Comment on Cross,Fine, Jones,and Walsh (2012): Good Therapeutic Services— Therapeutic Advocacy and Forensic Neutrality

Cross, Fine, Jones, and Walsh (2012 Cross, T. P., Fine, J. E., Jones, L. M. and Walsh, W. A. 2012. Mental health professionals in children's advocacy centers: Is there role conflict?. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 21(1): 91–108. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) provided a thoughtful review and critique of a book chapter describing the interview process at Child Advocacy Centers. They observed some of the ways that concerns raised in that chapter are being addressed and described revised guidelines that further clarify issues. Ongoing research and examination of the important processes carried on by child advocacy centers and the role fulfilled by mental health professionals in the investigation of child sexual abuse contributes positively to service delivery.     

On Social Capital and Diversity in a Feminized Industry: Further Developing a Theory of Internal Public Relations

Women's work relationships with other women in public relations management settings provide context for further developing Kennan and Hazleton's (2006 Kennan , W. R. , & Hazleton , V. ( 2006 ). Internal public relations, social capital, and the role of effective organizational communication . In C. H. Botan and V. Hazleton (Eds.) Public relations theory II (pp. 311 – 338 ). Mahwah , NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates . [Google Scholar]) conception of internal public relations (IPR) theory. To date, undertheorized in the public relations literature are intra-management relationships, social capital-diversity links, and connections between practitioners’ day-do-day lives and organizational contexts. Interviewed were 42 senior-level female public relations managers (African American, Asian American, Caucasian, and Hispanic) whose experiences reveal outcomes of woman/woman dyad work relationships over the past 5 decades and ways these may impact IPR in feminized industries. Explication of IPR theory and suggestions for further development are offered.     

Teaching Religion and Media: Syllabi and Pedagogy

This study explores the pedagogy of Religion and Media. The topic has garnered growing attention in recent years (Stout, 2012 Stout, D. (2012). Media and religion: Foundations of an emerging field. New York, NY: Routledge. [Google Scholar]) and the sheer array of classes is a testament to its status as a lively growing topic. This study takes a nonnormative, exploratory approach to uncover four key categorical approaches to how the topic of religion and media is taught in universities. The methodology included a textual analysis of 48 syllabi and interviews with professors who teach religion and media.     

A State of Neglect: Public Relations as ‘Corporate Conscience’ or Ethics Counsel

Ryan and Martinson (1983) Ryan, M. and Martinson, D. L. 1983. The PR officer as corporate conscience. Public Relations Quarterly, 28(2): 20–23.  [Google Scholar] and other scholars argued that the corporate conscience role should belong in the public relations function. But, how common is the use of ethics counsel among public relations professionals? This qualitative research found that many public relations practitioners indeed perform the role of ethics counsel or corporate conscience in their organizations. However, a state of neglect of this role exists in terms of education and support—even lacking support among some public relations practitioners! The well-being of both organizations and publics could be enhanced through both academic study and professional attention to public relations managers performing the role of ethics counsel to the dominant coalition.     

To what extent are the indigenous women of Jharkhand,India living in disadvantageous conditions: findings from India's National Family Health Survey 1

Indigenous populations are the most marginalized and vulnerable communities in India, constituting 8.2% of India's total population, four times larger than the total population of Australia. The state of Jharkhand accounts for 27.7% of the total indigenous population of India. This paper compares the health and socio-economic and demographic indicators among indigenous and non-indigenous women in Jharkhand in terms of ‘disadvantage ratio’, by exploring the data of 1614 ever-married women (women who are currently married or who have been married at some point in their lives) from India's second National Family Health Survey (NFHS-2), conducted during 1998–99. The study revealed that the indigenous women of Jharkhand were highly disadvantaged in terms of socio-demographic, family planning, and important aspects of maternal health and nutrition compared to non-indigenous women. They were not only disadvantaged within the state in different parameters, but also across the indigenous female population of India as a whole. The findings call for urgent implementation of special health care strategies for reducing health and socio-economic/demographic disparities among the indigenous population of Jharkhand. ¹This paper was presented at the PAA Annual Meeting, Detroit, Michigan, USA during April 29–May 2. This paper is part of the thematic cluster Global Health Beyond 2015 - more papers from this cluster can be found at http://www.globalhealthaction.netView all notes     

INTEGRATING TRANSPORT,LAND USE PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT POLICY

