Mental health support needs of people with a learning difficulty: a medical or a social model?

People with learning difficulties, like all disabled people, face social oppression. Much recent policy and practice are underpinned by at least some understanding of this oppression, and the social model of disability has been influential in discussions of services and supports for people with learning difficulties. However, in the area of mental health, the picture is somewhat different. This paper argues that the medical model has predominated in discussions of mental health support for people with learning difficulties, and that a social model approach could have much to offer. The paper draws on an ongoing action research study in which service providers, families and young people with learning difficulties are working together to articulate what is needed, in order to find routes to improve the support offered to young people with learning difficulties and mental health support needs.     

Seizing the means of reproduction: An illegal feminist abortion collective—How and why it worked

This paper describes an illegal feminist abortion collective [the Service] through whose efforts 11,000 abortions were performed between 1969 and 1973 when abortion was legalized. An analysis of interviews from 32 members of this lay group indicates how and why the collective was so effective in providing what is usually a physician-controlled medical procedure. After describing the structure of the organization and the process by which women obtained the abortion, including pre-abortion counseling and post-abortion follow-up, two sets of reasons for the collective's effectiveness are presented. The first five reasons derive from the interview themselves; they deal with the organization's social and historical context, its illegality, its charismatic leaders, its member satisfaction and its financial self-sufficiency. The next nine reasons deal with factors that make The Service a relatively typical democratic collective organization. The most important of these factors is its lack of concern for organizational survival per se. This account supports the Rothschild-Whitt model for collective democratic organizations. It also suggests that counseling is important both for the providers and for the receivers of abortions.     

Internal versus External Control: An Analysis of Board Composition and Ownership in UK Takeovers

This paper examines the relationship between board composition, ownership structure and takeovers in the UK in the period 1989–1993. We compare board composition and ownership characteristics for a sample of 166 takeover targets with a matched sample of nontarget firms. We further disaggregate our sample depending on target management's attitude to the bid as well as the eventual outcome of the bid. We find little difference between board composition and ownership structure between all targets and the control group of nontargets. However, when we disaggregate the samples, we find that hostile targets are more likely to have different individuals in the role of chairman and CEO, and exhibit significantly lower levels of managerial ownership compared to both the control group of nontargets and targets of friendly takeovers. We also find that managerial ownership is positively related to takeover success. Overall, our results support the findings of a number of recent studies in the US by highlighting the important role managerial share ownership plays in the takeover process.     

The impact of quasi-markets on processes and factors affecting the costs of contracting

The aim of this paper is to ascertain the impact of quasi-markets on contracting processes and factors affecting the costs of contracting in Finnish health care in the specific case of laboratory services. By means of a comparative case analysis, we ascertained the changes in organizational contracting practices and identified the actions affecting the transaction costs of contracting in the case of an autonomous municipal enterprise laboratory compared with the same laboratory as a hierarchically run municipal unit. The research was conducted during the years 2007–2011. The results suggest that introducing quasi-markets into laboratory services increased the cost factors of contracting; and had a negative impact on the laboratories’ willingness to create new market relationships.     

An Educational Partnership: Preparing Social Workers for a Changing Society

The learning-service center approach appears to offer a new and efficient way of bringing university resources to bear upon the social needs of local communities while providing a reality-based education for students. This paper describes the efforts of two schools of social work, Atlanta University and the University of Georgia, to develop an educational partnership through the use of this approach. The authors describe the early stages in the work of operationalizing the learning-service center concept as a possible means of effectuating a viable partnership between the two schools and the community.     

Searching for a Capacity Building Model in Social Work Education in China

This paper contains our reflections about our experiences in employing a capacity building model for training social workers to conduct community development work in rural China. Unlike the conventional approach to social work practicum, our approach advocates an educational practice of capacity building; not only for local people and learners, but for educators as well. It stresses that the educator should assume a non‐expert role in relating to his/her students so that the students will do the same with local people. We challenge the concept of the social work educator as an expert because it gives a teacher the power and authority to dominate students, which disempowers students during the learning process. In the same vein, we challenge the desire of social work students to become experts in rural development, which in turn disempowers local people from taking charge of the future direction of their lives in rural China. The capacity building approach subscribes to a critical pedagogy that calls for a re‐invention of self by challenging tradition and culture, and by developing academic knowledge, the habit of inquiry and critical curiosity about society, power, inequality, and social change.     

Sex differences in psychological and psychophysiological arousal patterns: a study of 'working couples'

A pilot study of six couples, in which both partners had jobs outside the home, was carried out to examine the impact of 'dual task-dual role' status on the female relative to the male partner. Psychological well-being and adrenomedullary functioning were monitored in 'at home' and 'outside the home' work situations. Results showed that females' adrenomedullary activity remained high across both situations, while males' 'at home' levels for the 'Late' Saturday and 'Early' and 'Late' Sunday periods were significantly lower than their 'outside the home' midweek levels. Males' and females' 'outside the home' levels and 'Late' Sunday 'at home' levels did not differ significantly, but females had significantly higher levels of adrenomedullary activity than males on the 'Late' Saturday and 'Early' Sunday periods. Differences in self-rated positive and negative mood were not significant either within or between groups. The implication of these trends for research on sex differences in stress is discussed.     

Performance Decline and Turnaround in Public Organizations: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis*

Public sector performance is currently a significant issue for management practice and policy, and especially the turnaround of those organizations delivering less than acceptable results. Theories of organizational failure and turnaround derive largely from the business sector and require adaptation to the public service. The performance of public organizations is more complex to measure, is related to institutional norms, and the idea of ‘failure’ is problematic. Empirical findings from a real‐time, longitudinal study of poorly performing English local authorities are used to develop an initial theory of performance failure and turnaround suited to public organizations. The paper argues that the typical performance of public organizations over time is cyclical. Where cognition and leadership capability are absent, organizations fail to self‐initiate turnaround. In this situation authoritative external intervention is necessary. The strategies applied are principally concerned with building a leadership capability that engages senior politicians and managers in order to overcome inertia and collective action problems. The theory is presented in the form of seven propositions that provide a basis for further research across the public sector.