Training indigenous workers in mental-health care

This article develops issues raised in H`ans Buwalda's article, ‘Children of war in the Philippines?s. It considers the training of indigenous workers in mental-health care in areas of recent or continuing armed conflict. It explores the possibilities of combining Western therapeutic techniques with local and culturally appropriate ways of working. It stresses the need to acknowledge and address the emotional impact of the work and participants' own concerns, and discusses the kind of support which workers need. It looks at teaching methods and course content, with a view to creating a safe atmosphere and an interesting programme, taking into account cultural considerations. Finally it suggests ways of developing models of training for the future.     

A measure of risk taking for young adolescents: Reliability and validity assessments

Researchers often define adolescent risk taking in terms of individual behaviors such as alcohol and drug use, early sexual activity, and reckless driving. It is not clear whether these behaviors defined by adults as risky have the same meaning for adolescents. This paper describes the development and preliminary testing of an instrument to assess risk taking among young adolescents. The six item scale was constructed by asking small groups of eighth grade boys and girls to describe things that teenagers your age do for excitement or thrills. The measure was then used in a longitudinal study of 758 young adolescents from three rural counties in Maryland. The scale shows good reliability, as indicated by coefficient alpha and factor analyses. Eighth-grade scores on the scale are associated with the initiation of sexual activity and substance use in ninth grade among virgins and nonusers of alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and pills in eighth grade.     

Building community capacity for violence prevention

The capacity of communities to prevent violence is examined from three perspectives: youth violence, child maltreatment, and intimate partner violence. The analysis suggests that community social control and collective efficacy are significant protective factors for all three types of violence, but these need to be further distinguished for their relationships to private, parochial, and state controls. It is argued that strong interpersonal ties are not the only contributor to collective efficacy and violence prevention. Weak ties, including those outside the community, and organizational ties are also seen as necessary. Violence prevention programs should be structured in ways that contribute to the communities' own capacity to prevent violence.     

Targeting housing assistance

This article examines the current system for targeting federal rental housing assistance, a rationed program rather than an entitlement, to households with the greatest need. It describes the current systems for eligibility and for ranking households on waiting lists, and then analyzes relative needs for assistance among different groups of households. We conclude that the main policy objective should be to maintain the present system against the leakages that are starting to occur. We also recommend that assistance be targeted more heavily to families than at present and less to the elderly, and that nonelderly single persons be made fully eligible for assistance.     

Which way to the barricades?

Ann Curthoys, For and Against Feminism. A Personal Journey into Feminist Theory and History (Allen & Unwin) Sydney, 1988; Elizabeth Wilson, Hidden Agendas. Theory, Politics, and Experience in the Women's Movement (Tavistock) London & New York, 1986; Charlotte Bunch, Passionate Politics. Feminist Theory in Action (St. Martin's Press) New York, 1987.     

Child Welfare Practice Model Implementation Projects: Lessons Learned

Child welfare agencies implement practice models to guide their processes and practices, clarify expectations, and enhance service delivery to improve outcomes for children, youth, and families. Changing child welfare practices is a tremendous undertaking requiring assimilation of new concepts, policies, skills, and behaviors. The integration of a new practice model can be facilitated through tailored training and technical assistance (T/TA) grounded in implementation science. Based on qualitative analysis from a cross-site evaluation of Child Welfare Implementation Centers, this article provides an overview and lessons learned from 14 practice model implementation projects and the use of T/TA to support them.     

How Does Regulation Affect the Risk Taking of Banks? A U.S. and Canadian Perspective

This historical study utilizes annual insured bank data from 1936 through 1989 to empirically evaluate the impact of bank regulation on bank risk taking in a cross-country comparison of the United States and Canada. Risk is hypothesized to be determined, in part, by the regulatory environment in which a bank operates. The findings of this analysis contributes to the contemporary deregulation policy debate, since both branch banking restrictions and deposit insurance variables are found to be detrimental to bank stability. More specifically, these results support the 1994 Riegle–Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act, which removed legislative barriers to interstate branching. These results also confirm expectations that deposit insurance increases risk taking and supports the 1991 mandate by regulators that risk-based deposit insurance be created. Further, these findings support the 1988 Basel Accord to standardize bank capital requirements internationally and to link these standards to bank risk taking.