On any given day in the United States, more than 100,000 foster children are waiting to be adopted by someone who can provide a permanent, loving home. While they wait, these children often live with foster parents, with relatives, or in group homes or institutions. Extensive recruitment efforts have been undertaken at the state and federal levels to identify homes for these children. Yet many children still wait a very long time for a new family.

Evacuated to a Texas shelter after Hurricane Katrina, a 4-year-old talks of a dead dog with white worms coming out of it. A family hopes that a baby wracked by diarrhea will return to health. Another baby, who was with a babysitter when New Orleans flooded, is now under the care of Texas's child protective service because his mother was evacuated to Iowa.

This report presents the main findings from a representative national survey of employers who had recruited individuals registered under the New Deal for Disabled People during the period July 2002 to July 2003. It aims to provide a quantitative assessment of the nature and scale of employer involvement with the programme.

This flyer tells NHS customers about the change to the sale of low-cost infant formula from NHS clinics.

This is a basic guide to social security benefit rates, benefit earnings rules and National Insurance contribution rates.

• Aging in Canada in the 21st century


• Canada's aging population: demographic time bomb or economic myth


• The challenges of long-term residential care


• Long-term care memos from the front line


• Ethical issues in the care of the elderly


• Diagnosing dementia — differentiating Alzheimer's from other forms of dementia


• Managing Alzheimer's disease


• Assessing medical fitness to drive in the older driver


• Preventing falls in older adults


• When to admit a patient to long-term care


• Aging and primary care: personal reflections

In this Special Feature, Bernard Davies sets out what he judges to be the most important and salient features of the activity which names itself ‘Youth Work’. Davies brings to bear the full weight of his broad and historically informed experience of practice, teaching, and
research to assess the significance of the impact of the contemporary policy environment. He argues that it is crucial that youth work identifies and clarifies those aspects of its practice which distinguish it from other approaches to work with young people and
the Manifesto is offered as a contribution to that process. Davies believes that if those associated with the work undertake this task effectively, youth work might grow and flourish in the new context. If practitioners and intellectuals do not take up this challenge, there is a danger that youth work might lose what little authority it already has to address the needs and interests of young people.

Glasgow Women's Library is a provider of information by and about women. It is a popular meeting place for women and its creative, supportive environment acts as a catalyst for projects, friendships and laughter.

GWL includes the Lesbian Archive and Information Centre (LAIC). The LAIC was set up in London in 1984 and contains the UK's largest and most significant collection of materials about lesbian lives, activism and achievements.

This guidance for local education authorities considers the implications of very early identification of deafness through screening of newborn children for existing service delivery to the families of deaf children of pre-school age.

This research aimed to discover the attitudes and behaviours of young people from specific Black and ethnic minority groups to reproductive and sexual health, with specific reference to teenage pregnancy, and what factors influence them.

This research aimed to assess over the medium to long-term the consequences of teenage births for mothers, fathers and children; and to use the results of these analyses to identify pathways by which the negative impacts of teenage childbearing could potentially be minimised.

This publication contains projections of Australia's population by age and sex for the period 2004–2101, and projections of the states, territories and capital cities/balances of state for the period 2004–2051. The 30 June 2004 figures are revised estimated resident population.

Analysts of the offshoring phenomenon have expressed a range of views about the likely impacts of offshoring on four broad areas. The differing views reflect several factors: the fact that services offshoring is a relatively recent development whose impact is not fully known, the limitations of available data on offshoring, and different theoretical expectations about how services offshoring will impact the U.S. economy.

The Depression Monitoring Kit is an educational booklet to help adults with depression (and their family members) monitor depression treatment with daily and weekly tools.

Local Authorities are responsible for running street counts in partnership with voluntary sector organisations, police and other volunteers and should be conducted in accordance with ODPM guidance. In areas such as Westminster, these take place on a regular basis throughout the year, in order to monitor the level of those people regularly sleeping rough on the streets.

This public health programme guidance will consist of recommendations on broad-ranging (those that may apply across a range of topics or behaviours) and specific interventions (those that relate to a particular activity like smoking) that aim to promote or support attitude, knowledge and behaviour change, in order to help reduce the risk of developing preventable diseases or conditions or help to promote healthier lifestyles. This guidance will provide recommendations for good practice, based on the best available evidence of effectiveness, including cost effectiveness.

This report presents the findings from the 2003 Offending, Crime and Justice Survey on the experiences of respondents from different ethnic groups. It examines levels of self-reported offending, anti-social and other problem behaviours and drug use among different ethnic groups, and explores the extent to which different groups report contact with the criminal justice system.

This letter raises the issue of unacceptable delays in the transfer of acutely mentally ill prisoners to and from hospital under section 47 and 48 of the Mental Health Act 1983. It draws attention to newly published guidance aimed at assisting colleagues to work together more effectively to secure and sustain significant improvements in unacceptable delays in the future.

The session, moderated by Frank Sesno, George Mason University Professor of Public Policy and Communications and CNN correspondent, engaged high school students; their parents; and a panel of students (including those in recovery), a judge, a doctor, in a discussion about the legal consequences and liability concerns, brain health considerations, and overdose and negative consequences associated with underage drinking.

Methamphetamine, a powerful and addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system, may be hitting closer to your home or community than you would like to think. Used mostly in Hawaii and the Southwest region of the United States during the early 1990s, the drug’s popularity has spread across the nation to both urban and rural areas.

