Family members’ experiences and management of resident-to-resident abuse in long-term residential care

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Resident-to-resident (RRA) abuse is increasingly recognized as a significant problem in long-term residential care.Families have a constant presence in this setting, yet their inclusion in research about RRA is minimal. The purpose of this study was to examine family members’ experiences and management of RRA. Methods: The methodology was critical ethnography.Twelve family members participated in in-depth interviews and 56 hours of participant observation were conducted. Data were analyzed thematically. Results: The main themes illuminate families’ experiences of RRA in a context that largely normalizes it.In the absence of formal supports, families developed a range of management strategies, ranging from passive to active intervention.Organizational factors, such as staffing levels and mix, and the physical environment also contributed to RRA. Discussion: Families are actively managing RRA in long-term residential care. Policies and programs, including educational supports, should be developed to validate and support families.     

Good Mothers,Bad Mothers

This paper reports on an analysis of representations of child abuse in English-language newspapers in Malaysia. Certain media images of mothers recur: bad mothers who are unable to protect their children; and good mothers, who are feminine representatives of a maternalised national government which is charged with interceding on behalf of abused children. Mothers implicated in child abuse are harshly judged by the maternalist regime. Our findings resonate with previous feminist analyses of child abuse but manifest differently in a non-Western, non-Christian context. In Malaysia, motherhood plays a crucial role in nationalist political culture; women and mothers carry increasing economic, social and political burdens in the rapidly modernising state. Fathers are largely marginal or absent in media reporting of child abuse, while mothers are represented as fully responsible for the care of children, particularly when problems occur. The media's blaming of child abuse on social changes while valorising traditional families reflects a conservative, patriarchal perspective, occluding discussion of the contexts of child abuse and thus mitigating against comprehensive solutions.     

40 years of storming: a historical review of Tuckman's model of small group development

This paper presents a historical overview of the Tuckman model describing the stages of group development. Created by Bruce W. Tuckman in 1965 and revised by Tuckman and Mary Ann Conover Jensen in 1977, the model presents the well-known stages of forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. This model has a unique history in that it was initially popular among HRD practitioners and later became common in academic literature as well. Its significance was a reflection of its time, responding both to the growing importance of groups in the workplace and to the lack of applicable research. This paper uses a literature review to trace the history of the model in terms of field practice and academic research.     

The Production of Contemporary Sociological Knowledge in Hong Kong

This paper explores the development of academic sociology in Hong Kong since the expansion of higher education and increased student enrolment in the nineties. Colleges gained university titles and sociology departments matured as a result. I attempt to trace the current state of sociology in teaching programs and research directions. I conclude with a discussion of future developments with specific reference to the repositioning of Hong Kong within sociology as the former British colony continue to negotiate, navigate and grapple its relationship with Mainland China both as a productive site for sociological research and a reference point to be different in method.     

Correlates of Treatment Retention Among Persons with Serious Mental Illness Receiving Integrated Care in a Community Mental Health Setting

ABSTRACT

Knowledge about methods to retain community mental health (CMH) clients in integrated primary and behavioral health care (PBHC) programs is needed to address longstanding health disparities. A preexisting data set that contained the clinical records of 446 PBHC program participants was used to examine whether baseline sociodemographic, health, and psychosocial characteristics predicted retention in care at 6 months post-enrollment. Results indicated that less than half of PBHC participants (43.7%) were retained in care, and approximately 17% of the variance in retention was explained by the inclusion of seven predictors in the model (overall health, medications, laboratory data, primary care provider, disorder type, transportation, and living arrangement). Clients with thought disorders were almost twice as likely as those with mood disorders to be retained in care, and greater frequency of prescribed medications also increased the likelihood of treatment continuation (ORs = 1.99 and 1.20, respectively). Future research should identify factors that improve retention in integrated PBHC programs overall, and among persons with mood disorders, in particular.     

Talk and travel

Denise Lievesley explains how she came to be in her present post as Director of the Institute for Statistics at UNESCO and describes some aspects of the job which she finds particularly challenging.     

陶筹到文字：认知的发展

文章以远古西亚地区计数方式的演变为例来分析抽象能力的发展。陶筹表明人类计数方式最初是通过具体的一一对应的方式实现的。公元前7500年的西亚陶筹表现其所代表物品的方式却是抽象的,比如以锥形陶筹表示谷物量器。公元前3300年,人们开始用空心泥球来保存有计数功能的陶筹,以更为抽象的符号刻画在其表面来记录其内封存的陶筹。这个过程发展到最高阶段便产生了具有抽象意义的数字,随后文字也就应运而生。     

The Performance of Periodic Autoregressive Models in Forecasting Seasonal U.K. Consumption

The parameters of a periodic model are allowed to vary according to the time at which observations are made. Periodic autoregressive models are fitted to the quarterly values of seasonally unadjusted real nondurable consumers' expenditure for the United Kingdom and its components. The periodic model offers no improvement over conventional specifications if the aggregate is modeled directly. On the other hand, periodic models generally perform well for the components, which contain additional seasonal information. The choice between a periodic or nonperiodic specification is also shown to have an important influence on the resulting dynamic properties.     

The impact of green initiatives on environmental legitimacy and admiration of the organization

Communication about environmental policies and practices has become a critical area of focus for corporations. Through an online experiment this study explored the impact of awareness of environmental initiatives on perceived environmental legitimacy and the subsequent impact of legitimacy on organizational admiration. Findings suggest that raising awareness of an organization's environmental initiatives improves environmental legitimacy; however, investigation of the relationship between legitimacy and admiration found that only one dimension of environmental legitimacy influences the level of admiration of an organization.