Catering to sex,sexual, and gender diversity: An exploratory study on the effects of LGBTI awareness training on aged care staff in Tasmania,Australia

The Australian National LGBTI Ageing and Aged Care Strategy seeks to address the lack of recognition of older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) adults living in aged care. Awareness training for aged care staff forms a crucial part of this strategy, but the impact of such educational programs are yet to be examined. In this article, we examine the effects of LGBTI awareness training on staff working in an Australian aged care facility. These staff perceived the awareness training as valuable, but the outcomes from it were limited. Therefore, we indicate changes that are necessary to support the translation of training into practice.     

Transforming the culture of caring

Direct care staff struggle with the decision of when to physically intervene with patients. There is a widely held belief that they are expected to place themselves in danger of harm to prevent patients from hurting themselves or others. In this acute mental health care setting, an educational program was developed, using principles of adult and transformational learning, to dispel the idea that getting hurt is part of the job. The Staying Safe program strongly discourages staff from physically intervening alone and promotes staff getting enough help and having a plan. Staff are encouraged to interact with patients in helpful ways and to respond to patient requests in ways that do not increase frustration or evoke anger. There has been a positive response to the training program, evidenced by changes in the way staff think about their jobs and a reduction in the number of assaults and injuries to staff.     

Meeting communication needs: topics of talk in the nursing home

Nursing home residents primarily rely on staff for communication and interpersonal relationships. Challenged by staffing shortages and increasingly complex care, staff who provide the most communication with residents lack awareness and skills to effectively communicate with older adults. This study, a secondary analysis of staff-resident interactions from one nursing home, explores communication topics and the effects of an intervention. Staff from one unit were recorded during 2 hours of caregiving to provide a representative sample of their communication with residents. Staff then attended an educational program targeting improved awareness of communication needs and reducing "elderspeak". Recording was repeated post-intervention. Baseline conversations focused on activities of daily living (ADLs), personal-social, technical care, and health assessment. Post-intervention ADL talk decreased in staff-resident interactions, while personal-social topics increased. These findings suggest that residents' limited opportunities for communication with staff are primarily focused on care tasks. With increased communication awareness, staff can learn to modify conversational topics to better meet older adults' psychosocial needs.     

An empirical test of a model of academic expectations among youth in residential care

In the last decade accumulating evidence across many countries points to the poor educational outcomes of youth formerly placed in care and their under-representation in higher education. Academic expectations in late adolescence are considered a key marker for educational attainments in young adulthood. Although these expectations were studied extensively, they have seldom been examined among youth in substitute care. The goal of the present research was to develop and test a model to predict academic expectations of Israeli adolescents placed in residential facilities. The study sample consisted of 1360 adolescents from 34 youth villages who responded to self-report questionnaires tapping their academic expectations, current academic achievements and various aspects of their family, school and facility's environment, expected to be associated with their academic expectations.Structural equation modeling indicated that parents' level of education was indirectly related to youths' expectations, an association mediated by youth's current academic achievements and parents' aspirations for their children's educational success. Higher levels of teacher and staff support were also found to contribute to higher academic expectations; however, whereas teacher support effects were mediated by youth achievements, staff support was found to have direct, as well as moderating effects, on achievement-expectations relationship.The findings suggest the importance of an integrative approach in the efforts to promote educational expectations among adolescents in residential facilities. Such an approach, encompassing the multiple adult functions responsible for youth development within such settings, could be an important step in enhancing the chances for future academic success of this vulnerable group.     