Various recent policy documents stress the need for the integration of sectoral policies. In practice, policy-makers recognize the need for policy-integration but often do not have a complete picture of what it entails or how to put theory into practice. This paper reports on a research project that examines attitudes and approaches to integrating transport, land use and environment policies in three local authority case studies in Denmark, Germany and England.1 1. This paper is based on a research project funded by The Netherlands Agency for Energy and the Environment (NOVEM) as part of their research programme on Regional Transport Performance (VervoersPrestatie Regionaal or VPR). View all notes The paper reflects on how different institutional and political factors can affect policy integration, focusing particularly on the integration of transport, land use and environment policies. The institutional and political factors covered in this paper include the division of roles and responsibilities within an organisation, the nature of inter-departmental and inter-agency relationships, the diversity of professional skills and education of the workforce, and the role of political and public support.     

Part II: Multisystemic Therapy: Addressing Racial Disparity and Its Effectiveness With Families From Diverse Racial and Ethnic Backgrounds

Disparities in health and mental health care delivered to racial and ethnic minorities became a focus of national policy following reports of the Institute of Medicine (IOM, 2002 Institute of Medicine . ( 2002 ). Unequal treatment: Confronting racial and ethnic disparities in health care . Washington , DC : National Academies Press . [Google Scholar]) and the Surgeon General (USDHHS, 2001). The Surgeon General (USDHHS, 2001) reported racial and ethnic minorities experience disparities in availability and quality of mental health services compared to whites. Two challenges that intersect and compound each other are the disproportionately high numbers of African American children in child welfare with unmet mental health needs remaining in their homes or placed in relative's homes after a substantiation of child maltreatment (USDHHS, 2002 Institute of Medicine . ( 2002 ). Unequal treatment: Confronting racial and ethnic disparities in health care . Washington , DC : National Academies Press . [Google Scholar]) and the lack of culturally appropriate, effective home-based treatments available to them. This study compared outcomes for the youth who received Multisystemic Therapy (MST) controlling for the impact of race and ethnicity. The findings provide further evidence for child welfare practitioners to consider when working with children and families from diverse populations in decision-making.     

The Status of Online Public Relations Research: An Analysis of Published Articles in 1992–2009

This study was designed to identify trends, patterns, and academic rigor in research studies focusing on Internet-related public relations through a review of articles published between 1992 and 2009. ^{1 1}Please see the appendix for a bibliography of the 115 articles studied. This study examined the authorship, theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, and research topics addressed in these published articles. Key findings suggested an increasing trend in the number of published articles, a lack of applied theoretical frameworks, a dominance of quantitative research, and an emphasis on use of the Internet in public relations.     

Comment on ‘the economic marginality of ethnic minorities: An analysis of ethnic income inequality in Singapore’

This note comments on the article concerning income disparity among the major ethnic groups in Singapore, entitled ‘The Economic Marginality of Ethnic Minorities: An Analysis of Ethnic Income Inequality in Singapore’. 1 1?William Lee, ‘The Economic Marginality of Ethnic Minorities: An Analysis of Ethnic Income Inequality in Singapore’, Asian Ethnicity, vol. 5, no. 1 (February 2004). View all notes The article was written by William Lee of Lingnan University in Hong Kong and appeared in the February 2004 issue of Asian Ethnicity, vol. 5, no. 1. The authors of this comment work in the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), Singapore.     

Jordan's Principle and Indigenous Children with Disabilities in Canada: Jurisdiction,Advocacy, and Research

This article discusses Indigenous¹¹In this article, the terms Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, and Treaty Indian are used interchangeably, and as needed to describe the political reality of the First Peoples of Canada. children with disabilities in Canada and examines their experiences with federal and provincial jurisdictional and funding disputes. It explores Canada's adversarial legal and policy techniques to delay implementation and funding of Jordan's Principle, a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal action seeking to address the delays, and the recommendations of a recent independent Canadian research project. Finally, it suggests ways to advance Jordan's Principle in Canada and elsewhere.     

