农村富余劳动力转移问题初探

现阶段农业、农村、农民问题的实质与核心是如何增加农民收入问题,而农民收入增长缓慢的深层次原因是农民就业不充分、农村劳动生产率低下,中国农村1 5亿的富余劳动力急需转移、安排就业。文章就农村富余劳动力转移所存在的问题进行思考,寻求切实可行的对策。     

Health Care Reform and the Behavioral Health Workforce

Health care reform will increase the number of individuals who have access to substance abuse services. This impending influx of consumers has the potential of overwhelming the service capacity of providers within the field. Provisions included in the reform legislation might fall short of their intended goal to expand the number of service providers needed to deliver services. This article discusses unmet treatment need in the United States, the current numbers of service providers, and provisions within the reform legislation to increase the labor force. Recommendations are set forth that could help expand the number of providers in the field.     

Secondary traumatic stress and self-care inextricably linked

ABSTRACT

Increasingly trauma scholars are exploring the susceptibility of mental health providers to secondary trauma reactions. The current study explores the relationship between clinical social work practice with trauma-exposed clients and secondary traumatic stress among social workers. The intent of this study is to identify the role various factors play in the development of secondary trauma (also known as compassion fatigue). A simple random sample of National Association of Social Workers members were asked to participate. Participants completed an online survey that explored their exposure and responses to secondary traumatic stress. The online survey consisted of standardized measures including the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale and The Coping Strategies Inventory which assesses secondary trauma and self-care strategies, respectively (Bober, Regehr, & Zhou, 2006; Bride, Robinson, Yegidis, & Figley, 2003). The magnitude of work (the extent and intensity of time working with trauma-exposed clients) is assessed by a non-standardized measure which consists of clinical caseloads composition questions. Job satisfaction is measured by items taken from the National Association of Social Workers’ workplace questionnaire (Whitaker & Arrington, 2008). 161 social workers completed the online survey. It required approximately 35 minutes to complete. This project empirically demonstrated that high-magnitude social work practice (providing therapeutic intervention to trauma survivors, i.e. military service members and veterans) is associated with higher levels of secondary trauma. There is also empirical evidence that self-care strategies can mitigate the impact of the secondary trauma. Educational and workforce implications for study findings are discussed.     

Service Completion Estimates for Cross‐trained Workforce Schedules under Uncertain Attendance and Demand

Although cross‐trained workers offer numerous operational advantages for extended‐hour service businesses, they must first be scheduled for duty. The outcome from those decisions, usually made a week or more in advance, varies with realized service demand, worker attendance, and the way available cross‐trained workers are deployed once the demands for service are known. By ignoring the joint variability of attendance and demand, we show that existing workforce scheduling models tend to overstate expected schedule performance and systematically undervalue the benefits of cross‐training. We propose a two‐stage stochastic program for profit‐oriented cross‐trained workforce scheduling and allocation decisions that is driven by service completion estimates obtained from the convolution of the employee attendance and service demand distributions. Those estimates, reflecting optimal worker allocation decisions over all plausible realizations of attendance and demand, provide the gradient information used to guide workforce scheduling decisions. Comparing the performance of workforce scheduling decisions for hundreds of different hypothetical service environments, we find that solutions based on convolution estimates are more profitable, favor proportionately more cross‐trained workers and fewer specialists, and tend to recommend significantly larger (smaller) staffing levels for services under high (low) contribution margins than workforce schedules developed with independent expectations of attendance and demand.     

What Can an Evaluation of the AGESW Predissertation Fellows Program Tell Us about the Mentoring Needs of Doctoral Students?

ABSTRACT

Good mentoring is a key variable for determining success in completing a doctoral program. The Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work (AGESW) provides leadership in the areas of gerontological social work education, research, and policy. In 2010, AGESW began offering the Pre-Dissertation Fellows Program (PDFP) to enhance social work doctoral students’ professional development and skillset for academia. The purpose of this study was to examine student participants’ perceptions of the PDFP in its role to providing mentorship and training for an academic position that encompasses research, teaching and professional service. This qualitative study examined eight cohorts (2010–2018) of the AGESW PDFP (N = 85). Participants identified a number of aspects of professional development gained, gratitude for the training, an appreciation for candid advice received, and areas of professional development they felt they were lacking within their doctoral training. Implications for doctoral education, doctoral mentorship programs, and the AGESW pre-dissertation program are discussed. Further, programs such as AGESW pre-dissertation fellowship program can serve as a model for other doctoral training initiatives to prepare students to work in academia.     

