Paying to improve your chances: Gambling or insurance?

Will a more risk-averse individual spend more or less to improve probabilities, say on marketing efforts that enhance the chance of a sale? For any two payoffs and starting probabilities, the answer is unfortunately indeterminate. However, interpreting gambling as increasing small chances of good outcomes and insurance as reducing small chances of bad outcomes, the more risk-averse individual will pay less (more) to gamble (insure). We find a critical switching probability that depends on the individuals and outcomes involved. If the good outcome is less (more) likely than this critical value, the expenditures represent gambling (insurance).     

Evidence-based Medicine and Child Mental Health Services

There is increased focus on using research evidence to guide clinical practice in the provision of child mental health services, to allocate resources and to make policy decisions. Emphasis has been placed on randomised controlled trials, which are clearly vital. However, given the complexity of children's lives and the multiple systems relevant to their care, it is important to consider alternative research designs and to think creatively about outcomes. In the context of difficulties with random allocation a number of quasi-experimental designs are described that may more closely reflect actual clinical work. In the context of ecological theory, the importance of taking a systems level approach to evaluation is highlighted, with examples from the US. Finally, the ways in which qualitative outcomes measures can be used to sensitively describe the effects of treatment are outlined, and their potential for giving voice to children and families as consumers of mental health services. These suggestions aim to lessen the tension between the requirements of the scientific investigations of treatment effectiveness and the realities of clinicians' daily experiences.     

Promoting psychosocial well-being in unaccompanied asylum seeking young people in the United Kingdom

Unaccompanied minors looking for asylum in industrialized nations come with a host of psychosocial needs associated with separation and settlement. They are also resourceful, and willing to make the best of themselves in their new environments. This paper reviews literature concerning vulnerability and resilience that has emerged from refugee related studies, and those from social work with children looked after by local authorities. In combining these two areas of enquiry, the paper tests the messages they contain in reference to the work of a young asylum seekers project run in the United Kingdom. It confirms the view that unaccompanied minors are children first and foremost, exhibiting understandable vulnerabilities associated with separation and trauma, as well as being carriers of capacities that can help them to recover and settle after arrival. In this paper, it is proposed that promoting psychosocial well‐being for unaccompanied minors involves entering the young people's inner and outer worlds with therapeutic care, to aid the processes of self‐recovery. It also involves finding ways to regenerate a lost sense of belonging and of being in charge of their lives. Examples from the project's work with the young people are used to illustrate the complexity of helping them find a sense of home within their new territories.     

Effects of exposure to occupational violence and the mediating impact of fear

This paper examines the consequences of exposure to work-related violence and in particular, focuses upon the role of fear (of violence) as a mediating variable. The sample comprises UK public house licensees-individuals who manage public houses and hold the licence permitting the sale of alcoholic drinks on the premises. Questionnaires were sent to 479 licensees and a response rate of 51% was achieved. Each questionnaire measured exposure to a range of violent assaults, fear of violence, general well-being, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Based upon a final sample of 242 pub licensees, regression analyses showed that as the severity of the violence to which licensees were exposed increased, so fear of becoming a victim and symptoms of impaired well-being increased, while job satisfaction and organizational commitment decreased. Hierarchical analyses showed that fear of violence fully mediated the negative impact of exposure upon each of these other variables. It is argued that the management of fear appraisals should be integrated into organizational responses to work-place violence.     

Consent as Resistance,Resistance as Consent: Re‐Reading Part‐Time Professionals’ Acceptance of Their Marginal Positions

The part‐time employee has traditionally occupied a marginal position in organizations. The recent increase in the numbers of part‐time professionals, however, has been seen as offering potential for the status of the part‐time employee to improve. Evidence to date suggests that this improvement has not taken place and that the part‐time professional is also marginalized. Interestingly, research suggests that part‐time professionals may not experience their subordinate positions as problematic, often believing that the drawbacks of reduced hours working are a legitimate consequence of their ‘choice’ to work part‐time. Such ‘choices’ are frequently attributed to part‐timers’ prioritization of non‐work activities. In this article, using a Foucauldian approach to identity, we argue that choices need to be understood as both situated in time and space and constituted through discourse. Using these ideas we provide a re‐reading of part‐timers’ consent to their marginalization, arguing that their responses to their positions at work can also be understood as resistance to some of the dominant norms of professionalism. We set out the conditions that might be implicated in translating subjective resistance into more material actions.     

