry, and social work. The frequency and proportion of published meta-analytic studies, critiques of particular meta-analytic studies, and articles discussing meta-analysis methodology were calculated by coding articles from the 10 highest impact journals within each discipline across a 24-year period. All disciplines are increasingly publishing meta-analysis scholarship, though social work lags behind in publishing and commenting on published meta-analyses. Implications are discussed for promoting and strengthening social work's ability to effectively produce and benefit from meta-analytic research.

Dr Rupal Shah explains the possible causes of bedwetting and gives advice about how to help your child

July 21, 2009

Social Welfare Minister Dr Jiko Luveni

The traditional service-led approach has often meant that people have not received the right help at the right time and have been unable to shape the kind of support they need. Personalisation is about giving people much more choice and control over their lives in all social care settings and is far wider than simply giving personal budgets to people eligible for council funding. Personalisation means addressing the needs and aspirations of whole communities to ensure everyone has access to the right information, advice and advocacy to make good decisions about the support they need. It means ensuring that people have wider choice in how their needs are met and are able to access universal services such as transport, leisure and education, housing, health and opportunities for employment regardless of age or disability.

Bachelor of arts (rural social welfare) at the University of Ballarat

The Bill would require local authorities to collect and share information about people with autism, in order to assist in the provision of services. The Bill also contains measures to promote multi-agency working in the delivery of services, and the effective transition from child to adult services, for people with autism.

Personalisation means thinking about care and support services in an entirely different way. It means starting with the person as an individual with strengths, preferences and aspirations and putting them at the centre of the process of identifying their needs and making choices about what, who, how and when they are supported to live their lives. It requires a significant transformation of adult social care so that all systems, processes, staff and services are geared up to put people first.

AP/Gazette-Journal | L Margerum

April 18, 2009, file photo, Emma Hendrickson, 100, of Morris Plains, N.J. throws the ball at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nev.

This brief review sought to highlight key evidence on the impact of parental separation and divorce on children’s well-being and development. The review addressed the process of family breakdown and its impact on children’s well-being and how different factors operate to increase or limit the risk of adverse outcomes. The factors which appear to optimise positive outcomes for parents and children were also covered.

This study discusses progress made in Wales to end child poverty, and suggests what the Welsh Assembly Government could do to reach the 2020 target.

• Is global quality of life reduced before fracture in patients with low-energy wrist or hip fracture? A comparison with matched controls
• Reflections on changeability versus stability of health-related quality of life: distinguishing between its environmental and genetic components
• Evaluating the reliability, validity and minimally important difference of the Taiwanese version of the diabetes quality of life (DQOL) measurement
• Sense of coherence as a resource in relation to health-related quality of life among mentally intact nursing home residents – a questionnaire study
• Discrimination and reliability: equal partners? Understanding the role of discriminative instruments in HRQoL research: can Ferguson's Delta help? A response
• Discrimination and reliability: Equal partners?

The roots of juvenile crime are explored in this video from the 1930s. A case study of a boy who starts by stealing from fruit stands and ends with murder is presented. Remedies of the day are touted.

iStockphoto | S Locke

Back-and-forth conversation is strongly associated with future improvements in a child's language score.

After a brief overview of adolescent tobacco control, methodological features and content areas of 78 qualitative studies of adolescent smoking published in English prior to September 2002 were assessed. Narrative syntheses of three content areas—peer influences, access/sales issues, and dependence/addiction—were also undertaken. Many studies failed to provide sufficient sampling and subject characterization details and more effort was required to demonstrate data validity and reliability. Syntheses of the content areas revealed important common themes. Relationships to quantitative research were informative and suggested other research questions. The review highlights the heuristic value of qualitative research on adolescent smoking.

UW Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences

Using magnetoencephalography, a non-invasive technique, neuroscientists have studied baby brain activity and have found a link between the listening and speaking areas of the brain in newborns, 6-month and one-year old infants.

The objective of the review was to identify studies that evaluate the effectiveness of interventions in the secondary prevention and treatment of child emotional abuse involving the parents or primary carers of children aged 0-19 years.

July 20, 2009

Deitch’s latest foray into the noncommercial is “Black Acid Co-op,” an immense, labor-intensive, maniacally contrived walk-through environment. A warren of some dozen rooms, interiors and passageways, it includes a burned-out home methamphetamine lab, a red-carpeted gallery of pseudo-artworks and a hippie haven.

This annual release of ATUS data focuses on the average amount of time per day in 2008 that individuals worked, did household activities, cared for household children, participated in educational activities, and engaged in leisure and sports activities. It also includes measures of the average time per day spent providing childcare--both as a primary (or main) activity and while doing other things--for the combined years 2004-08.

Tricia Neuman, ScD, vice president and director of the Medicare Policy Project at Kaiser, provides an overview of the Medicare program. The tutorial begins with a brief look at the program’s history and its crucial role in serving millions of people who are elderly or have disabilities. Neuman also explains the program’s limitations, spending, and financial challenges as well as outlook for the program’s future.

Sunya Folayan, Charlotte social worker

D Gill | NY Times

At 60 miles an hour on a Missouri highway, a 16-year-old driver texts with a friend as a 17-year-old takes the wheel.

The 2006 TEDS Discharges from Substance Treatment Services report is the latest in a series of yearly reports that not only provide overall figures for the 42 states that report discharge data to TEDS (an increase from previous years), but also break this information down into a wide variety of programmatic and demographic criteria that can help provide greater perspective on the experiences of those who have undergone substance abuse treatment.

Image courtesy of NIH/National Institute of Mental Health

Hypothalamus, a node of the emotion circuit.

This report brings together published evidence relating to housing benefit since 1992. It is organised around five main themes: social housing and worklessness, underoccupation and mobility, housing benefit as an in-work benefit, single room rent and the private rented sector, and management and performance.

iStockphoto | J Bryson

The most surprising finding from the 20-year study was how help provided by the juvenile justice system substantially increased the risk of the boys engaging in criminal activities during early adulthood.

The Bill deals with a wide range of matters including: apprenticeships; the right for employees to request time away for training; the dissolution of the Learning and Skills Council and the transfer to local authorities of responsibility for funding 16 to 18 education and training; the education of offenders; the creation of the Young Person’s Learning Agency and the Skills Funding Agency; the legal identity of sixth-form colleges; a new regulatory body for qualifications (Ofqual); a new agency to carry out the non-regulatory functions currently performed by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority; the accountability of children’s services; intervention powers in respect of schools causing concern; a new parental complaints service; school inspection arrangements; a new negotiating body for school support staff pay and conditions; and provisions related to pupil and student behaviour.

Four included studies contained a control group (n=2288) and five studies included a comparison treatment group (n=698). An average weighted effect size of 0.43 (CI=0.33–0.55) was obtained, indicating a statistically significant effect of treatment on sexual recidivism. However, individual study characteristics (e.g., handling of dropouts and non-equivalent follow-up periods between treatment groups) suggest that results should be interpreted with caution. A comparison of odds ratios by quality of study design indicated that higher quality designs yielded better effect sizes, though the difference between groups was not significant.

• Improving introspection to inform free will regarding the choice by healthy individuals to use or not use cognitive enhancing drugs
• The context of illicit drug overdose deaths in British Columbia, 2006
• Can abuse deterrent formulations make a difference? Expectation and speculation
• Moving beyond non-engagement on regulated needle-syringe exchange programs in Australian prisons
• Overdose beliefs and management practices among ethnic Vietnamese heroin users in Sydney, Australia
• HIV/AIDS in Vancouver, British Columbia: a growing epidemic
• Opioid substitution treatment with sublingual buprenorphine in Manipur and Nagaland in Northeast India: what has been established needs to be continued and expanded
• Comparison of injecting drug users who obtain syringes from pharmacies and syringe exchange programs in Tallinn, Estonia
• NAOMI: The trials and tribulations of implementing a heroin assisted treatment study in North America
• The syringe gap: an assessment of sterile syringe need and acquisition among syringe exchange program participants in New York City

Joanna was diagnosed with Tourettes syndrome in her 30s, although she has had ticks (repeated movements) all her life. She describes what effects different medications had on her and how she manages now without any.

This study examined policy, professional skills and practice, as well as service use relating to support for young people (aged 10-15 years) and their families, where levels of need indicate that placement or accommodation outside the family home may be necessary. The overall purpose was to learn from experience elsewhere in Europe (Denmark, France and Germany) and to identify best practice and inform the development of policy and practice in England. The project aimed to understand better the ways in which care entry can be prevented, or planned and supported and also aimed to consider the role of social pedagogues and social pedagogy in this work.

D McCown | Bristol Herald Courier

Dottie O’Quinn, a program assistant for a nutrition program operated through the Virginia Cooperative Extension, speaks about improving the state’s antipoverty services.

July 19, 2009

iStockphoto | M Bowerbank

An increase in road fatalities and injuries has been linked to the 1995 repeal of the federal speed control law, which restricted the maximum speed limit to 55 mph on all interstate roads in the United States.

The common denominator of trafficking scenarios is the use of force, fraud, or coercion to exploit a person for profit. Traffickers can subject victims to labor exploitation, sexual exploitation, or both. Trafficking for labor exploitation, the form of trafficking claiming the greatest number of victims, includes traditional chattel slavery, forced labor, and debt bondage. Trafficking for sexual exploitation typically includes abuse within the commercial sex industry. In other cases, individuals exploit victims in private homes, often demanding both sex and work. The use of force or coercion can be direct and violent or psychological.

Courier-Journal

Bullitt Family Court Judge Elise Givhan Spainhour

This letter provides an update on the latest developments on Payment by Results (PbR) for Mental Health and also clarifies the governance arrangements for this project. It is a sequel to our letter of 8 January 2009.

P Bass

Claudette Robinson-Thorpe, MSW

In January 2009 the number of three and four year olds benefiting from some free early education (where children are counted twice if they take up free provision at two different providers) was 1,178,800 children, which is an increase on the 2008 figure of 1,160,400 children.

AP/Texarkana Gazette | E Lewis

In this Tuesday July 14, 2009 file picture, evangelist Tony Alamo, center, is led from the federal courthouse in downtown Texarkana Ark. following opening statements in his trial. Alamo is charged with taking underage girls across state lines for sex.