The distress and grief of same-sex partners, grandparents, grandchildren and siblings who lose a relative is to be recognised by an amendment through the Family Law (Scotland) Bill proposed today.

Family Law (Scotland) Bill

This study examines local and state programs and policies to improve the quality of family child care. Through literature review and interviews with child care experts and program administrators, key needs and strategies for improving quality in family child care settings were identifi ed. The report describes approaches used by four state-wide programs and nine local programs.

This Briefi ng Paper, the fi rst in a two-part series addressing the needs of the women of the Gulf Coast region, uncovers the multiple disadvantages experienced by women who lived in the areas affected by both the hurricanes, Katrina and Rita, and in many of the communities to which the evacuees are moving. It also outlines policy alternatives to help rebuild their lives in a way that will allow them to ultimately leave poverty behind. At the same time that women in the region grapple with disadvantages, their work is key to recovery efforts and to the economic health of areas where many have resettled. Like women elsewhere, women in this region participate in the labor force in large numbers and are the vast majority of teachers, nurses, and sales and offi ce workers. Women’s labor will provide a key asset for recovery, whether in their temporary communities or in their old or new homes.

Alzheimer's Association

• Dementia care practice recommendations for assisted living residences and nursing homes

• Preventing lead poisoning in young children

• Palliative treatment of cancer

• Pain in the HIV-infected substance user

Under the Civil Contingencies Act, local authorities are a category 1 responder, and have a key role to play in respect of their social care functions in discharging their duties in the legislation. This bulletin gives a brief overview of the provisions of the Act; describes what it means for directors with a social care responsibility; and outlines how performance will be assessed.

Research in the Unites States concerning the relative access of women and men to financial resources has focused on the influence of women's increasing market work, but has largely overlooked the also critical issue of what happens to money after it enters couple households. To fill this gap, this paper employs a typology of household allocative systems developed in Great Britain to analyze money management and control in a sample of U.S. couples. I find that the use of these systems varies substantially across socio-economic, racial, ethnic, and relationship status groups, as well as by household division of labor. The patterns suggest that many women, already disadvantaged in earnings, either absolutely or relative to
their partners, are in couples in which male control over or withholding of income most likely reproduces or exacerbates their earnings disadvantage.

Results. Thirty-five percent of the sample is overweight or obese (>85th percentile), but Hispanic children are twice as likely as either black or white children to be overweight or obese. Despite controlling for a wide variety of characteristics, we are unable to explain either the white-Hispanic or the black-Hispanic difference in overweight and obesity. However, birth weight, taking a bottle to bed, the mother’s access to a grocery store, and the mother’s own weight status are important predictors of children’s overweight or
obesity at age three.
Conclusions. Children’s problems with overweight and obesity begin as young as age three, and Hispanic children and those with obese mothers are especially at risk.

One of the most important ways low-income individuals access critical resources such as information, goods, and services is through their individual social ties. However, neighborhood poverty constrains social ties because of the social isolation and limited social networks in high poverty neighborhoods. To make up for the lack of
social ties in high poverty neighborhoods, some neighborhood institutions, such as churches, childcare centers, and beauty salons, try to provide organizational ties to large businesses, non-profits, or government agencies rich in resources.

TimeSlips is a simple and inexpensive group storytelling technique that allows nursing home residents with Alzheimer's disease and related dementia to express themselves without relying on failing memories and deteriorating language skills. It has been shown to successfully engage residents, improve their ability to communicate, and gives them an opportunity to have fun and laugh. The technique also appears to improve relationships between nursing home residents and their caregivers.

Under the proposed Part E, covered benefits would be the same as those currently covered by Medicare, but the cost-sharing structure would be different. A single $250 deductible per person would replace the current Part A deductible of $912 and Part B deductible of $110.

Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement

• Major depressive disorder (MDD): percentage of patients aged 18 years and older whose depressive symptoms were adequately assessed for the presence of MDD during the initial visit


• Major depressive disorder (MDD): percentage of patients aged 18 years and older whose severity of MDD was classified at the initial visit


• Major depressive disorder (MDD): percentage of patients aged 18 years and older with confirmed diagnosis of MDD who had a suicide risk assessment completed at each visit


• Major depressive disorder (MDD): percentage of patients aged 18 years and older with confirmed diagnosis of MDD who received therapy appropriate to their classification


• Major depressive disorder (MDD): percentage of patients aged 18 years and older with confirmed diagnosis of MDD who were continued on medication for a minimum of 16 weeks following remission of symptoms

Over the past 40 years, the Head Start program has delivered early education and support services to 23 million low-income preschool children and their families. In 1995, Head Start expanded to serve children from birth to age 3 and pregnant women through the Early Head Start program. In addition to early education, Head Start programs must provide children and families with access to a range of comprehensive services, including parenting resources, health screenings and follow-up, and social services.

This report presents an analysis of the way in which older people's needs are being met in Medway. It assesses: progress in implementing National Service Framework for Older People standards for care of older people and subsequent policy development; the performance of the local authority and partners in commissioning and delivering services to promote independence and choice for older people and carers; and the views of older people and carers on service improvement and gaps.

This document presents various ideas about how to deal with the bullying that children and young people experience. The ideas summarise the findings in the Ofsted report on good practice and in the DfES pack 'Don't suffer in silence.'

