grey literature December 2007 archives
December 31, 2007
Prepare children to move from one activity or setting to another. Provide verbal cues before transitions (e.g., “5 minutes ‘til snack,” “it’s almost clean-up time”). Use nonverbal cues (e.g., showing pictures of the next activity, ringing a bell).
This document is the analysis of responses to the consultation, which ended on 11 September 2007. The consultation was on a range of proposals about increased empowerment of social housing tenants, including revised arrangements for tenant management and establishing a national tenant voice.
- Male admissions to substance abuse treatment with co-occurring psychiatric and substance use disorders were more likely than those without these co-occurring disorders to have started using alcohol and/or illicit drugs before age 13 (18% vs. 13%). The largest differences between first use before age 13 for the co-occurring vs. non co-occurring groups of male substance abuse treatment admissions were for alcohol (24% vs. 16%) and marijuana (32% vs. 23%).
- Among male substance abuse treatment admissions reporting alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, or stimulants as the primary substance of abuse, those with co-occurring psychiatric and substance use disorders were more likely than those without co-occurring disorders to report daily use of these substances.
- Male substance abuse treatment admissions with co-occurring disorders were more likely than those without co-occurring disorders to report five or more prior substance abuse treatment episodes (17% vs. 10%).
Tackling Drugs to Build a Better Britain, a ten-year strategy published in 1998, focused strongly on tackling drug-related crime. The police were expected to become a key player, combining the curbing of drugs supply with the potentially contradictory role of channelling drug-using offenders into treatment. The strategy provided little direction in terms of the street policing of problem drug users. Instead, this was shaped by wider developments in the organisation and delivery of policing. Prioritising 'volume crime', the removal of institutional targets for drug offences and the greater emphasis on reassurance-based street patrols have diluted the extent to which problem drug use is the focus of law enforcement agendas. Since 1998, a series of policy and legislative developments have informed the street policing of problem drug users.
This research brief describes findings from HIV Costs and Services Utilization Study surveys on the prevalence of mental health and substance abuse problems for persons with HIV, access to appropriate care, and ability to adhere to treatment.
Schedules and routines are important because:
- They influence a child’s emotional, cognitive, and social development.
- They help children feel secure and comfortable.
- They help children understand the expectations of the environment.
- They help reduce the frequency of behavior problems (e.g., tantrums).
- They can result in higher rates of child engagement.
December 28, 2007
Life expectancy in the United States continues to increase. In 2004, American men could expect to live more than 3 years longer, and women more than 1 year longer, than they did in 1990 (Figure 18 and Table 27). Mortality from heart disease, stroke, and cancer has continued to decline in recent years (Figure 20 and Table 29). Infant mortality, one major determinant of overall life expectancy, declined (Figure 19 and Table 22) through 2001 and has changed little since then. Yet, even as progress is made in improving life expectancy, increased longevity is accompanied by increased prevalence of chronic conditions and their associated pain and disability. In recent years, progress in some areas has not been as rapid as in earlier years, or trends have been moving in the wrong direction. Moreover, improvements have not been equally distributed by income, race, ethnicity, education, and geography.
- Major depressive episodes in lifetime or past year were assessed in SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health among young adults aged 18 to 25. A major depressive episode was defined using the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria which specifies a period of two weeks or longer during which there is either depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure and at least four other symptoms that reflect a change in functioning (such as problems with sleeping, eating, energy, concentration, and self image).
- Data from SAMHSA's National Surveys on Drug Use and Health were used to examine the following among young adults in the past year: major depressive episode, initiation of alcohol or illicit drug use, and the association between such new alcohol and/or illicit drug use and major depressive episode.
- Combined data from SAMHSA's 2005 and 2006 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health found an annual average of 9.4% of young adults (about 3 million) had experienced at least one major depressive episode during the past year. Rates of major depressive episode varied by gender, racial group, and Hispanic status.
America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2007 is a compendium of indicators—drawn from the most reliable official statistics—illustrative of both the promises and the difficulties confronting our Nation's young people. The report presents 38 key indicators on important aspects of children's lives. These indicators are easily understood by broad audiences, objectively based on substantial research, balanced so that no single area of children's lives dominates the report, measured regularly so that they can be updated to show trends over time, and representative of large segments of the population rather than one particular group.
In early childhood settings, each moment that teachers and children interact with one another is an opportunity to develop positive relationships. Teachers can use a variety of strategies to build positive relationships with children. Teacher behaviors such as listening to children, making eye contact with them, and engaging in many one-to-one, face-to-face interactions with young children promote secure teacher-child relationships. Talking to children using pleasant, calm voices and simple language, and greeting children warmly when they arrive in the classroom with their parents or from the buses help establish secure relationships between teachers and children.
The organised crime of child trafficking into the UK has become an issue of considerable concern to all professionals with responsibility for the care and protection of children. Many describe it as modern-day slavery, where victims are coerced, deceived or forced into the control of others who seek to profit from their exploitation and suffering. It is clear that all forms of trafficking children are an abuse. Moreover, everyone working or in contact with children and young people has a responsibility to take steps to make sure their welfare is safeguarded and promoted. As more cases of child trafficking come to light, with some cases involving UK-born children being trafficked within the UK, it is essential that all professionals who come into contact with children, who may have been trafficked, are fully aware of the background of this activity and know how to apply the procedures for safeguarding the children and meeting the needs of those who have been trafficked.
During 2007, the Healthcare Commission highlighted some instances of seriously poor practice and failures in service in healthcare. Are these a sign of more widespread problems in healthcare in England and Wales? The reality is complex. For example, in a 2007 report by the Commonwealth Fund, the UK was ranked first among six developed countries for its provision of healthcare, in relation to quality of care, access, effectiveness and efficiency. In 2007, we rated significantly more NHS organisations “excellent” for the quality of their services and their use of resources than in 2006. Basic standards in the NHS and the independent healthcare sector are also getting better. The overall health of the population also continues to improve. People are living longer and infant mortality is falling. Access to hospital services, including treatment for cancer, continues to improve as waiting times fall. The numbers of doctors and nurses working in the NHS increased during 2007. However, there are areas that need to improve. We found that although patients rated their overall quality of care highly, some aspects of their experience of healthcare fell short. For example, providers of services need to improve their planning of patients’ care to ensure that their services meet individuals’ needs.
This is the third national census of the ethnicity of all inpatients in NHS and independent mental health and learning disability hospitals and facilities in England and Wales.
December 27, 2007
This statistical first release provides provisional statistics on looked after children at a national level. This is an update of the statistical volume that was published on 31 March 2006.
This study’s main finding is that C-SPAN coverage of think tanks overwhelmingly
favors conservative think tanks while left-of-center think tanks are underrepresented.
