Social workers’ perspectives on the recovery-oriented mental health practice in Tshwane,South Africa

The challenge facing the mental health field today is the lack of knowledge related to interventions and services that will help people recover from severe mental health problems. In addition, the reluctance of social workers to embrace the recovery-oriented mental health practice is attributed to their lack of knowledge. Hence, they regard recovery in mental health as misleading and unrealistic.The article provides the findings on the social workers’ lack of knowledge and understanding of the recovery-oriented mental health practice. The social workers are based in non-governmental organizations in Tshwane, South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather data from social workers. Findings confirmed the lack of knowledge regarding the recovery-oriented approach, which has not yet been implemented in South Africa. Mental health services continue to be informed by the traditional medical model.     

USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TECHNIQUES TO ENHANCE THE CAPABILITIES OF MODEL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Decision Support Systems (DSSs) originally were proposed as interactive problem-solving vehicles through which models and analytical techniques could be made available to decision makers. Model management represents a line of research within the DSS field that focuses on the design and implementation of software environments to support the use of DSSs for this purpose. This paper describes the tasks that must be supported within these environments and illustrates how existing prototype Model Management Systems (MMSs) implementations provide this support. The use of artificial intelligence techniques in such implementations are reveiwed, and three scenarios are presented to show how future MMSs could be constructed using these techniques.     

Evidence-based practice in family group decision-making for Anglo, African American and Hispanic families

This study addresses the need and gap in the literature on evidence-based practice in family group decision-making services by reporting on the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services' Family Group Decision-Making study, conducted between December 2003 and July 2005 with Anglo, African American and Hispanic families throughout Texas. These services are compared to standard practice by assessing satisfaction, child well-being and exits from care. Findings indicate that both parents and relatives are more satisfied with family group decision-making conferences than standard practice on a number of dimensions, with relatives reporting feeling more empowered than parents. Children are reported to be less anxious if their families participate in a conference, and they may be more adjusted when they are placed with relatives following a conference. Finally, exits from care are faster if families participate in family group decision-making conferences, and exits to reunification are increased; this may be especially true of African American and Hispanic children.     

The construction of ergonomic demands: application on artisan fishing using jangada fishing rafts in the beach of Ponta Negra

The present article seeks the process of construction of ergonomics demand referring to the artisan fishing activityfound in Ponta Negra beach located in the city of Natal, Brazil. The instruction/construction of demands correspond to the first stage of Work Ergonomic Analysis and allows the understanding of real issues existent in a work situation, rank them and route the providences. The demand presented on this study, features itself as a induced demand, process which some potential demands or hypothetical demands are taken to an organization, after a preview analysis of the work aimed by the study, resulting from a theoretical research (state of the art) and/or from analysis of a reference situation (state of practice), where demands hypothesis are taken in consideration about the pretended work. The demands construction process using interactional methods and techniques, observation methods and techniques and bibliographic research, researches in state of reference or document. This article demonstrates the efficiency of the methodological choice to construct real ergonomic demands and highlights the importance of social construction on that process, which main goal is to refer the ergonomic actions that allow the improvement of work and life conditions for the fishers and sustainability to Jangadeira activity.     

“Ghosts of Sociologies Past:” Settlement Sociology in the Progressive Era at the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy

This embedded case study of the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy (CSCP) illustrates the development of disciplinary boundaries during a transitional period of professionalization in the social sciences, particularly for the fields of sociology and social work. Drawing on archival data (e.g., reports, scholarly and autobiographical writings, and correspondence) we first document sociological contributions of the community-based school, one of many progressive projects among social settlements and social gospelers of the day. Then using the lens of an intergenerational struggle reflective of the historical social movements of the period, we analyze the circumstances surrounding the 1920 merger of the CSCP with the University of Chicago. Succeeding their early social settlement mentors, Graham Taylor of the Chicago Commons and Jane Addams and Julia Lathrop of Hull House, a second generation of social reformer protégés became a formidable force in this disciplinary differentiation. This case can be read as a micro-level illustration of a much larger macro-level political contest as professional social scientists vied for control of the definition of social science and its applied mission. The "ghosts of sociologies past" still haunt the discipline today offering important lessons for sustaining a science that joins theory with action to solve social problems.     

Networked framing between source posts and their reposts: an analysis of public opinion on China's microblogs

Retweeting a post on a social media platform is a part of a process of growing significance through which public opinion formation takes place. A ‘retweet count’ on, say Twitter or weibo, can be taken as a measure of user influence. The assumption is that when B retweets A's message, B empathizes with A and wishes to disseminate the message more widely. But this assumption has hardly been tested and preliminary evidence suggests practices for retweeting on Twitter vary. Nor can retweeting practices on Twitter be assumed to apply on weibo. This paper makes the first effort to understand the practice of reposting on China's weibo, focusing on the content of reposts in comparison to that of the original messages. A quantitative comparison is made of the frame [Entman, R. M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51–58; Gamson, W. A., & Modigliani, A. (1989). Media discourse and public opinion on nuclear power: A constructionist approach. American Journal of Sociology, 95, 1–37] of the source post of 21 cases, and their reposts. The posts and reposts all refer to the issue of officials being exposed for corruption on Sina Weibo. The study finds sound evidence of networked framing, in which reposters revised frames of the source posters while disseminating them. Although over half of the reposts merely republished the source post without added content, what emerged were new communicative functions, case definitions, and a diagnosis of the consequences of exposing the cases. However, different types of user accounts drew different reposting frames, which points to a consistent paradigm between the source accounts and the reposters. The results are important for understanding the mechanisms behind the formation of public opinion on weibo.     

The Associations of Financial Stress and Parenting Support Factors with Alcohol Behaviors During Young Adulthood

This study examined concurrent and prospective associations of financial stress (financial strain, lack of financial access, public assistance) and parenting support factors (relationship quality, living at home, financial support) with young adults’ alcohol behaviors (alcohol use, heavy drinking, and problematic drinking) over a 5-year period. Analyses of National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) data (N = 7,159) showed that, over the study period, alcohol use and heavy drinking declined while problematic drinking increased. In addition, living at home and parental relationship quality were associated with fewer concurrent and prospective alcohol behaviors whereas financial strain and parents’ financial support were associated with more alcohol behaviors. The implications for minimizing alcohol misuse in young adults amid uncertain economic conditions are discussed.     

Salinization of the Bangladesh Delta worsens economic precarity

Population and Environment - Anthropogenic environmental changes are having complex effects on all aspects of the hydrological cycle. In estuarine areas, these factors are coalescing...     

Perceived neighborhood social disorder as a predictor of depressive symptoms among unmarried older women and the stress-buffering effect of friends support

ABSTRACT

The current study examined whether perceived neighborhood social disorder predicted depressive symptoms among unmarried older women (N = 823) drawn from the 2016 Health and Retirement Study. This study also tested the stress-buffering effect of friends support. A negative binomial regression model showed that higher perceived neighborhood social disorder was associated with higher depressive symptoms. The number of close friends was a significant factor, but no stress-buffering effect of friends support was identified. This study highlights the adverse effect of negative perceptions of the neighborhood social environment on unmarried older women’s depressive symptoms.