Case management: lessons from earlier efforts

Case management is a major, new initiative in the provision of community support services to implement public policy of maintaining mental patients in the community. A review of the case management function as used in the anti-poverty program in the 1960s, shows that a case manager works in a task environment consisting of a multitude of independent service agencies, works within the culture of a core service agency, and relates to chronic clients. The case manager's position is shaped by each of these relationships. Each provides dimensions for a formative evaluation of the program. Case management evaluation can identify issues, and document problems to contribute to the rational redesign of our service system.     

Rethinking Bystander Nonintervention: Social Categorization and the Evidence of Witnesses at the James Bulger Murder Trial

Bystander apathy is a long establishedphenomenon in social psychology which has yet to betranslated into practical strategies for increasingbystander intervention. This paper argues that thetraditional paradigm is hampered by a focus on the physicalco-presence of others rather than an analysis of thesocial meanings inherent in (non)intervention. Thetestimony provided by 38 bystanders at the trial of two 10-year-old boys for the murder of2-and-a-half-year-old James Bulger is analyzed. It isargued that their failure to intervene can be attributedto the fact that they assumed — or were told— that the three boys were brothers. The way in whichthis category of the family served toprohibit or deflect intervention is analyzed. Thisapproach is contrasted with a traditional bystanderapathy account of the bystanders' actions in the Bulger case.It is argued that bystander (non)intervention phenomenonshould be analyzed in terms of the construction ofsocial categories in local contexts.     

Organizational sensegiving: Indicators and nonprofit signaling

Resource acquisition depends upon the agreement between an organization's sense of identity and the perceptions of organizational identity held by resource providers. To smooth the flow of resources and buffer against potential issues, organizations seek to manage external perceptions and, to the extent possible, control their organizational identity. Using exploratory factor analysis, we examine the data from 300 GuideStar profiles to develop a sense of how nonprofit organizations “give sense” to resource providers and attempt to manage their organizational identity. We find evidence of three sensegiving strategies. We then use a seemingly unrelated regression model to examine the relationship between these strategies and revenue outcomes, finding evidence that (a) nonprofit organizations demonstrate intentional sensegiving, and (b) different sensegiving approaches are related to different income streams.     

Bath salts: they are not what you think

Psychoactive bath salts are a relatively new group of designer drugs sold as tablets, capsules, or powder and pur-chased in places such as tobacco and convenience stores, gas stations, head shops, and the Internet. Bath salts are stimulant agents that mimic cocaine,lysergic acid diethylamide, methamphetamine, or methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy). The most common bath salts are the cathinone derivatives 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone(MDPV), 4-methylmethcathinone(mephedrone), and 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylcathinone (methylone). The drugs cause intense stimulation, eu-phoria, elevated mood, and a pleasurable "rush" Tachycardia, hypertension,peripheral constriction, chest pain, hallucinations, paranoia, erratic behavior,inattention, lack of memory of substance use, and psychosis have been observed in those who have used bath salts. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration recently exercised an emergency authority to name three key ingredients in bath salts as Schedule I, thereby making them illegal to possess or sell in the United States. Nursing implications related to both clinical and educational settings are discussed.     

Adverse Health Experiences,Environmental Attitudes,and Pesticide Usage Behavior of Farm Operators

Water pollution from agricultural pesticides continues to be a public concern. Given that the use of such pesticides on the farm is largely governed by voluntary behavior, it is important to understand what drives farmer behavior. Health belief models in public health and social psychology argue that persons who have adverse health experiences are likely to undertake preventive behavior. An analogous hypothesis set was tested here: farmers who believe they have had adverse health experiences from pesticides are likely to have heightened concerns about pesticides and are more likely to take greater precautions in dealing with pesticides. This work is based on an original survey of a population of 2700 corn and soybean growers in Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania using the U.S. Department of Agriculture data base. It was designed as a mail survey with telephone follow-up, and resulted in a 60 percent response rate. Farm operators report experiencing adverse health problems they believe are associated with pesticides that is equivalent to an incidence rate that is higher than the reported incidence of occupational pesticide poisonings, but similar to the reported incidence of all pesticide poisonings. Farmers who report experiencing such problems have more heightened concerns about water pollution from fertilizers and pesticides, and illness and injury from mixing, loading, and applying pesticides than farmers who have not experienced such problems. Farmers who report experiencing such problems also are more likely to report using alternative pest management practices than farmers who do not report having such problems. This implies that farmers who have had such experiences do care about the effects of application and do engage in alternative means of pest management, which at least involve the reduction in pesticide use.     

Behavior Management Principles: Incorporating a Biopsychosocial Perspective

This article identifies ten principles for developing, establishing, and maintaining behavioral interventions in work with children. Employing a biopsychosocial perspective, it offers a framework for utilizing such interventions in ways that are consistent with social work's historical contribution to the mental health disciplines. With a primary focus on school settings, it describes both theoretical considerations and practical applications. A relational, feedback-oriented approach to implementing behavioral interventions is advanced.     

If Your Worship pleases: an Australian perspective on the role of the magistrate in child protection

This paper examines the hitherto unexplored role of magistrates in child protection. It reports on a series of interviews conducted by one of the authors with magistrates in the Family Division of the Melbourne Children's Court, Victoria (Australia) in 1993–1994. These interviews form part of a current, and larger, study of magistrates' decision-making in child protection. This paper critically examines the role of magistrates in planning for children in need of care and protection. Some of the questions that the paper poses include: do magistrates focus solely on judicial aspects or do they have a role in overall case planning for children? Do they have specific aims or objectives which influence how they deal with children who come before them? Do magistrates mostly agree with the recommendations which social workers put to them? Are magistrates subject to constraints which may not be understood by other professionals? The findings of the paper will assist in clearly defining the role of the magistrate in child protection, which has distinct advantages for all professionals who work in this complex area. The most appropriate outcomes for children can only be achieved when magistrates and other professionals work in partnership. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Role of Knowledge in Resource Allocation to Exploration versus Exploitation in Technologically Oriented Organizations*

Decisions regarding research and development (R&D) activities of an organization greatly affect the fiscal and market outcomes of technologically oriented firms. Yet, the resource allocation choices between these two activities are tied strongly to an organization's technology knowledge. Technological knowledge is itself a resource that the firm can manage to achieve strategic and competitive advantage. In this paper, the authors present a system dynamics view of the decomposition of R&D efforts into explorative and exploitive activities and the resultant knowledge‐specific and performance outcomes from the decision to focus on one type of activity or another. Four factors are shown to affect the relative value of innovative knowledge to the organization: resource availability, exogenous competition, aging of knowledge bases, and adaptive capacity, a firm's ability to adapt to its environment. A variety of long‐ and short‐term strategic issues are discussed in relation to these forces.     

Entering the Twilight Zone: The Local Complexities of Pay and Employment Equity in New Zealand

This article introduces the recent pay and employment equity situation in the New Zealand state sector through a discussion of research carried out for a Pay and Employment Equity Taskforce. It investigates the twilight zone of pay and employment equity — the murky situations where pay and employment equity programmes already exist, but progress for senior women has stalled for no obvious reasons. Qualitative research is necessary to make sense of these complex situations and to complement labour‐market level studies. The example used is a study of teachers in New Zealand schools, where a range of complex reasons, including lack of support, gendered job designs and intense workloads, creates a bottleneck for women at senior levels. The authors argue that highly decentralized human resources practices work against progress in equal employment opportunity in the state sector.