In 2006, conservative think tanks received 43.76 percent of total think
tank coverage. Conservative/ libertarian and centrist think tanks received 6.94
percent and 31.76 percent respectively. Center-left and progressive think tanks, on
the other hand, only received 12.73 percent and 4.86 percent respectively. Thus, the
combined conservative and conservative/libertarian think tanks got an absolute
majority of 50.7 percent representation on C-SPAN. Everything left of center got
only 17.59 percent, just one third of the coverage received by the Right. C-SPAN’s
coverage of think tanks suggests it has failed to fulfill its mission to provide “a
balanced presentation of points of view.” A review of recent polls also suggests
that C-SPAN’s coverage of think tanks is not only off-balance in absolute
numerical terms but also relative to public opinion in a wide range of political
issues.
How are immigrants integrating in U.S. inner cities? To answer this question, this report draws on a unique survey of residents in 10 vulnerable urban neighborhoods to examine the financial well-being and economic integration of families of different racial, ethnic, and nativity status. The paper explores the extent to which the economic well-being of immigrant groups is influenced by specific factors related to their immigrant status, compared with members of native-born minority groups and native-born whites. Among the main findings from the analysis is that families with children across all groups are especially vulnerable. In addition, we find that immigrants and native minorities in the neighborhoods we examine face similar types of economic difficulties—although to varying degrees. However, after controlling for citizenship, English proficiency, education and having a driver's license and a reliable car, many of the economic disadvantages disappear for immigrant groups, but not for native-born minorities. These findings suggest that even in these tough neighborhoods, the potential for economic integration of immigrants is strong.
Communities and Local Government commissioned the Social Disadvantage Research Centre (SDRC) at the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of Oxford to update the Indices of Deprivation 2004 (ID 2004) for England. Following an extensive public consultation, an independent academic peer review and a significant programme of work, the new Indices of Deprivation 2007 were produced in late 2007. The new Index of Multiple Deprivation 2007 (IMD 2007) is a Lower layer Super Output Area (LSOA) level measure of multiple deprivation, and is made up of seven LSOA level domain indices. There are also two supplementary indices (Income Deprivation Affecting Children and Income Deprivation Affecting Older People). Summary measures of the IMD 2007 are presented at local authority district level and county council level. The LSOA level Domain Indices and IMD 2007, together with the local authority district and county summaries are referred to as the Indices of Deprivation 2007 (ID 2007).
This report presents the findings of an evaluation of homelessness prevention initiatives across ten local authorities in England. It covers a range of schemes, including landlord liaison, rent deposit, tenancy support and family mediation services. It also includes schemes set up to help prevent homelessness for people leaving prison.
Baroness Jean Corston published her report on a Review of Women with Particular Vulnerabilities in the Criminal Justice System on 13 March 2007. The report made 43 recommendations for improving the approaches, services and interventions for women in the criminal justice system and women at risk of offending. The Government's response sets out the commitments that have been made across departments to take forward the recommendations.
December 26, 2007
Across Government, the shared ambition is to put people first through a radical reform of public services, enabling people to live their own lives as they wish, confident that services are of high quality, are safe and promote their own individual needs for independence, well-being and dignity. This ministerial concordat establishes the collaboration between central and local government, the sector's professional leadership, providers and the regulator. It sets out the shared aims and values which will guide the transformation of adult social care, and recognises that the sector will work across shared agendas with users and carers to transform people’s experience of local support and services.
The New Policy Institute has produced its tenth annual report of indicators of poverty and social exclusion in the United Kingdom, providing a comprehensive analysis of trends and differences between groups. Its principal conclusion is that the strategy against poverty and social exclusion pursued since the late 1990s is now largely exhausted.
The purpose of this brochure is to help you understand the Child Protective Services (CPS) reporting and response process. Please contact your CPS social worker if you have additional questions that are not answered by the information provided in this brochure.
The purpose of this brochure is to help you understand the Child Protective Services (CPS) reporting and response process. Please contact your CPS social worker if you have additional questions that are not answered by the information provided in this brochure.
Written by siblings of children who have been abducted, this guide contains information to help and support children of all ages when their brother or sister is kidnapped. The guide provides ideas on what children can expect in terms of the feelings they may experience, the events that may occur from day to day, and the things they can do to help themselves feel better. Written in child-friendly language, it is divided into such sections as: home, family, law enforcement, the media, school and work, and holidays and anniversaries. In addition, the guide contains activity pages for children of all ages, including those who are too young to read.
The main findings include:
- At 31 st March 2007 there were 14,060 children looked after by local authorities, an increase of eight per cent since 2006. The number of children looked after has increased by 26 per cent since 1999.
- Forty three per cent of children looked after were placed at home with parents, and 15 per cent were looked after by friends or relatives. Twenty nine per cent were looked after by foster carers. Twelve per cent were in residential accommodation.
- At 31 st March 2007 there were 2,159 children being looked after on a series of short term placements. Almost half of all these were looked after in residential establishments.
This guide is intended as a resource to help nongovernmental organisation (NGO) staff and HIV service providers working across the spectrum of HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services to take steps towards integrating HIV prevention for, by and with people living with HIV. It is hoped it will also be of use both to individual people living with HIV and to their partners. The guide does not intend to discuss or review all HIV prevention strategies. Rather, it is a starting point from which to consider different strategies to assist NGO staff and HIV service provider organisations to support HIV positive people to live well with HIV and have safer sexual relationships within a full and healthy life. This guide focuses largely on the sexual transmission of HIV.
December 21, 2007
At the turn of the millennium seven years ago, the international community made a commitment to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and hunger between 1990 and 2015. Now, at the halfway point between the millennium declaration and the deadline, it is clear the world has achieved considerable progress. However, though poverty and malnutrition rates are declining, it is less clear who is actually being helped. Are development programs reaching those most in need, or are they primarily benefiting those who are easier to reach, leaving the very poorest behind?
The research explores how the role of ward councillors is changing today and how it is likely to develop over the next five years. It captures the views of current councillors about the skills and support they need to adapt to a new role, and the short- and long-term obstacles to change. The future role of elected members has become a pressing issue in the context of current legislative and policy changes affecting local government. The Local Government White Paper, published in October 2006, makes a strong statement about the importance of ward councillors as local political and community leaders. It encourages local authorities to adopt a package of powers and responsibilities to empower councillors, including new opportunities to act on local issues and to influence mainstream service choices. The debate about the role of councillors in local decision making and neighbourhood working has been a welcome development for many elected members.
Once a program or practice is deemed effective and “evidence-based” through rigorous research,
there is a heightened interest in replicating it in new settings. Unfortunately, though, the usability or replicability of a program has little to do with the quality or weight of the evidence in support of that program. Many evidence-based practices are difficult to replicate successfully because they lack several features that make a program replicable. Therefore, it is important that program developers and researchers consider issues of replication when they are first developing, implementing, evaluating, and documenting potentially effective program models. Focusing on the potential replication of program models from the outset will make it easier for other organizations to adopt these models later.
