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information for practice October 2009 archives

October 31, 2009

J Bear | News-Bulletin

Arturo Saiz has been involved with the community all his life. His parents fed migrant workers during the Great Depression, giving him his start in community service.

In Working toward Wellness, master’s-level clinicians (“care managers”) called the study participants in the program group to encourage them to seek treatment, to make sure that they were complying with treatment, and to provide telephonic counseling. The effects of the program are being studied by examining 499 depressed Medicaid recipients with children, who were randomly assigned to the program group or the control group from November 2004 to October 2006. Participants were given a list of mental health professionals in the community from whom they could receive treatment.

Syd Mandelbaum

This e-learning resource explores the complex issues that often surround these children and families. Through a case study, you will have the chance to reflect on an assessment of possible neglect and support services that could be of assistance to them. You can then compare your reflections with the findings of the social workers who undertook the assessment and find out more about the possible services available to the family.

J MAHONEY/DMN

A day after the sweep targeting the La Familia cartel, authorities seized 300 pounds of meth in a Mesquite home.

America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009 is a compendium of indicators illustrating both the promises and the difficulties confronting our Nation’s young people. The report presents 40 key indicators on important aspects of children’s lives. These indicators are drawn from our most reliable statistics, easily understood by broad audiences, objectively based on substantial research, balanced so that no single area of children’s lives dominates the report, measured regularly so that they can be updated to show trends over time, and representative of large segments of the population rather than one particular group.

Herald Scotland

Caroline Burgess, Sarah Hinks, Angela Gullone and Gillian Richards of Babies on Buses

The three rural northern New Hampshire counties of Carroll, Coos, and Grafton have undergone economic and demographic changes in recent years that have impacted the climate for young residents. This report provides a snapshot of how youth are doing in these three counties and describes some of the difficulties they and their communities face as they negotiate the transition to adulthood. The study is based on data from several agencies that collect county- and community-level information about youth as well as from interviews with individuals working with youth in each of the three counties.

B ELY | OREGONIAN

Jeany Stangl, holds a young girl who is in foster care in the Stangl home. Behind her in the family’s backyard swing set are Stangl’s children (left to right): Shelby-Jo Stangl, 12; Dylan Stangl, 10; Sadie Stangl, 11. On the far right, Megan Stangl, 15, holds a young boy is also in foster care

When using services, parents have reported that they encounter discriminatory attitudes from some professionals on the basis that they are poor. This e-learning resource seeks to help you understand the positive steps that can be taken to building good relationships with parents in poverty.

• Sex, gender, and health biotechnology: points to consider
• Factors associated with attitudes towards intimate partner violence against women: a comparative analysis of 17 sub-Saharan countries
• An integrated approach of community health worker support for HIV/AIDS and TB care in Angónia district, Mozambique
• Collective violence and attitudes of women toward intimate partner violence: Evidence from the Niger Delta
• Methamphetamine use and correlates in two villages of the highland ethnic Karen minority in northern Thailand: a cross sectional study

AP | H Cabluck

Prospective jurors, including women from the Yearning for Zion Ranch, arrive for the first day of jury selection in the trial of Raymond Jessop Monday, Oct. 26, 2009, in Eldorado, Texas. Prospective jurors lined up in a cold rain Monday outside a municipal building that will serve as a makeshift courthouse for the first of a dozen polygamist sect members charged with abuse of underage girls.

Ruth, 22, was born in a male body but knew from the age of 16 that she wanted to be a woman. She describes her hormone treatment and surgery, and how she feels now

Cognitive training can improve alertness and sustained attention but there is no evidence that it helps people to do daily activities without help after stroke. Attention problems can occur following stroke (a sudden catastrophe in the brain either because an artery to the brain blocks, or because an artery in or on the brain ruptures and bleeds). They are common in people with damage to the right side of their brain. Although there is some spontaneous recovery, some symptoms may persist for years. Cognitive rehabilitation training aims to improve attention, memory and perception. The review found that training improves alertness and sustained attention. The review found no evidence to show that cognitive rehabilitation can improve people's ability to do daily activities without help after a stroke (for example, getting dressed).

Which underlying problems pose the greatest threat to British society in the 21st century? A hundred years after its philanthropist founder identified poverty, alcohol, drugs and gambling among the social evils of his time, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation initiated a major consultation among leading thinkers, activists and commentators, as well as the wider public. The findings have now been brought together in this fascinating book.

October 30, 2009

Through a scenario this resource enables you to explore the potential barriers to communication that can exist in your everyday work. This resource will further your understanding of how the following factors can inhibit, interrupt or confuse the communication between social workers and service users, carers and others:

T Castelazo

Bosniak woman who lives in Rome sold the bodies of her underaged daughters for €15. Girls never attended school or learned their own age.

This is the final report on a small-scale qualitative study, convened in two phases among a panel of people who currently use social services or who have used services.

M Randolph | Bay City Times

Susannah Roy sorts bread into piles for the food giveaway during Project Connect at the Bay County Community Center in Bay City, Michigan.

Partnership work refers to partnership with people who use services and their carers, students, agency colleagues and other professions.

GAO found tens of thousands of Medicaid beneficiaries and providers involved in potential fraudulent purchases of controlled substances, abusive purchases of controlled substances, or both through the Medicaid program in California, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, and Texas. About 65,000 Medicaid beneficiaries in the five selected states acquired the same type of controlled substances from six or more different medical practitioners during fiscal years 2006 and 2007 with the majority of beneficiaries visiting from 6 to 10 medical practitioners.

Disproportionate minority contact (DMC) refers to the disproportionate representation of minority youth in the juvenile justice system. DMC first cameto national attention in 1988, when the Coalition for Juvenile Justice (formerlythe National Coalition of State Juvenile Justice Advisory Groups) focused on the problem in its annual report to Congress.

M Rainey | Star-Ledger

Latesha Trotman of Newark, left, rings up groceries for program participant Imani Fisher today. The ShopRite Training Program trains workers inside a modest, brick building at the New Community Corporation in Newark that has been transformed into a simulated supermarket, complete with groceries and the latest high-tech cash registers, that were only recently installed.

This primer, updated with 2008 data, reviews the basic profile of the uninsured population, how they receive care, the latest trends in health insurance coverage, key issues in increasing coverage and basic statistics on the uninsured. More detailed breakdowns are available in supplemental data tables.

What would you give to see inside the mind of one of the last century's great psychological thinkers?

M Sykes

Graeme and Gwenda Swinney.

This e-learning resource lets you explore the framework and its many dimensions. With the help of Barbara, a social worker, you will use the framework to assess a family, to help you to understand the needs of children and families in your daily role.

Photographer Dorothea Lang took a picture of a California Okie migrant mother during the Great Depression.

We identified 11 studies about screening accuracy, 6 depression treatment trials, but no studies that evaluated the effects of screening on depression or cardiovascular outcomes. In studies that tested depression screening instruments using a priori-defined cutoff scores, sensitivity ranged from 39% to 100% (median, 84%) and specificity ranged from 58% to 94% (median, 79%). Depression treatment with medication or cognitive behavioral therapy resulted in modest reductions in depressive symptoms (effect size, 0.20-0.38; r2, 1%-4%). There was no evidence that depression treatment improved cardiac outcomes.

Young people need to cope in a variety of settings, including school, home, peer groups and the workplace, and with a range of life problems such as examinations and parental divorce. This thoroughly revised and updated new edition of Adolescent Coping presents the latest research and applications in the field of coping. It highlights the ways in which coping can be measured and, in particular, details a widely used adolescent coping instrument.

M Almeida | NY Times

Nicole Clark, 17, above, at her onetime sleeping spot.

SWNS

Kate Walsh overdosed on heroin a derelict squat in Swindon

• The Promise of Comprehensive Cancer Control
• The Past, Present, and Future of Comprehensive Cancer Control From the State and Tribal Perspective
• Attitudes on Aging Well Among Older African Americans and Whites in South Carolina
• Disparities in Chronic Disease Among Canada’s Low-Income Populations
• Disparities in Cancer Clinical Trials: An Analysis of Comprehensive Cancer Control Plans
• School Lunch Source and Adolescent Dietary Behavior
• Hospice Use Among Cancer Decedents in Alabama, 2002-2005
• Validity of Self-Reported Height, Weight, and Body Mass Index: Findings From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001-2006
• Promoting Dietary Change Among State Health Employees in Arkansas Through a Worksite Wellness Program: The Healthy Employee Lifestyle Program (HELP)
• Nutrition Literacy Status and Preferred Nutrition Communication Channels Among Adults in the Lower Mississippi Delta
• The Latino Health Insurance Program: A Pilot Intervention for Enrolling Latino Families in Health Insurance Programs, East Boston, Massachusetts, 2006-2007
• A Diabetes Self-Management Program Designed for Urban American Indians
• Disentangling the Risks Associated With Weight Status, Diet, and Physical Activity
• Using a Representative Sample of Elementary School Students to Determine the Statewide Prevalence of Childhood Overweight and Obesity in Utah

The first Health Indicators report was released in 2000, published along with Health Care in Canada. At that time, the report included 13 indicators, providing the first-ever comparative data on a range of health and health system measures for Canada’s 63 largest health regions as well as the provinces and territories. The goal was to provide objective and up-to-date information to support evidence-based decision-making for regional, provincial and national stakeholders. The indicators were to help answer two questions: how healthy are Canadians, and how healthy is the Canadian health care system? This year, CIHI and Statistics Canada celebrate the 10th release of this report—Health Indicators 2009.

October 29, 2009

Parents living in poverty face a complex set of issues at individual, family and community levels that make parenting more difficult.

CNN

If you have ever complained that your apartment is the size of a shoebox, consider the living space of Hong Kong resident Chung For Lau.

M Mitchell

Paula Bennett has run foul of her former lecturer over her plan for camps.

Offers guidance on policy and programmatic actions local governments can take, with community input, to promote healthy eating and physical activity and to ensure equal opportunities for healthy living in low-income neighborhoods. Profiles best practices.

According to Macmillan Cancer Support, 73 per cent of people in cancer treatment need to use central heating more often, yet only those over the age of 60 are eligible for support.

Despite poverty and social exclusion being common characteristics of families involved in the child protection system, there is evidence to suggest that professionals struggle to truly incorporate an understanding of the impact of poverty in their assessments and interventions.

This document reports on what needs to be done to tackle the damaging discrimination and disadvantage lesbian, gay and bisexual people face and where organisations will need to focus in order to address the changes required.

This resource uses a case study to help you explore the challenges that social workers experience during interviews and what decisions can be made to overcome some of these. It highlights that discovering the other person’s perspective and establishing a shared agenda for the interview are priority tasks, as well as the need to explain bureaucratic procedures and to provide as well as gather information.

AP | Beloit Juvenile Correctional Facility

In this photo released by the Beloit Juvenile Correctional Facility girls are seen working in the laundry early in the history of the facility. The girl's reformatory closed recently after 121 years.

Overall rates of injury and death increase dramatically from childhood to late adolescence. 1 Due to developmental and social factors, such as time spent without adult supervision and increasing independence, adolescents are more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors than either younger children or adults. Biology also plays a role. The maturation of brain networks responsible for self-regulation often does not occur until late adolescence, making adolescents more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors. These are just a few of the factors that contribute to greater risk of injury or violence in this age group.

Social work vacancies are running at record levels — 12 per cent nationally and almost 33 per cent in some London boroughs; and Cafcass — the service charged with looking after the interests of children in family proceedings — is in meltdown.

Moderate effect sizes were found for the associations between cognitions and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems and self-esteem problems, negative affect and behavioral responses and internalizing behavior problems, and behavioral responses and self-esteem problems. Small to moderate effect sizes were found for the associations between cognitions and relational problems, negative affect and behavioral responses and externalizing behavior problems, and physiological reactions and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Effect sizes were, with 1 exception, larger for internalizing than for externalizing behavior problems. Age significantly moderated the majority of effect sizes.

This statistical release provides information about looked after children in England for the year ending 31 March 2009. It reports progress on seven national indicators.

• Appropriateness of acute admissions and last in-patient day for patients with long term neurological conditions
• Study protocol of psychometric properties of the Spanish translation of a competence test in evidence based practice: The Fresno test
• Exploring health stakeholders' perceptions on moving towards comprehensive primary health care to address childhood malnutrition in Iran: a qualitative study
• An epistemic community comes and goes? Local and national expressions of heart health promotion in Canada
• Community based yoga classes for type 2 diabetes: an exploratory randomised controlled trial
• A pharmaco-economic analysis of patients with schizophrenia switching to generic risperidone involving a possible compliance loss

Lynn, 53, had hepatitis C for 25 years. She describes how she got it, how it affected her body and mind, and the treatment.

This unique collection brings together, for the first time, a comprehensive range of key writing by international leaders in the field from a wide range of sources, which explain the concepts, actors and processes that constitute global social policy. It covers the emergence of global social policy as a dynamic and expanding field of study and practice, the transformation of welfare from a predominantly national to a global field of action, and the impact of globalisation on key welfare discourses and governance mechanisms. This original Reader features an introductory chapter by the editors and specially-written comments at the start of each of the sections, which, together with the main readings, provide a comprehensive and accessible guide to the key themes, issues and debates in global social policy.

SCIE’s latest knowledge review examines social work teaching on human growth and development with regard to older people, looking particularly at what promotes or hinders successful learning outcomes. Teaching on human growth and development is a central requirement of qualifying social work education and the focus on older people is particularly relevant as we improve our policies and practice in response to an ageing population.

Greenwich UNISON suggests a safe caseload is five complex or 12 non-complex cases, but their branch secretary claims workers at Greenwich council have been left with up to 20 regardless of their complexity.

October 28, 2009

This e-learning resource uses a video scenario to help you develop your observation, listening and interviewing skills and to become more aware of your own subjectivity. Different ways of asking questions will be considered in more depth and you will have the opportunity to try out some creative approaches to gathering information using diagrams or art-based tools.

Actor Nandita Das opens up on life after “Firaaq”, her work as chairperson of Children’s Film Society of India and future plans

Outlines how education levels influence health-related knowledge and behaviors, employment and income, and social and psychological factors, and, in turn, health outcomes. Examines how parents' education affects children's health and educational outlook.

AFP

A Bangladeshi child sits in front of a slum dwelling in Dhaka

This report presents interim results from a rigorous evaluation of the New York City-based Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), a highly regarded employment program for ex-prisoners. CEO participants are placed in paid transitional jobs shortly after enrollment; they are supervised by CEO staff and receive a range of supports. Once they show good performance in the transitional job, participants get help finding a permanent job and additional support after placement.

Post-Gazette

From left to right: Dr. Sidney Heller, Eugene Key, crew chief, and EMT Harold Brown of Freedom House

Dr. Goutham Menon

This resource looks at the benefits that are gained from the relationships that are built within social work. Using the voices of service users, carers and workers you will hear accounts of how the relationships that were created helped them to deal with the difficulties they faced.

One in 30 students in Nampa is now considered homeless, and the school district is doing their best to help out.

This project tests one of many possible approaches for supplemental instruction (others might be more experiential or focused on enrichment). Furthermore, it is not a test of the effects of after-school program services compared to no after-school program. As part of the intervention, these instructional models were supported by implementation strategies related to staffing, training and technical assistance, and student attendance. This second and final report presents findings, after two years of program implementation, from a two-year intervention and random assignment evaluation in 27 after-school centers (12 for reading and 15 for math) for students in grades 2 through 5.

