Can a Unified Service Delivery Philosophy Be Identified in Aging and Disability Organizations? Exploring Competing Service Delivery Models Through the Voices of the Workforce in These Organizations

Services for older adults and younger people with disabilities are increasingly merging, as reflected in the creation of Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs). Using ADRCs to coordinate services is challenging, primarily because these fields have different service delivery philosophies. Independent Living Centers, which serve people with disabilities, have a philosophy that emphasizes consumer control and peer mentoring. However, the aging service delivery philosophy is based in a case management or medical model in which the role of consumers directing their services is less pronounced. Using institutional logics theory and a qualitative research design, this study explored whether a unified service delivery philosophy for ADRCs was emerging. Based on focus groups and questionnaires with staff from ADRCs, findings revealed that competing service delivery models continue to operate in the aging and disability fields.     

Building the adult protective services system of tomorrow: The role of the APS national voluntary consensus guidelines

In 2015, the Administration for Community Living (ACL) established the first federal “home” for Adult Protective Services (APS). This leadership has included working collaboratively with state Adult Protective Service systems to ensure that older adults and adults with disabilities are afforded the same protections against abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation regardless of where in the country they live. As part of that leadership, ACL created draft Voluntary Consensus Guidelines for State APS Systems. ACL undertook a process of public and stakeholder engagement and analyzed the resulting comments to improve upon the initial draft of the draft to arrive at the final version. This article examines the comments, including the concerns raised by the commenters about specific areas of the Guidelines, areas identified for future research, and reflections and opinions on the role of the federal government in guiding the development of the field of adult protection.     

La polarisation des emplois en Europe dans une perspective sectorielle

L'auteure s'intéresse à la polarisation des emplois en Europe, dans une étude empirique portant sur cinq pays (Allemagne, Espagne, France, Italie et Royaume‐Uni) suivis de 1999 à 2011. Elle cherche à faire ressortir l'évolution de la structure de l'emploi dans une perspective sectorielle, en considérant quatre macrogroupes professionnels (établis en fonction du niveau de qualification et du salaire) et en tenant compte du rapport à la technologie. Un indice de polarisation est aussi utilisé. Plusieurs scénarios émergent, mais la polarisation domine dans les services et dans certains pays et conduit à rejeter la thèse d'un progrès technique biaisé en faveur des qualifcations.     

Stakeholder perspectives on integrated services for people who experience chronic homelessness

This article concerns a SAMHSA-funded service intervention, Pathways to Independence, that combined the use of SAMHSA’s SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery approach to facilitating disability entitlement claims with financial management classes, mental health assessment and referral, and access to employment and housing for people experiencing chronic homelessness. The purpose of this study was to explore perceptions of this form of service delivery and the benefits and challenges of the program model from the perspective of those who experienced it. Focus groups were conducted with a total of 17 program stakeholders, including program participants, program staff, collaborating case management staff of the parent agency, and a landlord and an employer, with questions to each regarding the program and its impact. Focus groups were analyzed through independent coding followed by discussion to reach consensus on key themes. Five themes were identified across the groups: (a) the importance of relationships, (b) staff specialization and provision of individualized services, (c) an orientation to outcomes, (d) comprehensiveness of services and facilitation of connections to community resources, and (e) systems challenges. The Pathways to Independence program provides a working model for integrated employment, entitlement assessment and application, housing, and behavioral health treatment for persons experiencing chronic homelessness.     

Distribution and selection of experts in the intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services (IPBES): the case of the regional assessment for Africa

In 2013, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) agreed to carry out a regional assessment for Africa. Since then, roughly 100 authors have been working to deliver, in 2018, a document that not only synthesises existing knowledge on biodiversity and ecosystem services for the African region but to distil from it knowledge that is relevant, credible, and legitimate for both societal and scientific practise. This requires, firstly, to carefully constituting the group of authors and, secondly, to design an assessment process that allows for deriving at an integrated perspective amongst these experts. Such a joint process of knowledge production that encompasses both interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration can be framed as co-creation. In this contribution, we analyse whether the IPBES African assessment accounts for these two prerequisites for an effective assessment process. Our particular interest lays in the question whether scholars from social sciences and the humanities are sufficiently involved. Our analysis is based on the curriculum vitae of 97 members of the expert group, and reads quite straightforward: there is an overall lack of non-natural science perspectives and expertise that might lead to essential knowledge and data gaps when wishing to understand the effects of the diverse human concepts of and activities on biodiversity and ecosystem services. In order to address these gaps and to derive at an assessment report truly relevant for policy makers as well as other social and scientific actors, IPBES needs to widen its outreach to networks of scholars from the social sciences and the humanities and to inform them appropriately about the specific roles they could play within IPBES processes, particularly assessments.     

