Challenges of welfare-to-work programs

Governmental expectations of placement outcomes were often high given the severity of work barriers that were present in disabled welfare recipients in the United States [11]. The purpose of this article is to identify challenges that were inherent in welfare-to-work programs and solutions to these challenges. Although rich with opportunity, welfare-to-work programs presented the challenge of employing large numbers of difficult-to-employ individuals before their public assistance benefits expired\cite{5}. Many clients also had symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) secondary to childhood physical or sexual abuse (59%) or severe domestic violence (55%) [8]. Few funds were available for work training and education. Instead, the employment-first model was expected even though most consumers did not have a high school diploma, had not worked in years, and were fearful and resistant about returning to work [3]. Performance based payment systems presented a challenge because the program's future depended on the compliance of its consumers. There was an impetus for substance abusers to return to work even if they were still using drugs, which contradicted the teachings of many recovery models. This paper presents possible solutions to each of these problems and reports outcomes of one particular welfare-to-work program. By examining the challenges of welfare-to-work programs, by identifying solutions, and by realizing that these solutions are inherent in the basic principles of rehabilitation, this article provides therapists with tools and motivation to make unique contributions to this area of practice.     

Return to work: a case of PTSD, dissociative identity disorder, and satanic ritual abuse

This case study investigated an intervention that enabled an individual with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), and satanic ritual abuse to return to work after discharge from psychiatric inpatient treatment. The Occupational Questionnaire [88] revealed past difficulties in organization, awareness of time, communication, cooperation, frustration tolerance, competition, stress management, goal setting, and amnesia resulting in incomplete tasks and sporadic attendance at work. The Role Checklist [72] identified alters valuing work and employed in the past. The Modified Interest Checklist [70] identified running as an interest that 24 alters shared. Based on the initial evaluations, three times a week treadmill running was used as an intervention that built work skills (as measured by the Clerical Work Sample of the Valpar Component Work Sample Series [97]) necessary to sustain gainful employment upon discharge. After intervention, this individual improved in awareness of time, stress management, and goal setting abilities and was less amnestic as per the Occupational Questionnaire [88] and four additional alters expressed an interest in work according to the Modified Interest Checklist [70].     

Infants’ Visual Attention to Baby DVDs as a Function of Program Pacing

This study examined the effects of program pacing, defined as the rate of scene and character change per minute, on infants’ visual attention to video presentations. Seventy‐two infants (twenty‐four 6‐month‐olds, twenty‐four 9‐month‐olds, twenty‐four 12‐month‐olds) were exposed to one of two sets of high‐ and low‐paced commercial infant DVDs. Each DVD was approximately 5‐min long, and the order the DVDs were viewed was counterbalanced for pace. Attention was higher during rapidly than slowly paced DVDs, particularly for the 6‐ and 9‐month‐old infants. These results support previous research documenting that attention is initially controlled by exogenous qualities (e.g., rapid pace), but with development and experience becomes more influenced by endogenous factors.     

The contribution of childhood family violence on later intimate partner violence among robbery victims

This study examined the relative contributions of the three forms of childhood family violence exposure on physical intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization among recent robbery victims and tested a gender-matching modeling prediction for IPV risk. Data from a sample of 103 male and 93 female victims of a robbery were analyzed to investigate the effects of exposure to childhood physical abuse (CPA), childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and witnessing parental violence on the likelihood of IPV in adulthood. As expected, witnessing parental violence was associated with a 2.4-fold increase in IPV for both men and women. Neither CPA nor CSA was significantly associated with IPV after accounting for the effect of witnessing parental violence. There was support for the gender-matching hypothesis with men more likely to report IPV if they had witnessed mother-to-father violence and women more likely to report IPV if they had witnessed father-to-mother violence. Witnessing parental violence is strongly associated with risk for IPV victimization, particularly when the victim is the same-gender parent. Future directions and clinical implications are discussed.     

Practitioners' views on elder mistreatment research priorities: recommendations from a Research-to-Practice Consensus conference

This article presents recommendations from expert practitioners and researchers regarding future directions for research on elder abuse prevention. Using the Research-to-Practice Consensus Workshop model, participants critiqued academic research on the prevention of elder mistreatment and identified practice-based suggestions for a research agenda on this topic. The practitioners' critique resulted in 10 key recommendations for future research that include the following priority areas: defining elder abuse, providing researchers with access to victims and abusers, determining the best approaches in treating abusers, exploiting existing data sets, identifying risk factors, understanding the impact of cultural factors, improving program evaluation, establishing how cognitive impairment affects legal investigations, promoting studies of financial and medical forensics, and improving professional reporting and training. It is hoped that these recommendations will help guide future research in such a way as to make it more applicable to community practice.     

Illegitimate tasks are not created equal: Examining the effects of attributions on unreasonable and unnecessary tasks

ABSTRACT

Illegitimate tasks are tasks that violate norms for what the employee should do as part of the job, and have been found to harm employees’ well-being. The current research uses a mixed methods design to examine the role of attributions on the two types of illegitimate tasks: unreasonable and unnecessary tasks. A sample of 432 engineers described a specific illegitimate task that was assigned to them, the attributions they made and their response. They also completed a quantitative questionnaire. Results from both the qualitative (event level) and quantitative (person level) portions of our study portray differences in the attributions made to unreasonable and unnecessary tasks, as well as differential negative effects on employees’ emotions. In addition, hostile attribution bias was found to moderate the relationship between illegitimate tasks and negative emotions, particularly for unreasonable tasks. This supports the theoretical basis for illegitimate tasks because unreasonable tasks pose a potentially greater risk to the employee’s self-worth than unnecessary tasks that are more often assigned at random.     

Appraisals and de/legitimation of classroom well-being: A study based on Chilean students' voices

This study analysed, from a social justice perspective, how students from two Chilean public schools evaluate, legitimise and delegitimise processes and social actors associated with classroom well-being. Using a participatory qualitative design, fifty-nine (59) seventh grade students were asked to take and then select photographs about their school experience, and later participated in semi-structured interviews and a group workshop. Findings regarding the classroom context showed that children legitimised active learning methodologies, teachers to whom they feel close, and the use of technology for learning. They delegitimised punishment and teachers who ignored minority students or those with learning difficulties.