How can context and discourse affect teachers’ and mental health professionals’ interactions with adults with mental illness?

Patients with severe mental illness may have needs different from those of patients with more limited illnesses and might benefit from other types of intervention than traditional treatment. We interviewed health care professionals from two open, short-term psychiatric wards and teachers from two schools for adults with psychiatric diagnoses. The focus was to explore how differences in contextual factors such as time, tasks, and organizational demands might affect the actions and attitudes of health care professionals and teachers, as well as the potential consequences for patients and students. Data were collected through qualitative interviews. Participants included 14 health care professionals and 14 teachers. The informants worked with patients and students with similar diagnoses and illness durations. All interviews were conducted during the informants’ work time. Findings and interpretations showed that both teachers and health care professionals were engaged in their work and in the wellbeing of students and patients. However, they described marked differences in practice, including the amount of time spent with students/patients, the organization of their work, main tasks, amount of control over their tasks, and social structure. These differences seemed to affect relationships with students/patients, attitudes toward students/patients, norms and values, and opportunities for patient empowerment. Our findings suggest that while existing psychiatric health care might be appropriate for limited short-term problems such as single-episode depression, a model with a supportive environment, based on stable relations and possibility for learning, may improve personal development and mental health for persons with severe mental illness and disturbances in self-experience.     

Estimation of P{X < Y} for geometric—exponential model based on complete and censored samples

This article deals with the estimation of R = P{X < Y}, where X and Y are independent random variables from geometric and exponential distribution, respectively. For complete samples, the MLE of R, its asymptotic distribution, and confidence interval based on it are obtained. The procedure for deriving bootstrap-p confidence interval is presented. The UMVUE of R and UMVUE of its variance are derived. The Bayes estimator of R is investigated and its Lindley's approximation is obtained. A simulation study is performed in order to compare these estimators. Finally, all point estimators for right censored sample from the exponential distribution, are obtained.     

Generalized minimum aberration mixed-level orthogonal arrays: A general approach based on sequential integer quadratically constrained quadratic programming

Orthogonal fractional factorial designs and in particular orthogonal arrays (OAs) are frequently used in many fields of application, including medicine, engineering, and agriculture. In this article, we present a methodology and an algorithm to find an OA, of given size and strength, which satisfies the generalized minimum aberration criterion. The methodology is based on the joint use of polynomial counting functions, complex coding of levels, and algorithms for quadratic optimization and puts no restriction on the number of levels of each factor.     

Randomized controlled trial of the Resilience and Coping Intervention (RCI) with undergraduate university students

Objective: The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the Resilience and Coping Intervention (RCI) with college students. Participants: College students (aged 18–23) from a large Midwest US university who volunteered for a randomized controlled trial during the 2015 spring semester. Methods: College students were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 64) or a control (n = 65) group. Intervention participants received three 45-minute RCI sessions over subsequent weeks. All participants completed pre- and post-intervention assessments at the beginning of Week 1 and end of Week 3. Student resilience, coping, hope, stress, depression, and anxiety were assessed. Results. RCI participants reported significantly more hope and less stress and depression from Week 1 to Week 3 compared with control participants. Results for resilience also approached statistical significance. Effect sizes were small to moderate. Conclusions: This study found preliminary evidence that RCI is an effective resilience intervention for use with college students.     

Care in a Time of Austerity: the Electronic Monitoring of Homecare Workers’ Time

Austerity places intense pressures on labour costs in paid care. In the UK, electronic monitoring technology has been introduced to record (and materially reduce) the working time and wages of homecare workers. Based on empirical findings, we show that, in a ‘time of austerity’, care is reductively constructed as a consumption of time. Service users are constructed as needy, greedy, time‐consumers and homecare workers as resource‐wasting time‐takers. We point to austerity as a temporal ideology aimed at persuading populations that individual deprivation in the present moment, self‐sacrifice and the suppression of personal need in the here and now is a necessary requirement to underpin a more secure national future. Accordingly, women in low‐waged care work are required to eschew a rights‐bearing, present‐tense identity and are assumed willing to suppress their entitlements to lawful wages as a sacrifice to the future. By transforming our understandings of ‘care’ into those of ‘time consumption’, and by emphasizing the virtue of present‐tense deprivation, a politics of austerity appears to justify time‐monitoring in care provision and the rationing of homecare workers’ pay.     

政府适度干预简论

自由竞争经济下,资本家的过分自利行为造成了市场失灵,因此政府以一种"调控人"的身份对市场失灵进行干预,而长期的政府干预不可避免地出现了"政府失灵"。传统政府干预理论认为这种现象是由于经济法未完全生效的原因,并依此提出双向干预说,期望利用经济法克服政府失灵。但实际上政府失灵是经济法的一部分,对政府失灵的克服只能是完善经济法自身,具体措施可以引入适度干预学说:第一,引入契约机制的互动干预体系;第二,建立责任与干预相统一的问责制度;第三,将克服"政府失灵"列入除经济法以外的合适法律形式。     

社会工作介入留守儿童服务的方法与技巧——以XY市某社区为例

中国社会的急剧转型,城镇化进程加速,产生了一个特殊的农民工群体。随之出现数百万留守儿童。调查发现,85％以上的留守儿童是由祖父母隔代监护和亲友临时监管,而年迈体弱、文化素质较低的祖辈监护人难以满足孩子的学习辅导和生活监护的需要。加上家庭教育的缺失,学校与家庭之间的沟通不畅,家庭和学校监护不力,导致相当数量的留守儿童产生厌学、逃学、辍学等现象。作者从社会工作的角度出发,从留守儿童本身,留守儿童家庭、学校、社会等方面入手,提出三种切实可行的介入应对措施,即社会工作急需介入留守儿童的个案咨询和辅导、介入留守儿童互助支持小组活动、介入留守儿童家庭的亲子沟通。     

心理资本:组织竞争优势之源

从心理资本的概念与构成维度、心理资本的测量与干预、心理资本的影响效应研究三个方面对心理资本做了阐述。在对国内外现有文献进行回顾和评述的基础上,指出现有研究的不足,提出了对未来的展望。     

城乡结合部老旧社区的嵌入式治理

基于城乡结合部老旧社区治理的嵌入性特征,将嵌入性理论视角与存量规划新常态下老旧社区的治理创新诉求相关联,从理论和实践双重维度研究阐述城乡结合部老旧社区嵌入式治理的生成背景、行动策略与创新路径。现阶段,多元治理主体在助力城乡结合部老旧社区治理与改造过程中,为满足老旧社区基础性改造需求、超越传统治理的行政化倾向、实现内源性发展目标,业已形成资源型嵌入、功能型嵌入和融合型嵌入三种行动策略,但受复杂的治理情境和滞后的治理后管理机制的影响易面临适应性挑战。应通过激发社区居民主体能动性、推进社会资本再组织化、完善治理后管理机制等具体路径,推进城乡结合部老旧社区嵌入式治理的可持续发展。     

“非典”危机反应与危机心理干预

面对突如其来的SARS流行,社会上普遍出现恐慌、焦虑、担忧等心理反应。如何帮助人们调整心态,应对危机,在危机中获得成长,已经成为心理学家当前最关心的课题。文章从心理学的角度出发,探讨了SARS危机下人们出现的身心反应以及危机可能引发的后果,提出了危机干预的方法、过程,初步构建了危机干预的模式。对于如何应对SARS引起的过度的危机反应,文章中也提出了自我心理调适的途径和方法。