The role of the gerontological social worker in assisted living

This qualitative study reports on thirteen assisted living (AL) administrators' perspectives of the role and the importance of the AL social worker in addressing the unmet needs of older adults as they move and transition into AL. Participant interviews were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Administrators described 5 AL social work roles: (a) decision-making and adjustment coordinator; (b) resident advocate; (c) mental health assessor and counselor; (d) family social worker; and (e) care planner. Implications include directly examining AL social workers' views, analyzing costs and benefits of employing AL social workers, and developing social work practicum sites within AL.     

Expected frequency and mean size of the paradox of new members

The paradox of new members occurs when the addition of one or more new members to a weighted voting body increases, rather than decreases, the voting power of some of the old members. Extending the computational work of Brams and Affuso (1976), the mean size of the paradox and the relative frequency of its occurrence are presented for small and moderate-size weighted voting bodies. Computational results are presented and conclusions are drawn for the two power indices of Shapley-Shubik and Banzhaf, three different decision rules, and voting bodies with or without dictator. Although the paradox cannot be dismissed as either contrived or improbable, its mean size in moderatesize voting bodies is sufficiently small to question its practical significance.     

Income security for older people: An Asian perspective

In Asia and the Pacific, as in other developing regions, the continuing growth of the aged population has a great impact on social security programmes generally and, in particular, on the income security of older persons. In societies where traditional support systems are breaking up, their need for social security protection is increasingly important. A system of social security for the elderly population exists in most countries of the region. Many are provident fund schemes, which are basically saving schemes, and their coverage is low. Where social insurance pension schemes exist, the levels of benefits provided are also low. The focus for future development, therefore, lies in converting the savings schemes into multitiered pension schemes, extending their coverage and raising the level of benefits. In this context the critical question concerns the role of the State and the type of schemes used. The need for public pension schemes is great in Asia and the Pacific, where the level of poverty is comparatively high. Building pension schemes, whether public or private, involves a set of issues that need to be addressed. This article considers the systems currently in place and the challenges and limitations faced when considering the future development of social security in this area.     

Research on environmental health interventions: ethical problems and solutions

This article reviews a variety of ethical issues one must consider when conducting research on environmental health interventions on human subjects. The paper uses the Kennedy Krieger Institute lead abatement study as well as a hypothetical asthma study to discuss questions concerning benefits and risks, risk minimization, safety monitoring, the duty to warn, the duty to report, the use of control groups, informed consent, equitable subject selection, privacy, conflicts of interest, and community consultation. Research on environmental health interventions can make an important contribution to our understanding of human health and disease prevention, provided it is conducted in a manner that meets prevailing scientific, ethical, and legal standards for research on human subjects.     

Providing mental health services to older people living in rural communities

Rural dwelling elders who experience mental health problems often have difficulty finding help since rural communities often lack adequate mental health service providers. This paper reports on the initial phase of a 5-year, interdisciplinary clinical research study that is testing the effectiveness of providing a home delivered, therapeutic psychosocial intervention, aimed at improving the emotional wellbeing and the quality of life of medically frail elders who live in rural communities. In the early phases of this study, the clinical research team encountered a number of interesting and often unanticipated challenges as it attempted to recruit study participants and provide services to them. In this article, we examine these challenges and share what we have learned so far about providing mental health services to elderly persons living in rural environments.     

Hurricane Katrina's Impact on African Americans' and European Americans' Endorsement of the Protestant Work Ethic

The Protestant work ethic (PWE), the belief that hard work leads to success, is a quintessentially American belief. The present research addresses a critical gap in psychological research on PWE: can a single, large-scale sociopolitical event (government's response to Hurricane Katrina) produce changes in PWE? We review evidence showing that the salience of Katrina led to a reduction in African Americans' (not European Americans') endorsement of PWE and that this result appears explained by African Americans' greater belief in the government's inadequate response to Katrina victims, who were predominately African American. The implications of differential endorsement of PWE for future expectations of societal treatment, motivation to pursue important goals, and willingness to endorse structural corrections of inequality are discussed.     

Verbal and Nonverbal Dynamics of Privacy, Secrecy, and Deceit

We discuss the ways in which deception can be used to protect privacy, as well as the ways in which claims to privacy can provide the latitude to lie. In their attempts to maintain their own privacy and their secrets, people can be assisted by others who overlook their lies. Habits of honoring other people's verbal and nonverbal claims about themselves, even when they are not totally convincing, and expectations of similar indulgences from others can keep interactions from getting derailed by small interpersonal bumps. But they also enable exploitation in the form of frauds and scams .     

The Corrosive Effect of Acculturation: How Mexican Americans Lose Political Trust*

Objective. Existing research establishes that political trust is not only an important determinant of individual political behavior and government effectiveness, but may also measure the health of civic society. This article looks specifically at trust among Latinos of Mexican descent, demonstrating that acculturation is corrosive of political trust. Methods. Logit and ordered logit models are used to simultaneously test two theories of acculturation—classic assimilation theory and ethnic competition theory. Data come from the Latino National Political Survey (LNPS). Results. Support is found for both modes of acculturation. Conclusions. Although the results do not conclusively side with one particular mode of acculturation, they consistently show that acculturation is corrosive of political trust. Latinos of Mexican descent become more cynical about American government as they incorporate into or are exposed to mainstream American culture, and as they become more aware of or concerned about racism and discrimination.