Search engines have become an increasingly important part of the online experience of American internet users. The most recent findings from Pew Internet & American Life tracking surveys and consumer behavior trends from the comScore Media Metrix consumer panel show that about 60 million American adults are using search engines on a typical day. These results from September 2005 represent a sharp increase from mid-2004.

The annual AIDS epidemic update reports on the latest developments in the global AIDS epidemic. With maps and regional summaries, the 2005 edition provides the most recent estimates of the epidemic’s scope and human toll, explores new trends in the epidemic’s evolution, and features a special section on IV prevention.

This study aims to examine what employers seek when recruiting, and the extent to which the Government's provision meets their needs. The focus is on unemployed and inactive adults aged between 16 and state pension age. A secondary aim is to explore whether there are differences in employers' requirements by age.

This project examines evidence on training by age amongst people who are currently unemployed or economically inactive. The focus is on all adults aged between 16 and the state pension age, since encouraging training throughout life is important to ensuring the supply of skills required by the economy.

Reports the number of persons on probation and parole, by State, at yearend 2004 and compares the totals with yearend 1995 and 2000. It lists the States with the largest and smallest parole and probation populations and the largest and smallest rates of community supervision, and identifies the States with the largest increases. The Bulletin also describes the race and gender of these populations and reports the percentages of parolees and probationers completing community supervision successfully, or failing because of a rule violation or a new offense.

Crime in the United States, 2004 . . . offers an array of offense, arrest, and police employment data with national totals broken down by region, state, and agency. Narrative and tabular portions highlight national and regional trends identified in the reported figures for the year.

This paper briefly reviews the range of prevention, intervention, suppression, and comprehensive strategies, providing examples of each type. It then offers a case study of problem analysis in Newark, New Jersey. The Greater Newark Safer Cities Initiative (GNSCI) began in 1996 as a collaborative effort among law enforcement, community groups, social service agencies, clergy, and Rutgers University to address and temper the local violence problem. By 2003, the partners in GNSCI expressed concern over a perceived growth in street gangs and related crime. Accordingly, the North Jersey Gang Task Force emerged under the framework and from the existing partnerships of GNSCI. This paper discusses the unique utility of network analysis in the resultant problem analysis and underscores the important role of an academic research partner. Finally,
the paper considers the importance of sustainability with regard to problem analysis.

Higher education is one of the most effective ways that parents can raise their families' incomes. There is clear evidence that higher educational attainment is associated with higher earnings. Over the past two decades, parents with less education have been losing economic ground. Policies that support education for low-income parents and children offer them the potential for lasting economic security.

Nearly one-third of Americans live in urban areas. . . Although cities offer many social and economic opportunities, children in urban areas are more likely to live in low-income families than are rural or suburban children. . . Material hardship can have negative, long-term social, emotional, and developmental consequences for children . . . children in urban areas are disproportionately vulnerable.

On any given day in the United States, more than 100,000 foster children are waiting to be adopted by someone who can provide a permanent, loving home. While they wait, these children often live with foster parents, with relatives, or in group homes or institutions. Extensive recruitment efforts have been undertaken at the state and federal levels to identify homes for these children. Yet many children still wait a very long time for a new family.

These are challenging economic times for American families, especially those headed by low-wage workers. But state policy can play an important role in helping those who work hard achieve economic security for their families. This document outlines why state policymakers need to pay more attention to low-wage work, its affects on families and children, and what it takes for low-wage workers to make their families economically secure. It also describes a set of State Family Economic Security Profiles that the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) designed to highlight policy options available to state policymakers, the choices each state has made, and how families are doing economically in all 50 states and the District of Columbia .

NCCP's 50-state Family Economic Security Profiles document the tremendous variation that exists across the states. This nation has states at extremes in terms of child poverty, levels of parental education, and numbers of families who lack health insurance. The same can be said about state policy choices. Many states could do far more to help struggling working families. Yet, despite fiscal pressures, other states have made the commitment to not let tough times fall solely on the backs of their state's most vulnerable workers and their families. When it comes to family economic security, state policy can make a difference.

This report evaluates the DfES grant scheme for national voluntary youth organisations, which ran from April 2002 to March 2005. It evaluates the effectiveness of strategies designed to tackle social exclusion and to raise young people's achievement; the quality of practice in youth work and the curriculum; and the contribution made by leadership and management to the standards achieved. It also includes case studies and examples of good practice to illustrate the breadth and quality of the work seen.

This is a consultation on the Fire and Rescue Service strategy for children and young people, which is a five-year strategy intended to deliver effective reduction of fire risk and fire crime. The strategy aims to ensure excellence in work with children and young people, especially those in deprived communities.

Rural Community Assistance Corporation is dedicated to assisting rural communities achieve their goals and visions by providing training, technical assistance and access to resources. Most RCAC services are available to communities with populations fewer than 50,000 and for the benefit of low-income people.

Following the events of 7 and 21 July 2005, the Government appointed a diverse range of people with different skills and knowledge to join seven working groups to work together to prevent extremism. This report includes recommendations put forward by the working groups.

From 1975 to 2004, the labor force participation rate of mothers with children under age 18 rose from 47 to 71 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And while the availability of child care subsidies has increased dramatically in recent years, the Urban Institute reports that nationally only between 10 percent and 15 percent of eligible children benefit from child care subsidies from the Child Care and Development Fund, the main source of federal funding for this help.

