Peter Morris, chairman of the Welsh executive of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT), accused Labour of reducing academic standards. In a speech to the PAT annual conference, in Harrogate, Mr Morris will claim "the middle classes are becoming the new whipping boys for New Labour".

L Pedrick | NY Times
Patricia Ben Peterson works at the Lillian Booth Actors’ Home. Ms. Peterson gave up acting nearly four years ago to go back to school for a master’s in social work.

G Mably | Newsweek
"The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes and other 'good' kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college." MySpace is still home for "kids whose parents didn't go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school."

The Palms Geriatric Institution is the safe home for 214 indigent senior citizens, providing a comfortable environment, where they are given love and care. The roots of the institution date back to 1874 when it was established as the ‘Alms House’ under British colonial rule.

The staff in the mental health department are looking forward to getting out of the basement once they finally move into the new Brampton Civic Hospital.

The grieving parents of a 12-year-old girl who died in council care have condemned the secrecy of the family courts which took their daughter away. Salma ElSharkawy was killed along with care worker, Beth Fitton, 23, when their car hit a tree and burst into flames near Buxton, Derbyshire, earlier this month. Salma's father, Walid, protesting outside Parliament

Delwin M. Anderson dedicated his life to helping veterans after he was sidelined by hepatitis while many of his comrades were killed or wounded in World War II. (Family Photo)

Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services social worker Vanessa Pratt visited with a 6-year-old foster child during an in-home visit in September 2006. Social workers often make home visits to check on children and their families.
C Bertram | Staff

The IOM, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, has been studying the effects of the herbicide Agent Orange on veterans since the early 1990s, and is issuing its seventh update. Two recent studies of Vietnam veterans who handled Agent Orange and other defoliants indicated that these veterans have higher rates of high blood pressure, the report said.

Karen Pasqualetto was only 35 and a new mother when a doctor diagnosed advanced colon cancer and gave her six months to live.
D GRADY

D Allen | The Enquirer
The Tomky family at their Morgan Avenue home in Urbandale. Back Row (left to right): Beretta, 9, and Pam, 11. Front row (left to right): Mitchell, 4, Jerry, Allie, 13, Renee and Rocky, 8.

F ANTONIO | AP
After being arrested while on vacation in Miami in December, Eddy Tome and Blanca Banegas were put in detention while their sons Joshua, 7, and Jasuat, 5, were placed in foster care in Florida.

Scientists in Britain have produced further evidence linking cannabis use to the possible development of psychosis later in life. (File photo) (AAP)

Ann's son went completely off the rails once heroin was added to the list of drugs he was prepared to take. For her it was the beginning of a nightmare.

In the 1950s the focus was on homemaking skills. But, it seems, life for a 21st-century member of the UK's largest youth organisation for girls is now a very different experience.

Hundreds of social care workers could take further strike action. Unison representatives said staff would continue their strike after talks with Glasgow City Council failed to reach a conclusion.

The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler
Shadow Mothers by Linda Back McKay

View image of Nebraska and Iowa outcomes

H GRANNUM | Detroit Free Press
LaKeisha Hardy, 21, of Detroit, left, talks with Sornora Stovall, 19, of Detroit and Bobby Wade, recruitment specialist for Child Welfare Services, on Saturday at a Detroit event to encourage people to become foster parents. Hardy was brought up in foster care but never had a permanent home.

Pam Martin of Little Silver hangs a poster at her gallery, Cel-ebration! in Red Bank.

Teenagers are being promised more constructive activities. Unclaimed money from abandoned bank accounts will fund government plans to provide positive activities for teenagers and reduce youth crime.

From left, Child Welfare League Foundation director Alicia Wang, entertainer Bacy Tang, a group of children and Kangtai Hospital director Wang Pu-shan yesterday hold up signs at a press conference to encourage healthier drinking habits among Taiwanese children.
C CHIA-MING | TAIPEI TIMES

The impact of 24-hour licences on dangerous drinking is unclear. Most A&E departments in England do not identify problem drinkers or offer them long-term help when they seek treatment, a study says.

Housing experts are to tell the government that Scotland needs to build a minimum of 10,000 new rented homes a year to address existing demand. The Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland calls for more new homes

Drunken yobs are behaving like an occupying army loose in the streets, a leading MP says. Photograph: C Furlong | Getty Images

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on early Saturday morning visits a community medical service center to see how the basic medicare for urban residents works. [Xinhua]

JJ Mitchell | Getty
Using college enrollment as a measure of academic success, University of Texas at Austin sociologist Robert Crosnoe found that obese students had a worse experience at school than their thinner peers and were less likely to attend college, and that the effects of being overweight hurt girls far more than boys.