Non-formal educator use of evaluation results

Increasing demands for accountability in educational programming have resulted in increasing calls for program evaluation in educational organizations. Many organizations include conducting program evaluations as part of the job responsibilities of program staff. Cooperative Extension is a complex organization offering non-formal educational programs through land grant universities. Many Extension services require non-formal educational program evaluations be conducted by field-based Extension educators. Evaluation research has focused primarily on the efforts of professional, external evaluators. The work of program staff with many responsibilities including program evaluation has received little attention. This study examined how field based Extension educators (i.e. program staff) in four Extension services use the results of evaluations of programs that they have conducted themselves. Four types of evaluation use are measured and explored; instrumental use, conceptual use, persuasive use and process use.Results indicate that there are few programmatic changes as a result of evaluation findings among the non-formal educators surveyed in this study. Extension educators tend to use evaluation results to persuade others about the value of their programs and learn from the evaluation process. Evaluation use is driven by accountability measures with very little program improvement use as measured in this study.Practical implications include delineating accountability and program improvement tasks within complex organizations in order to align evaluation efforts and to improve the results of both. There is some evidence that evaluation capacity building efforts may be increasing instrumental use by educators evaluating their own programs.     

Learning Disabilities Within Postsecondary Education

Abstract

Learning disabilities (LD) are a significant issue in the U.S. educational system and the fastest growing disability group in need of services at the postsecondary educational level. This growth has led to an increase in colleges and universities offering support services to the adult LD population. However, many students are still having difficulty remaining in college and completing degree programs. This difficulty may arise, in part, from confusion and misunderstanding among postsecondary professionals, including disability support coordinators and professors. The purpose of this article is to address some of the issues postsecondary educational staff and faculty members come across when dealing with the adult learning disabled population.     

Teaching the holocaust through landscape study: The Liverpool experience

There are a number of ways in which the Holocaust can be taught at various educational levels. This article explains the experiences of one university geography field course, which seeks to use ‘conventional’ landscape study approaches to provide an understanding of aspects of the Holocaust. It describes the methodology of the course, the experiences of students and staff, and details the difficulties of such study. In particular, it emphasizes the need for sensitive staff‐student relations and the wider educational impact of such work. Whilst stressing the uniqueness of such a course in a geography degree, it commends the strategy to teachers in many other disciplines.     

Development of a rating form to evaluate grant applications to the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health

Reliance on subjective grant proposal review methods leads private philanthropies to underfund mental health programs, even when foundations have mental health focuses. This article describes a private mental health foundation's efforts to increase the objectivity of its proposal review process by developing a reliable, valid proposal rating form. Staff from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, an administrative unit of The University of Texas at Austin, developed the items for the grant proposal rating form (GPRF). Four interns, who had educational backgrounds equivalent to the foundation's grant-making staff, used the GPRF to independently rate 20 grant proposals previously reviewed by the foundation. Internal consistency and interrater reliability were very good. It had good face and construct validity and moderate criterion validity. The GPRF's psychometric properties are sufficient to recommend its use in the foundation's review process and suggest private philanthropies' grant proposal review processes can be made more objective and reliable without compromising validity.     

Using Computers in Community Educational Programs

Summary

This article offers some theoretical and practical advice for using computers in educational settings. The primary focus is out-of-school settings for school-aged children; however, many of the points arc applicable to other educational settings and for other ages. The primary message is that computers should be viewed as tools to help students explore and understand particular educational content, The article discusses several principles and guidelines for using computers this way. It also offers practical suggestions about staff development and funding of computer-based educational programs. It concludes with some reflections about a perspective from which to continue developing useful applications.     

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Community College Students

Abstract

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is often unrecognized and infrequently treated in community college students. Since students with disabilities including ADHD are more likely to attend a 2-year rather than a 4-year college and to drop out before graduating, this article describes current conceptualizations of adult ADHD for community college social workers, psychologists, faculty, counselors, and staff. It presents counseling and educational interventions, which can result in greater academic success and an increase in self-esteem for individual students, as well as an increase in retention rates for the college.     

Microcomputers in the adolescent treatment facility: Specifications and utilizations

Specifications and utilizations of microcomputers within the adolescent residential treatment facility are presented. Hardware, software, and programming are briefly described. Case management, educational and therapeutic uses, staff training, and office management in relationship to the treatment facility are explored in context of the microcomputer. Implementation of the microcomputer system is also presented.     

