Book reviews: Nobody wants to talk about it

Abstract

Refugee Women's Mental Health Edited by Barbara Ferguson & Eileen Piitaway (1999) Transcultural Mental Health Centre Monograph Series, Culture and Mental Health Soft Cover, $25 RRP     

The Value of Instructional Communication in Crisis Situations: Restoring Order to Chaos

This article explores the nature of instructional communication in responding to crisis situations. Through the lens of chaos theory, the relevance of instructional messages in restoring order is established. This perspective is further advanced through an explanation of how various learning styles impact the receptivity of various instructional messages during the acute phase of crises. We then summarize an exploratory study focusing on the relationship between learning styles and the demands of instructional messages in crisis situations. We conclude the article with a series of conclusions and implications.     

Women and Part-time Work: The Careers of Part-time NHS Nurses

This paper examines theoretical explanations of the employment disadvantage experienced by many female part-time workers. Data from a survey of 643 qualified National Health Service (NHS) nurses is used to establish employment profiles of respondents. Employment profiles reveal that, contrary to many predictions, part-time female nurses do not 'invest less' in their careers than their full-time counterparts in terms of qualifications and experience. Neither are part-time nurses relatively 'uncommitted' to their careers compared to full-time nurses. It is found that the organizational context affects how opportunities are structured for part-time nurses. The management implications of the findings for the NHS are also considered.     

Victims of Stalin and Hitler: The polish community of Bradford

Having admitted large numbers of Polish nationals into Britain after the Second World War on grounds of moral obligation and labour shortage, the British government assumed that the newcomers would ‘assimilate’, though no precise meaning was given to this term. In this study of assimilation in Bradford's Polish community it is suggested that in the first generation of Polish settlement many factors combined to preserve rather than dilute Polish culture and identity, whereas cultural dilution was characteristic of the second and third generations. Despite this, a firm sense of identity, based on kinship and memory rather than culture, has remained.     

Integrating Environmental Issues into Social Work Practice: Lessons Learnt from Domestic Energy Auditing

Abstract

This study of domestic energy audit practice draws on current literature and focuses on a program at Kildonan UnitingCare. It explores and highlights the relevance of natural environmental issues for social work practice and includes practical ideas for addressing financial, social, and environmental issues within case work practice and advocacy. The overlap between energy audit and social work practice is said to apply to both service user issues and the professional skill base of social workers. Finally, a transformation in social work thinking practice and education is suggested, within a vision that is community focused and holistically integrated.     

Field Note—Integrating Policy and Political Content in BSW and MSW Field Placements

Practice incorporating policy and political social work is a key component of the social work profession and an area in which students would benefit from exposure during social work education. Field education presents a significant opportunity for students to develop policy and political practice skills; however, individual and structural barriers may prevent students from developing practice experience in this area. Based on a survey of bachelor of social work and master of social work field directors in the United States, this field note examines the current state of policy and political practice field opportunities and examines barriers to offering such opportunities more widely. Ideas to facilitate these field opportunities, including curriculum-wide education about policy practice, relationship building, creativity, and identifying diverse placement sites, are presented.     

Constructing a consensus-based prevention outcome measurement instrument

This article describes Ohio's Prevention Evaluation Project (PEP). The purpose of the project was to develop a process and instrument to assess behavioral and attitudinal outcomes in primary drug abuse prevention programs targeting young people aged twelve to seventeen. One of PEP's principal achievements was the inclusion of community prevention program providers from throughout the state in the evaluation instrument development. The effort produced a self-administered questionnaire to capture data on young peoples' drug use practices, attitudes toward drugs, and problematic behaviors. Most significantly, the product produced was the acceptance and endorsement of community-based programs. The forty-one-item questionnaire has good to excellent reliability for virtually all measures, as assessed by the test-retest method. The instrument is a product of a process that brought together a university-based research team, state alcohol and drug abuse prevention administrators, and representatives of public programs. PEP demonstrates how to productively link service providers, administrators, and evaluators to develop a process for assessing the effectiveness of prevention programs. The process and tools described serve as a model for other communities wanting to evaluate their prevention programming.     

Economic lot disposition policies for single attribute sampling plans

Traditionally, single sampling plans have provided but two possible lot disposition policies, either to (1) accept or reject and screen, or to (2) accept or reject and scrap. This is particularly true of statistical designs. Economically based plans, however, provide a framework wherein several lot disposition policies may be invoked in accordance with estimated lot quality. This paper illustrates how such designs may be realized.