Suchergebnisse

St. Louis politics is marked by 2 loose but enduring constellations of interests. One is composed of major `downtown' business interests, various professional groups, & is supported by middle & upper-middle income voters. The other combines labor unions, ward pol'al leaders, Negroes, & other low income voters. These 2 groupings persist, differ in basic values & perspectives, & yet do not provide the basis for 2 competing parties. Rather they operate as factions within the dominant party, whichever party that may be in a given period. The crucial factor seems to be the formal structure of Gov which effectively separates the offices controlling policy decisions from those controlling pol'al perquisites. Each constellation of interests is primarily concerned with one set of offices, &, as a consequence, neither group is forced into full-scale combat with the other, as would be required under a more centralized Gov'al structure. IPSA.

An attempt is made to illustrate some of the possibilities which an accumulation of data can offer to studies based on PO polls in countries having differing pol'al structures. The most important problem arising from the use of such data is one of discovering the relationships between the individual variations & the structural diff's which exist in such systems. In this comparative study, this problem arose when it became clear that the definite relationship claimed to exist between the characteristics of the individuals under consideration in the studies & electoral participation or amount of pol'al information known to them was not discovered in Norway. The proportion of militant party members was not greater in Ur regions, nor was it among individuals with a good educ, nor in the higher professional categories. The proposed explanation is that the local admin'ive org & the nature of the party systems are variables which are peculiar to the system. Other interpretations are also possible, but this one makes it possible to follow with precision the processes of soc polarization & integration. Tr by J. A. Broussard from IPSA.

Time was, perhaps before the New Deal, when the limitations upon executive reorganization were largely self-limitations, which arose from a conception of administrative reform as primarily a technical problem. That is to say, students of administration assumed that their work had nothing to do with politics. The basic political decisions were to be acknowledged, and if changes were necessary they would be made by legislative enactment. Administrative analysis consisted in determining, according to criteria of efficiency and economy, the proper distribution and relationships of governmental functions. The responsibilities of the technician ended with the submission of a factual report and plans for reorganization, except that if the politicians insisted upon a different set of organizational objectives, he might give advice on the best arrangements for meeting those objectives. He might accept the responsibility of a consultant or adviser on organizational policy; but in so doing he was acting in a professional capacity, contributing the results of his experience in investigating methods of policy execution.

Every year thousands of strangers from abroad, representing rich and diverse backgrounds of nationality, pro fession, and personality, arrive in American communities. These communities, for the most part, have organized or are organizing themselves to meet effectively the needs of these men and women. In co-operation with campus advisers to foreign students, programs are being developed to open wide doors to family, civic, and cultural life into which students from abroad may enter if they choose. Working closely in co-operation with national agencies under contract to the State Department, with the International Cooperation Administra tion, and other governmental and nongovernmental groups, communities are also providing a variety of services for short- term visitors. Communities are stressing host-family programs through which strong interpersonal relationships can be de veloped. Both family and guest learn from one another as they participate in the dialogue between people of diverse backgrounds. Both professionals and volunteers involved in community programming recognize that goodwill is not enough. Through conferences, seminars, and publications, they have developed an expertise in technique. At the same time, they are continually searching for deeper insights into cross-cul tural contact through reading and consultation with social scientists and anthropologists.

Paranoid conditions and depressive states are often found among elderly people who have lost their love objects, and who are accordingly forced to live alone. Mental hospitalization of senile or depressed women patients can frequently be avoided through treatment by a psychiatrist and intensive guidance by a social worker. In the four cases presented, hospitalization was not needed. We believe hospitalization would have been found necessary if social and psychiatric treatment had not been given on an outpatient basis. Hospitalization is more likely to be needed by mentally disturbed elderly men. Men, unlike women, are not used to not working and to staying home alone, so these deprivations are more traumatic. They have a more limited adjustment capacity. It was believed formerly that mental disturbances in the elderly are likely to be serious and long-term ones. Now we know that many of these mental illnesses are transitory and can be treated with favorable results. We have found, as have other investigators, that outpatient psychiatric treatment in combination with guidance by caseworkers can restore an elderly woman's interest in living, by convincing her, through the transference relationships, that people do care for her. The patient interprets the time given her by the staff as indication of affection. Some of these patients, when given kindly, understanding professional guidance, stop withdrawing, and socialize more with others in their personal environments. The onset of involution differs widely among people. The ages of the four elderly women patients who were either depressed or had early stages of senile psychosis were 74 (recurrent depression), 68, 53, and 70 (senile psychosis). We think that more clinics and social agencies should make this combination of social and psychiatric treatment available to elderly people. This would not only avert the additional suffering that mental hospitalization entails for many patients but also would result in a considerable financial saving for the community.

