42 CFR Part 2 now up for SAMHSA rulemaking change

After complaining about 42 CFR Part 2, the regulation requiring patients to consent to release of their substance use disorder (SUD) treatment records, for years, but saying that Congress had to fix it, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is on the brink of changing the regulation.     

CARE Act: $100 billion bill still waiting for any action

The Comprehensive Addiction Resources Emergency (CARE) Act of 2019, introduced in the House of Representatives by the late Rep. Elijah Cummings (D‐Maryland) and in the Senate by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D‐Massachusetts) on May 8, still has a lot of support from the recovery community. But with Representative Cummings' death on Oct. 17 and Senator Warren's energetic campaign for the presidential nomination, it hasn't gotten much attention.     

Proposed bill for HEROES Act would give $1.5 billion to SAPT block grant

With the House of Representatives planning to vote last Friday on the fourth COVID‐19 stimulus package, substance use treatment stands a chance of being included — if the Senate, which at press time was still opposing the measure, as was the White House, goes ahead to approve it as well. The Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, for about $2 trillion, would finally give some money to states, counties and health care. So far, more than $2 trillion has been spent on stimulus funding, with the field trying hard to be included in each bill (see “NASADAD requests $250 million for Phase 4 stimulus,” ADAW April 13, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adaw.32688 ).     

RB agrees to pay U.S. $1.4 billion for avoiding prosecution over Suboxone marketing scheme; Indivior trial next year

Reckitt Benckiser (RB) Group, previously Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals, former owner of Indivior, and maker of Suboxone, has agreed to pay the U.S. government $1.4 billion in exchange for not being prosecuted for marketing of the medication. In 2014, Reckitt Benckiser spun off Indivior, and the two companies are no longer connected. A separate trial will proceed against Indivior starting in May 2020.     

LGBT voices in work-life: a call for research and a research community

ABSTRACT

Despite an apparent expansive inclusivity of the aims of work–life programmes, there remains a fairly narrowly defined heteronormative view of the family. Alternative and non-normative perspectives of family life, and especially those pertaining to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT) identities, remain relatively occluded and under-researched. The aim of this paper is to question the presence and relevance of LGBT voices and perspectives in work–life research as they seem neither visible nor on the frontline of work–life research despite their increasingly legitimate presence in organisational and societal discourses.     

Developments in gender and U.S. politics: A call for intersectionality

Since “women and politics” scholarship emerged in the 1970s, social, institutional, and theoretical developments have shaped the trajectory of U.S. scholarship in this field. First, the presence of women in formal politics has increased, albeit unevenly across parties and minority groups over time. Simultaneously, the capacity to study “political women” has become supported through institutional mechanisms such as academic journals and communities of practice. Moreover, gender as a critical focus of analysis has been developed and refined. In the literature on women and politics, the shift from studying sex differences to interrogating gendered political institutions is especially salient. This institutional focus, along with recent intersectional studies of gender and politics, increases opportunities for cross‐pollination of sociological and political science perspectives. In this review, I provide a brief history of the U.S. scholarship on gender and politics and map these relevant social, institutional, and theoretical advances. I highlight the value of recent intersectional contributions in this field and make the case for bringing partisanship—an increasingly salient political identity and structure—into intersectional approaches to gender and politics.     

The crisis of local authority funding and its implications for independent living for disabled people in the United Kingdom

The recent financial collapse of Northamptonshire County Council sets a worrying precedent for local authorities in the United Kingdom, and in particular for disabled people who depend on services provided by local authorities, such as Direct Payments for personal assistance, for their daily living needs. While the Northamptonshire situation has been blamed on financial incompetence, we argue that it has deeper roots in austerity policies implemented by Conservative-led governments since 2010 on a national level. We also argue that the placement of responsibility for funding personal assistance services in the hands of local authorities creates a deeply unjust ‘postcode lottery’ for disabled people, and we call for a national right to all services necessary for independent living, regardless of cost.     

Unintended consequences in traffic-light food labeling: A call for mixed methods in public health research

Abstract

Nudge theory describes how indirect suggestions and positive reinforcement can influence decision-making. We used nudge theory to implement a traffic-light labeling and choice architecture (modifying product placement) intervention at Harvard University cafeterias, but found no significant change in sales. Survey and focus group data showed that some students thought the labeling may exacerbate eating disorders, however, there is extremely limited research on potential negative consequences of labeling. One way to describe these findings is through 20th century philosopher Michel Foucault’s concept of biopower. Biopower manipulates cultural norms and nudges individuals to engage in self-surveillance and self-discipline, de facto subjugating themselves to certain ways of being. Biopower may lead to the creation of an in-group and an out-group based on who can adopt the new behaviors, such as healthy eating. Those in the out-group may face additional unintended consequences, highlighting the need for mixed-methods research to better evaluate public health interventions.     

10元在北京过一天

你有没有试过像别人那样生活？或者说,像上百万人那样生活？现在北京约有两千万人口。北京市统计局的数据显示,工薪阶层的月平均工资是4200元。而2011年8月新华社的报道称,北京的月平均房租是3250元。如果没人分担房租,北京人的人均可支配收入恐怕会所剩无几。在大城市里—个人生活不仅需要预算,也需要一点创造力。《中国妇女》英文月刊的记者亲身实践了每天花10元过一周的生活。     

Structural equation model for the evaluation of national funding on R&D project of SMEs in consideration with MBNQA criteria

Financial support on the R&D in Science & Technology for SMEs at the governmental level plays a crucial role on the improvement of the national competitiveness. Korea Science & Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) has supported the R&D projects of SMEs with the competitive technology ability by way of the Science and Technology Promotion Fund. In this paper, we propose a structural equation model (SEM) to evaluate the performance of such a funding program in terms of three aspects: output, outcome and impact under given funding inputs, R&D environment of a recipient company, and external evaluation programs of funding organization. We adopt Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) criteria to assess the R&D environmental factors of recipient companies. In addition, we test the effect of interim evaluation of the funded project. The proposed model is applied to the real case and is used to identify the best practices as well as to provide feedback information for the improvement of the government funding programs of the R&D projects of SMEs.