Community Treatment Orders for People with Serious Mental Illness: A New Zealand Study

New Zealand legislation allows for the involuntary outpatienttreatment of people with serious mental illness. This studyexamines the views of service users, family members and mentalhealth professionals (MHPs) about the impact of this regime.Semi-structured interviews were completed with forty-two serviceusers, twenty-seven family members and ninety MHPs, with recentexperience of the regime. Participants were asked to commenton the functions of community treatment (or non-resident) orders,their benefits and restrictions, decisions about their terminationand any impact on relationships. Most service users believedthe main purpose of the order was to ensure they took medication.They also believed the order provided better access to othertreatments, supported accommodation and care from MHPs. Familiesconsidered the orders provided relief for them and a supportivestructure for their relative’s care. MHPs found the ordersuseful for engaging service users in a continuing therapeuticrelationship, and for promoting treatment adherence. In eachgroup, a majority of those interviewed viewed involuntary communitytreatment in a generally positive light, while acknowledgingthe restrictions imposed on service users’ freedom.     

Providing Alumni Access to Electronic Resources

University alumni are frequently surprised and dismayed to find that access to online library resources is terminated at graduation. Alumni have been vocal for years about their need for library resources as they move into the working world, and campus alumni offices are frequently eager to provide this service in order to maintain ongoing relationships with alums. Publishers are beginning to include alumni as authorized users in electronic resources contracts with models for free or paid access. Most academic libraries have not begun or are in the early stages of working with alumni offices to provide this service. This article discusses opportunities and challenges of designing and implementing successful alumni access to electronic resources.     

The politics of marital name change

Each year, millions of women face the decision whether or not to change their names after marriage. One study found that region, gender role traditionalism, career orientation, and educational attainment predicted name changes (Johnson and Scheuble, 1995). Another line of research discovered that women who changed their names were perceived as less ambitious and less competent, but more caring than women who did not change their name (Noordewier et al., 2010). Despite the prevalence and importance of this decision, we know very little about marital name change among political leaders. In this study, we take a preliminary look at marital name change in the political arena by focusing on name changing among women serving in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. We find that half of female legislators keep their name after marriage, and that Democrats, racial minorities, legislators who come from political families, legislators who were married later in life, and legislators who were first elected to office at a younger age are more likely to keep their names.     

Providing information to help Medicare beneficiaries choose a health plan

Many Medicare beneficiaries have limited knowledge of the Medicare program and related health insurance options. This is due in part to the complexity of the Medicare program and supplemental health insurance market. A recent congressional mandate through the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 called for broad dissemination of information to educate beneficiaries about their health plan options and to encourage informed health plan decision-making. In response, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) launched the National Medicare Education Program (NMEP) to support the educational objectives of the BBA. This paper provides an overview of the components of the NMEP information campaign. We also review lessons learned from our experience in designing and testing a prototype consumer handbook that explains the different health plan options to Medicare beneficiaries. Through our discussion of the handbook, we highlight several ways to communicate information effectively about a complex publicly funded program to an older adult population.     

Economic Dominance,the “American Dream,” and Homicide: A Cross‐National Test of Institutional Anomie Theory

This article presents a cross‐national test of Messner and Rosenfeld's (1994) institutional anomie theory. Drawing on multiple data sources, including the United Nations, World Bank, World Values Survey, and Heritage Foundation, we examine relationships between economic dominance, indicators of culture, and homicide among a sample of 50 nations. Additionally, we assess the thesis of “American exceptionalism,” a unique cultural complex implicated by Messner and Rosenfeld as a cause of high rates of serious crime in the United States. Results from OLS regression models provide mixed support for the theory. While none of the theoretical predictors exhibits a statistically significant direct effect on homicide, findings suggest that homicide occurs most often in countries where free‐market principles and practices drive the economy and where core cultural commitments are oriented toward achievement, individualism, fetishism of money, and universalism. However, contrary to expectations, the impact of a market‐driven economy is not more pronounced in countries with weakened non‐economic institutions, and results provide only limited evidence in support of the American exceptionalism thesis. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Bullying,sexual harassment and happiness in residential children's homes

Much is now known about bullying and, to some extent, sexual harassment in settings such as schools. In residential children's homes, however, the two remain disturbing features of institutional life. This is a particular cause for concern as many of the residents in these homes, given their troubled backgrounds, are at greater risk of becoming victims of perpetrators. This article looks at the incidence and effects of these related maladies within the context of a wider study involving 223 children in 48 residential homes in five local authorities. The study found that fellow residents, rather than staff, were the main sources of physical and sexual abuse. Both bullying and harassment (actual and attempted) were strongly associated with the widespread misery reported by many residents. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bullying Victimization Trajectories for Sexual Minority Adolescents: Stable Victims,Desisters, and Late‐Onset Victims

Sexual minority adolescents are bullied more frequently than heterosexual peers. Research is lacking on their rates of general and sexual orientation bullying victimization. The present study identified (1) the rate, onset, and desistance of general and sexual orientation bullying victimization, (2) the rate of bullying victimization trajectories, and (3) risk and protective factors across trajectories. A life history calendar method and thematic analysis were employed with a sexual minority adolescent sample (N = 52, 14–20 y/o). General bullying began at age 5 and declined after age 12, with sexual orientation bullying increasing throughout adolescence. Late‐onset victim (34.6%) was the most common trajectory, followed by stable victim (28.9%), desister (23.1%), and nonvictim (13.5%). Differences in risk and protective factors were found across trajectories.     

Sexual activity and weekly contraceptive use among young adult women in Michigan

Past studies on the influence of sexual activity on contraceptive behaviours are inconclusive, relying heavily on cross-sectional data. We used a population-based longitudinal sample of young women in Michigan to evaluate weekly associations between sexual activity and contraceptive use at three levels of measurement: comparing between women, among individual women’s partnerships, and from week to week within partnerships. We used multinomial logistic regression accounting for correlations within partnerships and women. Relative to use of least effective methods, weekly sexual activity was significantly associated with increased use of condoms, pills, and highly effective methods. For pills and highly effective methods, partnership-, woman-, and week-level effects were similar. For condoms, there was no significant woman-level effect. Evidence of immediate effects of sexual activity on contraceptive use highlights the importance of longitudinal data. These dynamics may be diluted or missed altogether when relying on cross-sectional data approaches that compare groups of individuals.     

Communities of Place? New Evidence for the Role of Distance and Population Size in Community Attachment

Historically, ecological features of a community, such as population size, were considered fundamental aspects of the community experience. Yet methodological advances and the rise of globalization have challenged many classical assumptions rooted in the ecological tradition. Using recent data—the Montana Health Matters Study 2010 (N = 3,508)—we explore whether community attachment links with distance and population size in Montana. Surprisingly, a statistically significant relationship to community attachment appears only when distance from urban centers and community population size are modeled together. Perceived quality of community services partly explains this relationship, but only for the distance measure. Altogether, as globalization is undoubtedly transforming rural life, we argue that “communities of place” may still endure when distance to urban centers and population size are simultaneously accounted for.