The importance of employer sponsorship in the long-term care insurance market

Medicare and Medicaid are major sources of long-term care payments and thus will bear much of the burden from the growth in long-term care service use. The large future demand for long-term care services is of great concern among policymakers due to its expense and the use of public program dollars. It is argued that the individual purchase of long-term care insurance can help alleviate the increasing financial pressure on public programs responsible for the majority of longterm care financing. However, consumers have shown little interest in insuring against the high costs of long-term care. This analysis examines the effect of several factors on the decision to purchase a long-term care insurance policy: knowledge and attitudes of long-term care insurance and the long-term care financing system, the perceived risk for longterm care, financial planning behavior, and the availability of long-term care insurance. The interim results indicate the factor most likely to affect the decision to purchase long-term care insurance is access to employer-sponsored long-term care insurance. This suggests tht the availability of affordable and high quality coverage is more important than demand-side factors such as awareness of long-term care insurance and a perceived greater risk for long-term care.     

An online learning course in Ergonomics

For the past two years, the Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of Haifa has offered an online course to third year occupational therapists on the topic of Ergonomics for Health Care Professionals. The development and implementation of this course was funded by the Israeli Ministry of Education. Unique teaching materials, developed and uploaded to the University's server via "High Learn", included interactive and self-directed documents containing graphics, animations, and video clips. Extensive use was made of the discussion forum and survey tools, and students submitted all assignments online. For the final topic, an expert in ergonomics from Boston University delivered a lecture via two-way videoconferencing. The course site included comprehensive library listings in which all bibliographic materials were made available online. Students accessed course materials at the University in a computer classroom and at home via modem. In an accompanying research study, the frequency of student usage of the various online tools was tracked and extensive data were collected via questionnaires documenting students' demographic background, preferred learning style, prior usage of technology, satisfaction with the course and academic achievement. This paper focuses on the results of the research study that examined how the students responded to and coped with teaching material presented and accessed in this format.     

A comparison of disability management practices in Australian and Canadian workplaces

The health, well-being and productivity of workers and employers in today's society is becoming increasingly important. The social, emotional and economic costs of injury and illness are such that governments throughout the world are attempting to implement policies and practices to contain these costs. One response in this area is Disability Management (DM). DM focuses on the management of employees with work injuries or illnesses in the workplace rather than offsite in rehabilitation centres. Regional interest in the DM approach has now gained momentum in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific. This article briefly reviews two studies that were conducted in Australia and Canada (results have or are being published elsewhere). Although the two studies were not designed for comparison purposes they provide interesting and useful information about the similarities and differences in the practice of DM in Australia and Canada. Findings are compared in terms of five primary principles of DM and it is argued that it is important to understand the ecological contexts in which DM occurs as well as share trans-national research in this area to help inform policy and practice.     

Blurring the lines for learning: the role of out-of-school programs as complements to formal learning

As debates continue over the effectiveness of after-school programs, we need to create stronger links between schools and out-of-school activities. Where do such connections begin? How can we integrate skill-building and academic competence into the out-of-school-time context?     

Sexual health education group for adolescents with mental problems

1. Providing sexual health education for adolescents with mental health problems presents a difficult but important clinical task. 2. Using a group format for this task is an effective way to provide information about sexual health and promote positive coping strategies related to relationships and sexual issues. 3. Group leaders need to be aware of their own values related to sexual issues and have the ability to be frank and nonjudgmental.     

Social security reform ideas in Japan

Japan has a complex social security system. This article discusses the demographic and economic situation in Japan as background for understanding the setting in which the social security system functions. Japan has a three-pillar system for retirement income. The first pillar is the social security pension plan; the second pillar is the voluntary occupational pension plan; and the third pillar is personal savings, including the personal pension plan. The most important part of the retirement income system is the social security pension plan, which paid benefits accounting for 64% of the total income of elderly households in 1998. The five Employees' Pension Plans are established on a compulsory social insurance basis. Most large Japanese employers have a mandatory retirement age. Over 90% of all employees, including public sector ones, must retire from their career jobs at age 60.     

Evaluating consumer satisfaction in residential continuing care settings

The outcome of the project reported on here is a client-centered consumer satisfaction questionnaire designed to evaluate new models of residential continuing care in Alberta, Canada. Satisfaction is defined as a multi-dimensional construct that is grounded in the consumer's experience. Consultation with the clients of the services during development of the instrument ensured that characteristics important to the clients were assessed. The result is an instrument with which to measure satisfaction that is fully client-centered and that, with appropriate modifications, can be used to monitor any client-centered program for cognitively-able continuing care clients.     

Machine gaming in Sydney clubs: characteristics of the supporting resident populations

This research provided background for surveys and interviews in later stages of a 3 part project. It aimed to identify, from secondary research, sociodemographic characteristics which tend to support registered clubs and their machine gaming activities in the Sydney Statistical Division. Using multiple methods including Pearson's Product Moment correlation, Principal Components factor analysis, and stepwise regression, the study profiled Sydney populations which spend highly on gaming machines. The most important sociodemographic predictors of Sydney statistical local areas where per capita gaming machine expenditure is high are large proportions of the adult resident population who were born in Malta, Greece, Lebanon, China, Italy, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, India or the Philippines; have no vocational or tertiary qualifications; or are unemployed.     

Examining the effectiveness of health and safety committees and representatives: a review

The establishment of a health and safety committee in the workplace and/or the appointment of an elected health and safety representative is believed to foster employee participation and consultation in the workplace. Despite an emphasis within the Australian occupational health and safety legislation towards employee participation in relation to health and safety issues, there is little known about the effectiveness of the strategies used to involve workers in health and safety matters in the workplace. There is anecdotal evidence published in relation to the implementation of health and safety committees and their effectiveness in the Australian workplace. Few opinions however are substantiated by empirical evidence. Significantly more research has been conducted on the role of health and safety representatives in Australia. This paper presents the findings of a review of the literature and identifies the factors that are considered to impact on the effectiveness of workplace health and safety committees and representatives. Several factors are described as being fundamental to the effective performance of committees and representatives. These factors include management commitment, communication, training and information, union involvement, the infrastructure of an organisation, committee processes and the involvement of professional experts. It is concluded that the effectiveness of health and safety committees in Australia is unexplored and it is unknown if these committees achieve the purpose for which they were established. Recommendations are made for future research to be conducted to test the current anecdotal evidence and assumptions associated with the operation and effectiveness of health and safety committees.     

Can advising lead to meaningful relationships?

Schools have increasingly implemented advising programs as a means of linking students with caring adults. Although this approach is promising, its success depends on adequate funding; the full commitment of administration, staff, and parents; and a thoughtful definition of the procedures for achieving the goals.