The dynamics of support over time in the intentional support networks of nine people with intellectual disability

This paper describes the dynamics of support observed in the networks of nine adults with intellectual disability, developed by families who had committed to achieving a ‘good life’ for this person. Network members, including the person with a disability, participated in this longitudinal ethnographic study. Three principles that underpinned their work were positive and respectful relationships, mentorship and providing opportunities and expectations. Participants worked actively with other network members to develop higher levels of autonomy and social participation.     

Assisted Living Facility Administrator and Direct Care Staff Views of Resident Mental Health Concerns and Staff Training Needs

This community needs assessment surveyed 21 administrators and 75 direct care staff at 9 larger and 12 smaller assisted living facilities (ALFs) regarding perceptions of resident mental health concerns, direct care staff capacity to work with residents with mental illness, and direct care staff training needs. Group differences in these perceptions were also examined. Both administrators and directcare staff indicated that direct care staff would benefit from mental health-related training, and direct care staff perceived themselves as being more comfortable working with residents with mental illness than administrators perceived them to be. Implications for gerontological social work are discussed.     

Between the look (la mirada) and the Escape (la fuga): the imaging of women in Solanas' La hora de los hornos and Tangos/El exilio de Gardel

This paper revisits the issues raised in debates on the politics of recognition from the point of view of media practitioners and their experiences in covering women's issues and perspectives. It explores the concerns regarding the attempts to improve media coverage of women's issues and perspectives by looking into one particular women's programme, BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour. The analysis is based primarily on interviews with members of the Woman's Hour's team and complemented by basic information on the presence of different subject areas and speakers in a sample of actual programming. The paper explores the criteria employed by journalists in their day-to-day decisions regarding the issues and approaches appropriate for the specialist women's programme. It discusses interviewees' definitions of Woman's Hour items and the three main factors that influence their selection of issues and the ways to approach them. The first factor concerns the identity of the programme: its issues, voices, and their diversity. The second factor is the listeners or, more broadly, the public and the ways it shapes Woman's Hour. The third factor is the professional and institutional context of the programme. The concluding discussion examines the ways in which Woman's Hour combines or oscillates between recognition and deconstruction of women's/gender identities, producers' interests and the perceived interests of their audiences, and feminist politics and journalistic principles.     

Measuring children's needs: how are we doing?

Children's services in England and Wales are legally required to determine the nature and extent of children's needs in their areas as a precursor to providing needs-led services. However, few needs assessments are ever published. This article analyses 83 such reports conducted between 1999 and 2007 in two local authorities in England (one urban, one rural), focusing on their quality and usefulness. It makes recommendations for improving practice in this important area, both in terms of the type of needs assessment required and how best to produce and use them.     

Quantifying socio-environmental impacts of predator control policies

Quantitative indices of the socio-environmental impacts of predator control were derived from a mathematical synthesis of public perceptions and physical measures of environmental change. A nationwide survey of the U.S. public yielded cardinal measures of preference for the acceptability, primary and secondary effects on other wildlife, and cost effectiveness of control policies. To determine the public evaluation of a particular policy, the preference values were used to weight social indicators describing the physical impacts of a policy. Policymakers will be able to use the resulting values to view the tradeoffs between economic and socio-environmental costs and benefits of various policy alternatives.     

Awareness of Listeriosis and Methylmercury toxicity public health recommendations and diet during pregnancy

Background

Awareness of Listeriosis and Methylmercury toxicity recommendations are associated with decreased intake of high-risk foods. Whether awareness of the recommendations affect dietary quality of pregnant women in Australian is unknown.

The experiences of breastfeeding mothers returning to work as hospital nurses in Pakistan: A qualitative study

Background

Pakistan has a higher infant mortality rate than countries with comparable economies, with around half of all under-5 deaths occurring in the first month of life. Breastfeeding is known to improve infant morbidity and mortality, but rates of formula feeding in Pakistan are increasing. Maternal employment is recognised globally as a major barrier to the continuation of breastfeeding.

The movement to represent Francophone minority groups: the future of health services in French

The Action Plan for Official Languages launched in 2003 intends to revitalize the country's linguistic duality. Among the priority areas, health is the focus in order to ensure the training of health professionals to serve official language minority communities and to network the main actors concerned about the organization of services in the minority language. The aim of this paper is to report representations of Francophones in minority with respect to the future of health services in French. The study is based on a participatory methodology: concept mapping to identify the conceptual universe of a given problem.     

Migrants' social networks and weak ties: accessing resources and constructing relationships post‐migration

Within migration studies literature there is a tendency to assume that migrants have ready access to kin and friendship networks which facilitate the migration and settling processes. Through tight bonds of trust and reciprocity, these networks are considered to be sources of social capital, providing a counter‐balance to the disadvantages that migrants may encounter in the destination society. This paper argues that more attention is needed to the ways in which migrants access, maintain and construct different types of networks, in varied social locations, with diverse people. I suggest that the often simplistic dichotomy of bonding and bridging capital needs to be re‐appraised and instead offer an alternative way of thinking about these social ties. The distinction between them tends to be understood on the basis of the ethnicity of the people involved – bonding involves close ties with ‘people like us’ while bridging involves links beyond ‘group cleavages’. Insufficient attention has been paid to the actual resources flowing between these ties or the kinds of relationship developing between the actors involved. The nature of these social networks may be better understood by focusing on the relationship between the actors, their relative social location, and their available and realisable resources. Data from a qualitative study of Polish migrants in London is used to illustrate this approach.