Championing the interface between mental health and child protection: evaluation of a service initiative to improve joint working in northern Ireland

The importance of establishing effective inter‐agency working between adult mental health services and child care services in order to safeguard children has been repeatedly identified by research, policy, inquiries and inspection reports. This article reports on the evaluation of an initiative in one health and social care trust in Northern Ireland that aimed to facilitate joint working and so improve service provision and protection for children and families. The Champions Initiative involved identifying a Champion in each multidisciplinary community mental health team and in each family and child care team that would have responsibility for providing information, promoting joint working and identifying any obstacles to better cooperation. The evaluation of this Initiative assessed levels of experience, training, confidence, understanding and awareness in the Champions and their team members at baseline. The Champions and their Team Leaders were then followed up after six months to obtain their qualitative views of the impact of the initiative. The results include comparisons between mental health and child care staff, and crucially, views about whether the initiative has had any impact on working together. This study also generated recommendations for further service development in this complex and important area of practice. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

‘Identifying a Champion in each multidisciplinary community mental health team and in each family and child care team’

Citing Literature

Number of times cited according to CrossRef: 15

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Volume 21 , Issue 3 May/June 2012

Pages 157-172     

Measuring What Matters: Achieving Consensus on a Positive Aging Indicator Set For Ireland

The objective of this study was to measure consensus among expert stakeholders on a set of positive aging outcome indicators in Ireland. Stakeholders from academic, public, and voluntary sectors and older people participated in a 3-round, online Delphi study to evaluate indicators for participation, security, healthy aging, attitudes to aging, and information access. Evaluation criteria included: acceptability, utility, accessibility, ranking, and balance and coherence. Consensus was achieved on 56 key indicators that are aligned with action areas in the National Positive Ageing Strategy. These indicators will be reported on a biannual basis to monitor progress in positive aging in Ireland.     

Children Born of Sexual and Gender‐Based Violence in Conflict: The International Criminal Court,Ecological Environments and Human Development

Children born of sexual and gender‐based violence in conflict have slowly gained international attention, even featuring in international criminal justice processes, such as those at the International Criminal Court (ICC). These children suffer unique harms due to the circumstances surrounding their birth, with a burgeoning literature documenting the long‐term and multigenerational impact on their development. This article contributes to this existing literature by applying Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of human development to ICC responses to these children, yielding a more nuanced understanding of the ICC as part of the ecological environment in which child development occurs.     

Principles and practice of social security payments for care

This article examines the dimensions which determine whether national social security systems make payments towards the costs of long-term care needs and whether they do so where these needs are met within the family; what kinds of payments are made and to whom; and what levels these payments are set at. The article is based on empirical material from five European Union countries (the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Italy and Germany). We argue that differences between countries along three dimensions account for most of the diversity between national systems in this field. These dimensions are the allocation of responsibilities and powers to local versus central levels of government; assumptions of to whom long-term care represents a "risk"; national principles of subsidiarity and the relationship between the family and the State. This is, however, a field undergoing change (albeit mostly incrementalist and ad hoc) in the face of the demands placed on social welfare systems by growing levels of disability (related to the growth of elderly populations) and demands from women's movements and disability movements for recognition of their needs within social welfare systems.     

Oppositional poverty: the quantitative/qualitative divide and other dichotomies

Despite increased recognition that the dichotomy between qualitative and quantitative approaches (and related dichotomies) may be less than useful, such divisions remain entrenched in the core social science disciplines. Theoretical and methodological attempts to move out of and beyond dichotomous frames of reference have not yet led to reconstruction of the social science enterprise. Application of Goody's analysis of the impact of literacy on human cognition to this question suggests that the mode (as well as the context) of academic discourse has structured and constrained the way we (can) think about what we do. The paper concludes by briefly reflecting on the potential of triangulation for reconstructing the way we think about methodological and theoretical dichotomies.     

The Rise and Fall of the UK's First Tax Credit: The Working Families Tax Credit 1998–2000

The Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC), introduced in 1998/9, was regarded as the most important and easily the most redistributive measure introduced by the New Labour administration elected in 1997. WFTC is, however, scheduled to end, and to be replaced by another tax credit in 2003. This paper reviews the birth, brief life and "death" of WFTC in the period 1998–2000 and examines the structure of eligibility for WFTC in one UK region.     

Same-sex marriage and the pinkwashing of state migration controls

In May 2015, the Republic of Ireland became the first country to affirm same-sex marriage through the popular vote. This paper explores how the same-sex marriage referendum enabled the Irish state to pinkwash its migration regimes, thereby naturalizing harsh policies that reproduce gendered, sexual, racial, economic, and geopolitical inequalities. Following scholars' suggestions that state migration regimes should be analyzed comprehensively rather than piecemeal, the paper explores where/how the language and logics of the same-sex marriage referendum interfaced with the Irish state’s strategies for managing the diaspora, tourists, and family reunification for migrant workers, refugees and asylum seekers. The paper concludes that coalitions such as the Anti-Racism Network Ireland provide critical models for addressing LGBT and migration struggles as interlinked.     

Conceptualizing the role of consent in the definition of rape at the international criminal court: a norm transfer perspective

Over the past three decades, international criminal legal standards on sexual and gender-based violence have developed rapidly, sparking debate within feminist circles over the extent to which these developments might be relevant to domestic contexts in a process termed “norm transfer.” Indeed, non-governmental organizations and feminist scholars have called for domestic adoption of the International Criminal Court (ICC) definition of rape due to its omission of the element of the absence of consent. However, the place of consent in an international criminal definition of rape is a hotly contested topic, with disagreement as to whether rape in conflict should be considered “exceptional” or a continuation of everyday violence against women. This article provides a new lens through which to explore these questions by situating the feminist strategy of norm transfer within the complementarity-based system of the ICC. It uncovers a number of gaps within the ICC definition that raise questions not only about the status of the definition as a candidate for norm transfer but also about the robustness of the definition itself. The article concludes by considering the role of consent as an implicit element within the ICC definition and its operation as a defense.