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May 16, 2008
J Sullivan | Getty Images
A foreclosure sign sits in front of a home for sale in Stockton, Calif.
G Barranco | The Enterprise
Shaneka Odom poses in front of the newly opened FYI Foster home for youths older than 18. An alumna of the foster-care system, Odom now works for Child Protective Services in Beaumont and will spend time working at FYI, which helps foster kids transition to adulthood.
As part of a wider £1.8 million culture fund drawing money seized from the ill-gotten gains of convicted criminals, £600,000 will go to the CashBack for Communities Arts and Business Match Fund to support increased cultural activities for vulnerable youngsters.
P Jones
Dr. Shirley E. Poduslo, neuroscientist in the Medical College of Georgia Schools of Medicine and Graduate Studies.
iStockphoto | Edward Karaa
Socially subordinate female rhesus macaques over consume calorie-rich foods at a significantly higher level than do dominant females, a new study has found.
May 15, 2008
G Phillips
Kerry MacAskill, Scotland's cabinet secretary for justice, aims to tackle the hard-drinking culture
B Jones | IRIN
Families who flee Myanmar face a tough existence of manual labour or confinement to camps. They are constantly at risk of deportation
Stanley Lintern was diagnosed 13 years ago. What are the difficult decisions that carers like Denise Lintern face?
Rex Features
In a 'super diverse' Britain, the key to social cohesion is not a new British 'identity' but tackling poverty and inequality
Social workers issued a set of demands regarding child protection services following the RTÉ broadcast.Responding to the programme, the Irish Association of Social Workers said its members were concerned, angered and frustrated that the public's right to an effective child protection and community care service was being infringed.
Cases of sexually-transmitted diseases among young people in NI have risen sharply, according to new figures.
The social care system - which Gordon Brown has promised to reform in England - is complicated and varied. In Scotland, personal and nursing care is funded by the government, although care home accommodation fees still have to be paid, based on a means test. Northern Ireland and Wales share the fully means-tested system England uses. Three families from England, Scotland and Wales talk about their experiences on the ground and why they think the system is unfair.
Susan Hibbins says protecting their inheritance is not an issue
May 14, 2008
P Templeton
There is here both a philosophical disagreement about the role of incentives and a disagreement about the effect of the government's programme on beneficiaries. The WFF programme is immensely complicated and varies from family to family. The Child Poverty Action Group believes the effects on most beneficiaries are dire. Supporters of the government say it is not nearly as bad as claimed especially if other government policies are taken into account.
Erin Hall received one of MU's new master's degrees in social work.
T KROCHAK
For Stacy McRae, co-ordinator for youth programs with the Nova Scotia Council for the Family in Halifax, getting involved in social work as a career was a natural progression. She had devoted a lot of time volunteering with youth and seniors programs through organizations like the Canadian Red Cross while growing up on Prince Edward Island.
NA Esmaeilpour | NY Times
Talia Greenwood, 33, a day care worker in Little Rock, Ark., who has four children, receives $204 a month from the state.
C Ware | The Sun
Brion Gill, 17, and Ashley Johnson, 17, volunteers in the Foster Youth Group at Baltimore Freedom Academy, share a laugh during the siblings picnic at Druid Hill Park.
With a predicted shortage of more than 5,000 foster carers across the UK during the next year, experts have warned hundreds of children will be denied the family stability they need.
Top: Debbie Lynn Bonilla was fatally stabbed April 18.
Bottom: Baerbel Roznowski was fatally stabbed May 3.
The real issue for the 1968 generation has always been their right to have fun, however much it costs other people. So they have promoted ways of behaviour, sexual rules and a drug culture that were bad enough on the college lawns of Oxford and Cambridge in 1968, and that are plain disastrous among the dead mattresses and burned-out cars on the sink estates of post-industrial Britain. But rather than give up their delights, they are content to see the poor go to hell.
May 13, 2008
Suzanne is still struggling financially. The charity Mind says debt is affecting the daily lives of many with mental health problems, with people often running out of money and not having enough to pay for food and heating.
T PRITCHARD
George Toomie started a support group for people affected by suicide 13 years ago. Suicide is the second most common cause of death among young people in Canada.
Image courtesy of ETH Zurich
Following co-presentation with nausea, conditioned mice avoid the sugar solution for months.
COURTESY M NYE
Through photographs and audio commentary, Michael Nye has captured the world of Peter, above, and Doris (not pictured) through narratives built from the characteristics of their mental conditions.
C ESPARZA | SAN ANGELO STANDARD-TIMES
Women of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints discuss the raid at their Eldorado-area ranch. Hill Country Community Mental Health-Mental Retardation Center workers blasted Child Protective Services employees over actions at shelters.