The United States needs a new conversation about how Social Security is part of the solution to the growing economic risks American workers face. The key question for policy makers is: How can we build on the strengths of Social Security—its fiscally responsible design, its universality, progressivity, efficiency, and its effectiveness–to meet the needs of working families in the 21st century? As employers shift away from traditional pensions to 401(k) plans, workers shoulder more financial risks. Social Security offers employers what they want—freedom from financial risk and fiduciary burdens—and it provides workers with what they need—economic security.
Assess your environment
- Do the children know what choices are available?
- Are there multiple ways for children to make choices (real objects, photos, pictures, voice output devices)?
- Can the children choose an activity or order of events in the daily schedule?
- What choices are available during routines (e.g., snack, toileting, transitions)?
By identifying and discussing a range of issues and factors which impact and influence implementation of ED-based testing, this document serves as a tool for health departments as they consider implementation of HIV testing in emergency departments. This document also identifies critical gaps in our knowledge about HIV testing in emergency departments and in this way helps to inform research and policy agendas.
Citizens have the right to do what they want, and to go where they want unless limited by law. But too often in later life people are treated as if they have to be managed, albeit, as is assumed, for their own well-being. However, it is illegal, for example, to prevent an adult leaving their own home or care home. People are free to manage their own care – whether they are using care services at home, in day care or living in a care home. However, some people need help and support to make decisions about their care. CSCI has highlighted in an earlier discussion paper, Making choices: taking risks, that risk-taking is part of everyday life and how social care can support people’s aspirations and choices.
December 20, 2007
Estimates of the health insurance status of the U.S. civilian non-institutionalized population are critical to policymakers and others concerned with access to medical care and the cost and quality of that care. Health insurance helps people get timely access to medical care and protects them against the risk of expensive and unanticipated medical events. When estimating the size of the uninsured population, it is important to consider the distinction between those uninsured for short periods of time and those who are uninsured for several years. Using information from the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC) for 2004 and 2005, this Statistical Brief provides detailed estimates for the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized non-elderly (under age 65) population that was uninsured for the entire 2002–2005 period and identifies groups most at risk of lacking any coverage over that four-year period.
Few questions are more heatedly debated in the world of adoption today than whether adult adopted persons should have routine access to their original birth certificates and other documents from their agency and court adoption files. In most states, they are legally prohibited from obtaining such information, except by petitioning a court for its permission. In only two states, Kansas and Alaska, have adopted persons – upon reaching the age of majority always had access to their original birth certificates. In the rest of the country, at various times over the past 70 years, statutes have sealed these records and prohibited access to the information.
Assessing the world’s progress against poverty calls for frequent and careful measurements, using household surveys and price data. Fortunately, the task of measuring poverty is becoming easier, and the results are probably getting more accurate over time. The best data for assessing progress against poverty come from surveys of the living standards of nationally representative samples of households. In the past 25 years there has been enormous progress in designing, implementing, and processing such surveys for developing countries, thanks in large part to the efforts of national statistics agencies throughout the world and the support of the donor community and international development agencies. These data provide key information about global and regional progress in alleviating poverty. Moreover, new data on poverty in rural versus urban areas offer empirical evidence on how rapidly poverty is urbanizing in the developing world.
New Jersey maintains one of the nation’s most generous hospital safety nets for the poor. Under the Hospital Care Payment Assistance Program, commonly called Charity Care, the state devotes more than half a billion dollars annually to inpatient and outpatient services for the uninsured and indigent. Despite the magnitude of this taxpayer-financed subsidy, borne evenly by the state and federal budgets, many of New Jersey’s 80 acute-care hospitals remain in dire fiscal straits because Charity Care covers only a portion of the actual cost incurred in caring for thousands who turn up at their doors every year for treatment claiming no other means of support. Amid this festering cost crisis, Charity Care’s funding has been re-visited many times by legislators and policymakers. The most recent change came three years ago when the Legislature altered the fund-distribution formula, ostensibly to ensure that hospitals with the heaviest share of the Charity Care burden would receive the largest subsidies.
Time-out is a form of discipline that can be effective in reducing challenging behaviors in young children. The term “time-out” is short for “time out from positive reinforcement.” The strategy is similar to an extended form of selectively ignoring disruptive behavior. Children are removed for a brief time from all sources of reinforcement (e.g., teacher and peer attention) following serious challenging behavior. Usually this strategy requires that a child be removed from an ongoing activity for a brief time, typically by having the child sit on the outside of the activity within the classroom until the child calms down and is ready to rejoin the activity and try again. Time-out is intended to be a nonviolent response to conflict that stops the conflict, protects the victim, and provides a “cooling off” period for the child.
This Performance Based Funding Model for Maryland CASA Programs was designed by the directors of the local CASA Programs in Maryland, in consultation with the Department of Family Administration at the Administrative Office of the Courts and the Maryland CASA Association.
These guidelines reflect the insights of practitioners from different geographic regions, disciplines and sectors, and reflect an emerging consensus on good practice among practitioners. The core idea behind them is that, in the early phase of an emergency, social supports are essential to protect and support mental health and psychosocial well-being. In addition, the guidelines recommend selected psychological and psychiatric interventions for specific problems. The composite term mental health and psychosocial support is used in this document to describe any type of local or outside support that aims to protect or promote psychosocial well-being and/or prevent or treat mental disorder. Although the terms mental health and psychosocial support are closely related and overlap, for many aid workers they reflect different, yet complementary, approaches.
December 19, 2007
The United States has made extraordinary progress in reducing teen pregnancy and birth rates. More teens are delaying sex and those that are sexually active are using contraception more consistently and carefully. Both of these developments have made important contributions to the impressive decline in teen pregnancy and childbearing. Recent years have also brought good news on the research front. As Doug Kirby so carefully points out in Emerging Answers 2007, the quality and quantity of evaluation research in this field has improved dramatically and there is now more persuasive evidence than ever before that a limited number of programs can delay sexual activity, improve contraceptive use among sexually active teens, and/or prevent teen pregnancy. Of course, this is a very welcome development for all of us who care about the well-being of young people and the next generation of children who deserve to be raised by adult parents.
This document gives information about the first-ever dedicated fund for local councils and community organisations to use to address worklessness. The £1.5 billion Working Neighbourhoods Fund will support councils and communities in developing more concentrated, concerted, community-led approaches to getting people in the most deprived areas of England back to work. It replaces the existing Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.
The Social Science PhDs—Five+ Years Out survey is CIRGE’s latest contribution to PhD career path and retrospective program evaluation. Funded by the Ford Foundation, Social Science PhDs—Five+ Years Out surveyed PhD recipients who received their degrees between 1995 and 1999 from 65 U.S. universities in six disciplines—anthropology, communications, geography, history, political science, and sociology. The survey was designed to assess current employment status, type of job sector and job satisfaction, better understand career trajectories among recent PhD awardees, and evaluate graduate programs.