Poverty affects children from very different backgrounds. Discrimination on the bases of disability, race or immigration status mean that some sections of the population are significantly over represented among poor families. However, many families living in poverty also report facing discrimination on the basis of being poor. This is compounded when involved with child welfare services.

Every nine-and-a-half minutes, someone in the US is infected with HIV. Despite advances
in testing and treatment, HIV and AIDS still pose a major threat to Americans who engage in unsafe sex or drug use, or neglect to undergo testing.

50 federally funded, professionally trained social work investigators from around the country gathered at the Davidson Conference Center for the Los Angeles Conference on Intervention Research in Social Work.

What happens to homeless and runaway adolescents when they become adults? This is the first study that follows homeless youth into young adulthood and reviews the mental health consequences of runaway episodes and street life. The adolescents were interviewed every three months for three years from their mid teens to their early twenties. The study documents the psychological consequences associated with becoming adults when missing the critical developmental tasks of adolescence.

The available evidence remains limited, but there is still no indication of any significant benefits from cognitive training. Trial reports indicate that some gains resulting from intervention may not be captured adequately by available standardized outcome measures. It is not possible at present to draw conclusions about the efficacy of individualised cognitive rehabilitation interventions for people with early-stage dementia, due to the lack of any RCTs in this area. Further, well-designed studies of cognitive training and cognitive rehabilitation are required to provide more definitive evidence.

NCCP’s Demographic Profiles provide state-specific data on the characteristics of children in poor and low-income families by age. Children living in families with incomes below the federal poverty level – $22,050 for a family of four in 2009 – are referred to as poor. Children living in families with incomes below twice this level are referred to as low income.

October 27, 2009

ST PHOTO | D LIM

Mohd Ali Mahmood (left), Seah Kheng Yeow (center) and Chua Wei Bin (furthest left) received the highest honour in their profession from the President

This resource will further your understanding of:
* the principles of effective communication as a two or more way process (underpinned by values such as participation and inclusion)
* how context shapes communication and can facilitate or impede effective communication
* communication within the social work role and task

Times Online

Grandparents Gordon and Rosemary Rawlings, from Plymouth, Devon, with granddaughter Hiedi who they look after full time

Knowledge translation is all about turning research into action. It is about closing the gap between knowing and doing. It’s about accelerating the capture and practical application of the knowledge uncovered by research. For the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the benefits of knowledge translation (KT) include better health for Canadians, improved health services and products, and economic growth.

(SSA) has experienced processing delays and significant backlogs of disability claims at the hearings level. In May 2007, SSA began implementing a plan for eliminating the hearings backlog entitled Summary of Initiatives to Eliminate the SSA Hearings Backlog (the Plan). In response to a congressional request, GAO (1) examined the Plan's potential to eliminate the hearings-level backlog, (2) determined the extent to which the Plan included components of sound planning, and (3) identified potential unintended effects of the Plan on hearings-level operations and other aspects of the disability process.

L Ballantyne

Fred McBride, of the Association of Directors of Social Work

JB Forbes | P-D

Private investigator Carlos Lopez, left, and social worker Sheila Suderwalla talk recently with a man about his family tree as they try to locate other relatives who may be willing to adopt a foster child and get her out of the foster care system.

This statistical first release contains national and local authority level results for the early years foundation stage profile assessments for 2009. It shows the percentage of children achieving each point on the 13 assessment scales and provides figures that help to assess progress towards the achievement of public service agreement targets and associated national indicators.

• Smoking, dementia and cognitive decline in the elderly, a systematic review
• Hip fracture incidence in the elderly in Austria: An epidemiological study covering the years 1994 to 2006
• Physical function and self-rated health status as predictors of mortality: results from longitudinal analysis in the ilSIRENTE study
• Autonomy among physically frail older people in nursing home settings: a study protocol for an intervention study
• Mobility and other predictors of hospitalization for urinary tract infection: a retrospective cohort study

Winter weather can affect older people's health and wellbeing. See how to keep fit and healthy during the coldest months of the year.

Overall, the results showed medium effect sizes in patients with PTSD compared to controls on verbal memory across studies. Marked impairment was found in the patient groups compared to healthy controls, while modest impairment was found compared to exposed non-PTSD controls. Meta-analyses found strongest effects in war veterans compared to sexual and physical assault related PTSD. Rather unexpectedly no effect was found for the sexually abused PTSD groups compared to exposed controls. The analyses further showed that the effect was dependent on the test procedures used.

The tobacco industry has a long history of developing cigarette brands and marketing
campaigns that target women and girls, with devastating consequences for women’s health. In
the last two years, the industry has significantly stepped up these efforts, threatening to lure a
new generation of girls into a lifetime of smoking. The nation’s two largest tobacco companies –
Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds – have launched new marketing campaigns that depict
cigarette smoking as feminine and fashionable to counter the growing public consensus that
smoking is socially unacceptable and unhealthy.

This innovative book addresses the historical development of social and fiscal policies from the late 1970s to the present day by asking what has changed, how these changes have affected the lifecourse and what the potential lifetime impacts of policy change are.This book provides an overview of the development of policy change over the period and uses an innovative and unique lifetime approach "from the cradle to the grave" to put it into perspective.The authors begin by reviewing the political changes and policy story since the 1970s and demonstrate the economic and social changes that have occurred alongside. The book then takes an innovative approach in looking at specific programmes about crucial aspects of the lifecycle - from maternity and childhood, through to adult events and risks before finally looking at retirement, survivorship and death. Finally, profiles of three hypothetical "families" - the Meades, who are median earners, the Moores, high earners and the Lowes who are low paid - are developed for 1979, 1997 and 2008 to provide a comprehensive discussion of policy change and make innovative insights for the future.

Contributed photo

Nancy Pierson, director of field placement for the ECU School of Social Work, from left, congratulates David W. Hardee Scholarship winners and ECU students Emily Sinning and Ajlana Music along with John Tote, executive director of the Mental Health Association of North Carolina.

October 26, 2009

This publication provides guidance at a glance for frontine workers on techniques which can help build community cohesion.

MA Pushpa | IPS courtesy - Newsnet

Women textile workers pay a third of their salaries as rent for impossibly cramped boarding. They need support.

Understanding the various definitions of poverty is a very complicated task, but this e-learning resource is designed to help you see beyond technical definitions and to understand how poverty changes people’s lives.

Although there are common themes among immigrants, certain groups do have unique perspectives. We chose to look at two groups, immigrants from Mexico and immigrants who identify themselves as Muslims as these groups are at the forefront of immigration policy and perceptions. Mexican immigrants are more likely to say they’re happy in the United States, but also significantly more likely to perceive discrimination against immigrants. They’re also more likely to be lower-income and perhaps face more language barriers. Muslims, by contrast, are less likely to report discrimination and overwhelmingly more likely to say the United States will be their permanent home.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) hired PRA Inc. to evaluate the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Community-Based Research (CBR) Program and its funding tools. The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the rationale for the program, the effectiveness of its design and delivery processes, and its successes. CIHR will use the results of the evaluation to strengthen the HIV/AIDS CBR Program and maximize its impact on Canada's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

S McCay

Current research by social work professor George Leibowitz is leading to new findings about juvenile sexual offenders. "I think we've helped fill a gap in the research by showing that the way sexual abuse happens with adults isn't how it happens with kids," he explains.

Over the past few decades, a number of social and environmental changes have limited children’s access to safe places where they can walk, bike and play. As a result, children and adolescents are less physically active than they were a generation ago. For example, traffic dangers, neighborhoods that lack sidewalks and urban sprawl have contributed to a sharp decline in the number of students ages 5 to 18 who walk or bike to school, from 42 percent in 1969 to only 13 percent in 2001.

From a well-known authority, this comprehensive yet accessible book shows how state-of-the-art research can be applied to help people with nonprogressive memory disorders improve their functioning and quality of life. Barbara Wilson describes a broad range of interventions, including compensatory aids, learning strategies, and techniques for managing associated anxiety and stress. She reviews the evidence base for each clinical strategy or tool and offers expert guidance on how to assess patients, set treatment goals, develop individualized rehabilitation programs, and conduct memory groups. The book also provides essential background knowledge on the nature and causes of memory impairment.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, most elderly people had little means of support. Job-based pensions were rare. The Townsend movement - a proposal to pay everyone over age 60 $200/month (a vast sum at the time) - began in California and spread across the country. It became the radical alternative to the Social Security proposal in Congress and indirectly helped enact Social Security as the more moderate plan.

We did not find a significant difference in the subjective loudness of tinnitus, or in the associated depression. However we found a significant improvement in the quality of life (decrease of global tinnitus severity) of the participants, thus suggesting that cognitive behavioural therapy has an effect on the qualitative aspects of tinnitus and contributes positively to the management of tinnitus.

The number of individuals experiencing hunger has grown to more than 1 billion worldwide in 2009, up from a record 963 million in 2008, according to the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). FAO attributes this upsurge in hunger to the global economic crisis, which followed rising food and fuel prices from 2006 to 2008. However, even before these crises, the number of undernourished people had been increasing annually in sub-Saharan Africa--where some of the world's food needs are greatest--underscoring the need to improve international food assistance. International food assistance includes both emergency food aid and long-term food security programs.

October 25, 2009

VNA/VNS | D Ngoc

Health workers discuss reproductive issues with teenagers at Ha Noi Maternity Hospital. Viet Nam topped the list of countries with the largest number of abortions, many of which are by unmarried teens.

J BURBANK | ORLANDO SENTINEL

A plaque honoring namesake Dave Jeffreys at the Dave's House residential facility in Orlando. Lakeside Behavioral Healthcare owns and operates Dave’s House, a supportive housing program for mental illness recovery.

Huge changes to social policy have occurred since 1979. This study uses three 'model lifetimes' for low, average and high earners to look at the impact of taxes and benefits over time. It also examines child and pensioner poverty under the systems of 1979, 1997 and 2008.

SC Roa

J Rodriguez

Despite its efforts, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), which oversees federal school meals programs, did not always ensure that states and schools received timely and complete notification about suspect food products provided to schools through the federal commodity program. The federal commodity program provides food to schools at no cost to the schools, and accounts for 15 to 20 percent of food served in school meals. During 3 recent recalls, FNS notified states, but in only one case did it inform schools to hold and not serve suspect foods prior to an official recall of commodity products.

Baltimore Sun | P Hermann

In temporary quarters, files of domestic violence reports pile up because the filing cabinets are full. Annually, city police investigate about 25,000 domestic violence cases. Some are taken over by a unit that’s been operating for nearly a year.

Public Domain

Goldie in 'Help Give Them a Voice Advert' encouraging people to become social workers

The Adoption & Child Welfare JobSite is a FREE webservice created and managed by the National Center for Adoption Law and Policy at Capital University Law School. Unlike other employment websites, the JobSite is specifically limited to employment opportunities in the adoption and child welfare fields. The JobSite connects legal and social work students and professionals with adoption and child welfare employers across the country. By helping to link qualified individuals with employers dedicated to working with children and families, we seek to advance our goal that all children will have safe, healthy, permanent homes.

This qualitative study, which draws on focus group discussions and interviews, captures the views of Bangladeshi Muslim, Pakistani Muslim, Gujarati Hindu and Punjabi Sikh fathers and mothers. The findings suggest that policies aimed at supporting Asian fathers appreciate and address a number of issues.

Of the estimated 1.1 million Americans living with HIV, not all are aware of their HIV-positive status. Timely testing of HIV-positive individuals is important to improve health outcomes and to slow the disease's transmission. It is also important that individuals have access to HIV care after being diagnosed, but not all diagnosed individuals are receiving such care. The

Service providers are increasingly called upon to serve clients at home, a setting even a seasoned professional can find difficult to negotiate. From monitoring the health of older populations to managing paroled offenders, preventing child abuse, and reunifying families, home-based services require models that ensure positive outcomes and address the ethical dilemmas that might arise in such sensitive contexts. The contributors to this volume are national experts in diverse fields of social work practice, policy, and research. Treating the home as an ecological setting that guides human development and family interaction, they present rationales for and overviews of evidence-based models across an array of populations and fields of practice.

The review found only nine studies providing costs and benefits information. Six of these studies were assessed as providing a ‘valid’ or ‘comprehensive’ benefit-cost analysis, acceptable on the Benefit-Cost Validity Scale – Revised, covering a range of different sentences. Two studies of In-prison Sex Offender Treatment were found to be cost-beneficial, in addition to an Intensive Supervision program and a Youth Wilderness Program, though the two latter interventions are less well-supported by the wider research evidence. Diversion from imprisonment to drug treatment was assessed by its authors to be cost-beneficial; and imprisonment for high risk offenders was considered to be cost-beneficial, though not for less prolific offenders or for drug offenders.

Helsinki Times

A makeshift bed for the night near Töölö Bay.

Dr. Michael F. Hogan presents on Transforming Mental Health in New York State. This is an excerpt from the Buffalo Center for Social Research's Distinguished Scholar Series. You can view the entire presentation on the Center's website

October 24, 2009

Mangalore University's department of social work coordinator, Leena Ashok, participated as the chief guest. Mahila Samaj president Jayanti Shivaji Shetty, Dr Giridhar Rao, Dr Duggappa Kajekar and Anil Palan were the guests of honour. College principal G Yogananda presided. Sahana Supriya welcomed. Shagufta Bibi compered the programme.

This issue brief examines the health care needs and health costs of individuals with special health challenges, focusing on those with low-to-moderate incomes. It finds that even under a benefit package more generous than most offered in the private insurance market, individuals and families can face significant gaps in coverage and large out-of-pocket costs, especially if they have serious health conditions.

For-profit schools-also known as proprietary schools-received over $16 billion in federal loans, grants, and campus-based aid under Title IV of the Higher Education Act in 2007/08. GAO was asked to determine (1) how the student loan default profile of proprietary schools compares with that of other types of schools and (2) the extent to which Education's policies and procedures for monitoring student eligibility requirements for federal aid at proprietary schools protect students and the investment of Title IV funds.

This interactive side-by-side compares the leading comprehensive reform proposals across a number of key characteristics and plan components. Included in this side-by-side are proposals for moving toward universal coverage that have been put forward by the President and Members of Congress.

The past several decades have been marked by notable changes in women’s labor force activities. Women’s labor force participation is significantly higher today than it was in the 1970s, particularly among women with children, and a larger share of women work full time and year round than in past decades.

Charles County Sheriff's Office, via AP

Banita Jacks in 1999.

J Glossop | The Times)

The father of the Dundee family - who is not allowed to be identified - with a toy belonging to one of his children

The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoption Act alters federal policy in five key areas: support for kinship care, supports for older foster youth, ensuring positive educational and health care outcomes for foster children, support and incentives for adoption, and direct access to federal funds for Indian tribes. In addition, financing changes provide greater federal reimbursement to states for a few key activities.

To evaluate the causal effects of depression on obesity, longitudinal tests of the effect of depression on follow-up obesity status were meta-analyzed. Combining data from 16 studies the results confirmed that, after controlling for potential confounding variables, depressed compared to nondepressed people were at significantly higher risk for developing obesity. The risk among depressed people for later obesity was particularly high for adolescent females (odds ratio: 2.57, 95% CI: 2.27, 2.91). These findings highlight the importance of depression screening and treatment programs, especially among adolescents, to assist in the prevention of adult obesity.

The Minister for Social & Family Affairs, Mary Hanafin, has welcomed an Oireachtas Committee report, which made a number of recommendations in order to minimise Social Welfare fraud.