J Kowalsky | NY Times
Reece and Amanda Heinrich of Holt, Mich., say they lost more than $14,000 to an agency after a foreign adoption fell through.
Charlotte Ashton, 25, TV presenter
May 12, 2008
C Helf | Staff Photographer
According to records from the Maryland Historical Trust, Washington County's Alms House was built in 1799 and 1800. Now sitting empty, the structure was once a repository for people at the fringes of society.
P Camacho | Pacific Sunday News
Social work: Joey Lujan, left, and his mother, Millie Lujan, right, attend the Notre Dame graduation.
M Stone | The Courier-Journal
Garry Horton adjusted his cap before the University of Louisville commencement yesterday. His mentor, University Hospital CEO Jim Taylor, right, met him when he was a high school freshman.
Ministers are warning that England's social care system is heading towards a £6bn funding gap unless there is radical reform, the BBC has learned. Within 20 years a quarter of the adult population will be over 65.
JCP Betancourt | Special to The Examiner
Shameka West, left, will be a resident adviser at a complex the county purchased to house former foster youths.
D BURK | Times-Union
Dave and Michele McKee hold Grace, 4, Joy, 6, and Elizabeth, 16 months, during Friday's adoption ceremony. They adopted Elizabeth and 4-year-old son Samuel (not pictured) in December.
Hans Cohn is married to Stefi, also blind and a Holocaust survivor
May 9, 2008
GOODBYE: Renowned Charles Sturt University rural social researcher Professor Margaret Alston will take up a 12-month position at Monash University in Melbourne
In some cities 14% of pupils are on the margins of persistent truancy
Service users are often angry and with reason. But should professionals ignore it, absorb it or get it off their chest afterwards? Sally Gillen reports on anger management strategies
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Literature
May 16, 2008
This paper considers evidence indicating the cost to the public purse of having one in five of Scotland's million children in poverty. Its central aim is to give an idea how much public money would be saved by improving the economic situation of these children. It also considers how much we are spending on supporting children in poverty, how much more it would cost to lift them out of poverty through the benefits and tax credits system and what alternative means may be available to prevent poverty through early intervention or by helping parents into work.
Sponsored by the Office for Disability Issues
Extended schools and children’s centres are designed to provide extra learning opportunities, childcare and easy access to a range of services for all children and young people and their families. For families with disabled children extended activities offer new opportunities for participation in their community. But for how many is this a real offer? Disability discrimination legislation requires all services to make reasonable adjustments and places a disability equality
duty on ‘public authorities.’ It is essential that children’s centres and extended schools are developed in a way that is accessible to disabled children and that all staff have the confidence and support to ensure that disabled children are able to participate fully.
May 15, 2008
This Statistics release presents updated information on applications made to local authorities under the homeless persons legislation during the period April to September 2007. It includes information on the characteristics of applicant households, local authority assessments and the action taken in respect of cases that were concluded. Snapshot data on households in temporary accommodation at 30 June, 30 September and 31 December 2007 are also presented in this release, together with data on the implementation of the Homeless Persons (Unsuitable Accommodation) (Scotland) Order 2004.
Social Security has significantly reduced elderly poverty. The elderly poverty rate has fallen from 35% in 1959 to an all-time low of 9% in 2006, in large part because of Social Security. If Social Security benefits did not exist, an estimated 44% the elderly would be poor today assuming no changes in behavior. The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, also provides benefits to the poorest elderly, many of whom do not qualify for Social Security benefits. However, despite these programs, about 3.4 million elderly individuals remained in poverty in 2006. The Social Security system faces a long-term financing problem. The Social Security Trustees project cash-flow deficits beginning in 2017 and trust fund insolvency in 2041. Many recent proposals to improve system solvency would reduce Social Security benefits in the future. Benefit reductions could affect the lowincome elderly, many of whom rely on Social Security benefits for almost all of their income. Such potential benefit reductions could lead to higher rates of poverty among the elderly compared to those projected under the current benefit formula. Because the low-income elderly are especially vulnerable to benefit reductions, many recent Social Security reform proposals have included minimum benefits or other provisions that would mitigate the effect of benefit cuts on the elderly poor. This report analyzes the projected effects of four possible approaches to mitigating the effects of Social Security benefit reductions on elderly poverty in 2042, the first full year of projected trust fund insolvency. The options are compared to a payable baseline, which assumes current-law benefits would need to be cut across the board to balance Social Security's annual income and spending at the point of insolvency. The four options examined are (1) a poverty-line Social Security minimum benefit; (2) a sliding-scale Social Security minimum benefit; (3) a povertyline SSI benefit; and (4) a poverty-line SSI benefit with liberalized eligibility. Major findings include the following:
- Based on SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2006 an estimated 30.5 million persons aged 12 or older reported driving under the influence of alcohol at least once in the past year and 10.2 million reported driving under the influence of illicit drugs during the past year. Illicit drugs included marijuana/hashish, cocaine, crack cocaine, inhalants, hallucinogens, heroin, or prescription-type drugs used nonmedically.
