Complexities in attracting and retaining direct support professionals

Recruiting and retaining direct support professionals (DSPs) remains essential to the full inclusion for persons with disabilities. Using a mixed-evaluation model, we measured DSPs' views versus those of their supervisors. DSPs expressed lower perceptions concerning their supervisors, satisfaction with their work situation, and environmental and safety factors. Focus groups provided insights into resolving issues related to compensation, work environment, and recruiting and retaining future DSPs. Motivating factors included wanting to be part of a helping community where all are valued. To improve their performance, DSPs stated their desire to understand the roles of managers and of the consumer. DSPs indicated that having career paths that provided advancement opportunities and direct contact with persons with disabilities were primary motivators.     

Preventing risk for obesity by promoting self-regulation and decision-making skills: pilot results from the PATHWAYS to health program (PATHWAYS)

The overall aim of the two school-based pilot studies was to evaluate whether an approach to prevention that focused on changing child impulse control, decision making, and social competence can be effective in changing attitudes toward food intake and physical activity as risk factors for obesity. The strategy used was to translate specific components of one evidence-based program for violence prevention (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies: PATHS) into an elementary school curriculum program for obesity prevention. Both studies demonstrated significant changes in positive attitudes toward self-regulation of appetitive behavior. In addition, Study 2 demonstrated positive changes in actual food choices and television viewing patterns. Implications are that comprehensive efforts to prevent youth risk for obesity should include as one component school-based curricula that target self-regulation and decision-making skills.     

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.     

Decolonizing my hair,unshackling my curls: an autoethnography on what makes my natural hair journey a Black feminist statement

ABSTRACT

There is unquestionably a buzz in US Black women’s communities about a trending “natural” phenomenon. Sales of chemical relaxers (sometimes dubbed “creamy crack” among the US Black community) have dropped 34 percent since 2009, while sales of “natural” hair care products that promise to non-chemically enhance or beautify “natural” curls are up exponentially. Corresponding to the rise in sales of “natural” hair care products are beauty blogs, YouTube instructional videos and supportive social groups—such as “natural hair” meet-ups, which have organically emerged for, and been mostly created by, Black women as a tool to support and nurture women as they take this journey. In this article, I use Black feminist P.H. Collins’s work because her understanding of the relationship between knowledge, consciousness and empowerment provides a framework or point of departure for grasping my own lived experience of going “natural” with regards to modes of oppression and methods of resistance.     

International Migrant Remittances and Labour Supply in Nigeria

The study analyses how remittances to Nigeria affect the labour supply of recipients using Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and a Log‐Linear regression model, with data from the 2013 Nigerian General Household Survey. The PSM results show that for the entire sample, the difference between the average amount of labour supplied per week by those that receive remittances and the amount they would have supplied without remittances is insignificant. The marginal impact analysis also shows that, ceteris paribus, the average labour supply for all recipients is inelastic to remittances. The results from the sub‐group analysis, however, show that receiving remittances negatively affects the labour supply of the self‐employed in agriculture, teenagers and the elderly. These results led us to the recommendation that policies to increase the inflow of remittances should be encouraged but in tandem with programmes to educate farmers on the benefit of investing remittances received in their farming business.     

The prospects for higher domestic savings rates in Latin America

This paper analyzes the prospects for raising domestic saving rates to permit increased investment and/or reduced dependence on foreign-capital inflow in Latin America. We analyze the question of rising saving rates by applying a random-coefficients approach: treating the parameters estimated in time-series analysis for individual countries as observations drawn from an international cross-section of savings behavior. Correlation analysis is then applied to clarify the conditions associated with international differences in savings parameters across a sample of 21 Latin American countries.     

The Cost-Effectiveness of Alternative Advance Mailings in a Telephone Survey

Advance letters are being used increasingly to combat the declinein response rates, but their effectiveness depends partly ontheir being read. In the face of the post-9/11 anthrax mailingscare, the Office for Survey Research (OSR) converted to usingadvance postcards rather than advance letters. Subsequently,the OSR conducted an experiment to test the effectiveness ofsending letters, postcards, or nothing to directory-listed numbersselected in a large random digit dial (RDD) telephone survey.In terms of response rates, the results clearly indicate thatsending advance letters is more effective than sending postcards,which, in turn, is more effective than sending nothing. A detailedcost-effectiveness evaluation indicates that sending lettersactually saves money, despite the increased costs associatedwith the mailings, compared to sending postcards; sending postcardsis also more cost-effective than not sending anything.     

Reducing turnover is not enough: The need for proficient organizational cultures to support positive youth outcomes in child welfare

Objective

High caseworker turnover has been identified as a factor in the poor outcomes of child welfare services. However, almost no empirical research has examined the relationship between caseworker turnover and youth outcomes in child welfare systems and there is an important knowledge gap regarding whether, and how, caseworker turnover relates to outcomes for youth. We hypothesized that the effects of caseworker turnover are moderated by organizational culture such that reduced caseworker turnover is only associated with improved youth outcomes in organizations with proficient cultures.

Methods

The study applied hierarchical linear models (HLM) analysis to the second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being (NSCAW II) with a U.S. nationwide sample of 2346 youth aged 1.5- to 18-years-old and 1544 caseworkers in 73 child welfare agencies. Proficient organizational culture was measured by caseworkers' responses to the Organizational Social Context (OSC) measure; staff turnover was reported by the agencies' directors; and youth outcomes were measured as total problems in psychosocial functioning with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) completed by the youths' caregivers at intake and at 18-month follow-up.

Results

The association between caseworker turnover and youth outcomes was moderated by organizational culture. Youth outcomes were improved with lower staff turnover in proficient organizational cultures and the best outcomes occurred in organizations with low turnover and high proficiency.

Conclusions

To be successful, efforts to improve child welfare services by lowering staff turnover must also create proficient cultures that expect caseworkers to be competent and responsive to the needs of the youth and families they serve.