Suchergebnisse

In this paper, the level of HACC funding under the South Australian Dementia Support and Respite Projects and the Community Support Scheme was compared across Domiciliary Care and Human Services and Health regions. Results revealed that metropolitan regions generally received more than their per capita share of HACC funding despite the greater cost of community services in rural areas and the relative paucity of supplementary or alternative rural services. The need for greater planning in the distribution of HACC funds, including moving towards formula funding is identified.

This article was originally presented in 1995 as the keynote address of the National Conference of the Australian Association of Social Workers. The author analyzes some of the sources of resistance to accepting scientific methodology within social work, including political, philosophical, and quasi-religious ones. The strength of scientific methods, as opposed to other ways of knowing, includes their utility in proving that some "findings" are indeed false and their skeptical attitude toward new claims.

It is frequently asserted that casework is antithetical to social change. In opposition to that view, this article presents a model of social work practice that seeks to build politically progressive practice upon a foundation of casework practice. The model views casework as a necessary stage in organizing people to mount successful political campaigns for social change.

One-hundred twenty-four mothers from eight community service regions in the Australian state of Tasmania participated in a study of parent education services provided in a small group format. Using a no-treatment control group design, it was predicted that participation in parent education groups would enhance the mother's sense of competence as a parent, reduce parental social isolation, and improve child comportment. These hypotheses were partially supported. Participation in parent education groups did enhance the mother's sense of competence immediately posttreatment, but reductions in social isolation and child difficulty were not found until the 3-month follow-up. Although a variety of parent education group formats were employed, there were no appreciable differences among them in terms of effectiveness. Further applications for social work practice are discussed.

Over the past decade, a number of reviews of the alternative care system in South Australia identified various shortcomings in the system. An extensive restructure and outsourcing of alternative care services in the mid 1990s was reported to have done little to rectify the problems. Between 1998 and 2001 the statutory agency, Family and Youth Services, conducted three internal surveys to measure social workers' compliance with a range of practice standards for children and young people in foster care. The authors of this paper obtained the survey reports and, using data extracted from the reports, constructed a picture of the type of social work service provided to children and young people in care. Where variables were directly comparable, the authors conducted secondary data analysis to identify changes in compliance on a number of practice standards over time. It was found that many young people under state protection may not be receiving adequate levels of care. Of particular concern was the high number of cases in which statutory obligations with respect to health, case review and involvement of young people in decision‐making were not being met.

A crisis in foster care is suggested by many of the national and international published reports. One seemingly intractable problem is placement instability, particularly for adolescents with behavioural problems. A qualitative study of foster carers who had ended a placement because of the young person's disruptive behaviour (n = 19) was conducted to examine ways in which system shortcomings might be affecting placement outcomes. Data were collected on the process of placement deterioration, the incident(s) that precipitated the decision to end placement, formal carer support, and the carer's response to the breakdown. All placements fell into one of two categories: those that, with certain interventions, might have been sustained (n = 9); and those that, regardless of intervention, appear to have been unsustainable (n= 10). This study contributes to the alternative care literature by highlighting the potential of some faltering placements to be maintained and of some failed placements to be renegotiated.

ABSTRACT Despite increasing recognition of the importance of including the perspectives of children and young people in care in alternative care research, in practice this is not always a straightforward matter. This paper describes the recruitment of disruptive young people in care under the jurisdiction of the South Australian statutory authority to three studies on placement instability. Non‐response rates of 72.5% and 82% are reported. A large number of subjects were excluded because agency social workers did not cooperate with the project, and more subjects were excluded for reasons which suggest high levels of distress in this population. The dilemma of providing a voice to distressed subjects when distressed subjects are excluded from research is discussed, and the appointment of an independent representative for children in care to review research proposals and to negotiate research access to children is proposed.

This article reports on the development of a procedure for standardized assessment ofparenting within statutory child protection agencies. The instruments were trialed on 64 children and adolescents under the supervision of the New Zealand Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Services (CYPFS) and results were compared with normative samples from Canada and Australia. Results revealed that CYPFS cases displayed poorerfunctioning and receivedfewer positive parenting practices than the normative populations. Eight of the CYPFS children were also subjected to severe or very severe abuse in the 1-month study period General population norms were then used to construct a taxonomy of CYPFS cases according to the dimensions ofnurtur-ance and abuslveness. Using this schema, it was found that 29 of the CYPFS cases could be classified as "nonabusive + nurturant" and had therefore reached criteria for case closure. Limitations of the research and implications for practice are discussed.

This article reports on a controlledfield trial into the effectiveness of a self-help manual based on the Pressures to Change procedure for the female partners of heavy drinkers. Thirty-eight female partners of heavy drinkers were randomly assigned either to counseling, self-help, or a waiting list control group. Clients were pre- and posttested using two self-report measures of distress, and the drinking behavior of the male partner was also monitored. Both self-help and counseling were superior to no treatment in producing behavior change in the drinker and in relieving the female partner's level of depression. There was no difference between the counsel ing and self-help modalities. Self-help therapy is now a realistic option for female partners who either cannot or will not present for treatment. Similarly, a self-help manual for partners provides generalist social workers in secondary settings with a new intervention option m their work with resistant drinkers.