Adolescent Violence towards Parents: Maintaining Family Connections When The Going Gets Tough

This paper explores some of the dilemmas, difficulties and decisions faced by mothers whose adolescent sons or daughters act in violent and abusive ways and refuse any counselling. A group intervention program, designed to assist these mothers in more fully understanding and addressing their adolescent's behaviour, was evaluated using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Self‐report questionnaire data indicated that following the group intervention the mothers reported less violence in their homes, and significantly less personal anxiety and fatigue. However, these women continued to experience high levels of depression, and the reasons for this are discussed. These findings are integrated with information from post‐intervention, in‐depth interviews which indicated that participants valued the group experience because they realised that they were not alone, their problems were understood, and they developed a wider range of strategies to deal with their children's violent behaviour.     

Book Reviews

Michael Seltzer, Christian Kullberg, Soren Peter Olesen, Ilmari Rostila (eds): Listening to the Welfare State. Aldershot, Ashgate, 2001. 267 pp, ISBN 0-7546-1565-0, £45.00     

Jobs,Gender, and Foetal Protection Policies: From Muller v. Oregon to Johnson Controls

The issue of work place hazards that may threaten the health of an unborn child has long been problematic for women, business decision-makers, and lawmakers. The desire to protect the developing foetus must be balanced against a woman's legal right to get and keep the job of her choice. The issue has never been easy to resolve, as this historical analysis shows. An overview of the potential effects of work place hazards on reproductive health is presented. Relevant fair employment laws are summarized, and a brief history of court cases and employer practices is provided. It is argued that ultimately, foetal protection policies had little or nothing to do with protection of foetuses. They may have had more to do with protecting the employer from potential liability and with perceptions of women's status in the work place than with protecting the next generation. Finally, suggestions for future research are presented.     

Research project on advocacy and autism

This article presents the findings of a qualitative research project about the difficulties in accessing advocacy faced by adults labelled as having autism and Asperger's Syndrome in the Northwest of England. It is also an example of partnership working between three organisations. The article examines both the process of team-led (emancipatory) research and the project findings. Seven main themes emerged throughout the research: late diagnosis and lack of service support; bad experiences with systems of care; feelings of 'not belonging' (identity issues); barriers around communication and sensitivity towards individuals; lack of awareness and access to advocacy and rights; difficulties of 'fitting into' what is already available; and interest in developing knowledge around advocacy. Examination of the main themes pointed to a disturbing link between poor service response, episodes of crisis and mental ill health. The Carlisle People First Research Team is made up of 6 researchers who are labelled as having 'learning difficulties' who work in partnership with one other researcher.     

Pulling together: building a community debriefing team.

1. Research shows that many emergency workers are affected physically and emotionally by critical incident stress. 2. Debriefings conducted by trained team members are an effective method to mitigate the impact of critical incident stress. A debriefing is a structured, time-limited group intervention. 3. Cooperation among community agencies is essential for the development and effective functioning of a critical incident stress debriefing team. 4. Several teams in Illinois have organized to form a Critical Incident Stress Debriefing Network. The Illinois network is part of an international organization composed of critical incident stress debriefing providers.     

It's a Difference,but Is It Significant?

Clinical significance, statistical significance, the CBT monoculture, the politics of service provision, and the search for additional ways to be effective.