Therapeutic challenges in clinical work with adolescents

Clinicians are besieged by an array of personal responses to the hard-to-reach, acting-out adolescent of the 1990s. Practice principles are presented with special emphasis on the necessary modifications for effective work with teens. Countertransference, counter-reactions, alliance, misalliance and pseudo-alliance are defined and illustrated in a case vignette demonstrating the therapeutic challenges and precarious outcome of a fragile alliance. Empathy, self-awareness, insight and the real relationship are designated as key components for a safe holding environment in clinical work with vulnerable adolescents.Presented at the keynote address at the March 14, 1995 conference titledThey're So Different: Strategies For Counseling Adolescents, sponsored by Arms Acres and Student Assistance Services, held at the Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, White Plains, New York.     

The challenges of innovation

Organizational Innovation: Studies of Program Change in Community Agencies by Howard B. Kaplan, with an introduction by Marshall Scott Poole. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum, 2003. 239 pp., $109.00 cloth, $53.95 paper     

Hyper-anxiety in early sobriety: psychopharmacological treatment strategies

The importance of recognizing and treating anxiety disorders that co-occur with alcohol use disorders should not be underestimated, whether the anxiety is state (a transient condition) or trait (a chronic disorder). This article will discuss hyper-anxiety, a term the authors use to describe the uncomfortable, excessively anxious state that contributes to relapse. In addition, psychopharmacological strategies for relief of hyper-anxiety are suggested, and implications for recovery are discussed.     

社会结构阶层化和利益关系市场化——中国社会管理面临的新挑战

社会建设和社会管理的核心是协调社会群体之间的利益矛盾与冲突,保持社会秩序。在新的历史时期,社会结构阶层化和利益关系市场化构成社会群体矛盾与冲突的基本特征;而整合日益分化的社会结构,正确处理市场化背景下权力和权利的问题,在很长时间内将是中国社会管理面临的新挑战。在发展阶段和转型路径的约束下,面对日益分化的社会阶层和日益深化的市场化程度,公开、参与、平衡是协调社会矛盾与冲突、重塑社会秩序的基本理念和方向。     

The challenges of inclusive education in Lebanon

This article reports on a study conducted in Lebanon by four non-governmental organizations, primarily on the topic of inclusion of people with disabilities in education, with a secondary focus on inclusion in employment. This article reports on some of the findings of the assessment process that was four months in duration and aimed, through interviews and focus groups, to identify available information, current policies and legislation, main stakeholders and existing programmes. Findings of the assessment generated themes that are unique to each of the two groups: parents and children, and educators. However, there are some common themes, such as a perceived need for raising awareness on disability issues and a perceived lack of adequate teacher training. The article concludes by arguing for change efforts on various levels to support inclusion: awareness-raising; policy change; capacity-building; and community-building.     

Vacation-separations: Therapeutic implications and clinical management

The literature is scanty concerning the clinical management of vacation-separations despite their potential for promoting either regression or therapeutic gain associated with the separation. A survey of clinical social workers highlights the range of practice philosophy and experience related to this topic. Case examples illustrate work around typical separation issues. This analysis of the clinical management of vacation-separations is grounded in the context of attachment theory, timing considerations, and separationindividuation issues.     

Sex hormones, neurotransmitters, and psychopharmacological treatments in men with paraphilic disorders

Paraphilic disorders are psychiatric syndromes primarily characterized by deviant sexual thoughts, cravings, urges, and/or behaviors. Paraphilic men may engage in inappropriate sexual behaviors when cravings for socially unacceptable sexual acts become overpowering. These often chronic disorders may not only cause emotional distress and social embarrassment to the afflicted patient but also to the targets of their paraphilic focus. The primary objective of this article is to examine and review data on the efficacy and tolerability of the testosterone-lowering agents medroxprogesterone acetate, cyproterone acetate, and leuprolide acetate. The secondary goal is to review data on less conventional and more innovative pharmacological treatments, particularly the serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitors.     

The challenges of mathematics education for Indigenous teacher training

In this article, I outline research carried out on in an Ethnomathematics course designed to train Indigenous teachers in Costa Rica, in which the following ethnic groups participated: Ngabes, Bribris, and Cabecares. The challenge is to develop a mathematical education that provides equitable conditions for the different groups within innovative curricular proposals. This research is based on the construct of ‘Cultural Mathematical Knowledge' which serves to describe intrinsic characteristics of socially differentiated groups and thus propose a model for teacher education. The design of the course incorporates an empirical base, a theoretical base, and a methodological base. It is a multicultural and multidisciplinary proposal based on Indigenous mathematics and on the ideas of mathematical enculturation, to be developed through curricular microprojects in Indigenous schools. The course promotes preparing the teacher as a researcher to shape him or herself mathematically, as someone who carries out appropriate educational actions in an academic environment in accordance with an ethnolinguistic reality, a cultural worldview, and awareness of the potential of the students of Indigenous schools.     