An agenda for future research regarding the mental health of young people with care experience

Young people who are currently or were previously in state care have consistently been found to have much higher rates of mental health and neurodevelopmental difficulties than the general youth population. While a number of high-quality reviews highlight what research has been undertaken in relation to the mental health of young people with care experience and the gaps in our knowledge and understanding, there is, until now, no consensus, so far as we aware, as to where our collective research efforts should be directed with this important group. Through a series of UK wide workshops, we undertook a consultative process to identify an agreed research agenda between those with lived experience of being in care (n = 15), practitioners, policy makers and researchers (n = 59), for future research regarding the mental health of young people with care experience, including those who are neurodiverse/have a neurodevelopmental difficulty. This consensus statement identified 21 foci within four broad categories: how we conceptualize mental health; under-studied populations; under-studied topics; and underused methodologies. We hope that those who commission, fund and undertake research will engage in this discussion about the future agenda for research regarding the mental health of young people with care experience.     

The 'Scottish' Approach? The discursive construction of a national police force

In 2005, the location of the G8 summit meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, brought the contested boundaries of the state and the nation to the fore. Confronted by the prospect of significant public disorder police forces in Scotland routinely flagged up a 'Scottish approach to policing'. Drawing on research with key police officers and others we explore the processes through which national identities come to be articulated, contested and acted out in the context of one particular institution: the police. We consider the claim that policing of the summit was 'Scottish' and assess the implications of this assertion. Whilst the police have been argued to be integral to the constitution and expression of nation-statehood we highlight the dangers in an uncritical acceptance of police philosophies and also point to the banal ways in which national identity is naturalised.     

The embodiment of complex trauma in domestic minor sex trafficking victims and the dangers of misidentification

ABSTRACT

Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) victims face many barriers to getting appropriate, trauma-informed treatment. Many of these victims experience childhood trauma by trusted adults or by non-familial perpetrators of abuse. Complex trauma, later defined in depth, captures what many DMST victims endure as the harm that they experience is ongoing and cannot be identified as a singular event. Due to the complex trauma these victims experience, they become dissociated as a tool for survival. As a result of trauma, many DMST victims do not embody protective skills, and attempt to gain control of their lives through maladaptive behaviors that can lead to re-victimization. I begin by discussing the literature around embodiment, trauma and the body, and dissociation to demonstrate why a trauma-informed approach in identification and therapy is important when working with DMST victims. Subsequently, I present a case study to explore an example of how the presentation of trauma, or ways it is masked, can lead to misidentification. This case study will illustrate how social workers can effectively advocate for DMST victims at the early stages of identification and also foster a safe, accepting therapeutic space to assist these clients in trust-building and identify formation. Trauma-informed care needs to be integrated from the first interaction with law enforcement, throughout the development of a treatment plan with providers, and for the duration of the therapeutic relationship.     

Race,Gender, and Social Support: A Study of Networks in a Financial Services Organization

A wealth of research indicates that social support improves employees' well-being and job performance. What is not well understood is how employees' race and gender influence the receipt of this type of support. I analyze qualitative and quantitative data to understand how race and gender influence the social support that workers receive. The results suggest that neither structural nor relational factors explain why blacks receive social support from fewer network members than whites. There is some evidence that relational factors contribute to gender differences in the receipt of social support, however. Interviews with workers suggest that gender schemata, the sex-typing of networks, reactions to racial discrimination, and differences in the value placed on social support contribute to race and gender differences in social support.