Providing mental health services to older people living in rural communities

Rural dwelling elders who experience mental health problems often have difficulty finding help since rural communities often lack adequate mental health service providers. This paper reports on the initial phase of a 5-year, interdisciplinary clinical research study that is testing the effectiveness of providing a home delivered, therapeutic psychosocial intervention, aimed at improving the emotional wellbeing and the quality of life of medically frail elders who live in rural communities. In the early phases of this study, the clinical research team encountered a number of interesting and often unanticipated challenges as it attempted to recruit study participants and provide services to them. In this article, we examine these challenges and share what we have learned so far about providing mental health services to elderly persons living in rural environments.     

Marital status and generalized trust in other people: A population-based study

The association between marital status and generalized trust in other people was investigated. The public health survey in Skåne 2008 is a cross-sectional study including 28,198 persons (55% participation rate) aged 18–80 in southern Sweden. Logistic regression models investigated associations between marital status and trust, adjusting for age, country of birth, education, emotional support, instrumental support and economic stress. 33.9% of the men and 35.7% of the women had low trust. The significantly higher odds ratios of low trust for unmarried men and women and divorced men remained throughout the analyses, while the significant association disappeared for divorced women in the final model. In contrast, the odds ratios of low trust for widows/widowers remained not significant compared to the married/cohabitating category throughout the analyses.     

Causes and Consequences of Unexpected Educational Transitions in Switzerland

The present study examines transition patterns of Swiss secondary and tertiary school students. Switzerland's highly canalized education system allows us to test how tracking affects person–environment fit of students for students who choose a normative versus unexpected downward transition pattern. In addition, we investigate how self-efficacy expectations and personal values affect an unexpected transition choice. Results indicate that students with strong expectancies and personal values can oppose institutional norms and chart their own academic course; however, these students are less likely to perceive a good fit between their own interests and competencies and institutional demands after the transition. Our findings underscore the importance of developmentally appropriate educational environments and systems permeable enough to adapt to developing students' changing interests .     

面对人口老龄化的措施--瑞士和日本政府的养老保险制度改革评析

引言 瑞士是欧洲人口老龄化最严重的国家,日本是亚洲人口老龄化最严重的国家,而且它们都属于世界上人口老龄化最严重的国家之列.20世纪80年代以来,人口老龄化的速度进一步加快,由此而来的养老保险问题日趋严重.面对日趋严重的人口老龄化问题,这两个同属于世界首富之列的国家,都采取了积极的防范措施,调整和改革了各自的养老保险制度.瑞士和日本在调整和改革养老保险制度方面,存在共性但各自都有独特的做法,在具体操作方法上又有差异.探讨养老保险制度不同的改革方法和措施,并从中得出经验和教训,对于我国养老保险制度的建设和完善有着重要的实际意义.     

Towards the Disintegration of Child Welfare Services

This paper examines market issues in the provision of children's services in the light of the changing role and practice of local authorities contracting for welfare services. In adult services, where there has been a legal requirement to reorganize on market lines, the services have had to modify some of their earlier contracting practices to take account of the complex requirements of health and welfare services and it is argued that relational contracting offers a more appropriate paradigm for these. Following the implementation of the Children Act 1989, although not a requirement of the Act, many of the organizational systems in relation to markets, originally developed for adult services, have been adopted for children's services. Two areas of services for children, day care and fostering services, are discussed in order to demonstrate that these contracting systems are inappropriate and often dysfunctional for the children concerned. It is argued that there is a widening gap between contracting systems in adult and children's services which needs to be addressed. In general, it is concluded that the philosophies of the market place are flawed when applied to children's services.     

试析中世纪西欧对犹太人的多重态度

西欧中世纪社会同时存在着对犹太人有利和不利的态度,这些态度随着时间和地域的变化而变化。不同的阶层在同一时期,同一阶层在不同的时期都对犹太人有着不同的态度。中世纪对待犹太人的态度的复杂性和矛盾性有着复杂的社会背景。     

Towards the equality of educational opportunity in the province of Buenos Aires

The aim of this paper is to simulate some education policies which would be consistent with different definitions of equality of opportunity (EO). In concrete, we estimate how educational resources should be distributed in order to achieve equality of educational opportunity in the province of Buenos Aires. For that purpose we use a stochastic production frontier model for 12 years old students. The results change drastically depending on the considered concept of EO. If that means giving everybody the same school inputs, the change is not significant. If we want to equalize the academic outputs, the policy is simply impracticable. But if we want to equalize the academic output considering the efforts made by the pupils, the policy is expensive but achievable.     