Many western nations have experienced a rise in the number of marginalised and deprived inner-city neighbourhoods. Despite a plethora of research focused on these areas, there remain few studies that have sought to capture the 'optimality' of ageing in place in such places. In particular, little is known about why some older people desire to age in place despite multiple risks in their neighbourhood and why others reject ageing in place. Given the growth in both the ageing of the population and policy interest in the cohesion and sustainability of neighbourhoods there is an urgent need to better understand the experience of ageing in marginalised locations.This book aims to address the shortfall in knowledge regarding older people's attachment to deprived neighbourhoods and in so doing progress what critics have referred to as the languishing state of environmental gerontology.

An extra management post costing £25,000 to set up and run could be created to try to ease "severe pressure" on a social work budget. Providing services for older people are among the pressure on spending

Experts and a new mum talk about the importance of bonding between mother and baby immediately after the birth

While today’s child welfare administrators address the challenges of improving child safety, well-being, and permanency, they also must meet the needs of an increasingly culturally and ethnically diverse child elfare population. The disproportionate numbers f children of color who are part of the child welfare opulation represent only the tip of the iceberg in ealing with cultural issues. Children of color are verrepresented in almost every part of the child wlfare system. Families of racial and ethnic minority groups are investigated more frequently; their children are more often found to be “victims” of abuse, neglect, or maltreatment; and, compared to White families, they experience a higher percentage of child removals
from family homes.

October 23, 2009

Medicaid, a federal-state program that finances health care for certain low-income populations, can play a critical role in the provision of preventive services, which help prevent, diagnose, and manage health conditions. GAO examined available data to assess (1) the extent to which Medicaid children and adults have certain health conditions and receive certain preventive services, (2) for Medicaid children, state monitoring and promotion of the provision of preventive services, (3) for Medicaid adults, state coverage of preventive services, and (4) federal oversight by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

State Medicaid programs reported that they use multiple strategies to monitor and improve access to dental services for children, but problems persist. Most states responding to our survey use a variety of tools, such as examining claims and utilization data, to monitor the provision of dental services to children in Medicaid. Although all 21 states that provide Medicaid dental services through managed care organizations (MCO) reported that they set measurable access standards for MCOs, 14 states reported that MCOs do not meet all of the state’s dental access standards. Almost all states described initiatives to improve access to dental services, including simplifying claims processing, increasing reimbursement rates, recruiting providers, and educating beneficiaries. Nonetheless, access rates remain low and states reported that long-standing barriers hinder further improvement.

T Hirschfeld-Stoler

Olin Yuri Winn-Ritzenberg, 26, was asked to provide documentation when he sought to change his name.

Surveys suggest that public attitudes towards those experiencing poverty are harshly judgemental or view poverty and inequality as inevitable. But when people are better informed about inequality and life on a low income, they are more supportive of measures to reduce poverty and inequality.

E Keogh | Reuters

Study reveals that fears of sexual and physical abuse of vulnerable adults means more are being referred for assessment by social workers, as demand for other services also rises. Homeless people are among those increasingly seeking help from social services departments.

New York police arrested several people during an insurance protest at the headquarters of UnitedHealth Group Thursday. Protestors carried signs and chanted 'patients, not profits, medicare for all.'

This site contains Medicaid Benefits survey data from 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2008 with information about benefits covered, limits, co-payments and reimbursement methodologies for the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Territories.

Produced in response to calls from within the family involvement field, Data Collection Instrucments for Evaluating Family Involvement provides stakeholders with some commonly used and standardized data collection instruments on family involvement. This resource can help stakeholders learn about and choose rigorous family involvement instruments to assess impact and ensure quality. By reviewing these and other instruments, program and policy leaders can also think about which measures are most appropriate for their work and how to adapt or develop tools to assess it.

The long-term impacts of childhood maltreatment include higher rates of unemployment, poverty, and use of social services in adulthood, according to a new study by David Zielinski, Ph.D., of the NIMH Office of Science Policy, Planning, and Communications.

To what extent is there a 'common model' of fatherhood in a modern multicultural Britain that is changing fast? This research set out to investigate the parenting beliefs and practices of fathers from 29 'ordinary' two-parent families living in non-affluent neighbourhoods from four ethnic groups: White British, Black African, Black Caribbean and Pakistani.

Adopted in February 2007, the Paris Commitments are an expression of strengthened international resolve to prevent the recruitment of children and highlight the actions governments can take to protect children affected by conflict. A related document, the Paris Principles, sets out operational guidelines for the sustainable reintegration of former child soldiers.

The Encyclopedia of Counseling provides a comprehensive overview of the theories, models, techniques, and challenges involved in professional counseling. With approximately 600 entries, this definitive resource covers all of the major theories, approaches, and contemporary issues in counseling. The four volumes of this Encyclopedia are flexibly designed so they can be use together as a set or separately by volume, depending on the need of the user.

• Psychological factors that promote behavior modification by obese patients
• Effect of two yoga-based relaxation techniques on memory scores and state anxiety
• Reduced complexity of activity patterns in patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: a case control study
• Age distribution and gender differences in psychogenic fever patients
• The effectiveness of the Uchida-Kraepelin test for psychological stress: an analysis of plasma and salivary stress substances
• Relation between psychosocial variables and the glycemic control of patients with type 2 diabetes: A cross-sectional and prospective study
• Allergies and major depression: a longitudinal community study
• Prospects of Psychosomatic Medicine

CBT is a promising but under evaluated intervention. Currently, trial-based data supporting the wide use of CBT for people with schizophrenia or other psychotic illnesses are far from conclusive. More trials are justified, especially in comparison with a lower grade supportive approach. These trials should be designed to be both clinically meaningful and widely applicable.

BBC

Winter fuel payments should not be paid to higher-rate taxpayers, a committee of MPs says, and the money saved should be spent on helping the fuel poor.

October 22, 2009

This report is part of a two-volume set that explores issues of worklessness in the New Deal for Communities areas. It explores issues surrounding the implementation of worklessness strategies at the neighbourhood level.

Patients who receive structured, telephone-based support to manage their depression gain significant benefits with only moderate increases in health care costs compared to those who receive usual care, according to an NIMH-funded analysis.

A Huey

Young girl and bow, Manderson, SD

Demand for Medicaid increases when the economy is weak, driving up enrollment and costs just as state budgets tighten. This fact sheet, updated to include information from recent interviews with state Medicaid directors, summarizes the relationship of Medicaid with state budgets and discusses the current fiscal situation in the states and how it is affecting Medicaid programs.

People working to tackle poverty in the UK are increasingly interested in using human rights in their work. This study looks at how this has been done in other countries, its impact on affected communities, debate, policy and government programmes, and its relevance for the UK.

Francisca says therapy helped her cope with depression. In November, she and her boyfriend had a daughter.

This report presents basic trends in household and family composition and living arrangements. Previous U.S. Census Bureau reports in this series were based only on the Annual Social and Economic supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS ASEC). With the full implementation of the American Community Survey (ACS) and due to its large sample size, there now exist annual data to examine household and family characteristics for geographic areas below the national level (3 million addresses).

Clinical Manual for Management of Bipolar Disorder in Children and Adolescents was written in response to the growing body of knowledge surrounding pediatric bipolar illness and the underlying biological, environmental, and psychosocial influences that exacerbate symptoms and behavior. Written to provide clinically useful information about diagnosis and management, this manual is a comprehensive collection of empirical evidence, case studies, and the growing number of evidence-based reports on pediatric bipolar disorder over the past five years.

In 2008, JRF published the first 'minimum income standard for Britain' (MIS), based on what members of the public thought was needed to achieve a socially acceptable standard of living. This new research explores whether the standard is applicable to Northern Ireland.

UBC Okanagan social work graduate students Anne Stack and Erin Ptolemy have each received major fellowship awards recognizing their research work in health care

This issue brief examines the health care needs and health costs of children and analyzes the specific health care needs of two children in particular, including one with serious health challenges. The findings have implications for the health reform debate as policymakers consider minimum standards for coverage, required cost sharing amounts and limits on covered benefits in health plans.

This report is part of 2 volume set which explores issues of worklessness in the New Deal for Communities areas. It examines evidence on the scale and dynamics of worklessness across the Programme as a whole and at variations between the individual NDC areas. It considers separately the issues of unemployment and economic inactivity amongst residents of these deprived areas as well as looking at supply-side barriers to employment anddemand in the local economy.

Ms. Gene Northover, a volunteer community leader, is battling stigma and discrimination in one of Jamaica's poorest communities. Her leadership offers a rare model of encouraging tolerance and support for people living with HIV. This video is part of a global conversation about HIV/AIDS, stigma, secrecy and homophobia.

The mean effect for official reports of domestic violence from experimental studies showed modest benefit whereas the mean effect for victim reported outcomes was zero. Quasi-experimental studies using a no-treatment comparison had inconsistent findings indicating an overall small harmful effect. In contrast, quasiexperimental studies using a treatment dropout design showed a large, positive mean effect on domestic violence outcomes. The latter studies suffer, we believe, from selection bias.

A Leeds University project is recording stories and memories of vast swaths of the population for posterity

October 21, 2009

The UK population is growing older. Over the last 25 years the population aged 65 and over has increased by 1.5 million (an increase from 15 per cent in 1983 to 16 per cent of the population by 2008). The fastest population increase has been in the number of those aged 85 and over. Since 1983, the number of people aged 85 and over has more than doubled from 600,000 in 1983 to 1.3 million people in 2008.

University of Newcastle 4th year social work student conference.

BBC

Police in a south Wales community are trying to tackle the supply of valium after a number of people, including children, have been taken to hospital.

In September 2009, the unemployment rate of persons with a disability was 16.2 percent, compared with 9.2 percent for persons with no disability, not seasonally adjusted. The employment-population ratio for persons with a disability was 18.4 percent, compared with 64.1 percent for persons with no disability.

This fact sheet provides a brief overview of low-income adults' current eligibility for Medicaid and other state-funded coverage programs and a discussion of how this coverage may be impacted by health reform.

P CHAPLIN | Patriot-News

Rhys Pinder, 11, center, offers memorial service handouts as friends and family arrive for a memorial service for Kristin Bowser at St. Stephen's Episcopal Cathedral in Harrisburg

The teaching of life skills and the philosophy of youth development are not new concepts in Indian country. In traditional settings, Native American youth begin to prepare at a very early age for the adult roles they will assume. Under the watchful eyes of extended family and clan, community members and tribal leaders, they begin this preparation by playing games that simulate adult responsibilities and listening to stories that teach the right way to do things based on tribal values.

www.chispan.org

The Cigna 7 protesters, arrested for taking direct action for health care justice, including Helen Redmond, medical social worker

BalkanInsight

Roma across Bulgaria face housing problems

Lifebooks – similar to scrapbooks – offer children a creative forum where they can document their experiences with foster care, identify current and past relationships with family and other adults, and explore their feelings and identity. This bibliography presents selected resources on creating lifebooks: books, Web sites, tools, and journal articles.

This report describes one attempt at using statewide administrative data from child welfare and education systems in one Midwestern state to form a broader picture of how homeless and highly mobile students are faring. We learned that homeless and highly mobile students are significantly different from their non-mobile peers in a number of ways, and our ability to examine their historical attendance patterns and child welfare involvement suggests that local school data could be used differently to identify students earlier and that social services partnerships with schools should be strengthened and maintained.

Test for yourself. Know your HIV status so you can protect yourself and others. Today, with early treatment and care, you can live a longer and healthier life.

Biomedical risk assessment is the process of giving smokers feedback on the physical effects of smoking by physiological measurements (for example: exhaled carbon monoxide measurement or lung function tests). It was thought to be a possible way of increasing quit rates. In one study, smokers who had their lung function tested and the results explained in terms of their lung age compared to a non smoker of the same age were more likely to quit than people given the same test but without the explanation. Mixed quality evidence does not suggest that other types of biomedical risk assessment increases smoking cessation compared with standard treatments.

School Social Work: Practice, Policy, and Research, seventh edition, is still the most comprehensive guide to social work practice in schools. This edition includes a greater emphasis on evidence-based practices and an enhanced focus on diversity. Two new chapters address the history of education of African American children and important policies regarding work with vulnerable groups in the United States. School Social Work maintains its extensive coverage of contemporary topics, including the No Child Left Behind Act, the accountability movement in education, and the changing economic, social, and political climate for schools in the 21st century.

October 20, 2009

Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia

The Old College of Physicians of Philadelphia at 13th and Locust streets in Center City Philadelphia is where the Philadelphia Psychiatric Society was founded a century ago.

This article shines a light on the economic benefits of investing in the earliest years and provides a state example which demonstrates it in action. It concludes with tips and strategies for how your state and/or community can work with business leaders and economists to establish similar investments for infants, toddlers, and their families.

The year 2007 marked an economic turning point in the United States. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the nation’s economic output peaked late in the year and then began to contract. This development affected immigration in two important ways: immigrants began arriving in fewer numbers than they have since the 1960s; and those immigrants who not only arrived but stayed fell further behind the native-born population economically. Economic assimilation declined even among immigrants who arrived more than a decade ago, indicating that differences between that cohort and the native-born population widened.

AP

Wanted: social worker for rocky outcrop in Pacific Ocean hit by child-abuse scandal. Those who dislike isolation need not apply.

In the battle against homophobia in South Africa some of the ugliest moments of the war are likely to be reflected in violence and hate crimes against gay people in the townships of the major cities. But it is in the small towns outside the urban centres that the battle for equality will be won or lost. It is in these towns that tolerance and acceptance of the diversity which is at the core of the Equality Clause in the Bill of Rights will be tested.

CANADIAN PRESS | J Woods

Greg Selinger enters the Manitoba NDP leadership convention prior to speaking in Winnipeg

S Weiner | LA Times

Irma Green, 62, lives on disability benefits and was represented for free by an attorney as she fought an eviction notice. Now California will pay lawyers in such cases.

CLASP Datafinder is a custom, easy-to-use tool developed to provide select demographic information as well as administrative data on programs that affect low-income people and families.

The passage of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (P.L. 110-351) represents the most significant federal child welfare reform in more than a decade. While the scope and nature of the federal reforms are far reaching, the actual impact of the legislation on children will depend largely upon how it is implemented.

Children from the poorest families in rural Wales are missing out on services available to disadvantaged young people in urban areas, research has found.

• Medication safety in acute care in Australia: where are we now? Part 1: a review of the extent and causes of medication problems 2002–2008
• Health, ageing and private health insurance: baseline results from the 45 and Up Study cohort
• The Australian preventive health agenda: what will this mean for workforce development?
• Health facilities at the district level in Indonesia
• Working in disadvantaged communities: What additional competencies do we need?

Deaths from fires and burns are one of the most common causes of unintentional injury deaths in the United States. There are several steps you can take to reduce the risk of fire-related injury and death in the home. These include installing and regularly testing smoke alarms and practicing a fire escape plan at least twice a year.

Main Results: Thirty-two unique research studies met our inclusion criteria. These studies reported the results from 43 independent boot-camp/comparison samples. The random effects mean odds-ratio for any form of recidivism was 1.02, indicating that the likelihood that boot camp participants recidivating was roughly equal to the likelihood of comparison participants recidivating. This overall finding was robust to the selection of the outcome measure and length of follow-up.

The brief examines current funding for comparative effectiveness research, the provisions included in the current health reform legislation, and issues related to which treatments that might be studied, whether and how to weigh costs of care, and how such findings will be used and shared with health-care practitioners and the public. It is part of the Foundation's series of Explaining Health Reform briefs on key concepts in health reform.

