An introduction to the mental health of older people

Mtetezi - Developing mental health advocacy with African and Caribbean men

Mother-to-Child (Perinatal) HIV Transmission and Prevention

Will the WIC program be sufficiently funded to serve all eligible applicants in fiscal year 2008?

Mortality of Americans Age 65 and Older: 1980 to 2004

Youth poverty in Europe

Aiming High for Disabled Children: Short breaks for disabled children and their families

China’s Response to HIV/AIDS and U.S.-China Collaboration

Women, health and aging: Building statewide movement

SCIE Report 17: The kinds and quality of social work research in UK universities

Highly Vulnerable Children: Causes, Consequences And Actions

Too Old to Work, Too Young to Retire?

Moving Down: Women’s Part-time Work and Occupational Change in Britain 1991–2001

Working together to support disabled parents

Measuring Civil Society and Volunteering

Maternal Mortality in 2005

Adolescent Romantic Relationships as Precursors of Healthy Adult Marriages: A Review of Theory, Research, and Programs

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit, Oct 2007

Redesign of the National Hospital Discharge Survey

Rewarding young people for pro-social behaviour

United Nations Demographic Yearbook 2004

Marriages, Australia, 2006

2008 Presidential Candidate Health Care Proposals: Side-by-Side Summary

This essay presents a novel approach to understanding sex discrimination in the workplace by integrating three distinct areas of scholarship: disability studies, labor law, and architectural design. Borrowing from disabilities studies, I argue that the built environment serves as a situs of sex discrimination. In the first section, I explain how the concept of disability has progressed from a problem located within the body of an individual with a disability to the failings of the built environment in which that person functions. Using this paradigm, in the next section, I reframe workplaces constructed for male workers as instruments of sex discrimination. I then explain how built environments intended for the male body constitute disparate impact under Title VII. In the final section, I present the architectural school of universal design, which has been a source of crucial innovation in the disability labor rights framework, as a means for both de-abling and de-sexing the workplace.

This guidance aims to provide advice on carrying out an assessment of the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers. It is not exhaustive or prescriptive. While it is recommended that the basic principles outlined here should be followed, the exact approach will need to be adapted to local circumstances.

This best practice implementation guide sets out how health and social care organisations could take a strategic approach to the implementation of the New Ways of Working strategy for developing and sustaining a capable and flexible workforce in mental health.

- As states restructure their long term care programs, a larger share of Medicaid funding is being redirected toward home and community-based services such as the “Money Follows the Person Demonstration.” If state economies downturn, this will put pressure to dampen rate increases to nursing homes, and reverse the trend achieved in nursing home funding in the past few years of rate increases, on average, keeping pace with cost increases.
- Medicare cross-subsidization of Medicaid continues to play an important role in sustaining nursing home care, even in better economic times. Even with positive Medicaid rate trends, on average, the combined margin from the two payer sources is still negative.

Over the course of a few decades, the childhoods of U.S. girls have been significantly shortened. What does this mean for girls today and their health in the future? The Breast Cancer Fund commissioned ecologist and author Sandra Steingraber to write The Falling Age of Puberty — the first comprehensive review of the literature on the timing of puberty — to help us better understand this phenomenon so we can protect our daughters’ health.

- Combined data from 2004 to 2006 indicate that an annual average of 7.0 percent of full-time workers aged 18 to 64 experienced a major depressive episode (MDE) in the past year
- The highest rates of past year MDE among full-time workers aged 18 to 64 were found in the personal care and service occupations (10.8 percent) and the food preparation and serving related occupations (10.3 percent)
- The highest rates of past year MDE among female full-time workers aged 18 to 64 were found in the food preparation and serving related occupations (14.8 percent), and the highest rates among male full-time workers aged 18 to 64 were found in the arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations (6.7 percent)

Palliative care improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing life-threatening illness by providing pain relief and management of other distressing and debilitating symptoms. Palliative care services are appropriate from the time of diagnosis of a life-threatening illness and throughout the course of the illness. Preliminary estimates show that each year, 4.8 million people who suffer from moderate to severe pain caused by cancer do not receive treatment. "Everyone has a right to be treated, and die, with dignity. The relief of pain - physical, emotional, spiritual and social - is a human right," said Dr Catherine Le Galès-Camus, WHO Assistant Director-General for Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health. "Palliative care is an urgent need worldwide for people living with advanced stages of cancer, particularly in developing countries, where a high proportion of people with cancer are diagnosed when treatment is no longer effective."

The socioeconomic vitality of rural America is linked to a number of key elements, including a core set of demographic, educational, and economic forces. Following are the most current indicators of social and economic conditions in rural areas, for use in developing policies and programs to assist rural people and their communities. In addition, two sectors that are emerging as important factors shaping the economic complexion of rural America are given special attention in this year’s report: creative occupations and ethanol-based industries.

This report highlights the significant inconsistencies in HCV testing and diagnosis across the European countries. Only between 10% and 40% of people with HCV know about their infection, according to data from different parts of Europe - including the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and the UK. Between 20% and 90% of new HCV cases are identified among past or current IDUs across all Europe.

This Issue Brief provides historic data through 2006 on the number and percentage of nonelderly individuals with and without health insurance. Based on EBRI estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s March 2007 Current Population Survey (CPS), it reflects 2006 data. It also discusses trends in coverage for the 1994–2006 period and highlights characteristics that typically indicate whether an individual is insured.

How To Collect and Analyze Data: A Manual for Sheriffs and Jail Administrators provides step-by-step instructions for local corrections personnel who want to use statistical data to improve their organization’s efficiency and provide support for funding initiatives. This book covers the entire process. It advises readers on what types of data they should regularly collect, the sources from which data can be obtained, how to store data and access it, and methods for interpreting it. Direction is given on performing these tasks both manually and electronically. Along the way, readers will find explanations of management techniques, methods of displaying data, fundamental mathematics and statistics, and ways to maximize the potential of information systems. The appendices include a glossary of technical terms, an annotated bibliography, sample forms for data collection, and tables for determining sample sizes and generating random numbers for use in sample selection.