The aims of the present study were to examine the effects of a therapeutic intervention for foster
preschoolers with histories of placement instability on permanency outcomes and to determine whether the intervention's effectiveness on these outcomes varied based on prior maltreatment experiences. Permanency outcomes for 52 children who had experienced 4 or more placements prior to study entry (n=29 intervention condition; n=23 regular foster care condition) were examined through 24 months post-study entry.

M Cardy | Getty Images

Young people on the Southmead housing estate in Bristol.

Britain`s Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley MP talks about inequalities in the UK`s public health system.

This circular explains arrangements for the continuation in 2009/10 of the AIDS Support Grant. Authorities are also invited to bid for HIV Capital Grant for HIV/AIDS related housing and capital projects.

• (S)Partners for Heart Health: a school-based program for enhancing physical activity and nutrition to promote cardiovascular health in 5th grade students
• Three-year follow-up of physical activity in Norwegian youth from two ethnic groups: associations with socio-demographic factors
• Planning ahead in public health? A qualitative study of the time horizons used in public health decision-making
• The use of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in children and adolescents as an outcome criterion to evaluate family oriented support for young carers in Germany: an integrative review of the literature
• Gambling problems in the family – A stratified probability sample study of prevalence and reported consequences
• Sexual abstinence behavior among never-married youths in a generalized HIV epidemic country: evidence from the 2005 Côte d'Ivoire AIDS indicator survey
• The effectiveness of "Exercise on Prescription" in stimulating physical activity among women in ethnic minority groups in the Netherlands: protocol for a randomized controlled trial
• Risk factors for developing a cutaneous injection-related infection among injection drug users: a cohort study
• Implementation of a workplace smoking ban in bars: The limits of local discretion
• Participation of traditional birth attendants in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV services in two rural districts in Zimbabwe: a feasibility study

Chris Hamilton and his family have been forced to use food handouts

July 18, 2009

Romanians waiting for their visa interviews outside the British Embassy in Bucharest.

When a new health policy appears, mental health services often feel they are kept waiting until it has been tried out on the acute health sector. Mental health is seen as too difficult and too different. This accusation might be levelled at Payment by Results (PbR), which has been in operation for acute care since 2003/04. This publication is a practical guide containing 10 actions to help local health economies prepare for mental health PbR.

This publication covers a range of outcome indicators for children who have been continuously looked after for at least 12 months in England. Indicators include absences, exclusions and employment status at the end of year 11.

Tribune | A Garcia

Therapist Doris Ayala (foreground) cleans a Near North Side condominium with employee Maria Garces, a former patient of Ayala's.

In 2006-2007, almost one in twelve (7.9 percent) fathers living with adolescents aged 12 to 17 had an alcohol use disorder, and 68.1 percent used alcohol in the past year but did not have an alcohol use disorder. The rate of past year alcohol use among adolescents was lower for those who lived with a father who did not use alcohol in the past year than for those who lived with a father who used alcohol but did not have an alcohol use disorder and for those who lived with a father with an alcohol use disorder (21.1 vs. 33.2 and 38.8 percent, respectively). The percentage of adolescents using illicit drugs in the past year increased with the level of paternal alcohol use, with illicit drug use reported by 14.0 percent of adolescents who lived with a father who did not use alcohol in the past year, 18.4 percent of those who lived with a father who used alcohol but did not have an alcohol use disorder, and 24.2 percent of those who lived with a father with an alcohol use disorder.

Comprehensive information and accurate documentation in FACES are both paramount components of the transfers and must underscore the Agency's mission to improve the safety, permanence and well-being of abused and neglected children and to strengthen troubled families in the District of Columbia. This administrative issuance provides procedural guidelines for CPS workers to transfer case responsibility to a private agency or to CFSA IHR workers.

Child protection workers in Scotland are having to deal with caseloads well above the recommended safe limit, a BBC Scotland investigation has revealed.

This continues our look at Family Functioning Assessment (FFA) – the second assessment within a comprehensive assessment process that is part of and supports a safety intervention system. Family Functioning Assessment (traditionally referred to as investigation) includes Safety Assessment. These two assessments result in the identification of families that are in need of CPS because children are unsafe and caregiver protective capacity is diminished.

Series of videos by the National Urban Indian Family Coalition addressing urban Indian America. This video features the Honorable Joe Garcia, President of the National Congress of American Indians, discussing the importance of unity among tribes and urban Indian communities.

Although perceived fairness and job satisfaction predict organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), researchers have pondered the conceptual relationships among these constructs. Using path analysis on meta-analytically derived coefficients, the authors compared four models: full mediation (job satisfaction mediates fairness-OCB relationships), partial mediation, independent effects, and a spurious effects model (the job satisfaction—OCB relationship is spurious because perceived fairness is a common cause). The authors found greatest support for the independent effects model: Job satisfaction and different types of perceived fairness accounted for unique variance in OCB dimensions.

• A short review on the aetiology and pathophysiology of alcoholism
• The Inventory of Personality Organisation: its psychometric properties among student and clinical populations in Japan
• Well-being of medical students and their awareness on substance misuse: a cross-sectional survey in Pakistan
• The relationship between antipsychotic medication adherence and patient outcomes among individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder: a retrospective study
• Etiological explanation, treatability and preventability of childhood autism: a survey of Nigerian healthcare workers' opinion
• An analysis of correlations among four outcome scales employed in clinical trials of patients with major depressive disorder
• Preliminary data concerning the reliability and psychometric properties of the Greek translation of the 20-item Subjective Well-Being Under Neuroleptic Treatment Scale (SWN-20)
• The prevalence of mental disorders in adults in different level general medical facilities in Kenya: a cross-sectional study

July 17, 2009

The whole system demonstrator programme is a two-year research project funded by the Department of Health to find out how technology can help people manage their own health while maintaining their independence.

Over the many hours I spend listening to the triumphs and tragedies of Rita Baldwin's epic life, Kurt Vonnegut interjects his own commentary into my inner-monologue.

Presents statistics on delinquency cases resulting in probation in 2005. Probation supervision was the most severe disposition in 33 percent of all delinquency cases. The number of cases placed on probation increased 29 percent between 1985 and 2005. Property offense cases made up the greatest proportion of the probation caseload. This Fact Sheet is based on the report Juvenile Court Statistics 2005.

International Society for Plant Pathology

Many people, little space: city near Surabaya (Indonesia, population 0.25 billion).

In the German capital, Berlin, 36% of children are considered poor

This study describes how housing for families has changed over time and explores the relationship between social housing, family circumstances and the 'adult outcomes' for children who grew up in social housing – i.e. their experiences when they are adults.

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C Rodwell

Ciara Bradley (19) who was sexually abused by her father for four years.

For many professionals working in the field of sexual assault, one of the most pressing questions is: "What can we do to prevent it?" Practitioners have been designing and implementing rape prevention programs for decades, and researchers have been evaluating them for almost as long. The purpose of this article is to summarize the answers we have so far, because the good news is that we have learned some important lessons along the way regarding the prevention of adult and adolescent sexual assault. (The prevention of child sexual abuse will not be addressed in this article).

C Madison & S Landau | UC Berkeley

PET scans can detect the decline in glucose metabolism associated with decreased cognitive function, particularly in the temporal and parietal lobes located on the sides and the back of the brain, the regions associated with memory formation and language. UC Berkeley researchers are finding that brain imaging shows promise as a method of detecting early signs of Alzheimer's disease. On the left is a PET scan showing normal levels of glucose metabolism, indicated in yellow and red. The levels of glucose metabolism in the brain are decreased in patients with mild cognitive impairment (middle) and with Alzheimer's disease (right).

About 15,000 young people in Scotland are 'looked after' by the state

All children deserve the opportunity to develop and grow as part of a safe and nurturing family, and research shows that caring family relationships are critical to achieving positive outcomes for children. At times, however, parents face overwhelming challenges in their lives and need help to provide adequate care for their children. If parents receive timely and quality support during these times, children are more likely to experience safety and well-being, and families are more likely to remain intact. If no such help is available, however, temporary setbacks can become major crises. Child welfare systems play a major role in providing critical assistance to families in need. While these systems face significant challenges, major opportunities exist for adopting state policies that can help improve the key factors that impact child-safety and well-being.

This publication brings together detailed survey information on family environment, attitudes, risky behaviours, engagement, and post-16 participation with administrative data on academic attainment. Data from previous waves of LSYPE and YCS, in some cases going back to when the young people were in compulsory education, are used to inform outcomes from the 2008 survey when the young people were of academic age 17 and their paths through life were beginning to diverge.

• Regulation (EC) No 1901/2006 on medicinal products for paediatric use & clinical research in vulnerable populations
• Recent developments and strategies in pediatric pharmacology research in the USA
• Psychological complications of childhood chronic physical illness in Nigerian children and their mothers: the implication for developing pediatric liaison services
• Assessing the diagnostic accuracy of the identification of hyperkinetic disorders following the introduction of government guidelines in England
• Impact of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder on the patient and family: results from a European survey
• The occurrence and nature of early signs of schizophrenia and psychotic mood disorders among former child and adolescent psychiatric patients followed into adulthood
• Correlates of loneliness among university students
• Conduct disorder in girls: neighborhoods, family characteristics, and parenting behaviors
• Prevalence and determinants of child maltreatment among high school students in Southern China: A large scale school based survey
• A three-country comparison of psychotropic medication prevalence in youth

CBC

Jaylene Sanderson-Redhead, 2, died hours after being rushed to a Winnipeg hospital June 29.

Results: Eleven trials in mania, 4 in bipolar depression, and 8 in schizophrenia were included. . . . Conclusions: Bipolar patients, especially in depression, were more vulnerable to having acute antipsychotic-induced movement disorders than those with schizophrenia.

Indigenous writer, director and cinematographer Warwick Thornton talks about his award winning short films, Green Bush (2005) and Nana (2007) at the Flash symposium held at COFA.

July 16, 2009

The WHO says it is negotiating with vaccine producers to secure sales at lower prices for developing countries

This paper describes how violence perpetrated against women and girls increases their risk of arrest and incarceration through the intersections of interpersonal and structural violence. The processes that place victims under correctional control are the "criminalization" of women's survival strategies (Chesney-Lind, 1997) and "entrapment" into crime by abusers and by gender, race and class oppression (Richie, 1996). Once entrapped and criminalized, women are re- victimized and subjected to "enforcement violence" by the state through coercive laws, immigration policies, social welfare policies and law enforcement practices.