Nearly all Hispanic adults born in the United States of immigrant parents report they are fluent in English. By contrast, only a small minority of their parents describe themselves as skilled English speakers. This finding of a dramatic increase in English-language ability from one generation of Hispanics to the next emerges from a new analysis of six Pew Hispanic Center surveys conducted this decade among a total of more than 14,000 Latino adults. The surveys show that fewer than one-in-four (23%) Latino immigrants reports being able to speak English very well. However, fully 88% of their U.S.-born adult children report that they speak English very well. Among later generations of Hispanic adults, the figure rises to 94%. Reading ability in English shows a similar trend.
In the world of adoption, the term “purchase of service” is commonly used to refer to contracts between public and private child welfare agencies to serve children awaiting adoptive families, prospective adoptive parents, and adoptive families. Purchase of service has long been used as a method of ensuring that adoption professionals find adoptive families for children in foster care who are unable to safely and permanently return home. Some States have used purchase of service contracts extensively; others have used these contracts more sporadically; and yet others have been reluctant to use this approach at all. For some States, the reluctance to purchase adoption services has stemmed from concerns about how to do it – particularly, how to do it well. Surprisingly, there has been little written about the HOWs of purchasing adoption services, leaving States and counties, as purchasers, and private agencies, as service providers, to develop these arrangements with limited guidance.
Medicaid is the nation's major public health coverage program for low-income Americans, financing health and long-term care services for over 55 million people, including families, people with disabilities, and the elderly. In general, the low-income individuals and families enrolled in Medicaid lack access to private health insurance. Thus, without Medicaid, the vast majority of its beneficiaries would join the ranks of the 46.6 million uninsured Americans. Since its enactment in 1965, Medicaid has improved access to health care for low-income people, financed innovations in health care delivery, and functioned as the nation’s primary source of long-term care financing. Medicaid plays a major role in the health care system, accounting for nearly one-fifth of all personal health care spending and almost 45% of nursing home care spending.
These reports assess Blueprint, the Government's research programme designed to test the effectiveness of a multi-component approach to school-based drug education. The delivery report assesses the extent to which the programme was delivered as intended and identifies factors which either facilitated or hindered delivery. The practitioner report highlights findings particularly relevant to teachers delivering drug education.
December 18, 2007
This NICE guidance on school based interventions to prevent and reduce alcohol use is aimed at anyone who works with children and young people in schools and other education settings. It gives advice on incorporating alcohol education into the national science and personal, social and health education (PSHE) curricula, and helping children and young people access the right support. It also looks at how to link these interventions with community initiatives, including those run by children's services.
In 2005, just 39.8 percent of workers with family income below 100 percent of FPL were eligible for employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI), and 60.3 percent of workers with family income between 100 and 200 percent of FPL were eligible. In contrast, 89.6 percent of workers in families above 400 percent of FPL were eligible for ESI (Clemans-Cope, Garrett, and Hoffman 2006). Royalty (2000) finds that when employers are required to raise wages for low-wage workers through an increase in the minimum wage, they compensate by reducing worker benefits such as health insurance. According to Royalty, an increase in the minimum wage of $0.50 from its 1999 level would decrease workers’ eligibility for health insurance by 3.9 percentage points.
Children who have experienced physical abuse are at risk for developing significant psychiatric, behavioral, and adjustment difficulties. During the past three decades, research has documented the efficacy of several behavioral and cognitive-behavioral methods, many of which have been incorporated in abuse-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (AF-CBT). AF-CBT has been found to improve functioning in school-aged children, their parents (caregivers), and their families (Kolko, 1996a; 1996b). AF-CBT is an evidence-supported intervention that targets individual child and parent characteristics related to the abusive experience, and the family context in which coercion or aggression occurs. This approach emphasizes training in interpersonal skills designed to enhance self-control and reduce violent behavior. This issue brief is intended to build a better understanding of the characteristics and benefits of AF-CBT.
Almost 50 million Americans—nearly one in four households—receive monthly Social Security checks. In addition to the over 31 million retirees who collect Social Security, the program is the nation’s largest children’s program. Dependent children of workers who have died, become disabled, or retired receive monthly wage-related benefits as a matter of right until their late teens. Social Security is also the nation’s largest disability program, providing disabled workers and their families wage-related benefits, also as a matter of right.
Child welfare agencies need to identify and implement effective strategies to recruit and retain well-qualified staff that has the knowledge, skills and commitment to provide services to our nation’s most vulnerable children and families. A first step in this process is a thorough understanding of the current workforce situation regarding qualifications, turnover rate, selection and retention strategies, and specific factors contributing to turnover and retention. This multi-method study is being conducted in collaboration with an advisory committee comprised of representatives from the Maryland Department of Human Resources and local Departments of Social Services across the state of Maryland.
For most of the last century, American retirement income policy supported a combination of programs—Social Security and federal tax subsidies for traditional defined-benefit pensions and for voluntary personal retirement accounts—that enabled many people to stop working and to maintain their living standards in retirement, while reducing old-age poverty rates. But the American retirement income security system is breaking down. If current trends continue, poverty rates among the elderly will increase and middle-class retirees will find that their retirement income will not pay for the lifestyle they achieved while working. This will be the first time since World War II that the standard of living of elderly Americans declines while that of prime- age workers increases.
Refl ecting concerns about how the housing, care and support needs of the growing number of older people will be met, there has been much interest on the part of policy makers, service commissioners and practitioners in the role of housing schemes for older people that combine independent living with relatively high levels of care. There is no single blueprint for housing with care schemes. Provider organisations across the statutory, not-for-profi t and private sectors have undertaken various new developments or remodelled existing schemes, often taking quite different approaches to type of tenure, care services and provision of amenities and facilities. However, certain common aims are shared.
December 17, 2007
• Most of these young people smoke a form of cannabis known as ‘skunk’ through choice and preference.
• The average age of beginning to use cannabis across the group was 13.7 years and although many said they smoked at school, teachers had not seemed to pick up on the fact that many of these young people were ‘stoned’ in the classroom.
• There is no consensus amongst regular users about what constitutes heavy use and there are wide variations in the amounts regular users consume.
• Most young people attribute a range of positive functions to cannabis although some thought it had impaired their school performance and/or led to difficulties in relationships with parents.
While lower than the national average, the prevalence of current alcohol and drug use (use in the past 30 days) among New York City youth warrants concern. For example in 2005, an estimated 93,000 of the 280,000 public high school students in New York City used alcohol in the previous month and more than 30,000 smoked marijuana. This report offers new information about alcohol and other drug use among New York City youth and provides important, evidence-based recommendations for prevention.
This paper, drawing upon evidence from existing studies, examines ways in which gender-related factors can increase women drug users’ vulnerability and decrease their access to harm reduction, drug treatment, and sexual and reproductive health services. The paper makes recommendations to assist researchers, policymakers, and service providers in investigating the circumstances women drug users face in their own countries and in formulating policies and programs to better serve these women.
