When, catastrophe happens. Assessment and intervention after sudden traumatic death

The goals of grief after sudden traumatic death is to acknowledge the loss, identify the changes the loss will have in the co-victim's life, and reinvest in life within the new structure. Although these goals seem simple, there is no definitive timeline for when these tasks will be engaged and completed by each of the family members. The pathway and time frame for each co-victim may differ.     

A Meta-Analysis of Children's Hand-to-Mouth Frequency Data for Estimating Nondietary Ingestion Exposure

Because of their mouthing behaviors, children have a higher potential for exposure to available chemicals through the nondietary ingestion route; thus, frequency of hand-to-mouth activity is an important variable for exposure assessments. Such data are limited and difficult to collect. Few published studies report such information, and the studies that have been conducted used different data collection approaches (e.g., videography versus real-time observation), data analysis and reporting methods, ages of children, locations, and even definitions of "mouthing." For this article, hand-to-mouth frequency data were gathered from 9 available studies representing 429 subjects and more than 2,000 hours of behavior observation. A meta-analysis was conducted to study differences in hand-to-mouth frequency based on study, age group, gender, and location (indoor vs. outdoor), to fit variability and uncertainty distributions that can be used in probabilistic exposure assessments, and to identify any data gaps. Results of this analysis indicate that age and location are important for hand-to-mouth frequency, but study and gender are not. As age increases, both indoor and outdoor hand-to-mouth frequencies decrease. Hand-to-mouth behavior is significantly greater indoors than outdoors. For both indoor and outdoor hand-to-mouth frequencies, interpersonal, and intra-personal variability are approximately 60% and approximately 30%, respectively. The variance difference among different studies is much bigger than its mean, indicating that different studies with different methodologies have similar central values. Weibull distributions best fit the observed data for the different variables considered and are presented in this article by study, age group, and location. Average indoor hand-to-mouth behavior ranged from 6.7 to 28.0 contacts/hour, with the lowest value corresponding to the 6 to <11 year olds and the highest value corresponding to the 3 to <6 month olds. Average outdoor hand-to-mouth frequency ranged from 2.9 to 14.5 contacts/hour, with the lowest value corresponding to the 6 to <11 year olds and the highest value corresponding to the 6 to <12 month olds. The analysis highlights the need for additional hand-to-mouth data for the <3 months, 3 to <6 months, and 3 to <6 year age groups using standardized collection and analysis because of lack of data or high uncertainty in available data. This is the first publication to report Weibull distributions as the best fitting distribution for hand-to-mouth frequency; using the best fitting exposure factor distribution will help improve estimates of exposure. The analyses also represent a first comprehensive effort to fit hand-to-mouth frequency variability and uncertainty distributions by indoor/outdoor location and by age groups, using the new standard set of age groups recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for assessing childhood exposures. Thus, the data presented in this article can be used to update the U.S. EPA's Child-Specific Exposure Factors Handbook and to improve estimates of nondietary ingestion in probabilistic exposure modeling.     

Formerly Incarcerated Parents and Their Children

The negative effects of incarceration on child well-being are often linked to the economic insecurity of formerly incarcerated parents. Researchers caution, however, that the effects of parental incarceration may be small in the presence of multiple-partner fertility and other family complexity. Despite these claims, few studies have directly observed either economic insecurity or the full extent of family complexity. We study parent-child relationships with a unique data set that includes detailed information about economic insecurity and family complexity among parents just released from prison. We find that stable private housing, more than income, is associated with close and regular contact between parents and children. Formerly incarcerated parents see their children less regularly in contexts of multiple-partner fertility and in the absence of supportive family relationships. Significant housing and family effects are estimated even after we control for drug use and crime, which are themselves negatively related to parental contact. The findings point to the constraints of material insecurity and the complexity of family relationships on the contact between formerly incarcerated parents and their children.     

Evidence-based practice knowledge and utilization among social workers

In this study the researchers examined the knowledge, skills, and use of Evidence-Based Practice in a sample of social workers from different practice settings. Using an electronic survey, data were collected from a group of social work practitioners (N = 200). Participants in their 30s and 40s demonstrated the most knowledge and use of Evidence-Based Practice. In addition, a high percentage of social workers reported to be knowledgeable about social work research databases; a smaller percentage actually used online resources in their practice. Through this study the researchers add to what is currently known about social workers' perceptions, knowledge, and use of Evidence-Based Practice.     

Dropping the ball on media inquiries: The role of deadlines in media catching

Deadlines have always played a significant role in the practice of public relations, especially the media relations specialization. Public relations textbooks and practitioner handbooks encourage budding practitioners to learn how and when journalists, broadcasters, and Internet authors work so that they may pitch story ideas to them appropriately. Even though media catching, an emerging trend in media relations, reverses the traditional direction of story pitching, deadlines are still critical for this new media relations approach. Through a content analysis of 2802 Help-A-Reporter-Out media requests, this study examines how deadlines vary among media outlets engaging in this new media relations story. Statistically significant differences provide insights for public relations practitioners as to how they can best utilize the service to compete for media placements.     

The Citizenship of Excluded Groups: Challenging the Consumerist Agenda

The language of consumerism suggests that through involvement in consumer processes, consumers can influence policy formation and service provision. This paper examines, as illustrative cases in Australia, how two groups of consumers, people with a mental illness and older people, engage with these consumer processes. It finds they critically evaluate the opportunity offered by consumer processes for inclusion in policy and programmes. Both people with a mental illness and interviewed older people indicated how they acted as "agents involved in interpreting their needs", despite finding that in consumer processes their needs were predefined. Rather than allowing themselves to be constructed as passive objects, they positioned themselves as active citizens, having agency not as individual consumers but through drawing on networks. The responses of both groups go some distance toward dismantling power differences between professionals and "consumers", suggesting that social policy and programmes for both people with mental illness and older people can and sometimes do develop in a context of greater inclusivity.     

Establishing Positive Youth Development Approaches in Group Home Settings: Training Implementation and Evaluation

This article reports on a training program for group home supervisors that was designed to utilize positive youth development principles in work with youth transitioning from care to independent living. Over a period of 5 months, eight one-day training sessions took place across one state in the U.S. (Massachusetts) with a total of 186 group care staff in attendance. The evaluation consisted of three components: observation of participant feedback during training, training day post-test, and follow-up with participants 2–3 months after training. Implications of the data, particularly barriers to implementation of training programs, are discussed.