Rex, C.S., et al. 2009. J. Cell Biol. doi:10.1083/jcb.200901084

Activated PAK (red) gathers at synapses (green), and might help consolidate fresh memories.

This report considers the impact of the recession across demographic groups of age, gender, race and disability. It also explores how the recession is affecting the lowest qualified and most deprived in society.

This document contains information and guidance about the Department of Health's social enterprise investment fund, which supports social enterprises in health and social care.

Wikimedia Commons | Public Domain Image

Why does this image appear normal when viewed upside down, but clearly shows that it is distorted when right-side up? It's a phenomenon known as the Thatcher effect.

Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Programs were created whereby specially trained forensic nurses provide 24-hours-a-day, first-response care to sexual assault patients in either hospital or non-hospital settings. This paper will present a brief summary of the structure and functions of SANE programs as they currently exist in the United States, and then will review the empirical research literature on the effectiveness of SANE programs in three domains.

People in England may be forced to pay as much as £20,000 on retirement to help fund the social care system under plans being put forward by ministers.

Last month we considered the intake function as the first component in a safety intervention system. We also identified the Intake Assessment as the first or initial assessment within the comprehensive assessment process that supports safety intervention. Now through March in a three part series we turn our attention to the second function within a safety intervention system – the Family Functioning Assessment which includes the Safety Assessment.

Eleven years ago, the Guardian told the story of Nadia Clarke, a deaf child with cerebral palsy, whose family moved across the country to allow her to have a mainstream education. Now 17, she has just completed her GCSEs

When compared with their higher-income counterparts, on average, parents in low-income Maryland families (that is, those with incomes that are less than twice the official poverty threshold) have less advantageous environments for raising children, and both the parents and their children experience fewer positive outcomes. Similarly, when compared with their counterparts in families headed by two biological or adoptive parents, families headed by single mothers are associated with less advantageous environments for raising children and fewer positive outcomes for both parents and children. When family structure and income are jointly taken into account, family circumstances and child outcomes are often dramatically different.

Based on the few studies, there is some evidence of associations between successful treatment of parents' depression and improvement in children's symptoms and functioning, but treatment of postpartum depression may not be sufficient for improving cognitive development, attachment, and temperament in infants and toddlers. Conclusions: Due to the public health implications of the findings, further study of the effects of improvement in parental depression on child psychopathology is warranted.

Despite the achievements of the women's movement over the past four decades, misogyny remains a persistent force in American culture. In this important documentary, Thomas Keith, professor of philosophy at California State University-Long Beach, looks specifically at misogyny and sexism in mainstream American media, exploring how negative definitions of femininity and hateful attitudes toward women get constructed and perpetuated at the very heart of our popular culture.

A senior social worker has apologised to a sheriff after a man convicted of supplying drugs was deleted from a waiting list for community service.

• Special Comment on the Special Issue: International Ethics & Values
• Editorial: IFSW code of practice in comparison to national codes
• Ethical Codes of Practice in the US and UK: One Profession, Two Standards
• Ethics in Social Work: A Comparison of the Intl Statement of Principles in SW with the British Code
• Reflecting on the Use of the Code of Ethics in SW Practice: A Newfoundland and Labrador Perspective
• Are the Intl and National Codes of Ethics for Social Work in the UK as Useful as a Chocolate Teapot?
• Intl & Natl Professional Social Work Codes of Practice: Australia & Policy & Practice w/Older People

July 15, 2009

This report presents State estimates for 23 measures of substance use or mental health problems based on the 2006 and 2007 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (NSDUHs). Sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), NSDUH is an ongoing survey of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States aged 12 years or older.

Writer Len Grant has documented the continuing regeneration of east Manchester. Commissioned by New East Manchester, he has produced 10 issues of the award-winning East magazine, recording the human stories behind the upheaval. T

Presents statistics on petitioned delinquency cases waived to criminal court between 1985 and 2005. The number of delinquency cases judicially waived peaked in 1994 at 13,000 cases, which represented an 80-percent increase over the number of cases waived in 1985 (7,200). Since 1994, the number of cases judicially waived declined 47 percent (6,900 cases in 2005). This Fact Sheet is based on the report Juvenile Court Statistics 2005.

Pearl N. Shiling, a retired Maryland Health Department social worker who helped established sexual assault care centers

All forms of victimization endured by homeless women and children deserve our immediate attention and action. In this paper, we summarize available research on sexual violence in particular -- that is, unwanted sexual activity that is forced, coerced or manipulated -- and we suggest ways of understanding and responding to the varied, critical needs of homeless survivors of such violence. We focus on adult women only, leaving for another paper the enormous problem of violence against runaway children and teenagers.

R Freeman

Dark Mood by Ricky Freeman. UR in the Picture is a free photographic exhibition hosted by the charity United Response at the Bankside gallery, London (SE1), from 7-11 July. The exhibition is the culmination of a year-long project to examine the use of photography as a creative medium through which people can express their feelings about living with mental illness

Child poverty has fallen in Scotland, but evidence from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests that the current rate of progress will not achieve the 2020 target to eradicate child poverty. Some policy measures required to reduce child poverty (such as benefit increases) are not devolved powers, but the Scottish Government could do more to remove barriers to employment, sustain people in work and tackle low pay.

Presents statistics on delinquency cases handled in U.S. juvenile courts between 1985 and 2005. From 1985 through 1997, the number of delinquency cases handled climbed steadily (61 percent) and from 1997 through 2005, the delinquency caseload dropped 9 percent. Juvenile courts handled 46 percent more cases in 2005 than in 1985. This Fact Sheet is based on the report Juvenile Court Statistics 2005.

F Baron

Staff and residents in an older people's care home in east Twickenham.

Various incidence studies of homeless youth in the United States estimate that over 2 million youth experience one night of homelessness each year, with over 100,000 sleeping long-term on the streets. Multiple research studies indicate that a conservative estimate finds 1 in 5 homeless youth self-identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning LGBTQ,
twice as prevalent as for LGBTQ youth in the general population. LGBTQ youth experience an alarmingly high rate of homelessness when compared to heterosexual youth.

Children's charity Action for Children turns 140 this year. These images show its early days, through the boys and girls it took off the streets, and the buildings it inhabited, right back to when Thomas Bowman Stephenson started it all in 1869

This document describes intimate partner violence (IPV) in immigrant and refugee communities in the United States. IPV is a widespread, costly, and complex social problem nationwide, with serious health and safety implications. When IPV occurs in immigrant and refugee communities, additional challenges and complexities make it especially difficult to address. This paper examines the issue from a variety of standpoints, including the legal rights and practical challenges facing immigrant and refugee victims of violence, the ways systems are responding, and the promising practices that offer hope for these women, many of whom would otherwise remain in grave and persistent peril.

• Psychological problems in gastroenterology outpatients: A South Australian experience. Psychological co-morbidity in IBD, IBS and hepatitis C
• Usefulness of the Spanish version of the mood disorder questionnaire for screening bipolar disorder in routine clinical practice in outpatients with major depression
• What every psychiatrist should know about PANDAS: a review
• Admission to a psychiatric unit and changes in tobacco smoking
• Clozapine and co-prescribed psychotropics: a short report
• The factor structure of the twelve item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): the result of negative phrasing?
• Animal-assisted therapy with farm animals for persons with psychiatric disorders: effects on self-efficacy, coping ability and quality of life, a randomized controlled trial
• Development, reliability and factor analysis of a self-administered questionnaire which originates from the World Health Organization's Composite International Diagnostic Interview – Short Form (CIDI-SF) for assessing mental disorders
• Executive function abnormalities in pathological gamblers
• Obsessive compulsive disorder comorbidity in DBA

Wrestling with Manhood is the first educational program to pay attention to the enormous popularity of professional wrestling among male youth, addressing its relationship to real-life violence and probing the social values that sustain it as a powerful cultural force. Richly illustrating their analysis with numerous examples

DİYARBAKIR: Cavit Satıcı, father of three, says he fears for the future of his children, who may be victimized by others if they do not find jobs once they graduate from school.

A meta-analysis investigating the relationship between marital satisfaction/discord and intimate partner violence (IPV) in heterosexual relationships was conducted with 32 articles. Overall, a small-to-moderate effect size (r = −0.27) indicated a significant and negative relationship existed between marital satisfaction/discord and IPV.

July 14, 2009

I invite you to understand – not judge – my family and the contact with my partner. My life is my business, filled with my joy to celebrate, my hardship to endure, and my decisions to make. I ask that you listen, support me, and offer help that makes things better for me and my children.

anonlineindia.com

India’s remarkable economic growth has not alleviated rural poverty.

This paper 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 also presented. Childhood and adulthood sexual violence are discussed separately because, contrary to public opinion, sexual violence against children is fairly common and is frequently associated with psychological distress that continues into adulthood. There is also evidence that the mental health effects of childhood sexual victimization might be different from those due to adulthood victimization.

J Hostetter | AP

Chris Norton, 32, relaxes in his backyard in Robbinsdale, Minn. Friday, July 10, 2009. Norton said he's much less stressed over debt.

This report assesses the impact on equality of regulations that amend various provisions in a number of social security benefits that are currently linked to female state pension age by references to age 60.

B MENNELLA

Shacks with walls and roofs made of corrugated metal in a village in the Dominican Republic.

C Dufka /Reuters

Severely malnourished Rwandan refugee children wait March 28 for food within a makeshift camp some 25 miles south of Kisangani.

Youth aging out of foster care experience a great many difficulties in their lives and, in a number of vital areas, their “outcomes” lag dramatically behind their non-foster care peers. Although measurable improvements can be made in a number of youth outcomes, funding is always scarce and it is difficult in any economic climate to make the case for increased expenditures.

R Pedroncelli | Associated Press Photo

In Fresno, Calif., which has one of the country's highest concentrations of poverty, homeless encampments have formed.

Jacqueline Lok Yung-yung, a social worker with the Caritas Jockey Club Integrated Service for Young People - Tak Tin, which carried out the survey between March and April, said some findings were worrying.

Two decades have passed since the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), with the support of the U.S. Congress, launched a “child survival revolution” aimed at reducing the number of deaths among young children in developing countries. At the time, an estimated 15 million children under age 5 in the developing world died from common preventable diseases each year. Across the developing world, more than one in 10 children did not survive to see their fifth birthday; in some countries, it was one in five.

