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Since Labor came to power in December 1972, increased and novel opportunities have been created for social workers in contexts in which, however, other occupations are also being offered similar opportunities within the same operational territory. This situation has urged social work to take a close look at itself as a collectivity, a social system for which effective communication and interchange with its environment—internal and external—is essential to survival and adaptation.     

Treatment of violent offenders

In treatment of criminal offenders, especially those with a history of violence, it is essential that the clinician pay close attention to the criminal act itself. This area is often overlooked or avoided by practitioners who focus entirely on history, antecedents, current functioning, and problems of daily life. Important as these areas are, this paper suggests that a first step should be a detailed history of the criminal act, in a process requiring the client to walk the therapist through the crime. This procedure provides invaluable information both for assessing treatability and for evaluating change. The history and walk-through can be used as an adjunct to the therapist's primary clinical model, whatever it may be. Material presented is drawn from the author's experience at Atascadero State Hospital, California, the state's primary institution for sex offenders and the criminally insane.Originally prepared for presentation at the 10th Annual Scientific Conference of the Society for Clinical Social Work, Los Angeles, California, October 19–21, 1979.     

Social Work Gerontological Practice: The Need for Faculty Development in the New Millennium

There is a pressing need to upgrade the gerontological knowledge and skills of practicing social workers. Geriatrics and gerontology, as specialized fields of knowledge, have not been sufficiently integrated into formal academic training programs. There are major trends in the health care environment which impact on social work education, including technological advances, a shift from inpatient to outpatient and community care settings, increasing diversity of the older population, and client and family participation in decisionmaking. These trends necessitate social work education to emphasize new content areas in gerontology and the development of new skills in clinical, case management, care coordination, and teamwork. A significant obstacle to the preparation of future social workers to deliver the complex services needed by older adults and their families is a serious shortage of social work faculty in gerontology. Sustained and broad initiatives, such as the John A. Hartford Foundation funded Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholars Program, are needed to develop academic and practice-based faculty in gerontology. This is crucial if social work is to maintain an important service role in the new millennium.     

A flexible work force: Opportunities for women

V. Conclusion For a society that may be faced with fewer rapid increases in the work force than we have known during the “baby boom” years, various kinds of restrictions on the use of labor certainly would not help. Deterrents on labor can only hurt.     

Parental Involvement in Playgroups

SUMMARY. This paper reports results from a study of playgroups in three areas of England. It describes the extent and nature of parent involvement in the study playgroups, and how far this involvement included fathers as well as mothers; examines the relationship between involvement and various socio-economic characteristics of the parents, to see whether certain groups were more or less likely to be involved in their children's playgroups; and considers attitudes to parent involvement among both mothers and playgroup leaders, and playgroup leaders' experience of involvement, in particular whether they experienced any difficulties in getting or maintaining involvement.     

Trends in Aggregate-Level Political Alienation*

This study identifies several distinct types of political alienation—including efficacy and trust—by observing their different relationships to the causes and consequences of alienation. In general, aggregate-level alienation is caused by unpopular social events or trends. The increasing tendency for citizens to expect governmental solutions to these problems has undoubtedly intensified recent levels of alienation, while the cyclical occurrence of these problems accounts for the short-run cycles in the alienation trend. Consequences of high levels of alienation are also considered, particularly conventional citizen responses which may alter governmental policies (and possibly solve the social problems). The elective process provides some avenue for citizen pressure, but the impact is not direct. Citizens do not vote incumbents out of office during periods of high alienation, but their tendency to become Independents and to stay away from the polls when alienation is high may indirectly pressure parties to change their platforms to attract the disenchanted. Other possible means of indirect influence are also discussed.     

Social Ecological Factors of Sexual Subjectivity and Contraceptive Use and Access Among Young Women in the Northwest Territories,Canada

Adolescent women in the Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada, experience many sexual health challenges that are linked to a history of colonization and intergenerational effects of trauma. This study was informed by social ecological theory and explored how young women in the NWT develop sexual subjectivity within the context of contraception use and access during this time of decolonization. A total of 41 participants (aged 13 to 17 years) attended the Fostering Open eXpression among Youth (FOXY) body-mapping intervention in six NWT communities and then completed semistructured interviews. Framework analysis identified barriers to the development of sexual subjectivity that included a culture of stigma and shame surrounding sexuality; pervasive alcohol use in communities; predatory behaviors by older men; poor quality sexual health education offered in schools; and issues with accessing health services. In addition, analysis identified the following facilitators: comprehensive sexual health education; widespread access to free condoms; and positive health support networks with female relatives, peers, and some teachers. Our findings suggest the need for multiple intervention strategies within a complex social ecological framework, including arts-based interventions that focus on developing self-esteem and self-efficacy of youth, combined with interpersonal interventions that strengthen communication skills among supportive adults, and community-level campaigns that target stigma reduction and shift cultural norms.     

SOME DEMOGRAPHIC CORRELATES OF HIV/AIDS-RELATED DISCRIMINATION

In late 1991, a survey was made of HIV/AIDS-related discrimination in the Australian community. Structured telephone interviews were conducted with a random sample of 2,053 respondents. Twenty-one questions provided an index of expressed discrimination. Social contact with HIV-positive people was a significant predictor of low levels of discrimination. Other important predictors of (lower) levels of discrimination were: social contact with gay men, education, sex, age, sexual identity, and sexual experience. Social contact with gay men was the single best predictor of positive attitudes towards people with HIV/AIDS.