The guide is aimed primarily at urban planners, but older citizens can use it to monitor progress towards more age-friendly cities. At its heart is a checklist of age-friendly features. For example, an age-friendly city has sufficient public benches that are well-situated, well-maintained and safe, as well as sufficient public toilets that are clean, secure, accessible by people with disabilities and well-indicated. Other key features of an age-friendly city include:
- well-maintained and well-lit sidewalks;
- public buildings that are fully accessible to people with disabilities;
- city bus drivers who wait until older people are seated before starting off and priority seating on buses;
- enough reserved parking spots for people with disabilities;
- housing integrated in the community that accommodates changing needs and abilities as people grow older;
- friendly, personalized service and information instead of automated answering services;
- easy-to-read written information in plain language;
- public and commercial services and stores in neighbourhoods close to where people live, rather than concentrated outside the city; and a civic culture that respects and includes older persons.

In October 2007, Children’s Rights, the National Foster Parent Association and the University of Maryland School of Social Work released the first-ever nationwide, state-by-state calculation of the real cost of supporting children in foster care. The report reveals widespread deficiencies in reimbursement rates across the nation—and major disparities among the states—and proposes a new standard rate for each state to use in fulfilling the federal requirement to provide foster parents with payments to cover the basic needs of children in foster care, including food, shelter, clothing and school supplies.

This report examines the link between income inequality and new housing construction in various metropolitan areas. Using data from the Census and Neighborhood Change Database on 215 metropolitan areas, the analysis compares trends between economically distressed metropolitan areas (those that experienced little or no population or economic growth) and non-distressed metropolitan areas. . . . Policymakers in economically distressed metropolitan areas who are concerned about the effects of overbuilding and income segregation—such as the decline of older cities and inner suburbs and the perpetuation of poverty—should be concerned about income inequality. Policies that reduce income inequality can help reduce overbuilding and income segregation in distressed areas.

This leaflet gives information for the public about cognitive and behavioural therapy, which will be used by the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme to make psychological therapies more widely available, especially for people who have depression or anxiety.

Seven million men and women (1 in 20 adult workers) earn low wages and live in low-income families with children. Many struggle to support their families with jobs that offer few benefits, opportunities for advancement, or links to government support programs. Meanwhile, employers are hard-pressed to balance their financial and productivity objectives in an increasingly global, competitive market. Panelists discussed what is missing from the debate about improving the income, benefits, and related work supports for low-wage workers, especially those with children.

Two employees arrive at work half an hour late. It is both employees' first offense, and each is dealt with separately by the same supervisor. The first employee tells the supervisor that an alcoholic binge the preceding night caused her to oversleep. The supervisor fires her, explaining that it is company policy to terminate an employee who is late without a valid excuse. The second employee tells the supervisor that he is late for work because he overslept. This employee, however, receives only a verbal warning and suffers no further punishment. Under traditional discrimination law, these facts would state a straightforward case of discrimination against the first employee on the basis of alcoholism. The employer's proffered reason for firing the first employee (oversleeping) would be considered a pretext - a false reason given by the employer to hide the true reason - and this would be proven by the employer's decision not to fire the otherwise similarly situated second employee. This, however, is the minority approach to alcoholic-misconduct cases. Under the majority approach, the case of the first employee would be dismissed on the theory that alcohol-related misconduct is not “because of the disability.”

The future of disability in America will depend on how well this country prepares for and manages the demographic, fiscal, and technological developments that will unfold during the next two to three decades. Building upon two prior studies from the Institute of Medicine (the 1991 Institute of Medicine's report Disability in America and the 1997 report Enabling America), The Future of Disability in America examines both progress and concerns about continuing barriers that limit the independence, productivity, and participation in community life of people with disabilities. This book offers a comprehensive look at a wide range of issues, including the prevalence of disability across the lifespan; disability trends the role of assistive technology; barriers posed by health care and other facilities with inaccessible buildings, equipment, and information formats; the needs of young people moving from pediatric to adult health care and of adults experiencing premature aging and secondary health problems; selected issues in health care financing (e.g., risk adjusting payments to health plans, coverage of assistive technology); and the organizing and financing of disability-related research. The Future of Disability in America is an assessment of both principles and scientific evidence for disability policies and services. This book's recommendations propose steps to eliminate barriers and strengthen the evidence base for future public and private actions to reduce the impact of disability on individuals, families, and society.

Since the passage of federal welfare reform in 1996, policy makers have been concerned about the well-being of families that have left welfare as well as those who have remained on the caseload. This report synthesizes the most up-to-date research about what is known about the composition of the TANF caseload and the status of TANF leavers, and how this has changed over time. This synthesis is supplemented by tabulations of data from the NSAF, SIPP and CPS on the demographics, economic situation, and barriers to work of current and former TANF recipients over time.

One of the more prominent concerns in the SCHIP reauthorization debate is that many children enrolling in the program could have been insured through their parents' employers. However, concern about parents dropping employer coverage to enroll their children in SCHIP typically ignores the affordability of that coverage. We show that families' spending burden is, on average, lower under public insurance than under employer-sponsored insurance (ESI), especially for the lowest-income families. For families in which children are covered by Medicaid or SCHIP, out-of-pocket spending is, on average, 4 to 5 percent of their income. However, for families in which children have ESI for a full year, the out-of-pocket spending burden is higher, ranging from 12.9 percent of income for families below 150 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) to 6.1 percent for families between 250-400 percent of FPL.

This brief compiles the best available data on the characteristics of vulnerable young children in four service systems: Early Head Start (EHS); the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); the child welfare (CW) system; and Part C Early Intervention Programs (Part C). Data reveal that the children and families in these systems look fairly similar on some key dimensions, suggesting that policy initiatives to support young children’s development might be informed by distilling common lessons from the systems' different research bases.

