GenPhilly: A Strategy for Improving the Sustainability of Aging in Community Initiatives

GenPhilly is an innovative, replicable model that was developed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to inspire and engage emerging leaders from a variety of disciplines to promote and sustain an aging-in-community agenda. Administrative support is provided by the Area Agency on Aging, Philadelphia Corporation for Aging, yet it was designed by its members to be peer-led. In this way, young professionals in their 20s and 30s can capitalize on popular culture to create unique professional development opportunities and get younger generations thinking about the type of city in which they themselves want to get older. The group has benefited the field of aging by building awareness of aging services in the wider community; facilitating cross-disciplinary learning and innovation around aging issues; stressing the competitive advantage for emerging leaders from all fields to know about aging issues; strengthening the aging network workforce; breaking down stereotypes about working with older adults; and introducing expertise from outside the aging network to benefit older adults. Encouraging the development of similar groups will not only benefit the field of aging, it will assist the next generation of leaders in many fields to plan better for their communities and for themselves.     

Medicaid physician fees and the quality of medical care of Medicaid patients in the USA

When enacted in 1965, the original Medicaid legislation sought to finance access to mainstream medical care for the poor. I use data on visits to office-based physicians from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey in four years—1989, 1993, 1998 and 2003—to test the extent to which this goal has been achieved. Specifically, I test whether this goal has been achieved more in states that pay higher fees to physicians who treat Medicaid patients compared to states that pay lower fees. By comparing the treatment of Medicaid patients to that of privately-insured patients and by using state fixed effects, I am able to estimate the effects of changes in the generosity of Medicaid physician payment within a state on changes in access to care for Medicaid patients, therefore separating Medicaid’s effect on access to health care from any correlation between the Medicaid fee and other attributes of the state in which a patient lives. Using this method, I examine the effect of Medicaid fees on whether or not an office-based physician accepts Medicaid patients, on the fraction of a physician’s practice that is accounted for by Medicaid, and on the length of visit times with physicians. Results imply that higher Medicaid fees increase the number of private physicians, especially in medical and surgical specialties, who see Medicaid patients. Higher fees also lead to visit times with physicians that are more comparable to visit times with private pay patients.

论教师劳动供给不完全的成因

教师劳动供给不完全是在学校管理中容易被忽视的事情。教师劳动供给不完全,降低了学校教育资源的利用率,并进而影响到学校的办学效率。造成教师劳动供给不完全的原因是多方面的,其中教师劳动合同的不完全是教师劳动供给不完全形成的可能基础,固定工资制是教师劳动供给不完全形成的直接动因,学校对教师劳动供给监督的低效率是教师劳动供给不完全形成的外部环境。     

An Exploratory Analysis of Seven Child Welfare Workers who Confused SIDS with Child Maltreatment Fatalities: A Brief Research Report

Abstract

Previous research shows that child welfare workers (CWWs) have low levels of knowledge of risk factors for child maltreatment fatalities. Further, these gaps in knowledge leave CWWs with misconceptions about causes of deaths and the characteristics of the perpetrators. This brief research report focuses on CWWs’ gaps in knowledge with regard to CMFs and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and explores the socio-demographic characteristics of seven workers who confused fatal child maltreatment and SIDS. These workers were experienced professionals—who were in their middle-age, mid-career, and well-educated—and had been trained in how to recognize risk factors for CMFs. Implications for training and collaboration with other professionals are discussed, as well as the need for research to evaluate training efficacy.     

Migrant Care Workers or Migrants Working in Long-Term Care? A Review of Australian Experience

Discussion of the role of migrant care workers in long-term care (LTC) that has gained increasing attention in the United States and other developed countries in recent years is of particular relevance to Australia, where 24% of the total population is overseas-born, two-thirds of them coming from countries where English is not the primary language. Issues of interest arise regarding meeting LTC workforce demands in general and responding to the particular cultural and linguistic needs of postwar immigrants who are now reaching old age in increasing numbers. This review begins with an account of the overseas-born components of the aged care workforce and then examines this representation with reference to the four factors identified as shaping international flows of care workers in the comparative study carried out for the AARP Public Policy Institute in 2005: migration policies, LTC financing arrangements, worker recruitment and training, and credentialing. The ways in which these factors play out in Australia mean that while overseas-born workers are overrepresented in the LTC workforce, migrant care workers are not identifiable as a marginalized group experiencing disadvantage in employment conditions, nor do they offer a solution to workforce shortages. The Australian experience is different from those of other countries in many respects, but it does show that the experience of migrant care workers is not unique to LTC and points to the need to extend the search for solutions to workforce shortages and improving conditions of all care workers well beyond LTC systems to wider policy settings.     

Productive engagement across the life course: paid work and beyond

An uncertain economic outlook and the certitude of an ageing population highlight the importance of productive activity across all age groups for Australia's future. This paper reviews Australian and international research on productive ageing, which has typically focused on older age groups and specific activities, and presents national findings from Wave 10 (2010) of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey on productive activities across the life course. Both paid, tax‐generating and unpaid, voluntary activities are examined, including paid work, volunteering, caregiving, childcare, and domestic work. The kinds of productive activity people engaged in varied across age groups for men and women, highlighting the potential competition between paid work and other activities, and the importance of health and education for engagement across all ages. While the Government has begun leading actions to enhance and recognise these contributions that bring economic and social benefits both to the individual and the broader community, our research reinforces the value of investment in human capital for productive engagement across the lifespan inclusive of early, middle and later life.     

Does the DSW Practice Doctorate Provide Opportunities for Closing Gaps in Gerontology?

The 2019 annual conference of the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work (GADE) highlighted the increasing role that the Doctor of Social Work (DSW) degree is playing in social work education. Over the past 15 years, social work has followed suit with a number of other health and helping professions (PsyD, DNP, DPT, etc.) by expanding access to practice doctorate programs for professionals who are interested in doctoral-level training, but primarily have interest to remain working in the field as practitioners, rather than become researchers. As more DSW programs have emerged, questions and concerns persist about the DSW, with most questions pertaining to the meaning of the degree for the overall field and the value of having an additional advanced practice degree in social work beyond the MSW degree. However, I urge readers of the Journal of Gerontological Social Work to consider the opportunities that the DSW may present for advancing gerontological education, research, and practice.     

Managing lean capabilities through flexible workforce development: a process and framework

Many firms today are employing temporary contractual workers in order to help them to stay lean and flexible. The benefit of this approach is that the process of layoff is much easier. Thus, an emerging issue arises here, on how can firms manage and train temporary workers effectively? The core of lean adoption is through people, to have workers buy into the ideas and be part of the overall initiative. There is very little guidance available on how to deal with contractual workers who have less motivation and commitment to the firm given that they are only employed on a temporary basis. This article proposes a framework and process to assist firms in managing and training temporary workers to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the implementation of lean improvement initiatives.