A video capturing the variety of speakers who appeared at the January 2008 PEW Charitable Trusts Child Welfare Symposium which was developed and presented in partnership with Prevent Child Abuse America.

In the past few years, members of the AAMFT, like members of other professional groups, have engaged in a discourse as to the necessity and effectiveness of sexual reorientation therapies. The purpose of this article is to review, critique, and synthesize the scientific rigor of the literature base underpinning sexual reorientation therapy research. Using a systematic narrative analysis approach, 28 empirically based, peer-reviewed articles meeting eligibility criteria were coded for sample characteristics and demographics as well as numerous methodology descriptors. Results indicate the literature base is full of omissions which threaten the validity of interpreting available data.

This study, funded by the FDA and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), compared the use of stimulant medications in 564 healthy children from across the United States who died suddenly to the use of stimulant medications in 564 children who died as passengers in a motor vehicle accident. Use of stimulant medication was determined from parents, medical examiners, and toxicology reports.

• Conflict in the Indian Kashmir Valley I: exposure to violence
• HIV transmission as a result of drug market violence: a case report
• Antismoking messages and current cigarette smoking status in Somaliland: results from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey 2004
• An assessment of vulnerability to HIV infection of boatmen in Teknaf, Bangladesh
• Displacement and disease: The Shan exodus and infectious disease implications for Thailand
• Increase coverage of HIV and AIDS services in Myanmar

The government has spent £20bn since 2000 on tackling fuel poverty

July 13, 2009

B Goodman

Maria P. Aranda of the USC School of Social Work and the USC Davis School of Gerontology

This site contains a series of data tables describing recent trends in mortality in state prison, local jails, and during the process of arrest by state and local law enforcement officers. Data are presented over time, by jurisdiction, and by demographic groups. The mortality data are from the BJS Deaths in Custody Reporting Program (DCRP), which was launched in 2000 to implement the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2000

G Ertl | Boston Globe

Bill Johnson, volunteer for a fix-it program in Sudbury, checks a smoke detector for Shekhar Mehta.

This paper will present a brief overview of research findings concerning the impact of sexual violence on females’ high-risk health behaviors and reproductive health, focusing on studies of sexual assault or rape experienced primarily during adulthood. Given that most research on sexual violence experienced by adult women also includes adolescents in the samples (often those 14 years of age and older), the research presented here examines females in this wider age range.

B Flashnick | NY Times

HARD-WON CHANGES IN PERIL For Raihannah, nearing release from South Carolina’s juvenile justice system, communal chores in a transitional house model life outside.

This report provides the most comprehensive data on anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) violence in the United States. This report provides recommendations for ways to advance education and prevention of hate violence before it occurs and ways to hold public institutions more accountable to responding to violence when it occurs. It is written by a coalition of 35 LGBT anti-violence programs in 25 states across the country. This report is meant to draw attention to the incidents and trends it documents and to highlight the need for more comprehensive responses to bias violence.

iStockphoto | K Paris

For the first time, neuroscientists have located the neurons responsible for fear conditioning in the mammalian brain.

The primary purpose of visitation is to maintain the parent-child attachment, reduce a child’s sense of abandonment, and preserve their sense of belonging as part of a family and community. A child needs to see and have regular contact with their parent(s), as this relationship is the foundation of child development.

M Tama | Getty Images

The Union Square subway station

Participants with schizophrenia displayed improvement in most cognitive tasks, but practice was more likely than cognitive remediation to account for most of the improvements observed. Semantic verbal fluency may be the best candidate cognitive endophenotype.

This release reports absence during the autumn 2008 term in maintained primary, secondary schools, city technology colleges and academies in England. It is based on pupil level absence data collected via the spring 2009 School Census. This release provides local level information on the rates of absence (authorised, unauthorised and overall) by type of school; number of persistent absentees and the number on track to becoming persistent absentees; and the proportion of absence by reason.

A patient in a residential home in the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust area has tested positive for swine flu.

Teenager Jazzy was born with hepatitis C. This is her video diary about living with the condition

• The effect of improvisational music therapy on the treatment of depression: protocol for a randomised controlled trial
• Colombo Twin and Singleton Study (CoTASS): A description of a population based twin study of mental disorders in Sri Lanka
• Depression and anxiety in relation to catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met genotype in the general population: The Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT)
• Cognitive-behaviour therapy for patients with Abridged Somatization Disorder (SSI 4,6) in primary care: a randomized, controlled study
• Reliability and validity of the Thai version of the PHQ-9
• Crisis discharges and readmission risk in acute psychiatric male inpatients
• Validity of a self-reported diagnosis of depression among participants in a cohort study using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I)
• First aid strategies that are helpful to young people developing a mental disorder: beliefs of health professionals compared to young people and parents
• Relaxation training for anxiety: a ten-years systematic review with meta-analysis

July 12, 2009

Provost Nancy Marlin presents Mike Eichler with a plaque

Aging organizations – regardless of whether they are firms, faculties, societies, political bodies, teams, or national academies – seek ways to rejuvenate. This paper demonstrates that the best way to keep an organization young is through a mixed strategy of recruiting both young and old, and that, contrary to intuition, recruiting those of middle age is the least effective strategy for maintaining a younger age structure.

This report describes in detail the measures of cognitive functioning administered in the Second Longitudinal Study of Aging (LSOA II) and proposes a three-category cognitive impairment variable for analysts’ use that is derived from the individual measures.

BLOOMBERG

Ed Balls, the Education Secretary, is to unveil plans to draw 200 people from careers such as teaching and the law to become social workers.

LK Ho | Los Angeles Times

Jani Schofield’s parents are seeking to have her admitted to a study on child schizophrenia at the National Institute of Mental Health.

This report presents national prevalence estimates for self-reported health risk behaviors of smoking, alcohol use, and illicit drug use by U.S. adolescents aged 12–17 years in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES).

Baby Peter died after months of abuse despite being monitored by officials

Ron McCartan endured years of physical and sexual abuse as a child

Designed for adolescents in foster care, this field guide provides information on transitioning out of foster care into independent living. It includes 10 sections that address: how to access a computer and ways to use a computer; legal requirements after turning 18; continuing education considerations; employment; healthcare and support; housing; transportation; daily living skills; finding social support; and civic responsibilities.

Forty years of published research (1966-2006) addressing physical intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual health was reviewed (51 manuscripts) and synthesized to determine (a) those sexual health indicators for which sufficient evidence is available to suggest a causal association and (b) gaps in the literature for which additional careful research is needed to establish causality and explain mechanisms for these associations.

Professor Jim Horne explains what insomnia is, a nurse gives practical advice on how to cope with it, and one woman talks about what it's like to live with insomnia

This document assesses the impact of the national minimum wage.

There is no evidence that new arrivals in the UK are able to jump council housing queues, an Equality and Human Rights Commission report says.

July 11, 2009

A senior Housing Executive official has said the recent departure of members of the Roma community from Belfast may have been linked to more than racism.

This paper analyzes the economic rationale for adopting parametric pension reforms and reforms broadening the coverage of public health care in Colombia during 1993–2008. Parametric pension reforms have focused on increasing the retirement age and moderating replacement rates. The health system reforms aimed at reaching universal coverage by 2012, while providing a more homogenous level of services.

Butetown in Cardiff is one of the areas to receive Communities First help

This report presents Healthy Eating Index (HEI) scores for adults, 60 years of age and over, from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 1999–2002, and examines the association between the HEI scores and sex, age, race and ethnicity, education, smoking status, tooth retention, self-reported health, and body mass index (BMI).

On July 19, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy alumni will host "Harmonies for Hunger Relief," a benefit concert for Federation's Mitzvah Food Project.

Social work services were one area which performed well

One of Refugee Support’s key objectives is to provide ‘quality housing and support services to
refugees and asylum seekers that are sensitive to their needs and assists with their settlement
and integration.’ While we fulfil that objective in a number of different ways, at the heart of our
work is a commitment to understand some of the key issues facing refugees and asylum seekers
so that we are able to tailor our services, making them appropriate to their individual and
collective needs.

C Faurie | ISEM

A father and daughter.

This report presents the Iowa Department of Human Services' (DHS) plan for providing child welfare services in fiscal year 2009. It begins with the agency's vision, mission, and guiding principles before discussing the DHS's role in the child welfare system. A total of 56 activities are then identified for improving child and family results and meeting federal standards for systemic factors for implementation in 2009.

Thierry Bouet | Sipa Press / Rex Features

One of Thierry Bouet's 'First Look' photographs of newborn babies within their first hour on the planet.

Under the direction of Hallie Flanagan, a daring 5-foot dynamo, the Federal Theater Project managed to turn a WPA relief program into a platform for some of the most cutting-edge theater of its time. This unique experiment by the U.S. government in support of the arts electrified audiences with exciting, controversial productions, created by some of the greatest figures in 20th century American arts—including Orson Welles, John Houseman and Sinclair Lewis. Plays like Voodoo Macbeth and The Cradle Will Rock stirred up politicians by defying segregation and putting the spotlight on the inequities that led to the Great Depression.
Category: Educ

This paper draws on the experience of completing a systematic review of teaching, learning and assessment of law in social work education. It reviews core elements of the process and questions whether systematic reviews as currently conceived for social work education and practice can realize the claims advanced on their behalf. The paper considers questions of evidence, quality, knowledge, dissemination and research use, and offers observations on the potential of systematic review to provide knowledge for policy makers, practitioners, researchers and academic tutors.

Tribune | L Christiansen

Katie McCann, 6, creates a mask to represent the feelings she has about her grandfather's cancer.

This administrative issuance offers immediate guidance to CFSA staff and private agency staff with case management responsibilities regarding the maintenance of medical records. The careful maintenance of medical records is critical to the safety and well-being of the children in the care of CFSA.

July 10, 2009

This report presents selected estimates of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use among U.S. adults and children, using data from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Trends in adult use were assessed by comparing data from the 2007 and 2002 NHIS.

L PARKER

STREET LIFE: Wayne Joseph has lived on the street for most of his life. Wayne says he began sleeping rough at age six and was living permanently on Henderson’s streets by 12. He is still without a fixed abode and says the support of the Auckland City Mission and Salvation Army has given him hope.

