‘Let's Talk About Children’: Investigating the Use of a Family‐focused Intervention in the Gambling Support Services Sector

The family‐focused mental health intervention, ‘Let's Talk About Children,’ has positively influenced the lives of families affected by parental mental illness. This paper outlines the use of this brief, strengths‐based intervention for parents with gambling and other co‐occurring issues from the gamblers’ support services sector. Over a six‐month period, a training manual and accompanying resources were adapted for the gamblers’ support services sector and a targeted training session developed. Nine problem gambling counsellors from three Victorian gambling support services trialled the Let's Talk About Children intervention over a four‐month period. Qualitative data were gathered through focus groups, interviews, and practice enquiry groups to determine the impact of the Let's Talk About Children model for gambling support services. The results are presented as ‘practice wisdoms and recommendations’ reporting on the impact of the trial and to provide some guidance to support others in the implementation of a specific family‐focused intervention. This paper reports on the first exploratory trial of Let's Talk About Children for the gambler's support services sector in Australia.     

A critical note on Wiendieck's views on attitude measurement

Transkei's Half Loaf: Race Separatism in South Africa by Newell M. Stultz. Cape Town, David Philip, 1980. xv + 183 pp. Bibliography, Index. R9.90 + gst pb.     

Some Correlates of Emotional Well-Being Among New England College Students

Abstract

In a questionnaire survey of New England college students, a large number of undergraduate men and women reported problems related to their personal, social, or academic adjustment. Given a list of 22 items described as “common concerns or feelings experienced by college students,” respondents were asked to rate the extent to which each item had been a problem for them in the past year. Most students (86%) reported having very much or somewhat of a problem with one or more items on the list. Pressure to do well in school, problems with weight control, anxiety, poor concentration and depression were among the most commonly reported concerns. The prevalence of these self-reported concerns and problems was found to be significantly associated with the respondents' sex, their perceptions of their health status, and academic standing.     

Rainfall variations and child mortality in the Sahel: results from a comparative event history analysis in Burkina Faso and Mali

Over the last 40 years, the Sahel has seen a long-term downward trend in rainfall. The importance of ecological variables as factors affecting child survival in rural subsistence societies has already been emphasized, but little empirical evidence has been gathered to support this. This paper presents a comparative event history analysis aimed at understanding how rainfall variations may influence child mortality in two neighbouring countries, Burkina Faso and Mali. These countries are similar in terms of population dynamics, economy, livelihood, child mortality and rainfall conditions (i.e. strong south–north decreasing rainfall gradient). Individual data for both countries came from two detailed nationally representative retrospective surveys conducted in 2000. Rainfall data for the 1960–1998 time period were obtained from the Climatic Research Unit. This study shows that child survival in each country is related to specific patterns of rainfall variation across livelihood regions, highlighting the complex nature of environmental causality of child mortality.     

EMERGING TRENDS IN THE PROVISION AND CONSUMPTION OF HEALTH SERVICES

Health services are examined in terms of emerging trends for the new millennium. On the one hand, centralization is increasing as payers tighten control over disbursements through managed care and more restrictive health insurance. On the other hand, health services are decentralizing as patients acquire more information and take more control of some aspects of treatment. Health services markets now also show signs of becoming global in nature, possibly benefiting both bulk purchasers of care and individual consumers. Any tendencies toward increased patient control are likely to be ephemeral, however: In the absence of reforms sparked by yet-to-be-experienced crises, advances in technology, particularly in medical informatics, will likely be used to strengthen the profit positions of insurance providers, not to provide more comprehensive health care services for patients.