Experiences of Family Carers for Persons Using Antipsychotic Medication

Given the emphasis on the use of antipsychotic medication for severe mental illness, it is important to understand family carers’ perspectives on these medications and their effects on consumers’ lives. Such information may enable providers of family interventions to better understand families’ circumstances and more effectively support them in caring for mental health service users. Snowball sampling was used to recruit 29 family carers. Family carers acknowledged the calming effect of antipsychotic medication on service users, but also noted that there were few other therapeutic benefits. Moreover, the positive influence of antipsychotic medication was in most cases largely offset by the detrimental impact of antipsychotic medication on service users’ quality of life. The family carers in rationalising the trade‐off between beneficial and adverse antipsychotic medication effects typically experienced resignation, which was often accompanied by a sense of frustration that resulted from the reliance on medication.     

Social worker decision-making in court

The current study aimed to explore the factors that influence how social workers make decisions and develop their decision-making skills in care proceedings, and to identify effective support and intervention to develop social worker decision-making skills. The study employed a mixed thematic approach across two phases of study: an initial inductive thematic analysis of responses to an online qualitative questionnaire and then a mixed thematic analysis of follow-up focus groups and interviews with social workers working in various social work roles within England and Northern Ireland. The findings identified a number of themes that help to understand the decision-making skills of social workers; thorough assessment skills, relationship-based anti-oppressive practice, being mindful of the lived experience of the child and using critical reflection to make complex decisions. Wider structural factors that support or hinder decision-making, particularly in respect of organizational support and management supervision were also identified. Social workers can be supported to develop decision-making skills through additional training, reflective learning and management support to develop their practice wisdom within this field.     

A local analysis of ethnic group population trends and projections for the UK

Projections of the UK’s ethnic populations from 2001 to 2051 show significant future change. Groups outside the White British majority will increase in size and share, not only in core areas but throughout the country. Ethnic minorities will shift out of deprived local authorities and into less deprived ones, while the White distribution remains stable. The share of the Mixed group population in the most deprived quintile (Q5) of local authorities reduces from 26 to 19%, while its share in the least deprived quintile (Q1) increases from 22 to 29%. The corresponding shifts for Asian groups are from 25 to 18% for Q5 and from 9 to 20% for the Q1. For Black groups the Q5 quintile sees a decrease from 54 to 39% while the Q1 sees an increase from 7 to 19%. There are shifts to local authorities with lower ethnic minority concentrations by Mixed, Asian and Black populations from local authorities with high ethnic concentrations, while the White, Chinese and Other group distributions remain in 2051 as they were in 2001. So, ethnic minority groups will be less segregated from the rest of the population in 2051 than in 2001. Indices of Dissimilarity between each group and the rest of the population fall by a third over the projection period. The UK in 2051 will be a more ethnically diverse society than in 2001.     

Social network engineering and race in a police academy: A longitudinal analysis

This research examined an attempt to facilitate racial integration by populating squads (i.e., workgroups) in a police academy with mixes of recruits that reflected the racial demographics of the larger cohort. This was part of the social infrastructure of the academy. Additionally, a fixed seating arrangement was considered as a second element of academy infrastructure capable of impacting racial integration. We examined the consequences of these academy components over time with regard to race by combining ethnographic accounts with social network data collected throughout the academy and using a variety of network analytic tools. These consequences with regard to race were examined as a part of social network evolution. The academy's social arrangements did accelerate the creation of social knowledge of recruits about each other and the formation of friendship ties both within and between races. However, our results point to clear limitations to such infrastructural engineering and have implications for both recruitment to police academies and dealing with race. They shed light also on processes of homophily and group composition over time and have implications for studying social networks.     

An Optimal Model for Cell Formation Decisions

This study develops an approach to cell formation decisions for cellular manufacturing layouts in group technology settings. An optimal 0–1 integer programming model is used to provide an analysis for determining which machines and parts should be assigned to cells in cellular manufacturing layouts. This approach minimizes the cost of manufacturing exceptional parts outside the cellular system, subject to machine capacity constraints. Part–machine matrices are partitioned into disconnected cells and use far fewer 0–1 variables than earlier approaches. Formulation of the model is described with a numerical example and computer solutions to realistic problems are obtained. The characteristics of computer run times, model performance, and applications of the model are discussed.     

Sex drugs, peer connections, and HIV: Use and risk among African American, Latino, and Multiracial young men who have sex with men (YMSM) in Los Angeles and New York

African American and Latino young men who have sex with men are at high risk for HIV infection. We administered brief intercept surveys (N=416) at 18 Black and Latino gay pride events in Los Angeles and New York in 2006 and 2007. Ordinal logistic regressions were used to model the effects of substance use during sex, peer connectedness, relationship status, and homelessness on condom use. Alcohol use, crystal use, homelessness, and having a primary relationship partner were negatively associated with condom use, while peer connectedness and marijuana use during sex were positively associated with condom use. Implications for service providers and future research are discussed.