Observing Women Caregivers’ Everyday Experiences: New Ways of Understanding and Intervening

This article discusses the practice implications of videographic research examining the everyday lived experiences of 5 women family caregivers of older adults with chronic illness. The women’s nonverbal expressions and gestures revealed how caregiving is accomplished and lived on a daily basis, in particular through emotion and body management, abnegation, and performance. The findings from this microethnographic study suggest that observing women caregivers’ everyday experiences can open new avenues for holistic intervention with this population. Observing nonverbal cues can offer a way for practitioners to better understand women caregivers’ realities, to question their practice, and to adapt their interventions accordingly.     

‘Growing Old’ in Shelters and ‘On the Street’: Experiences of Older Homeless People

Homelessness among older people in Canada is both a growing concern, and an emerging field of study. This article reports thematic results of qualitative interviews with 40 people aged 46 to 75, carried out as part of a mixed-methods study of older people who are homeless in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Our participants included people with histories of homelessness (n = 14) and persons new to homelessness in later life (n = 26). Interviews focused on experiences at the intersections of aging and homelessness including social relationships, the challenges of living on the streets and in shelters in later life, and the future. This article outlines the 5 main themes that capture the experience of homelessness for our participants: age exacerbates worries; exclusion and isolation; managing significant challenges; shifting needs and realities; and resilience, strength, and hope. Together, these findings underscore the need for specific programs geared to the unique needs of older people who are homeless.     

Patients’ competence to consent to neurobiological research

Progress has been made defining the standards for determining subjects’ competence to consent to research: abilities to communicate a choice, understand relevant information, appreciate the nature of the situation and its consequences, and manipulate information rationally. Available data show clearly that persons with mental illness display a spectrum of decisionmaking abilities, with many performing well, but some doing quite poorly. More attention now is required to identifying the degree of capacity required for competent consent to projects with varying risk/benefit characteristics. Practical means are also required for screening for subjects with impaired capacities, attempting to improve their performance, and providing substituted consent when their deficiencies are intractable.     

Early Relational Health: Infants’ Experiences Living with Their Incarcerated Mothers

ABSTRACT

Little is known about the experiences and inner worlds of infants who live with their parents in prison-based residential programs. Infant observation and qualitative methods were used to study the experiences of seventeen infants living with their incarcerated mothers in a women’s correctional facility. Glimpses into their inner worlds provide insights into factors that hearten and hinder early relational health. Practitioners and parents can use a relational health approach to recognize and cultivate budding capacities in infant-parent relationships. The researcher discusses the usefulness and relevance of infants’ accounts for communities of practice and research.     

The Legal System and Alzheimer’s Disease: Social Workers and Lawyers’ Perceptions and Experiences

The expected increase in the number of people living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) worldwide will be accompanied by an increase in the number of cases involving persons with AD brought up to the courts. This study examined the perceptions and experiences of social workers and lawyers regarding these cases. Three focus groups including social workers and lawyers (n = 26) were conducted. Two main themes were raised by the participants: (a) the role of social workers and lawyers in court cases regarding AD, and (b) the need for improving legal encounters involving persons with AD. Similarities and differences were found in both professionals’ interpretations of these shared themes. Results of this study emphasize the need for increasing the knowledge and interprofessional training provided to social workers and lawyers involved in legal cases dealing with issues involving persons with Alzheimer’s disease.     

Supporting Residents Moving Into Long-Term Care: Multiple Layers Shape Residents’ Experiences

This interpretive grounded theory study explores 10 residents’ retrospective accounts of the relocation process, including the decision to move into a long-term care home, the pre-move preparations, the moving day circumstances, and the initial adjustment period following the move. Analysis of the data revealed a complex intersection of conditions at multiple layers that shaped residents’ experiences of the transitional process. Recommendations to enhance circumstances at individual, interpersonal, and systemic layers, for each temporal stage of the relocation process are proposed. Implications for social work practice across the continuum of care are also discussed.     