Caring vs. Cashflow

Summary

The administration and delivery of human services often involve apparently conflicting goals, such as the desire to offer quality services to those most in need while maintaining a sound financial status for an agency. Using the example of needs for caring vs. cashflow in a hospice, this article describes how computer simulation was used to explore possible solutions for this common dilemma in human service organizations. A system dynamics model was developed to represent student and staff beliefs about the causal relationships between processes of caring and cashflow. A generic system dynamics computer application, STELLA, was used to simulate and explore varying assumptions and beliefs about agency functioning. The simulation period proved very useful as an educational tool, and as a motivator for staff to pursue a solution to the caring vs. cashflow dilemma.     

Discussing school celebrations from an intercultural perspective – a study in the Finnish context

The increased diversity in pupils’ cultural and ethnic backgrounds in schools creates urgent demands for the organization of school celebrations in many countries. Celebrations represent the cultural values of the society and it is important to find out how various traditions are expressed in them. This study examines teachers’ and other educational staff members’ perceptions of Finnish culture, Lutheran religiosity, and intercultural education relating to Christmas, Independence Day, and end-of-term celebrations in Finnish schools. The data of this paper consists of 12 thematic interviews, and participation in two school festivals. The interview data were analyzed qualitatively using content analysis. The analysis of this study shows that festivals are perceived as important parts of education and they can help to create a sense of national or cultural community. However, the intercultural potential of school celebrations is often not put to its full use. There exists an urgent need to create new ways of carrying out celebrations in multicultural school communities so that they would be meaningful for all students.     

Residential care and education

SUMMARY. Children in care have a poor record of achievement in school. Those in residential care face particular difficulties, arising from changes of placement, inadequate liaison between children's homes and schools, low expectations among care and school staff, and an environment in which educational needs are not given priority. The experience of one voluntary children's home suggests some ways in which these disadvantages may be overcome.     

Social Work in Rural New South Wales School Settings: Addressing Inequalities Beyond the School Gate

Children and young people in rural Australia experience disadvantage compared with metropolitan counterparts, with low educational attainment and disengagement from schooling being linked to poorer health outcomes. Schools are an existing contact point between individuals and health services. However, these health services are often overburdened and have limited scope to address broader social issues and teaching staff are focused on achieving curriculum outcomes. Embedding social workers within schools may provide an avenue for supporting students, yet social workers are rarely present in New South Wales public schools. This paper describes a study to determine teachers’ understanding of the socioeconomic issues faced by school students, and the role of the social work profession in addressing such issues as part of the early stages of establishing a Social Work in Schools (SWiS) project. Eighteen semistructured interviews were undertaken with teachers across four rural Australian schools. Participants identified their awareness of potential risk factors that could lead to educational disengagement, reflected on their own limitations in dealing with these broader health presentations given their teaching focus, and provided insights into their understanding of the potential role of social workers.     

高校教学管理人员的素质分析

论述了教学管理人员在高校教学管理中的特殊地位和重要作用,分析了高校教学管理人员应具备的能力和素质。     

A balancing act. Continuing education for staff nurses

Basic nursing education programs prepare nurses as generalists. Continuing education programs for psychiatric nurses are needed to provide additional knowledge and expertise in this specialty area. 2. This educational program was developed for psychiatric staff nurses who have completed their orientation but are new to their institution or to the psychiatric clinical area. 3. Content of the program includes an overview of theories, therapeutic relationships, psychiatric terminology, the nursing process as it relates to patients with psychiatric problems, psychotropic medications, electroconvulsive therapy, and DSM-III R. 4. A pretest based on the content of this program can help assess the learning needs of each new nurse. The nurse may then attend the entire program or only specific parts based on individualized needs.     

Training consumers to collect data in mental health service system evaluation research

Consumer satisfaction with services is an outcome measure. This report describes The Consumer Satisfaction Research Associate Training Program, which was designed for the education and supervision of recovered consumers who collected data during four studies at three psychiatric hospitals. The educational program had didactic and laboratory components. Consumer research associates collected quantitative and qualitative data using a survey tool for face-to-face interviews. Participant recruitment and management of confidential records were included in the role. Data collected by research associates from consumers who are in treatment can enhance the validity and trustworthiness of satisfaction surveys. Nurses can play an important role in the research process by serving as staff resources for consumers who collect data in various service system settings.