Economist Peter Lindert finds that high levels of social spending in European democracies have not slowed economic growth, as long as the benefits and taxes are well designed. Social programs that cover nearly the entire population and are financed by broad-based low-rate taxes, such as payroll taxes or value-added taxes, have almost no effect on a country’s ability to grow and prosper. Lindert’s research contradicts the oftstated assertion that social welfare spending necessarily slows economic growth because the benefits and taxes discourage recipients and taxpayers from being as productive as they otherwise would be.
To attract and maintain a skilled workforce, many businesses provide health insurance and other benefits for their employees. As the cost of health insurance rises, employers face a growing challenge paying for benefits while managing labor costs to succeed in a competitive market. All types of businesses report problems, including both small businesses and firms with thousands of employees and retirees. Despite concerns about the cost of benefits, small and large employers together provide health coverage for most Americans, about 60% of the population in 2006. But as the amount that employers pay for health insurance has been increasing — both absolutely and as a share of labor costs — the percent of the population covered has been decreasing. To describe employer contributions for health insurance, this report presents data from two employer surveys. The first, conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust, provides information on premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance. The second, from the Department of Labor, provides information on employer costs for employee compensation, including costs for wages and salaries, health insurance, and other benefits.
Ireland will experience rapid population aging in the coming decades. This demographic trend is expected to put significant pressure on public finances. The European Commission’s Aging Working Group (AWG) projects that age-related spending would increase by 8 percentage points of GDP by 2050, with most of the increase accounted for by a rise in pension expenditure. In its 2006 report Special Savings for Retirement, the Pensions Board in Ireland proposed a substantial increase in the generosity of the pension system which, if endorsed by the government, would translate into an even steeper rise of age-related expenditure. At the same time, the expected decline of the population of working age in the long run could reduce the social security contributions base.
December 14, 2007
For people who do not know much about the body art industry, tattoos and body piercings appear as permanent markings and decorative metal. But this industry is actually a unique form of art. Tattoo artists can honor people or memories that were an important part of a person's life. Body piercers intricately place each piercing to express a person's individuality or culture. The body art industry is unique because its artists express themselves through living art, but in doing so, artists may also come in contact with their client's blood. Because of this, tattoo artists and body piercers may also be exposed to a bloodborne pathogen such as hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Medicaid, the state-federal health coverage program for the poor, provides over 20 million low-income women with basic health and long-term care coverage.1 While often not considered to be a women’s health program, women comprise the majority (69%) of adult beneficiaries. For these women, Medicaid covers a wide range of health services, including reproductive health care, care for chronic conditions and disabilities, and long-term services. In 2005, one in 10 (10%) women nationally were covered by Medicaid. For low-income women, Medicaid’s role is even more striking, providing coverage to over one in five (22%)
The fieldwork for this book started in 1983, and my last visit to Cairo was in February 1994. But my interest in the cultural contexts of household economy, particularly women's roles in it, goes back to my childhood in Tehran, Iran, where I was born and raised. Despite my mother's young age, her social class and access to information meant that, in the tradition of her hometown of Hamedan, she was the matriarch of a large network of women who frequently sought her help and advice on financial and domestic problems. I was eight years old when Aunt Ashraf, a relative whom I especially liked, came to visit my mother to discuss her decision to quit her job in a tobacco company in Tehran. My siblings and I were also in the room, although since we were children, we were ignored apart from the occasional call to fetch tea and water. So I overheard the conversation of the women as I usually did, but this time the subject of their discussion had such an impact on me that I can still recall it in minute detail.
The Quality of Life Project was initiated in response to growing pressures on urban communities, concern about the impacts of urbanisation and the effects of this on the well being of residents.
Social and health care services have made great strides in identifying their values and vision for the future in order to achieve successful change and improvements. This knowledge review explores the processes and actions that have proven most effective in bringing about and sustaining improvement in social and health care services. The findings focus on three key action points that organisations should implement at all stages of an improvement programme
December 13, 2007
Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death: cigarettes and other tobacco products kill 420,000 American smokers and 53,000 nonsmokers every year. This toll exceeds the deaths resulting from alcohol abuse, AIDS, traffic accidents, homicides, and suicides combined . Nevertheless, the tobacco industry continues to promote and sell its products, unhampered by any meaningful government regulation except for mostly local restrictions designed to protect nonsmokers from the toxins in secondhand tobacco smoke. In fact, the tobacco industry is unique among American and worldwide industries in its ability to forestall effective government regulation and to hold effective public health action at bay while marketing its lethal products. The industry manages this, despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that tobacco products kill, through a combination of skilled legal, political, and public relations strategies designed to confuse the public and to allow it to avoid having to take responsibility for the death and disease it inflicts.
This report confirms that linguistically isolated households ii need greater access to housing services. Yet, these New Yorkers are limited in their ability to access city housing services because of language and cultural barriers. Our data also indicate that linguistically isolated New Yorkers have benefited far less from improved housing-complaint-collection processes than other New Yorkers. The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD)—the city agency that works to ensure that tenants live in safe and healthy housing—has taken some steps to address these barriers. Our data suggest, however, that more needs to be done to improve access to housing services for linguistically isolated New Yorkers.
This brief presents data on mental health coverage benefits and enrollee's access to and use of mental health services through the Healthy Kids program in San Mateo County, California. The prevalence of mental health conditions among enrollees is similar to national levels, but despite the generous mental health benefits offered under the program, only a small fraction of enrollees with mental health conditions receive care. Reasons why more children do not use mental health services are explored. The brief also shows that enrollees with mental health needs have higher use of other health services compared to all Healthy Kids members.
GAO found thousands of allegations of abuse, some of which involved death, at residential treatment programs across the country and in American-owned and American-operated facilities abroad between the years 1990 and 2007. Allegations included reports of abuse and death recorded by state agencies and the Department of Health and Human Services, allegations detailed in pending civil and criminal trials with hundreds of plaintiffs, and claims of abuse and death that were posted on the Internet. For example, during 2005 alone, 33 states reported 1,619 staff members involved in incidents of abuse in residential programs. GAO could not identify a more concrete number of allegations because it could not locate a single Web site, federal agency, or other entity that collects comprehensive nationwide data. GAO also examined, in greater detail, 10 closed civil or criminal cases from 1990 through 2004 where a teenager died while enrolled in a private program. GAO found significant evidence of ineffective management in most of the 10 cases, with program leaders neglecting the needs of program participants and staff.
The Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program (FANRP) supports a broad spectrum of food and nutrition assistance research. ERS has compiled an electronic database of the hundreds of peer-reviewed reports and articles based on FANRP-supported research published at ERS and elsewhere. The database is searchable by: Title, lead author, topic, year of publication, and data set analyzed Exact word(s) or phrases contained in the publication’s bibliographic citation For all ERS-published reports and articles a link to the full report is provided.
This report offers an overview of the 2007 National Meth Use & Attitudes Survey. The purpose of the study is to measure meth-related attitudes, behavior, and incidence in the United States and track changes over time. Findings from the 2007 National Meth Use & Attitudes Survey will serve as a benchmark to measure progress as the Meth Project launches state-specific campaigns to educate youth about the dangers of meth use. Following are key findings from the benchmark.