This report presents the findings from an exploratory study of the Housing First approach of providing permanent supportive housing to single, homeless adults with mental illness and co-occurring substance-related disorders. In recent years, Congress and the leadership of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have encouraged the development of permanent housing for homeless people. Concurrently, there has been a shift toward committing a greater proportion of HUD McKinney-Vento Act funds toward housing as opposed to supportive services and an increase in attention toward the hardest-to-serve, chronically homeless population, a substantial number of whom are mentally ill. Because it addresses this population and its needs, the Housing First approach is currently experiencing increased attention as a method of serving this population consistent with the above-stated goals.

About 4.5 million people in the United States have Alzheimer's disease, and almost half of them -- nearly 2.2 million people -- are in the early stages of the disease. In the years to come, these numbers are expected to grow. One reason is that as Americans live longer, more of us will develop dementia in our older years. Another reason is that new knowledge and techniques are helping doctors detect signs of the disease earlier than ever before. An earlier diagnosis gives people with the disease and their families more time to get the right treatment and to plan for the future. More and more resources are available to help people with early-stage dementia cope with their feelings and the practical aspects of everyday life. Early-stage support groups are one of these resources. Joining an early-stage support group can help you and your family learn about the disease and get useful advice about living with dementia. A support group also can connect you with others in similar situations and enable you to confront the anxiety, sadness, anger, or fear that you might be experiencing.

- Combined data from SAMHSA's National Surveys on Drug Use & Health conducted from 2004 to 2006 indicate that an annual average of 6.3 million women (9.4%) aged 18 to 49 needed treatment for a substance use problem.
- Of the women aged 18 to 49 who met criteria for needing substance use treatment in the past year, 84.2% neither received it nor perceived the need for substance use treatment. Only 5.5% of women in this age group had a perceived unmet treatment need (i.e., did not receive substance use treatment even though they thought they needed it).
- The reasons for not receiving substance use treatment among the women with an unmet treatment need were as follows: 36.1% were not ready to stop using alcohol or illicit drugs, 34.4% could not cover their treatment costs because of no or inadequate health insurance coverage, and 28.9% did not seek substance use treatment because of social stigma.

GAO recommends that BOP develop a cost-effective way to collect comparable data across low and minimum security facilities and conduct analyses that compare the cost of confining federal inmates in these facilities, consistent with OMB requirements. BOP disagreed with GAO’s recommendation and said it did not see the value of developing a methodology to compare facilities. GAO believes this comparison puts BOP in the best position to weigh alternatives for confining inmates to help ensure it is using the most cost-effective alternative.

These statistics give national figures on referrals, assessments, and children and young people who are the subject of a child protection plan or are on child protection registers for the year ending March 2007. Historical data is included for comparison purposes.

In recent years, Australia has enjoyed significant economic growth, with rates above the OECD average (OECD, 2007). Not all Australians however have shared in this increasing prosperity. There is no agreed definition of disadvantage and/or poverty in Australia, however poverty lines are used internationally to define and measure disadvantage. Internationally, the poverty line is often set at 50% of the median disposable household income with anyone below this line being deemed as living in poverty. In 2004, 9.9% of Australians, including 365,000 children, lived below this line (Australia Fair, 2007 citing Social Policy Research Centre). Whilst poverty lines provide important information on the extent of disadvantage in Australia, they do not give a sense of the daily experiences of people living in poverty, nor have they been ‘tested’ against community standards on what constitutes an acceptable standard of living in Australia in the twenty first century. This publication reports on findings from some ground breaking research.

In the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007, Congress has created the income-based repayment (IBR) plan for student loans, through which graduates with high debts and low incomes may substantially reduce their monthly loan repayment obligations. Congress has also created a public service loan forgiveness plan, through which the federal government will forgive the remaining debt of borrowers who make 120 IBR (or certain other) payments while serving full time in public service jobs (very broadly defined). These programs are available to those who borrowed for graduate and professional training as well as for undergraduate education. These two programs will be of great value to public interest lawyers because of their typically high debts and low incomes, but they will also significantly assist social workers, government employees, soldiers, nurses, doctors, teachers, and many others who work in non-profit organizations and government agencies. This article explains why Congress created these two related programs, demonstrates the magnitude of the benefits available to representative borrowers, and outlines how graduates can obtain these benefits. It also elaborates how, even before the income-based repayment plan becomes effective in 2009, public service employees may make monthly repayments that will help to qualify them for eventual loan forgiveness. Finally, the article discusses the need for additional legislation to enable these new programs to achieve their objectives fully.

The Vignette Matching Evaluation (VME) Tool was developed on the belief that scale-based evaluations of field performance, while valuably standardized, are abstracted from the reality of a field instructors’ construction of the student. The abstracted nature of those scale-based representations of the student allow several other relational and value-based pressures to affect instructors use of scores to represent the student’s performance, leading to grade inflation and a fundamental flaw in scales to effectively identify students in trouble (Bogo, Regehr, Power & Regehr, in press). The VME tool was an effort to maintain the standardization introduced by the scale-based evaluation movement, while taking advantage of the rich and immediate representation provided by written narratives.

Consent refers to the agreement by a parent, or a person or agency acting in place of a parent, to relinquish a child for adoption and release all rights and duties with respect to that child. Consent to adoption is regulated by State statutes, not by Federal laws, and States differ in the way they regulate consent. In most States, the consent must be in writing and either witnessed and notarized or executed before a judge or other designated official. State legislatures have developed a range of provisions designed to ensure protection for all involved individuals

Social Work and Health Inequalities Research Seminar Series. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Friday 10 November 2006.

