Traumatic Stress and Affect Management in Military Families

The war-time deployment of a service member creates significant stress for the family system that supports that person’s transition into combat, combat duty, and readjustment into civilian and family life upon return. The stressors associated with the deployment cycle are significant and can lead to depression, anxiety, and behavioral concerns for all family members including the children and partners. A family’s adaptation to these stressors can also impact the functioning of the service member during the phases of mobilization, deployment, sustainment, and reintegration. Social work interventions that offer support to the military family can reduce levels of distress within and between the members and improve overall family functioning. A case vignette will be presented that highlights some of the salient interpersonal challenges that can develop in a military family when a veteran returns home with posttraumatic stress that is left untreated. Recommendations for interventions will be considered through the application of psychoeducational approaches for managing traumatic stress in families.     

Same-sex marriage and context-specific kinship terms

This study investigates whether married gays and lesbians in Massachusetts are using the kinship terms commonly associated with marriage in referring to and introducing their marriage partners and, if not, whether alternative terms are being used in a variety of social contexts. We demonstrate through survey and interview data that marriage-related terms are used discriminately, are consciously chosen, and are context specific. Choices are dependent on a variety of factors related to personal demographics, speech community associations, intimacy, identity, and safety. A significant difference in the use of terms after legal marriage has occurred suggesting a shift in attitude.     

Courts,care proceedings and outcomes uncertainty: The challenges of achieving and assessing “good outcomes” for children after child protection proceedings

The professed aim of any social welfare or legal intervention in family life is often to bring about “better outcomes for the children.” But there is considerable ambiguity about “outcomes,” and the term is far too often used in far too simplistic a way. This paper draws on empirical research into the outcomes of care proceedings for a randomly selected sample of 616 children in England and Wales, about half starting proceedings in 2009–2010 and the others in 2014–2015. The paper considers the challenges of achieving and assessing “good outcomes” for the children. Outcomes are complex and fluid for all children, whatever the court order. One has to assess the progress of the children in the light of their individual needs and in the context of “normal” child development, and in terms of the legal provisions and policy expectations. A core paradox is that some of the most uncertain outcomes are for children who remain with or return to their parents; yet law and policy require that first consideration is given to this option. Greater transparency about the uncertainty of outcomes is a necessary step towards better understanding the risks and potential benefits of care proceedings.     

Promising Practices of Nonprofit Organizations to Respond to the Challenges Faced in Countering the Mistreatment of Older Adults

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This article discusses promising practices used by employees and volunteers in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in...     

Where the wild things are! Do urban green spaces with greater avian biodiversity promote more positive emotions in humans?

Urban Ecosystems - Urban green space can help mitigate the negative impacts of urban living and provide positive effects on citizens’ mood, health and well-being. Questions remain, however,...     

Soutenir le marché : les nouveaux instruments de la politique du logement

This examination of the tax incentives to individuals, established since the 1980s, for stimulating investments in building new rentals runs counter to the prevailing opinion about the French state's withdrawal from the housing sector. These arrangements have become a key instrument in housing policy. Though playing a decisive part in designing them, public authorities then lose control to private players, in particular real estate developers, who play a key role in implementing them. As the analysis of these arrangements shows, players in the market depend on interventions by public authorities. In fact, the very nature of public interventions is altered not only by being more oriented toward market players but also by losing visibility. Furthermore, the costs are hard to assess, and the effects, highly uncertain.