The Santa Clara County Greenbook Story: From Theory to Transformation

This article is an overview of the past 20 years, from a judicial perspective, of how a discreet selection of Greenbook recommendations were implemented in Santa Clara County, California. This historical overview shows that it is possible to take a guidebook written by national experts from many jurisdictions and tailor the intervention to a particular location with the assistance of local leadership. We applied a theoretical framework to government agency interventions and to the very real needs of families, and that process resulted in a profound transformation of practice.     

Improving caregiver attendance at forensic service users’ psychiatric clinic appointments

In Singapore, families play an important role caring for mentally disordered offenders. They are particularly important in cases where courts oblige psychiatric assessment, because they provide corroborating information not otherwise volunteered. However, their attendance is generally low. Our quality improvement project sought to increase caregiver attendance at outpatient visits. We followed WHO guidelines for quality improvement, determined the root cause of poor attendance, and devised three Plan–Do–Study–Act cycles over six weeks in late 2013. We followed their impact for 12 months. Case managers and medical social workers implemented three strategies to address issues of poor communication and awareness, which led to poor attendance. Prior to our project, caregivers attended 47% of outpatient visits. Following the implementation of our strategies, rates rose to 70%, sustained over the 12 following months. The entire case management department adopted our strategies. Simple changes to standard operating procedures improved the rate of caregiver attendance at follow-up appointments.     

多元治理视野下的多规合一——以浙江省试点县（市）为例

文章运用一元为主、多元辅补的多元治理理论分析方法,对浙江省试点县（市）“多规合一”的协调机制、编制主体、审批机制和空间管控进行了系统分析,总结提炼出“多规合一”四方面的成效,为今后其他地区“多规合一”编制工作提供经验借鉴。研究发现：一是试点地区“多规合一”的成效明显;二是本文将多中心治理理论中国化为“一元为主、多元辅补”的多元治理的理论,并用以分析“多规合一”的现状、成果、缺憾及完善路径是有效的。因此,文章研究结论为现行“多规合一”还需要从政策法律体系、编制机构和公众参与等方面完善。     

Why is it taking so long to move down the road?: Creating a regional border agreement in the DMV as an alternative for the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children

The Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC) is an agreement between all 50 states and the District of Columbia governing the process of placing a foster child out of state. Notorious for its long wait times and system backlog, the ICPC presents a host of problems for children attempting to move mere minutes across state lines to be with a relative or kin placement instead of state foster care. In an effort to make this process smoother, 18 different “border agreements” have been adopted by several neighboring states across the U.S. Such border agreements give temporary placement licenses to relatives and kin while the ICPC process is ongoing. While this is a good start towards a solution, the ICPC could be further streamlined if border agreements were used more widely, especially in regional contexts. This article considers the possibility of such a regional agreement between the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Northern Virginia (known as the “DMV”). By comparing and contrasting two existing border agreements in these three jurisdictions, a regional DMV border agreement can be created implementing the best terms of both agreements.     

Barriers and enablers of coordination across healthcare system levels

Coordination across healthcare system levels is a global imperative to ensure efficient resource utilization and provide high-quality care. The substantial body of research on coordination in healthcare mainly concerns coordination across professional and organizational domains. Consequently, there is a dearth of empirical research aimed at delineating the determinants of coordination across healthcare system levels. This paper describes and analyses the barriers and enablers of healthcare coordination across national, regional, and local system levels in a populous Swedish region. Individual interviews and focus group discussions, encompassing a total of 63 individuals, were conducted with managers, administrators, and politicians. The findings of the paper underscore that the barriers identified were most often of a structural or institutional character, whereas the enablers of the studied cross-level coordination were mostly relational. Therefore, we propose that future research should aim to further delineate the prerequisites for personal relationships to emerge, as well as how they may act as enablers of coordination across healthcare system levels.     

Centralisation versus regionalisation: Designing the Sixth National Mental Health Plan

In response to the recent Productivity Commission report into mental health, the previous Federal Government announced its intention to produce a new national agreement that lays the platform for Australia's sixth national mental health plan. It has been recommended mental health move to a more regional model of governance and planning, away from a centralised, top-down approach, partly in response to broader reforms affecting health care, and partly in direct response to consistent inquiry evidence that the mental health system remains in crisis. The past 30 years of mental health planning have been centralised. Successive national plans set a broad framework, with real decisions about mental health funding and service allocation made in the health departments of our capital cities. Will the next plan sponsor or inhibit regionality in mental health planning? This paper assesses Australia's historical approach to health planning particularly as it affected mental health and the costs arising. In learning these lessons, we propose the necessary ingredients to facilitate a regional, innovative, and effective approach to decentralised planning, for better mental health outcomes. We cannot afford to replicate the failed planning approaches of the past.     

云计算平台著作权侵权责任认定的内在机理与路径建构

云计算平台作为新型网络服务提供者的典型代表，相较传统网络服务提供者，具有大规模、虚拟化、多租户、回避用户内容等特征，已在一定程度上超出了传统避风港原则的制度设计范畴，为著作权侵权责任的认定带来诸多挑战，既有分析视角呈现抽象有余而体系化不足的趋势。云计算平台著作权侵权责任理论应以注意义务为核心要素，而针对用户上传内容不负有审查义务。在IaaS、PaaS、SaaS等不同服务模式下，云计算平台的注意义务边界应当随着控制对象和控制能力的不同有所区分。在认定云计算平台著作权侵权责任时，司法者应当在坚持“通知—必要措施”的基本方法下，实现“比例原则”的具体运用，同时注重“动态调整”的发展趋势。     

Like bringing a knife to a gunfight: Why IRC Section 2036 is not the right weapon to combat abusive family limited partnerships

Family Limited Partnerships (“FLPs”), which were once a great estate planning technique, have now become victim to Section 2036 assertions made by the IRS. Over the years, the IRS has struggled to find a means to combat abusive FLPs until the courts began to embrace Section 2036 as a weapon for them to use. Different courts, however, have maintained different rules and have now subjected both abusive and non-abusive FLPs to inclusion of their assets into their gross estates. This has shed light onto the main issue, that is, that Section 2036 is not the appropriate tool to combat abusive FLPs.