Patterns of entry to community‐based services for families with children with developmental disabilities: implications for social work practice

The purpose of the present study was to understand, from parents' perspectives, the process of entry to community‐based services for children with developmental disabilities and to explore the relationship between patterns of entry and parent‐reported needs and priorities for service. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 43 mothers and 29 fathers of children with developmental disabilities approximately 6 months after the families entered community‐based childhood disability support services in Manitoba, Canada. Analysis of the coded interview data resulted in the identification of three process factors influential in the entry of families to community‐based support services: recognition of problems in child development, formal diagnosis of child disability and linkage between diagnostic services and the community‐based support system. Analysis of these processes identified four patterns of service entry associated with differing family needs for service: early entry, prompt entry, delayed entry and atypical entry. The results can be understood as a typology useful for social workers in the assessment of family needs and priorities at the point of entry to community‐based services.     

对待美好 我们选择宽容

正我在澳大利亚北部旅行时,途经一个土著人居留地,在一家小餐馆歇脚吃饭。收银员是一个土著女孩,正与一个老年人聊天。他们聊得热火朝天,顾客越积越多,开始形成了一个队伍。女孩聊兴正浓,似乎忘掉了客人,于是,队伍排得更长了。     

A Friend In Deed? Can Adolescent Girls Be Taught to Understand Relational Bullying?

Relational aggression is common among girls. It can be distressing for the victim and may not always be recognised as a form of bullying. This paper evaluates a school–based intervention designed to help girls understand relational bullying. Girls from a single‐sex school completed a two‐stage evaluation of the intervention. Students showed greater awareness of relational bullying after the intervention and indicated that it would influence them to change their behaviour. At follow‐up, retention of knowledge was good. Students reported greater self‐monitoring of behaviour and less exclusivity. While this is encouraging, we cannot conclude that all negative behaviours ceased. Implications and limitations of this study are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Freud reconsidered: bisexuality, homosexuality, and moral judgement

This article examines methodological problems and unacknowledged moral judgements in Freud's theory of homosexuality. Freud raises the issue of bisexuality in connection with the origins of homosexuality. When critically examined, the theory of bisexuality reduces to a theory of the capacity to be attracted to either females or males, and in that sense explains little about the origin of exclusive homosexual orientation. Freud's further investigations into the origin of homosexuality, strictly speaking, do not provide a clear explanation of sexual exclusivity. Finally, it is argued that Freud's moral assumptions color the nature of his conclusions. At the very least, without morally justifying his procedure, he transforms the course of psychosexual development as determined by psychoanalysis into a moral imperative against which homosexuality is judged a fixated and immature state.     

A Gompertz fit that fits: Applications to canadian fertility patterns

In this paper an attempt is made to refine the method of fitting the Gompertz function to the cumulative fertility rates by using iterative techniques. The method is tested with the historical data series for the Canadian population. The demographic implication of the parameters of the Gompertz function as fitted to the fertility distribution is examined, and the usefulness of the method in projecting future fertility trends is studied. The Makeham function is also fitted to the fertility distribution by the same iterative technique, and the relative efficiency of this function is compared with that of the Gompertz.     

Change, continuity or cycles: The population turnaround in New South Wales

This study examines population flows from Sydney and other regions to perimetropolitan and coastal areas of New South Wales, the two main foci of the population turnaround since 1971. It uses census internal migration statistics for the five intercensal periods between 1971 and 1996, and estimated resident population statistics between 1997 and 2000. Fluctuating trends are described with respect to variations in age structures of migration flows and net migration gains by SLAs in coastal areas over time. Evidence of fluctuating trends is evaluated in relation to population structure change and local socio-economic multipliers in turnaround areas. The turnaround is far mor than a net migration gain from large metropolitan areas; it is also associated with interregional migration which avoids metropolitan areas, and which is at least in part environment- and amenity-related. The experience of some other countries, such as the USA where net migration reversals in population turn-around regions have occurred, has not been replicated in Australia. While elements of explanation for the complex cumulative causation process of the population turnaround in Australia are discussed, including the issues of fluctuating or cyclical trends, much more understanding of the economic and social factors involved is required.     

Marriage and family therapists' comfort working with lesbian and gay male clients: the influence of religious practices and support for lesbian and gay male human rights

The purpose of this study was to explore potential influences on marriage and family therapists' comfort level when working with lesbian and gay male clients, including sex, age, race, sexual orientation, political orientation, religious practices of the therapist, as well as the level of support for lesbian and gay male human rights. Participants in this study were 199 experienced therapists. Results indicated that higher levels of religious practices were related to lower levels of support for lesbian and gay male human rights and to lower levels of comfort working with lesbian and gay male clients. When support for lesbian and gay male human rights was considered, the level of religious practices was no longer predictive of comfort working with lesbian and gay male clients.     

Do Regional Associations Meet the Career Needs of Teacher-Scholars?

Faculty members in tenure-track positions must demonstrate proficiency in teaching and scholarship, although different types of higher education institutions carry different sets of expectations and requirements in these areas. Teacher-scholars, who integrate teaching and research through diverse means, largely work at teaching focused institutions. Even in such teaching-focused institutions, however, there has been a growing demand for faculty to have high levels of scholarly productivity, typically in the form of peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations...At the same time, teacher-scholars, due to limited resources, do not have great access to national conferences, leading them to rely more heavily on regional conferences to display their scholarly work. This study examines the utility of regional associations in meeting the career needs of teacher-scholars. Examining conference programs from the Pacific Sociological Association for five recent years, and comparing them to the national conference (the American Sociological Association) we show that teacher-scholars rely heavily on regional conferences to highlight their successes, often extending beyond scholarship. Regional conferences also offer a more flexible program than the national conference for defining the work of teacher-scholars. While teacher-scholars and Ph.D. granting faculty alike engage at both the national and regional conferences, both conferences tend to perpetuate a hierarchy of academia that emphasizes more traditional standards of scholarly success.     

Scale,Governance, Urban Form and Landscape: Exploring the Scope for an Integrated Approach to Metropolitan Spatial Planning

Based on the example of Metropolitan Cork, this paper looks at strands of planning thinking as they apply to the city-region: economic and political arguments about the scale of a city; landscape arguments about identity and place; spatial arguments about urban form and environmentally grounded arguments about nature, ecology and the city. Bringing together the different theoretical contexts and disciplinary frameworks of these interrelated approaches and relating them both to the often contradictory principles of sustainable development and to the challenge of achieving appropriate systems of governance at this scale, it explores an initial argument for how holistic and mutually reinforcing approaches to the spatial resilience of a city region might re-emerge.