Training parenting plan evaluators: Looking towards the future

Standards of practice for parenting plan evaluations continue to evolve, informed by advances in research and the development of innovative, evidence-based approaches to assessment and intervention. Parenting plan evaluators are asked to inform the court, parents, and other professionals on how to address the complex needs of increasingly diverse families amid reorganization, high conflict, and crisis. How can we attract and properly train new mental health professionals to do important work in an increasingly strained adversarial system? How can evaluators keep up with these advances over the course of their careers? How can they deepen and refine their skills to work with a diverse array of individuals, family constellations and an enormous range of family circumstances? And how can evaluators care for their own well-being and their colleagues? In this article, the authors describe a multi-dimensional approach to training both new and experienced custody evaluators that includes imparting baseline knowledge on how to conduct quality parenting plan evaluations as a starting point. We discuss a variety of modalities and approaches that can enable evaluators to deepen and expand their skills over the years, contribute to the diverse community of family law professionals, and manage the exceptional demands of working in this field.     

EMOTIONAL DISTRESS IN CHILDREN OF HIGH-CONFLICT DIVORCE

This study examines factors that contribute to the emotional distress of children whose parents experience an acrimonious divorce with conflict over custody and visitation issues. Information was gathered systematically from guardian ad litem reports on 105 children in order to explore the child's emotional distress in response to individual-, parental-, marital-, and custody–related factors. Findings emphasize the impact of the level of marital conflict in predicting increases in the child's emotional distress. The child who witnesses domestic violence and experiences child malmatment suffers a powerful cumulative impact from these factors. which results in a steep increase in emotional distress symptoms. A cluster of relevantfactors taken jointly, including the level of marital conflict, violence against a partner or against the child, the parent's mental health, the child's medical condition, and the nature of visitation changes, all contribute signifcantly to the child's emotional distress.     

Limitation of medical research in German law.

In Germany, pharmaceutical trials and the testing of medical devices is regulated by statute. Any other kind of medical experimentation is handled according to the Declaration of Helsinki. Medical experimentation has to be reviewed by an ethics committee before the start and there has to be an elaborate research protocol, which provides for the protection of the experimental subject. In case of an accident, there is compulsory accident insurance as far as pharmaceutical trials and the testing of medical devices are concerned. The third party accident insurance just covers material loss, there is no provision paying and suffering. The sum paid by the insurance company is set off against damages for negligence. There is no strict liability for medical experimentation, but the German courts are expected to set very high standards for medical care in experimentation. The data protection and medical confidentiality have been lessened because of the European law that requires the experimental subject to give his consent to the inspection of the data or the file and if he takes part in the experimentation, that his data and some of his cells might be with the pharmaceutical company forever. In general, the German law seems to be adequate to the protection of experimental subjects.     

Effect of influenza virus infection on arachidonic acid cascade in mouse thrombocytes

Prostaglandins (PGs) are essential for many physiological and pathological processes. As they are not stored in tissue, their presence and actions therefore result from de novo synthesis and release. Although platelets themselves appear to have the ability to synthesize TxA2, PGD2, arachidonic acid may also be metabolized in the lipoxygenase pathway in platelets, producing 12-hydroperoxy/12-hydroxy-5,8,10,14-eicosatetraenoic acid (12-HPETE/12-HETE). CFLP mice were infected intranasally with A/H3N2/Hong Kong (1/68) influenza virus. Platelets were isolated from the control (saline treated) and infected mice 3-13 days after virus application. Platelets were isolated from the diluted arterial blood of the mice. Metabolites of arachidonate cascade were determined using 1-14C-arachidonic acid (2035 MBq/mM spec. act.) as substrate. All incubations were carried out in TC Medium 199 (pH 7.4) at 37 degrees C for 10 min. Radiolabelled products were separated and quantitatively determined. The synthesis of TxA2 in the platelets of animals was found to be significantly increased 7 days after the virus infection. The 12-hydroxy-heptadecatrienoic acid level was higher on the 10th and 13th days of infection, as were the products of the lipoxygenase pathway.     

Philantropic motives and contribution policy: A note

This note analyzes the results of Ben-Zion and Spiegel regarding different forms of transfer from rich persons to poor ones. Assuming a more general utility function, not necessarily additive or homothetic, this note shows that a combined policy of income transfer with specific subsidy to the poor consumer can lead to an optimal solution (first best) from the donor's point of view. If it is not possible to differentiate between consumers, a system of subsidy to all consumers can achieve a second best solution.