- Combined data from SAMHSA's 2004 to 2006 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health were used to produce average annualized data on driving under the influence of alcohol or illicit drugs in the past year for each State based on self reports by adults aged 18 or older.
- Based on the combined 2004 to 2006 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health data from current drivers aged 18 or older, 15.1% had driven under the influence of alcohol during the past year and 4.7% had driven under the influence of illicit drugs.
- States with the highest rates of driving under the influence of alcohol in the past year among adults aged 18 or older were Wisconsin (26.4%), North Dakota (24.9%), Minnesota (23.5%), Nebraska (22.9%), and South Dakota (21.6%).
- The highest rates of driving under the influence of illicit drugs in the past year among adults aged 18 or older were in the District of Columbia (7.0%), Rhode Island (6.8%), Massachusetts (6.4%), Montana (6.3%), and Wyoming (6.2%).
Mental disorders are common in the United States and internationally. An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.1 When applied to the 2004 U.S. Census residential population estimate for ages 18 and older, this figure translates to 57.7 million people.2Even though mental disorders are widespread in the population, the main burden of illness is concentrated in a much smaller proportion — about 6 percent, or 1 in 17 — who suffer from a serious mental illness.1 In addition, mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and Canada for ages 15-44.3 Many people suffer from more than one mental disorder at a given time. Nearly half (45 percent) of those with any mental disorder meet criteria for 2 or more disorders, with severity strongly related to comorbidity.
Recent years have brought both technical progress and increased political commitment to global public health and nutrition. There is growing recognition, however, that overcoming the remaining challenges facing mothers and children – and reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – will require radical changes to the scale and scope of effective strategies. This is where the Countdown comes in. Countdown to 2015 is a collaborative effort to track progress
in maternal, newborn and child survival in high mortality countries. Involving a range of institutions and individuals, it highlights the progress, obstacles and solutions to achieving MDGs 4 (child survival) and 5 (maternal health).
Description: This report, prepared for the Social Transition Office of the USAID Bureau of Europe and Eurasia, is the result of a desk top study—a secondary analysis of regional and country-specific reports on the evolution of family-focused, community-based social services for vulnerable groups in the region. Paralleling the region’s transition from a command economy to a market-oriented society is a shift in the social contract from a state to a shared state-community responsibility for care of vulnerable groups. This study provides a framework for analyzing common elements in the transition of the social service delivery system that cut across different vulnerable groups. The report identifies internationally recognized standards of practice and describes examples of promising practices in community-based social services emerging in the region.
May 14, 2008
Description: Social work must examine its professional practice and educational agenda through the lens of democratic principles. Social tolerance and social civility are two central concepts that promote strong social welfare directions for democracies. These concepts are used to address some of the challenges encountered by emerging democratic countries that were formerly part of the former Soviet block.
This report maps some of the key features of the ‘care workforce’ – defined as Social care and Childcare workers. They are contrasted with four other occupational groups: Nursing workers; Education workers; occupations with high levels of female workers; and all women workers. Education and Nursing workers, with the ‘care workforce’, constitute the ‘human services’ workforce. The mapping exercise is based on secondary analysis of the Labour Force Survey (LFS), combining data over five years (from 2001-2005). It separately covers England and Scotland.
Retirement continues to change in many ways. This is certainly evident in terms of its timing,
given the declining rate of labour force participation among older men between the 1970s and
mid-1990s and its reversal in more recent years (Marshall and Ferrao 2007). Likewise, the process appears to be changing, given phenomena such as post-retirement employment (Schellenberg et al. 2006), phased retirement and diverse pathways into retirement (Nouroz and Stone 2006). Retirement is also changing in the extent to which it is being navigated by dual-earner couples.
A Guide for Deans and Directors Prepared by Dr. Sharon Kreigher, Mary Van Hook, Sue Tebb, Esther Langston, Katharine Briar-Lawson with assistance from Anita Rosen (CSWE) and Joan Zlotnik (IASWR).
The Mental Health Act 2007 (Commencement No. 5 and Transitional Provisions) Order 2008 - S.I. No. 2008/800 (C.39) - brings section 44 of the Mental Health Act 2007 (the 2007 Act) on places of safety into effect on 30 April 2008. Under sections 135 and 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 (the 1983 Act) a police officer may remove a person who is believed or appears to be suffering from a mental disorder to a place of safety. Section 44 of the 2007 Act amends these sections of the 1983 Act to allow a person to be taken from one place of safety to one or more other places of safety during the 72 hour maximum overall period during which they may be detained under either of these two sections. They may be taken between places of safety by a police officer, an approved social worker (until approved social workers are replaced in this role by approved mental health professionals in due course) or someone authorised by either of them. Section 44 of the 2007 Act comes into force on 30 April 2008. NHS bodies and local social services authorities will need to ensure that their staff are aware of the change and that it is reflected in local policies.