Community participation and local commitment are crucial for effective coastal development projects. This book carefully examines and offers a model of community participation that incorporates both program officials and local people's perspectives on coastal development. Mathbor's work is unique in that it is informed by the experience of international development, as well as by the context and perspective of the developing world.

BBC

Irene Simons was exploited by her carer who stole thousands of pounds

October 19, 2009

The Opening Doors Project: As a judge, lawyer or other child welfare professional do you understand the risk factors common to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth? These include high suicide rates, substance abuse, health issues, and harassment in foster care and in school. Do you know how a youth’s LGBTQ status affects permanency (including reunification, adoption, guardianship, or placement with a fit and willing relative)?

Van Buren Sheriff Dept

Authorities investigate and a clean up crew goes over a mobile home fire caused by a meth lab in the 83000 block of Rogers Street in Decatur, Mich.

CBC

Social Development Minister Kelly Lamrock says the province has been nickel-and-diming the poor.

Housing Benefit (HB) is an income-related benefit that helps low income families with the cost of rented accommodation. In 2007/08 over four million families received HB at an annual cost of around £16 billion (Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) statistics). HB was introduced in 1983 combining local authority (LA) rent rebates for council tenants and the housing element of supplementary benefit provided by the then Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) for tenants of private landlords and housing associations. Since then it has provided vital help to support families on low incomes to afford decent housing.

This issue brief highlights key issues for women that arise in the context of health reform, including access to health insurance coverage, health care affordability, scope of benefits, reproductive health and long-term care. The brief examines the current situation for women as well as relevant provisions in the major reform legislation now under consideration in the House and Senate.

Image courtesy of Monash University

Diagnostic technique being applied in practice.

More than a third of official inquiries into the most serious cases of child abuse in England are inadequate, the official watchdog Ofsted has warned.

This study examines changes in policies and procedures in local child protective services (CPS) agencies between 2002 and 2005-2006. The analysis is intended to identify noteworthy changes or developments in recent years in each of four topical areas covered by the surveys analyzed: administration and staffing; screening and intake procedures; investigation of maltreatment allegations; and alternative CPS responses.

In this systematic review 21 studies were included. The results showed that a combined respondent-cognitive therapy and a progressive relaxation therapy alone are more effective than waiting list control for short-term pain relief. No significant differences could be detected when the various types of cognitive-behavioural treatments were compared among each other. No significant differences could be detected in short-term and long-term effectiveness when behavioural components are added to usual treatment programs for chronic low-back pain (i.e. physiotherapy, back education, or various forms of medical treatment). No significant differences were detected between behavioural treatment and exercises

The legal and practical issues surrounding child support obligations have enormous impact on families in the child welfare system. Unfortunately, these issues are often ignored, overlooked, or misunderstood. A much-needed effort to engage nonresident fathers in the child welfare system is underway, but those efforts will often be derailed if child support is not properly addressed. This article sheds light on the legal and policy concerns regarding child support enforcement in child protection cases and provides legal strategies for advocates to address those concerns.

Herald Scotland

The companies providing support for elderly people at home say bidding processes are part of the proble,

There is no shortage of political and moral commentary on family life. Frequently the underlying theme of these commentaries is the decline of contemporary family commitment, particularly when older people's family experiences are the focus. "Family Practices in Later Life" challenges many common stereotypes about the nature of family involvement as people age. The book explores diversity and change in the family relationships older people maintain, looking at how family relationships are constructed and organised in later life. It recognises that the emerging patterns are a consequence of the choices and decisions negotiated within family networks, emphasising older people's agency in the construction of their family practices. In exploring such themes as long-term marriage, sibling ties in later life and grandparenthood, the book highlights the continued significance of family connection and solidarity in later life, while recognizing that family relationships are inevitably modified over time as people's social and material circumstances alter.

A society cannot thrive if its youngest members are forced into early marriage, abused as sex workers or denied their basic rights, said Veneman. Understanding the extent of abuses of childrens rights is a first step to building an environment where children are protected and have the opportunity to reach their full potential.

October 18, 2009

Rachel Levin Troxell

This annual 50-state survey finds that number of people on Medicaid and state spending on the program are climbing sharply as a result of the recession, straining state budgets and pressuring officials to curb costs despite increased financial help from the federal government through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Islington Gazette

Protesters outside the university. Social work lecturer John Barraclough: "The university is proposing 550 redundancies, which is 25 per cent of the work force. This will reduce the effectiveness of the teaching and there will be less IT support."

Young women and men may find themselves being treated unfairly because of their gender, age, disability, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation or transgender status. This can happen whether they are at school, school leavers making career choices, new employees, part-time workers, students in further or higher education, apprentices or trainees.

Caridad

Havana mural

Because a small fraction of individuals account for a large share of total health expenditures, insurers gain more by excluding high-cost people from coverage than by efficiently managing the care of enrollees. The incentives for insurers to avoid high-cost and high-risk enrollees affect not only the likelihood of health insurance coverage for the high-risk population, but also the cost and accessibility of coverage overall in the small-group and nongroup private health insurance markets This paper identifies public policies that might address these problems in private health insurance markets more effectively and delineates the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Times

Father Damien

This evaluation sought to provide an independent view on the impact of five major DCSF interventions in five local authority children’s services (North East Lincolnshire, Swindon, Plymouth, Walsall and Waltham Forest) following inadequate judgements from Ofsted. The aim was to compare the reasons for underperformance and establish the extent to which the intervention led to improvement in outcomes and council performance.

Suspected abuser Avrohom Mondrowitz in an Israeli court in 2007. He is still fighting extradition back to the US

Aim. This systematic review examines how specific coping strategies are associated with psychological and physical outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis. . . . Conclusions. There was generally limited evidence to suggest an association between coping strategies and outcomes but the design of studies and the lack of clarity about coping strategies were identified as problems. This study used a new framework for the conceptualisation of coping strategies, thus contributing to further examining the utility of coping strategies and contributing to their redefinition.

Social workers have long fought to bring diversity, inclusiveness, and economic justice to the communities in which they serve, but for decades the internal practices of the profession have contradicted its public persona, perpetuating myths and misconceptions about women of color and their ability to teach and lead. In these essays African American, Asian American, Latina, Pacific Islander, and Native American women share their experiences working within the field of social work, describing their rise to leadership and their efforts to maintain authority. Emphasizing themes of social change and justice, these narratives make visible the unique challenges faced by leaders and administrators of color, an issue that continues to affect women within the field today.

Why do some people collapse under relatively minor life strains while others bounce back from traumatic life circumstances and experiences such as poverty and racism, community and family violence, sexual and other forms of abuse, and loss of loved ones? The presentation will examine what accounts for the marked individual variations in people's responses to stress and adversity. Implications for social work practice will be explored and illustrated. This is an excerpt from the University at Buffalo School of Social Work Alumni Day Presentation, view the full video

Hate crime is the targeting of individuals, groups and communities because of who they are. It targets people because of elements which go to the core of their identities – their race, their religious beliefs (or lack of them), their disability, their sexual orientation or that they are transgender. Hate crime is also a crime against the groups and communities to which these people belong. Hate crime is a human rights issue, a threat to community cohesion and a rejection of our shared values. Our society is strong when our communities are strong. And communities thrive when they are united by positive values they share. Values like fairness, respect and tolerance, democracy and the rule of law.

AP

October 17, 2009

NZ Herald

Education Minister Anne Tolley says there is no money for counsellors and social workers at low decile schools.

This report presents data on the presence of autism spectrum disorders, based on the data collected at phases one and two of the adult psychiatric morbidity survey 2007.

TA James | Chicago Tribune

Chris Cruz, left, who has ADHD and an anxiety disorder, at home in Chicago with his mom Lissette Cruz.

This statistical release presents an overview of all aspects of higher education in the UK and contains data for England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the UK. It draws together data on students, staff, institutional finance, applicants via UCAS, graduates and graduate destinations, student support and international comparisons.

M Beaty | The Lumberjack

Freshman biology/zoology major Elyse Miller paints her hand to make a multicolored handprint outside the Union on Monday in celebration of National Coming Out day. NAU's PRIZM club along with members of PFLAG and Planned Parenthood put on the event designed for those who are "out and proud."

T Edwards | NNSL photo

Leanna Cazon stands in Fort Simpson with her one-year-old daughter, Brooklyn Cazon-Martineau. Cazon received her high school diploma last month, which she earned through correspondence while taking care of her two kids at home.

J Hordle | Rex Features

Former head of Haringey social services, Sharon Shoesmith, outside the high court in London.

The aim of this multimedia learning resource is to provide a broad introduction to the issues affecting minority ethnic carers and service users with an emphasis on achieving cultural competence within individual practice.

Reviews data on causes of teen deaths and outlines strategies for improving motor vehicle safety; preventing violence, risky behavior, and suicide; supporting role models; and enhancing families' and communities' capacity to support healthy development.

A lesbian couple in Manitoba is launching a complaint with the province's Human Rights Commission after their foster children were pulled from their home.

The authors examined the mediating effects of job satisfaction and propensity to leave and their effect on the relationships between role ambiguity, role conflict, and job performance. The meta-analysis included both published and unpublished studies conducted over a period of 25 years, resulting in 113 independent samples with more than 22,000 individuals. As hypothesized, the structural model that best fit the meta-analytic estimates was the partial mediation model, in which stress is related to job performance both directly and indirectly through job satisfaction and propensity to leave and in which all path coefficients were reliably different from zero.

This training video shows you how to find peer-reviewed items in PsycINFO on the CSA Illumina platform.

‘Alcohol, Social Work and Community Care’ examines practices in the assessment and management of alcohol problems within the context of community care development. It considers the role of social workers as providers of both social care and counselling help. It examines a range of different theories and models that can be used in working with those experiencing problems with drink. Considerable attention is given to psychological interventions such as social learning and cognitive behaviour approaches. There are chapters on young people, elderly people, black communities and offenders.

This research tracked a group of pupils permanently excluded from special schools and pupil referral units and examined the events and processes that led to their exclusion, as well as their subsequent education and other outcomes.

Times Online

Two thirds of children killed or seriously injured by their parents were being monitored by social workers at the time — with one in five on the “at-risk” register.

October 16, 2009

Daijiworld

Five colleges including University College, St Aloysius College, St Ann’s College and School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya will come under the Centre for Excellence.

Communities That Care (CTC) is an evidence-based substance-use prevention system. It helps community leaders identify the risk factors for future substance use among their youth and choose evidence-based programs to address those risk factors. To evaluate CTC, a team of researchers at the University of Washington led by Dr. J. David Hawkins studied a group of 4,407 fifth graders from 24 communities in 7 states.

Forbes

Albany GA

The Rural Experience is an exciting new initiative to inspire senior people from government, public funded organisations and the voluntary sector to make a positive contribution to rural communities.

Between 2007 and 2008, real incomes fell and poverty rose in the United States, Institute Fellow Harry Holzer testified before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. Even if the recession ends this year, rising unemployment will mean that real income keeps falling while poverty increases for a few more years — and almost certainly by much more than occurred between 2007 and 2008. It will likely take several years beyond 2010 before real income and poverty fully recover from the effects of the downturn.

The action group said the ruling would affect the UK's poorest people

"These children are seeking reassurances, looking for comfort in the normal daily activities that they enjoyed before last week's quake," he said. "Bringing in school tents, and school equipment, is not just about re-starting education. It's about providing a new focus for these children, one which is not only on the destruction and loss that surrounds them."

Analyzes state-by-state trends in insurance premium costs and as a share of household income. Compares projected cost increases by 2015 and 2020 under three scenarios for growth depending on the effects of healthcare reform. Discusses policy implications.

E Luke

DAVID FOLEY, a 17-year-old boy from Clondalkin, Dublin, died three years ago from a drug overdose, while he was in the care of the Health Service Executive (HSE). He had been placed in a number of emergency hostels from the age of 14. Last week a number of families marched on Leinster House in protest at the HSE's treatment of the children who have died in its care.

L Luotio | YLE

According to Finnish law and interpretations by the courts, flicking, slapping, and hair-pulling are all forms of mild child abuse.

Describes strategies that States and communities can use to reduce disproportionate minority contact with the juvenile justice system. This bulletin is a companion to the latest edition of OJJDP's Disproportionate Minority Contact Technical Assistance Manual. It includes useful "how to" information drawn from the manual and presents important background on the context in which local preparation takes place—media coverage and public attitudes about crime, race, and youth.

Former street child Summon portrays the life of a young paper seller on the street.

This research looks into the experiences of students taking alternative routes into, and pathways through, higher education.

It can be a long road to recovery for some of the victims of ukuthwalwa.
At the age of 14, Nolizwi Sinama set off from her aunt's home to a neighbouring village. She thought she had been sent on a routine chore. In fact, she was on her way to be married to a 42-year-old man.

For a shockingly high number of older people, growing older is not the media's soft-focus vision of fun times and fond grandchildren but a journey of loss: loss of work and opportunity to contribute, health and well-being, family and friends. Over two million older people are stuck in persistent poverty. The diseases and disabilities associated with growing older multiply with the dramatic ageing of the population, yet the response of communities and care systems is often inadequate and ageism still abounds. At least one million of our seniors feel society has left them behind and that their lives have been reduced to survival. "Unequal Ageing" analyses the vital dimensions of money, health, place, quality of life and identity, and demonstrates the gaps of treatment and outcomes between older and younger people, and between different groups of older people. This powerful book, written by leading experts in the field, provides strong evidence of the scale of current disadvantage in the UK and suggests actions that could begin to change the picture of unequal ageing.

Aims: To describe: (i) three alternative conceptual frameworks used by economists to study addictive behaviors: rational, imperfectly rational and irrational addiction; (ii) empirical economic evidence on each framework and specific channels to explain adult smoking matched to the frameworks; and (iii) policy implications for each framework. Methods: A systematic review and appraisal of important theoretical and empirical economic studies on smoking. Results: There is some empirical support for each framework. . . . Conclusions: Much promising economic research uses the imperfectly rational addiction framework, but empirical research based on this framework is still in its infancy.

The first Minimum Income Standard for Britain was launched in 2008 and represents an important new benchmark for economic well-being. This study asks if this standard is applicable for Northern Ireland and whether it is possible to have a 'UK-wide MIS'.

October 15, 2009

A SENNA/AFP | Getty

Solidarity Minister Nouzha Skalli signed 13 agreements to help Moroccan elderly.

This publication concentrates on low-income dynamics. It shows trends in relation to individuals who are persistently observed as living in low-income households and presents transition rates. The latest release updates the statistics previously released on 7th May 2009.

REUTERS | F O'Reilly

Severely malnourished Sadiki Basilaki, 9, receives a mug of milk at a catholic mission feeding center in Rutshuru, 70kms (50 miles) north of Goma in eastern Congo.

This tool was developed for advocates, evaluators, and funders who want guidance on how to evaluate advocacy and policy change efforts. The User's Guide takes you through four basic steps that generate the core elements of an advocacy evaluation plan, including what will be measured and how.

Evening Post

Bristol man Jason Webb who set fire to a social worker's home

E McGihon | Sun Media

Castille Troy is executive director of the Minwaashin Lodge Aboriginal Women’s Support Centre and chairs the city’s Community Assisting Aboriginal Sex Trade Workers committee.

Our new report 'Indicators of Poverty and Social Exclusion in Rural England: 2009' uses the most current data available to present a range of key indicators of poverty and social exclusion in rural England in comparison with the equivalent data for urban areas. In total, there are 37 indicators grouped into 7 sections focussing respectively on low income, work, education, health, housing, services and community.