“You Never Get Used to Loneliness” – Older Adults’ Experiences of Loneliness When Applying for Going on a Senior Summer Camp

ABSTRACT

The aim of the present study was explore why the informants were feeling lonely and considered themselves to be in need of attending a senior summer camp, and how the informants were experiencing loneliness before they went to the senior summer camp. Interviews was made with nineteen older adult people (15 women and 4 men). A phenomenological inspired approach was used for the analysis of the interviews. Eight themes resulted: Hard to make new friends, Other circumstances making it hard to be social, Feel very lonely even if they lead rich social lives, Loss of loved ones, Do not want to do things alone, Friends make a difference, Do not feel lonely but need a change and Loneliness occurs at certain times. Through this analysis, we have gain insights to better understand loneliness as a multifaceted phenomenon that is associated with both personal circumstances and social situations. Many of the informants experienced being very lonely, even if they lead rich social lives. The experience of loneliness was connected to not having anyone they can turn to in confidence or to share experiences with and the need to belong to something or the need of a change in everyday life.     

Experiences of homelessness by people seeking asylum in Australia: A review of published and “grey” literature

This review examines the current published and “grey” literature relating to the experiences of homelessness by people seeking asylum within Australia. While many people seeking asylum have experienced homelessness during their flight, inadequate and unaffordable housing are a feature of the settlement experience for a large number of new arrivals to Australia, putting at risk their successful settlement. This study aims to explore the factors influencing access to stable housing. A systematic review of the academic literature and a search of the grey literature identified 11 articles and 20 documents related to homelessness and people seeking asylum in Australia. The academic literature included a variety of methods and approaches to the investigation of the experience of homelessness in Australia. The grey literature was more practice based, including evaluation and research reports, submissions, and newsletters. Findings suggest that experiences of homelessness are multifaceted and have a range of influences, including policy, financial stress, lack of access to education and employment, and a lack of affordable and suitable housing. Any solutions to address homelessness need to be similarly diverse. Discrimination from real estate agents and employers was also identified as a barrier to housing for many people seeking asylum, an issue that will need to be addressed at a systematic level. The lack of research published in the academic literature means that although there may be some programmes or solutions operating in the community, as demonstrated in the grey literature, this information is not being shared beyond organisation websites or subscriber lists, resulting in a lack of coherency or sharing of solutions. This review highlights the need for further attention to the factors influencing homelessness in asylum seekers, the experience of homelessness, and how these can be addressed by government and non-government led strategies and policy development.     

Un-charted Territory? Experiences of the Purchaser/Provider Split in Local Authority Children's Services

¹Ian Kirkpatrick Public Services Research Unit. Cardiff Business School, Aberconway Building, Colum Road, Cardiff CF1 3EU, UK. Summary A primary goal of Conservative government policy, expressedin the 1990 National Health Service and Community Care Act,was to encourage the development of market mechanisms throughthe separation of purchaser and provider roles. The main targetfor reform was to be adult services although, in the absenceof specific guidance, a number of local authorities also implementedpurchaser/provider structures in services for children and families.To date, little attention has been given in the literature eitherto describing what purchaser/provider structures involve inthis context or to assessing their impact. Drawing on case studydata from seven local authorities, this article seeks to addressthese deficiencies. It is argued that many changes have beencosmetic and that, while it is not possible to evaluate thelong-term effectiveness of the model, there is evidence thatit can have some negative consequences for the co-ordinationand delivery of services.     