Experience with this group of 206 children with retrolental fibroplasia has indicated that the majority of parents, with supportive treatment, are able to make a satisfactory adjustment to the child's blindness and do not break down either physically or emotionally. In instances where they have been too disturbed to cope with the anxiety centered about the blindness, there have been special circumstances which have created too great an emotional burden. In these cases, with casework help, one or two parents were able to accept psychiatric treatment. In situations in which the child has developed obvious behavior problems which have appeared to be based on the parent-child relationship, a number of parents have been able to accept psychiatric treatment for the child with the caseworker offering a supportive service to the parent. In other instances where psychiatric treatment for the child was too threatening, parents have been able to accept foster home care. Foster home placement of blind children has been used primarily to provide the child with a warm, accepting relationship which offers the security necessary to stimulate the child's growth and development. Through this study it was learned: 1. That a home environment that contains a warm parent-child relationship offers the blind child maximum opportunity for development, physically, emotionally, and mentally. In an accepting home environment the blind child lags a little developmentally behind the normal. Without stimulation and security, he is apt to be grossly retarded developmentally. 2. That most parents, like Mrs. A, originally feel ambivalent toward their blind child. They need assistance with handling their anxieties before they can form warm relationships with the blind child. Since the mother-child relationship is the most influential factor in a child's life, the role of the caseworker working with the preschool blind is focused on the mother, with the goal of developing a sound parent-child relationship. 3. That many of the children who appear retarded have "caught up" by the time they are of school age. 4. That training problems, which create considerable anxiety for the parents, may be greatly reduced by making available services of experts in the preschool educational field when the parent is ready to use such service. 5. That nursery schools for the sighted have offered many blind children stimulation and satisfying relationships outside their homes. At the same time, they relieve the mothers and begin the child's adjustment to a sighted world at an early age. 6. That early association between the blind child and the seeing community is possible and profitable as preparation for his later adjustment to society. 7. That community attitudes toward the blind child can be changed by persistent efforts to interpret and individualize the child and his needs. Blindness, because of its permanency and the dependency it creates, evokes emotions of pity, frustration, and the feeling of insecurity in people who are unfamiliar with blind people and their capacities. This reaction is found among professional persons as well as the general public; however, careful scrutiny of these feelings and knowledge regarding blindness will enable the caseworker to see the blind child and his parents as individuals with both strengths and weaknesses. Although there is much to be desired in the knowledge and attitudes of both lay and professional persons regarding young blind children, the social caseworker in any agency can be helpful to the individual child and thus contribute to the solution of a larger problem. In our experience probably the most helpful contribution of the caseworker was the ability to dissociate the child and his blindness and to see him as a child—as an individual with all that that implies—rather than as one of a class. The fact that the caseworker, because of his self-discipline, can do this carries over to the parents, who in turn can begin to think less of the blindness and more of the child. They can thus begin to have natural parental reactions to the blind child rather than reactions that are first colored by the child's blindness. This recognition of the child himself can also be carried beyond the parents to the neighborhood, to the nursery school, and to others in the community with whom the caseworker has contact. The caseworker is effective also through his understanding of the parents' problem and through enabling them to use him in a helpful way. Many parents have excellent impulses in regard to their blind child, but have no authoritative person with whom they can discuss their plans and who can help them carry them out. They are offered advice by many uninformed people about what is best to do for the blind in the way of education and training. As a result, they are fearful that their own instincts to keep the child at home, or to refrain from pushing the child's general training, will result in damage to the child later. The caseworker can reinforce the parent's desire to be a parent to the blind as well as to the seeing child, taking both the responsibilities and pleasures that are entailed. We have found that parents who have experienced the consistent interest and support of the caseworker and observed his efforts to open up opportunities for their children have been able to release their own energies in constructive action rather than passive acceptance. The strengthening of the parent-child relationship is accomplished by the same method in any casework situation, although a different body of knowledge is required for different problems.