Who Wants to be a Social Worker? Using Routine Published Data to Identify Trends in the Numbers of People Applying for and Completing Social Work Programmes in England

Despite widely reported problems with recruitment and retention,there is surprisingly little published research investigatingthe numbers of people wishing to enter social work and theirdemographic characteristics. This article uses routinely collectedpublished higher education data and reports produced by theGeneral Social Care Council (GSCC) and its predecessor the CentralCouncil Education for Education and Training in Social Work(CCETSW) to look at recent trends in the numbers of people wishingto become social workers. It argues that information on theoverall numbers of people applying each year is less helpfulthan understanding more about which groups are under-representedin social work and why. It also draws attention to some positiveindicators, such as the comparative success of social work inattracting groups who may currently be under-represented inhigher education. In addition to suggesting that we need toknow more about the numbers and types of people applying tobe social workers, it concludes that additional work is requiredin establishing employment patterns among the social work workforceas a whole. For example, a high proportion of newly qualifiedsocial workers take up paid employment in social work, but littleis known about what happens to them at later stages of theircareer.     

Emerging Systemic-Structural Threats to Workforce Diversity: Beyond Inadequate Agency

Abstract

Certain equal employment opportunity and workforce diversity gains may be constrained or reversed unexpectedly in the coming years by long-standing systemic, structural forces, which are beyond the control even of employers who may diligently promote such social change opportunities for women and minorities. Such economic and social forces have independently advanced other important agendas, but now are predicted to interact to create a ‘perfect calm’ of diversity management opportunities. Propositions for examination, as well as research suggestions and implications for managers, policy makers, and affected parties, are suggested.     

The value of planned death

In this paper we propose a theoretical model of evaluating the economic costs and benefits of physician assisted suicide (euthanasia). The contemplation of euthanasia is modeled akin to the valuation of a real option. Our modeling of the decision shows that euthanasia is optimal when certain conditions are satisfied. The findings in this paper suggest that if more money is spent on medical research (such as pain management), the demand for Euthanasia could be reduced.     

Risk‐Based Input‐Output Analysis of Influenza Epidemic Consequences on Interdependent Workforce Sectors

Outbreaks of contagious diseases underscore the ever‐looming threat of new epidemics. Compared to other disasters that inflict physical damage to infrastructure systems, epidemics can have more devastating and prolonged impacts on the population. This article investigates the interdependent economic and productivity risks resulting from epidemic‐induced workforce absenteeism. In particular, we develop a dynamic input‐output model capable of generating sector‐disaggregated economic losses based on different magnitudes of workforce disruptions. An ex post analysis of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic in the national capital region (NCR) reveals the distribution of consequences across different economic sectors. Consequences are categorized into two metrics: (i) economic loss, which measures the magnitude of monetary losses incurred in each sector, and (ii) inoperability, which measures the normalized monetary losses incurred in each sector relative to the total economic output of that sector. For a simulated mild pandemic scenario in NCR, two distinct rankings are generated using the economic loss and inoperability metrics. Results indicate that the majority of the critical sectors ranked according to the economic loss metric comprise of sectors that contribute the most to the NCR's gross domestic product (e.g., federal government enterprises). In contrast, the majority of the critical sectors generated by the inoperability metric include sectors that are involved with epidemic management (e.g., hospitals). Hence, prioritizing sectors for recovery necessitates consideration of the balance between economic loss, inoperability, and other objectives. Although applied specifically to the NCR, the proposed methodology can be customized for other regions.     

Families,Work, and an Aging Population

Abstract

This article examines the intersection of family caregiving, work, and long-term care. Supporting families who provide care in order to minimize negative work effects while enhancing the acceptability of care options is of common concern to employers, state and federal policymakers, and the homecare professionals in the community-based care system. The contribution of families to the long-term care system, how employer policies have developed, how the public policy agenda has addressed family caregiving, and the importance of a more effective partnership on the state level are discussed.