Skills Laboratories and the New Social Work Degree: One Small Step Towards Best Practice? Service Users' and Carers' Perspectives

The new social work degree has a strong emphasis upon the development of communication skills and upon the requirement for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to assess students' safety and readiness to practise. The GSCC grants to HEIs to develop skills labs to help with this skills development have been widely welcomed, but not enough work has been done fully to evaluate the effectiveness of such skills labs. There has been some previous evidence to suggest that such projects may even be counter‐productive. This article explores the way in which Staffordshire University has called upon its service user/carer group and a team of practice assessors to work with the academic tutor to devise and carry out a programme of skills training in a skills lab environment for first year students on the new degree. An initial evaluation of this project shows encouraging results for this ‘work in progress’, even though it is still early days.     

Medical Specialty Referrals from a Student Health Service

Abstract

During a 10-week period, 51 referrals resulted from 3171 visits to the Student Health Service, a referral rate of 1.6%. Specialties receiving the most frequent referrals were orthopedics (31%), ophthalmology (16%), general surgery (10%), and gynecology (10%). Data from this study suggest that specialty referrals occur infrequently in the Student Health Service. It would appear that this low referral rate, along with a relatively small student population, would not justify provision of in-house specialty consultation in the Student Health Service.

“The Prognosis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease,” DAVID J. SALES AND JOSEPH B. KIRSNER. The complications of ulcerative colitis generally develop during the first two years of disease. The mortality is higher than expected and the highest likelihood of colectomy also occurs early in the disease. Mortality in Crohn's disease is greater than expected, especially in males. For both conditions, the overall mortality has decreased steadily, and currently is less than 5%. Ulcerative colitis is curable with proctocolectomy and lieostomy. In Crohn's disease, intestinal resection and reanastomosis is followed by recurrence in the majority of patients. The recurrence rate after proctocolectomy and lieostomy for Crohn's disease of the colon also is considerable, ranging from 20% to 35%. In ulcerative colitis, the more colon involved, the more frequent and more serious are the complications. In Crohn's disease, the anatomic pattern of disease tends to predict the type and extent of complications. Both ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease appear to follow a more severe course in children and adolescents with “inflammatory bowel disease.” Patients with either ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease are at increased risk for the later development of cancer. In ulcerative colitis, the excess risk is limited to colorectal cancer. Patients with Crohn's disease have increased cancer rates for both the small and large bowel. Finally, most patients with these diseases are able to maintain normal occupations and enjoy reasonably stable social and economic situations. The successful adaptation of patients with inflammatory bowel disease is influenced by a hopeful, optimistic personality and by an encouraging, supportive physician.     

Use of Nondeliberative Practice in Groups for Older Adults with Substance Use and Mental Health Disorder: Group in an Art Gallery

ABSTRACT

This article presents an application of Norma Lang’s nondeliberative theory in groupwork with clients of Community Outreach Programs in Addictions (COPA), a Toronto community-based organization that assists adults age 55 and older who struggle with addictions and mental health. The article illustrates how we challenged concepts of group work which are predominantly discussion-based problem solving or premeditated by hosting a group in a major art gallery with clients considered difficult to serve. What was done is juxtaposed with what might have been done with greater knowledge of nondeliberative theory.     

Associations between Sadness and Anger Regulation Coping, Emotional Expression, and Physical and Relational Aggression among Urban Adolescents

This study examined associations between self-reports of sadness and anger regulation coping, reluctance to express emotion, and physical and relational aggression between two cohorts of predominantly African-American fifth (N  =  191; 93 boys and 98 girls) and eighth (N  =  167; 73 boys and 94 girls) graders. Multiple regression analyses indicated unique associations between relational aggression and expressive reluctance and sadness regulation coping. In contrast, physical aggression, but not relational aggression, was associated with anger regulation coping. These relations did not differ across gender, but the strength of the association between anger regulation coping and physical aggression varied by grade. Sadness regulation coping moderated the association between expressive reluctance and relational aggression. Conversely, anger regulation coping moderated the relation between expressive reluctance and physical aggression; however, the strength of this relation differed by gender. These findings have important implications for intervention efforts.     

Onwards and Upwards? Gender and Work in Ireland

It can be argued that the Irish workforce has been revolutionised over the past 25 years, as married women entered the world of paid work in increasing numbers, bolstering the female participation rate. There have also been changes in gender roles and gender role attitudes over the period. This review will present sociological research analysing this major social change, including research that places the Irish case in a comparative European and international context. The review will mirror the main foci of the field, paying particular attention to research on gender role attitudes, occupational segregation and unpaid work. The gendering of the Irish workforce has been a complex and uneven process, involving continuities as well as changes. Overall, the sexual division of labour remains a key feature of paid and unpaid work in Ireland, and the concept has considerable explanatory power in relation to persistent gender inequalities.     

(Un)Intentional Community: Power and Expert Knowledge in a Sustainable Lifestyle Community*

This ethnography of a cohousing organization examines power and expert knowledge in a sustainable intentional community. Intentional communities are forming at a growing rate both internationally and in the United States. Cohousing communities are part of this growing trend of alternative communities that utilize participatory democracy as both their central decision‐making process and a core component of their alternative identity. This article analyzes the tensions that evolve as cohousers build a communal housing development in one of the fastest‐growing cities in the United States. I identify mechanisms through which the constraints of operating in the highly professionalized field of housing development transform participatory decision making. When group members try to minimize loss of time and capital while competing with experienced for‐profit developers, they establish leaders and cede power to those with greater technical expertise. Yet, they continue to model their commitment to consensus decision making despite emerging hierarchies among members. I describe how the use of expert knowledge restructures the conditions governing group interaction and explore what the group's oligarchic organizational practices mean for the study of contemporary collective community organizing.