In 2003, we were commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to evaluate Youth Inclusion and Support Panels (YISPs), which were being developed to identify and support young people aged 8–13 who are at high risk of offending and antisocial behaviour. The evaluation was extended by the DfES and the Youth Justice Board (YJB) in 2005 to enable us to secure a larger throughput of YISP cases for analysis as the pilots had been slower to reach their targets than originally anticipated. The evaluation has taken place at a time of considerable policy development and transformation in the areas of youth justice and children’s services in England and Wales, as part of the Government’s campaign to prevent crime, combat antisocial behaviour and tackle child poverty. This rapidly changing context has influenced the development of YISPs and promoted a new vision for children and young people. It is important, therefore, to situate this evaluation within the wider policy context.

Our specific plans to address each of the 95 recommendations of the Mental Health Task Force are detailed in the Appendix to this report. Our plan of action began immediately upon receipt of the report using multiple summits, planning and implementation teams, as well as important ongoing senior leader oversight of the plan of action. In addition, we formed a strong partnership with our Federal partners in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to build a safety net of care and a transparent picture of service to our military families. In a parallel effort, we are applying the generous funding levels provided by Congress specifically for psychological health and traumatic brain injury to begin the process of change, and we will further determine the sustainment costs associated with these changes.

This Issue Brief (1) examines principals’ reports of the prevalence of formal practices in public schools designed to prevent or reduce school violence and (2) describes the distribution of these practices by selected school characteristics. This analysis is based on school-level data reported by principals participating in the school year 2003–04 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Findings from the analysis indicate that schools implemented a variety of school violence prevention and reduction practices and that some practices were more commonly used than others. For example, 59 percent of schools formally obtained parental input on policies related to school crime and 50 percent provided parental training to deal with students’ problem behaviors. In addition, practices differed by school level and other selected school characteristics. For example, high schools were more likely than primary schools to implement safety and security procedures, while primary schools were more likely than high schools to promote training for parents to deal with students’ problem behavior.

Jane Aldgate, Professor of Social Care, Open University. 'Achieving Results with Children and Families' conference, Westpark Conference Centre, Dundee, 30th May 2007. Jane has researched a wide range of child welfare issues and publications in the field of Child Welfare including 'Children's Needs - Parenting Capacity'.

This document reports on the findings and conclusions of a research project conducted by Transport & Travel Research Ltd on behalf of the Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department of the Scottish Executive. The overall aim of this research was to investigate and review measures used to combat the abuse of parking bays reserved for disabled people, and to put forward best practice guidance, based on a review of the evidence through both desk based research and carrying out interviews with key service providers and users, on the most effective measures that can be used in off-street car parks in Scotland. The purpose of this research was to provide advice and assistance for those responsible for the provision of off-street parking in adhering to the guidelines set out in the Disability Discrimination Act 2005.

The relatively poor health of Black American people in the US and Black Caribbean people in England is a consistent finding in the health inequalities literature. Indeed, there are many similarities between the health, social, economic and demographic profiles of these two groups. However, there is evidence that Caribbean people in the US are faring considerably better. This paper explores differences in the social and economic position of Black American, Black Caribbean and white people in the US and Black Caribbean and white people in England, how these relate to ethnic inequalities in health, and may be underpinned by differences in patterns and contexts of migration. We use similar surveys from the US and England to explore these questions. The US data were drawn from the National Survey of American Life and the English data were drawn from the Health Survey for England and a follow up study. Findings show the advantaged health position of Caribbean American people in comparison with both Caribbean people in England and Black American people. Multivariate analyses indicate that these differences, and the differences in health between Black and white people in the two countries, are a consequence of social and economic inequalities.

OBJECTIVE
1. To determine the extent to which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted inspections of clinical trials from fiscal year (FY) 2000 to FY 2005.
2. To assess FDA’s processes for inspecting clinical trials.

The Act will generally only affect people aged 16 or over and provides a statutory framework to empower and protect people who may lack capacity to make some decisions for themselves, for example, people with dementia, learning disabilities, mental health problems, or stroke or head injuries who may lack capacity to make certain decisions. Alternatively, it may be because at the time the decision needs to be made, they are unconscious or barely conscious whether due to an accident or being under anaesthetic or their ability to make a decision may be affected by the influence of alcohol or drugs.
The Act has five statutory principles and sets out a single clear test for assessing capacity for specific decisions at a particular time. An act done or decision made for or on behalf of a person who lacks capacity must be in that person’s best interests. The Act provides a non-exhaustive checklist of factors that decision-makers must work through in deciding what is in a person’s best interests.

Social Work and Health Inequalities Research Seminar Series. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Friday 10 November 2006.

The Practice-Based Evaluation Tool was constructed using experienced field instructors’ language and the conceptual dimensions of practice they draw upon in evaluating students in direct service practicums. In qualitative interviews field instructors described dimensions of student competency along a range of student performance (Bogo, Regehr, Woodford, Hughes, Power, & Regehr, 2006).

Britain has an ageing society. The number of older people in the population is increasing rapidly. Many older people are living a healthy and active life, but despite this, a substantial proportion of older people need care in a hospital. This need increases with age and their stay in hospital may become more frequent or longer. Older people account for the highest use of acute hospital services and the NHS spends 45% of its expenditure on them. Maintaining a patient’s dignity and treating them with respect is of paramount importance to older people, but anecdotal evidence indicates that older people are often not treated in this way while receiving care in hospitals. It is also evident that older people are more likely to give positive feedback on their care due to inherent gratitude or anxieties about their care being affected.

People are living longer, and with birth rates falling in most regions, the inevitable consequence is an ageing population. About 700 million people - more than 10 per cent of the world’s population—are 60 or older, and by 2050, that number is expected to rise to almost 2 billion—more than one fifth of the total. Advances in medical technology, greater awareness of health issues, improved nutritional standards, and the commitment of more resources to health care have all helped to dramatically increase the chances of surviving infancy and living longer. This demographic shift is accompanied by a changing health profile, with chronic diseases, which tend to afflict older persons the most, increasing relative to those infectious and communicable diseases which hit younger people more.