The study was conducted using focus groups and interviews with managers, staff and foster carers in seven local authorities; a postal survey of carers and social workers of 196 children; analysis of historical data collected on 90 children who had previously been studied five and eight years earlier; and interviews with 37 children and their foster carers and adoptive parents.

A McMahon

Paul Michael Garrett of NUI Galway believes media reports of social workers frequently undermine their positions. His new book called Transforming Childrens Services? critically examines a number of key issues connected to the modernisation of social work services for children and their families.

Coyne's (1976a, 1976b) interactional theory of depression predicts positive associations between excessive reassurance seeking (ERS) and both depression and interpersonal rejection. A growing body of research has supported the ERS model, but this work has yet to be systematically reviewed. A meta-analysis of 38 studies (N = 6,973) revealed an aggregate effect size (r) of .32 between ERS and concurrent depression. . . . Results support the ERS model (with several important caveats) but underscore the need for methodological diversity in future research.

Labour LGBT launch their pro-Lisbon campaign with Joe Costello TD at the Oscar Wilde statue in Merrion Square

• May I long experience the joy of healing: professional and personal wellbeing among physicians from a Canadian province
• The diagnostic role of gut feelings in general practice A focus group study of the concept and its determinants
• Does smoking status affect the likelihood of consulting a doctor about respiratory symptoms? A pilot survey in Western Australia
• Quality improvement in small office settings: an examination of successful practices
• Does patient satisfaction of general practice change over a decade?

Herald Scotland

Older people have difficulty reporting abuse because of the poor response they get

This updated handbook addresses the changes in the field of social work, as qualitative research gains more prominence as well as mixed methods and various issues regarding race, ethnicity and gender. Edited by a leading scholar in the field, this text covers meta analysis, designs to evaluate treatment, and key Internet resources.

This is a new/first time publication. The release provides data on the self-evaluation scores given by each local authority in relation to available measures to monitor and respond to cases of Children Missing from Home or Care.

October 14, 2009

WFOR

Michael Brewer, 15, of Deerfield Beach, Fla., was intentionally set on fire and is hospitalized with burns over 65 percent of his body. Three juveniles have been arrested.

Growing evidence demonstrates that certain approaches to financing and paying for chronic care coordination for patients are effective not only for improving patient well-being but can also reduce health care spending. However, chronic care approaches should vary for different patient populations and can be carried out effectively by diverse organizations and professionals reflecting the heterogeneity of health care delivery throughout the US. The Report considers the different populations in need of care coordination, summarizes current evidence of effectiveness, describes the various entities that can serve as focal points for coordinating care, and details the possible financing and payment options that can support these approaches.

Northern Territory News | K Block

Political pioneer Jack Ah Kit has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate.

Sky News

Neve Lafferty's coffin is carried from St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church

Ven. Rahula Thera.

Surveys suggest that public attitudes towards those experiencing poverty are harshly judgemental or view poverty and inequality as inevitable. But when people are better informed about inequality and life on a low income, they are more supportive of measures to reduce poverty and inequality.

M Miller

The School commissioned Penn alumna Karen Singer, MFA ’81, to create the Centennial Wall, an art piece that will serve as a recognition vehicle for alumni and donors and also a historical memento to note 100 years of producing agents of social change at Penn.

The New Policy Institute has produced its 2009 edition of indicators of poverty and social exclusion in Northern Ireland, providing a comprehensive analysis of trends.

This paper reviews the literature on poverty dynamics in the United States. It surveys the most prevalent data, theories, and methods used to answer three key questions: How likely are people to enter, exit, and reenter poverty? How long do people remain in poverty? And what events are associated with entering and exiting poverty? The paper then analyzes the combined findings of the literature, discussing overarching patterns of poverty dynamics, differences among demographic groups, and how poverty probabilities, duration, and events have changed over time. We conclude with a discussion of the policy implications of these findings and avenues for future research.

L Fong | Post-Gazette

Sarah Dunn, a social worker at Paynter Elementary School in Baldwin, helps Bhuwan Dahl, 7, from Nepal, color his weather project earlier this month.

In order to guide juvenile processing decisions (filing, adjudication, detention, commitment), judges, attorneys, case managers, and probation staff rely on standardized instruments to assess the risks and needs of youth. Using such instruments systematizes decision-making criteria and provides consistent and objective standards to make the juvenile justice system more efficient and effective. Because of increased prevalence of girls in the juvenile justice system and heightened public awareness, practitioners and policymakers have questioned whether the instruments currently in use are appropriate for girls. Gender is an important variable in understanding delinquent behavior and must be addressed in developing assessment tools. However, no research to date has systematically examined the extent to which instruments used in the juvenile justice system are valid for girls. The Girls Study Group (GSG) conducted such a review between May 2006 and February 2007.

Most girls who engage in compensated dating don't view themselves as prostitutes, a social worker says.

We did a meta-analysis of published data and applied Hill’s criteria for causality on all available evidence to assess presence of a causal association. . . . Summary estimates were calculated for all studies combined and for sub groups stratified by type of study population, study design, and method of ascertaining circumcision status. Thirteen studies were included. Circumcised men had a reduced risk for HIV infection (adjusted RRoverall = 0.42, 95% CI 0.33−0.53; RRRCT = 0.43 95% CI 0.32−0.59, RRobservational = 0.39, 95% CI 0.27−0.56). Available evidence satisfies six of Hill’s criteria: strength of association, consistency, temporality, coherence, biological plausibility, and experiment. These results provide unequivocal evidence that circumcision plays a causal role in reducing the risk of HIV infection among men.

Since 1996, the National Youth Gang Center (NYGC) has conducted an annual survey of law enforcement agencies to assess the extent of gang problems by measuring the presence, characteristics, and behaviors of local gangs in jurisdictions throughout the United States. The National Youth Gang Survey (NYGS) is based on a nationally representative sample of law enforcement agencies serving larger cities, suburban counties, smaller cities, and rural counties. This Web resource contains analysis and findings from the ongoing National Youth Gang Surveys. Numerous charts and descriptions are provided as a resource for understanding gang problems.

Social service agencies are facing the same expectations in quality management and outcomes as private companies, compelling staff members and researchers to provide and interpret valid and useful research to stakeholders at all levels in the field. Child welfare agencies are particularly scrutinized. In this textbook, two highly experienced researchers offer the best techniques for conducting sound research in the field. Covering not only the methodological challenges but also the real-life constraints of research in child welfare settings, Amy J. L. Baker and Benjamin J. Charvat present a volume that can be used both for general research methods and as a practical guide for conducting research in the field of child welfare.

Kevin Bales, author of The Slave Next Door, discusses how the Cocoa Protocol is helping to eradicate child labor in West Africa's cocoa industry. "It's the first time in history that an entire industry has decided to take complete moral responsibility, and financial, for their product chain," says Bales.

AFP

Sharon Shoesmith was fired after a report into her department's shortcomings

October 13, 2009

Inaugurating the workshop, Dr Jacinta D’Souza, principal, School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya said that the city which has become infamous outside the region after the attacks on minorities, pub incident and moral policing.

Outlines the economic costs of dropping out of high school and proposes dropout prevention strategies, such as taking a long-term approach starting with school readiness, enhancing schools' holding power, and addressing outside factors and at-risk groups.

These reports present a broad picture of health issues relating to smoking in England and cover topics such as smoking habits, behaviours and attitudes among adults and school children, smoking-related ill health and mortality and smoking-related costs.

K Hare | The Enquirer

Kim Fatato, MSW is a supervisor for intensive in-home counselors at Starr Commonwealth in Battle Creek.

Over the course of a year, more than 310,000 people are held in the custody of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).2 Adults, unaccompanied minors, and sometimes entire families live in prison-like conditions, while the government determines their legal status in the U.S. and prepares to deport them. ICE runs few of its own facilities, instead contracting out the bulk of its detention responsibilities to county jails and private prison corporations.

C Williamson

Prof. Celia Williamson (center). The city of Toledo is currently fourth in the nation for the volume of investigations and rescue of children from underground human trafficking networks; however, Celia Williamson, a professor in the department of social work at UT, said Toledo is “just at the tip of the iceberg.

Lawrence Mishel, President of the Economic Policy Institute predicts that, because of the recession, "over a third of the people are going to be unemployed or underemployed at some point in 2010." He argues that, as a result, poverty rates will spike, with over half of African American children living in poverty. Complete video

G Tomsich | Corbis

Many academics fear that new funding proposals will ignore the value of their research

This report provides findings from an evaluation of a pilot that provided work-focused services through a dedicated Jobcentre Plus personal adviser, as well as activities and provision designed to support local parents into the labour market. The aim of the pilot was to test whether children’s centres can offer an effective means of engaging parents in labour market activity, moving them closer to work and ultimately into employment.

Columbus Dispatch

Denise Bronson, associate dean for academic affairs at Ohio State University's College of Social Work, has been a member of the levy-review committee since its inception a decade ago. She said the committee is impressed with the change since the agency's last review, when members worried about skyrocketing costs and placements. "I think they're doing the right things," Bronson said. "They're redirecting, trying to strengthen families rather than investigate them."

The Executive Director of the African Child Policy Forum Assefa Bequele

Eighty-four percent of U.S. households with children were food secure throughout 2007, meaning that they had consistent access to adequate food for active, healthy lives for all household members. Nearly 16 percent of households with children were food insecure sometime during the year, including 8.3 percent in which children were food insecure and 0.8 percent in which one or more children experienced very low food security—the most severe food-insecure condition measured by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Numerous studies suggest that children in food-insecure households have higher risks of health and development problems than children in otherwise similar food-secure households. This study found that about 85 percent of households with food-insecure children had a working adult, including 70 percent with a full-time worker. Fewer than half of households with food-insecure children included an adult educated past high school.

A meta-analysis of stereotype threat effects was conducted and an overall mean effect size of |.26| was found, but true moderator effects existed. A series of hierarchical moderator analyses evidenced differential effects of race- versus gender-based stereotypes.

Ethan Nadelmann delves into the history of drug prohibition and its relation to racism and class segregation. "The distinction between which drugs should be legal and which drugs should be illegal had essentially nothing to do with the relative dangers of these drugs."
Complete video

As this report illustrates, pre-adolescents—defined as children under the age of 12—do not belong in the adult criminal justice system, regardless of the seriousness of their offense. Whatever policy-makers may think about treating older teen offenders as adults, we hope that our research demonstrates that pre-adolescents present an entirely different set of challenges. Young children are still developing their brains and personalities and are capable of rehabilitation, yet they are often denied that redemptive possibility due to the imposition of lengthy mandatory sentences. In almost half the country, children as young as age 7 can be prosecuted as adults and subjected to lengthy mandatory sentences, including life without parole. That fact should give pause to even the toughest of lawmakers.

A CHAPPLE

Michele Courage (left) and Anneke Borman.

In this book Sue Newton shares her view of the fundamental principles that underpin the basic Adult Placement model in the UK. She shows how Adult Placement is becoming a growing and important community resource that fits in well with the Government’s current thinking on the future development of social care. The author explains what Adult Placement is, where it has developed from, who would benefit from using the resource and describes the roles and responsibilities of the people involved in a placement. The placement process is described in detail including the assessment of the service user and the Adult Placement Carer, and the matching and supporting of the placement. The basic ethos of the Adult Placement model is explained, showing how person-centred and flexible Adult Placement is, and the reader is referred on to where more detailed information can be found on particular relevant topics.

All available information demonstrates that hate crime can limit and prevent equality of opportunity. It creates fear amongst both individuals and the groups and communities to which they belong. Hate crime has a disproportionate impact on victims when compared to other crimes that are not motivated by hostility based on disability, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation or whether someone is transgender. For some people, hate crime can be a daily occurrence.

October 12, 2009

CBC

Social Development Minister Kelly Lamrock says the province has to stop nickel-and-diming the poor.

In May 2008 the Scottish Social Services Learning Network West commissioned a study to inform development of a more proactive and anticipatory approach to the provision of practice learning. The study, carried out by external consultants, brings together a range of evidence, based on the research literature, local audit, and a review of a range of practice learning models in social work and other professions, and makes recommendations to inform the development of a strategic plan for practice learning in the West of Scotland.

In May 2008 the Scottish Social Services Learning Network West commissioned a study to inform development of a more proactive and anticipatory approach to the provision of practice learning. The study, carried out by external consultants, brings together a range of evidence, based on the research literature, local audit, and a review of a range of practice learning models in social work and other professions, and makes recommendations to inform the development of a strategic plan for practice learning in the West of Scotland.

Getty Images

Smart meters will eliminate the need to take readings from traditional electricity and gas meters. Smart meters could become a 'spy in the home' by allowing social workers and health authorities to monitor households, adding to concern at Britain's surveillance society.

Today, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that the U.S. poverty rate reached 13.2 percent in 2008. Even this significant increase from the 12.5 percent rate in 2007 surely understates the share of Americans struggling to make ends meet today in September 2009.

T Talbot | AP

Dr. Jennifer Gilwee is seen in her office in South Burlington, Vt. The Blueprint for Health uses so-called Community Care Teams to complement the work of primary-care physicians by offering follow-up services from nurses, nutritionists, dieticians, trainers and social workers.

Real median household income fell between 2007 and 2008, and the decline was widespread. Median income fell for family and nonfamily households, native- and foreign-born households, households in 3 of the 4 regions, and households of each race category and those of Hispanic origin. These declines in income coincide with the recession that started in December 2007.

This analysis estimates cost burdens of racial and ethnic disparities in a select set of preventabl diseases including diabetes, hypertension and stroke. Excess rates of these diseases among African Americans and Latinos relative to whites will cost the health care system $23.9 billion dollars in 2009. Medicare alone will spend an extra $15.6 billion, and private insurers will spend an extra $5.1 billion. Over the next decade, the total cost is approximately $337 billion. Left unchecked, these annual costs will more than double by 2050 as the representation of Latinos and African Americans among the elderly increases.

In conjunction with anti-poverty week this week, the St Vincent de Paul Society wants the Federal Government to address the inequality in pension and benefits.

CBC

Social Development Minister Kelly Lamrock is promising to overhaul the province's welfare policy.

L Cameron | PA

The Good Shepherd care home, where Georgia Rowe and Niamh Lafferty lived.

Young adults ages 19 to 29 are one of the largest segments of the U.S. population without health insurance: 13.2 million, or 29 percent, lacked coverage in 2007. They often lose coverage at age 19 or upon high school or college graduation: nearly two of five (38%) high school graduates who do not enroll in college and one-third of college graduates are uninsured for a time during the first year after graduation. Twenty-six states have passed laws to expand coverage of dependents to young adults under parents’ insurance policies.

A recent meta-analysis of true- and quasi-experimental writing intervention research (S. Graham & D. Perin, 2007a) addressed this issue by identifying effective instructional writing practices. The current review extends this earlier work by conducting a meta-analysis of single subject design writing intervention studies. The authors located 88 single subject design studies where it was possible to calculate an effect size. They calculated an average effect size for treatments that were tested in 4 or more studies, using a similar outcome measure in each study. This resulted in the identification of 9 writing treatments that were supported as effective.

On Oct. 2, 2009 at the University of Maryland Southern Management Corporation Campus Center, the University of Maryland School of Social Work announced its first of a kind partnership with Public Allies. This video includes short quotes from the dean of the school, the Public Allies vice president, and the administrator of the Baltimore program.

