Validation of the Strengths and Stressors Tracking Device with a child welfare population

The Strengths and Stressors Tracking Device (SSTD) is a rapid assessment measure of family well-being that assesses the particular strengths and needs of families at intake to help guide case planning and evaluate the effectiveness of treatment. The device assesses families from an ecological perspective in the domains of environmental conditions, social support, caregiver skills, and child well-being, and may be used at multiple points during treatment to assess change. SSTD has high internal consistency in all domains, distinguishes between physical abuse and neglect, and is sensitive to specific changes made by families across the duration of treatment.     

Women as Workers and as Carers under Communism and After: The Case of Bulgaria

This paper reviews the work-family policy of Bulgaria before and after the transition. Before the transition the family policy was one of earner–carer where women were given support to combine work-force participation with childcare and men were at least encouraged to help with carework. After the transition women's access to help with carework became so limited that the family policy, by default, became one of dual earner, but with extremely high levels of unemployment. A survey of 349 women by the Varna Employment Office indicates how devastating the loss of employment was during the transition. Today policies that support family caregiving still exist on paper but are not enforced. This is due, in part, to the lack of organized broad-based women's groups. Such organizations would be necessary for women to effectively claim the rights and entitlements to caregiving support. But there is continuing pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and others to eliminate any state support for caregiving.     

Use of unopposed systemic estrogen therapy in non-hysterectomized women: a population-based study in the UK

A population study of 28 general practices in Oxfordshire, UK found that 0.028% of 17,712 non-hysterectomized women aged 45-60 years were using systemic unopposed estrogen. This is significantly lower than that reported in the Million Women Study.     

Open access family centres and their users: positive results,some doubts and new departures

This article reports findings from a research study of two open access, multi-use, community-based family centres. Structured, qualitative interviews were conducted with 40 adult users and 40 local adult non-users of the two centres. Additionally, a profile of user characteristics was derived from a survey of users attending over a one-week period at both centres. The vast majority of users were women in their twenties, just over half of whom attended with their children. The benefits and limitations of the current functioning of open access centres are discussed, with a potential shift in emphasis along a social development model proposed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gay shame in a geopolitical context

With the developing acceptance of gay equality in the west, it is assumed that we live in a post-shame era, with ‘the world we have won’. However, this is a chimeric cliché of neoliberalism (rather like the idea that we are all postfeminist now). The ‘proud’ homosexual of the west is discursively constructed against the ‘shamed’ homosexual of the east, a typecasting resonant with postcolonial clichés of the primal, religious, and homophobic savagery of the global south in contrast with the civilising, liberal evolution of the secular global north. Shame displacement is of course a dynamic of shame itself. The perceived failure in achieving the ‘proud iconic gay’ of media cultures in the global North results in a traumatic double bind of being ashamed of being ashamed. This article will reconsider the cultural politics and temporality of shame for primarily white gay identities after the ‘War on Terror’. As Islamophobia has exponentially increased, some western gays translocate their unacknowledged shame onto a misconceived ‘brown threat’ in a complex, aggressive, and racist shame loop [Lewis, H.B., 1971. Shame and guilt in neurosis. New York: International Universities Press; Scheff, T.J., and Retzinger, S.M., 1991. Emotions and violence: shame and rage in destructive conflict. New York: Lexington Books].     

Why does the need for medication become a barrier to breastfeeding? A narrative review

Problem

The need for medication during lactation can contribute to the early cessation of breastfeeding.