Caring for profit: Alienation and work stress in nursing assistants in Canada

Personal care work in proprietary nursing homes was contrasted with similar work in non-profit long-term care facilities. One quarter of Manitoba long-stay beds are operated by proprietary (profit-making) institutions. In both types of home, the nursing assistants were younger women with children; essential wage earners for their families. Wages were low, but nursing assistants said they worked because they liked taking care of elderly people. Nursing home residents have cognitive and mobility impairments and need help with activities of daily living. The proportion of cognitively-impaired residents is higher in profit-making homes, and probably contributed to job pressure and workload, which were taken as markers of potential alienation experienced by these workers.     

Face-to-Face Contact Post Adoption: Views from the Triangles

The importance of ongoing contact for children with membersof their birth families is currently a matter of great concernto both practitioners and academics and there is ongoing debateabout the merits or otherwise of the different forms of postadoption contact. Research evidence remains largely inconclusiveand the Prime Minister in his review of adoption highlightedthe urgent need for more research evidence to assist professionalsin making decisions about adoption and contact. To date, muchof the research does not adequately differentiate between typesand frequency of contact, the conditions under which contactis arranged and members of birth families who are involved.Whilst the needs of the child should be at the forefront ofany decision about contact, it is also important to considerthe repercussions for others involved in contact arrangements.This paper reports the findings from a sample of eleven adoptivekinship networks. Adoptive parents, children and birth relativesfrom the same kinship networks who were sharing direct, face-to-facecontact were interviewed. We were able to explore the developmentof relationships between adults and the ways in which theirinteraction affected the experience of contact as reported tous by the children. By focusing on issues associated with theconvergence or divergence of attitudes, feelings and perceptionswe identify factors that facilitate or impede beneficial contactand contribute to its maintenance. Understanding similaritiesand differences between participants in the adoption triangleprovides important information for adults and children involvedin face-to-face contact and for those professionals attemptingto facilitate the openness process.     

What is child protection? Historical and methodological issues in comparative research on lastensuojelu/child protection

This article addresses comparative research on what has come to be called, in (British) English, 'child protection' or, rather differently, in Finnish ' lastensuojelu '. In developing a cross-national research project on lastensuojelu /child protection practices in England and Finland, we found it necessary to go back a few steps, to address what might usually be considered as 'background issues'. This article discusses the welfare state traditions in both countries, especially with respect to families and children, in order to contextualise the focus of ongoing qualitative research on micro comparisons. When comparing the mundane practices of child protection and the ways problems and clienthoods are constructed, as in this study, historical, social, cultural and linguistic issues matter. Indeed, very basic concepts such as 'child protection' and 'child protection case' become problematic in the comparison.     

Political Leadership, Cultural Ethics and Recovery: Louisiana Post-Katrina

The history of Louisiana colorful politics and corruption in government is legendary and, in Louisiana, something celebrated, or at least warmly embraced, as part of the cultural richness of the State. An oft-repeated phrase here is that Louisiana is no more corrupt than any place else, it’s just that Louisianians are more proud of it. Such sentiments permeate the discussion of federal and private financial assistance to the State in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and serves as an explanation regarding the lack of effective leadership and misuse of funds thus far distributed. Yet beyond concern for the loss of dollars in themselves are the very real and tragic consequences for the citizens who were most affected by hurricane Katrina, who have received but a trickle of the flood of money that poured into the State following the event. For these people, who remain without adequate shelter, resources, educational opportunities, healthcare, and separated from their support networks, the recovery progress remains little changed over the last 4 years. An overview of the political and ethical culture of Louisiana and reflections on how that contributed to and exacerbated administrative failure in the wake of Katrina is presented here.     