The role of the gerontological social worker in assisted living

This qualitative study reports on thirteen assisted living (AL) administrators' perspectives of the role and the importance of the AL social worker in addressing the unmet needs of older adults as they move and transition into AL. Participant interviews were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Administrators described 5 AL social work roles: (a) decision-making and adjustment coordinator; (b) resident advocate; (c) mental health assessor and counselor; (d) family social worker; and (e) care planner. Implications include directly examining AL social workers' views, analyzing costs and benefits of employing AL social workers, and developing social work practicum sites within AL.     

Towards Establishing the Effectiveness of Community-Based Residential Treatment

Community-based residential treatment programs, many of which reportedly provide milieu therapy, have increased ten-fold during the past decade. Yet, little effort has been devoted to systematically evaluate these programs. The present research with an experimental design was conducred to assess the impact of a residential program on young adults diagnosed as functionally psychotic, severely neurotic, or having a personality disorder. Ninety-four subjects whose applications lo the program were accepted were randomly assigned to either the experimental (entered residential program) or to the comparison (not in residential treatment) group. Prior to random assignment, baseline data of demographic and background information, along with measures of self responsibility, social interaction, self-concept and problem-solving abilities, were obtained. Following completion of the program, experimental, comparison subjects, and dropouts were interviewed and the same dependent measures were obtained. The comparative analysis of change scores revealed consistent patterns of positive findings, indicating better adjustment for experimental subjects. The effectiveness of residential treatment was established.     

Towards a Dynamic Model of the Psychological Contract

This paper presents a dynamic perspective in which the psychological contract is treated as a structured set of beliefs that are held by individual employees about the mutual obligations of the organization as employer and themselves as employees. This set of beliefs is assumed to produce a state of commitment to the organization in which the employee is willing to accept work roles and tasks offered by the organization, and to carry them out in accordance with certain standards. The dynamic model that is presented can help to explain why the commitment of employees remains relatively stable over time, and why it may suddenly decrease or increase under circumstances that are perceived as critical by the employee. The model assumes that the employee's evaluation of the organization's behavior changes over time, but that the structure of the psychological contract and the associated commitment change only when certain limits are overstepped. This perspective on changes in the psychological contract transforms the concept into a powerful construct that may lead to fruitful research on the dynamics of organization‐employee relationships. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Towards expenditure rules and fiscal sanity in the euro area

The study demonstrates the key role of expenditure policies in explaining fiscal developments during EMU in the euro area, its three largest members and four “macro-imbalances” countries. It compares actual primary expenditure trends with those that would have prevailed if countries had followed neutral policies based on expenditure rules since the start of EMU. Moreover, the implications for debt trends are calculated. Results show that all sample countries except Germany applied expansionary expenditure policies already before the crisis. Consequently, expenditure and debt paths were much higher compared to a counterfactual neutral expenditure stance. Rule-based expenditure policies could have led to much safer fiscal positions much more in line with the EU's Stability and Growth Pact. An empirical analysis of the determinants of countries’ expenditure stance confirms the need for stronger fiscal rules and institutions in the euro area.     

走向有法可依

改革开放30年来,我国人大立法制度经历了巨大的发展变革,立法制度经历了深刻的变革、法律体系逐渐形成且渐趋完善。目前,社会转型时期的立法面临新的问题与挑战,我国立法制度的发展和改革需要有新的举措。     

Social protection in the European Community: Towards a convergence of policies

Systems of social protection in the member states of the European Community differ not only in organization but also occasionally in their conception. Nevertheless, on closer examination this diversity proves to be less significant than it seems. Those systems have, moreover, a series of common problems to confront. Furthermore, the establishment of the single European market will entail a growing and varied mobility of persons and increase the need to move towards standardization of social protection levels. The Community therefore proposes to promote the convergence of member states'policies, while recognizing and respecting the diversity and autonomy of systems. The approach would be essentially flexible and multiform, and based on the principle of subsidiarity.     

东盟对华政策和中国—东盟关系的发展

本文在东盟发展的总体趋势和中国与东南亚国家关系特点的大背景下,考察了当代东盟与中国的关系,认为现阶段中国—东盟关系处于历史上最好的时期,分析了东盟作为一个东南亚国家的区域性组织对华政策的基本定位、核心内容、重要目的,提出东盟对华关系实际上存在着一个整体(东盟)、两大板块(半岛和海岛)和10个国家三个局面,探讨了近期和从更长时期看影响中国—东盟关系的一些重要因素,并对进一层深化和发展中国—东盟关系提出了建设性的建议。