Young Asian and Pacific Islander (API) women face unique challenges to good reproductive and sexual health, including barriers to good communication about sex, low rates of condom use, and a lack of culturally-specific sexual health programs and services. But cultural factors also provide them with unique assets they can draw upon to protect their well-being. Youth-serving professionals and policy makers should be mindful of these assets in order to better promote good outcomes for these young women.
Drug-driven HIV epidemics may be relatively small in size but are among the world’s fastest growing. Russia, China, Indonesia, and Malaysia, which together account for more than a quarter of the world’s population, all have significant HIV epidemics driven by injection drug use. In country after country, HIV prevalence among drug injectors has climbed, often by more than 15 percent in a single year. Countries in Africa, already struggling with advanced HIV epidemics, now face epidemics among a growing population of injectors, most notably in Nigeria and Kenya.
December 12, 2007
This background paper has been drafted to coincide with the hearing of the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (November 21st 2007, Brussels) on Women and Violence at work in the European Union. The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions has a track record of research on workplace bullying, violence and discrimination going back to the 1990s. These negative aspects of the work experience have in particular been charted in successive waves of the European Working Conditions Survey [EWCS] from 1990/1-2005.
This analysis finds that persons who frequently use hospital EDs (defined as four or more visits over two years) are those with anticipated higher needs for health care services – specifically, the elderly, the poor, and persons living with chronic conditions, all of whom are more likely to be in poor health. Our analysis finds that 84% of High ED Users live with chronic conditions (Figure A) and that 31% of High ED Users’ ED visits are related to chronic conditions compared to 16% for Low ED Users. Furthermore, High ED Users are not obtaining medical services exclusively at the ED but also utilize outpatient services at a greater rate than Low ED Users, with 86% of High ED Users having 4 or more outpatient visits compared to 72% for Low ED Users. In addition, our examination of ED utilization by insurance coverage reveals that the uninsured are not more likely to frequently visit the ED than those who have insurance. The uninsured, while making up roughly 15% of the sample population, are responsible for about 14% of total ED visits and about 12% of aggregate ED expenditures.
The number of uninsured Californians under age 65 continues to rise as employer-sponsored health insurance declines. Some who lose insurance at their workplace are buying individual policies, others become eligible for coverage through public programs like Medi-Cal. But more than 20 percent of Californians remain uninsured. The problem, though national, is more prominent in California, which has a lower percentage of individuals with employer-sponsored coverage and a higher proportion of uninsured. And because of California’s large population, the number of people without insurance — 6.6 million — is the highest of any state.
People are talking about friendship again. For the first time in this century it has kindled lively interest, although it engaged imaginations in past centuries, when the noteworthy friends were men. Women as friends were invisible, their friendships maligned. Women friends were heralded once, however, in the nineteenth-century sororal raptures of "romantic friendship." Today, scholars and journalists show women's friendships as positive once again and in many cases even contrast them to poorer relations among men. Canny advertisers now use friendship to pluck at heartstrings and pocketbooks. And filmmakers have seized upon friendship as a theme of regeneration.
This study explores the travel needs, behaviour and aspirations of people as they make the transition into retirement and later life. The study was commissioned by the Department for Transport (DfT) and is one of three qualitative studies aimed at understanding more about the transport needs of particular groups in the population . . . . The research found there to be significant diversity in the kinds of journeys made by respondents in later life, due to their differing personal circumstances and preferences. Respondents described a wide range of journey purposes, which fell into three broad categories.
The comparative disadvantage that some rural people experience in regard to welfare services, education, employment, income, and life chances generally, have been well established and are succinctly summarised in a review by Shucksmith. (1) This briefing does not attempt to provide an overview of rurality or rural communities, nor explore the wider context within which debates about rural provision might take place. Information about these aspects can be found in a range of relevant sources which are identified at the end of this briefing. Instead, the briefing focuses on some of the most common obstacles to using and providing health and social care services in rural areas.
December 11, 2007
Obesity continues to be a public health concern in the United States and throughout the world (1–4). In the United States, obesity prevalence doubled among adults between 1980 and 2004 (5,6). Obesity is associated with increased risk of a number of conditions, including diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and certain cancers, and with increased risk of disability and a modestly elevated risk of all-cause mortality. Although obesity is a consequence of complex factors including an increase in the consumption of calories and a decrease in physical activity, the prevalence of obesity is influenced by environmental factors. In the United States, foods are inexpensive and widely available. In addition, food portion sizes have increased and individuals are eating out of the home more often. On the other hand, opportunities for physical activity may have decreased.
Although the teenage birth rate has been decreasing since 1991 and reached a record low in 2004, nearly one-fifth of teen births that year were repeat births—births to teens who were already mothers. Teenage childbearing has negative implications for the mothers and their children. Teen mothers tend to be from disadvantaged backgrounds, even before having a child, and they and their children face poorer educational, economic, health, and developmental outcomes than do women who delay childbearing beyond their teen years. A second teen birth compounds problems resulting from a first teen birth.
More than 20 percent of all adolescents report having experienced either psychological or physical violence from an intimate partner – and underreporting remains a concern.1 Dating violence includes psychological or emotional violence, such as controlling behaviors or jealousy; physical violence, such as hitting or punching; and sexual violence such as nonconsensual sexual activity and rape. Female or male teenagers may be the victims and/or perpetrators of dating violence. While both females and males may suffer dating violence, female teens in heterosexual relationships are more likely to be injured, more likely to be sexually assaulted, and more likely to suffer emotionally than are their heterosexual male peers.2,3 While little research exists on dating violence among gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) youth, research on same-gender violence among GLBT adults shows violence patterns similar to those among heterosexual youth.
This paper: (1) describes the scope of HIV-prevention activities undertaken through PEPFAR; (2) outlines the main challenges to invigorating the HIV-prevention response in the U.S. global HIV/AIDS effort’s next five-year phase (2009–2013); and (3) presents several options that could be considered by the Congress and the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) in the context of reauthorization and implementation of the Leadership Act. These options are informed by recent reports on HIV prevention and the U.S. global HIV/AIDS response, by the experience of PEPFAR to date, and through discussions with congressional and administration staff convened by the CSIS Task Force on HIV/AIDS.
This report presents an overview of research, data, interventions and policy directions related to mental health and homelessness. It is organized into two sections. The first section presents compiled estimates of the prevalence of both homelessness and self-reported mental health issues among the homeless across Canada. The second section looks at the effectiveness of two types of related policies and programs—housing and community mental health programs—
and their role in promoting mental health and helping people find a way out of homelessness. The report concludes with an overview of what we know and what we do not know about the links between mental health and homelessness.