This report presents information on nursing home residents receiving end-of-life (EOL) care in nursing homes. Residents receiving EOL care are compared with those not receiving EOL care on demographics, functional and cognitive status, reported pain, medications, and diagnoses. Residents receiving EOL care are further categorized by whether they started EOL care on or prior to admission to the nursing home or after admission to the nursing home. These two groups receiving EOL care are compared with each other on demographics, functional and cognitive status, medications, diagnoses, length of time receiving EOL care, and treatments received.

Workplace mental health has, for several years, been of particular concern in Alberta, where unemployment rates are particularly low and expectations of job productivity are high. While this is generally viewed as a positive situation, it brings with it a unique host of problems, including workplace stress, burnout, increased substance abuse, and other mental health issues, which may stem from such things as high physical and psychological demands, increased pressure on employees to work long hours, larger amounts of disposable income, and relocation and isolation of employees. In particular, this report examines the effectiveness of organizational-level interventions in preventing work-related stress and reducing the resulting losses in productivity.

Georgia Tech | G Meek

Cruise Bogle, a participant in the clinical trial at the Shepherd Center, moves his tongue to direct the Tongue Drive system to move the powered wheelchair around the obstacle course.

The Healthcare Equality Index measures how equitably hospitals in the United States treat their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender patients and employees. Last year, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation Family Project and the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association invited hospitals to participate in the HEI survey under conditions of anonymity. This year, participating hospitals have completed the 2008 HEI survey with the understanding that their responses would be made public.

Dr Stephen Pilling, a consultant clinical psychologist, describes the different talking therapies that can help people overcome a range of problems, from depression to stress

Kermit T. Wiltse, a professor emeritus of social welfare at the University of California, Berkeley, and a North Dakota farm boy who devoted his life to improving the lot of disadvantaged children, died at his home in Berkeley on June 19 at age 94.

This report explores how effectively young carers are identified by councils and their partners. It also examines the assessment and delivery of services for young carers and their families.

This resource is designed to assist Connecticut social workers understand the policies of the State and best practices when providing services to clients who are immigrants. It begins with a mission statement that states the role of the Department of Children and Families (DCF) is to protect children, improve child and family well-being, and support and preserve families by respecting and working within individual cultures and communities. Guiding principles are listed and then policy information is provided on providing services to undocumented children and adults.

M Bugnaski | Kalamazoo Gazette

Olivia Thomas, 16, shown working at the Kalamazoo Deacons Conference, is one of nine local youths going to Sierra Leone to help paint and fix up a church in one of the poorest areas of Freetown.

Data from 20 randomized and nonrandomized trials (N = 6,173 participants) available through January 2006 were included in this review. Interventions successfully reduced the odds of unprotected sex and number of sex partners, increased the odds of condom use, and decreased the odds of acquiring new STD infections. Interventions successful in reducing the odds of any sex risk behavior used non-peer deliverers; included ≥4 intervention sessions; taught condom use or problem solving skills; or addressed barriers to condom use, sexual abstinence, or peer norms. Interventions that included the Hispanic cultural belief of machismo or those developed based on ethnographic interviews were successful in reducing the odds of sex risk behaviors among non-drug users.

R Bennett for The New York Times

The Maldonado family had been living without gas, electricity or hot water, but did not move out until the school year ended.

This report describes activities undertaken in 2008 towards implementation of the New York State child welfare court improvement project grant objectives. Major initiatives that have begun or are in the final planning stages include: support for a reform initiative in the New York City Family Court primarily focused on improving the timeliness of court proceedings in child welfare matters; the development and promulgation of statewide child welfare court data metrics to assess and monitor timeliness of child welfare court case management practices; implementation of a child welfare judicial training program in collaboration with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges; and expansion of "Model Court" best practices to additional courts outside New York City.

Under the New Deal during the Great Depression. various job creation programs were undertaken. Probably, the most unusual was the Federal Theater which provided jobs for actors, writers, and related occupations.

July 9, 2009

The orbitofrontal cortex, which is known to process rewarding information accruing from various types of activities, also processes rewarding information stemming from social interactions. Along with the nucleus accumbens, it appears to be one of the brain's major reward centers.

The objective of this report is to estimate the prevalence of persons engaging in multiple behaviors recommended to reduce risk of CVD. Behaviors identified by NHBPEP and NCEP as primary lifestyle modifications to reduce CVD risk include physical activity, four dietary recommendations, smoking abstention, moderate alcohol consumption, and screening for high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol.

G Robertson

Amid calls for more 'talking therapists', a former patient who was traumatised by her experience warns about regulation of professionals. Now a psychotherapist herself, Dawn Devereux is speaking out against a system of self-regulation.

The researchers recommend a nationwide, coordinated effort to improve care by expanding the availability of training for treatment of combat-related mental disorders, promoting the development of organizational systems and tools to monitor performance and support quality improvement in mental health care, and providing technical assistance to states and communities that are working to address veterans' mental health needs.

Discussion continues around the potential for national health reform, with many viewing expanding coverage as a key goal of reform. Low-income adults (below 200% of poverty or $33,200 for a family of three in 2007) account for just over half of the non-elderly uninsured. This brief reviews coverage of non-elderly low-income adults and discusses the implications of broadening their coverage by filling gaps in Medicaid eligibility.

S Krulwich | NY Times

Could there be a more experienced expert on aging than Emma Shulman? A gerontologist at N.Y.U. Langone Medical Center, she was, from 1981 to 2005, a senior social worker and research associate at what is now its Center for Excellence on Brain Aging and Dementia, and she is currently a consultant.

Kenneth S. Trump, M.P.A., President of National School Safety and Security Services, testifies at a hearing regarding Strengthening School Safety through Prevention of Bullying on July 8, 2009.

We set out to present what we know now about public mental health spending and the economic burden, and what current techniques are being used to answer the question, “How much should we spend?” We do not provide a definitive answer, if indeed there is one, because values as well as more and better data form part of the solution.

An investigation is under way after a teenager on the sex offenders register raped another boy six years his junior. The Vale of Glamorgan council's Youth Offending Service had monitored the teenager

This guidance is aimed at local safeguarding children board partners, practitioners and other professionals working with children and young people. It is intended to help them safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people who are at risk of being, or who are being, sexually exploited. It is supplementary to, and should be used in conjunction with, the Government’s statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children.

D Sapp | Post-Gazette

Professor David Kennedy met with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl last September.

• Measuring gender disparity at primary school level in Pakistan
• Survey of HIV and AIDS knowledge in internally displaced persons camps in northern Uganda
• Determinants of participation in pest management groups by smallholder cotton producers in Zimbabwe
• Group and associations in the governance process of states in Africa
• Building institutions for partnership in local governance in Nigeria
• The role of community based organisations in economic development in Nigeria: The case of Oshogbo, Osun state, Nigeria
• Gender and local governance in Pakistan: Representation vs. participation
• Performance analysis of a sample microfinance institutions of Ethiopia
• International remittances: A source of development finance

A meta-analysis was conducted on 16 control-comparison group studies that evaluated the effect of teenage pregnancy and parenting programs on pregnancy rates. At the first follow-up period at which programs assessed outcome (average 19.13 months), interventions produced a 50% reduction in the odds of pregnancy compared to comparison-control conditions, but by second follow-up (average 31 mos.), the effect had dissipated. Moderator analyses were also performed. Implications are that secondary pregnancy prevention programs are effective in reducing teenage pregnancy—at least at 19 months following the intervention—although there is little to recommend "comprehensive" approaches to programming over others.

Relationship counsellor Denise Knowles explains what couples therapy involves and who it can benefit

The purpose of this Administrative Issuance (AI) is to set forth standard procedures and guidelines that a Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) Congregate Care Program Monitor, in Contract Monitoring and Performance Improvement Administration (CMPIA), Congregate Care and Home Study Contract Monitoring Division (CCHSCMD) shall follow to conduct program monitoring activities and multi-tiered assessments/inspections/evaluations of congregate care contractors that operate under the authority of CFSA and the District of Columbia (DC).

M Crow | Boston Globe

Maria Martell (left) consoled Katherine Avarado yesterday as they heard prisoners yelling from the Middlesex Jail in Cambridge. They said they had flown from Puerto Rico to visit a relative in jail but were not allowed to see him.

July 8, 2009

Image courtesy of University at Buffalo

Research by John Violanti has shown that the stress of police work may undermine officers' cardiovascular health.

This is the Government's response to a consultation on proposals for reintroducing means testing for legal aid in the Crown Court.

Childbearing among unmarried women has been the subject of intense public policy and public health concern for decades (1,2), much of it reflecting concerns about the impact on family structure and the economic security of children. Nonmarital births are at higher risk of having adverse birth outcomes such as low birthweight, preterm birth, and infant mortality than are children born to married women (2,3). Children born to single mothers typically have more limited social and financial resources

JL Pelaez | Corbis

The relationship between therapists and clients lies at the heart of the power of psychotherapy.

With homicide rates reaching 36 per 100,000 -- compared to a world average of 11 per 100,000
(WHO, 2003) -- Latin America and the Caribbean is categorized as the most violent region in the
world. Over the last few decades, crime and violence have become serious economic and social problems in many countries in the LAC region, particularly in poor urban areas. Average rates mask rural/urban difference as well as intra-city and intra-group differences - some slums/neighborhoods can have homicide rates of 200 or more and among young men aged 16-24 homicide rates can be even higher in certain violent communities.

In a dramatic message to the nation, the Chief Executive outlines in clear terms the steps the Government will take to speed economic recovery in America. Mr. Roosevelt describes striking plans for the stabilization of currency, and for mortgage and home relief." sound of FDR speaking Fireside Chat #4.

G Lam

At a certain point, though, you stop being the student and become the teacher. You settle into the details of a career — hospital, research, private practice. Roots go down, time passes. Eventually, younger psychiatrists begin to approach you. Now you are the generation above, saving early-morning slots for residents before they head off to clinic and class. You lower fees and accommodate their hurtling, insane schedules. You remember how it was.

The man, named locally as George Morrison, 29, was found lying in Brookhill Avenue, off the Cliftonville Road, at about 0230 BST on Monday. He had suffered a number of stab wounds. It is thought the killing is linked to a domestic dispute.

Depression is a widespread condition affecting approximately 7.5 million parents in the U.S. each year and may be putting at least 15 million children at risk for adverse health outcomes. Based on evidentiary studies, major depression in either parent can interfere with parenting quality and increase the risk of children developing mental, behavioral and social problems. Depression in Parents, Parenting, and Children highlights disparities in the prevalence, identification, treatment, and prevention of parental depression among different sociodemographic populations. It also outlines strategies for effective intervention and identifies the need for a more interdisciplinary approach that takes biological, psychological, behavioral, interpersonal, and social contexts into consideration.