An Analysis of the Psychological Mechanism of Confucius’ Benevolence

讨论中国人的观念系统在很大程度上离不开儒家思想, 分析儒家思想要从孔子开 始。孔子因 “德命” 受挫而形成 “时命” 观, “时命” 观挑战了 “以德配天” 的思 想, 这需要更为本源的终极观来应对。孔子在内外心理框架的互动中, 反思体悟而形 成 “仁” 的终极观。在此理念的支配下, 向内修德凝道而 “内圣”, 向外践行 “仁 政” 而 “外王” , 内外并重以获得充沛丰盈的生命意义感。

关键词:仁 内圣外王 心理机制

The discussion of the conceptual system of the Chinese is, to a large extent, inseparable from Confucian thought, and its analysis should start from Confucius himself. He developed the idea of shiming (时命), or the mandate of the times, after the idea of deming (德命), or the mandate of virtue, encountered repeated setbacks. Shiming challenged the idea that “Heaven is aligned with the virtuous,” and coping with this challenge required an ultimate worldview of a more original nature. Confucius formed his ultimate world view of “benevolence” (ren 仁) through the interaction between his internal and external psychological framework and his reflections and realizations. Gripped by this idea, he cultivated inward virtue and adhered to the Way while outwardly practicing benevolence, with the goal of becoming “a sage within and a king without.” The balancing of the interior and the exterior was the key to enjoying a rich and meaningful life.     

Failure to Mourn “White Nativism”: Impact of Deportation on Hispanic American–Born Children and Mixed-Status Families

Contemporary American immigration policy since 1996 has sought to control the entrance of “illegal immigrants” while also facilitating their deportation, thereby dividing mixed-status families. American children born to non-native parents are rendered second-class citizens. Such policies claim to preserve the American economic and social order. The author posits that American immigration reform needs to be viewed in the context of legal statutes and social policies that are embedded in a complex, unconscious intrapsychic defense system of “White nativism,” aimed to avert the mourning of the “White native” cultural identity. Deportation and immigration reform is therefore a “White native,” legal, and policy-driven annihilatory tool, designed to extricate the American-born Hispanic child from the United States in order to avert the inevitable transformation of the “White natives” collective external group symbolic representations, or reservoirs, that are linked to individual and collective affective mother–me experiences.     

An Analysis of the Determinants of the Changes in China’s Foreign Exchange Reserves’ Nominal and Real Rates of Return

We use decomposition and regression to examine the reasons for the changes in nominal and real rates of return of China’s foreign exchange reserves between 2002 and 2009. The results show that the US financial market risk premium is the most important determinant of changes in the nominal rate of return, while the US dollar exchange rate and the bulk commodity price are the two key determinants of changes in the real rate of return. From empirically based research, one may conclude that the loose monetary policy of the US Federal Reserve increases China’s foreign exchange reserves’ nominal rate of return but decreases the real rate of return and that the European debt crisis has an uncertain impact on China’s foreign exchange reserves’ nominal rate of return but may well raise the real rate of return.     

Experiencing Loneliness in Adolescence: A Matter of Individual Characteristics,Negative Peer Experiences,or Both?

The present study builds on the child‐by‐environment model and examines the joint contribution of intra‐individual characteristics (i.e., self‐esteem and shyness) and peer experiences (i.e., social acceptance, victimization, friendship quantity, and friendship quality) in the association with loneliness. A total of 884 adolescents (M_age = 15.80; 68 percent female) participated in this multi‐informant study. Results indicated that, in addition to self‐esteem and shyness, being poorly accepted by peers, being victimized, lacking friends, and experiencing poor‐quality friendships each contributed independently to the experience of loneliness. Further, friendship quantity and quality mediated the relation between the two intra‐individual characteristics and loneliness. Finally, a significant interaction was found between self‐esteem and social acceptance in predicting loneliness. The present study highlights the importance of investigating the joint effects of inter‐individual experiences and intra‐individual characteristics in examining loneliness. Suggestions to elaborate the child‐by‐environment model in loneliness research are discussed, and clinical implications are outlined.     

A linear generalization of Stackelberg’s model

We study an extension of Stackelberg’s model in which many firms can produce at many different times. Demand is affine, while cost is linear. In this setting, we investigate whether Stackelberg’s results in a two-firm game are robust when the number of firms increases. We show that firms may not need to anticipate further entries, leaders might earn less than in the simultaneous game, and, whatever its cost and its time of entry, the firm’s entry always improves welfare.