This research explores the attitudes and intentions among young people in England towards higher education. The main focus of the report is the results of the longitudinal study of young people in England wave four, consisting of face-to-face interviews during spring and summer 2007 with around 11,000 young people predominantly aged 17.

Lifting Our Voices is the only book to explore the dual roles of professional social workers who are also family caregivers and the only collection on caregiving in which the majority of contributors are African American. After discussing the relevant literature, Lifting Our Voices vividly and sensitively presents the caregiving experiences of ten professional social workers. Using professional and theoretical knowledge and skills, each contributor draws implications for various levels of social work and human service interventions. These poignant descriptions and analyses recount both the frustrations and barriers of negotiating social service agencies and other institutions and the joys and triumphs of family caregiving. Lifting Our Voices frankly discusses how a professional education either prepares or fails to equip an individual with the skills for successful intervention on behalf of a loved one. Contributors hail from rich and varied backgrounds, revealing the importance of age, ethnicity, gender, marital status, and gerontological expertise in the practice of family caregiving.

Cumberland News

Ian, left and Alan Air

October 11, 2009

Daily News

Minister D.M. Jayaratne unveiling the plaque at the opening of the Social Welfare Development Centre of Deniyaya Estate. Ministry Secretary Indrani Sugathadasa , Additional Secretary Wimal Jayawardane and Plantation Project Director Raja Premadasa look on.

For 2009 a suite of questions is being developed to assess public attitudes to disabled people and their rights. Data obtained from these questions will assist the Department to monitor implementation of the United Nations’ (UN‘s) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The UK is currently working towards ratification of the Convention.

People line up outside the aid office in Juarez

Interpersonal violence and harmful and hazardous alcohol use are major challenges to global public health. Both place large burdens on the health of populations, the cohesion of communities and the provision of public services including health care and criminal justice. Globally, alcohol is responsible for 4% of all years of health lost through premature death or disability (DALYs, disability-adjusted life years, ranging from 1.3% in countries in the Middle East and Indian subcontinent to 12.1% in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

UTSA graduate student Sheri Swandal

M Tomina

“Social workers, be our allies,” “Judges, understand us,” “Business ability is the right to live” are only some of the banners that “Shine” activists carried while distributing leaflets.

In the short term, survivors of sexual violence often experience guilt, shame, fear, anxiety, tension, an exaggerated startle response, depression, anger, impaired memory and concentration, and/or rapid mood swings. For many survivors, sleeping and eating patterns are negatively affected, along with the ability to complete every-day tasks.

A Spearman

Volunteer instructor Amber Shrader works with (from bottom) Emonika McDowell, 9, Zyitrecia Thomas, 8, and Jessica Garner, 10, on a computer program during an after-school session at the Hope Fellowship center at Bent Tree Apartments on Winchester.

Think Family means securing better outcomes for children, young people and families with additional needs by coordinating the support they receive from children’s, young people’s, adults’ and family services. This toolkit sets out how Think Family can be made a reality in day-to-day practice.

A nurse describes how acne develops, who is most affected by it and how it's treated.

• Randomized Controlled Trial of a Pictogram-Based Intervention to Reduce Liquid Medication Dosing Errors and Improve Adherence Among Caregivers of Young Children
• Young Maternal Age and the Risk of Neonatal Mortality in Rural Nepal
• Depressive Symptoms in Youth Heads of Household in Rwanda: Correlates and Implications for Intervention
• Parental Tolerance of False-positive Newborn Screening Results

What is creativity? Certainly, a painter is creative in how she perceives a scene or emotion and puts it on canvas. But just because you can't paint like Van Gogh, play the cello like Yo Yo Ma, or write a story like Hemmingway doesn't mean you're not creative. A doctor at Mayo Clinic is looking into creativity and what he found may surprise you.

This publication examines the current use of restorative justice for young people in both the youth justice and child welfare settings. Restorative justice is currently at the pinnacle of the British political agenda and policy makers are seeking to legislate for more restorative justice practices to take place within the criminal justice system, it being heralded as a new way to address youth crime and child welfare issues.

Results: 23 studies were identified (20 epidemiological cohort, three retrospective matched case-control nested in a cohort). Meta-analyses suggest that small amounts of alcohol may be protective against dementia (random effects model, risk ratio [RR] 0.63; 95% CI 0.53–0.75) and Alzheimer's disease (RR 0.57; 0.44–0.74) but not for vascular dementia (RR 0.82; 0.50–1.35) or cognitive decline (RR 0.89; 0.67–1.17) However, studies varied, with differing lengths of follow up, measurement of alcohol intake, inclusion of true abstainers and assessment of potential confounders. Conclusions: because of the heterogeneity in the data these findings should be interpreted with caution. However, there is some evidence to suggest that limited alcohol intake in earlier adult life may be protective against incident dementia later.

Sharon Shoesmith leaving the High Court

October 10, 2009

Rink

Facilitators Kevin Mosley and Bobby Fisher helped men explore their feeling about meth through art.

In 2004, the HI V prevalence rate inside U.S. prisons was more than four times higher than in society overall.2 Hepatitis C rates are 8 to 20 times higher in prisons than on the outside, with 12 to 35 percent of prison cases involving chronic infection. The rates of infection for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis are likewise significantly higher among inmates than in the population at-large. While many inmates contract infections prior to incarceration or through non-sexual activity in prison, such as needle-sharing, the high rates of sexual violence behind bars is a clear source of transmission.

Newsday | JC Williams | 5/27/08

Karen Henley and her daughter, Courtney, leave the hospital after visiting husband and father Mike Henley. The Alzheimer's patient was taken there because of seizures.

The High Court heard Ed Balls ordered the removal of Sharon Shoesmith from Haringey Council following "uninformed prejudice" by tabloid newspapers. A judicial review is looking into Ms Shoesmith's claims she was removed as head of children's services unlawfully.

Looks at the broad range of services for low-income families under TANF as well as state spending on social services and the current value of the block grant program now versus when lawmakers established the program.

Tracey Turner with Keiran: The single mother said she had no incentive to find work

In 2007 approximately 322,000 young children received services through the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) Part C, the Early Intervention Program for Infant and Toddlers with Disabilities. Yet research shows that only a fraction of children eligible for the program received services. Against the backdrop of this gap between need for services and service use, special concerns for young children with or at risk for social-emotional developmental delays stand in relief. Even fewer of these children received services to address their social-emotional developmental needs through Part C.

JS Online

The death of 13-month-old Christopher L. Thomas Jr. and its catalyst for change in the child welfare bureau

For over twenty years, Olga Murray of Sausalito, Calif., has dedicated her life to helping the children of Nepal, providing them with educations, meals, and health care they would otherwise never be able to get. She formed her nonprofit, the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation, to do just that with the help of caring donors. Her love for these children has made this 83-year-old grandmother fight one of the saddest measures of poverty in western Nepal, the selling of young girls to be domestic slaves, or Kamlaris, by parents too poor to feed their children.

Results of the search showed age that was unable to be compared because of the many variations in measurements and time periods, and there was only limited research worldwide of trends in contraception at the time of conception in relation to a termination of pregnancy. Additionally, there were no studies worldwide in the past 11 years, which specifically examined trends in the characteristics of the number of first-ever pregnancies which ended in a termination, contraception choices postoperative to a termination of pregnancy, or referral source to a termination of pregnancy provider.

• Advancing Paternal Age and Bipolar Disorder
• Family-Focused Treatment for Adolescents With Bipolar Disorder: Results of a 2-Year Randomized Trial
• Stability of Psychiatric Outcomes of Low Birth Weight: A Longitudinal Investigation

In 2007 a quarter of families with children were lone parent families. Lone parent families were more than three times as likely to live in social housing than couple families, and nearly seven times as likely to have a total family income in the lowest income quintile. Families that contained no one working 16 or more hours per week were more likely to be in the lowest income quintile than those that contained at least one parent who worked for 16 or more hours per week. Nearly half of families in the lowest income quintile were lone parent families where the parent did not work 16 hours or more per week. The majority of couple families had two or more dependent children whereas the majority of lone parent families had one dependent child.

In a room filled with visiting dignitaries and members of the Ethiopian National Assembly, Tadeletch Shankos voice was whisper-quiet as she talked about the difficult subject of female genital mutilation/cutting, or FGM/C. Ms. Shanko had performed FGM/C on girls for the last 15 years and underwent the procedure herself as a girl, with devastating consequences. Ms. Shanko is no longer a supporter of FGM/C, as a result of a series of community dialogues on the physical and psychological harm caused by the practice.

An authoritative, topical, and comprehensive reference to the key concepts and most important traditional and contemporary issues in medical sociology.
* Contains 35 chapters by recognized experts in the field, both established and rising young scholars
* Covers standard topics in the field as well as new and engaging issues such as bioterrorism, bioethics, and infectious disease
* Chapters are thematically arranged to cover the major issues of the sub-discipline
* Global range of contributors and an international perspective

mage courtesy of Plataforma SINC

Of the 23 variables studied, performance, success and average are strongly associated with college dropouts.

October 9, 2009

Praveen Thapar, chairperson of the Sanjivni Centre for Mental Health, said while it's true that women are more prone to depression, it's equally true that women are better at sharing their emotions and problems than men - as a result most men keep their problems to themselves which has serious implications later.

Slightly more than half of the U.S. population experiences poverty at some time before age 65. Roughly half of those who get out of poverty will become poor again within five years. Who is more likely to enter poverty? How long are people poor? And what events are associated with falling into and climbing out of poverty? This fact sheet summarizes key findings from the poverty dynamics literature to describe how, why, and when people move in and out of poverty.

B Gurr | The Times

Nigel Chapman the Chief Executive of Plan International, a development charity

In a 2007 academic study, funded by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and conducted at six California men’s prisons, 67 percent of inmates who identified as LGBTQ reported having been sexually assaulted by another inmate during their incarceration, a rate that was 15 times higher than for the inmate population overall. Of the hundreds of survivors who contact JDI every year, approximately 20 percent self identifiy as gay, bisexual or transgender. With little or no institutional protection, victims of sexual violence are left beaten and bloodied, contract HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, and suffer severe psychological harm.

CBC

Justice Minister Kathleen Weil says the proposed changes to adoption rules reflect the new societal reality in Quebec.

Sexual violence in detention will remain a problem in the U.S. as long as flippant and ill informed public attitudes about this form of abuse prevail. Many people consider prisoner rape to be irrelevant to their lives because it happens behind bars. Others think that sexual abuse in detention
somehow deters crime.

Scotland's First Minister has ordered an inquiry into the deaths of two teenage girls who jumped from a bridge near Glasgow.

This brief report focuses upon the third aspect of building the case for change—the need for disparities-policy innovators and researchers to create business cases that support useful interventions across a wide variety of caregivers and health plans. The core idea is that ways are needed to encourage caregivers and related organizations to spend the time, effort, and money needed to make effective improvements. Thus, this report does not address the difficulties in obtaining solid evidence of significant health improvements for disadvantaged populations, which is arguably the central thrust of RWJF’s Finding Answers program. We address the issues and challenges in developing the business case for ongoing implementation of improvements that are found to be effective in improving clinical processes or outcomes.

"Sarah is a unique scholar in her ability to work across scientific disciplines as well as work effectively with diverse communities to address disparities," said Edward F. Lawlor, Ph.D., dean and the William E. Gordon Distinguished Professor. "Her work embodies the spirit of community engagement on which the E. Desmond Lee chair is based." Gehlert's publications focus on social influences on health, especially the health of vulnerable populations. She is working on the influence of neighborhood and community factors, such as community violence and unsafe housing, on psychosocial functioning among African-American women newly diagnosed with breast cancer.

We have captured just some of the good work implemented during TKAP Phase One. Forces and partners have worked hard to step up activity to engage young people, to deliver innovative interventions to prevent knife crime, and to implement tough, targeted enforcement activity. This has made a real difference to the levels of youth knife crime in TKAP areas and demonstrates to the public that we are committed to tackling youth violence.

Raising the barrier along the Erskine Bridge is being "actively" considered, after two teenagers leapt from the crossing in an apparent suicide pact. Georgia Rowe and Neve Lafferty left the unit without permission

The survey was a two stage postal one. A screener questionnaire identified eligible households with a disabled child and they were then sent a second and longer questionnaire which asked about their experiences of services received in the last 12 months across health, education and care and family support service. The survey questions focused on the five core elements - information; transparency; assessment; participation; and feedback. A total of 12,226 completed questionnaires were received. Data was analysed to produce 15 sub-indicator (three service areas x five core offer elements) scores which were based on the proportion of parents who received an ‘acceptable’ level of service.

• Can pharmacology help enhance human morality?
• Computerised cognitive–behavioural therapy for depression: systematic review
• IQ and non-clinical psychotic symptoms in 12-year-olds: results from the ALSPAC birth cohort
• Middle-ear disease and schizophrenia: case–control study
• Duration of untreated psychosis and social function: 1-year follow-up study of first-episode schizophrenia
• Ethnic density, physical illness, social deprivation and antidepressant prescribing in primary care: ecological study
• Attitudes and support needs of Black Caribbean, south Asian and White British carers of people with dementia in the UK
• Executive function and in-patient violence in forensic patients with schizophrenia
• Verbal memory and treatment response in post-traumatic stress disorder

This is a virtual-reality simulation hoped to treat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Virtual Iraq is adapted from the video game Full Spectrum Warrior.

Fitness to plead is a fundamental legal concept. Its determination in England and Wales rests on professional interpretation of the 'Pritchard' criteria (1836). In the United States, the determination of the analogous concept of competence to stand trial rests on professional interpretation of the 'Dusky' criteria (1960). Numerous assessment instruments have been developed in North America to help guide professional determinations of competence to stand trial, but such assessments are not routinely employed in British settings. The evidence reviewed calls into question the utility of the fitness to plead construct as currently formulated and highlights the inadequacy of the procedures employed in its determination.

This book presents a thorough, accessible and appealing overview of the field, written with students in mind, by some of the world's leading researchers. It starts with a brief overview and explanation of the scientific approach to memory before going on to discuss the basic characteristics of the various memory systems and how they work. Summaries of short-term and working memory are followed by chapters on learning, the role of organization in memory, the ways in which our knowledge of the world is stored, retrieval, and on intentional and motivated forgetting.

October 8, 2009

The Western Health and Social Services Trust has submitted an emergency financial plan to the government after it failed to balance its books.

In December 2007 the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) commissioned the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) to undertake a qualitative study of how Jobcentre Plus Pathways to Work may better meet the needs of the heterogeneous mental health client group. The research explored the reasons why Pathways has yielded mixed results for clients with mental health conditions and what helps contribute to good outcomes.

Labour MP Carmelo Abela yesterday said the government lacked the political will needed to complement the amendments proposed to the Lotteries and Other Games Act.

In 2007, American Indian/Alaska Native female admissions aged 25 to 34 were more likely than other female admissions the same age to report primary alcohol abuse. Among female admissions aged 25 to 34, Black admissions were more likely to report primary marijuana abuse and primary cocaine abuse, and Asian/Pacific Islander admissions were more likely to report primary methamphetamine abuse, than other female admissions

AJ J. Tatem | University of Florida

The gradient of colors indicates the estimated travel time to the nearest city with a population of more than 500,000, with yellow at one extreme indicating short travel times and red at the other extreme indicating long travel times. The graphic explains accessibility factors affecting the spread of HIV from central to east Africa. The virus was circulating at stable levels in the urban centers of the Democratic Republic of Congo, but these centers were isolated. Once the virus reached east Africa, connectivity between population centers combined with better quality transportation networks and higher rates of human movement caused HIV to spread exponentially.

