The needs and experiences of injured workers: a participatory research study

This paper reports on the findings of a participatory research study in which 290 injured workers in Ontario, Canada responded to a survey that was developed and administered by a group of university researchers in partnership with injured worker peer researchers. The objectives of the study were to gain a broad view of the needs and experiences of injured workers and to develop strategies for change. Findings indicated that many injured workers experience undue financial, emotional and physical hardship during the compensation, treatment and rehabilitation process. These hardships are experienced due to perceived lack of respect, insufficient information concerning rights and the return-to-work process, and limited opportunities for input into the medical or rehabilitation process. Recommendations for increasing the power of workers and creating a more supportive climate are included.     

Nursing home administrators' views of their own and volunteer resident advocates' enhancement of long-term care

Volunteers perform much of the work of federally mandated state ombudsman programs which may include review of resident care in nursing facilities to protect against abuse and neglect. Although volunteers' activities may take place in the nursing facility, Nursing Home Administrators' (NHAs) views of their work are seldom studied. Data from questionnaires completed by 199 NHAs predicted enhancement (improvement) of long-term care by volunteer resident advocates. Administrators also described their advice for improvement of care. NHAs' perceptions of residents' pleasure and families' satisfaction with volunteers' visits were associated with enhancement of long-term care. Effectiveness attributed to volunteers' protection of rights and resolution of complaints was not related to perceived enhancement of long-term care. Answers to a number of remaining questions could enhance the efforts of volunteers in ombudsman programs, improve long-term care, and diminish opportunities for abuse.     

Understanding Parental Grief as a Response to Mental Illness: Implications for Practice

ABSTRACT

Parents who are raising children with mental illness struggle with feelings of grief and loss. Kubler-Ross' (1969 Kubler-Ross , E. ( 1969 ). On death and dying . New York : Scribner . [Google Scholar]) stages of grieving (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) are examined as experienced by parents raising children with chronic mental illness. Practice implications for social workers who are working with children and their parents are discussed. Acknowledging and understanding parental grief, while providing emotional support, leads to a more effective working partnership. This collaboration of parents and social worker can result in more effective treatment for the child with mental illness. Examples from one of the co-author's personal experiences are included.     

A Comparison of Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing,Standard Echoic Training,and Control Procedures on the Vocal Behavior of Children With Autism

An alternating treatments design was employed to compare the effect of stimulus-stimulus pairing, standard echoic training, and a control condition on the vocal behavior of 3 preschoolers with autism. Data were recorded during pre- and postsession observations. During the stimulus-stimulus pairing condition, the experimenter''s vocal model was paired with the delivery of a preferred item. During the standard echoic training condition, the experimenter presented a vocal model and delivered a preferred item contingent on an echoic response. During the control condition, the experimenter presented a vocal model and, after a 10-s delay, presented a preferred edible item. Results from the post-session observations during the stimulus-stimulus pairing condition showed an immediate but temporary increase in the target sound for 1 participant only. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided.     

Beginnings: participatory action research and adults with developmental disabilities

This paper discusses the emergence of Participatory Action Research (PAR), and its use with individuals with cognitive disabilities. A brief history of PAR is given, with a focus on its uses for empowerment and self-determination for persons with disabilities. Using literature-based standards for participatory, action and emancipatory research approaches, a 3-year research project with goals of increasing community participation by adults with developmental disabilities is described and evaluated. The "Transition into Community Life" project used an adapted form of the "Farmer-back-to-Farmer" PAR model (Rhoades & Booth, 1982), and the article discusses the successes and challenges of the model in a context quite different from how it was originally designed. The author describes lessons learned concerning the use of PAR with people with developmental disabilities. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the feasibility of PAR with individuals with cognitive challenges.     

Finding and fixing systems weaknesses: probabilistic methods and applications of engineering risk analysis.

Methods of engineering risk analysis are based on a functional analysis of systems and on the probabilities (generally Bayesian) of the events and random variables that affect their performances. These methods allow identification of a system's failure modes, computation of its probability of failure or performance deterioration per time unit or operation, and of the contribution of each component to the probabilities and consequences of failures. The model has been extended to include the human decisions and actions that affect components' performances, and the management factors that affect behaviors and can thus be root causes of system failures. By computing the risk with and without proposed measures, one can then set priorities among different risk management options under resource constraints. In this article, I present briefly the engineering risk analysis method, then several illustrations of risk computations that can be used to identify a system's weaknesses and the most cost-effective way to fix them. The first example concerns the heat shield of the space shuttle orbiter and shows the relative risk contribution of the tiles in different areas of the orbiter's surface. The second application is to patient risk in anesthesia and demonstrates how the engineering risk analysis method can be used in the medical domain to rank the benefits of risk mitigation measures, in that case, mostly organizational. The third application is a model of seismic risk analysis and mitigation, with application to the San Francisco Bay area for the assessment of the costs and benefits of different seismic provisions of building codes. In all three cases, some aspects of the results were not intuitively obvious. The probabilistic risk analysis (PRA) method allowed identifying system weaknesses and the most cost-effective way to fix them.     

Making It In and Making Out: Women in Professional Occupations in Britain and France

The relationship between gender, work and organization in professional occupations can be shown to vary according to different work environments and national contexts. The career patterns of women in chartered accountancy and law in Britain and France are explored in different types of organization in order to determine whether the societal structuring of these occupations is gendered and whether women fare better in small professional practices or large bureaucratic organizations. The findings are derived from a comparative study which combined macro-level data with in-depth qualitative analysis of work and family life histories of a small number of women professionals. While women in the two countries and two occupations were found to share many of the same problems in establishing and pursuing a career, the evidence suggests that women in France may have a marginal advantage over their British counterparts, not so much because they have access to more extensive statutory employment rights but rather because they are more often employed in small practices where they are able to use their independence and their control over working conditions and work-time arrangements to structure their careers according to their own requirements and interests.     

A Kind of Loving: A Model of Effective Foster Care

Correspondence to Professor Kate Wilson, Centre of Social Work, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD. E-mail: kate.wilson{at}nottingham.ac.uk Summary The article builds on a companion statistical paper, which drewon the findings of a large sample of foster placements and analysedfactors leading to a successful placement and the avoidanceof disruption. A model of successful foster care was developedwhich suggested that outcomes depend on three aspects of thefoster placement, those that relate to the child, the fostercarer and the interaction between the two. Here, a concreteexample in the form of a case study drawn from interviews undertakenas part of the study is used to illustrate the relevance ofthe model to practice. The qualities that make up the interactionbetween the carer and the child are elaborated through the conceptof ‘responsive parenting’. The analysis is takenfurther by identifying the processes involved in a way thatis detailed and precise and has relevance to theory. The paperargues that the case study provides material that could informboth training and the theories that underpin practice.