As the population of Kentucky ages, many people will be dealing with the issue of long-term care. In 2020, there will be nearly 5 million Kentuckians age 65 and older. This influx of older residents will result in a greater need for long-term care options. As this survey shows, AARP members age 55 and older in Kentucky want a choice in where and how they receive long-term care, and they want to stay in their own homes as they age. Members support the state putting additional funds into home - and community-based services so that they have at-home options, even if this means the state reduces funding for nursing homes. The State should consider transferring funds from unused nursing home beds to home- and community-based care options.
This is an updated version of the guidance originally produced in 1993. It sets out the actions that should be taken in order to effectively meet the needs of people with challenging behaviour.
December 10, 2007
Reliable knowledge is the basis for all effective decisions.Without it, good judgements cannot
be made. The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) exists to identify and transfer knowledge about what works in social care right across the sector – to people who use
services, their families and carers, managers, commissioners, frontline workers and policy
makers. Our work covers the whole spectrum of children’s and adults’ social care.
No spectacle in Soviet cities more troubled Russian and foreign observers during the first postrevolutionary decade than the millions of orphaned and abandoned children known as besprizornye.[1] Whether portrayed as pitiable victims of war and famine or as devious wolf-children preying on the surrounding population to support cocaine and gambling habits, they haunted the works of journalists, travelers, and Party members alike. “Every visitor sees it first,” noted an American correspondent, “and is so shocked by the sight that the most widely known Russian youth are the…homeless children flapping along the main streets of cities and the main routes of travel like ragged flocks of animated scarecrows.”[2] Averell Harriman recalled them as “a particular tragedy of the time…, begging or stealing and living as wild animals unconnected with the normal community life.”[3] The very fact that no one could remain indifferent to their travail made them tempting ammunition in the ideological charges and countercharges exchanged in these years. On one side of the battle lines, critics of the Bolsheviks featured the children as “proof” that the new regime had failed even to care for its own young. In reply, Soviet officials pointed to the problem’s origin in disasters largely beyond their control and insisted that the Party had assigned far higher priority to rehabilitating homeless juveniles than “bourgeois” governments allocated to the care of their own downtrodden.
The vast majority of Americans support abstinence from sexual activity for school-age children, especially younger adolescents. Yet, abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, currently being taught in many schools, are at odds with what most Americans want schools to teach. The public supports a broad sex education curriculum that stresses abstinence as the best way to avoid unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) but that also conveys complete and medically accurate information about contraception and condoms.
Most Hispanics ages 40 and older do not feel they—or a family member—will need long-term care services in the near future and few are worried about being able to afford it if they did. Few 40-plus Hispanics have any recent experience at requiring long-term care in a professional facility. However, many have had someone in their family who required care at home from a family member, friend, or a health care professional. Similarly, if they (or a family member) needed long–term care, most would prefer that care be provided in their home. However, few 40-plus Hispanics have planned for the possibility that they might have to enter an assisted-living or long-term care facility. Further, if they did need to go to such a facility, less than half indicate they have the financial means to pay for it. Not many 40-plus Hispanics have discussed their preferences regarding long-term care services with family members, or discussed their parents’ preferences if such care was needed.
The objective was to research current literature and practice around service user involvement, the extent to which service user involvement had brought improvements to social work and social care and where the change had become established practice.
December 7, 2007
The desire to live honestly underlies the political emergence of lesbians and gay men in our time. Such honesty requires self-knowledge. The moment of acknowledging to oneself homosexual desires and feelings—the culmination of a process that, for many, intermingles horror and excitement—and then licensing oneself to act, and perhaps to discover anew one's vulnerabilities, is the central drama of the homosexual self. That moment of self-classification, of self-naming, and of exile from our natal culture is an emergency—sublime, horrible, wonderful—in the life of anyone who must confront it. Although we become ourselves in that moment of recognition, we also discover the injunctions of the law, the punitive rule of normalcy, and the ferocity of social exclusion. We see that our selves are traversed by social processes that shape our lives.
This resource pack gives information, support and guidance on setting up a social enterprises in the health and social care sector.
Per capita GDP has grown more in 2003-2007 than at any other time since the 1970s. ECLAC projections indicate that this trend will continue in 2008, which will thus be the fifth year in a row in which per capita GDP has risen at over 3% per annum. This increase has made further progress in poverty reduction possible, together with a decline in unemployment. Some countries have seen improvements in income distribution as well. A number of problems persist, however, and Latin America continues to lag behind other regions in various areas. Levels of social and economic inequality remain extremely high. After rising sharply during the past decade, social expenditure —measured as a percentage of GDP— has been levelling off and continues to fall short in terms of the coverage of existing social needs. In addition, migratory flows continue to be spurred by unequal levels of development in various locations and areas within individual countries. The Social Panorama of Latin America, 2007 provides the latest poverty estimates available for the countries of Latin America. These estimates indicate that 36.5% of Latin America’s population (195 million people) were poor and 13.4% (71 million) were extremely poor.
The American city: we think of the Manhattan skyline, of Chicago curving along the shore of Lake Michigan, or of the Golden Gate Bridge arcing into San Francisco. Or, if we think historically, we might envision steerage passengers, crowded shopping streets and fetid tenements, leafy boulevards and Victorian mansions. This book captures a different American city, a city epitomized by suburbs and freeways as well as high-rise downtowns. This city, the unglamourous place where most Americans through history have lived, is not the ideal city and does not even represent necessarily the kind of place where people should live. This city, where nearly all Americans today do live—sprawling, diffuse, varied—began in the nineteenth century. It is characterized by its nonvisible foundation, a political center around which its citizens have built the physical and institutional bases of modern transportation, welfare, and education.
• The DHI has fallen from 89.1 in 2004 to 83.8 in 2005. This is a drop of 5.3 points or 5.9 per cent. This compares to a decrease of 18.2 per cent between 2003 and 2004. The index has now fallen year-on-year since 2001.
• The fall in the DHI between 2004 and 2005 is largely due to further reductions in drug-related crime (most notably domestic and commercial burglaries, theft from a domestic vehicle, shoplifting and other thefts). In terms of the health-related indicators, drug-related hepatitis C cases had a noticeable downward impact on the DHI, but this was more than offset by an increase in drug-related deaths from 1,495 in 2004 to 1,608 in 2005. The only other variable with a large upward impact on the DHI was robbery.
• The previous DHI update included some minor methodological improvements. Whilst the latest version of the DHI retains these changes, there have not been any further changes to the methodology. However, certain data providers have retrospectively updated some of the historical data used to construct the DHI. Incorporating these data revisions has led to a slight increase in the value of the DHI between 1999 and 2004 compared to the previously published figures. However, these changes have made little difference to the trend over time.
Lifetime neighbourhoods are those which offer everyone the best possible chance of health, wellbeing, and social, economic and civic engagement regardless of age. They provide the built environment, infrastructure, housing, services and shared social space that allow us to pursue our own ambitions for a high quality of life. They do not exclude us as we age, nor as we become frail or disabled.
