European Youth Gang Policy in Comparative Context

The past decade has seen increased reports of street gangs across a range of contexts. In Europe, anxieties over street‐based youth has led to the development of gang‐specific policies across a range of jurisdictions, most notably the UK. Following a similar pattern of policy mobility in criminal justice, many of these policies have origins in the US system. In this review of international gang policy developments, we critically examine a number of these policies in a comparative context ‐ including gang policing units and intelligence databases ‐ and interrogate their efficacy. Drawing on cogent examples from the UK, we argue for caution in adopting US gang intervention tactics due to the lack of empirical evidence relating to their applicability or efficacy, and the corresponding potential for discrimination toward the most marginalised and socially excluded children and young people in society.     

Cognitive behavioral interventions for depression among Hispanic people: promising meta-analytic evidence for deep cultural adaptations

ABSTRACT

Depressive disorders are common among Hispanic people. Evidence-informed guidelines indicate cognitive behavioral interventions (CBI), but they were developed primarily with non-Hispanic White people. Narrative studies of clients and workers along systematic review evidence suggested that well-defines cultural adaptations of CBIs would likely improve outcomes among Hispanics people with diverse mental health problems. We advanced the meta-analytic hypothesis that CBIs incorporating so-called “deep structure” cultural adaptations will be more effective than otherwise similar, but more superficially, “surface structure” or non-adapted interventions with depressed Hispanic people. This meta-analysis synthesized evidence from nine typically randomized trials in the United States with one subsample from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Most clients were young women, living in poverty and suffering a reactive depressive episode. We found statistical and practical support for our hypothesis. In most practice contexts, CBI success rates were between 15% and 30% better than those typically observed with other usual practices. Moreover, these effects were maintained at 6- to 12-month follow-up. Given the size and growth of the Hispanic American population, their prevalent experience of depression, and the size of the intervention effects, these synthesized findings seem of potentially great human, clinical, and policy significance.     

Prototyping public friction: Exploring the political effects of design testing in urban space

The use of prototypes as testing instruments has become a common strategy in the innovation of services and products and increasingly in the implementation of “smart” urban policies through living labs or pilots. As a technique for validating hypotheses about the future performance of products or policies, prototyping is based on the idea of generating original knowledge through the failures produced during the testing process. Through the study of an experimentation and prototyping project developed in Santiago de Chile called “Shared Streets for a Low-Carbon District,” I analyse the technique of prototyping as a political device that can make visible (or invisible) certain entities and issues, determining what the experimental entities can do and say. I will show how the technique of prototyping defines modes of participation, what is visible and thinkable, what can be spoken and what is unspeakable. In this sense, I examine two ambivalent capacities of prototyping: as a mechanism of management and enrolment that seeks to prescribe normativities (problem-validating prototype) and as an event that can make frictions tangible, articulating matters of concern and ways to open up alternative scenarios (problem-making prototype).     

Developing a conceptual evaluation framework for gender equality interventions in research and innovation

In this article, we discuss the development of a conceptual evaluation framework to design and assess gender equality interventions and their effects in research and innovation. The conceptual framework presented herewith embraces the complexity, gender-sensitive and theory-based evaluation approaches ensuring that design and evaluation of gender equality interventions consider the complex systems that constitute the context in which the interventions operate. The evaluation framework offers a non-linear concept, where the notion of contribution - not attribution - to achieve impact is central to the integration of team, organizational and system factors in policy design and evaluation. The paper opens the “black box” to address the question of how and why a policy intervention works and in which context and discusses a systematic process on how to approach the interwoven linkages between input, implementation and effects in gender equality interventions in research and innovation, accounting for context sensitivity and methodological pluralism. The evaluation framework may serve as reference for researchers, evaluators, policymakers and other stakeholders in designing and assessing gender equality interventions, and in further developing their evidence, and theoretical and methodological base.     

Group Interventions for Children Having Separated Parents: A Systematic Narrative Review

The aims of this article are to review the current body of knowledge on group interventions for children with separated or divorced parents and to provide new insights into the evaluation of their efficacy. This review draws on a method of systematic narrative review (SNR). We provide a narrative synthesis of evidence from 29 studies conducted between 1980 and 2014, which were included in the SNR consistently with the inclusion criteria established. Three dimensions were considered: intervention characteristics, study characteristics, and intervention outcomes (i.e., types of outcomes and efficacy). Our findings showed a general inconsistency among the studies, which was discussed in the light of some important methodological issues.     

Saving water to save the environment: contrasting the effectiveness of environmental and monetary appeals in a residential water saving intervention

To convince people to reduce their energy consumption, two types of persuasive appeals often are used by environmental organizations: Monetary appeals (i.e., ‘conserving energy will save you money’) and environmental appeals (i.e., ‘conserving energy will protect the environment’). In this field study we aimed to compare the effects of monetary and environmental appeals on showering habits. During two weeks we measured showering behavior in one hundred households. As compared to monetary appeals, environmental appeals were more effective in decreasing participants’ shower frequency. Interestingly, the monetary appeal was judged as somewhat more motivating to save water than the environmental appeal. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings.     

Exploring strategies for re-engaging children and young people in learning while living in out-of-home care in the Northern Territory,Australia

The education of children living in out-of-home care (OOHC) has been a long-standing concern for children and their carers, policy-makers and researchers who have long highlighted the issue of low educational attainment and disengagement among children in care. This study investigates the strategies and practices used within a pilot programme based in the Northern Territory, Australia, that aims to re-engage children living in OOHC with education and training. Drawing on qualitative interviews with programme stakeholders, including educators, carers, child and family welfare workers, as well as an analysis of programme and client documentation, this study explores the programme's strategies to achieve re-engagement. The findings highlight the role of agile child-centred practice responding to the learning needs of participants, a focus on the ‘educational futures’ of students, as well as liaison and advocacy with schools and stakeholders on behalf of children in supporting re-engagement in education settings. Barriers to successful re-engagement include limited consideration of the cultural needs of children across education and OOHC systems, in particular the disruptive impact of OOHC placement changes, as well as programme discontinuity.     

Integrating Gestalt psychotherapy into social work practice with adult oncology patients

This article will provide an examination of Gestalt psychotherapy and its application to adult cancer patients. Gestalt psychotherapy can be utilized as a psychosocial intervention targeted to meet the needs of oncology patients. The following article will examine Gestalt therapy theory and review basic principles to utilize in clinical practice. The authors will highlight the populations to which Gestalt has been applied, and additional case vignettes will demonstrate concrete ways to incorporate this theory into practice with oncology patients.     

The Milieu Standard for Care of Dementia in a Nursing Home

Recent attention has been directed toward providing specialized skilled nursing facility care for patients suffering from dementia. This paper explores and details how The Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale developed such a unit and its applicability for the provision of appropriate care to demented elderly in other settings. The leadership roles of professional care staff, particularly the social worker in the development of this project are highlighted.