Land of forgetfulness: dementia care as spiritual formation

The personal circumstances of dementia caregiving are sometimes experienced as so severely demanding as to be overwhelming. While sustenance within, and recovery from these experiences are increasingly addressed in helpful ways from psychological, emotional, and practical life planning frames of reference, we are still learning how to speak with one another about the spiritual dimensions of this peculiar journey. From a spiritual perspective, the caregiver initially, and frequently perpetually, finds her/himself in a state of spiritual exhaustion. Oddly enough, there are ample resources at hand to address this existential state with wisdom and grace, allowing for the possibility that the caregiver might move from spiritual weariness to enhanced spiritual formation.     

Fitness and Fatness in Relation to Health: Implications for a Paradigm Shift

Health care professionals most often approach health promotion for large persons in the context that health improvement can be attained only through weight loss. Unequivocal acceptance of the notion that thinness equals health and fitness has been the only health intervention strategy available for many large men and women. The apparent ineffectiveness of traditional diet and exercise programming to reduce body weight has caused many health care providers, obesity researchers, and lay persons to challenge the further use of diet and exercise for the sole purpose of reducing body weight in the large person. A brief survey of the most popular dieting techniques used over the past 40 years shows that most techniques cycle in and out of popularity, and that many of these techniques are hazardous to health. Data from the scientific community indicate that diet and exercise programs for weight loss are ineffective in producing reduced weight maintenance after a period of 3 to 5 years. On the other hand, there are data indicating that overweight men and women can become healthy without losing significant amounts of weight. Furthermore, epidemiological studies indicate that fitness, not fatness, is related to disease and mortality. Any intervention strategy for the obese should be one that promotes the development of a healthy lifestyle. The outcome parameters used to evaluate the success of such an intervention should be specific to disease risk and symptomatologies and not limited to medically ambiguous variables like body weight or body composition.     

Social work in mental health services: A survey of the field

Abstract

A survey of social workers employed in mental health services was conducted in Victoria in mid-1997. Approximately 300 social workers were identified as working in the sector. About half were employed in adult clinical services, 23% in psychiatric disability services, 12.4% in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, and the rest in a range of other services. More than 90% worked in a community based service or team. The number of entry-level (SW I) positions in clinical services was found to have declined over the last ten years from 61 to 14, resulting in a lack of opportunities for social workers to gain experience in base grade positions, and difficulty in recruiting to SW II positions. Major issues of concern reported by social workers included: the lack of accommodation and other community resources for consumers; diminished opportunities for professional development, supervision, and discipline-specific training; lack of professional recognition; increasing workloads; and organisational emphasis on throughput rather than quality.     

A Preliminary Investigation of a Telephone Administration of the Quality of Marriage Index

Follow‐up data collection presents many challenges for longitudinal research. Validating paper‐and‐pencil assessments for use via telephone may alleviate these issues. This study evaluates psychometric properties of the Quality of Marriage Index (QMI; Norton, 1983, Journal of Marriage and the Family, 45, 141) when administered by telephone and compares scores with the paper‐and‐pencil version. Participants included women with major depressive disorder and dyadic discord and their male spouses (n = 24 couples). Results suggest excellent scale reliability for the verbal QMI. However, a significant mean difference was found: participants scored on average 3 points higher on the telephone‐administered QMI than on the written QMI. Recommendations for future research and clinical implications are discussed.     

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) History and Conceptual Overview

The concept of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) is a system that enables the production of safe meat and poultry products through the thorough analysis of production processes, identification of all hazards that are likely to occur in the production establishment, the identification of critical points in the process at which these hazards may be introduced into product and therefore should be controlled, the establishment of critical limits for control at those points, the verification of these prescribed steps, and the methods by which the processing establishment and the regulatory authority can monitor how well process control through the HACCP plan is working. The history of the development of HACCP is reviewed, and examples of practical applications of HACCP are described.     

Children In Poverty: The Fundamental Issue

According to the Census Bureau, 21.9 percent of children in the United States in 1992 were poor (25 percent if one considers only those under six). Those 14.6 million children comprise 40 percent of the total population living below the poverty line. This essay documents their plight, examines the secondary effects of poverty upon the person and community, analyzes why the current “subsidy” approach has been ineffective, seeks a holistic explanation for poverty, and proposes a universal approach based on “supplementation” and “empowerment.” Due to the present budget deficit, the program is designed to be revenue neutral; it should not require any additional taxes.     

The Spread of Disability Living Allowance

This article examines the spread of Disability Living Allowance across a group of low income households in an industrial town in North West England from the introduction of the new benefits in 1992 until the Spring of 1996. We focus on the changes over time of the incidence of Disability Living Allowance in the low income population and look at the relative spread of different elements of the benefit. We speculate on whether the new benefits have provided the most effective way of fulfilling the aims of the White Paper, The Way Ahead , and discuss the implications for social and medical models of disability.     

A manpower planning model for organizational effectiveness

In this article the author argues that micro-manpower planning is finally beginning to emerge as a process for helping individuals and firms to play an active role in developing integrated approaches and facilitating interrelationships within an organization. Additionally, that it is in a unique position where it can relate many of the foundations formulated by many segments of organizational theory and mathematical modeling into a cohesive and practical application format for practicing administrators.Naturally, the developed Markovian model is a stable process and assumes stable probabilities of movement with the system. Additionally, it assumes that movements between the states are dependent solely upon the previous state of location which is usually false in a business organization where movement is also dependent upon length of time in state, previous states occupied, and personal variables. But, the Markovian process can be viewed as a relevant modeling technique even with these constraints.These factors are combined to examine and discuss the organization's effectiveness and its bargaining position in terms of manpower resources. Additionally, policy decisions which would be made based upon the interrelationships of the personnel and industrial relations departments and the firm's technical core are discussed.