SOCIAL CARE FOR THE AGED IN THE UNITED STATES

This paper reviews some of the impact of industrialization on the kinship structure and the shift in familial versus societal role re the elderly. Formal and informal networks of services and relationships are discussed: some needs and gaps in service identified. Thc role of women in filial responsibility within the modern family situation is noted and the need for increased supports identified. The author warns that both formal and informal systems-functioning complementary and optimally, are needed by the increasing number of elderly people.     

FROM TENDER CARE TO TENDERED CARE: THE CASE OF THE VICTORIAN MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH SERVICE

Restructuring the public sector along market principles has been a major policy development of the late twentieth century in most western countries. This paper examines the impact of recent political and administrative change on a Victorian universal primary health program, the Maternal and Child Health Service (MCHS). The first section establishes the development of the service in the years when an interventionist state provided bureaucratic support for the expansion of public health activities. In the next significant period of organisational change, the 1980s‐early 1990s, key interest groups articulated their positions in view of the administrative imperatives of corporate managerialism. Dramatic ‘marketisation ’ of the service then occurred with the impact of compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) in the mid‐1990s. The paper argues that attention to the complex processes of change shows the interplay of interest groups, discursive positions and administrative regimes, with new strategies emerging to counter the contracting state.     

RURAL DISADVANTAGE IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF SOUTH AUSTRALIAN HOME AND COMMUNITY CARE FUNDING

In this paper, the level of HACC funding under the South Australian Dementia Support and Respite Projects and the Community Support Scheme was compared across Domiciliary Care and Human Services and Health regions. Results revealed that metropolitan regions generally received more than their per capita share of HACC funding despite the greater cost of community services in rural areas and the relative paucity of supplementary or alternative rural services. The need for greater planning in the distribution of HACC funds, including moving towards formula funding is identified.     

THE LABOUR MARKET EXPERIENCE OF CAMBODIANS: POLICY IMPLICATIONS FOR SETTLEMENT SERVICES

A proportion of the annual migrant intake now comprises persons accepted under the Refugee and Special Humanitarian Program entry categories, for reasons other than the direct contribution their skills can make to economic growth. This paper examines the labour market experience of Cambodians, and considers the policy implications for resettlement services for refugees. Cambodians experience high rates of unemployment, and have low levels of English language proficiency, low levels of educational attainment, and few possess post-school qualifications. Reluctance to develop settlement services for refugees, to make special provisions for access within existing services, or even to ensure equitable access to existing services has contributed to the long term economic dependency of a sizeable proportion of this group. It is recommended that they be given greater access to basic, advanced and job related English language tuition. They, and other refugees with similar disadvantages also require special access to job search skills programs, vocational training, and wage subsidy and special employment programs.     

COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES AND THE FRAGMENTATION OF PROVISION: A CASE STUDY OF HOME AND COMMUNITY CARE SERVICES IN A SUBURBAN COMMUNITY

Although the use of non-government organisations to provide assistance has long been part of Australian welfare history, the principles of community-based provision have only recently been adopted as part of the mainstream philosphy of service provision. This article examines the association between the expansion of community-based provision and the fragmentation of service provision using information drawn from a study of the provision of long-term care for a group of primarily elderly people through the Home and Community Care Program (HACC) and related provisions in a suburban community. The account focuses on the structure of formal service provisions, identifying organisational features which directly affect the operation of the system of local services, fragmenting the assistance made available. First, the organisations providing care are all of relatively recent origin and their operation continues to reflect many of the characteristics associated with their initial establishment. Second, the organisations involved are essentially hybrid bodies, being the product of both national/State programs and local initiatives. A number of tensions and conflicts arising from this characteristic are discussed. Third, service providing agencies tend to be highly specialised, with the consequence that the main division of labour is between, rather than within, organisations. Finally, the system of funding and administration has tended to orient agencies vertically, towards the source of funding, limiting their flexibility and capacity to develop horizontal patterns of cooperation with other services in the local area. Overall, the emergent system of services appears to be characterised by a large number of small organisations organised under a range of different auspice bodies, struggling to preserve their own autonomy and to operate within an insecure and continually changing policy environment. Recognising that reforms are likely, a number of broad alternatives to privatisation arc canvassed in the final section of the article.     