The discussion of Social Security reform has centered around alternative plans to restore solvency based on the best available current projections. This is the same process that was followed in the past. In 1983 Congress enacted a bipartisan reform intended to ensure 75-year solvency for Social Security. But no sooner had Social Security been saved than the program slipped back into projected insolvency and the reform debate began anew. One reaction to this development, not without controversy, has been the notion that reform should aim at ensuring “sustainable solvency.” That is, Social Security reform should not just put the program on a sustainable footing for 75 years but should aim for projected balance over the indefinite – or even infinite – future.

This Positive Ageing Indicators 2007 report is the first step in the establishment of a regular programme of social monitoring focused on older people. The aim of the report is to provide information on the overall wellbeing of older people in New Zealand. In most of the indicators, the terms ”older population” and ”older people” refer to people aged 65 years and over (unless otherwise stated) living in private dwellings (this is noted in the introductory section of each indicator). “Private dwellings” includes retirement villages, but not rest homes and hospitals. The report uses a set of statistical indicators to assess trends across 10 “outcome domains”, or areas of older people’s lives. These domains are Income, Health, Housing, Transport, Living in the Community, Māori Cultural Identity, Access to Facilities and Services, Attitudes to Ageing and Older People, Employment, and Opportunities. Together, these domains provide an overall picture of older New Zealanders’ wellbeing and quality of life.

Strong state child care assistance policies are essential for the many low-income parents who need reliable care for their children while they work and who cannot afford the high cost of child care on their own. Center-based care for one child can average $3,000 to $13,000 a year, depending on where the family lives and the age of the child.1 Without help paying these significant costs, low-income parents face a tremendous financial strain and may risk losing their jobs because they cannot afford child care. Their children may be deprived of the high-quality child care that helps promote their learning and development. In recent years, many of these low-income families have found it particularly difficult to get the child care help they need due to declining federal child care funds and cutbacks in state child care assistance programs.

Provides the number of HIV-infection and confirmed AIDS cases among State and Federal prisoners at yearend 2005. This annual bulletin reports the number of AIDS-related deaths in prisons, a profile of those inmates who died, the number of female and male prisoners who were HIV-infected or had confirmed AIDS, and a comparison of confirmed AIDS rates for the general and prisoner populations. This report also examines trends in HIV infection, confirmed AIDS, and AIDS-related deaths. Data are from the National Prisoner Statistics and the Deaths in Custody series.

This report presents findings on crime and violence in U.S. public schools, using data from the 2005–06 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS:2006). First administered in school year 1999–2000 and repeated in school years 2003–04 and 2005–06, SSOCS provides information about school crime-related topics from the perspective of the schools. Developed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and supported by the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools of the U.S. Department of Education, SSOCS asks public school principals about the frequency of incidents, such as physical attacks, robberies, and thefts in their schools. Portions of this survey also focus on school programs, disciplinary actions, and the policies implemented to prevent and reduce crime in schools.

Deteriorating health and declining incomes threaten the welfare and security of many people as they enter old age. Nearly 80 per cent of older persons living in developing countries (about 342 million people) lack adequate income security, a figure that could, according to the World Economic and Social Survey 2007 . . . rise to 1.2 billion by 2050 if pension coverage does not keep pace with demographic changes. The Survey suggests that a minimal universal social pension provides the surest way to tackle the problem. Universal pensions would provide a floor below which nobody could fall. Moreover, they could provide the basis for a more comprehensive pension system which may consist of a mixture of public and private initiatives adapted in accordance with existing country practices, financial circumstances and equity considerations.

Social Work and Health Inequalities Research Seminar Series. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Friday 10 November 2006.

Statistics on Students in Higher Education ( HE) at Scottish Institutions 2005-06 are published today on the Scottish Executive website. This release contains updates of the figures in the Students in Higher Education in Scotland, 2004-05 News Release, published on 3 rd May 2006. Some of the tables in this release have been improved to reflect feedback from users of the statistics (see note 4 of notes to news editors). The release contains information on HE provision in higher education institutions (HEIs) as well as further education colleges (FECs) in Scotland. The figures include distance learning students enrolled at Scottish institutions, which may involve the provision of education through one or more of the following: teaching staff from Scottish institutions delivering programmes abroad; Scottish HEIs teaching at campuses abroad as well as the use of electronic learning programmes provided by Scottish HEIs.

The present report is divided into two parts. Part one gives an overview of critical themes relating to children and armed conflict and highlights significant developments over the reporting period. It emphasizes the role of field visits of the Special Representative as a key element of her advocacy strategy and outlines the main findings of missions to the Sudan, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Middle East, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. The report also lists commitments made by parties to conflict during the course of those field visits, stressing the need for timely and systematic follow-up to ensure their practical implementation. Part one concludes that Member States should apply concrete and targeted measures against recalcitrant violators, particularly where they have refused to enter into dialogue or where such dialogue has failed to yield tangible protection for children. Part two of the report presents the findings of a strategic review of the study by Graça Machel entitled “Impact of armed conflict on children” (see A/51/306 and Add.1), which marked the 10-year anniversary of that groundbreaking report.

There are strong links between poverty, deprivation, widening inequalities and problem drug use but the picture is complex. It may involve fragile family bonds, psychological discomfort, low job opportunities and few community resources.

Relative poverty, deprivation and widening inequalities, such as income, are
important factors that need to be given a more central role within the drug policy debate as they weaken the social fabric, damage health and increase crime rates.

Not all marginalised people will develop a drug problem, but those at the margins of society, such as the homeless and those in care, are most at risk.