May 13, 2008
The key points will cover:
- The number of children looked after continuously for at least 12 months
- Absences and exclusions
- Achievements at key stage 1, 2 and 3
- Year 11 children who obtained at least 1 GCSE (or equivalent)
- Year 11 children who obtained at least 5 GCSEs at A*-C (or equivalent)
- Employment status at end of Year 11
- Cautions and convictions
- Immunisations, dental checks and health assessments
- Substance misuse
In the last decade more and more of the world's leading corporations have sought and found ways to join in the fight against global poverty. In an increasingly interdependent world, there are many opportunities to do good while doing well commercially. Yet the approaches taken, and the logic of different tactics by different companies, have not been much studied. This new report, based on interviews with 15 corporations that have been active in "development" work in poor countries, offers a menu of six approaches.
Although both Social Security and Medicare have experienced enormous public support in the past, in the last decade critics have called the programs into question as bad investments, financially unsustainable, and ready for major reforms. At the policy elite level, the discussion about Social Security and Medicare has gone from a politics of consensus in which there was widespread support and relatively few public expressed differences of opinion to what might be called a politics of dissensus where disagreement has been heated. At a time when the debates about Social Security and Medicare are likely to continue and when various reform proposals are being discussed, the purpose of this paper is to step back and assess where the public's views of the two programs stand and what reforms, if any, the public favors. To what extent do the two "pillars of public opinion" on which the programs rest—commitment to the purpose of the programs and belief that they are affordable public expenditures—remain strong? Using dozens of public opinion polls over a number of years, we find that members of the public are highly committed to the two programs but have concerns about the programs' financial situation. To address their financial concerns, members of the public have voiced support for a few incremental changes and opposition to a number of others. We conclude by suggesting that it behooves policymakers to take a careful look at where the public stands and build on that support in order to overcome the current politics of dissensus.
Like many public policy debates, the discussion about whether foreign aid works takes place in two worlds. Within the research world, it plays out in the form of papers full of technical language, formulas, and numbers. Outside, the arguments are plainer and the audience broader, but those academic studies remain a touchstone. While avoiding jargon, this paper reviews recent, contending studies of how much foreign aid affects country-level outcomes such as economic growth and school attendance rates. Such studies are ambitious: it is far easier to evaluate a school-building project, say, on whether the school was built and children filled its seats than to determine whether all aid, or large subcomponents of it, improved national school enrollment or made the economy grow faster.
Survey respondents from 49 states reported investigating complaints of youth maltreatment in residential facilities in 2006, including physical abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse, and 28 states reported deaths. There were no discernable patterns in the types of facilities involved, including whether facilities were operated by government or private entities, or located in urban or rural areas. State officials said that the number of maltreatment incidents was greater than the total reported to HHS—1,503 incidents in 2005--due to barriers in data collection and reporting, including inconsistent funding and authority. States license and monitor residential facilities, but state agencies reported oversight gaps that may place youth in some facilities at higher risk for maltreatment and death.
Since 1997, the UK Government has sought to tackle disadvantage across a large number of fronts, stressing the importance of employment and personal responsibility, the scarring effects of childhood poverty and the enabling effects of strong neighbourhoods and social inclusion. For the most part, policies targeted directly at individuals – person-based policies – have developed separately from policies designed to tackle neighbourhood deprivation – place-based policies. This separation partially reflects the interests and agendas of the different government departments implementing policy, particularly the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Communities and Local Government (CLG). While many of the policies have been evaluated, little is known about what kinds of policy are most effective or about the cumulative impact of policies targeted at people and places. The objective of this review was to evaluate the effectiveness of selected policies implemented since 1997 that tackle disadvantage. The policies included were those that addressed material poverty via increased employment, better education and directly through higher incomes. The policies are further distinguished according to the relative importance of people and place in objectives, targeting and delivery.
May 12, 2008
Description: This report, prepared for the Social Transition Team of the USAID Bureau for Europe and Eurasia (E&E), is the result of a study of promising practices in community-based care for vulnerable groups conducted in five countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Romania, and Russia) in the E&E Region between September 2004 and March 2005. Of particular interest is how these countries are moving from residential care to family-focused, community care models utilizing internationally recognized standards for children and youth, elderly, disabled, and minority groups (with an emphasis on Roma).