A Long‐Term Disability Care and Support Scheme for Australia: Opportunities for Disability Sector Reform

Social insurance schemes in Australasia have a long‐standing involvement in leading systemic change as well as funding services for eligible scheme participants. Establishing a long‐term disability care and support scheme for Australia provides opportunities to remove barriers to community access and improve the employment participation of all Australians with a disability, and to increase the use of evidence in policy development and in the delivery of disability supports. Using the examples of successful models in Australia and New Zealand, the authors will propose a model for the development and management of a long‐term disability care and support scheme that enables sector reform in employment participation, barriers to access and participation in all aspects of community life, and funding of disability research to benefit all Australians with a disability.     

Process evaluation of the midwifery initiated oral health-dental service program: Perceptions of midwives in Greater Western Sydney,Australia

Background

Despite links between poor maternal oral health, adverse pregnancy outcomes and early childhood decay there is limited emphasis on maternal oral health in Australia. To address this, the Midwifery Initiated Oral Health Dental Service (MIOH-DS) program was developed in collaboration with the Australian College of Midwives.

Maximum Likelihood Estimation of the Log-Binomial Model

Maximum likelihood estimation of prevalence ratios using the log-binomial model is problematic when the estimates are on the boundary of the parameter space. When the model is correct, maximum likelihood is often the method of choice. The authors provide a theorem, formulas, and methodology for obtaining maximum likelihood estimators of the log-binomial model and their estimated standard errors when the solution is on the boundary of the parameter space. Examples are given to illustrate the method.     

The Malthus-Godwin debate,then and now

The famous opposition between Malthus and Godwin began early in their respective careers and has continued not only throughout their lives but, in the words of their supporters, still today. This seemingly forthright statement represents several paradoxes. Starting from quite divergent views of man and society, both moved much closer to what can be taken to be the ethical and political norm of their time; but as they approached agreement on fundamentals, their debate became more vituperative. From our point of view, their similarities are often more significant than their differences, for both represented variations on a common theme of Benthamite liberalism. To continue the debate in 19th-century terms is inappropriate, especially since in many recent analyses the views of both men are distorted. By our measures of politics, Godwin was more often the reactionary, Malthus more often the progressive.     

Materialist/postmaterialist values and their association with psychological health and health locus of control: A population-based study

This study investigates the association between Ronald Inglehart's materialist/postmaterialist index, a psychological aspect of the material pathway to inequalities in health, and health locus of control and psychological health. The data used is from the 2008 public health survey in Skåne, a cross-sectional postal questionnaire study with 28,198 respondents (response rate 54%), conducted in southern Sweden during the fall of 2008. Psychological health (GHQ12), health locus of control (external vs. internal) and the four-item Inglehart's index were assessed. A Multiple Logistic Regression Model was used to control for age, sex, country of origin, socioeconomic status and interpersonal trust. External locus of control was observed among 32.7% of the respondents. Poor psychological health was found in 18.2% of the women and 13.8% of the men. Materialist values were positively associated with low socioeconomic status, while a reverse association between postmaterialist values and low socioeconomic status was observed. External health locus of control was strongly and positively associated with materialist values among both men and women. Psychological health was not associated with materialist/postmaterialist values. The materialist/postmaterialist index, a psychological aspect of the material pathway to inequalities in health, is associated with health locus of control but not with mental health.     

The impact of ICT on systems biology and how to assess it

The rise of systems biology has been deeply associated with the application of high-throughput technologies and the development of digital databases. Both have an important impact on how research is done today and what it achieves. The plethora and heterogeneity of data have caused a change in approaches of data handling and processing by using Information and Communication Technology (ICT). To facilitate data management and the access and sharing of data on biological structures and processes as well as to link different databases from disparate data sources, ICT infrastructures have been developed simultaneously with the emergence of systems approaches in biology. Using the concept of technoscience, I explore the relationship of data-driven technologies and scientific approaches in systems biology and how to assess it according to a new understanding of science assessment. The analysis shows that ICT infrastructures play an important role in the systems biology community, taking over all the relevant tasks regarding the integration, access and sharing of data. Therefore, ICT infrastructures are primarily regarded as service facilities to ease research activities. However, the separation of data management and data interpretation as two independent endeavours hides the fact that data-driven technologies fundamentally influence the epistemic status of data and cause epistemic shifts in research practices and processes. Accordingly, the frame of ICT for data management enables doing research, but it shapes the significance and meaning of data, practices and processes at the same time by defining how to handle data in ICT-driven science.     

Community-based psychosocial rehabilitation for schizophrenia service users in the north west province of South Africa: A formative study

Psychosocial support is recognized as important for recovery for service users with schizophrenia, in addition to provision of antipsychotic medication. This study aimed to develop a community-based psychosocial rehabilitation programme for service users with schizophrenia to be facilitated by auxiliary social workers, and to investigate acceptability and feasibility of the programme. A task-sharing approach was adopted in which auxiliary social workers were trained to facilitate psychosocial rehabilitation groups. In-depth individual qualitative interviews were conducted with six group members at baseline, midpoint, and endpoint (18 interviews in total). NVivo10 was used to store data and conduct qualitative framework analysis. Participants reported benefits of the programme, including improvements in group members’ self-esteem, social support, illness knowledge, self-care, and contribution to their households. A key barrier to acceptability was the lack of provision of income generating opportunities. Implementation challenges include difficulties in tracing and engaging service users and families, lack of an appropriate venue, and issues with supply of antipsychotic medication. This study has provided evidence for the benefits and acceptability of this contextually adapted programme. Key barriers to implementation can be addressed through the provision of the necessary resources for auxiliary social worker input in the community.     

Service learning and the practice of social justice and care

The values of a social justice pedagogy in teacher education are assumed to be firmly established in South African higher education. This article discusses how serviced learning (SL) can provide practical experience of caring and serve the promotion of the ideals of social justice in two initial teacher education programmes. However, an analysis of data in this case study shows that, although SL practice has served as a platform for social justice and for care as two basic educational values, participants were not yet able to verbalize and theorize these values. They were also not able to embed these values in their reflection about service as an inherent component of education. With data from different role players in a number of SL projects, we show that the students’ discourse of what it means to be a caring teacher in a just society has not yet been developed despite the successful practical experience. It was found that, although the students had been building a practice ‘platform’ for service, they had not yet been able to articulate the conceptual intersect of care and social justice clearly. With this epistemological notion in mind, two main themes from the data analysis are discussed: 1) How SL shifted student learning from ideas ‘about’ service to implemented service, and 2) how the practical experience promoted reciprocity in inter-institutional and inter-generational communities of practice.