The Effects of Neighborhood Variables on Needs of Social Care: A Hierarchical Multiple Regression of Senior Residents in China

Community-based elder care has become a dominant model in the world. However, the role of community-level factors in helping or hindering the individuals concerned in obtaining the needed care has not received much attention. This research aims to investigate how community-level factors, including neighborhood disadvantage, residential instability, and social service environment affect the need for instrumental, medical, and emotional services of Chinese senior residents. Employing the hierarchical multiple regression analysis, the results show that instrumental activities of daily living impairment contributed significantly to the need for instrumental, medical and emotional services. Living alone was found to be associated with the need for medical and emotional services. Objective socioeconomic status was only significantly related to the need for medical care. The type of urban community was positively associated with the need for instrumental services and was negatively related to the need for medical care. Residential instability was positively associated with of the need for instrumental services and medical care. Social service environments had heterogeneous effects on the need for social services. However, neighborhood disadvantage had no significant impact on the need for social services. Implications for future research and policy reform were also discussed.     

National Language Capacity in Global Competition

The term national language capacity refers to the sum total of a nation’s ability to grasp linguistic resources, provide language services, deal with linguistic issues, develop the language, and related tasks. Key capacities include the possession of linguistic resources, utilization of language and language services, development and use of linguistic resources, the language of the members of the nation, reserves of linguistic talent, language management, development of language enterprises and linguistic influence. The development of informatization has made national language capacity an important part of national strength. It is hard power as well as soft power, playing a very important role in social progress and cultural inheritance, in promoting economic development and technological innovation, and in protecting a country’s national security and international development.     

When the Norwegian child-welfare services get involved: parents making sense of referrals

There is limited research exploring parents' views and understanding of referrals to the child-welfare services (CWS). This study explores parents' understanding of the circumstances leading to a child-welfare referral, and their understanding of the reporter's objectives in making the referral. Qualitative content analysis and frequency analysis was performed on open-ended survey responses from a sample of 683 Norwegian parents in contact with the CWS. The results showed that the majority (60.2%) of the parents perceived the referral to be initiated solely because of parental difficulties and multiple family life stressors. Some of the parents (22.8%) believed the referrals were initiated exclusively because of their children's problems, whereas a few (13.3%) perceived it to be a combination of parental/familial difficulties and children's problems. The findings reveal that close to half of the parents (46.4%) felt the objective of the person making the referral was to help the child, their parents and the family. Some (36.5%) saw it as a routine or mandated action by public or official services, while others (18.7%) reported that they did not know why referrals had been made, or gave no answer to the question. A small group of parents (6%) viewed the referral as an act of harassment. The main implications of these findings are discussed.     

当前我国加强和完善社区管理和服务体系研究

加强和完善社区管理和服务体系具有重要意义。目前,我国街道办事处的职能不明确,条块分割,社区居委会行政化严重,社区公共服务亟待提高和完善,城乡社区服务资源严重不足,社区工作者人数少,工作任务重,社区工作专业化水平不高。因此,要发挥基层政府的主导作用,积极推进街道管理体制创新,健全基层群众自治制度,创新社区管理模式,完善社区公共服务体系,增强街镇和社区实力,推动我国社会工作的社区化。     

How organizational characteristics affect the adaptive tactics used by human service nonprofit managers confronting financial uncertainty

The way that nonprofits respond to funding uncertainty is crucial to their ability to meet goals and position themselves for future success. This article investigates how structural, managerial, and financial characteristics affect the adaptive tactics used by human service nonprofits during times of financial stress. These tactics include adding new programs, reducing programs or staff, expanding or starting joint programs, pursuing earned income, and expanding advocacy involvement. Using longitudinal data on human service nonprofits collected on either side of the 2002–2003 economic downtown, we find that larger size provides organizations with a unique ability to choose among different adaptive tactics, as larger size was significantly predictive of adding new programs, reducing programs, expanding advocacy, and pursuing earned income. Strategic planning was positively associated with innovative tactics such as starting joint programs or pursuing earned income. Financial stress or declines in an organization's major funding source led to cutbacks, as expected, but managers who foresaw these challenges were able to respond proactively by adding programs or starting joint programs. However, managers with more training did not respond much differently than did other managers, and organizational age and use of performance management tools had no effect in guiding organizational responses to financial uncertainty.     

高职学生文献信息需求的阶段性特征及服务

分析了高职院校学生在入学初期、专业学习、实验实训、毕业准备四个阶段对图书馆文献资源和信息服务的需求特点,提出了根据阶段性需求特点开展高职院校图书馆读者服务的思路和举措,以期为创新高职院校图书馆读者服务模式提供参考。     

政府支出对医疗服务健康公平影响的比较和启示

医疗服务公平和人民的健康是各国卫生系统向其国家居民提供医疗服务所应实现的两个重要目标。但以英美日为例的发达国家根据世界卫生统计年鉴中的医疗服务公平性排名确有明显差距，因此，高收入和高政府医疗卫生支出与医疗卫生服务公平和健康公平性并没有必然关系。本文通过比较分析美日英国的政府间医疗卫生支出责任划分的结构发现高政府医疗卫生支出比例是提高医疗服务筹资公平性的前提，中央承担社会医疗保险责任是实现医疗服务筹资公平性的保证，政府特别是中央政府出资的长期护理有助于提高国民健康水平，地方政府的参与更有助于提高一国医疗系统机构数量特别是医院的数量。     

Improving the Efficacy of Administrative Data for Evaluation of Holistic Defense

A college of social work developed a partnership with a state commission on indigent defense to examine existing data-collection procedures, potential case outcomes, and practical implications of implementing holistic defense programs. The holistic defense model responds to the complex challenges of justice-system-involved defendants by providing social services in public defense offices. Using chi-square and logistic regression analyses of administrative data for a sample of 15,994 public defendants from a single judicial circuit, this research study examined case outcomes before and after implementation of a holistic defense program. Results were mixed regarding effectiveness of holistic defense in mitigating the effect of justice involvement for indigent defendants. Implementation of holistic defense was associated with a decrease in case dismissals. However, defendants receiving holistic representation were less likely to be indicted than defendants prior to program implementation. Once indicted, there were no changes in levels of diversions, and more defendants were held on bond, convicted as guilty, and incarcerated. After program implementation, fewer defendants were sentenced to alternatives to incarceration; more defendants were sentenced to time served, avoiding further incarcerative penalty. These findings suggested the need for further research to determine whether holistic defense practices are producing desired legal and social service outcomes.     

Short Break and Respite Services for Disabled Children in England: Comparing Children's and Parents' Perspectives of Their Impact on Children

Researchers, health and social care workers often seek to understand the perspectives of children; but gathering views directly from children can present difficulties. Parents are often asked to provide accounts of children's feelings or opinions on the assumption that their proxy reports are accurate and unproblematic. This qualitative thematic analysis of open‐question responses from 352 parents and 73 disabled children examines their accounts of the impact of short break services on disabled children. Participants' perspectives differed; children tended to describe immediate outcomes such as enjoying activities and participation; parents acknowledged these, but focused on longer term developmental outcomes for children.