Foster mother Maria Jones said her life was ruined after social workers failed to mention the violent past of of teenager she cared for

The DFPS strategic plan rests on a comprehensive framework that will support increased effectiveness of prevention efforts and lead to decreases in the number of children entering the child welfare system and in turn the number of children and families requiring treatment services. As a result, the direct costs associated with intervention and treatment as well as the long term direct and indirect costs resulting from child maltreatment are anticipated to decrease, freeing funding for increased prevention efforts, triggering an ongoing cycle of improvement.

• The Use of Videoconferencing as a Medium for the Qualitative Interview
• Video Diary Data Collection in Research with Children: An Alternative Method
• Practical Application of an Indigenous Research Framework and Two Qualitative Indigenous Research Methods: Sharing Circles and Anishnaabe Symbol-Based Reflection
• Sensemaking in Interpretive Management Accounting Research: Constructing a Credible Account
• The Space Between: On Being an Insider-Outsider in Qualitative Research
• Reconsidering Evaluation Criteria for Scientific Adequacy in Health Care Research: An Integrative Framework of Quantitative and Qualitative Criteria
• A Practical Iterative Framework for Qualitative Data Analysis
• Time Line Drawings: Enhancing Participant Voice in Sensitive-Topic Narrative Interviews
• Using Q Method in Qualitative Research

Two women describe their experiences of domestic abuse and how they found the strength and support to leave their situation

This paper examines the association between IPV and girls' HIV risk through condom non-use with a systematic review of the literature and a theory-informed conceptual background. Six studies with adolescent girls were found that reported an association between intimate partner violence and increased risk for HIV (indicated by condom non-use).

A personal trainer explains the five best ways to prevent injuries while exercising

D Hathcox

APA President Nada Stotland, M.D., served as a discussant at a workshop on psychotherapy by psychiatrists at the annual meeting. There was widespread agreement that the place of psychotherapy in the training and identity of psychiatrists has diminished.

The Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) is committed to the timely and professional handling of all cases coming into the child welfare system through CFSA's Child Protection Services (CPS). In addition, CPS reinforces Agency commitment to children's safety, permanency, and well-being through the policy and the practice of transferring case responsibilities to a private agency or to the In-Home and Reunification (IHR) Services Administration within five (5) days of a child's removal or the opening of a case.

July 7, 2009

This report compares national estimates for selected health status indicators, health behaviors, health care utilization, health conditions, immunizations, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing status among selected non-Hispanic Asian adult subgroups. Comparison estimates for the non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN), and Hispanic adult populations are also presented.

University of Utah Department of Neurosurgery

Microwires emerging from the green and orange tubes connect to two arrays of 16 microelectrodes. Each array is embedded in a small mat of clear, rubbery silicone. The mats are barely visible in this image. These microelectrode arrays sit on the brain without penetrating it, a step toward longer-lived, less invasive versions of "neural interfaces" that in recent experiments elsewhere have allowed paralyzed people to control a computer cursor with their thoughts. The new microeletrode arrays were placed in two patients at the University of Utah who already were undergoing brain surgery for severe epilepsy. The larger, numbered, metallic electrodes are used to locate the source of epileptic seizures in the brain, so the patients allowed the micoelectrodes to be placed on their brains at the same time.

This document assesses the impact of a one-off increase in statutory redundancy pay and compensation payments to help those being made redundant without placing undue burdens on employers and the Exchequer.

Stockbyte/Getty

Opponents of state regulation of psychotherapy have called public hearings "show trials".

Two-thirds of the 45 million uninsured are low-income individuals (below 200% of the poverty level
or $36,620 for a family of three in 2009), and many have significant health needs. Many low-income individuals do not have access to employer coverage and cannot afford or
access private coverage through the individual market.

A Mills/ | Star-Ledger

Alan Goldsmith has already opened a $15 million healthcare facility for the poor and created a foundation that tackles urban issues. Now, the Perth Amboy native is setting up an affordable housing group that will rehab foreclosed homes in the city using federal money.

This Kaiser Family Foundation report documents the persistence of disparities between white women and women of color across the country. It provides a rare and comprehensive state-level look at disparities among women of different races and ethnicities on a broad range of indicators of health and well-being, including rates of diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, AIDS and cancer, and access to health insurance and health screenings.

Owen is fitted with his new Kids Rock dynamic wheelchair. The chair responds to Owen's muscle actions thus allows him a bit of movement without causing instability.

A dependency is found when a parent cannot adequately parent or protect a child. Court Orders are made first on a temporary basis and are later affirmed if the parents agree there is a dependency or if the child is found to be dependent by the court after a trial. The legal definition of a dependent child can be found in the glossary at the back of this guide.

A speech and language therapist explains the causes of stammering and Jamal, a university student, talks about learning to live with his stammer

Conclusion: Cost savings from privatizing prisons are not guaranteed and appear minimal. Quality of confinement is similar across privately and publicly managed systems, with publicly managed prisons delivering slightly better skills training and having slightly fewer inmate grievances.

Under Federal and District law, the District of Columbia’s Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) must ensure that any person aggrieved by the Agency shall receive a Fair Hearing upon request and qualifying circumstances. This policy outlines and details the Fair Hearing process.

• The new global labor market
• Improving individual success for community-college students
• A primer on U.S. welfare reform
• Rethinking the safety net: Gaps and instability in help for the working poor
• A longitudinal perspective on income inequality in the United States and Europe

J Connor | The Citizen

Cali DeLand, 17, of Aurelius, and a student at Union Springs, works on a drawing for the mural on the walls of Calvary Food Pantry as part of a service project with Partnership for Results

A meta-analysis of parent-involved psychosocial treatment was undertaken to determine its effect on a number of outcomes salient to children with ADHD. Sixteen studies met the criteria for the meta-analysis. Findings indicated that the impact of treatment on ADHD was low compared to comparison and/or control conditions, whereas child-internalizing symptoms and academic problems were better affected by family involvement. Teachers reported the highest effect sizes followed by parents themselves. Although parent involvement might be important for affecting the internalizing symptoms and academic problems that plague children with ADHD, ADHD and externalizing symptoms might be better targeted by other interventions.

July 6, 2009

This note looks at aggregate NHS expenditure figures in England and the UK. Section 1 details government spending on the NHS in the UK since its inception in 1948. Section 2 analyses the financing structure of the English NHS, including details of allocations received by primary care trusts since 2002/03. Headline expenditure figures are updated on a quarterly basis in the Social Indicators page Health expenditure.

E Zoladz | Grand Rapids Press

Janelle Hill, of Grand Rapids, has been volunteering at the Grand Rapids Art Museum for 10 years. Hill works in the Crane Family Kids Studio as well as the Visitors Center and helps out with special events.

This is the second update of Monitoring poverty and social exclusion in Wales, following the original report in 2005, but is the first to be published in a recession. After reviewing ten-year trends in low income statistics, its focus shifts to unemployment and problem debt.

A Shamis | Daily Journal

A homeless person’s shopping cart with their belongings at San Mateo’s Central Park. The San Mateo Police Department formed the Homeless Outreach Team in 2006 as part of a county effort to end homelessness under an ambitious program called Housing Our People Effectively, or HOPE.

Offender Health and the Prison Reform Trust have recently published two new information books for prisoners with a disability. The first book is a short, easy-read version (blue book) for prisoners with learning disabilities,the second book (purple book) contains more in depth detail for prisoners on their health, daily life, and how to get help in prison and on release. The full version is also available in CD format and available to download in 26 languages.

Under normal economic conditions, low- and middle-income working families struggle to meet the basic costs of living. Many in these families are without health insurance to help them with the costs of health care, a situation that contributes to the instability of their finances. Their margins to save for college, retirement, or a rainy day are narrow, often nonexistent. In a recession, these are the families most exposed to the impact of the economic decline and least cushioned against it. Their employment and income security are at risk, and because low income, poor health status, and the probability of being uninsured are all linked, their health is also a key area of vulnerability.

F Salazar | Wichita Eagle

Maria Diamond feeds her 16-month-old daughter Azull Rivera-Pena while visiting the Lord's Diner. Diamond's husband just died and left her with six children.

Black magic fetishes seized from a local militia leader

The primary purpose of visitation is to maintain the parent-child attachment, reduce a child’s sense of abandonment, and preserve their sense of belonging as part of a family and community. A child needs to see and have regular contact with their parent(s), as this relationship is the foundation of child development.

A press conference was held at Northeastern Illinois University on April 23, 2009 to defend Professor Loretta Capeheart. The NEIU administration has attacked her for playing a leading role in the faculty union (AFT) and 2004 strike; for her defense of students arrested for protesting a campus CIA recruitment event; and for her other statements supporting minorities, labor, and academic freedom. She has been denied appointment to her duly elected post as department chair; denied merited awards; and defamed by NEIU's vice president in a faculty council meeting. To sign the petition in support of Professor Capeheart: www.petitiononline.com/j4lc/petition.html.

• Considering Complexity: Toward A Strategy for Non-linear Analysis
• Taking a life Course Perspective on Social Assistance use in Canada: A different approach
• The Global and the Local: Precautionary Behaviours in the Realms of Crime, Heath and Home Safety
• Balancing Work and Family in Canada - An Empirical Examination of Conceptualizations and Measurements

The Dromokraitio hospital is in a state of disrepair

This report presents the results of an independent review on social mobility and access to the professions.

This article reports the results of a meta-analysis of the effects of victim offender mediation (VOM) on juvenile recidivism. Analyses were conducted on fifteen studies consisting of 9,172 juveniles in twenty-one service sites in the United States. Participation in VOM accounted for a 34 percent reduction in juvenile recidivism.

Truong Thi Hong Tam has spent nearly 20 years helping prostitutes change their lives and taking care of orphans and HIV/AIDS patients

July 5, 2009

N Onishi | NY Times

Mick Benny, at right in hat, with other Aborigines at a pub in Fitzroy Crossing, Australia. He hopes that alcohol restrictions will change his son’s behavior.

Herald on Sunday

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett says the current system is 'no different' to how it has always operated.