The use of celebrity scandals and sensational news for identity negotiations: analyzing gossip among the queers within Taiwanese families

Since the late 1990s, Taiwanese celebrity scandals and sensational news stories have addressed how the families of gay children understand the latters' idiosyncratic sexual identity. Conducting studies on audience reception and searching for divergent readings were once useful means of understanding resistance and resilience among marginalized groups. This study of the interactive interpretive practices among viewers in a family further contextualizes the dialectical formation of queer1^1. In this study, I use the term queer to refer to the larger lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning (LGBTQ) community in Taiwan. However, since the usage of gay and lesbian is more common than that of queer in Taiwanese everyday conversations, I use gay and lesbian when referring to the context of family conversations. Since the early 1990s, Tóng-zhì (vernacular for queer) has become the most common name for the younger generation in the LGBT community in the Greater Chinese area. According to Chou Wah-Shan (2000 Chou, W. (2000). Tongzhi: Politics of same-sex eroticism in Chinese societies. New York: Haworth Press. [Google Scholar], p. 2), Tóng-zhì was coined as a means of signifying “politics beyond the homo-hetero duality” and “integrating the sexual into the social”. Specifically, the social networks I am referring to here are the Taiwan Tong-Zhi Hotline Foundation and the Persons with HIV/AIDS Rights Advocacy Association. In the former Tong-Zhi Hotline, I worked as a volunteer and an advisor; in the latter, I am a member of the steering committee, and I serve on the advisory board. subjectivities in Taiwan, a society that emphasizes the performance of an appropriate self in social relations and maintaining family harmony. Over a three-year period of fieldwork in Taipei, this study employed ethnographic methods to interview 16 gay men and lesbians and their mothers in order to clarify how celebrity scandals and sensational news function as a site for identity negotiation within families with gay children. This study argues that vernacular interpretive practices within families produce resources of resistance, accommodation and even pleasure, which can be used to understand the nascent Taiwanese gay identity in relation to significant others.     

Part I: A Review of the Literature on Multisystemic Treatment Within an Evidence-based Framework: Implications for Working With Culturally Diverse Families and Children

One key step in the evidence-based practice process directs practitioners to pose client-oriented, practical, evidence-search questions (COPES), seeking the truth about what will help their client (Gibbs, 2003 Gibbs , L. ( 2003 ). Evidence-based practice for the helping professions ; Pacific Grove , CA : Brooks/Cole-Thomson Learning . [Google Scholar]) and inform policy (Gambrill, 2006) and not to take a “one method fits all” position. Literature focusing on providing services to minority children and families in the child welfare system strongly supports this approach (Cohen, 2000 Cohen , N. ( 2000 ). Child welfare: A multicultural focus ; Needham Heights , MA : Allyn &; Bacon . [Google Scholar]; Lum, 2004 Lum , D. ( 2004 ). Social work practice and people of color: A process-stage approach ; Boston : Brooks/Cole . [Google Scholar]; Samantrai, 2004 Samantrai , K. ( 2004 ) . Culturally competent public child welfare practice . Belmont , CA : Brooks/Cole-Thompson Learning . [Google Scholar]). This article poses an effectiveness question, locates and evaluates existing evidence, and then presents implications for working with families and children from diverse backgrounds. The effectiveness question posed is, “If families and children from diverse populations experiencing mental health problems receive Multisystemic Therapy, will they have similar outcomes across race and ethnicity?”     

News media use,credibility, and efficacy: an analysis of media participation intention in China

This study1 ^1. Data for this research were made available by a grant from the Media Literacy Theory and Practice Project (code 04JDZ00038) at Fudan University, Shanghai, China. investigates the relationship between news media use and media participation intention in China by adopting an audience-oriented perspective in light of the changing patterns of media content concomitant with widespread commercialization in reformed China. Data from a total of 2,409 valid face-to-face interviews were collected in four cities during November 2006 and May 2007. Our results suggest that television news had a positive association with media participation intention, whereas newspaper and Internet news use produced mixed results. In addition, significant regional differences regarding media influences were identified.     

Can we talk about the right to healthcare without language? A critique of key international human rights law,drawing on the experiences of a Deaf woman in Cape Town,South Africa

A case study in Cape Town, South Africa, explores the right to health for signing Deaf ¹ 1. By Deaf (capitalised) we understand those permanently sensorily disabled people who are born deaf or who become deaf as children and whose first language is sign – South African Sign Language (SASL) in this country. View all notes patients attending health services and who are unable to communicate in a language they understand. It argues that, without language, Deaf South Africans’ dignity and right to health is violated, resulting in serious consequences such as incorrect diagnosis, improper treatment and standard of care not being applied. It critiques the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the limits of General Comment 14 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The paper demonstrates that Deaf patients do not have informational access to healthcare. It argues that language via professional interpreter services is essential to their South African constitutional right of access to healthcare. General Comment 14 addresses informational accessibility, but this is insufficient without addressing language as a pre-requisite. The CRPD imposes on the South African government human rights obligations to provide professional interpreter services for Deaf people, but unfortunately it allows a loophole by enabling cost to serve as reasonable grounds to defer action.     