Professor Sir Al Aynsley-Green, the children's commissioner for England, claims The Declaration on Child Well Being will shake off the shock of the dreadful showing in Unicef's league table

Little research has been done into how herbal remedies interact with traditional drugs, leaving users vulnerable to adverse reactions.
Photograph | Handout photo

Ivan Lewis, the care services minister who took over responsibility for mental health this month, will say: "It is time to draw a line following years of division over the reform of mental health legislation. We should now unite to launch a sustained national campaign against the stigma and ignorance which has blighted the lives of too many people with mental health problems for too long."

George Everly Jr., Ph.D.: "The ultimate tool of the terrorist is not death and destruction, but fear and demoralization."
Credit | Loyola College in Maryland

Protesters burn an effigy mocking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during a demonstration in Metro Manila's Quezon City, Philippines, yesterday.
PHOTO: EPA

View image re: Mild Cognitive Impairment

The Peaks unit at Rampton, which houses men with severe personality disorders

Reform and restructuring was then the timely focus of a forum held in June by the International Women’s Club, in co-operation with the State Agency for Child Protection, the Agency for Social Assistance and FICE Bulgaria, an NGO specialising in professional training in the field of child care. The forum was supported financially by theSwiss Agency for Development and Co-operation.

Reps. David Bradley, left, and Pete Hershberger say that the push for openness might do Child Protective Services more harm than good.
a pittenger | arizona daily star

Charities run two thirds of hospices in the country. More than one in four hospices is now in deficit, a study of 186 of the UK's 194 charitable hospices showed.

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Misuse hopes to pin down the true scale and nature of the problem, and find ways to tackle it.

The number of people treated for heroin addiction in Scotland has reached record levels, according to figures. About 21,000 people are now said to use heroin substitute methadone - 10% more than previously thought - with a third of them caring for children under 16.

Having a degree and excellent skills count for little if you are disabled and live in residential care. Why? Doug Paulley whiles away his time but could be working in IT.

One in five young teenagers say that their friends are carrying knives and weapons, says a major annual survey of schoolchildren's health and wellbeing.

SAD LIFE: Miranda Davila, who spent infancy in foster care, was returned home and then killed by her father.

AP | J HERMOSA
Brownsville-based International Educational Services oversees the care of illegal-immigrant children. Kids live in foster homes until they can be placed with a relative or family friend in the U.S.

Staff photo | J Phelan
This holding day area at the Kennebec County Correctional Facility in Augusta features a television and a phone for the inmates in the four cells attached to it.

The first machines should be ready to put into the hands of children in developing countries in October 2007. "There's still some software to write, but this is a big step for us," Walter Bender, head of software development at One Laptop per Child (OLPC).

Photo | B Wagner

Social worker Linda Erickson, 54, talks to her former kindergarten teacher, JoAnne Sayles, who is receiving care from her at hospice.

Gannett News Service 2003 file photo
Sean Smith and his mother, Kathye, read at their home in Pasadena, Texas. Sean has mild attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and has received group counseling. A new study suggests that kids with ADHD who receive some form of treatment will improve.

The economic crisis in Zimbabwe is having a severe impact on its neighbour, South Africa. An estimated three million Zimbabweans are thought to have fled to South Africa to escape the chaos and they continue to flood across the border at Beit Bridge.

Robert C. Burrell will get mental health services and a case manager, which along with the nursing home will be paid for by Gulf Coast until it can secure Medicaid or Medicare funding.

Tax on alcohol should be increased to reduce the damage being caused to people's health, the Chief Medical Officer for England Sir Liam Donaldson has said.

More than 40,000 Britons have been treated with Acomplia, also known as rimonabant, since it was unveiled last June. It was hailed as a wonder drug after trials showed it could help dieters lose up to 10 per cent of their body weight - as well as helping smokers quit cigarettes.

This first-ever U.S. Social Forum – which was held in Atlanta from June 27 to July 1 but is, in practice, an ongoing pursuit – is an outgrowth of the World Social Forum, which was held initially in January 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and each year since in locations throughout the world.

(Pic | Tim Sanders)
The government’s new mental health legislation attacks civil liberties and reinforces the stigma of mental illness

The tiny Pacific nation of Vanuatu is battling to defend the reputation of its national drink, a bitter peppery concoction called kava, which is famous for its medicinal, stress-relieving properties.

Police and social workers investigating teenage suicides have visited homes in County Armagh after material was published on the internet.