The best way to measure the impacts of many important educational interventions is to randomly divide schools into a treatment group, which receives the intervention, and a control group, which does not — and then to compare future student achievement outcomes for the two groups. This paper examines how controlling statistically for baseline covariates (especially pretests) improves the precision of studies that randomize schools.

The analysis of family structure variables showed marked geographic patterns. States in the Northeast had some of the highest levels of unmarried-couple households, particularly Maine (7.3 percent of all households), New Hampshire (7.2 percent) and Vermont (7.1 percent). States in the South, including Alabama (3.0 percent), Arkansas (3.6 percent) and Mississippi (3.8 percent), were among those with the lowest percentages of unmarried-partner households. Southern states (and the District of Columbia) also tended to have a higher percentage of unwed mothers with infants compared with the national average. These included the District of Columbia (53.4 percent), Mississippi (45.7 percent) and Louisiana (40.2 percent of all mothers).

Defining precisely who is at risk for alcohol problems and assessing the risks versus the benefits of alcohol use are important to designing effective interventions to reduce alcohol problems and providing accurate public health information.

This guide is written for primary care and mental health clinicians. It has been produced by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism . . . with guidance from physicians, nurses, advanced practice nurses, physician assistants, and clinical researchers.

With the risk of more than one in three getting cancer during a lifetime, each of us is likely to experience cancer, or know someone who has survived cancer. Although some cancer survivors recover with a renewed sense of life and purpose, what has often been ignored is the toll taken by cancer and its treatment on health, functioning, sense of security, and well-being. Long lasting effects of treatment may be apparent shortly after its completion or arise years later. The transition from active treatment to post-treatment care is critical to long-term health.

The focus of this paper is to investigate and critique the literature available on slips, trips and falls and the behavioural aspects that contribute to these accidents occurring, both in the workplace and in public areas. It also highlights factors that have not been explored with explicit reference to slips, trips and falls but may point towards areas for future research.

This document sets out and consults upon the Government's views on further development of the provision of housing-related support services to enable vulnerable people to live independently, as currently provided through the Supporting People programme.

This year's debate over Social Security has focused primarily on retiree benefits and has largely neglected the survivors and disability portions of the program. The fact that two-thirds of retirees receive at least half of their income from Social Security has become well-known. . . Yet many people seem unaware that about one in six Social Security beneficiaries receive survivor benefits as the spouses and dependents of deceased workers and another sixth receive disability benefits. . . In 2003, some 1.9 million children received survivor benefits at an average of $603 per month, totaling $14 billion a year. . . For many families, Social Security provides the only form of life insurance for their children.
View Figure: Percent of families with children without private life insurance

The number of people without health insurance grew significantly for the fourth year in a row. Nearly 46 million Americans were uninsured in 2004—up six million since 2000. The rate of those without insurance for the whole year has grown 1.5 percentage points during this period, from 14.2% in 2000 to 15.7% in 2004.

This section of the website has valuable information for anyone involved in health and social care for older people with mental health problems. It will be regularly up-dated to ensure that we bring you the latest guidance on positive practice, local service examples and links to relevant policy.

The Volume will contain national and local figures on referrals, assessments and children and young people on the child protection register. This is an update of the 2003 publication that was published in January 2004 and the SFR that was published on 17 November 2004.

The Department of Health is seeking views about plans for new mental health legislation set out in the Mental Health Bill, as part of the race equality impact assessment on the Bill.

Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care
Prevention of falls in long-term care facilities

The Nutrition Checklist is based on the warning signs described below. Use the word DETERMINE to remind you of the warning signs.

In 2004, more than 50 percent of children without health insurance had not seen a dentist in the past year, and more than one in five needed dental care but did not receive it for financial reasons. In contrast to children with insurance, 21 percent of uninsured children had unmet dental needs, compared with 4 percent of children covered by private insurance and 8 percent of those covered by public insurance (mostly Medicaid)...

Among young people ages 15 to 24 in 2002, 13 percent of females and 5 percent of males reported that their first sexual experience occurred at age 15 or younger with an individual who was three or more years older ("statutory rape").

This analysis examines how much immigrants are contributing to the increasing uninsured population from 1994 to 2003.

The number of uninsured under age 65 increased by nearly six million between 2000 and 2004 (Figure 1), primarily due to a decline in employer-sponsored insurance. The share with job-based coverage dropped by almost five percentage points between 2000 and 2004.

In order to provide the reader with the most up-to-date information possible, the Population Profile has been changed to a dynamic, Internet-only publication that will be updated as new research is released. The first issue of the Population Profile of the United States was published in 1974. Originally updates were published every year, but the schedule was soon modified to alternate years. The last printed version of the Population Profile used 1999 data and was issued in 2001. In 2002, the first Internet-only version of the Profile was posted on the Web. The individual chapters of the new Dynamic Version of the Population Profile will be updated on an ongoing basis.

Maternity Leave and Employment Patterns of First-Time Mothers: 1961-2000 examines trends in maternity leave and the employment patterns of women who gave birth to their first child during the last four decades of the 20th century. Among the findings: About 57 percent of new mothers worked full time during their pregnancy in the late 1990s and 2000, up from 40 percent in the early 1960s.

Participation of Mothers in Government Assistance Programs: 2001 reveals that 29.4 percent of women who had a child in the previous year participated in at least one of six public assistance programs. That was down more than 10 percentage points from the 41.5 percent rate in 1996, the year welfare reform was enacted.

