A crisis intervention perspective on the termination process

Recognition of termination as a crisis of separation/individuation supports a crisis intervention approach to work during this phase, with guidelines derived from Mahler's theory of separation/individuation, Bowlby's theory of attachment and loss, and James Mann's notion of the subjective meaning of time. The social work literature on the topic is reviewed, and case examples illustrate varying responses to termination depending on the perception of the experience as a threat, loss, or challenge.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the NASW Professional Symposium Washington, D.C., November 1983.     

Social work, modernity and post modernity

In this article we argue that current reform proposals coming from Robert Pinker and others are challenging the universalist premises of generic social work. Pinker et al. argue that social work should, for the sake of efficiency and performance, be a connected set of specialist activities. This ‘determinate dispersal’ which we recognise as falling within the remit of postmodern strategies, we contrast with the far more libertarian ideas of the noted post-modern theorist J.F. Lyotard. Thus we site the political and cultural meanings of Pinker's ideas between generic social work which upholds ideas of universal ethical values and universal provision, and those of Lyotard whose anti-foundationalism proposes a radically heterogeneous society with no central value-structure. We express our concern that the ‘new specialist’ remit may allow too much power to the social worker. Thus we have considerable sympathy for Lyotard's call for a radical anonistics – a field wherein the inequalities of power between say, a worker and her client, to some extent can be redressed.     

Equal opportunity in the U.S. Navy: perceptions of active-duty African American women

In 1989, the Navy Personnel Research and Development Center (NPRDC) developed a service-wide survey to assess the equal opportunity climate of the Navy. This survey, known as the Navy Equal Opportunity/Sexual Harassment Survey (NEOSH), is administered to a random sample of Navy women and men every two years. Each year the survey has been administered, results have indicated that African American women are the least satisfied with the equal opportunity climate of the Navy than any of the other aggregated groups. In an effort to explain and expand upon the findings of the NEOSH, NPRDC organized a group of facilitators in 1995 to conduct focus groups of African American Navy women. The present study is based on data from these focus groups. The women in this study exemplify what some researchers refer to as the “double whammy” phenomenon: disadvantaged because of both their race and gender. The data also lend support to theories of tokenism. An interesting finding is that regard-less of how dissatisfied the African American women were about the equal opportunity climate in the Navy, they still viewed job opportunities to be better in the Navy than in the civilian sector. Recommendations from focus group participants for improving the Navy EO climate are presented. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1987. She served in the U.S. Army for six years, and also serves on the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, the councils of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, and the Peace and War Section of the American Sociological Association. Among her publications is a book titled, To Serve My Country, To Serve My Race: The Story of the Only African American WACs Stationed Overseas During World War II, New York University Press, 1996. He earned his doctoral degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the United States International University. During his naval career, he has written numerous articles and technical reports on equal opportunity, sexual harassment, race relations, and quality of life issues.     

Real Estate Taxation and Commercial Mortgage Underwriting

Recent disclosures about problem commercial real estate loans have exposed the underwriting process to intense scrutiny. This study focuses on mortgage loan underwriters of life insurance companies. After a review of the tax changes that affected commercial real estate from 1969 through 1988, the study tests how loan underwriters reacted to changes in tax benefits. To overcome the interdependent effects of interest rates and capitalization rates, a variation of the Black-Scholes pricing model is used to test the impact of changes in tax benefits. The results indicate that the underwriters do not fully incorporate the value of tax benefits in the underwriting decision. During the period of the largest tax benefits, 1982 to 1986, underwriters became more conservative and increased their equity requirements.     

Rethinking the Scope of Environmental Injustice: Perceptions of Health Hazards in a Rural Native American Community Exposed to Carbon Black

Abstract We use in‐depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis to examine perceptions of environmental health and justice among Native Americans in a rural Oklahoma community. Residents live near the Continental Carbon Company, which manufactures a rubber compound know as “carbon black.” Ponca tribal members believe their respiratory problems and other health concerns are directly related to the black dust emanating from the facility, but they have been unable to validate their health claims through institutional channels. We examine how Native American respondents interpret the environmental pollution as a threat not only to their health and well‐being but also to their sense of community. We address the perceived pattern of institutional denial and highlight the obstacles facing an impoverished Native American community attempting to validate their environmental health claims.     

Changes in state legislation and the impacts on elder financial fraud and exploitation

Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to summarize how state legislators are responding to the increasing incidence of elder financial fraud and exploitation (EFFE) and investigate the impact of new state legislation. Methods: Our empirical model investigates the impact of recent changes in state legislation, after controlling for relevant state demographics, on the prevalence of EFFE claims reported in the Consumer Sentinel Network database. We use panel data in a fixed effects model with and without time dummy variables. Results: States with additional penalties targeting EFFE have a significantly lower percentage of complaints from elders, whereas the impact of mandatory and protected voluntary reporting laws is not significant in this sample. Discussion: State legislators have increased their awareness of and are acting to produce legislation protecting the elderly from EFFE. Increased information, training and data sharing across states can go a long way to detecting and prosecuting EFFE cases.     

Servicing the body: placing glasses on the client’s head at the opticians

Various forms of service work rely upon personnel undertaking activities that necessitate close, and in some cases potentially intimate, contact with a client’s body. In this paper, we consider the ways in which opticians place and position glasses on the head of their clients and how they avoid, or at least ameliorate, the problems and sensitivities that might arise in this close encounter with the co-participant. The paper is based on the analysis of a substantial corpus of video-recordings, augmented by field work, undertaken both in UK and Denmark. The analysis draws on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis and contributes to our understanding of the interactional accomplishment of body work and embodied conduct and to the growing corpus of research concerned with ‘multimodality’ and the social organisation of service encounters.