This study estimates the effect of job loss on health for near elderly employees based on longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study. Previous studies find a strong negative correlation between unemployment and health. To control for possible reverse causality, this study focuses on people who were laid off for an exogenous reason – the closure of their previous employers’ business. I find that the unemployed are in worse health than employees, and that health reasons are a common cause of job termination. In contrast, I find no causal effect of exogenous job loss on various measures of physical and mental health. This suggests that the inferior health of the unemployed compared to the employed could be explained by reverse causality.

Canadian researchers found those with low self-esteem actually felt worse after repeating positive statements about themselves.

This study is a follow-up to our 2005 report Continuing Care Renewal or Retreat? Residential and
Home Health Care Restructuring 2001–2004. Here we examine the ongoing changes, looking
behind the numbers to consider the serious consequences for seniors, their families and
the health care system as a whole.

Dr. James A. Hall earned his bachelor’s degree in social welfare from the University of Minnesota, his master’s degree in social work from the University of Chicago, and his doctorate in social welfare from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Rising health care costs coupled with eroding health care benefits are having a substantial effect on Americans’ ability to get needed health care, with women particularly affected. Women experience cost-related access problems and medical bill problems more often than men. In 2007, more than half (52%) of women reported problems accessing needed care because of cost and 45 percent of women accrued medical debt or reported problems with medical bills. Since women use more health care services than men, they are more exposed to the fragmentation and failings of the current health care system—underscoring the need for affordable and high-quality health insurance coverage that is available to all.

People waiting to sign on queue outside a social welfare office on Hanover Street in Cork

A strengthened national system for monitoring child and youth well-being will be a critically important resource for the new Administration and for policy makers at all levels of government as they work to serve children in what promises to be a very challenging fiscal environment. Social indicators are increasingly indispensible as tools of governance for identifying needs, setting priorities, tracking progress towards goals, and for holding actors accountable for measurable results.

Illustration by Lily Clark, 16, Immaculate Heart HS

I thought they were going to take me right there, but the police told me to stay at Martha’s house until a social worker came. A social worker came the next day, but since Victoria wasn’t at home she said she was going to come back later that day. The social worker never came back.

An expert explains how glandular fever is caused, how it's passed on, and how to recognise the symptoms

Parents are the best people to provide for their children when they are able and willing to do so. When parents are unable or unwilling to be the source of safety, shelter and care for their child, either the state government (CPS – Child Protective Services) or a private party (like a relative) asks the court to get involved to assure the needs of the child are being met. A dependency is found when a parent cannot adequately parent or protect a child.

There is tentative evidence that the second-generation antipsychotics included in this study are associated with a small increased risk for diabetes compared with first-generation antipsychotics in people with schizophrenia. Methodological limitations were found in most studies, leading to heterogeneity and difficulty interpreting data. Regardless of type of antipsychotic, screening for diabetes in all people with schizophrenia should be routine.

With many mouths to feed, Pushpa is struggling.

July 4, 2009

Local Seniors participate in a ten-minute protest outside the Adult Day Health Care.

Designed for adolescents in foster care, this field guide provides information on transitioning out of foster care into independent living. It includes 10 sections that address: how to access a computer and ways to use a computer; legal requirements after turning 18; continuing education considerations; employment; healthcare and support; housing; transportation; daily living skills; finding social support; and civic responsibilities. Each section includes a list of State agencies and additional resources to help youth.

On the dazzling white sands of a Zanzibar beach, a team of footballers is ecstatic, despite losing 5-3.

The Catholic Church has had a strong influence on the Chilean legal and social landscape in ways that have adversely affected victims of intimate partner violence; e.g., it succeeded until just five years ago in blocking efforts to legalize divorce. At the same time, quantitative studies based on survey data from the United States and other countries show a generally favorable influence of religion on health and many other domains of life, including intimate partner violence.

In the last 60 days, about 30,000 food-stamp recipients have been added, which is a little more than 500 a day, Hendrick said.

Through interviews and reviews of journal articles and government reports, this paper builds on the literature and experience of health providers in BC and elsewhere. Included are case studies of projects in single communities or health authorities, as well as studies of higher level strategic initiatives that support broader implementation and systemic change.

iStockphoto | S Timmermann

New research shows that an observer feels more empathy for someone in pain when that person is in the same social group.

A five-year-old child hands money to a woman after selling a pack of chewing gum at a nearby eatery in downtown Ho Chi Minh City.

Our analysis sought to answer the following research question: How do health insurance and health status vary among Washington children according to their social and economic backgrounds?

Results: Thirteen studies met the criteria for inclusion, whose methodological standard ranged from low to high quality. None of them has focused on HRQoL. Findings with regard to psychosocial and psychosexual adjustment were inconsistent, though they clearly showed that boys with hypospadias suffer from negative genital appraisal and sexual inhibitions. Overall, medical factors exerted a rather small influence. Psychosocial risk factors have hardly been examined so far. Conclusions: The identification of psychosocial risk factors in methodologically sound studies is necessary to guarantee a comprehensive treatment for boys with hypospadias.

F McGrath

Job seekers queue outside at a social welfare office in Dublin.

Despite this difficult environment, it is reassuring to note that supervisors carry out their roles, as defined by Kadushin, with skill and commitment. The most striking finding from this review was the
broad set of responsibilities assigned to the supervisor. Tasks ranged from mentoring, monitoring, introducing innovation, to translating the meaning of the most recent memo and mandate.

July 3, 2009

Among the four domains, social contacts and family have the highest impact on global life satisfaction, followed by job and daily activities and health. Income has the lowest impact. As in other work, we find that American response styles differ from the Dutch in that Americans are more likely to use the extremes of the scale (either very satisfied or very dissatisfied) than the Dutch, who are more inclined to stay in the middle of the scale. Although for both Americans and the Dutch, income is the least important determinant of global life satisfaction, it is more important in the U.S. than in The Netherlands.

Using a wireless electronic benefits transfer (EBT) system, Oregon Trail (food stamp) participants and debit users can now swipe their card and purchase local, fresh produce, even on a fixed income.

Pack rats are scattered about among us, and their compulsive, pathological hoarding habit of disposophobia -- the fear of disposing of or parting with things -- has become a genuine health concern.

In a contribution to the JRF's 'social evils' series, Chris Creegan focuses on the social evils of British society experienced by people whose voices are not usually heard. The research used workshops/discussion groups with lone parents, ex-offenders, unemployed and other vulnerable and socially excluded people to explore their personal experiences of living and coping with social evils. Suggestions for overcoming them point to both individual and collective responsibility.

Drug safety is a serious issue and is increasing in prominence. In Canada 3–4% of drugs approved
will eventually be withdrawn from the market because of safety issues, but the number of people exposed to these drugs is increasing because of aggressive marketing tactics by the pharmaceutical industry.

The vouchers, dubbed Boston Bounty Bucks, are now available at 14 of the city's roughly 22 farmers' markets. Shoppers will be able to swipe their benefit cards on portable credit card readers at the market to receive up to $20 in vouchers by spending $10 worth of food stamps.

The DFPS strategic plan rests on a comprehensive framework that will support increased effectiveness of prevention efforts and lead to decreases in the number of children entering the child welfare system and in turn the number of children and families requiring treatment services. As a result, the direct costs associated with intervention and treatment as well as the long term direct and indirect costs resulting from child maltreatment are anticipated to decrease, freeing funding for increased prevention efforts, triggering an ongoing cycle of improvement.

Moira Gibb also told the Local Government Association annual conference that there had been a breakdown between local authorities and the education sector in recent years that was close to the heart of the recruitment and retention problems the sector faces. “A great part of the NHS is focused on delivering the future generation of doctors, but I don’t think that in local government there’s a focus on delivering the future generation of social workers.”

The custody battle between the parents of the seized kids and Manitoba Child and Family Services is taking place at Winnipeg Law Courts.

CHOOSE HEALTH is a cognitive behaviourally based weight management program for adolescents developed and trialled by Leah Brennan as part of her PhD studies. The specific aims of the study were to (i) examine the impact on body composition; (ii) examine the impact of the intervention on cardiovascular fitness and resting energy expenditure; and (iii) to explore the impact of the intervention on the eating and physical activity habits of overweight and obese adolescents.

Eighty-seven papers were identified as potentially relevant on the basis of title, of which 19 papers met the inclusion criteria on the basis of full text. Five life changes were identified; change in employment status; change in residence; change in physical status; change in relationships; and change in family structure. It was noted that few longitudinal studies examined PA both before and after a life event. A list of possible life events which might effect participation in PA is presented. This paper represents a first step towards a detailed programme of work on life-change events and PA.

• Lessons to Be Learned From CATIE and CUtLASS
• What CATIE Found: Results From the Schizophrenia Trial
• Who Are the New Users of Antipsychotic Medications?
• Second-Generation Antipsychotics: Cost-Effectiveness, Policy Options, and Political Decision Making
• Policy Toward Second-Generation Antipsychotic Drugs: A Cautionary Note
• Lessons to Take Home From CATIE
• Implications of CATIE for Mental Health Services Researchers
• What CATIE Did: Some Thoughts on Implications Deep and Wide
• Impact of the CATIE Findings on State Mental Health Policy
• NAMI Perspective on CATIE: Policy and Research Implications
• Science and Recovery in Schizophrenia
• Effect of Prior Authorization of Second-Generation Antipsychotic Agents on Pharmacy Utilization and Reimbursements
• Utilization and Costs of Antipsychotic Agents: A Canadian Population-Based Study, 1996–2006
• Use of Antipsychotic Drugs Among Dutch Youths Between 1997 and 2005
• Datapoints: Did CATIE Influence Antipsychotic Use?
• Focus on Mental Health Care Reforms in Europe: Mental Health Services in Europe: An Overview
• Public-Academic Partnerships: The Continuous Improvement for Veterans in Care: Mood Disorders (CIVIC-MD) Study, a VA-Academic Partnership
• Brief Reports: Psychiatric Opinion and Antipsychotic Selection in the Management of Schizophrenia
• Commentary: The Need to Guard Against Pharmaceutical Industry Influence
• Mental Health Care Institutions in Nine European Countries, 2002 to 2006
• Commentary: Interpreting Data on "Institutionalization": Not Simply Counting Beds

Why do good people turn evil? In what sense are evil and heroism comparable? How could the little old Stanford prison experiment reveal parallels and insights about the abuses by military guards at Abu Ghraib? Philip Zimbardo, professor of psychology, emeritus, is internationally recognized as a leading "voice and face of contemporary psychology"

J Rathe | Boston Globe

Edward Givler, a retired race car driver with Parkinson’s disease, limits his driving.

