Peacebuilding through the Electoral Participation of Displaced Populations

The participation of displaced populations in elections organizedas part of a peacebuilding process is increasingly recognizedas fundamental to the goal of peacebuilding itself. Guaranteesfor their electoral participation are important, first and foremost,as a matter of rights. They also are critical for the legitimacyof the election and its results, and thus for national and regionalstability. However, translating these provisions into practicecan be a complex task, which requires addressing a range oflegal, administrative, practical, and political issues. Thisarticle explores the relationship between peacebuilding andthe electoral participation of displaced populations, arguingthat it is not possible to build peace when exclusion is dejure or de facto built into the process.     

An Empirical Model of Perceived Mortality Risks for Selected U.S. Arsenic Hot Spots

Researchers have long recognized that subjective perceptions of risk are better predictors of choices over risky outcomes than science‐based or experts’ assessments of risk. More recent work suggests that uncertainty about risks also plays a role in predicting choices and behavior. In this article, we develop and estimate a formal model for an individual's perceived health risks associated with arsenic contamination of his or her drinking water. The modeling approach treats risk as a random variable, with an estimable probability distribution whose variance reflects uncertainty. The model we estimate uses data collected from a survey given to a sample of people living in arsenic‐prone areas in the United States. The findings from this article support the fact that scientific information is essential to explaining the mortality rate perceived by the individuals, but uncertainty about the probability remains significant.     

Impact of Empowerment Training on the Professional Work of Family Peer Advocates

A pilot study using a prospective design examined the impact of a collaboratively developed training model, called the Parent Empowerment Program (PEP), for professionally-employed family peer advocates who work with caregivers of children with mental health needs. This training used a combination of didactic, practice exercises, and group discussion. It targeted specific mental health knowledge content and collaborative skills to facilitate the work of family peer advocates in empowering caregivers. Co-delivered by a family peer advocate and clinician, the training consisted of a 40-hour face-to-face training, followed by six monthly face-to-face booster sessions. A total of 15 advocates participated in assessments conducted at baseline and post-training. This group of experienced family peer advocates showed no significant increase in knowledge about mental health content, but post-training assessments indicated increased collaborative skills and mental health services self-efficacy. This initial evaluation has implications for expanding training and support for the emergent workforce of professionally-employed family peer advocates in children's mental health.     

The Relationship of Practice Beliefs and Practice Behaviors among Social Workers with Lesbian and Gay Clients

This study explores the levels of beliefs about practice and practice behaviors with lesbian and gay clients among social work practitioners in a medical setting. The Gay Affirmative Practice scale was utilized to measure the levels of gay affirmative practice beliefs and practice behaviors among the sample surveyed. The relationship of practice beliefs and practice behaviors is explored and reveals that practice beliefs are significant to practice behaviors with lesbian and gay individuals. The results identify variables that contribute to practice beliefs and practice behaviors.     

The Relationship Between Sexual Minority Verbal Harassment and Utilization of Health Services: Results from Countywide Risk Assessment Survey (CRAS) 2004

In this article we examine the prevalence of and associations between sexual orientation–based verbal harassment and reported utilization of health services across levels of sexual orientation in a diverse sample of adult recipients of Los Angeles County–funded HIV-related health and social services. Thirty-two percent reported they had experienced verbal harassment, the majority (80.3%) of whom identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB). Those who reported being verbally harassed received significantly more services overall than those who were not verbally harassed, and service utilization varied by sexual orientation. These findings inform future efforts to identify and assess social discrimination in health and social service settings.     

Implementing a Multidimensional Poverty Measure Using Mixed Methods and a Participatory Framework

Recently, there have been advances in the development of multidimensional poverty measures. Work is needed however on how to implement such measures. This paper deals with the process of selecting dimensions and setting weights in multidimensional poverty measurement using qualitative and quantitative methods in a participatory framework. We estimate the multidimensional poverty measures developed by Alkire and Foster for a particular group: persons with psychiatric diagnoses in the United States. To select relevant dimensions and their relative ordering, two discussion groups are convened: one consisting of persons with lived-experience expertise and the other consisting of people with mental health service provision or research expertise. Several methods are used to convert dimension rankings into weights. The selection and ordering of dimensions differed between the two discussion groups, as did the resulting poverty measures. For instance, the poverty headcount using the dimensions and weights of the ‘lived experience’ group ranged from 20.61 to 26.96% as compared to a range of 18.62–33.19% using those of the ‘provider/researcher’ group. One of the main results of this study is that the Alkire Foster method is sensitive to the selection of dimensions and the methods used to derive rankings and weights. It points toward the limitation of relying exclusively on small scale qualitative methods for the selection and ranking of dimensions. In addition, the participatory framework used in this study was found to be essential in interpreting results, in particular with respect to the limitations of the data set in measuring relevant dimensions.