The passage to adulthood: challenges of late adolescence

Late adolescence and the period following, often referred to as emerging adulthood, have been noted as particularly important for setting the stage for continued development through the life span as individuals begin to make choices and engage in a variety of activities that are influential for the rest of their lives. Demographic, sociocultural, and labor market changes have made the years between ages eighteen and twenty-five more transitional than in the recent past. This chapter reviews the critical assets and needs that are essential for keeping youth on healthy, productive pathways into adulthood and examines the developmental tasks and changes of late adolescence.     

The paracrisis: The challenges created by publicly managing crisis prevention

Social media is emerging as critical element of scanning for many crisis risks. When these crisis risks emerge online, people often confuse them with crises and that is why we have developed the term paracrisis. Para can mean “like” something. A paracrisis is like a crisis. It can “look like” a crisis and does require action from the organization. However, a paracrisis does not warrant convening the crisis team and operating in a crisis mode. This paper details the value of paracrises, how to evaluate their threat potential, and ways to respond to them and how to evaluate those responses.     

The strategic leadership of complex practice: opportunities and challenges

This paper addresses the issue of how strategic‐level partnerships, such as Local Safeguarding Children Boards, know about and learn from practice. The death of Baby Peter in Haringey exposed the dangers of reliance on numerical performance data alone to inform leaders about the true state of practice. The drivers for, and impact of, regulatory, media and political pressures on front‐line practice and partnership behaviour are discussed with reference to the rise of organisational risk management and ‘rule‐based’ responses (Munro, 2009 ). These are exacerbated by an overload of negative data about child protection systems which results in contagious ‘attention cascades’ which lead to over‐simplification of complex issues and the rush to quick‐fix solutions. This results in compliance‐based responses designed to avoid ‘blame’, based on individualistic analyses of complex situations. Under these conditions, ‘learning’, such as from serious case reviews, can become regressive (how to avoid future culpability) rather than progressive (how to improve knowledge skills and practice). It is argued that understanding and improving practice require strategic partnerships to have engaged with front‐line staff in order to access practice narratives as well as performance numbers, and to achieve an accurate and systemic analysis of the state of practice and how it can be improved. This calls for collective forms of knowing and reflecting and the paper concludes by describing examples. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pediatrics: The emerging psychosocial challenges of the AIDS epidemic

HIV has a pervasive and profound effect on the psychological, social and neuropsychological functioning of infected infants, children and their families. This article discusses direct and indirect psychological manifestations of HIV in children. Direct effects are the outcome of the virus acting on the central nervous system and can result in compromised cognitive, language, motor, socio-emotional and motivational functioning. Indirect effects involve psychological responses to the stress of living with a life threatening illness, the social ostracism, disruption in life goals and undergoing frequent invasive and protracted medical procedures. A major focus of this article is to outline and describe a model comprehensive psychosocial support system developed within the Pediatric Branch of the National Cancer Institute. This includes early intervention issues and strategies for working with families during the introductory phase of the treatment program that also provides the framework for a care management approach, salient mental health problems that frequently occur in this group, and appropriate interventions for individuals and families. Attention is also given to dealing with anticipatory loss and bereavement, implementing traditional innovative intervention techniques, and for providing advocacy services concerning possible legal, financial, housing, and educational issues.     

The World Social Forum and the challenges of global democracy

Abstract Protests against economic globalization helped give birth to the World Social Forum (WSF) as a space for civil society groups to coordinate actions and articulate shared visions for global change. Since 2001 the WSF has brought together hundreds of thousands of activists from all parts of the world. But creating an inclusive political space that is also effective at generating unified action has proved challenging. In this article I explore the central tensions in the 2004 WSF and explore the possibilities for the Forum to overcome these obstacles and expand global democracy.     

Providing tough intellectual challenges: The issue of quality training

Sociological training is not sufficiently demanding, at either the graduate or the undergraduate levels, and thus we do not attract high-quality students. We need to build more tough intellectual experiences into our graduate programs at several points, not merely at the dissertation stage. Six specific suggestions are made, most of which emphasize the importance of theoretical work, syntheses and careful analyses of existing theories, and advanced methodological work. He most recently has authoredConceptualization and Measurement in the Social Sciences andBasic Dilemmas in the Social Sciences, and is coeditor (with Frederick Campbell and Reece McGee) ofTeaching Sociology: The Quest for Excellence.     

The application of financial management in enterprise management

Nowadays,financial management plays a vital role in the process of enterprise operation.To improve the level and ability of financial management of enterprises is of great significance to the realization of the modernization of enterprises and the sustainable development of science.In this paper,the financial management status would be first proposed,and suggestions would be made to improve the financial management in enterprises.