Termination of Supplemental Security Income Benefits for Drug Addiction and Alcoholism: Results of a Longitudinal Study of the Effects on Former Beneficiaries

This article reviews the results of a multisite cohort study on effects of terminating Supplemental Security Income benefits for drug addiction and alcoholism. Within 2 years of the program\u27s termination, 35 - 43 percent of participants requalified for disability benefits for another impairment. Regardless of requalification status, substance abuse treatment participation declined sharply and illegal drug use was prevalent. Although many of those who did not requalify lost income, medical benefits, and housing, these losses lessened over time and were not associated with increased psychological or medical problems or with declines in other aspects of participants\u27 lives

Termination of Supplemental Security Income Benefits for Drug Addiction and Alcoholism: Results of a Longitudinal Study of the Effects on Former Beneficiaries

This article reviews the results of a multisite cohort study on effects of terminating Supplemental Security Income benefits for drug addiction and alcoholism. Within 2 years of the program\u27s termination, 35 - 43 percent of participants requalified for disability benefits for another impairment. Regardless of requalification status, substance abuse treatment participation declined sharply and illegal drug use was prevalent. Although many of those who did not requalify lost income, medical benefits, and housing, these losses lessened over time and were not associated with increased psychological or medical problems or with declines in other aspects of participants\u27 lives

Necessary connections: ‘Feelings photographs’ in criminal justice research

Visual representations of prisons and their inmates are common in the news and social media, with stories about riots, squalor, drugs, self-harm and suicide hitting the headlines. Prisoners’ families are left to worry about the implications of such events on their kin, while those incarcerated and less able to understand social cues, norms and rules, are vulnerable to deteriorating mental health at best, to death at worst. As part of the life-story method in my research with offenders who are on the autism spectrum, have mental health problems and/or have learning difficulties, and prisoner’s mothers, I asked participants to take photographs, reflecting upon their experiences. Photographs in this case, were primarily used to help respondents consider and articulate their feelings in follow-up interviews. Notably, seeing (and imagining) is often how we make a connection to something (object or feeling), or someone (relationships), such that images in fiction, news/social media, drama, art, film and photographs can shape the way people think and behave – indeed feel about things and people. Images and representations ought to be taken seriously in researching social life, as how we interpret photographs, paintings, stories and television shows is based on our own imaginings, biography, culture and history. Therefore, we look at and process an image before words escape, by ‘seeing’ and imagining. How my participants and I ‘collaborate’ in doing visual methods and then how we make meaning of the photographs in storying their feelings, is insightful. As it is, I wanted to enable my participants to make and create their own stories via their photographs and narratives, whilst connecting to them, along with my own interpretation and subjectivities

Identifying risks for male street gang affiliation: a systematic review and narrative synthesis

Gang violence has increased in recent years. Individuals are becoming gang affiliated younger, and many have suffered historic maltreatment. Subsequent exposure to violence can result in profound consequences, including acute psychological harm. This review aims to identify predictive risk factors for male street gang affiliation. A systematic literature search was conducted utilising PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Medline, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and the Social Policy and Practice databases (from the databases’ inception to 03/04/15). From this search, n=244 peer-reviewed papers were included in an initial scoping review, and n=102 thereafter met criteria for a systematic review; a narrative synthesis follows. Gang members have typically faced numerous historic adversities across multiple domains; individual, family, peers, school and community. Cumulative factors generated an independent risk. The meta-narrative described an overarching failure to safeguard vulnerable individuals, with the motivation for gang affiliation hypothetically arising from an attempt to have their basic needs met. Clinical and research recommendations were made to inform early intervention policy and practice