THE COMMUNITIES WE ARE REGAINING BUT NEED TO LOSE

Michael Young and Gerard Lemos’ (1997 Young, M. and Lemos, G. 1997. The communities we have lost and can regain, London: Lemos and Crane.  [Google Scholar]) text The communities we have lost and can regain has had a substantial influence on New Labour's communitarian thinking. This paper critically examines a specific aspect of New Labour's communitarian agenda, namely, its use of public housing policy to rebuild communities in order to combat social exclusion on so-called ‘sink estates’. The paper is presented in four main parts. The first part of the paper discusses how, why and to what extent ‘community’ has been lost, with particular reference to public housing estates. The second part examines why community rebuilding is now seen as the solution to the problems caused by the loss of community on public housing estates and, to this end, pays particular attention to the communitarian values that underpin New Labour's third way. The third part of the paper examines some empirical studies of community in order to highlight the key characteristics of ‘community’ and thereby develop a critical understanding of what New Labour are currently seeking to achieve. The fourth part of the paper juxtaposes this discussion of ‘community’ with a discussion of emerging socio-economic trends that have been identified in the literature on late modernity and globalization. By highlighting emerging socio-economic trends such as residential mobility into the community debate, the paper concludes by criticizing the policy of community building as ‘good for you’. Our key point is that community building restricts the residential mobility of poorer households and exacerbates (rather than combats) their social exclusion because a key indicator of social inclusion is their ability to take advantage of the social, cultural and economic opportunities that so often exist ‘elsewhere’.     

The Strange Case of the Goddess Peitho: Classical Antecedents of Public Relations’ Ambivalence Toward Persuasion

ABSTRACT

Public relations scholars continue to debate “whether persuasion is a legitimate public relations function” (Edgett, 2002 Edgett, R. (2002). Toward an ethical framework for advocacy in public relations. Journal of Public Relations Research, 14, 1–26.[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar], p. 1). Their ambivalence toward persuasion has deep roots in the tangled lineage of Peitho, the Greek goddess of persuasion. The purpose of this article is to chart the goddess Peitho's contradictory history in classical Greek literature and art; and to study how the Greeks resolved that ambiguity. Ultimately, the Greeks determined that Peitho, at her best, was honest, respectful of others, and mindful of community wellbeing. The Greeks’ resolution of Peitho's nature ideally holds lessons for the troubled status of persuasion within modern public relations.     

ACTIVE AGEING IN THE UK-ISSUES,BARRIERS, POLICY DIRECTIONS

Active ageing is defined as allowing people to remain independent and achieve their potential regardless of age. However, age is also a device used widely in society for assigning or taking away responsibilities, allocating resources or determining access to services on age grounds, or as a proxy for mental and physical well being. This paper is one of several prepared by the Active Age consortium funded by the European Union to undertake a review of the institutional framework in each participant country and how this shapes policies towards older people, including the barriers and opportunities affecting active ageing1 1. Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Switzerland and the UK. The aims are to identify policy goals, policy instruments, and institutional mechanisms of current active ageing policy agendas in each country. It considers not only public policies, but also includes some ageing initiatives from other sectors. View all notes. The expected outcome of this phase of research is a comprehensive overview of active ageing strategies in Europe, including barriers to active ageing, as well as a map of the socio-institutional and political landscape in which active ageing policies operate. This paper argues that the UK is quite well advanced in preparing and defining policies, but that some of the high public profile is as a result not of ageing as such, but issues arising in specific areas such as employment, education, pensions, health and health care.     