According to Sex on TV 4, a biennial study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the number of sexual scenes on television has nearly doubled since 1998. And while the inclusion of references to “safer sex” issues – such as waiting to have sex, using protection, or possible consequences of unprotected sex – has also increased since 1998, that rate has leveled off in recent years. The study examined a representative sample of more than 1,000 hours of programming including all genres other than daily newscasts, sports events, and children’s shows. All sexual content was measured, including talk about sex and sexual behavior.

Veterans Day originated as “Armistice Day” on Nov. 11, 1918. Its purpose: to commemorate the end of World War I. First proclaimed by Congress in 1926, and each year thereafter, Armistice Day became “Veterans Day” in 1954 as a result of legislation signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The name was changed to honor all who served the nation in wars or conflicts. Veterans Day has been observed annually on this date since 1978, except for a brief period when it was celebrated on the fourth Monday of October.

Ecstasy, one of several club drugs appearing on the “rave” or all-night party scene, is increasingly becoming the drug of choice among teens. Not only is the drug inexpensive, but teens do not associate a great deal of risk with this drug. However, this colorless, tasteless, and odorless drug that produces increased stamina and intoxicating highs is a silent but deadly menace. It can lead to long-lasting psychological and physical problems and it can even be lethal when used in excessive amounts.

Substance abuse has long been linked to physical and mental problems and can influence every facet of users’ lives. Now studies show that alcohol and drug use can negatively affect a student’s school performance.

This kit provides you with all the information and inspiration you need, to help make your community child friendly. Along with background information on the issue of child abuse and neglect, this kit also offers step-by-step advice on forming your own Child friendly Community Action Group and planning your child friendly initiatives. Lists of further resources and inspiring examples of existing child friendly initiatives are also included.

One in five Americans has a disability. There is a good chance that you interact everyday with somebody who has a disability, perhaps without even knowing it. Sometimes people are uncomfortable around people with disabilities because they don't know how to act or what to say. Here are some general tips to make communicating easier.

Most people with disabilities want to take part in and contribute to the lives of their communities just like everyone else. Since roughly one-fifth of the population has one disability or another, many people with disabilities will make the news. The important thing is to note their disability if it is relevant to the story, but not dwell on it disproportionately.

The Government is committed to ensuring that every child has the best start in life and to creating more choice for all parents. It also wants to support employers in recruiting and retaining the best people. This page links to documents giving information on this aim, including the Work and Families Bill and the 10-Year Childcare Strategy.

The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) shares the Government's aims of higher employment rates and reformed public services, and it has supported the broad thrust of reforms that focus on responsibilities, as well as rights. In particular, the DRC wants to see three key principles reflected in the forthcoming green paper, which are discussed in this policy document.

This is the second annual report of the Workforce Intelligence/Skills Research Unit of Topss England/Skills for Care. Its main objective is to update the statistical information shown in the first annual report, which was published in December 2003, and to draw attention to areas where data about the social care workforce is still lacking.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition is dedicated solely to ending America’s affordable housing crisis. We believe that this is achievable, that the affordable housing crisis is a problem that Americans are capable of solving. While we are concerned about the housing circumstances of all low income people, we focus our advocacy on those with the most serious housing problems, the lowest income households.

The Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma is a global network of journalists, journalism educators and health professionals dedicated to improving media coverage of trauma, conflict and tragedy. The Center also addresses the consequences of such coverage for those working in journalism.

The authors examine four approaches for improving job retention and advancement among low-income working adults: financial incentives and supports, case management and service provision, skill development strategies, and employer-focused efforts. Among the most promising tools are the use of labor market intermediaries for job placements and community colleges for training. Mixed strategies that combine strong financial incentives and supports with labor market services and training also show promise.

This evaluation of the State Children's Health Insurance Program found the program to be largely successful. According to the report, states developed and designed effective outreach strategies to attract and enroll children, and adopted simplified application and enrollment processes to aid families and retain enrollees. SCHIP programs were found to provide health coverage to the intended population, particularly children who would otherwise have been uninsured.

By latest estimates, there are over 10 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. This paper uses fact-based evidence to dispel common myths about this population. Over 90 percent of undocumented immigrant men work, and most pay payroll and consumption taxes. Two-thirds of the children of undocumented immigrants are U.S.-born citizens.

This electronic product, Divorces, Australia . . . provides information on divorces granted in Australia in 2004. Key indicators of national and state divorces are included.

View chart re: Total Prevalence of Diabetes in the United States, All Ages, 2005

The U.S. House of Representatives is considering budget reconciliation legislation that would decrease federally funded foster care services by $577 million over five years and $1.3 billion over ten years. The budget legislation is expected to go to the House floor on Thursday, November 10, 2005. The provisions in the House budget bill would discourage states from placing abused and neglected children with grandparents and other relatives, impede state efforts to reunify children with their parents, and make it more difficult to provide critical services to children and families.

Medicare has instituted a prospective payment system to reimburse facilities for patient care. Paying a predetermined rate per patient gives facilities incentives to provide care efficiently, since they can keep any difference between the set payment and their costs. However, it also gives them incentives to change their care and practice patterns to increase revenue. The authors examine the cumulative effects of payment system changes for patients receiving post-acute care, focusing on elderly Medicare patients discharged from acute care facilities, with a diagnosis of hip fracture, stroke, or lower extremity joint replacement.

This is a report of a survey that asked people from a variety of cultures across Britain 'what is Britishness?' The results showed Britishness represented very similar values and attributes to all sections of society, and that all groups identified in some way with being British.

