Implementation of evidence-based interventions: analyzing critical components for sustainability in community mental health services

This study analyses the implementation and sustainability of evidence-based community mental health services in the form of publicly financed Individual Placement and Support programs. Critical implementation components and program fidelity were assessed after one year. After two years, program fidelity was assessed once again. After three years, the programs’ sustainability was assessed and semi-structured interviews performed, in order to deepen the understanding of implementation. Interviews and documents provided the quantitative and qualitative data, which were analyzed by the use of the Supported Employment Fidelity Scale, the Sustainable Implementation Scale (which was developed in a connecting study), and qualitative content analysis. Despite promising fidelity results after one year, eight out of 14 programs were terminated within three years. Implementation of integrated evidence-based programs in community-based settings is a delicate undertaking. Implementing agencies can benefit from rigorous preparation before program start, especially concerning the circumstances at the organizational level, such as making plans for collaboration, financing and assessments of program fidelity.     

Thinking critically about cross-cultural implementation—Swedish social workers’ experiences of testing the Kids’ Club method for helping child and mother victims of intimate partner violence

There are calls for evidence-based methods for helping children to deal with experiences of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in many countries. Therefore, it has been commonplace to implement such methods from outside of their home country. The aim of this study is to examine Swedish social workers’ experiences of testing the American Kids’ Club method for child and mother victims of IPV. After having tested leading Kids’ Club groups, seventeen social workers at four different locations were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. The results indicate that the social workers generally accepted the method. This was related both to some general features of the method and to their perceiving it as somewhat flexible. According to the social workers, the method needs some cultural adaptation to better suit the Swedish social services setting, otherwise it cannot be fully accepted. Finally, they thought that successful implementation depended on an organizational structure that enabled enough children to be referred to the programme as well as either high personal commitment or an organization that prioritized the method. Based on these results, we conclude that importing an American evidence-based group method to help children exposed to IPV to Sweden demands attention to issues of cultural adaption.     

Unitarian ideals and professional diversity in social work practice—the case of Sweden

Attempts to articulate a common core of social work are numerous as is the claim that there exists a ‘true’ or general social work. This article presents results from research on the organisational settings of Swedish social work. Social work managers in 100 middle sized municipalities have been interviewed by means of an extensive interview manual. Data are analysed using quantitative methods. The results demonstrate that since the 1980s specialisation has become the strongest organisational trend. Functional specialisation (division of child welfare, social assistance and social work with substance abusers) is the standard way of organising social work and in many municipalities specialisation has gone much further. An integrated or generic organisational model, which was the imperative of the 1970s, seems to exist only in the smallest municipalities. Some of the organisational changes can be described as short-lived fashions. Specialisation as such seems, however, to be an institutionalised strategy to solve social problems and as a response to expectations from the environment. These results are discussed against the background of the notion of social work as a coherent profession with an identifiable common core and a mutual arsenal of methods.     

Does CERN procurement result in innovation?

Innovation is stated to be one of the most powerful engines for economic growth in firms, markets and nations today. It is therefore not surprising that policy-makers would like to see innovations as a benefit of publicly spent money; making innovations an additional aim of public procurement (public procurement for innovation). The aim of the paper is to analyse the impact of a science organization's procurement practices on innovation. The intention is also to show how different and contradicting goals and expectations regarding public procurement are described and acted upon by the science organization and its suppliers, and to what extent the outcome of public procurement is innovation. Empirically, the study addresses how the European Organization for Nuclear Research, i.e. CERN, works with procurement; and how their procurement in turn affects CERN's suppliers. Based on a large case study in which more than 100 interviews were conducted over a time period of 8 years, the study contributes to the understanding of the limitations CERN’s procurement rules put on interaction and on innovation. The understanding of the implications of restricting interaction, but also the understanding of the reasons why these rules are put into place, and the dilemmas that follow, are all important contributions.     

Simultaneous Credible Bands for Latent Gaussian Models

Abstract. Deterministic Bayesian inference for latent Gaussian models has recently become available using integrated nested Laplace approximations (INLA). Applying the INLA‐methodology, marginal estimates for elements of the latent field can be computed efficiently, providing relevant summary statistics like posterior means, variances and pointwise credible intervals. In this article, we extend the use of INLA to joint inference and present an algorithm to derive analytical simultaneous credible bands for subsets of the latent field. The algorithm is based on approximating the joint distribution of the subsets by multivariate Gaussian mixtures. Additionally, we present a saddlepoint approximation to compute Bayesian contour probabilities, representing the posterior support of fixed parameter vectors of interest. We perform a simulation study and apply the given methods to two real examples.     

河汾诸老探赜

河汾诸老是金末元初一批出生或落籍于黄河、汾河流域的诗人。他们通过自己的创作实践丰富了文坛巨星元好问“以唐人为指归”诗学思想的内涵,为肇启元明宗唐复古诗风作出了一定的贡献。严格说来,他们应被称为诗人群体而非诗派。其群体性活动和文学创作可先后以金室南渡和蒙古灭金为断,分为三期。其诗作以反映战乱带给人民的灾难和表现隐逸生活、山林情趣为主,兼有“陶之达”和“杜之忧”两种倾向。其诗学宗尚与金末元初学唐复古诗风相一致,但在学唐诗诸家方面特别强调转益多师,不拘一格。河汾诸老是金元易代之际文坛的重要现象,是一个有影响的金遗民诗人群体,对当时文学的继往开来和促使元诗繁荣有一定的历史意义。     

张之洞治理海南黎族述评

清末 ,张之洞在海南面临外国列强威胁和黎族人民不停打击清政府统治的背景下 ,对海南进行了大规模的镇抚和开发 ,并取得一些成效 ,推动了海南黎族人民的进步。其全方位的开发政策为我们今天发展少数民族经济 ,促进民族共同发展以及民族团结提供了宝贵的经验     

构建21世纪重庆特色城市形象的经济含义

通过对城市形象概念、特征和构建原则的分析 ,针对重庆城市形象构建中存在的问题 ,提出构建方案 ,在此基础上着重论述了构建 2 1世纪重庆特色城市形象的经济含义     

一类地下水水质污染问题广义解的存在性

本文讨论了一类地下水水质污染问题,其数学模型是一类非线性双曲—抛物耦合方程组,并用Ｇａｌｅｒｋｉｎ 方法证明了在相应初边值条件下广义解的全局存在性     

How critical is the event? Multicultural Norway after 22 July 2011

It is commonly assumed that insecurity experienced by citizens in the wake of a terror attack gives rise to public demands for strong countermeasures, which political leaders must respond to. This article asks how Norwegian society was affected by the 22 July 2011 attacks against the government office complex in Oslo and Labour Party youth camp on Utøya. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, it analyses political impact, examining post-22 July public debates and related policymaking. A dataset of newspaper op-eds and commentaries was created to determine the significance of key issues debated in the print media after the attacks, and changes over time in the intensity of debates. Key issues were then followed up in a qualitative analysis of policy implications. The study further investigated the discursive framing of the attacks, and the problems and possible solutions evoked in the debates. Was this a ‘critical event’ as Veena Das has theorised, bringing about new sorts of action through the reworking of traditional categories, codes or meanings? Public security emerges as the key frame within which the 22 July attacks have been debated. Arguments over police reforms and alleged inaction by authorities stand out as the most lasting debate.