Even if households work to age 65 and annuitize all their financial assets, including the receipts from reverse mortgages on their homes, the National Retirement Risk Index (NRRI) has shown that 44 percent will be ‘at risk.’ ‘At risk’ means they will be unable to maintain their standard of living in retirement. When health care costs were included explicitly, the percentage of households ‘at risk’ increased to 61 percent. Our previous analysis of health care costs, however, did not consider possible expenses for long-term care towards the end of life. This brief explores how the need for long-term care could affect the NRRI.

July 2, 2009

Long-term care (LTC) services comprise the largest portion of Medicaid expenditures in most states, serving as a motivator for states to develop innovations that would help hold the line on these expenses. In 1988 the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) supported four states in pioneering new products with Medicaid asset protection to encourage more people to buy long-term care insurance. With the passage of the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act, the Long-Term Care Partnership (LTCP) program has emerged as an option to help states manage long-term expenditures and, at the same time, offer consumers more affordable coverage.

Scientists have identified thousands of tiny genetic variations which together could account for more than a third of the inherited risk of schizophrenia.

This follow-up report discusses progress made on seven recommendations to improve caseload tracking and workload monitoring in the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare's Child Welfare program. Activities are described in the areas of: caseload tracking, workload analysis, use of caseload and workload information to allocate staff, reporting of caseload and workload information to policymakers, implementation of navigator positions that are responsible for meeting with new clients and determining the types of services that are needed, and accessing federal funding for the child welfare program.

In a contribution to the JRF's 'social evils' series, Jose Harris examines social problems and changing perceptions of them since 1904. Social evils, such as hunger and destitution, were seen by the Victorians as unavoidable. Joseph Rowntree's more positive philosophy promoted social research and intervention to transform 'social evils' into less malign 'social problems' that could be cured. However, some of these problems have subsequently reappeared.

Learning a language to simply communicate is one thing. But within the bounds of a union, intricacies of communication can make or break a marriage. And to do so effectively, it's important to have an adequate understanding of a spouse's culture to have a thorough understanding of the spouse.

Holmqvist has taken to one of its possible logical extremes the drive for profit and its devaluation of art or culture by creating a fictional society in which people are divided into “needed” and “dispensable,” based upon whether the individuals in question have fulfilled the function of marrying and reproducing, creating more people for the state. The “dispensable” people are, to a large extent, artists, novelists, intellectuals and anyone else who has put his or her professional life ahead of biological “obligations.” The novel is disturbing and poses the question: who owns our lives and decides their value?

The purpose of this Administrative Issuance (AI) is to set forth standard procedures and guidelines that a Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) Congregate Care Program Monitor, in Contract Monitoring and Performance Improvement Administration (CMPIA), Congregate Care and Home Study Contract Monitoring Division (CCHSCMD) shall follow to conduct program monitoring activities and multi-tiered assessments/inspections/evaluations of congregate care contractors that operate under the authority of CFSA and the District of Columbia (DC).

With the passage of Senate Bill (S.B.) 368, 77th Legislature, Regular Session, 2001, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) was charged with monitoring child (defined in the legislation as a person with a developmental disability under the age of 22) placements and ensuring ongoing permanency plans for each child with a developmental disability residing in an institution in the state of Texas. The initial report of these efforts was filed in December 2002. This report is a follow-up with data ending August 31, 2008.

The Baby P tragedy has caused a damaging plunge in morale among social workers that is threatening the safety of children, a new survey of councillors has found.

Since 1974, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children–better
known as WIC–has been protecting children’s health and development. Now, new research confirms that WIC not only improves children’s health but reduces their risk of developmental delays.

K Sasaki for The New York Times

A would-be activist in Tokyo practicing his technique on an electronic megaphone. Protests are rare in Japan, and some young people seeking to get involved in social campaigns have sought out basic training.

The Canadian Virtual Hospice is an interactive network designed to facilitate information exchange, communication, and mutual support between and among patients, their friends and family, health care providers, and palliative care volunteers. Leading Canadian palliative care professionals, associations, policy makers, private sector businesses, complementary palliative care websites, and individual Canadians have lent their support to the creation of this website.

Students in foster care are under the managing conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) because of abuse or neglect. Research shows that abused and neglected children commonly struggle with social interactions. They are much more likely than their peers to misinterpret neutral situations as threatening, have poor impulse control, and engage in aggressive behavior with adults and other children. These behaviors present public schools with difficult challenges.

• Exploring the Impact and Implications of Residential Mobility: From the Neighborhood to the School
• Child Welfare Workers’ Connectivity to Resources and Youth’s Receipt of Services
• Intergenerational Groups: Rediscovering our Legacy
• Clinical Social Workers: Advocates for Social Justice
• Addressing the Mental Health Problems of Chinese International College Students in the United States
• Examining Predictors of Social Work Students’ Critical Thinking Skills
• Addressing Sexual Minority Issues in Social Work Education: A Curriculum Framework

The effectiveness of HIV voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) . . . . VCT recipients were significantly less likely to engage in unprotected sex when compared to behaviors before receiving VCT, or as compared to participants who had not received VCT [OR 1.69; 95%CI 1.25–2.31]. VCT had no significant effect on the number of sex partners [OR 1.22; 95%CI 0.89–1.67]. While these findings provide only moderate evidence in support of VCT as an effective prevention strategy, neither do they negate the need to expand access to HIV testing and counseling services.

Kaiser Permanente

Underweight people and those who are extremely obese die earlier than people of normal weight -- but those who are overweight actually live longer than people of normal weight. Carrying a little extra weight may give people a longevity advantage, but there are many negative health consequences associated with being overweight and obesity.

July 1, 2009

You have rights and responsibilities while you are involved with the Division of Family and Children’s Services (DFCS). These are the rights and responsibilities for children thirteen and under who are in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Human Services.

One in 25 deaths across the world are linked to alcohol consumption, Canadian experts have suggested.

The major argument for capping the exemption of health insurance benefits from income tax is that doing so will generate significant revenue that can be used to finance an expansion of health coverage. This analysis finds that given the state of insurance markets and current variations in premiums, limiting the current exemption could adversely affect individuals who are already at high risk of losing their health coverage.

A Gibson

Ray Smith said 12 new social worker positions for foster families had been created.

An endocrinologist explains what causes an overactive thyroid gland, leading to over-production of thyroid hormones, and the variety of treatment options

This paper analyzes the direct and indirect impacts of Brazil’s Family Health Program. We estimate the effects of the program on mortality and on household behavior related to child labor and schooling, employment of adults, and fertility. We find consistent effects of the program on reductions in mortality throughout the age distribution, but mainly at earlier ages. Municipalities in the poorest regions of the country benefit particularly from the program. For these regions, implementation of the program is also robustly associated with increased labor supply of adults, reduced fertility, and increased schooling. Evidence suggests that the Family Health Program is a highly cost-effective tool for improving health in poor areas.

UNICEF

Besnik Hasanik with the youngest of the 19 people he helps to support by trolling Pristina’s garbage bins. Some 30,000 people live in the city’s ethnic ghettos, where unemployment is nearly universal.

We looked at the cases of 230 children who have been in foster care two years or longer and whose plan was reunification.

M Knox | Merrill/Staff

Jackeline Mukamana (left center) recounts for American tourists how she survived the Rwandan genocide. She told them, ‘What genocide left behind is poverty, not hatred.’

Ten years after the November 1998 state tobacco settlement, we find that most of the New England states have failed to keep their promise to use a significant portion of the settlement funds to reduce tobacco’s terrible toll on America’s children, families and communities.

Tribune | JM Osorio

Chicago firefighters water down and clean blood stains off the sidewalk outside of the home in the 7400 block of South Stewart Avenue where 9-year-old Chastity Turner was shot and killed. Her father and two of his friends were also wounded in the shooting.

• Understanding Fatigue in Major Depressive Disorder and Other Medical Disorders
• Treating the Physical Symptoms of Depression With Second-Generation Antidepressants: A Systematic Review and Metaanalysis
• A Prospective Examination of Antidepressant Use and Its Correlates in Patients With Acute Coronary Syndrome
• The Safety of ECT in Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Normalizing Attributions May Contribute to Non–Help-Seeking Behavior in People With Fibromyalgia Syndrome
• Depression After Diagnosis of Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Survival: A Pilot Study
• Cardiovascular Symptoms in Coronary-Artery Disease Patients Are Strongly Correlated With Emotional Distress
• Comorbid Somatic Symptoms and Functional Status in Patients With Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Sensory Amplification as a Common Mechanism
• Determinants of Quality of Life in Marfan Syndrome
• Too Much Too Soon? Refeeding Syndrome as an Iatrogenic Cause of Delirium
• A Patient With Acute Traumatic Quadriplegia Who Requested a DNR Order
• A Preliminary Attempt to Personalize Risperidone Dosing Using Drug–Drug Interactions and Genetics: Part I

U Michigan School of Public Health works with teens on documenting their communities.

VNS File

Back to school: Two young women wear ao dai. The Hue-based charity, the Ao Dai Association, besides helping poor girls study and get vocational training, is also trying to encourage them to wear the traditional Vietnamese ao dai.

This study meta-analytically combined 11 studies to address critical questions about the nature and magnitude of change in self-efficacy in predicting drinking reductions among 12-step exposed individuals. Findings suggested that changes in self-efficacy were not uniform within Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and that the magnitude of benefit associated with increased self-efficacy on outcome was not homogenous across studies. Whether this finding was the result of a measurement artifact, such as different self-efficacy measures, the nature of the samples, or the follow-up interval is not clear. Additional work is necessary to identify the nature of this mediating effect, and to uncover the extent that this effect varies by the kind and severity of substance abuse.

Information from all 50 states and the District of Columbia about their policies for youth in foster care over 18 years.

In summary, many of the published papers we identified contained little information on implementation processes and, even when these were discussed, the extent to which authors’ claims were based on research evidence was unclear. On the basis of the studies we reviewed implementation data were insufficiently strong to provide a sound evidence base for practitioners and policymakers. Notwithstanding this, we identified valuable data about the context in which such initiatives are implemented and the type of factors that might impinge on implementation.

MT 3.121