Changes and Continuities in the Use of Diagrams <Emphasis Type="Italic">Tu</Emphasis> in Chinese Mathematical Writings (Third Century to Fourteenth Century) [I]

This article aims at highlighting a radical change in the materiality of tu 圖 between the time when they were first mentioned in Chinese mathematical texts in the third century commentaries on Canons and the thirteenth century, from which there are abundant illustrations in treatises. Moreover, it intends to highlight that the meaning of the word tu 圖, as used in mathematical writings, greatly changed over the same time span. It argues that third century tu 圖 were material objects, cut in paper with squared-grid, and worked out in specific ways. They probably always displayed particular dimensions and only represented objects for plane geometry. Their areas, and not their points, were marked, and they were marked by characters or colors. Areas were cut into pieces and rearranged. Such is the contribution mathematical texts can offer for capturing the nature of tu for these early periods. In contrast to this, thirteenth century tu 圖 to which mathematical texts refer were included in the texts themselves and hence articulated with the discourse on the surface of the page. Moreover, the extension of what could be represented in a tu 圖 increased tremendously. However, as I show in part II of this paper, in the thirteenth century, several traditions must be distinguished, regarding the nature of tu 圖 and the way in which they were integrated into the text. Moreover, part II shows that despite this break in the nature of tu 圖, some thirteenth century mathematicians inherited ways of working with tu 圖 from earlier times. I argue that this occurred within the framework of a specific mathematical domain, that is, a given subtradition. The mathematicians operating within this framework brought into play the same markers (colors, characters) for areas and adapted the operations onto paper. However, what is most interesting is that they made use of these traditional ways of working with figures while bestowing new mathematical meanings upon them. This thus presents an interesting case of continuity and rupture within a given tradition. All these uses of figures, in their variety, are specific to China and differ from the way in which other traditions used figures in mathematics.     

Fire-fighters' perspectives of the accuracy of the Physical Aptitude Test (P.A.T) as a pre-employment assessment

Pre-employment assessments must accurately simulate job tasks and demands and select appropriate personnel to be considered effective. This study focussed on the perception of NSW fire-fighters in relation to the validity of the NSW Fire Brigade's pre-employment assessment, the Physical Aptitude Test. A qualitative method was used to gain a precise understanding of fire fighters' opinions of the accuracy of the Physical Aptitude Test. Information letters and consent forms were sent to an urban fire station with interested participants replying via the university. Six participants, who met the inclusion criteria were randomly selected for the study and in-depth, ethnographic, semi-structured interviews were conducted. The fire fighters believed in order for the Physical Aptitude Test to accurately simulate job demands and select the most capable fire fighters', it needed to be more physically demanding. However, participants believed that the "work-simulating" nature of the Physical Aptitude Test provided an accurate indication of the job tasks.     

Gender inequalities in pensions: different components similar levels of dispersion

While the average gender gap in pensions is quite well documented, gender differences in the distribution of pensions have rarely been explored. We show in this paper that pension dispersion is very similar for men and women within the French pension system of a given sector (public or private). Gender differences are less marked among retired civil servants than among former private sector employees. However, the determinants of these inequalities are not the same for men and women. Using a regression-based decomposition of the Gini coefficient, we find that pension dispersion is mostly due to dispersion of the reference wage for all retirees but gender differences exist. For women, in particular, pension dispersion is also due to the dispersion in contribution periods. We also decompose the Gini coefficient by source of pension to measure the impact of institutional rules (minimum pensions, survivor’s pension) on the extent of pension inequality. Unexpectedly, we find that the impact of minimum pensions is limited, although slightly larger for civil servants than for private-sector employees. Survivor’s pension schemes, on the other hand, contribute positively to pension dispersion among retired women.     

Family Experiences of Caring for Relatives Who Have Received Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

The research literature on family members’ experiences of the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is limited. This article explores the perspectives of family members whose relatives had received ECT. Drawing on a social constructionist perspective, this qualitative study collected data using in-depth interviews with nine families in South Australia, to examine how family members constructed the supports and challenges they experienced. The research found that families experienced a range of social and service system barriers, including social stigma and isolation, and limited support from health professionals. They had to negotiate caring expectations within a social context that stigmatised both mental illness and ECT. A need for ECT-specific mental health support groups was identified.

IMPLICATIONS

• Social workers’ roles in Australian hospitals could be further expanded to accommodate supporting families whose relatives have received ECT, referring families to community support, and advocating for specialist support post-ECT treatment.

• Social workers can further articulate their unique contribution to community care post-ECT treatment and advocate for supporting families.

• Increased focus on ongoing and preventative care for supporting families is a potential growth area for social workers in mental health.