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

High poverty rates, especially among African Americans and Latinos, threaten the well-being of neighborhoods as well as families. We can anticipate that the number of neighborhoods with dangerously high poverty rates is higher today than in 2000, representing a tragic reversal of the downward trend between 1990 and 2000. Historically, public policies played a central role in establishing and enforcing patterns of racial segregation, alongside discriminatory practices by the private sector and individuals. But no single causal process explains the persistence of residential segregation in America today.

Cannabis remains the most abused drug among people in Northern Ireland who have sought treatment for drug problems, according to new figures.

In the six-month, multisite pilot study, 124 adolescents who had recently attempted suicide were either randomized to or given the option of choosing one of three interventions—antidepressant medication only, CBT-SP only, or a combination of the two. Most participants preferred to choose their intervention, and most (93) chose combination therapy.

This piece of work aimed to explore parents’ experiences and views of the range of services they access and use in relation to their disabled child. Research was intended to identify and explore the factors that underpin and influence experiences and satisfaction levels, with a specific objective to explore perceptions around each of the five ‘core offer’ elements. Although this research was undertaken as a standalone piece of work, it is related to survey work being carried out to collect information on parental experience of services for disabled children and inform development of a new indicator

A leaflet explaining what we do and how we aim to make a difference to the lives of children, young people and adult learners.

Memory loss, personality changes, a shrinking ability to do daily tasks. It's not easy to watch a loved one suffer from dementia. It's also not easy at times for doctors to know exactly what kind of dementia a person may have. That's because there's not been a test that can differentiate between, say, Alzheimer's disease and Lewy Body Dementia. Now, researchers at Mayo Clinic have developed a way to look at the living brain and more accurately tell what type of dementia a person has. And this may help get patients on the right treatment.

How and what should young children be taught? What emphasis should be given to emotional learning? How do we involve families? Addressing these and other critical questions, this authoritative volume brings together developmentalists and early educators to discuss what an integrated, developmentally appropriate curriculum might look like across the preschool and early elementary years. State-of-the-science work is presented on brain development and the emergence of cognitive, socioemotional, language, and literacy skills in 3- to 8-year-olds.

• The terrain of health policy analysis in low and middle income countries: a review of published literature 1994–2007
• 'Doing’ health policy analysis: methodological and conceptual reflections and challenges
• Policy to tackle the social determinants of health: using conceptual models to understand the policy process
• The role of state and non-state actors in the policy process: the contribution of policy networks to the scale-up of antiretroviral therapy in Thailand
• Changing fortunes: analysis of fluctuating policy space for family planning in Kenya
• Addressing the theoretical, practical and ethical challenges inherent in prospective health policy analysis
• How to start thinking about investigating power in the organizational settings of policy implementation

This systematic review describes and compares the types of music therapy demonstrated in the literature and evaluates the evidence that music therapy improves outcomes of patients with addictions. A search and critical review of all the existing published literature on music therapy for the treatment of addictions was conducted using online databases and secondary search strategies. Few studies quantitatively assess the use of music therapy in the treatment of patients with addictions. Music listening provided by music therapists is commonly studied. Music therapy sessions reported were additive, not independent, treatment modalities. In the literature, no consensus exists regarding of the efficacy of music therapy as treatment for patients with addictions.

Brandon Muir was killed by Robert Cunningham last year

October 7, 2009

POLICE have reported a woman for allegedly stealing money from a Scottish council’s social work department.

In summary, research has established links between women’s sexual assault experiences and their behavioral and reproductive health. More longitudinal research is needed to clearly document the timing of sexual violence victimization and these health outcomes. Moreover, since most studies in this area focus on small convenience samples of women (such as patients), more research is needed with nationally representative samples of women.

A Milligan | PA

The Erskine bridge near Glasgow where two young women died after apparently leaping into the Clyde.

Rachel Busby and Noreen Sohal are senior social workers in Birmingham and they feel threatened.

Over the last several decades the U.S. prison population has grown at an unprecedented rate. As
this population has grown so has the interest of practitioners, policy makers, and researchers in
better understanding how to prepare returning inmates for release into the community. Previous
research has found that individuals who are employed after their release are less likely to
recidivate (Baer et al. 2006). Increasing educational proficiency has shown promise as one
strategy for assisting inmates in finding gainful employment after release and ending their
involvement with the criminal justice system. The research presented in this report examines the
effect of prison-based postsecondary education (PSE) on offenders both while incarcerated and
after release.

In 1992, 66 percent of substance abuse treatment admissions for smoked substances were attributed to cocaine/crack use; by 2007, half (50 percent) were for smoked marijuana. Over three quarters (76 percent) of female admissions for smoked substances in 1992 reported smoking cocaine/crack compared to 37 percent in 2007.

H Whitaker

Clinical social worker Joe Simonetti

This is a thorough and comprehensive review, and all efforts have been taken to draw out research findings from a range of published research studies, including academic studies and engagement activities carried out with families and children by non-academic bodies, for example, charities, pressure groups and other organisations. All evidence has been subjected to a rigorous evaluation regarding findings and the robustness of research/engagement methodologies.

Lord Laming who spent his whole career in social work has opened an academy for social workers.

The early years of life present a unique opportunity to lay the foundation for healthy development. It is a time of great growth and of vulnerability. Research on early childhood has underscored the impact of the first five years of a child’s life on his/her social-emotional development. Negative early experiences can impair children’s mental health and effect their cognitive, behavioral, social-emotional development

Describes the eligibility and coverage rules, structure, care delivery, and expenditures of the program for children with special needs. Examines its successes and challenges and suggests overhauling its administration, financing, and delivery systems.

Khyra Ishaq died of an infection after being starved over a period of weeks or possibly months

Since its original publication in 1993, The Primal Wound has become a classic in adoption literature and is considered the adoptees’ “bible”. It is a “must read” for adopted people, adoptive families, birth parents and adoption professionals. The Primal Wound has revolutionised how we think about adoption. Over the years, thousands have read this classic and found in it profound insights and revelations on what being adopted means to adopted people.

Society of St. Vincent de Paul

The fixed-effects (FE) meta-analytic confidence intervals for unstandardized and standardized mean differences are based on an unrealistic assumption of effect-size homogeneity and perform poorly when this assumption is violated. The random-effects (RE) meta-analytic confidence intervals are based on an unrealistic assumption that the selected studies represent a random sample from a large superpopulation of studies. The RE approach cannot be justified in typical meta-analysis applications in which studies are nonrandomly selected.

Photo: R WILKINSON

The number of children excluded from primary schools has risen by 10 per cent since 2004

October 6, 2009

Examines trends in welfare caseloads and employment and poverty reduction since federal lawmakers replaced AID to Families with Dependent Children with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

A Sullivan | NY Times

FEEDING THE HUNGRY Demand for food and other services has grown at the Beth-El Center in Milford, Conn., which operates a soup kitchen and allows clients to take home small amounts of canned good

R Daly

Kirsten Beronio, vice president for public policy and advocacy at Mental Health America, tells congressional staff at a September briefing that health care reform could help control the future growth in costs if the final measure includes the mental health and substance abuse prevention, detection, and treatment provisions of some bills under consideration.

VOA File

This At a glance briefing examines the implications of the personalisation agenda for advocacy workers. 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 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.

In this updated video tutorial Diane Rowland Sc.D., executive vice president of Kaiser and executive director of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, reviews the latest data on how Medicaid operates and its role in covering the low-income population. The tutorial presents the most recent data on Medicaid coverage and spending, long-term care assistance, impact on access to care, and discusses the program in the context of the current economy and health reform legislation.

Between 2007 and 2008, real incomes fell and poverty rose in the United States, Institute Fellow Harry Holzer testified before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. Even if the recession ends this year, rising unemployment will mean that real income keeps falling while poverty increases for a few more years — and almost certainly by much more than occurred between 2007 and 2008. It will likely take several years beyond 2010 before real income and poverty fully recover from the effects of the downturn.

Strategies for promoting evidence-based PTSD treatments in the military are urgently needed as more and more soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan struggle with this disorder. The research team will characterize and assess the implementation of two types of therapy—prolonged exposure (PE) therapy and cognitive processing therapy (CPT)—within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) residential PTSD treatment programs.

This publication is aimed at foster carers and their families, but it will also be helpful to childcare workers involved in investigations of foster carers, looked after young people, their advocates and birth families. The booklet discusses what happens when an allegation is made and what support is available.

The killing of Brandon Muir has led to increasing public concern

The proportion of people living in low-income households is slightly lower in Northern Ireland than England or Wales, and similar to Scotland when measured after housing costs have been deducted. This proportion has not changed in the last three years. The proportion of children in low-income households (‘child poverty’) follows this pattern, but the proportion of pensioners in low-income households is slightly higher in Northern Ireland than elsewhere in the UK.

• Transmission and Treatment of Depression
• Depressed Mothers, Depressed Children
• Nicotine Addiction
• A Sea Change in the Treatment of Alcoholism
• Mental Health in the Mainstream of Public Policy: Research Issues and Opportunities
• Mental Health in the Context of Health Disparities
• Body Dysmorphic Disorder: Treating an Underrecognized Disorder
• Mentalization: Ontogeny, Assessment, and Application in the Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder
• Children of Depressed Mothers 1 Year After the Initiation of Maternal Treatment: Findings From the STAR*D-Child Study
• An Adoption Study of Parental Depression as an Environmental Liability for Adolescent Depression and Childhood Disruptive Disorders
• Factors Associated With Remission From Alcohol Dependence in an American Indian Community Group
• Response to Emotional Expressions in Generalized Social Phobia and Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Evidence for Separate Disorders

Both BBC News and CBS News extensively covered the American Civil Rights movement, from the 1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycott to the student-led sit-ins of the 1960s to the huge March on Washington in 1963. Rare footage includes Freedom Summer, Malcolm X and Black Power, and the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Results: Four studies of three computer software packages met the inclusion criteria. Comparators were treatment as usual, using a depression education website and an attention placebo. Conclusions: There is some evidence to support the effectiveness of CCBT for the treatment of depression. However, all studies were associated with considerable drop-out rates and little evidence was presented regarding participants’ preferences and the acceptability of the therapy. More research is needed to determine the place of CCBT in the potential range of treatment options offered to individuals with depression.

iStockphoto | S Popov

A new study estimates that people with a gun are 4.5 times more likely to be shot in an assault than those not possessing a gun.

This plan sets out the activities of a service that aims to deliver a programme of specific activities relating to child and adolescent mental health services.

s usual, every effort has been made to maintain the friendly, practical and informal style of earlier editions, while at the same time keeping the reader abreast of the latest improvements in PASW Statistics 17 from SPSS. Each statistical technique is presented in a realistic research context and is fully illustrated with screen shots of PASW dialog boxes and output. The book also provides guidance on the choice of statistical techniques and advice (based on the APA guidelines) on how to report the results of statistical analyses.

October 5, 2009

It sets out to assess how pupils and parents responded to the programme, pupils’ awareness and knowledge of drug use, their perception of drug use and acceptability of drug use among same-age peers, and the quality and frequency of parent-child communication on drugs.

AFP

An Indian child weeps inside a dwelling in the eastern Indian state of Bihar

Anthony P | APB/TB

Dr. Graca Machel, the wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela

In the United States where one in eight people lives in poverty, political discourse about the importance of addressing poverty and its harmful effects--on children, families, communities, and government--has been almost taboo in recent decades. Now a shift is taking place, with state and city governments giving visibility to both poverty and opportunity through task force initiatives, summits, state povery targets, and more. Published in early September by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Increasing Low-Income Access to Opportunity discusses these trends.

The science is clear: HIV prevention can and does save lives.1-4 Scores of scientific studies have identified effective prevention interventions for numerous populations,5-10 and it is estimated that prevention efforts have averted more than 350,000* HIV infections in the United States to date.4 In addition to the lives saved from HIV, it is estimated that more than $125 billion in medical costs alone have been averted.

More people in the Republic rated their quality of life as very good

the U.S. Census Bureau announced that the U.S. poverty rate reached 13.2 percent in 2008. Even this significant increase from the 12.5 percent rate in 2007 surely understates the share of Americans struggling to make ends meet today in September 2009. The Census poverty data are based on the incomes of individuals and families gathered over the past calendar year—in this case from January through December 2008. Although the U.S. economy was in a recession throughout 2008, monthly unemployment didn't pass 6 percent until August. (For all of 2008, the unemployment rate was 5.8 percent.) The economic picture darkened rapidly: the U.S. unemployment rate started 2009 at 7.6 percent and had reached 9.7 percent by August.

Hyperactivity in an area of the hippocampus tracked positively with symptom severity, suggesting that MRI screening could potentially be used to identify patients likely to experience first-episode psychosis.

Based on interviews with 20 judges from 18 states. The federal Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 shortens the timeframe for terminating parental rights (TPR) as a way to facilitate timely adoptions for children in foster care who cannot be reunited with their birth parents. The interviews suggest that while judges are concerned about terminating birth parents' rights to a child before an adoptive family has been identified, recent innovations in case practice have helped to address these concerns and have made for a less divisive decision-making process.

THE State is spending almost €90 million a year to keep about 400 children in residential care, at an average cost of €4,294 per child per week.

Conclusions The meta-analyses revealed robust but regionally nonspecific changes of brain structure in bipolar disorder. Individual studies will remain underpowered unless sample size is increased or improvements in phenotypic selection and imaging methods are made to reduce within-study heterogeneity. The provision of online databases, as illustrated herein, may facilitate a more refined design and analysis of structural imaging data sets in bipolar disorder.

Six case study investigations were undertaken in six different local areas, selected to represent a mix of types of authority and geographic areas. In-depth telephone, face-to-face and group interviews were conducted with Chief Executives of both local authorities and Primary Care Trusts, commissioners, others working in Children's Services, and, where possible, head teachers and representatives from the voluntary and community sector in each area.

Helping adults with autism move into the workplace. Dr. Chad Nye talks about the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities. Childhood health study in Orlando will track births of specific groups of Orange County children and follow those children over 20 years.

Percentage of households that use food stamps, by city

October 4, 2009

iStockphoto | S Subba

Grooming monkeys. A study of female monkeys' grooming habits provides new clues about the way we humans socialize.

The Social Work Task Force was set up by the Government to undertake a comprehensive review of frontline social work practice and to make recommendations for improvement and reform of the whole profession, across adult and children’s services. This report sets out interim advice to the Government about the state of social work in England at present, and the nature and content of the comprehensive reform programme needed. The advice in this report is based on an extensive programme of consultation and evidence gathering over the past six months, as well as the shared expertise of Task Force members.

These statistics cover sales to sitting tenants through schemes such as Right to Buy, Right to Acquire and Social HomeBuy. They do not include Low Cost Home Ownership sales through shared ownership schemes.

P Luat

A poverty reduction program helps Tran Van Phan (R), a disadvantaged resident in District 11, HCMC, open a business to buy waste materials to recycle

AFP

A girl waits with her family to receive a food aid delivery from the Care and Share

Charlie Byrne's are plaesed to announce the launch of 'Transforming' Children's Services? by Paul Michael Garrett, at 6pm, on Friday the 11th of September. The book will be presented by Counicllor Catherine Connolly, and is published by the Open University Press. Paul Michael Garrett is the Director of Social Work, National University of Ireland, Galway and has recieved glowing praise for the book.

