Adolescent suicide myths in the United States

In the United States, teen suicide rates tripled over several decades, but have declined slightly since the mid-1990s. Suicide, by its nature, is a complex problem. Many myths have developed about individuals who complete suicide, suicide risk factors, current prevention programs, and the treatment of at-risk youth. The purpose of this article is to address these myths, to separate fact from fiction, and offer recommendations for future suicide prevention programs. Myth #1: Suicide attempters and completers are similar Myth #2: Current prevention programs work. Myth #3: Teenagers have the highest suicide rate. Myth #4: Suicide is caused by family and social stress. Myth #5: Suicide is not inherited genetically. Myth #6: Teen suicide represents treatment failure. Psychiatric illnesses are often viewed differently from other medical problems. Research should precede any public health effort, so that suicide prevention programs can be designed, implemented, and evaluated appropriately. Too often suicide prevention programs do not use evidence-based research or practice methodologies. More funding is warranted to continue evidence-based studies. We propose that suicide be studied like any medical illness, and that future prevention efforts are evidence-based, with appropriate outcome measures.     

Dynamic Characteristics of Signatures: Effects of Writer Style on Genuine and Simulated Signatures

The aims of this study were to determine if computer‐measured dynamic features (duration, size, velocity, jerk, and pen pressure) differ between genuine and simulated signatures. Sixty subjects (3 equal groups of 3 signature styles) each provided 10 naturally written (genuine) signatures. Each of these subjects then provided 15 simulations of each of three model signatures. The genuine (N = 600) and simulated (N = 2700) signatures were collected using a digitizing tablet. MovAlyzeR^® software was used to estimate kinematic parameters for each pen stroke. Stroke duration, velocity, and pen pressure were found to discriminate between genuine and simulated signatures regardless of the simulator's own style of signature or the style of signature being simulated. However, there was a significant interaction between style and condition for size and jerk (a measure of smoothness). The results of this study, based on quantitative analysis and dynamic handwriting features, indicate that the style of the simulator's own signature and the style of signature being simulated can impact the characteristics of handwriting movements for simulations. Writer style characteristics might therefore need to be taken into consideration as potentially significant when evaluating signature features with a view to forming opinions regarding authenticity.     

Public Sector Reform

Reform is never far from the centre of public administration practice and scholarship. In this article Doug McTaggart, the chairman of the Queensland Public Service Commission, and Janine O'Flynn, from the University of Melbourne, explore the challenges of reform and the state of play. McTaggart, who was a commissioner on the Queensland Commission of Audit, sets out the case that business as usual will no longer suffice given the range of challenges faced by governments. He sets out to explain how we ended up in our current state and what needs to happen to repair it, drawing on deep experience in the practice of reform. O'Flynn positions reform as one of the central questions in public administration and management and makes the case for rethinking reform conceptually to drive change in practice. In doing so she points to our weaknesses in determining whether reform fails or succeeds and makes the case that, until we rethink reform, business as usual might be all we end up with. McTaggart and O'Flynn bring together the expertise of practice and academia to bring new insights in this persistent challenge of public administration, and raise a series of questions for debate.     

A randomized clinical trial of tailored interventions for health promotion and recidivism reduction among homeless parolees: outcomes and cost analysis

Objectives

This study conducted a randomized controlled trial with 600 recently released homeless men exiting California jails and prisons.

Methods

The purpose of this study was to primarily ascertain how different levels of intensity in peer coaching and nurse-partnered intervention programs may impact reentry outcomes; specifically: (a) an intensive peer coach and nurse case managed (PC-NCM) program; (b) an intermediate peer coaching (PC) program with brief nurse counseling; and (c) the usual care (UC) program involving limited peer coaching and brief nurse counseling. Secondary outcomes evaluated the operational cost of each program.

Results

When compared to baseline, all three groups made progress on key health-related outcomes during the 12-month intervention period; further, 84.5 % of all participants eligible for hepatitis A/B vaccination completed their vaccine series. The results of the detailed operational cost analysis suggest the least costly approach (i.e., UC), which accounted for only 2.11 % of the total project expenditure, was as effective in achieving comparable outcomes for this parolee population as the PC-NCM and PC approaches, which accounted for 53.98 % and 43.91 %, respectively, of the project budget.

Conclusions

In this study, all three intervention strategies were found to be comparable in achieving a high rate of vaccine completion, which over time will likely produce tremendous savings to the public health system.

     

Korean Unification

If you change your past and work together in the spirit that everyone of you, no matter to what community he belongs…is first, second and last a citizen of this state with equal rights, privileges and obligations, there will be no end to the progress you will make…. You are free to go to your mosques or to any other place, belong to any religion or caste or creed—that has nothing to do with the business of the state. We are starting in the days when there is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one state…. I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense because that is the personal faith of each individual but in the political sense as citizens of the state.     

WHISTLEBLOWING WITHOUT TEARS: THE EXPOSURE OF BRISBANE'S KING GEORGE SQUARE CAR PARK FRAUD

Abstract: This is essentially a “now it can be told” account of a massive fraud perpetrated on the Brisbane City Council in the mid-1970s by six attendants in a council car park, who manipulated bundy clocks to falsify departure times on parking tickets surrendered by departing motorists. Because of bitter personal rivalry between two senior council officials, which was complicated by (i) strong support for one official at elected member level, (ii) the subsequently discovered domestic liaison of the latter official with one of the prime suspects, and (iii) bungling in the crown prosecutor's office leading to a judge's decision to throw out the initial conspiracy charge against the car park attendants, it seemed that they might be reinstated and resume stealing on a massive scale. A method of dealing effectively with the issue, involving “blowing the whistle” while protecting the identity of the whistleblowers, was therefore devised. As a result, the thieves were eventually charged and convicted individually. The senior official who advised against police investigation of the suspected fraud while concealing his relationship with a prime suspect was also punished. The paper concludes with a defence of the deception perpetrated by whistleblowers to protect themselves from possible retribution.     

The role of ISO 9000 in improving the quality of service delivery of Hong Kong's public housing programs

This paper reports on research undertaken in Hong Kong on the impact of IS0 9000 (International Standards Organization 9000 series standards for Quality Management Systems) quality management standards in the improvement and assurance of quality service and products. The Hong Kong Housing Authority provides an appropriate context and database for this research as it has undertaken to implement the IS0 9000 quality management standards across its range of public housing construction and maintenance services and is able to provide the researchers with “before” and “after” scenarios which facilitate measurement of the impact of the standards on service quality.