Borrowing trouble. Finding ways out of value systems discord for biodiversity policy-making

IPBES’ conceptual framework, and the related debates prior to its adoption, provided an interesting opportunity to witness an old and ongoing tension between two value systems, namely an “economic” and utility-based value system, and a “cultural” and comprehensive value system. Arguments for and against both value systems relate, at least partly, to criteria such as practicality, democracy, comprehensiveness and respect for various forms of worldviews. However, disputes regarding the legitimacy of these value systems mostly rest on theoretical ground since they generally focus on the potential threats and future promises of approaches related to these value systems, rather than on their actual impacts and performance. This article aims to contribute to filling this gap.

Typical instruments of the “economic” value system are cost-benefit analysis and its correlate, ecosystem services valuation. The key selling point of these instruments is their ability to support efficient, transparent and democratic policy-making processes. On the other hand, their most often denounced threat lies in paving the way to the commodification of nature. In this paper, these promises and threats are put to test in the context of Official Development Assistance and the decision-making processes of five Official Development Agencies (ODAs) such as the World Bank, the European Investment Banks and three bilateral ODAs. The paper provides for an analysis of the role of cost-benefit analysis and ecosystem services valuation for supporting decision-making in the fields related to the local environment in these ODAs. Results suggest that, however favourable the context of ODA appears for economic valuation instruments, the “economic” value system has failed to deliver both in terms of its most commonly boasted promises and its most often denounced threats. This suggests renewing our views on the tension between the value systems. All value systems give birth to languages, concepts and representations that can be used as complementary rather than conflicting resources as long as the economic analysis is no longer considered as a proxy for decision-making, but rather as a useful language to speak of material interests and of distribution, and to bring these concerns into deliberation processes.     

Juvenile delinquency in Romania: a comparison between minors in prisons and re-education services

This article assesses the relationships between the individual and family characteristics of minors and juvenile delinquency in Romania. This cross-sectional study involved Romanian delinquent minors, 285 of whom were incarcerated in prisons in Romania and 280 subject to educational measures in re-education services in Romania. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that delinquency in incarcerated minors is associated with age, the offence committed, drug use, school dropout rates, recidivism, family alcoholism, the relationship with the biological parents, and the number of biological siblings. The study provides baseline data to identify at-risk minors in order to develop prevention programmes. We have adopted a public health approach to analysing delinquency and targets risk factors.     

Responsive engagement in mental health services for foster youth transitioning to adulthood

ABSTRACT

As youth near the transition to adulthood and aging out of the foster care system, exposure to stress increases, especially for youth who have less-than-adequate support systems. Although mental health problems among foster youth often continue into adulthood, service use decreases dramatically within a year of turning age 18. Understanding how foster youth experience mental health services as they transition from care provides social workers and other mental health professionals important insight that can lead to specific, targetable strategies. This study sought to explore what situations were helpful in supporting mental health as foster youth transitioned to adulthood. Focus groups and interviews with former foster youth and professionals informed the development of a quantitative instrument, which was used to identify the most supportive and frequently encountered situations former foster youth experienced. Findings indicate the most helpful situations were those in which professionals and mentors were flexible and responsive to their individual needs and trusted their ability to make decisions. Supportive adults who honored their choices and collaborated in decision-making were also helpful. Engaging, empowering, and partnering with transition-age youth may increase the likelihood of positive mental health outcomes for this population, offering implications for family-centered, strengths-based practice.     

Telecommunication relay services as a tool for deaf political participation and citizenship

It has long been recognised that deaf people experience barriers to political participation and that notions of citizenship do not take into account the needs of deaf sign language users. In light of an effort at the European level to increase the potential for deaf sign language users to participate in political processes through technology, this paper provides results from a survey study of deaf sign language users across Europe as to their preferences in using Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS), whether they would like to see the establishment of a pan-European multilingual TRS and if they would make use of such a service for the purposes of political participation. Responses from 74 deaf people across 14 European member states confirm that deaf people want to see such a service, and would be willing to use it in order to make contact with European institutions. Therefore, the establishment of such a service has the potential to contribute to improved access to, and increased willingness to engage in, democracy through telecommunications and thus enhance the citizenship status of deaf Europeans, and therefore enhance their political participation and access to information and communication in society.     

American Indian Grand-Families: Trauma and Services

Since the United States Census Bureau began collecting data regarding grandparents raising their grandchildren, the American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) population has had the highest proportion of families led by grandparents as the primary caregivers of their grandchildren. Despite this, research into AI/AN grand-families is limited. To begin to fill this gap, this qualitative study of 49 AI/AN grandparents raising grand-families (GFs) was conducted in an urban area with one of the highest AI/AN populations in the United States. Results indicated that loss and trauma within the middle generation is a central theme for GF formation. Such GFs also reported using a variety of services spanning state, tribal, and urban AI/AN programs, with educational support as a primary need articulated for their grandchildren. Surprisingly, enculturation was not mentioned as a primary driver of GF formulation. The study suggests a need for further exploration of the needs of urban-based AI/AN GFs, and that service providers must be aware of such issues when working with AI/AN GFs.