Laurie Foley

In 2007, nearly 40 percent of children in the United States lived in low-income families—families with incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). Youth from low-income families are vulnerable to poor outcomes as adults, as these youth often lack the resources and opportunities found to lead to better outcomes. This fact sheet compares the young adult outcomes and adolescent risk-taking behaviors of youth from low-income families to those from middle-income (201–400 percent of FPL) and high-income (401 percent of FPL or higher) families.

This is an fMRI image of the brain, viewed from above. New research shows that the changes in awareness we feel when preparing to do two incompatible actions are uniquely associated with increased activity in areas of the brain used for working memory, including the pre and post central sulcus. These areas are responsible for consciousness and selecting the right action at the right time. This finding supports San Francisco State University Professor Ezequiel Morsella's new theory that it is consciousness that resolves the dilemma of conflicting urges.

Research suggests that investing in young children can help build a strong future workforce, improve children’s educational success and health, and potentially reduce some of the social ills that drain the nation’s resources and will. To have an informed conversation about future investments, it is important to start from an understanding of the baseline: What investments does this nation currently make in young children? Which programs and purposes are currently supported by federal investments, and which are not?

Handout

Long Island adoption attorney Kevin Cohen is accused of running an adoption Ponzi Scheme on as many as a dozen couples.

Child welfare leaders across the country are delivering a different message now. To be sure, safety and protection of children remain paramount concerns of DCFS and other agencies. But their approach is shifting from relying primarily on out-of-home care to providing support for families and children in their own homes with community-based services specifically tailored to each family’s needs. When a child must be removed, DCFS now seeks quicker timelines to permanency, primarily through reunification with parents, or if that is not possible, placement with relatives or other extended family members, or through adoption or guardianship. The bottom line is a basic one: Children should not grow up in a foster care system. All children deserve safe, permanent and nurturing families.

Addressing key topics in child custody evaluation, this book provides essential knowledge for practitioners who want to meet the highest standards for both scientific validity and legal admissibility. The authors are leading experts who describe the latest data-based approaches to understanding and assessing relevant child, parent, and family factors. Going beyond the basics, the book gives in-depth attention to challenging, frequently encountered issues, such as how to evaluate allegations of domestic violence, child sexual abuse, and child alienation.

This meta-analysis synthesized 102 effect sizes reflecting the relation between specific moods and creativity. Effect sizes overall revealed that positive moods produce more creativity than mood-neutral controls (r = .15), but no significant differences between negative moods and mood-neutral controls (r = -.03) or between positive and negative moods (r = .04) were observed. Creativity is enhanced most by positive mood states that are activating and associated with an approach motivation and promotion focus (e.g., happiness), rather than those that are deactivating and associated with an avoidance motivation and prevention focus (e.g., relaxed).

Child Health Days boost immunization rates and promote child and maternal health. The campaign in Somalia aims to raise awareness about the importance of immunization and health services for children and women, and encourage communities to take an active role in safeguarding childrens right to quality care.

October 3, 2009

Presents the annual estimates of rates and levels of personal and property victimization and describes the year-to-year change from 2007 as well as trends for the ten-year period from 1999 through 2008. The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) collects information on nonfatal crimes, reported and not reported to the police, against persons age 12 or older from a nationally representative sample of U.S. households.

Constance and Martin Silver
The McSilver Institute will partner with social service agencies in the New York City area to undertake the broad, complex, and in-depth efforts needed to meet the challenge of widespread poverty in the United States. The leadership team for this undertaking consists of Lynn Videka, dean of the Silver School of School Work, Professor Robert Hawkins, and Executive-in-Residence and Professor Phil Coltoff.

Speaking at the conference, Eddie Izzard, said: “Saying thank you to some of the people who put their heart into working to help others is hugely important and something we don’t do often enough. "Hearing about the work Coleen does is a real inspiration and we are all proud of her and the thousands of social workers up and down the country like her.”

The aim of the study was to develop new understandings of the role of alcohol in young people’s lives and examined how young people (particularly those at risk) view the use and misuse of alcohol and how its use relates to personal, social, familial and cultural factors. The report is accompanied by three literature reviews - risk and protective factors; alcohol reduction programmes; and the effectiveness of national policies.

Job creation and welfare protection for the unemployed should be given priority governments in Asia and the Pacific, an Asian Development Bank official has said

The transition to adulthood can be particularly challenging for youth growing up in distressed neighborhoods. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, this fact sheet compares the adolescent risk behaviors and young adult outcomes of youth from distressed neighborhoods with those of youth from non-distressed neighborhoods.

J White

Mariah Carey ... Diva, moi?

Christine Mullee

This brief discusses the challenges California caseworkers face in dealing with a fragmented system of manual and electronic records and often incomplete information on children and families involved in the child welfare services system. It states key information on the child and family that is needed to protect the child, ensure the child's well-being, and achieve timely reunification or another permanent plan is found in the records of the child welfare agencies, the courts, schools and school districts, medical offices and health services departments, probation departments, and many other providers.

Due to the small number of studies uncovered by the review and, in some cases, poor methodologies, it has not been possible to draw firm conclusions from the individual studies in order to make comparisons between studies on the benefit-cost of particular sentencing options. Tentative conclusions are drawn, where supporting evidence is available, and the authors recommend improved quality of research design and the development of standardized methodologies for assessing the costs and benefits of criminal justice interventions.

Louisiana’s vulnerabilities, as indicated by our poor health and educational outcomes, will be greatly tested during this diffi cult economic period. In order to ensure that we continue to take the essential steps forward to improve these and other outcomes in our state, we must focus on our young children. Unfortunately, the needs of Louisiana are much greater than any one program, no matter how eff ective that program may be. Instead, the focus must be on a comprehensive eff ort to promote children’s health and development in their early years. Th is Road Map outlines the steps we can take now

The Concise Rules of APA Style, Sixth Edition offers essential writing and formatting standards for students, teachers, researchers, and clinicians in the social and behavioral sciences. This easy-to-use pocket guide, compiled from the sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, provides complete guidance on the rules of style that are critical for clear communication. Readers will learn how to avoid the grammatical errors most commonly reported by journal editors; how to choose the appropriate format for statistics, figures, and tables; how to credit sources and avoid charges of plagiarism; and how to construct a reference list through a wide variety of examples and sources.

Andrea Garber, UCSF Division of Adolescent Medicine, is a nutritionist and a registered dietitian. Her research focuses on obesity and eating disorders. Here she explores fad diets and if they work.

October 2, 2009

Complaints about the physical abuse of a vulnerable woman at a day centre were not dealt with by a social services department, a watchdog has ruled.

This page lists all inspection reports of youth offending teams in England and Wales.

Latino workers are more likely to die from an injury at work than White and Black workers. In 2007, 937 Latinos, the majority of them immigrants, were killed by an injury at work. The occupational fatality rate for Latinos has remained the highest in the nation for 15 years. The Latino death toll lays bare the state of decay in American workplace health and safety standards; in all, 5,657 workers died on the job in 2007.

This brief explores the multiple pathways of connection to the labor market for youth transitioning to adulthood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), we find that while a majority of youth successfully connect to the labor market, many distinct subgroups follow very different, and often less successful, schooling and employment pathways. We identify four distinct categories of youth transitions.

Backs Against the Wall: Battered Women’s Resistance Strategies tackles several controversial aspects involved with intimate partner violence (IPV)—namely the approaches many victims use when resisting their oppressors. This sensitive and sensible feminist perspective concerning battered women's use of different resistance strategies, and the reasons why they use them, also focuses on ways to support victims through intervention and prevention strategies. Leading experts provide current research, revealing viewpoints, and convincing assertions about the victims of IPV. This book powerfully refutes the sweeping assertions made by today’s antifeminist-based mindset that women are as violent as men in cases of IPV perpetration. This insightful source provides strong evidence of the different resistance strategies that battered women use in response to multiple oppressions, including IPV, in the case against the gender parity argument—that may very well be politically motivated.

PA

Rekha Kumari-Baker

Ignored: Paul Cusack had warned health officials three times that he planned to stab someone

On April 8, 2009, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) notified officials from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) in California about a group of preschool teachers with nausea, dizziness, headache, and numbness and tingling of fingertips after consumption of brownies purchased 3 days before from a sidewalk vendor. To characterize the neurologic symptoms and determine whether these symptoms were associated with ingestion of the brownies, the police and health departments launched a collaborative investigation.

Janice Langbehn (left) and Lisa Pond. Pond suffered a fatal brain aneurysm on February 18th, 2007. Langbehn says a social worker would not let her see her partner, who died alone the next day.

States can support providers as they work to improve the delivery of child health and development services in primary care. While individual states’ approaches to this support function is varied, collaborative strategies between primary care providers delivering preventive services and state agencies has great potential to transform the health care system for this population. This brief outlines ABCD Screening Academy members’ approach to supporting provider improvements.

A licensed clinical social worker with thirty years experience, Luetta Goodall's career has focused on helping at-risk young people in Maine build better lives, often against harsh odds.

Deadline Scotland

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said there would be "no let-up" on knife and alcohol-related crime

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 [t(29) = 0.72, p = 0.48], between treatment with psychotherapy compared to no psychotherapy [t(30) = 0.69, p = 0.48], and when psychiatric medication had been prescribed compared with not [t(30) = 0.35, p = 0.73]. A trend was observed that a longer length of treatment lead to better outcomes, but this was not significant [F(5, 26) = 1.17, p = 0.35]. 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.

States are required by Federal law and regulation to collect data on children in foster care and those who have been adopted under the auspices of the State child welfare agency. The Federal information system that collects and processes this data is known as the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS). States that fail to meet any of the standards set forth in 45 CFR 1355.40(a-d) are considered not to be in substantial compliance (i.e., are lacking in substantial conformity) with the requirements of the title IV-E State plan, and are subject to penalties.

Eminently practical and authoritative, this comprehensive clinical handbook brings together leading international experts on eating disorders to describe the most effective treatments and how to implement them. Coverage encompasses psychosocial, family-based, medical, and nutritional therapies for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, and other eating disorders and disturbances. Especially noteworthy are "mini-manuals" that present the nuts and bolts of 11 of the treatment approaches, complete with reproducible handouts and forms. The volume also provides an overview of assessment, treatment planning, and medical management issues.

• Relationships Between Alcohol-Related Memory Association and Changes in Mood: Systematic Differences Between High- and Low-Risk Drinkers
• Circadian Phenotype in Patients with the Co-Morbid Alcohol Use and Bipolar Disorders
• Validation and Comparison of Alcohol-Screening Instruments for Identifying Hazardous Drinking in Hospitalized Patients in Taiwan
• Using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) to Predict Outcome after Inpatient Detoxification during 100 Days of Outpatient Treatment
• Alcohol Abuse Among English and French Psychiatric Referrals from Accident and Emergency Departments
• Patterns of Alcohol Consumption and Related Behaviour in Great Britain: A Latent Class Analysis of the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT)
• Patterns of Binge Drinking at an International Nightlife Resort
• How should Alcohol Dependence be Treated? The Public View

Louise Ngone is the head nurse of the Kikula Health Centre in Katanga. Ms. Ngone or Mama Louise as she is affectionately called is a tireless advocate for all children born in her clinic, and she is passionate about making sure as few of them as possible are born with HIV. Although Kikula is a busy clinic with an average of 25 babies being delivered each week, the staff and volunteers are committed to patient confidentiality, close monitoring and follow-up care for their patients. Perhaps because of this extra attention, the Kikula centre currently has the highest number of pregnant women who accept HIV testing in the province.

October 1, 2009

The population of the UK was 61.4 million in mid-2008, up by 408,000 (0.7 per cent) on the previous year and over two million more than in mid-2001

D Tangney | iStockphoto.com

Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn., Metropolitan Statistical Area
Median Family Income: $105,132
Residents of a metro area that's desirable for its leafy exclusivity have the highest median income in the country. Many bring their earnings home from jobs in New York City.

Approximately 6 in 10 low-income1 families have at least one adult who works full time throughout the year. This fact sheet uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to describe the adolescent risk behaviors and the transition to adulthood for low-income youth from “high-work” families com-pared to low-income youth from moderate-work and nonworking (i.e., “low-work”) families.

Image courtesy of University of Oxford

Oxford winning the 2009 boat race.

The brief is organized as follows. The first section covers the prevalence of moving and the geographic locations of the moves. The second section analyzes the reasons that households give for moving and explores whether these reasons suggest different types of movers. The third section concludes by setting the stage for the next brief, which will explore the determinants and consequences of moving.

M Cardy | Getty

Gordon Brown's sudden interest in tackling antisocial behaviour by breathing new life into asbos comes after two years during which, in the words of the home secretary, Alan Johnson, the government has been coasting on the issue. Asbo breach rates reached 61% last year, according to the Home Office.

The Times

MCHB funded training programs are designed to develop leaders who are prepared to assure and champion the health and well-being of vulnerable populations effectively in a changing environment. The nation needs a public health workforce that can effectively provide services, design and evaluate programs, conduct research, develop and administer health policy, and provide leadership for maternal and child health within a diverse and multicultural U.S. society.

A social workers' union claims planned changes to the way children in care in Gloucestershire are looked after are not in their best interests. Matlock House children's home in Gloucester was the last home to close

Latinas are dropping out of school in alarming numbers—a pattern that has serious and damaging repercussions for their future prospects and economic security. Yet little research has been done on the particular barriers that Latinas face or the strategies that might maximize their chances for success. This report aims to start filling that gap.

• What determines the ability to stop smoking in old age?
• Economic evaluations of complex services for older people
• Alcohol for the older person—friend or foe?
• Is it time to separate subjective cognitive complaints from the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment?
• Alcohol, dementia and cognitive decline in the elderly: a systematic review
• Post-acute care for older people in community hospitals—a cost-effectiveness analysis within a multi-centre randomised controlled trial
• The impact of executive cognitive functioning on rates of smoking cessation in the San Luis Valley Health and Aging Study
• Fracture risk assessment in frail older people using clinical risk factors
• Factors influencing the prescribing of medications by old age psychiatrists for behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia: a qualitative study
• Promotion of health in older people: a randomised controlled trial of health risk appraisal in British general practice

In the last several decades, restorative justice models that put people involved in a challenging situation at the center of decision making have influenced child welfare practice. In child protection, that means involving young people, their families, and in some cases, community members to craft solutions to problems. The result has been a proliferation of family-meeting approaches (sometimes called family teaming models) that engage youth, families, and others in child welfare planning and decision making.

Although some theories suggest that anxious individuals selectively remember threatening stimuli, findings remain contradictory despite a considerable amount of research. A quantitative integration of 165 studies with 9,046 participants (clinical and nonclinical samples) examined whether a memory bias exists and which moderator variables influence its magnitude. Implicit memory bias was investigated in lexical decision/stimulus identification and word-stem completion paradigms; explicit memory bias was investigated in recognition and recall paradigms. Overall, effect sizes showed no significant impact of anxiety on implicit memory and recognition.

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is the style manual of choice for writers, editors, students, and educators in the social and behavioral sciences. It provides invaluable guidance on all aspects of the writing process, from the ethics of authorship to the word choice that best reduces bias in language. Well-known for its authoritative and easy-to-use reference and citation system, the Publication Manual also offers guidance on choosing the headings, tables, figures, and tone that will result in strong, simple, and elegant scientific communication.

Twenty years ago, the Convention on the Rights of the Child became the first international convention to affirm human rights for all children. In this video, UNICEF stresses that minority children have rights, too, rights that are all too often denied to them by abuse, exploitation, discrimination, prejudice