Permanent Placements for Young Children Placed in Foster Care: A Proposal for a Child Welfare Services Performance Standard

Performance indicators for child welfare services for young children entering foster care should be established to help agencies determine the sufficiency of their efforts to provide permanency. Child welfare services need a technically feasible, conceptually sound, and achievable performance standard. Use of a 100% permanency standard, not including long-term foster care or non-kinship guardianship, within four calendar years of placement is forwarded. Data on the permanency planning performance of a state and four counties within it are presented to sharpen the discussion.     

Substance use disorders and COVID-19: the role of telehealth in treatment and research

ABSTRACT

Telehealth, or the use of telecommunications and virtual technology to deliver health care and engage with patients outside of traditional health-care facilities, can play an important role in addressing the treatment and study of substance use disorders (SUDs) during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. COVID-19 and related safety restrictions have thrust healthcare workers and researchers into a new reality of healthcare that relies heavily, or even exclusively, on telehealth methods. These changes have forced treatment providers and researchers to be agile in adopting these methods in order to maintain continuity of patient care and data collection. There are unique considerations that should be taken into account as telehealth practices continue to augment SUD care and research, even when restrictions have been lifted. Overall, we propose that telehealth can support innovation in treatment and research focused on SUDs and should be an integral part of our work, beyond COVID-19.     

Risk-Based Analysis of the Danish Pork Salmonella Program: Past and Future

The Danish pork Salmonella control program was initiated in 1993 in response to a prominent pork-related outbreak in Copenhagen. It involved improved efforts at slaughter hygiene (postharvest) and on-farm (preharvest) surveillance and control. After 10 years, 95 million Euros, significant reductions in seropositive herds, Salmonella positive carcasses, and pork-attributable human cases (PAHC), questions have arisen about how best to continue this program. The objective of this study was to provide some analysis and information to address these questions. The methods used include a computer simulation model constructed of a series of Excel workbooks, one for each simulated year and scenario ( http://www.ifss.iastate/DanSalmRisk ). Each workbook has three modules representing the key processes affecting risk: seropositive pigs leaving the farm (Production), carcass contamination after slaughter (Slaughter), and PAHC of Salmonella (Attribution). Parameter estimates are derived from an extensive farm-to-fork database collected by industry and government and managed by the Danish Zoonosis Centre ( http://www.food.dtu.dk ). Retrospective (1994–2003) and prospective (2004–2013) simulations were evaluated. The retrospective simulations showed that, except for the first few years (1994–1998), the on-farm program had minimal impact in reducing the number of positive carcasses and PAHC. Most of the reductions in PAHC up to 2003 were, according to this analysis, due to various improvements in abattoir processes. Prospective simulations showed that minimal reductions in human health risk (PAHC) could be achieved with on-farm programs alone. Carcass decontamination was shown as the most effective means of reducing human risk, reducing PAHC to about 10% of the simulated 2004 level.     

Assessment of Intimate Partner Violence by Child Welfare Services

The purpose of this study was to describe policy and practice with respect to the assessment of intimate partner violence in a sample of child welfare agencies located throughout the United States and to examine the relationship of contextual characteristics and assessment practices. Telephone interviews were conducted with key informants from child welfare agencies. A snowball interviewing strategy was used to identify the best informant in each agency. Almost all of the participating agencies conducted some assessment of intimate partner violence, with most reporting that the majority of screening or assessment occurred during investigation of referrals. However, only 43.1% reported that all of the families referred to the child welfare system were assessed for intimate partner violence, and 52.8% indicated they had a written policy pertaining to screening and assessment of the problem. There was little relationship between county or agency characteristics and assessment practices. Additional research is needed to determine factors that influence assessment practices and to identify strategies to support and extend efforts to identify intimate partner violence and provide appropriate services for families in the child welfare system.     

Perceived tax evasion and the importance of trust

Using Swedish individual survey data, we analyze the perception of tax evasion in terms of ten different taxes. We find large variation across taxes, highlighting the importance of studying different taxes separately rather than treating tax evasion as one common phenomenon. We focus on the importance of trust in taxpayers and in politicians. Those who do not trust their fellow citizens are more likely to believe that they are evading taxes, but distrust in politicians has an even greater effect, especially for redistributive and fiscally motivated taxes. Hence, it is important for politicians to be perceived as trustworthy in order to be able to collect taxes for maintaining the welfare state.     

美国儿童家庭寄养制度的变革与借鉴——基于自由主义与国家干预主义的福利辨析

美国是世界上最早开展家庭寄养的国家之一,可以追溯到18世纪的殖民时代。在三个多世纪的发展历程中,美国儿童家庭寄养制度在"自由主义"与"国家干预主义"两种价值取向交织下不断向前发展,国家与社会的福利供给角色也不断发生改变。发展至今,形成了以永久家庭安置为核心的政府主导、社会强制报告、专业社工服务为一体的家庭寄养体系,在"自由"与"干预"之间实现了平衡,为我国在适度普惠儿童福利背景下,从政府主导、保护主体多元化、提供预防服务方面建设完善困境儿童救助与家庭支持福利制度给予了有益启示。