One of the first Competency-Based Evaluation Tools in social work was developed at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto using a consensus building model with faculty members and field instructors. Eight domains of practice and associated competencies were identified and expressed as behavioral skills. The domains consisted of: Practice within a Professional Context, Practice within an Organizational Context, Practice within a Community Context, Assessment, Planning, Intervention, and Evaluation. Revisions have been made to reflect changes in practice. Field instructors rate student performance for each competency indicator on a 5 point scale that identifies stages in skill acquisition, from understanding to behavioral integration.

Latinos1 have been continually overrepresented in low-skill and service sector U.S. jobs. One of the factors accounting for this is the educational experience of the Latino community, which has been characterized by low high school graduation rates, low college completion rates and substandard schooling conditions.2 As schools and policymakers seek to improve the educational conditions of Latinos, parental influence in the form of school involvement is assumed to play some role in shaping students’ educational experiences. Despite this national interest in parental involvement, little research has been conducted on what constitutes parental involvement in the middle and high school years. Moreover, stakeholders hold diverse definitions of parental involvement, and little attention is paid to how Latino parents, specifically, define parental involvement. This growing national interest in parental involvement and the lack of research on Latino perceptions on the issue motivated the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute (TRPI) to examine what constitutes parental involvement for schools, Latino students, and Latino parents.

We’ve attempted to paint an honest picture of what AIDS in Black America is like today—the good, the bad and the ugly. That means not pulling punches on policymakers. But it means not pulling them on ourselves either. We love, respect and support the organizations discussed in this report, but we’ve not given anyone a pass. Ultimately, our review of the State of AIDS in Black America today left us with a clear conclusion: While we’ve come a long way in dealing with the epidemic, we are not near where we need be to end it once and for all. That reality is painfully evident as you turn through this report. We open with a chartbook laying out the dimensions of the problem in clear, cold numbers. Don’t just read these charts once. Clip them, post them, carry them with you and use them as a resource for getting the startling message out in your community. The report then explores the latest initiatives, challenges and failures of our national response to the epidemic, first focusing on prevention and then on treatment. Here, Katrina’s themes echo most loudly: The levees that are America’s HIV health delivery systems are broken—and the rebuilding has been devastatingly slow in coming.

Professor Nigel Parton, University of Huddersfield.
Glasgow School of Social Work Research Seminar Series: 16th November 2006.

Households that receive federal aid through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) are spending 33 percent more of their income on home energy costs compared to 1998. These households typically spend one-fifth of their annual income on home energy bills – more than six times the level that other income groups devote to home energy bills. Indeed, the increase in energy prices since 1998 has outstripped any growth in LIHEAP recipients’ income, leaving less money for food, rent, and health care. In contrast, the portion of income required to pay home energy bills has not changed for non-low-income households. In response to high energy prices in the winter of 2005-2006, the federal government increased the amount of LIHEAP funding in FY 2006 to an all-time high -- $3.2 billion.

Only a few decades ago, it was acceptable to put up a sign in a boarding house or B&B saying ‘No blacks, no Irish, no dogs’. We don’t see those signs anymore, thanks to the race relations legislation that made them illegal, as well as thirty years of hard work by the Commission for Racial Equality and others in changing the national mindset to make them morally inconceivable. But let’s not kid ourselves. Britain, despite its status as the fifth largest economy in the world, is still a place of inequality, exclusion and isolation. Segregation – residentially, socially and in the workplace – is growing. Extremism, both political and religious, is on the rise as people become disillusioned and disconnected from each other. Issues of identity have a new prominence in our social landscape and have a profound impact upon race relations in Britain.

This guideline updates a previous version: Major depression in adults in primary care. Bloomington (MN): Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI); 2006 May. 81 p.

The recommendations for the diagnosis and treatment of major depression in adults are presented in the form of an algorithm with 15 components, accompanied by detailed annotations. An algorithm is provided for Major Depression in Adults in Primary Care; clinical highlights and selected annotations (numbered to correspond with the algorithm) follow.

As obesity has come to the forefront of public health concerns, there is growing interest in finding ways to guide consumers’ food choices to be more beneficial for their long-term health. About one in five Americans participates in at least one nutrition assistance program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This study uses behavioral economics, food marketing, and psychology to identify possible options for improving the diets and health of participants in the Food Stamp Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), and the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs.

The European Union is currently confronted with major economic and demographic changes that are challenging its ability to maintain strong social cohesion. Following a period of considerable employment growth between 1997 and 2001, the labour market situation deteriorated in an unfavourable economic environment marked by much weakened economic growth in most Member States. Over the last four years, the gap between the EU and the United States in terms of GDP per capita and labour productivity widened. Moreover, fast growing economies such as China and India increase competitive pressure on businesses in the EU and these developments are perceived more as a threat than an opportunity for expanding export markets. Fears about Europe's economic prospects are compounded by growing concerns about Europe’s rapidly ageing population. As the large baby-boom cohorts move into older age, the changing relative sizes and evolving roles of the different generations will challenge the current intergenerational balance and the arrangements which have delivered social cohesion for many years are being put into question. Some observers are afraid that Europe will enter a vicious circle in which the increasing weight of caring for the older generations will stifle economic activity and reduce the wellbeing of society as a whole. In this context, social policy debates are often driven by fear. People fear for their jobs, pensions and health care and many are also afraid of the increasing number of immigrants, who are nevertheless needed to fill job vacancies. The younger generations are worried about their future. This lack of confidence may have contributed to Europe's lacklustre economic performance over recent years.

- Combined data from 2005 and 2006 indicate that nearly one fourth of blacks aged 12 or older were current smokers (i.e., used cigarettes in the past month)
- Among blacks who were current smokers, 80.4 percent used menthol cigarettes in the past month in 2005 and 2006
- Overall and for most age groups, black males and females had similar rates of past year cigarette use initiation; the one exception was that females aged 16 or 17 were more likely to have initiated cigarette use during the past year than same-aged males (9.6 vs. 5.9 percent)

On behalf of the Gambling Commission I welcome this report of the British Gambling Prevalence Survey 2007. We are grateful to the report authors for producing a comprehensive analysis of British gambling behaviour and attitudes. The Gambling Act 2005 tasks the Gambling Commission with a duty to advise the Secretary of State on the prevalence, nature and effects of gambling. The survey was commissioned to provide this information. While the 2007 survey builds on the previous British study conducted in 1999, the main purpose is to provide a benchmark and picture of the landscape prior to 1 September 2007 when the Gambling Act 2005 was implemented. We will repeat the exercise in 2009/10 to allow us to measure the impact that the Act has on gambling behaviour and attitudes.