This 12-page booklet is designed to inform parents of both primary and secondary school pupils about issues surrounding food in schools. It provides them with ideas on how to bring about an improvement in food provision within their child's school.

Provides the technical details and results of one component of a study to better understand the role and importance of Electronic Medical Record Systems (EMR-S) in improving health and reducing healthcare costs — the national-level efficiency savings that would be brought about by using Healthcare Information Technology — and the costs the nation would have to incur to realize those savings.

A guide to help employers across the country - large and small - implement the new smoke-free legislation was published today. Scotland will be the first part of the UK to become completely smoke-free in all enclosed public places from 6am on March 26, 2006.

At the request of the National Science Foundation (NSF), this report
analyzes administrative data from fiscal years 2001 through 2003
describing the outcomes of grant applications submitted by women versus men to federal agencies. The report focuses on three federal agencies: the National Institutes of Health, NSF, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Medicare Coordinated Care Demonstration is testing a range of models aimed at improving the care of chronically ill beneficiaries with Medicare fee-for-service coverage. This report, from Mathematica’s evaluation of 15 coordinated care/disease management programs, describes Medical Care Development’s coordinated care program, addressing who enrolls, the extent of physician engagement, implementation of approaches to improving patient health and reducing health care costs, and enrollees’ Medicare service use and costs during its first months of operation. The report also discusses the program’s strengths, unique features, and potential barriers to success.

The past five years have seen the emergence of a field of research that has far-reaching potential. Known as Social Neuroscience, this new domain of study is set to spearhead an assault on what has been described as science’s final frontier: understanding, even decoding the complex interconnected web that mediates between the brain, and the mind and human behaviour. Already it is making us think again about humanity’s understanding of itself and what this means for the norms and dynamics of how we behave in society.

Social capital is generally referred to as the set of trust, institutions, social norms, social networks, and organizations that shape the interactions of actors within a society and are an asset for the individual and collective production of well-being. At the macro level, social capital can affect the economic performance and the processes of economic growth and development. These webpages contain useful resources for researchers, teachers, students, and practitioners interested in social interactions and social capital, in their role in the well-being of communities, and in their relationship with human, social and economic development.

How well one communicates with their doctor is one of the most
important parts of getting good health care. The patient and doctor can work as a team, along with nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists, and other health care providers. The National Institute on Aging is pleased to introduce an update of one of our most popular publications, *Talking with Your Doctor*. This newly revised edition, available free, provides helpful worksheets, and offers many tips and suggestions.

This book was written for people with cancer to help them learn from other people with cancer. It may also be useful to relatives and friends of patients with cancer to help them better understand what the patients are going through.

This Nursing Home Abuse Prevention Profile & Checklist is an easy-to-use, yet comprehensive tool that has been designed not only to root out the “hidden” risks to vulnerable nursing home residents, but also to inspire and catalyze action. . . . This prevention resource tool can be individualized to suit local circumstances. Nursing Home Abuse Risk Prevention Profile – Part One describes three classes or groups of risk factors: 1) Resident risks, 2) Social risks of relationships, and 3) Facility administration. Part Two presents a self-evaluation checklist with instructions, which can serve as a springboard for creating a safer environment. The last section, Abuse Prevention Strategies – Part Three discusses ideas for team action. In addition, appendixes at the end summarize the research theory behind nursing home abuse prevention.

This report, Improving the Quality of Health Care for Mental and Substance-Use Conditions: Quality Chasm Series, examines those differences, finds that the Quality Chasm framework is applicable to health care for mental and substance-use conditions, and describes a multifaceted and comprehensive strategy to do so. The strategy addresses issues pertaining to health care for both mental and substance-use conditions and the essential role that health care for both plays in improving overall health and health care. In doing so it details the actions required to achieve those ends-actions required of clinicians; health care organizations; health plans; purchasers; state, local, and federal governments; and all parties involved in health care for mental and substance-use conditions

Profiles more than 1.6 million delinquency cases handled by juvenile courts in 2000 and reviews judicial trends since 1985. This OJJDP Report, the 74th in the Juvenile Court Statistics series, analyzes the offenses charged in delinquency cases, demographic characteristics of juveniles involved, sources of referral, and case processing (detention, intake decisions, waiver to criminal court, adjudication, and disposition). The Report also profiles status offense cases disposed between 1985 and 2000. The data used in the analyses were contributed to the National Juvenile Court Data Archive by more than 2,000 courts with jurisdiction over 71 percent of the juvenile population in 2000. The Report includes tables, figures, and an appendix with county and state-level case statistics for 2000.

Summarizes and analyzes national and state juvenile arrest data presented in the FBI report Crime in the United States 2003. As the Bulletin reports, the juvenile violent crime arrest rate in 2003 reached its lowest level since 1980. The rate, which grew substantially during the late 1980s and peaked in 1994, has decreased for 9 consecutive years. In 2003, it was nearly half its 1994 peak level. The juvenile arrest rate for each of the offenses tracked in the FBI’s Violent Crime Index (murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) has been declining steadily since the mid-1990s; for murder, the rate fell 77% from its 1993 peak through 2003.

