Parents and patients: Members of an interdisciplinary team on an adolescent inpatient unit

In a six-year study on a locked psychiatric hospital unit for adolescents, first patients and then their families became integrated into the interdisciplinary treatment team. The results were universally beneficial. After initial resistance and some fine tuning of their skills, the staff became strong supporters of the program. Parents, no longer one down, developed a close working relationship with the therapists and milieu staff. Treatment planning and implementation was enriched by the interaction and dissension was minimized. Most important of all, the adolescents improved more rapidly and hospital stays were significantly shortened.     

On estimating census undercount in small areas

"Net undercount rates in the U.S. decennial census have been steadily declining over the last several censuses. Differential undercounts among race groups and geographic areas, however, appear to persist. In the following, we examine and compare several methodologies for providing small area estimates of census coverage by constructing artificial populations. Measures of performance are also introduced to assess the various small area estimates. Synthetic estimation in combination with regression modelling provide the best results over the methods considered. Sampling error effects are also simulated. The results form the basis for determining coverage evaluation survey small area estimates of the 1900 decennial census."     

International migrations in Europe: Polish perspectives for the 1990s

"This article presents estimates of the size of emigration from Poland during the 1980s as well as projections concerning the migration patterns in the 1990s. The author anticipates a contraction of the volume of population outflow by some 50 percent: from about 100,000 to about 50,000 per year, on the average. These projections are based upon the examination of the role of a number of incentives and barriers to migration, including economic, demographic and political factors. In the final section, prospects concerning immigration to Poland are briefly discussed."     

A comparison of the Korean minorities in China and Japan

"This article compares the Korean minorities in China and Japan in their differential levels of cultural autonomy and ethnic identity....In explaining the differential levels of ethnicity between the two Korean minority groups, this paper focuses on the basic differences in minority policy between the two countries; the difference in the context of migration; the existence or absence of a territorial base; and the differential levels of influence from Korea."     

Federalism and aging policy in the 1980s: implications for changing interest group roles in the 1990s

Shifts in the American political landscape during the 1980s had impacts on aging policy and on the behavior of aging interest groups through that decade. But perhaps even more important are the likely effects of those changes on aging policy and on the roles of age-related groups in the 1990s--and probably beyond. First, some of the major policy trends of the 1980s are sketched out, especially the renewed emphasis on federalism. Then, an assessment of their effects on aging policy and aging interest groups is provided. Next, a rationale for focusing on state-level policy and a discussion of current aging interest-group mobilization at the state level are presented. Last, the prospects for aging interest-group influence in the 1990s--a period in which the prior decade's emphasis on dual federalism is likely to continue--is addressed.     

Physician executives: where they are and what they do

As hospital operations become increasingly complex, so does the institution's management and organizational structure. Physician executives with titles of medical director, vice president for medical affairs, medical administrator, chief of staff, medical staff president, etc., are playing more important roles than ever before. This article will briefly review some recent literature describing physician executive profiles. The results from a survey of ten university teaching hospitals are also presented as supplementary information regarding current staffing models. Finally, several physician executive staffing-related issues will be discussed in light of the literature and the survey results.     

Eliminating smoking from the workplace

Employers are more readily realizing that a nonsmoking policy in the workplace is a more effective way to run their businesses. They are recognizing costs such as productivity losses, increased health and life insurance costs, employer liability for diseases jointly linked to smoking and occupational exposures, absenteeism, passive smoking-induced health care costs among nonsmokers, workers' compensation, and fire losses. Concomitantly, employees are supporting policies that limit smoking to achieve a clean air environment. Former Surgeon General Koop's goal of "a smokefree society by the year 2000" is being recognized by more and more segments of society.     

German-Polish migration: the elusive search for a German nation-state

"This article examines past and present migrations to Germany from the perspective of nation-state formation.... Focusing on the many experiences with the Polish minority (ranging from the eighteenth century to the present), this essay suggests that Germans have never discovered an acceptable and workable approach for dealing with large non-German minorities in the German nation-state. Rather, different regimes at different times have vacillated between an exclusive approach founded on nationalist principles and practices and an inclusive one founded on liberal principles and practices.... The confusion over the two approaches produces not only a confused immigration policy, but also reflects deep-seated confusion over the definition of the new German state and identity of the newly united German nation."