Economic Research Reports present original economic analysis, findings and implications primarily for public and private decisionmakers’ staff and researchers. This Economic Research Report analyzes multiple years of cross-sectional data to understand trends in the relationship between food assistance program participation and body weight. The purpose is to examine whether the relationship is consistent over time and across population subgroups.

Informed consent is the process of providing the patient or, in the case of a minor or incompetent adult, the custodial parent or legal guardian with relevant information regarding diagnosis and treatment needs so that an educated decision regarding treatment can be made by the patient or custodial parent or legal guardian. Statutes and case law of individual states govern informed consent. Some states allow oral discussions, which should be documented in the medical record, while others may require written consent. Oral health practitioners should review applicable state laws to determine their level of compliance. Consent forms should be procedure specific, utilize simple terms, and avoid overly broad statements.

The analysis found that 89.6 million people under the age of 65 were uninsured for some or all of that two-year period. This constitutes more than one out of every three non-elderly Americans. That also represents an increase of 17 million uninsured Americans from 1999-2000 to 2006-2007. This report provides a detailed analysis of who these uninsured Americans are, where they live, how long they have been without health coverage, and their demographic characteristics. It also shows that four out of five Americans who were uninsured during the 2006-2007 period were in working families. With more and more people directly experiencing a lack of health coverage, this problem is already receiving top priority attention from the political candidates running for office in 2008. It remains to be seen, however, whether this attention will ultimately translate into policy changes that will result in every American having reliable and continuous access to high-quality, affordable health coverage.

• Major depression in adults in primary care: percentage of patients who have a depression follow-up contact within three months of initiating treatment
• Major depression in adults in primary care: percentage of patients whose results on 2 Patient Health Questionnaires (PHQ-9s) score less than 5 or similar testing (Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression score of 7 or less) within three to seven months after diagnosis
• Major depression in adults in primary care: percentage of patients whose results on 2 quantitative symptom assessment tools (such as Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ-9]) decrease by 50 percent within three to seven months after diagnosis
• Major depression in adults in primary care: percentage of patients whose symptoms are reassessed by the use of a quantitative symptom assessment tool (such as Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ-9]) within three months of initiating treatment
• Major depression in adults in primary care: percentage of patients with a new diagnosis of major depression, with documentation of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV TR) criteria within the three months prior to initial diagnosis
• Major depression in adults in primary care: percentage of patients with diabetes with documentation of screening for depression

The Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice (FACJJ) has developed 15 recommendations to the President and Congress that focus on the need to promptly reauthorize the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act, to amend the Act to improve juvenile justice, and to address critical issues confronting the states’ juvenile justice systems.

Enactment of the Part C referral provisions in the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA) opens the door to a powerful partnership with great potential benefits for children under age 3 involved in substantiated cases of abuse or neglect and their families. For child welfare administrators, these provisions offer new tools to enhance policy and practice and ensure compliance with Federal child welfare requirements that focus on child well-being. The provisions also connect child welfare staff to early intervention service providers who can assist in assessment, service delivery, and permanency planning. This partnership can expand the array of supports and resources for children and their caregivers to promote safety, permanency, and well-being.

This paper has three objectives. First, a review of the developing body of work on the economics of immigration in Ireland is provided. Second, the analysis undertaken by Barrett and McCarthy (forthcoming) of earnings of immigrants in Ireland is updated. Third, the earnings of immigrant women are assessed to see if they experience a "double disadvantage". Among other findings, the review of the emerging literature points to immigrants faring less well in the Irish labour market relative to native employees. As regards the analysis conducted in this paper, we find that immigrants were earning 15 percent less than comparable natives employees in 2005. For immigrants from non-English speaking countries, the wage disadvantage was 20 percent. The corresponding figure for immigrants from the EU's New Member States was 31 percent. A double disadvantage is found for immigrant women, with the earnings of female immigrants found to be 14 percent less than those of comparable native female employees. This double disadvantage is concentrated among female immigrants with third level degrees.

Falls are the leading cause of nonfatal medically attended injuries in the United States (1). Injuries caused by falls are more prevalent among adults aged 65 years and over compared with younger persons, occurring in 2005 at a rate of 76 episodes per 1,000 population among persons aged 65 years and over and 36 episodes per 1,000 population among persons under age 65 (CDC unpublished data, 2005). Annually, one in three Americans over age 65 years experiences a fall, and many of these falls are recurrent (2,3). Falls are associated with numerous morbidities, decreased quality of life, and high health care costs (4–6). Physical injuries associated with falling include fractures, contusions, and lacerations. Hip and other lower extremity fractures can be especially debilitating for older adults (7–9). Studies have shown that injuries experienced as a result of falling may lead to a decrease in the ability to perform activities of daily living (10,11). Especially among older adults, falls increase disability, and those injured during a fall often do not return to their pre-fall level of physical functioning (12).

This Economic Information Bulletin describes characteristics of low-income households that had very low food security in 2005. The U.S. Department of Agriculture monitors the food security of low-income households to assess how effectively the Government’s domestic nutrition assistance programs meet the needs of their target populations. USDA seeks to reduce the prevalence of very low food security among low-income households as part of its strategic plan under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA).

This Economic Information Bulletin describes characteristics of low-income households that had very low food security in 2005. The U.S. Department of Agriculture monitors the food security of low-income households to assess how effectively the Government’s domestic nutrition assistance programs meet the needs of their target populations. USDA seeks to reduce the prevalence of very low food security among low-income households as part of its strategic plan under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA).