Beyond Pensions: A Radical Systems-Based Transformation of Present-Future Choice

Aging populations worldwide, fiscal deficits, growing sovereign debt, and slowing economies have combined to create and exacerbate what is widely known as the “pension crisis”, characterized by poverty among the elderly substantially due to inadequate retirement income. We argue that the roots of the crisis go much deeper than “pensions”, and involve a long-term secular shift from saving and capital formation to consumption, in the West. Cosmetic “solutions” to the pension crisis, such as delaying the retirement age, are ineffective. The “pension crisis” label itself impedes clear thinking about developing an effective and affordable solution. The core of the problem is the fact that present-future choice tilted to “present”, in the West, for decades. Higher saving, over a longer time horizon, invested at higher average returns, is the ultimate goal, and only one that offers true long-term transformative change. We propose an original, radical, systemic solution, based on an evolutionary social transformation¹1 ‘Evolution has achieved an extraordinary record of design, yet has taken an extremely long period of time to do so’?…?‘The exponentially quickening pace of the evolution of human-created technology, which picked up the pace from the evolution of life-forms’. (Kurzweil, 1999 Kurzweil, R. 1999. The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. New York: Viking. [Google Scholar]) of present-future choice toward increased saving; a proposal that addresses the roots of the pension crisis, not just the symptoms.²2 This paper is based in part on a longer study, Gerstenhaber et al., 2015 Gerstenhaber, M., Maital, S. & Buchnik, T. 2015. The Carob Tree: A Radical Evolutionary Systemic Solution to the Pension Crisis. Haifa, Israel: S. Neaman Institute, Technion. [Google Scholar]; an earlier version of the pension reform proposal outlined below can be found in Passig and Gerstenhaber (2014) Passig, D. & Gerstenhaber, M. 2014. A Possible Pension-savings Paradigm for a Sustainable Future: A Developed Country Case Study (UK). Journal of Organisational Transformation & Social Change, 11(3): 207–229. doi: 10.1179/1477963314Z.00000000030[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar] and Gerstenhaber (2009) Gerstenhaber, M. 2009. Have You Ever Seen a Retired Tiger in the Jungle? Eradicating Pensioner Poverty: A Manifesto for Democratic and Responsible Capitalism. London: Ruscombe Press. [Google Scholar]. We contend that an effective pension allocation and accumulation system is a stable force for economic growth over time — but only when these significant capital investments are made directly in the real economy and take account of appropriate technological innovation. At the moment the bulk of global investment capital in the West is directed to short-term speculative activity in various financial markets, opportunistically taking advantage of historically low borrowing rates. We provide a macroeconomic simulation of our proposal, should it be adopted, comparing no-change and radical-change scenarios for the Israel economy, and urge scholars to carry out similar projections and analyses for individual OECD countries. We next show how an increase in national saving and capital formation can contribute to “rebalancing” the global economy, between low-saving Western nations and high-saving Asian ones. Finally, we outline our “four pillar” radical proposal, which leverages persistent long-run saving and investment, and illustrate its impact with some macroeconomic projections for Israel, comparing two scenarios, one with low national saving, the second with increased national saving. An achievable increase in the national saving rate, implemented through the tax system and accompanied by intelligent capital formation, can have enormous impact, it is shown, not only on elderly poverty but on society as a whole. In our plan, lower consumption demand through higher savings, is offset by higher capital formation, which has a larger employment and GDP multiplier.     

The National Association of Manufacturers' Community Relations Short Film Your Town: Parable,Propaganda, and Big Individualism

In the aftermath of the Great Depression, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) faced growing antibusiness sentiment. In 1940, as part of a widespread propaganda campaign to assuage public concerns about industry and rehabilitate big business's reputation, NAM created and distributed the community relations short film, Your Town. The movie, pursuing an integration propaganda strategy, appealed to Americans' individualistic values by portraying industry as a beneficent fellow traveler who was a big individual—a heroic, larger-than-life figure who could make the land profitable and guard the citizenry against evil, antibusiness influences. Applying Vogler's (1997) synthesis of Campbell's (1949 Campbell , J. ( 1949 ). The hero with a thousand faces . Princeton , NJ : University Press . [Google Scholar]) heroic narrative form, this article shows that NAM's portrayal of industry as a hero has continued to resonate with strains of contemporary American thought that (a) sees business as the foundation for societal progress and stability and (b) conceptualizes the corporate entity as a person. Finally, this study finds that, although the language of corporate personhood has been implied in organizational community relations rhetoric for at least six decades, more recent events reveal a public that is more circumspect about the beneficence of the corporate persona.     

Comment on Cross,Fine, Jones,and Walsh (2012): Do Mental Health Professionals Who Serve on/with Child Advocacy Centers Experience Role Conflict?

Cross, Fine, Jones, and Walsh's (2012 Cross, T. P., Fine, J. E., Jones, L. M. and Walsh, W. A. 2012. Mental health professionals in children's advocacy centers: Is there role conflict?. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 21(1): 91–108. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) article “Mental Health Professionals in Children's Advocacy Centers: Is There Role Conflict?” challenges two recent publications' criticisms that child advocacy centers create role conflict for mental health professionals and explains how child advocacy centers actually work, describing the different roles for mental health professionals who participate in them. This commentary points out that more precise data would have helped to specifically address the critics' concerns. Furthermore, professional ethics and licensure issues may have served as an additional but unacknowledged check on the “spillover effect” that the critics have alleged comes with being associated with prosecution. This commentary also highlights three main strengths of the Cross and colleagues' article.