The most comprehensive source to date of information about juvenile crime and victimization and about the response of the juvenile justice system to these problems. In early 2006, OJJDP will release Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report. Like its predecessor, the new report will compile the latest available statistics from a variety of sources, presenting information in easy-to-read tables, graphs, and maps, and analyzing the statistics in clear, nontechnical language. It will cover recent juvenile population trends; patterns of juvenile offending and victimization; and the structure, procedures, and activities of the juvenile justice system, including law enforcement agencies, courts, and corrections.

Recent public policy initiatives have encouraged low-income parents to marry as a means of attaining economic security. But, the data tell a more complex story. Marriage does not guarantee economic security. Not only do the majority of children in single-parent families have parents who were previously married, but over a quarter of children with married parents are low income.

National Memory Screening Day is a collaborative effort spearheaded by the Alzheimer's Foundation of America to promote early detection of Alzheimer's disease and related illnesses, and to encourage appropriate intervention. AFA carries out this event in collaboration with organizations and healthcare professionals across the U.S.—bringing them together for care. Participating sites offer free confidential memory screenings, as well as follow up resources and educational materials to those concerned about memory loss.

More than one in four children with married parents is low income. The majority of low-income children in rural and suburban areas live with parents who are married, and most single parents were formerly married as well. The majority of married low-income parents are employed, and 41 percent of their children have two employed parents. Illness and disability are commmon reasons for unemployment. Low wages, lack of employee benefits, frequent moves, and low levels of education are common among these parents, and their need for public health insurance and food stamps is rising.

Over the course of the late 1980s and the 1990s, anti-immigration sentiment reemerged from its relative dormancy in the post-World War II period as a salient lexicon in Western political debate. Alongside this discursive shift, a proliferation of obstructive asylum measures has come to dominate the landscape of Western immigration policies. Heightened conflict throughout the global south as well as innovations in telecommunications and modern transportation were deemed responsible for increased flows of immigrants and asylum seekers, especially from poorer countries to their industrialized counterparts. This period saw the emergence of amplified and institutionalized reluctance on the part of industrialized states to allow these arriving migrants into their communities.

The privatisation of prisons in the UK and elsewhere remains controversial. Along with a sceptical public,2 penal reformers and criminologists, in particular, remain deeply opposed to the movement and this interest has yielded a large volume of scholarly contributions . . . The privatisation of immigration detention centres, however, has tended only to receive a cursory glance in relevant debates and scholarly analyses.

Throughout the 1990s and up to the current day, negotiations concerning a referendum on the final status of Western Sahara have taken place. While agreements seem to have been made, the identification of voters has yet to be completed and no referendum appears likely to occur in the near future. The Sarahawi refugees have lived in camps for 30 years, with no end in sight.

The aim of the EThOS (Electronic Theses Online Service) project is to deliver a fully operational, easily scaleable and financially viable prototype UK online electronic theses service, and supporting infrastructure.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations from OhioLINK member universities.

For close to 30 years, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has been at the forefront of protecting the rights of scientists and the scientific community as well as finding innovative means to apply the tools and methods of science to the benefit of society as a whole. The work of the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program has constituted a leading example of the commitment of the AAAS to “advancing science and serving society.”

Among male admissions, those with co-occurring problems were more likely to report alcohol as the primary substance of abuse than male substance abuse-only admissions (48 vs. 43 percent)

In 2004, persons aged 12 or older who lived in metropolitan areas were more likely to abuse or be dependent on alcohol or an illicit drug during the past year than those living in non-metropolitan areas

View children's health insurance findings
More than 26 percent of all low-income children in the United States live in immigrant families. [1] These children are more likely to experience hardships than children with native-born parents, but they are less likely to benefit from government programs that could assist them and their families. Both federal and state policies play important roles in determining immigrant families’ access to key public benefits, impacting the economic security of millions of America’s children.

For the millions of children living in low-income immigrant families, access to public benefits varies significantly based on where they live. In response to federal restrictions on immigrants’ eligibility for benefits, about half of the states use their own funds to replace one or more key income and employment supports for immigrant families. These supports can provide critical assistance to immigrant parents who are working for low wages and struggling to provide for a better future for their children.

More than one-quarter of all low-income children in the United States are children of immigrants. Virtually all of these children have parents who work, but their parents are more likely than native-born parents to receive low wages, and less likely to receive employer benefits. At the same time, federal policies limit their families’ access to income and employment support programs that can help bridge the gap between low earnings and basic family needs. Such policies leave children in immigrant families—most of whom are U.S. citizens—at risk of not getting their basic needs met, with important implications for America’s future

This publication provides estimates of the quantity of beer and wine available for consumption for the years 1999-2000 to 2003-04. It also includes estimates of the apparent per person consumption of these products by persons aged 15 years and over. Estimates of pure alcohol available for consumption from these products, as well as from spirits, are also included, together with the apparent per person consumption of pure alcohol from these products by persons aged 15 years and over.

This page provides information on average times from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders. There are links to bulletins that give overall national figures for arrest to sentence, for England and Wales, as well as figures for the Magistrates Court and Crown Court separately. There are also quarterly reports in which figures are further broken down by criminal justice areas.

Billions of dollars have been spent on crime prevention and control
programs over the past decade. However scientifically strong impact
evaluations of these programs, while improving, are still uncommon
in the context of the overall number of programs that have received
funding. The report of the Committee on Improving Evaluation of
Anti-Crime Programs is designed as a guide for agencies and organizations responsible for program evaluation, for researchers who must design scientifically credible evaluations of government and privately sponsored programs, and for policy officials who are investing more and more in the concept of evidence-based policy to guide their decisions in crucial areas of crime prevention and control.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is a collective term given to developmental disabilities that impair the way that individuals interact and communicate with others. ASD includes Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), and others as defined by the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). Asperger’s Syndrome is sometimes used synonymously with high functioning autism to distinguish people on the spectrum who have a stronger command of language.

