Raising the "civilized minimum" of pain amelioration for prisoners to avoid cruel and unusual punishment

This Article addresses the problems with our nation's cultural and legal prohibitions against certain pain management treatments. The practice of pain management has not kept pace with the many medical advances that have made it possible for physicians to ameliorate most pain. The Author notes that some patients are denied access to certain forms of treatments due to the mistaken belief that addiction may ensue. Additionally, some individuals are under-treated for their pain to a greater degree than are others. This is especially the case for our nation's prisoners. The Author contends that prisoners are frequently denied effective pain amelioration. He notes, however, that there has been improvement in medical treatment in general for prisoners due to court challenges based on the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Yet, due to the protection of qualified immunity given to jailers and prison health care providers, prisoners cannot bring a claim for negligence or medical malpractice, they must allege a violation of their constitutional rights, a significantly higher legal standard. Prisoners must meet a subjective test showing that there was a deliberate indifference to their medical needs that violates the protection of the Eighth Amendment. The Author concludes that because medical advances have made it possible to alleviate most pain suffering, withholding pain treatment or providing a less effective treatment is tantamount to inflicting pain and should be viewed as a violation of the Eighth Amendment.     

Are we making progress? Not in haematology!

It will be shown, through the presentation of recent research findings, that haematology is a neglected area in terms of sensitive care of the dying. The Australian evidence indicates that scant progress has been made in relation to even the most basic palliative care practices such as sensitive, honest information giving or appropriate referral to the palliative system. Rather, the data show that during terminal trajectory, patients from these diagnostic groups and their families remain trapped in processes within the high-tech, curative system that are not responsive to the needs of the dying.     

The Patient Transit Assistance Scheme: A case for social work advocacy!

Abstract

The Patient Transit Assistance Scheme is one of Queensland Health's initiatives designed to facilitate equity of access for Queensland residents to essential health care services. The purpose of the scheme is to help all Queenslanders, irrespective of where they live, to have access to specialist medical services. It provides direct financial assistance to patients and in some cases their carers, to facilitate access to specialist medical services irrespective of geographic location.

The findings of recent research conducted on social worker involvement with PTAS for patients diagnosed with leukaemia and associated haematological disorders will be used to argue that the problems in relation to the administration of this scheme require serious attention at the level of patient care and health policy.     

Reflexivity,Sociology and the Rural-Urban Distinction in Marx,Tonnies and Weber*

Dans cet article, on évalue la pertinence de diverses représentations du ruralisme et de l'urbanisme chez Marx, Tonnies et Weber, dans la mesure où elles se rapportent à la documentation actuelle sur la question de la réflexivité en sciences sociales. Étant donné l'influence linguistique dans la recherche en sciences humaines, le nouvel examen de ce discours n'est pas fait dans le but de définir la ruralité de façon «essentialiste». L'analyse porte plutôt sur la signification des tentatives que font Marx, Tonnies et Weber pour élaborer un concept de ruralité qui permet de démêler la façon dont fonctionnent les négations et les oppositions dans leurs textes. On prétend que le discours rural/urbain est structuré autour d'une modernité qui cherche àétablir un dialogue avec l'altérité et à questionner les limites. On montre aussi la difficulté qu'éprouve l'esprit de la modernité devant la nécessité de préserver un sens à l'altérité tout en l'engageant dans un processus relationnel sans pour autant se l'approprier. Plusieurs études canadiennes, qui font appel à la distinction rural/urbain, sont citées pour illustrer la difficulté conceptuelle du domaine. L'auteur affirme qu'un aspect de cette difficulté face à l'altérité, dans ce cas-ci l'altérité du rural, tient de l'objectivité scientifique, laquelle exclut la réflexivité du processus de recherche. La réflexivité, inhérente et nécessaire au processus de recherche en sciences humaines, est donc ici à la fois sujet et ressource. This paper assesses the relevance of various representations of ruralism/urbanism in Marx, Tonnies, and Weber as these pertain to the current literature on the issue of reflexivity in social science. Acknowledging the linguistic turn in human science inquiry, the re-examination of this discourse does not attempt to develop an “essentialist” definition of rurality. Rather the analysis is concerned with the meaning of the attempts by Marx, Tonnies, and Weber to develop a concept of rurality which involves teasing out the way negations and oppositions operate in their texts. The paper argues that the rural/urban discourse is structured by a modernist interest in engaging otherness and questioning limits. It also shows the difficulty a modernist consciousness has with preserving a sense of the very otherness it needs to engage. Several Canadian studies, which draw on the rural/urban distinction are cited to illustrate the field's conceptual predicament. The paper argues that part of the problem which modernity has with otherness (in this case the otherness of the rural) lies in the scientific requirement that, by virtue of a commitment to objectivity, reflexivity be excluded from the process of inquiry. Reflexivity, as intrinsic and necessary to the process of human science inquiry, is therefore both a topic and a resource for the paper. a … disquieting quality of modernism: its taste for appropriating or redeeming otherness, for constituting non-Western arts in its own image, for discovering universal, ahistorical “human” capacities. (Clifford, 1988: 193)     

Social movement schools: sites for consciousness transformation,training, and prefigurative social development

ABSTRACT

We develop the concept of “social movement school’ (SMS), showing how these organizational spaces are deliberately designed for purposes of educating, mentoring, training, and coordinating individuals as effective, committed movement agents. SMSs can also be important sites of prefigurative design and practice for future societal development consistent with movement goals. We motivate the theoretical significance of SMSs based on five perspectives in social movement scholarship: (1) resource mobilization; (2) cultural approaches to repertoires of contention; (3) cognitive perspective; (4) micro-mobilization; and (5) biographical consequences of participation. We then offer a typology to capture primary purposes, and spatial reach within the broad field of SMSs. Within-movement variation is illustrated by focusing on a variety of SMSs in the U.S. civil rights movement; and the cross-movement breadth of the concept is illustrated by highlighting contemporary SMS forms drawn from three very different movements–labor, radical feminism, and mindfulness meditation movements. In the interest of launching a research agenda on SMSs, we end with several key questions that could serve to guide future research. Important theoretical, empirical, and practical considerations suggest that SMSs deserve the attention of scholars and activists alike.     

Non-government organization study awards: enhancing successful completion of social work qualification

ABSTRACT

The current study used a sequential, exploratory mixed-method design to explore how a social work study scholarship implemented in Aotearoa New Zealand impacted on recipients’ qualification completion and their professional and practice competence. Phase one involved 13 individual interviews with past award recipients which described how the study award impacted on their qualification completion. Thematic analysis was used to extract themes. These themes were examined in the second phase through a quantitative battery completed by 107 past recipients to examine their professional and practice competence. The findings from interviews showed the award enabled recipients to complete their studies and improve their social work practice without causing undue stress or financial pressure on the recipient and their family. Quantitative analysis corroborated and extended these findings to demonstrate that the award contributed to lifting the level of social work knowledge, competence, and skills in the recipients. Accompanying the successful qualification completion, these qualified social workers were equipped with essential skills, promoting social work values and competence to contribute and safeguard the benefit of children, families, and communities. The awards offered a ‘wrap around’ support and was not limited by age or ethnicity but provided a support system to achieve qualification completion.