Serving People with Disabilities through the Workforce Investment Act's One-Stop Career Centers

This paper examines the extent to which people with disabilities are served through WIA's One-Stop system and discusses its capacity to serve people with disabilities who desire employment assistance, both in terms of common barriers to access as well as promising strategies to improve service delivery to people with disabilities

Formative Evaluation of Job Clubs Operated by Faith- and Community-Based Organizations: Findings From Site Visits and Options for Future Evaluation

Over the past several decades, job search support groups, commonly referred to as “job clubs,” have evolved into one of several important activities used by the public workforce system and faith- and community-based organizations to enhance worker readiness and employability, as well as to provide ongoing support to unemployed and underemployed individuals as they search for jobs. The U.S. Department of Labor\u27s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) contracted in September 2012 with Capital Research Corporation, Inc. and George Washington University to conduct an assessment of job clubs sponsored by faith-based and community-based organizations (FBOs/CBOs). The overall purpose of this evaluation effort was to systematically describe the key characteristics of job clubs being offered by a range of faith- and community- based organizations, document how they differ from and are similar to the job clubs operated by publicly-funded workforce agencies (such as at American Job Centers [AJCs]), and identify potential approaches that might be used for more rigorous formal evaluation of impacts and effectiveness. Findings from the telephone interviews with stakeholders and in-person interviews with facilitators during the site visits indicate that job clubs operated by FBOs, CBOs and public workforce agencies are alike in many ways, with all of them emphasizing the critical importance of: (1) networking during the job search; (2) offering ongoing peer support and sharing of similar experiences among participants; and (3) providing instruction and guidance on the basics of the job search process (e.g., elevator pitches, resume development, job interview practice). Noteworthy differences between the FBO/CBO job clubs and those operated by public workforce agencies are related to staffing patterns and available resources for program operations and services. While public workforce agency job clubs are led by paid professional staff, supported by the full complement of workshops, activities, and other services typically available through AJCs/One-Stop Centers, FBO/CBO job clubs, in most cases, operate with limited budgets or no funding whatsoever. Additionally, compared with public sector agencies, FBOs/CBOs typically collect little in the way of participant-level data, such as participant identifiers, demographic characteristics, service receipt, or outcomes. Finally, although this report suggests several approaches to future rigorous experimental/non-experimental and process/implementation evaluation of FBO/CBO-sponsored job clubs, there are likely to be formidable challenges to implementation of rigorous evaluation methods because these job clubs rarely collect identifying information on participants, such as Social Security numbers, and are generally opposed to random assignment for their programs

Psikoterapide tek beden herkese uymuyor: Avrupa’da yaşayan Türkiye kökenli hastalarda depresyonu anlamak

PubMed ID: 28360770Over the last decades, Europe has become an immigration country hosting an estimated 56 million international immigrants. Yet, a large amount of literature suggests that migration is associated with a higher risk of common mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety. As representatives of one of the largest immigrant groups in Europe, various studies have shown that Turkish immigrants exhibit a higher prevalence of depression and anxiety disorders than do the background population. Nevertheless, it is also well demonstrated that this particular patient group is more likely to terminate treatment prematurely and displays lower rates of treatment compliance than their native counterparts. This reluctance for service utilization might be partially because of the fact that people from non-Western ethnocultural backgrounds (e.g., Turkey) often have a different notion and comprehension of mental health and illness as compared with those of the people from Western societies. Such mismatch often results in discrepancies between the needs and expectations of immigrant patients and clinicians, which attenuate the communication and effectiveness of treatment and lead to unexplained high dropout rates. To provide continued provision of culture-sensitive, high quality, evidence-based mental health care, the advancement of researches exploring such sociocultural differences between the patients’ and the clinicians’ notions of mental health must occur. In response to these problems, the current review aims to explore the interplay between culture and mental processes that associate with the etiology, maintenance, and management of depression among Turkish immigrant patients. This is to inform clinicians regarding culturespecific correlates of depression among Turkish patients to enable them to present interventions that fit the needs and expectations of this particular patient group.Son yıllarda Avrupa, yaklaşık olarak 56 milyon uluslararası göçmen barındıran bir göç bölgesi haline gelmiştir. Bunula birlikte, göçün, depresyon ve anksiyete bozuklukları gibi sık görülebilen psikiyatrik bozukluklarda artışa neden olduğunu belirten çalışmalar bulunmaktadır. Avrupa’da yapılan çalışmalar, en kalabalık göçmen gruplarından biri olan Türkiye kökenli göçmenlerde, depresyon ve anksiyete bozukluklarının yaygınlığının, genel nüfusa kıyasla daha yüksek olduğunu göstermektedir. Buna rağmen, yine bu grubun, Avrupalı hastalara kıyasla tedaviye uyum sağlamakta daha çok güçlük çektikleri hatta tedaviyi erken sonlandırma eğiliminde oldukları yapılan araştırmalarla ortaya konmuştur. Batılı olmayan toplumların (ör: Türkiye), ruh sağlığı ve hastalıkları ile ilgili nosyon ve anlayışlarının, batılı toplumlarınkinden farklı olması, göçmen hastaların sağlık hizmetlerinden yararlanmaktan kaçınmalarına yol açabilmektedir. Anlayışlar arasındaki bu farklılıklar ise, göçmen hastalar ve batılı klinisyenler arasındaki iletişimi dolayısıyla tedavinin etkinliğini zayıflatarak tedaviyi bırakma oranlarında açıklanamayan artışlara yol açabilmektedir. Kültüre duyarlı, kaliteli ve kanıta dayalı ruh sağlığı hizmetlerinin sağlanabilmesi adına, hasta ve klinisyenlerin ruh sağlığına ilişkin anlayışları arasındaki sosyokültürel farklılıkları keşfetmeye yönelik araştırmaların artması bir gerekliliktir. Buna yönelik olarak, bu makalede ruh sağlığı ve kültür arasındaki etkileşim ve bu etkileşimin Türk göçmen hastalarda depresyonu tetikleyen ve devam ettiren faktörler ile ilişkileri incelenmiştir. Buradaki amaç, bu hasta grubunun beklentilerine ve ihtiyaçlarına uygun müdahalelerin sunulabilmesi adına, klinisyenlere depresyonun kültürel öğeleri hakkında bilgi sağlamaktır.Publisher's Versio

The Costs of Defined Benefit Pension Plans and Firm Adjustments

[Excerpt] While it is obvious that the costs of term life insurance vary directly with age, it is less obvious how employers\u27 contributions to pension funds, which comprise a major share of nonwage compensation, vary. As such, we focus in this paper on the most common variant of pension plans and demonstrate how an employer\u27s cost of fully funding a plan varies with the age and service characteristics of his work force. This cost, as a percent of annual salary, is seen to increase with employees\u27 ages and, in some cases, years of service. This variation has important implications for the level and shape of life-cycle earnings profiles, for labor turnover, and for the likely impact of pension reform legislation, such as the Employees Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), on the well-being of workers. These implications are discussed in this paper