Bringing Back Community: Family Support From the Bottom Up

This paper presents findings of an evaluation of a one‐off, small scale, pilot project. Picking up where Sure Start, the government programme for families of newborns to threes, leaves off, ‘Families in Focus’ works with children aged four to 16 on a disadvantaged council estate in London. Through this route, the programme also reaches out to the families, providing a high level of on the spot local support. Feeding into the government's social exclusion agenda, the impact of the project has been significant, not least in restoring a strong sense of community to a previously alienated problem estate.     

Putting Programme into Practice: The Introduction of Concurrent Planning into Mainstream Adoption and Fostering Services

Originating in Seattle, USA, in the early 1980s, concurrentplanning aimed to speed the placement of children into permanentfamilies, either birth or substitute, and to reduce overallthe time spent in impermanent care. When the first pilot concurrentplanning project was introduced in the UK in 1998, independentevaluation was a requirement of government funding. The evaluationwas expanded to include two additional projects when the numberof initial referrals failed to meet the projected target. Thispaper looks beyond the successful outcomes of the pilot projects,focusing instead on the local authority context in order toexplore some of the difficulties in setting up such an innovativeprogramme, and to shed light on why concurrent planning appearedslow to take off. Based primarily on interviews conducted withsocial workers at different levels of responsibility, the researchersencountered a steep learning curve for all the professionals.The research findings indicated positive outcomes for the childrenplaced through concurrent planning, but limited understandingof the concept of concurrent planning, uncertainty in the divisionof responsibilities, and failure to take up preparation andtraining opportunities contributed to the initial slow progressin the incorporation of the programme.     

Regulating The Abject

In this paper, through an examination of mostly British make-over television programs we examine how the feminine has become a new site of limitless possibility and endless consumption, the fulcrum of intensifying processes of neo-liberal reinvention of continuously making over the self into successful, post-feminist bourgeois subjects. We argue that the central premise of contemporary make-over programs is the question: “Is the transformation of abject subjects possible?” We also suggest the focal object of transformation in many shows is the working class woman who fails both as subject/object of self-reflexivity, desire, and consumption. We argue it is her mind and body that represents a core site of abjection—a subjectivity designated as uninhabitable and therefore also a central site of regulation. It is upon the working class woman's mind and body that the drama of possibility and limitation of neo-liberal reinvention is played out. We also argue that it is perhaps in reference to that which is made abject and uninhabitable that it becomes possible to talk about class as a dynamic of identifying against what we must not be, and which fuels incessant attempts to refashion selves into generalized and normalized bourgeois feminine subjects.     

Disseminating Effective Community Prevention Practices: Opportunities for Social Work Education

In the United States about 17% of adolescents meet diagnostic criteria for mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. Six million young people receive treatment services annually for mental, emotional, or behavioral problems. These problems affect 1 in 5 families and cost $247 million annually (O'Connell, Boat, & Warner, 2009). Some strategies for preventing mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders in young people have been developed, tested, and found to be effective in preventing the onset, persistence, and severity of psychological disorders, drug abuse, and delinquency. Unfortunately, tested and effective prevention policies, programs, and practices are not widely used (O'Connell, Boat, & Warner, 2009). This paper highlights recent advances in prevention science and describes some opportunities and challenges in advancing the use of science-based prevention in communities. The chapter concludes by exploring the potential role of social work education in developing a workforce ready to increase community access to effective prevention strategies.     

Yarning about gambling in Indigenous communities: an Aboriginal and Islander Mental Health Initiative

Gambling impacts upon the health, wellbeing and finances of many people throughout Australia. This study aimed to explore the socioeconomic and cultural factors linked with gambling in urban and remote Indigenous settings in the Northern Territory to inform the development of a gambling public health strategy. The Aboriginal and Islander Mental Health Initiative developed a semi‐structured questionnaire with Aboriginal partner organisations following consultation. Indigenous consumers of substance use treatment facilities participated in focus group discussions and key informant interviews were conducted with nine service providers at two time points, a year apart. Participants described key strengths in community as family, health and culture, while key worries included substance misuse, health concerns and family disharmony. Regulated gambling and card playing were also identified as important community worries. Financial and family concerns and addictive behaviour were seen as negative consequences of gambling. There was increasing concern linked with card playing and electronic gaming machines and an increased call for awareness campaigns, support from government for change and greater regulation. The findings of this study provide the most recent insight into attitudes, behaviours and consequences linked with Indigenous gambling in the Northern Territory.     

SIGNALING IN HIGHER EDUCATION: THE EFFECT OF ACCESS TO ELITE COLLEGES ON CHOICE OF MAJOR

I propose a model of postsecondary education in which major field of study can be used by individuals to signal productivity to employers. Under this signaling model, I show that geographic areas with high access to elite universities result in fewer science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors among lower ability students at nonelite colleges. This is distinct from the prediction of a full information model in which access to elite schools should only affect high ability individuals directly. Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics' Baccalaureate & Beyond survey, I find evidence that is consistent with the signaling model prediction, specifically a 2.3–3.7 percentage point or 16%–25% decrease in the probability of choosing a STEM major among lower ability students in areas with greater access to elite colleges. (JEL I21, J24)     

Pathological gamblers and their spouses: Problems in interaction

Two parallel self-administered surveys were distributed at three conferences of Gamblers Anonymous. One survey was for members of Gamblers Anonymous and the other was for members of GamAnon. Of the approximately 450 respondents, 302 were completed by the compulsive gambler and the spouse (N=151 couples). This article is a report on these 151 couples. The survey focused on two time periods — the gambler's time of torment, a phase spent in plumbing the depths of dread and despair, and the period of recovery following abstinence from gambling. Specific areas covered focus on the gambler's gambling activities, the spouse's awareness of problems, psychosomatic and emotional difficulties of the couple, sexual relationships, children's attitudes, and financial management. The respondents also indicated their need for specific therapy and workshops which could be provided by professional mental health counselors or at Gamblers Anonymous conferences.Based on a paper presented at the Seventh International Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking, Reno, August 22–26, 1987.