Reports the number of persons on probation and parole, by State, at yearend 2004 and compares the totals with yearend 1995 and 2000. It lists the States with the largest and smallest parole and probation populations and the largest and smallest rates of community supervision, and identifies the States with the largest increases. The Bulletin also describes the race and gender of these populations and reports the percentages of parolees and probationers completing community supervision successfully, or failing because of a rule violation or a new offense.

The official U.S. government Web site for information on pandemic flu and avian influenza.

States have a variety of policies regarding the licensing or approval of family foster homes. We have assembled those we were able to locate here. Note that this is not a comprehensive list of all policies. Sources of information include state statutes, policies, and websites and some personal communications. Online sources are indicated, when available.

An indicator provides evidence that a certain condition exists or certain results have or have not been achieved . . . Indicators enable decision-makers to assess progress towards the achievement of intended outputs, outcomes, goals, and objectives. As such, indicators are an integral part of a results-based accountability system.

This page links to local council inspection reports published since January 2000.

We are eager to be involved in rebuilding the Gulf Coast. Ethical standards must be employed. Exclusionary plans and programs are not to be tolerated. The priority must be to those who are the least able to restore their lives. Control and decision making must be in the hands of original and historic residents themselves. We pledge our support and offer our help to those communities and organizations that honor our principles and adhere to our guidelines.

Links to articles from the November issue of The American Prospect and resources from the Moving Ideas Network on the immigration crisis and models for comprehensive reform.

On October 31, President Bush nominated Judge Samuel Alito to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. Based on his judicial record, advocates have raised concerns about Alito's nomination seeing him as a threat to civil rights, reproductive and privacy rights, environmental protections, religious liberty and safeguards for workers.

While most adoptions have positive outcomes for the children and their families, many adoptive families need supportive services at some time during the life of the adoption. The typical crisis and transition periods (such as adolescence) that all families face can be especially difficult for adoptive families, because they also must address specific adoption-related issues. Families who adopt children with special needs from the foster care system face additional challenges, often including the children’s past experiences of abuse or neglect. While the vast majority of adoptions of children with special needs succeed, research indicates that 10 to 20 percent disrupt before the adoption is finalized, and approximately 3 to 6 percent dissolve after the adoption has been finalized.

Research has shown that parents and other caretakers who have resources and support are more likely to provide safe and healthy homes for their children. Specifically, parents need a network of supportive personal relationships and other resources for coping with stress, knowledge and understanding of critical child development issues, and financial and other concrete supports such as shelter, food, and childcare. A lack of these critical supports, on the other hand, can cause otherwise well-intentioned parents to make poor decisions that can lead to neglect or abuse.

Each year more than 800,000 children in the United States spend time in foster care as a result of abuse and neglect. States disburse about $10 billion a year in federal and state funds to meet the needs of children placed in foster care. Foster children are at particularly high risk for physical and mental health problems stemming from not only the maltreatment they have experienced but also the separation from their homes and families, and the continuing disruptions to their daily lives.

The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute study of the attrition of prospective adoptive parents highlighted trends in the number of people who do not follow-through.

This report lists resources for working with kinship caregivers. It begins by describing training materials, including: a 27-hour curriculum for kinship caregivers.

Harm reduction is a health-centred approach that seeks to reduce the health and social harms associated with alcohol and drug use, without necessarily requiring that users abstain. Harm reduction is a non-judgmental response that meets users “where they are” with regard to their substance use rather than imposing a moralistic judgment on their behaviours. As such, the approach includes a broad continuum of responses, from those that promote safer substance use, to those that promote abstinence.

This calculator allows users to place specific tax or spending numbers in the context of the total U.S. budget. It converts dollar amounts into either dollars per capita, that is per U.S. citizen, or into a percentage of total revenues, total discretionary spending, or the total budget (including nondiscretionary spending). It also provides a visual comparison showing the size of the specific spending or revenue item relative to projected defense spending over the time period in question.

The Bill will introduce new legal powers of joint inspection and access to information for those involved in inspecting children's services. The Bill was introduced following pilot joint inspections in Highland and East Dunbartonshire when it became clear that organisations were not certain about what information they could, and could not, lawfully share with the inspection teams.

National Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALS) recently met with prison health to talk about progress implementing PALS for prisoners and how best to support PALS teams to do this.

This document provides guidance for passporting adult placement schemes that are registered with the Commission for Social Care Inspection through the quality assessment framework.

Researchers trying to crack one of medicine's most perplexing unsolved mysteries can now keep abreast of late-breaking developments via the Schizophrenia Research Forum, a website launched this month with funding from the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Sponsored by NARSAD, The Mental Health Research Association, the site bills itself as a "virtual community" where researchers can link-up with colleagues and potential collaborators, learn about new findings, meetings and funding opportunities, and critique each other's articles and ideas.

from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

National Cancer Institute

• Chemotherapy and You: A Guide to Self-Help During Cancer Treatment


• Eating Hints for Cancer Patients: Before, During, and After Treatment


• Radiation Therapy and You: A Guide to Self-Help During Cancer Treatment


• Understanding Breast Changes: A Health Guide for All Women