Physical restraint and the therapeutic relationship

The role of the forensic mental health nurse has led to many debates due to the conflicts between security and therapeutic aspects of their role. Physical restraint is a security element of the role which may have an impact on their ability to work therapeutically with patients. This study examined the impact of physical restraint on the nursing staff–patient therapeutic relationship. This was investigated in a secure unit in the North of England. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients across the service, and thematic analysis was undertaken. Five themes were identified from the data which highlighted the impact of the physical restraint as a power imbalance, the experience as traumatic, the importance of justification, the negative attributes and motives of some staff and the impact of coping with powerlessness. Clinical implications and research recommendations are discussed further in this article.     

The Race Among the States in Welfare Benefits: A Comment

One error in research on the welfare-magnet thesis is its focuson the poor rather than on the well-endowed and mobile economicactors who influence state policymakers. Another error is theassumption that poor people are mobile participants in the gameof locational advantage. Yet, unlike well-endowed economic actorswho move funds and goods, the poor must move themselves andtheir own bodies, rather than resources. Hence, it is unlikelythat poor people are playing much of a role in any race to thebottom in welfare policymaking.     

The measure of wife abuse: Steps toward the development of a comprehensive assessment technique

The lack of an adequate assessment tool for wife abuse has hindered empirical research. The Measure of Wife Abuse (MWA) was developed to improve on previously developed instruments, mainly by using empirical methods of construction, which has enabled the MWA to assess a broader range of wife abuse behaviors. The purpose of this study was to determine the factor structure of the MWA items, and to assess its reliability and validity. Confirmatory multiple group factor analyses of the MWA responses of 164 abused women yielded four factors: Physical, Sexual, Psychological, and Verbal Abuse. The MWA was found to possess adequate levels of both reliability, estimated from its internal consistency, and concurrent validity, with the Conflict Tactics Scales as the criterion measure.     

Canadian cities and the American example: a prologue to urban policy analysis

Abstract: The developmental pattern that characterizes metropolitan areas in the United States often serves as a basis for evaluating the condition of Canadian cities and attributing a distinctive thrust to Canadian urban policy. To be meaningful, however, comparative evaluations have to take account of the way government activities have helped to shape U.S. metropolitan areas over an extended period of time. A criticism implicit in much US. urban analysis is that government activities have persistently contributed to large inequalities in the social and economic condition of metropolitan area municipalities. In Canada, by comparison, interjurisdictional equalization has played a larger role in federal-provincial relations than it has in federal-state relations in the United States. It also seems to have influenced the way provincial governments dealt with municipalities during the 1960s and 1970s. At the present time, however, provincial governments are allowing the governmental systems of metropolitan areas to become more fragmented. They are also under pressure to reduce or abandon their efforts to equalize services and property tax burdens among municipalities. How they respond to that pressure will help to determine how closely the development of Canada's metropolitan areas conforms to the pattern of urban development characteristic of the United States.     

Who are the people in your neighborhood? The effects of community notification on the community

In 1990 Washington became the first state to authorize the use of community notification by local law enforcement agencies as a means of managing released sex offenders in the community. Although community notification is currently being practiced in all fifty states, surprisingly little research has been done on its effectiveness in preventing further crime or other effects it may have on sex offenders, their families, and the community This research examined the possible effects of community notification on community members in terms of increased anxiety and fear based upon their reactions to different versions of a mock notification flyer. The results indicate that the quality of a notification flyer has little effect on anxiety in the general population. Authors Note: At the time this research was conducted. Mary Southwick was a psychology student at Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA 99362. Dr. Rubin is Professor of Psychology in the Division of Social Sciences. The authors wish to than Carol Lepiane, Susan Haluschak. Professor Kat Diamond, Virginia Hall, and Gayle Worthington.