Unequal Partners? Local Government Reorganization and the Voluntary Sector

British local government has recently undergone its most far-reaching reorganization for twenty-five years. The impact of this reorganization was considerable within local authorities but it also substantially affected other organizations with which they worked at a local level. This paper explores the perspectives of voluntary sector organizations involved in social care: a set of actors which, prior to reorganization, had been encouraged by central and local government, through notions of partnership and through community care legislation, to undertake more direct roles in service delivery, consultation and strategic planning. During the consultative period prior to reorganization, many voluntary organizations reported that they had been marginal to the process. Reflecting on the process of reorganization itself, many voluntary organization respondents commented that it had been disruptive and provoked considerable anxiety. Post-reorganization, voluntary organizations felt that rebuilding of relationships was necessary and that the promise of partnership had meant little in practice at a time of potential crisis for local.     

Care Diamonds and Welfare Regimes in East and South-East Asian Societies: Bridging Family and Welfare Sociology

This paper tries to bridge the micro-level analyses of social networks for "care" provision which have been conducted in the field of family sociology, and the macro-level framework on welfare mix which has been developed in the area of welfare sociology, because the options for creating social networks are given to individuals by society. A group of Asian researchers including the author have conducted comparative research on social networks for childcare and elderly care in six Asian societies, namely Korea, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, and Japan. To reexamine the results, the author draws diagrams of the care diamonds in each society for each type of care (childcare or elderly care) to show the balance between four sectors (the state, market, family and relatives, and the community) which determines the pattern of welfare mix. The most prevalent pattern in Asian societies today is the pattern with a large family and relatives sector and a large market sector. We can interpret it as a familistic welfare regime combined with liberalism. However, Japan alone shows a pattern close to pure familism because the development of the market sector is restricted by immigration policies prohibiting the employment of foreign domestic workers. Unlike other Asian societies which were exposed to the global market before the family could become a closed organization and marketization of care work took place easily, in Japan, where the modern family system had been established, both socialization and marketization of care work have stagnated.     

Family involvement in the institutional eldercare context. Towards a new understanding

This article focuses on family involvement and its various patterns and expressions in the context of end-of-life care in a nursing home. Based on analyses from an ethnographic study carried out at a nursing home ward, the aim is to describe and analyze the conditions of aging and dying for the old residents, as well as effects on their visiting families and relatives. As in similar research findings, it became clear from the study that families continue to visit and contribute to the care of the old resident throughout the years, from the time of placement to their demise, but that this involvement might vary both in content and in extent. However, it was found that families' involvement (as well as their changing relationships and roles) is particularly shaped by the very process of dying and lingering aura of death on the ward. The analysis presented in the article evinces the difficult — and in many ways impossible — role of the family in the institutional end-of-life setting, and discloses the various patterns and manifestations of family involvement in this environment. Different meanings and implications of family involvement are discussed and highlighted.     

Children’s Psychosocial Rehabilitation: Clinical Outcomes for Youth with Serious Emotional Disturbance Living in Foster Care

Children living in foster care are an especially vulnerable population who often come to the attention of Medicaid mental health providers. These children experience a high incidence of emotional and behavioral disorders and may have specialized treatment needs related to their living arrangement status. This study assessed whether Children’s Psychosocial Rehabilitation could effectively treat youth with severe emotional and behavioral disorders who live in foster care. Analysis of data from an open trial of 218 clinically-impaired youth, aged 3–18 years, revealed no reliable differences in treatment outcome between foster versus non-foster children, with a trend toward more favorable outcomes for foster youth. Findings justify further study of the effectiveness of this Medicaid-funded service for the treatment of youth in care.     

Family Therapy for Kids Without Families: Working Systemically With Children and Young People in Residential Care

A significant proportion (4%, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2008) of children and young people in Australia live in some form of residential care, usually in small group‐homes staffed by residential care workers in shifts. However, as Hawkins‐Rodgers (2007) points out, these placements are often not resourced to heal the effects of trauma and multiple attachment disruptions in their residents. The lack of an archetypal ‘family’ has led in the past to family therapists considering that there is little work to be done with such clients. This leaves such placements to be supported most frequently by clinicians who specialise in behaviour management and other linearly founded models of practice. The Alternate Care Clinic (ACC) is the first mental health service in New South Wales dedicated entirely to children and young people in out of home care with a high level of complex needs. This article examines the systemic therapeutic model the clinic has developed in the last two years. In particular, the article seeks to explore the importance of ‘meaning making’ in a diffuse parental system, particularly with regards to the term ‘family’. The complexities of working in this area and possible ways forward are illustrated with a closely worked case study.     

Who cares and how much: exploring the determinants of co-residential informal care

The importance of informal care provided inside the household (co-residential care) is widely acknowledged in policy circles. However, the factors that determine the likelihood and scale of provision are not fully understood. A two-part model (2PM) is used to investigate both participation and levels of provision. Random effects dynamic panel specifications are employed. Results show that co-residential informal care competes with other time demanding activities, such as childcare and employment. Wealthier individuals are less likely to be caregivers, whereas wealthier households have a higher tendency towards caregiving. Evidence of both substitution and complementarity is found between formal and informal care. Informal care and health status are significantly related, with carers more likely to report worse General Health Questionnaire scores than non-carers. Finally, significant dynamic effects are observed with the continuance of the provision of informal care being more likely than the initiation of such activity, while heavy commitment in the past increases the hours provided in the current period.

上海城市生活不能自理老人生活照料状况及意愿研究

本文以1999年《上海市生活不能自理老人家庭照料和社会支持调查》的数据为依据,分析了上海市生活不能自理老人的家庭基本情况及其生活服务需求,为解决生活不能自理老人照料问题提供参考.     

障碍与突破：推进城乡居民医疗保障制度衔接的若干思考

推进城乡居民医疗保障制度衔接是落实科学发展观、实现城乡统筹的重要举措,也是实现“人人享有基本医疗保障”目标的现实需要。我国城乡医疗保障制度衔接面临着理论研究之政治偏好、公共产品供给的非均衡、制度设计的缺陷性及管理的各方割据性等诸多障碍。克服其障碍,应在研究的导向性、公共产品供给均等化、制度的科学设计及城乡居民医疗保障管理的法制化等方面寻找突破,着力推进城乡医疗保障的有效衔接。     

农民工阶层的特征与社会地位

农民工从其社会属性看已经成为一个阶层,具有阶层流动性强、职业低质性、让会网络复制性、生活方式疏隔化等阶层特性。其社会地位总体上处于城市社会的底层,是城市社会中的“佣人”阶层、“沉默”阶层、“无根”阶层和“边缘”阶层。阻碍农民工在城市生存与发展的主要问题源于社会制度与社会政策的障碍,因此,制度的改革、创新便成为新的问题提了出来,而市场与政府是冲击这种陈旧制度与政策的两股最重要的力量。     

新生代农民工就业能力提升问题研究

新生代农民工可以通过正规教育、社会资本的支持以及"干中学"提升其就业能力。考虑到教育成本、市场需求等因素,新生代农民工应选择职业技术教育提升就业能力;依赖社会资本的支持提升就业能力,需要强调完整的家庭对新生代农民工提升就业能力的重要性,激励企业为员工提供更多在职培训,充分利用新生代农民工在工作搜寻中所依赖的草根力量,帮助农民工获得更多的就业机会,从而使他们有机会获得在职培训和"干中学"的机会,进一步提高其自身的就业能力;"干中学"作为提升就业能力的重要途径,以就业为前提,并与劳动者个人的学习能力紧密相关。