HEALTH NEEDS OF MIGRANT VIETNAMESE WOMEN IN SOUTH‐WEST BRISBANE: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

This study was conducted in the southwest area of Brisbane, Australia, and is designed to explore and assess the health needs of Vietnamese migrant women. The needs of this group are becoming increasingly urgent due to ageing of the original immigrant refugee community and decreased capacity for support from their children and families. The study used a qualitative research strategy involving focus groups and in‐depth interviews with Vietnamese women between 18–65 years and interviews with Vietnamese health care providers. It shows that the women have had to deal with culture shock, low self‐esteem, lack of friends and relatives, unrecognized professional skills and most importantly in health terms, low socioeconomic status. Significant barriers to access health services and to improved health and well‐being were also identified, such as language difficulties, transportation, time, and knowledge about health education. Recognition of specific requirements of sub‐populations as well as broader socio‐economic and cultural determinants of health should be a guide to more effective planning and implementation of health promotion strategies. The changing needs, over time, of these sub‐populations should also be recognized.     

Strategies for model‐revision in a high school genetics classroom

Recent proposals to improve science education (e.g., AAAS, 1989; Rutherford & Ahlgren, 1990) have stressed the importance of providing high school students with a broad knowledge base consisting of a body of core concepts and theories. Science educators (Duschl, 1990; AAAS, 1989; Peterson & Jungck, 1988) have also argued that while concepts are an important part of any education, no student's scientific education can be considered complete without a complementary knowledge of the nature of science, including an understanding of the tentative nature of scientific knowledge and how it is constructed. In this paper we describe a science classroom in which students are given opportunities to construct and use scientific knowledge to solve realistic genetics problems, and suggest that allowing students to engage in the production of scientific knowledge can support science learning.     

The Feeling Edge of Culture

During the 1960s, the new generation changed the American Creed by deemphasizing sensitivity to evidence, emphasizing feelings and deductive thought, while assuming an adversarial position against the sociopolitical order and embracing the American Black's struggle against racism. Driven by pain, fueled by fear and anger and oriented by existential values of being the Civil Rights Movement, sought to actualize political values of justice and equality. As peaceful demonstrations dwindled, violence increased, converting individual anger to social rage. Anger's cognitive structure changed the concept of society into a dichotomy of Black victims and Ulhite oppressors, forming an ethic of sensitivity with victims occupying the moral high ground. Pain and tragedy were banished from view and blamed on oppressors as individual identities divested civil traits and acquired cultural identity, disuniting the civil society. Rubbing against the American Creed, the ethic ofsensitivity produced a feeling of malaise posing a threat to mentaL health.     

Disability and Dependency: origins and futures of 'special needs' housing for disabled people

In this paper we analyse the provision of housing for disabled people in both its historical and ideological contexts. While the recent extension of part M of the Building Regulations to dwellings by the government represents a significant advance towards the inclusion of disabled people, we argue that the shift in funding of public housing from a 'bricks and mortar' subsidy to Housing Benefit potentially creates greater dependency. This amounts to a policy contradiction in which the government is punishing disabled people for being dependent whilst simultaneously being the cause of their dependency. If this issue is not addressed disabled people will continue to remain excluded, albeit within accessible dwellings.     

GNR,MGR, and exact misspeclfication testing

The Gauss-Newton regression (GNR) is widely used to compute Lagrange multiplier statistics. A regression described by Milliken and Graybill yields an exact F test in a certain class of nonlinear models which are linear under the null. This paper shows that the Milliken-Graybill regression is a GNR. Hence one interpretation of Milliken-Graybill is that they identified a class of nonlinear models for which the GNR yields an exact test.     

The graphical advantages of finite interval confidence band procedures

When presented as graphical illustrations, regression surface confidence bands for linear statistical models quickly convey detailed information about analysis results. A taut confidence band is a compact set of curves which are estimation candidates for the unobservable, fixed regression curve. The bounds of the band are usually plotted with the estimated regression curve and may be overlaid by a scatter-plot of the data to provide an integrated visual impression. Finite-interval confidence bands offer the advantages of clearer interpretation and improved efficiency and avoid visual ambiguities inherent to infinite-interval bands. The definitive characteristic of a finite-interval confidence band is that it is only necessary to plot it over a finite interval in order to visually communicate all its information. In contrast, visual representations of infinite-interval bands are not fully informative and can be misleading. When an infinite-interval band is plotted, and therefore truncated, substantial information given by its asymptotic behavior is lost. Many curves that are clearly within the plotted portion of the infinite interval confidence band eventually cross a boundary. In practice, a finite-interval band can always be easily obtained from any infinite-interval band. This article focuses on interpretational considerations of symmetric confidence bands as graphical devices.     

Human resource development in small organizations

This article draws upon case-study research into human resource development (HRD) within three small organizations in the north west of England. It positions the case-study work within an overall framework of doctoral research and summarizes the research design; discusses the characteristics and values of small organizations and how they influence HRD policies and practices: presents findings and conclusions about HRD in the case-study organizations, focusing in particular upon one case in the voluntary sector; compares and contrasts the different models of HRD in the three cases; and concludes with some suggestions for further research.     

Motivators for Resolving or Seeking Help for Gambling Problems: A Review of the Empirical Literature

This literature review summarizes recent empirical research on the reasons disordered gamblers try, through treatment or otherwise, to resolve or reduce their gambling problems. Relevant databases and bibliographies were searched for English-language studies, published since 1998, that asked gamblers themselves about motivators for action. Found were ten studies addressing reasons for trying to resolve or reduce gambling problems, five addressing reasons for seeking help and four addressing reasons for requesting self-exclusion from casinos. Help-seeking occurred largely in response to gambling-related harms (especially financial problems, relationship issues and negative emotions) that had already happened or that were imminent. Resolution was often motivated by the same kinds of harms but evaluation/decision-making and changes in lifestyle or environment played a more prominent role. Self-exclusion was motivated by harms, evaluation/decision-making and a wish to regain control. Awareness and educational materials could incorporate messages that might encourage heavy gamblers to make changes before harms became too great. Intervention development could also benefit from more research on the motivators leading to successful (vs. failed) resolution, as well as on the ways in which disordered gamblers are able to overcome specific barriers to seeking help or reaching resolution.     

The Impact of Sexual Abuse Treatment on the Social Work Clinician

A growing body of literature exists on the prevalence and psychological sequelae of sexual abuse and its treatment. However, less attention has been focused on the experience of clinicians who treat these clients. This article uses the concept of vicarious traumatization (McCann and Pearlman, 1990a) to describe the impact this work may have on the social work clinician. The issues addressed include the impact of the work on the clinician's world-view and the possibility that there is a grief process as clinicians come to terms with their exposure to traumatic material. Implications of this reaction and suggestions to alleviate the detrimental effects arc addressed.