This report on a survey on the experiences and views of separated parents gives an overview of separation and maintenance arrangements and views on private arrangements, use of information and support and debt and enforcement.
December 6, 2007
Direct enumeration of those engaged in a largely covert activity such as the use of class A drugs is difficult and standard household survey techniques tend to underestimate the extent of such activity. Indirect techniques making use of various data sources offer a more reliable way of calculating prevalence estimates for the use of opiates and/or crack cocaine. The estimates presented in this report are derived using two indirect measurement techniques: the capture-recapture (CRC) method; and the multiple indicator (MIM) method – these methods are described in detail in Hay et al., 2006 (see footnote 1). The individuals covered by this study were people aged 15 to 64 and resident in each DAT area, and known to be using heroin, methadone, other opiate drugs, or crack cocaine.
Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) to improve the academic achievement of all students in U.S. public schools. Now, six years later, Congress is beginning the process of reauthorizing NCLB. What do we know about NCLB's impact?
In 2007 Afghanistan cultivated 193,000 hectares of opium poppies, an increase of 17% over last year. The amount of Afghan land used for opium is now larger than the corresponding total for coca cultivation in Latin America (Colombia, Peru and Bolivia combined). Favourable weather conditions produced opium yields (42.5 kg per hectare) higher than last year (37 kg/ha). As a result, in 2007 Afghanistan produced an extraordinary 8,200 tons of opium (34% more than in 2006), becoming practically the exclusive supplier of the world’s deadliest drug (93% of the global opiates market). Leaving aside 19th century China, that had a population at that time 15 times larger than today’s Afghanistan, no other country in the world has ever produced narcotics on such a deadly scale. In Afghanistan, the total export value of opium and heroin being trafficked to neighbouring countries in 2007 is $US 4 billion, an increase of 29% over 2006. That means that opium now accounts for more than half (53%) of the country’s licit GDP.
The attempt here is to fill out the historical horizon and to make use of it to clear away some of the misapprehensions. This is done in the recognition that we cannot expect to understand ourselves as we now are in the industrialized countries—and what we shall become—unless we also understand what we have been. It is not only true, as a case in point, that Western and Japanese populations are very, very old. It is also true that they are the oldest human populations that have ever existed and that they never will be young again. Indeed, all the other populations in the world will join them in their elderly condition and are beginning to do so already. Our hope is that this book may help those in the nonindustrial world take cognizance of what they are and of what they may become.
Transfer payments to poor families are increasingly conditioned on work, either via wage subsidies available only to workers or via work requirements in more traditional welfare programs. Although the effects of such programs on employment are fairly well understood, relatively little is known about their effects on marriage or child well-being. The authors review a small number of studies that provide such information here. Their discussion of marriage is couched in terms of a theoretical model that draws from the efficient-household literature. The model is consistent with the wide range of effects that they observe and suggests an explanation for some of the observed differences. The theoretical framework in which they couch their review of results on children is likewise consistent with the observed variation between programs and among children of different ages.
This is a letter about the end-of-life care strategy from Professor Mike Richards, who chairs the End-of-life Care Strategy Advistory Board. It is for the chief executives of strategic health authorities, primary care trusts and local authorities.
December 5, 2007
At the core of this research study is a large-scale, face-to-face, interview programme with 222
individuals in prison convicted of serious drug-related offences. Information collected during
these interviews was analysed using a number of tools drawn from the disciplines of business
analysis, economics and social network analysis. To ensure the integrity of the findings a
thorough process of validation with a wide range of knowledge holders was undertaken. The research team used a purposive sampling methodology designed to identify high-level
drug dealers who were most likely to have detailed knowledge and to target individuals
belonging to particular groups considered to be important (for example offenders from
particular ethnic groups).
Although human trafficking—both sex and labor trafficking—is a growing national (and global) concern, it is ultimately a problem that will be identified at the local level. Ohio has several characteristics that some speculate may make it conducive to sex and labor trafficking. Media attention to prominent interstate cases involving teen prostitutes recruited from Toledo further fuel this fear. Yet, aside from various anecdotal accounts, there is little knowledge about trafficking in Ohio. This monograph is designed to provide context about human trafficking in Ohio to help inform and shape public discourse and practical responses to it. To do so, it systematically explores human trafficking in terms of its existence and characteristics and in terms of how the criminal justice and social service communities have responded to it. The goal is to provide policymakers and practitioners with information to help improve their efforts to protect and provide services to victims and to bring perpetrators to justice.
Eighty-nine percent of American households were food secure throughout the entire year in 2006, meaning that they had access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The remaining households (10.9 percent) were food insecure at least some time during the year. About one-third of food insecure households (4.0 percent of all U.S. households) had very low food security—meaning that the food intake of one or more adults was reduced and their eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year because the household lacked money and other resources for food. Prevalence rates of food insecurity and very low food security were essentially unchanged from those in 2005. The typical food-secure household spent 31 percent more on food than the typical food-insecure household of the same size and household composition. Just over half of all food-insecure households participated in one or more of the three largest Federal food and nutrition assistance programs during the month prior to USDA’s annual Food Security Survey.
This project was commissioned by the Housing Corporation as one of a group of projects developing key themes of the Corporation’s Tackling Homelessness Strategy, published in December 2006. The project is intended to inform one of the key areas that underpins the Corporation’s approach to preventing and tackling homelessness, by analysing and promoting existing good practice among social landlords in their lettings functions at regional, sub-regional and local levels.
This document provides research evidence on the effectiveness of self-care support, such as information, self-care support devices, self-care skills training and self-care support networks in the care of people with long-term health conditions, short-term ailments and among those taking initiatives to stay healthy.
This Statistical First Release provides provisional statistics on looked after children at a national level. This is an update of the Statistical Volume that was published on 31 March 2006. It includes details on overall numbers of looked after children at 31 March 2007, the number of children adopted in the year, the number of adopters, the number and qualifications achieved by care leavers aged 16 and over, the activity of 19 year old former care leavers, the number of looked after girls who are mothers, information on the distance between home and placement and the method of participation used during the statutory reviews.
December 4, 2007
This fact sheet summarizes a study that examined how schools in the U.S. Gulf Coast region perceived the mental health needs of students after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and how schools responded.
The year 1910 marks an astonishing, and largely unrecognized, juncture in Western history. In this perceptive interdisciplinary analysis, Thomas Harrison addresses the extraordinary intellectual achievement of the time. Focusing on the cultural climate of Middle Europe and paying particular attention to the life and work of Carlo Michelstaedter, he deftly portrays the reciprocal implications of different discourses - philosophy, literature, sociology, music, and painting.
Gender differences in mortality and life expectancy vary by country. But in most countries, men live shorter lives than women (see figure). In Russia, for instance, the difference between male and female life expectancy is 13 years (59 vs. 72). In other countries, such as the United States, the male disadvantage is smaller: 5 years (75 vs. 80). And in some countries, such as Bangladesh, there is little or no male disadvantage (42 vs. 42).
"Ranking the States: