Agency practices in successful adoption of developmentally disabled children

The authors discuss the variables associated with success in placing developmentally disabled children for adoption by public and private agencies. They also describe the results of their national study of 199 agencies.     

Does a Reactor Need a Safety Backfit? Case Study on Communicating Decision and Risk Analysis Information to Managers

An approach to communicating decision and risk analysis findings to managers is illustrated in a real case context. This article consists essentially of a report prepared for senior managers of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to help them make a reactor safety decision. It illustrates the communication of decision analysis findings relating to technical risks, costs, and benefits in support of a major risk management decision: whether or not to require a safety backfit. Its focus is on the needs of decision makers, and it introduces some novel communication devices.     

A MODEL FOR COLLABORATIVE TEAM PROCESSING IN BRIEF SYSTEMIC FAMILY THERAPY*

While there has been considerable growth in recent years in the use of collaborative teamwork in Systemic Family Therapy, there has been a dearth of literature concerning the process of team functioning. Based upon a careful analysis of actual teamwork, a model for conducting more efficient and effective team conferences has been developed. The ensuing discussion examines the risks in working in teams and proposes ways to counteract these. Further avenues of research are suggested.     

Models of gambling and gambling addictions as perceptual filters

Models, in the sense of loosely entertained clusters of beliefs, attitudes, assumptions and expectations which direct the work of researchers and clinicians, also act as perceptual filters, tending to focus the attention of those who use them on certain aspects of reality and relegating to the background or ignoring altogether other aspects of the field of study and action. The central characteristics of social learning and of medical models are briefly reviewed and they are compared as perceptual filters for their distorting effects on research in gambling and in gambling addictions and on intervention strategies for problem gamblers. It is concluded that the exclusive predominance of any one model leads to the impoverishment of both research and intervention.