This book is a contribution to current efforts to re-energize and re-politicize the gender equality agenda in international development. It brings together leading scholars in the gender and development field, who were asked to interrogate the concept of 'gender justice' from conceptual, contextual and strategic angles. The result is a stimulating multidisciplinary collection that brings feminist analysis to bear on current debates on development and citizenship. As an organization devoted to 'empowerment through knowledge', for a long time the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has been interested in women's empowerment. Its various programmes of support to research make use of gender and social analysis. However, anticipating the current wave of reassessments of 'gender mainstreaming', in the early 2000s several of us at IDRC began to feel that in addition to systematizing the consideration of gender equity and equality issues in all projects, a specific programme of support to research on gender and development per se was needed.

Coordination between the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and Medicaid has been an important component to ensuring access to primary care services for WIC clients. This study examines how increased use of managed care in the Medicaid program has affected WIC program coordination efforts. According to the study sample, 72 percent of State Medicaid agencies report that Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) are required to inform their members about WIC. About 43 percent of State WIC agencies sampled in the study have a formal agreement with a State Medicaid agency, generally revolving around data sharing, referrals, and provision of special metabolic infant formulas. The agreements often lack specific details on how services should be coordinated, however. Some local WIC agencies and MCOs have implemented innovative approaches to coordination. These approaches include Medicaid staff at WIC clinics to help clients with enrollment, sharing information to promote targeted outreach efforts, helping clients identify providers and resources, and MCOs paying transportation costs of WIC clients to attend WIC appointments.

While the vast majority of low-income parents today work steadily, many still struggle to support their families in jobs that offer few benefits or links to public supports. At the same time, employers are balancing their financial and productivity objectives in an increasingly global, competitive market. Given these factors, researchers and policymakers are considering how both the private and public sectors can support working families and, at the same time, encourage productivity and organizational competitiveness.

This document gives definitions for key terms relating to affordable rural housing.

The Skid Row Collaborative (SRC) is one of 11 projects funded in fall 2003 under the Chronic Homelessness Initiative (CHI) in fall 2003 to demonstrate the feasibility of moving chronically homeless disabled people directly into housing and helping them retain housing with health, mental health, substance abuse, and other supportive services. With much higher housing retention at the three-year milestone than a comparison group (59 vs. 14 percent), the SRC has proved to be a successful model of housing plus services for the Skid Row population—a model that could be adopted more widely in Skid Row and beyond.

This report uses 1985-2000 data from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to examine the effects of the Food Stamp Program on obesity. The effects are found to differ by gender, level of benefits, and duration of participation. Results suggest that, for females, current program participation increases Body Mass Index (by 0.5 index point on average) as well as the probability of being obese (between 2 and 5 percentage points). Current program participation was not found to have significant effects for males. Long-term participation is found to increase obesity for females and males.

How providers can help women with HIV make reproductive decisions.

In the Korogocho slums of Nairobi, Kenya, a mother with HIV (on right) discusses family planning with an HIV activist and trainer. In the mother’s lap rests one of her two children born after she was infected. Both children were born with HIV, but are receiving treatment and are healthy. Although her husband was exposed to HIV while trying for pregnancy, the couple carefully uses condoms now and her husband remains HIV-negative. She now trains others in her community on family planning and home-based care.
F Masi | Voiceless Children

Our essay proceeds in three steps. We first tell the story of previous research on professorial politics, pointing out along the way the methodological shortcomings of several recent studies. In our view, these shortcomings are not so great as to warrant rejecting the studies out of hand – indeed, we find some consistency between the findings of such studies on certain questions and our own. But the problems do reflect a tendency in recent research to privilege the scoring of political points over methodological care or theoretical acumen. In the second step of the essay, we describe our own methodology. Third, we proceed through the core findings of our study with regard to political selfidentification, political party affiliation, voting, a range of social and political attitudes, pedagogy, and views of the university environment, attending where helpful to the distribution of professors’ views across disciplines, types of institutions, age, and other variables. A unique feature of our analysis is that, with regard to social and political attitudes, we show how professors’ views within different substantive domains – socioeconomic issues, attitudes toward race, gender, and so on – cluster together. We conclude by briefly outlining what we see as the important next steps for sociological research on professors and their politics.

The last decade of the 20th century witnessed significant declines in the rate of crime in the United States. This was true for most types of crime, including homicide and serious violent crime. Despite these declines, the level of gun crime in the United States remains higher than that experienced in other western democracies and is a source of untold tragedy for families and communities. Given this context, in 2001 the Bush Administration made the reduction of gun crime one of the top priorities of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), along with combating terrorism and enhancing homeland security.

No issue has had more impact on the criminal justice system in the past three decades than national drug policy. The “war on drugs,” officially declared in the early 1980s, has been a primary contributor to the enormous growth of the prison system in the United States during the last quarter-century and has affected all aspects of the criminal justice system and, consequently, American society. As a response to the problem of drug abuse, national drug policies have emphasized punishment over treatment, and in a manner that has had a disproportionate impact on low-income minority communities. After millions of people arrested and incarcerated, it is clear that the “war on drugs” has reshaped the way America responds to crime and ushered in an era of instability and mistrust in countless communities.

This report outlines the Disability and Carers Service's achievements in the past year against its public service agreement targets. It also details how the agency has improved the service to customers and partners and how it is growing the capabilities of staff.

The National Criminal Justice Statistical Framework (NCJSF) discusses the various connections across the main sectors of the criminal justice system and identifies some of the key counting units (such as "person" and "criminal incident") and data variables that characterise its main aspects. The Framework aims to support integration of criminal justice data between the different, interconnecting sectors of the criminal justice system as well as across the states and territories of Australia. It achieves this by promoting comparability of data both within and between jurisdictions. B