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。     

Increasing aging and advocacy competency: the intergenerational advocacy pilot project

The Council on Social Work Education's (CSWE) Strengthening Aging and Gerontology Education for Social Work (SAGE-SW) project, funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation partnered with the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM) to develop an Intergenerational Policy and Advocacy Project (IAP). This curriculum pilot project, based on a community organization model, was conducted with 13 baccalaureate social work (BSW) and master's social work (MSW) programs across the country and 122 students. The project was one method to pursue CSWE SAGE-SW's efforts to infuse aging content into social work foundation curricula, to support intergenerational teaching, to strengthen social work advocacy skills, and to provide social work students with positive experiences working with older adults. Pilot sites were asked to carry out the project as part of an existing course foundation or field practicum course. Project activities included collaboration with a variety of community agencies, holding issues or "town hall" forums in order to educate community members about critical policy issues affecting older adults; making contacts and establishing relationships with local, state and/or federal legislators; and conducting assessments of the service needs of older adults in the students' communities. Questionnaires, feedback, pre-post evaluations as well as brief accounts of each project are presented. Participants considered the IAP to be a successful project in terms of the objectives of increasing awareness and competency among social work students of aging issues and of promoting intergenerational linkages between older people and social work students.     

Intentional youth programs: taking theory to practice

Early adolescents benefit most from program opportunities where they can be actively engaged in their own learning and development and where there is a good fit between their developmental needs and the intentional learning opportunities provided by the program. The theoretical framework presented here suggests that the two most important features of an engaging youth program are an intentional ethos of youth development and an intentional strategy to design and implement developmentally appropriate learning experiences. Practical examples from research and community practice are used to illustrate program strategies for early adolescents that emphasize intentional thought, decisions, and actions every step of the way.     

A qualitative analysis of suicide risk factors,preferred means,and means restriction feasibility within a homeless shelter environment

Suicide completion rates among homeless individuals are approximately nine times higher than the general population. The purpose of this study was to capture the state of social support among homeless individuals, understand how homeless community members support peers in crisis, examine the awareness of suicidal ideation, identify common methods for suicide, and generate strategies for means restriction within a shelter. Twenty individuals residing at an emergency shelter were interviewed. Participants were of diverse cultural identities overrepresented in the sample relative to the general population. Interviews revealed that 40% of participants lacked social support. However, the majority indicated that if they encountered someone at risk for suicide, they would provide support and encouragement to the at-risk individual. Almost half of participants reported knowing of an individual in the shelter who had previously attempted suicide and/or was currently or previously feeling suicidal. Overdose was identified as a primary method for suicide; however, the majority of participants were unable to generate strategies for means restriction. The present study offers a glimpse into the experience of homeless individuals and provides valuable information regarding risk factors for suicide within this highly marginalized and underserved population.     

Parent–Caregiver Experiences With the Autism Spectrum Disorder Service Delivery System

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnoses are increasing, leading to growing demands on the service delivery system to meet the needs of children and families. Further understanding individual enabling components such as perceptions of parents/caregivers and personnel, as well as community-level enabling components such as the availability of and quality of services, may help inform system improvements. In this qualitative study, 19 parents/caregivers of children with ASD in one state in the United States were interviewed regarding their experiences with the ASD service delivery system, as well as their individual responses in relation to these experiences. Emergent themes point to the importance of individual coping strategies such as social support, collaboration with service providers, advocacy and empowerment, determination, and luck. Characteristics of the service delivery system, positive and negative, also were described. Findings can inform the design of future programs, services, and policies to support parent/caregiver coping and improved service delivery.     

Sources of Volunteer Motivation: Transformational Leadership and Personal Motives Influence Volunteer Outcomes

We examined the separate influences of volunteers' personal motives and their team leaders' behaviors on volunteer satisfaction and contributions, along with mediating processes suggested by self‐determination theory. Participants were 302 volunteers who worked in teams at various sites through a central agency. As predicted, both personal motives for volunteering and transformational leadership influenced volunteer satisfaction through enhanced work meaningfulness and higher‐quality team relationships. However, motives that predicted volunteer contribution were different from those that predicted satisfaction. Whereas satisfaction was positively associated with motives concerning esteem enhancement and value expression, contribution was positively associated with motives to gain understanding and negatively related to motives pertaining to esteem enhancement and social concerns. Transformational leadership was positively associated with volunteer satisfaction, but not with volunteer contributions. The theoretical ramifications of these findings are discussed, along with practical implications for the recruitment and retention of volunteers.     

The state of things: state history and theory reconfigured

This article looks at the relationship between logistical power and the assemblages of sites that constitute modern states. Rather than treating states as centralizing institutions and singular sites of power, we treat them as multi-sited. They gain power by using logistical methods of problem solving, using infrastructures to enforce and depersonalize relations of domination and limit the autonomy of elites. But states necessarily solve diverse problems by different means in multiple locations. So, educating children is not continuous with governing colonies even though both are necessary to nineteenth-century states. For this reason, states use logistical means of coordination to link sites, and they make the power of the state seem unitary even though the exercise of state power is not.     

Recommended Reference Values for Risk Assessment of Oral Exposure to Copper

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) database, the authoritative source of U.S. risk assessment toxicity factors, currently lacks an oral reference dose (RfD) for copper. In the absence of such a value, various health-based reference values for copper are available for use in risk assessment. We summarize the scientific bases and differences in assumptions among key reference values for ingested copper to guide selection of appropriate values for risk assessment. A comprehensive review of the scientific literature best supports the oral RfD of 0.04 mg/kg body weight/day derived by EPA from their Drinking Water Action Level. This value is based on acute gastrointestinal effects but is further supported by broader analysis of copper deficiency and toxicity.