KNOWLEDGE GAPS AMONG SCHOOL STAFF AND THE ROLE OF HIGH QUALITY ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENTS IN SCHOOLS

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the current study was to examine the practice validity of a new ecological assessment instrument for 3(rd) through 5(th) graders in terms of whether it provided school staff with new knowledge about students. METHOD: Pre-assessment knowledge of school staff was compared to data obtained from 21 children and their parents on 29 measures. Data were collected using the Elementary School Success Profile (ESSP). School staff pre-assessment knowledge was compared to obtained data across seven domains of children's lives (neighborhood, school, family, peers, parent educational involvement, well-being, and home behavior), data sources (child and parent), and grade level of students. RESULTS: Pre-assessment knowledge was not highly correlated with obtained data; pre-assessment expectations matched obtained data only about 41% of the time; and knowledge varied by domain, source, and grade level. CONCLUSIONS: Ecological assessments can address gaps in school staff's knowledge of targetable factors that influence the success of students.     

WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A GRANDPARENT IN A NEW COUNTRY: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE AND EMOTIONAL WELL‐BEING OF AUSTRALIAN‐VIETNAMESE GRANDPARENTS

This study attempts to understand the lived experience and emotional well‐being of Australian‐Vietnamese grandparenthood. Thirty‐six grandparents participated in four focus group interviews while three grandparents took part in individual in‐depth interviews where the experiences of the grandparents were further clarified. The findings reveal that Vietnamese grandparents encounter many changes in their lives and their relationships with their children and grandchildren in their new homeland. However, many still seem to play important roles in the family, creating a vital bridge to grandchildren. According to our participants, the grandparents' most important roles are the maintenance of good emotional relationships and support, and the construction of harmony and continuity in their modified extended families. To be able to assume these roles, grandparents need to actively explore and consider accepting new values. For many, a successful grandparenthood brings happiness to the family, positively influences grandparents' life satisfaction and emotional well‐being, and this in turn enhances their quality of life.     

THE BOYS IN BLUE AND THE BAD BLUE BOYS: A CASE STUDY OF INTERACTIVE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE POLICE AND ETHNIC YOUTH IN WESTERN SYDNEY

The paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork undertaken with a group of young men known collectively as the Bad Blue Boys (BBB)¹. These young men use the supporting of a soccer team (Sydney United in the national league) as a means of parading nationalistic allegiance to their parent's homeland, Croatia. Given the history of crowd conflict at Australian soccer matches and the current trends within soccer officialdom to move the sport away from its traditional affiliation with ethnic communities, it is inevitable that the BBB have come into confrontation with agents of social authority, such as the police, during an afternoon at the football. The participant observation aspect of the research is used to discuss the interaction between the police and the BBB at soccer matches, while interviews with members of the BBB are recounted to reveal group attitudes held about the police. The paper is written to articulate with other academic contributions which have investigated the relationship between youth from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) and the police in contemporary Australian urban contexts. A leading contributor to such studies, Janet Chan, has commented, ‘Australian research specifically on police-ethnic youth relations [paints] a negative portrait’ (Chan 1994, p. 176). The portrait painted by the present study is intended for comparison with such research. At the outset it must be stressed that the findings are peculiar to the study and that no great claim is made for extrapolation. However, this is not to say that the study does not reflect trends in relations between NESB youth and police in Australian cities. On the contrary, a conclusion will be drawn which argues that ethnographic studies of particular ethnic youth groupings and subcultures facilitate a social mapping of police youth relations.     

PHARMACEUTICAL BENEFITS IN AUSTRALIA AND SWEDEN: WELFARE POLICY AND THE COST OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

Pharmaceutical benefits provide a stable framework within which consumers, prescribers, suppliers, pharmacists and other actors undertake transactions. The state in effect delivers a good that enhances individual autonomy. A major reason for the legitimacy enjoyed by pharmaceutical benefits in both Australia and Sweden is that these programs have strong attributes of universalism (rather than targeting). Sweden's predominantly public health system allows greater scope for pharmaceutical policy innovation. Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), while historically resilient and effective, is now wedged precariously between traditional considerations of equity and public health on the one hand, and constant pressure for increased marketisation on the other.     

KINSHIP,RECIPROCITY AND VULNERABILITY: SOCIAL RELATIONS IN THE INFORMAL ECONOMY

This paper examines the notion that informal interhousehold transfers of goods and services in the communal economy are based upon reciprocity. Patterns of interhousehold transfer of goods and services are described, and the significance of kinship (or familial obligations) in shaping patterns of informal exchange are discussed. Data from a 1990 survey of household and residential organisation in Brisbane are used. Differences in income, labour force participation and the density and character of householders' social networks are considered as factors shaping contemporary interhousehold economic activity. Implications for our understanding of people's economic vulnerability are drawn from the observations.