Turning points or turning around: Family coach work with 'troubled families'

The study aimed to discover how family coaches work intensively with families with moderately complex problems bringing together perceptions from 20 families, 20 coaches and six other professionals, and exploring potential savings for 50 family cases. The Family Coaching Service is part of the English government’s ‘Troubled Families’ payment by results initiative, seeking to help families ‘turn their lives around’ to save state spending on anti-social behaviour, worklessness and school absence. Results show the work to be a staged process, over six months with the coach combining practical help with relationship building to engage families, set and achieve goals and negotiate endings. Cost savings were made in 82% of cases. Family coaches find the work rewarding but emotionally demanding. Families say their coach is special and different, and describe potential turning point experiences stemming from the work with their coach. There is clear congruence in the perceptions of the service from families, coaches and other professionals. Some tensions were evident in the work with other professionals and in managing relationship boundaries with families. Relationship-based help offered by para-professionals may offer a promising model of family support that statutory social workers in particular can learn from and engage with

Science‐based interviewing: Information elicitation

This article describes an ethical and effective science‐based model of interviewing. An initial planning phase assists the investigative team in separating facts from inferences, decreases the likelihood of errors based on cognitive biases, and prompts careful preparation of the environment. The interview begins with an explanation of why the subject is being questioned. The interviewer then metaphorically hands the interview over to the subject, making him the talker and the interviewer the listener. The interviewer engages in active listening, soliciting as much information from the subject as possible by deploying tactics that enhance memory based on science, including elements of the cognitive interview. Cues to deception are found in the details of the story, rather than in signs of anxiety or nonverbal behaviours, and by deploying Strategic Use of Evidence. This model has been shown to increase cooperation, decrease resistance, and provoke useful information in real‐world criminal interviews

Collaborative Voice: Examining the Role of Voice in Interdisciplinary Collaboration

The present study examined the role of voice in facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration. According to the group-value model of procedural justice, voice relates to interpersonal relationships among co-workers because it facilitates a greater interest in helping the group (e.g. group-serving behavior). We argue that because of the relationship between voice and one type of group-serving behavior--advice sharing--that greater perceptions of voice would also predict more collaboration. In a field study examining collaborative social networks among university researchers, we found that greater perceptions of voice positively related to both degree of advice sharing and collaboration. Moreover, the extent to which individuals shared advice fully mediated the relationship between perceived voice and collaboration. Implications for voice and collaboration are discussed

High-Impact Practices in Anthropology: Creating a Bridge Between Liberal Arts and Neoliberal Values

Neoliberal values are dramatically affecting higher education in the United States, with a focus on running these institutions as businesses and molding students into productive workers. This shift toward training and away from traditional liberal arts education at U.S. universities and colleges has occurred even as studies demonstrate that the ability to adapt in a rapidly evolving marketplace promotes long-term professional success. While neoliberalism and traditional liberal arts education are often seen as antithetical, we show how one anthropology program has combined these values into pedagogical practice through a select subset of high impact practices to improve academic outcomes for low achieving students. Student feedback shows that they value our approach as a positive feature of our major. This study finds that neoliberal skills-based training and academically rigorous liberal arts education are not mutually exclusive and, in conjunction, can lead to improved student outcomes

Effect of filtration on morphine and particle content of injections prepared from slow-release oral morphine tablets

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Injections of mixtures prepared from crushed tablets contain insoluble particles which can cause embolisms and other complications. Although many particles can be removed by filtration, many injecting drug users do not filter due to availability, cost or performance of filters, and also due to concerns that some of the dose will be lost.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Injection solutions were prepared from slow-release morphine tablets (MS Contin^®) replicating methods used by injecting drug users. Contaminating particles were counted by microscopy and morphine content analysed by liquid chromatography before and after filtration.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Unfiltered tablet extracts contained tens of millions of particles with a range in sizes from < 5 μm to > 400 μm. Cigarette filters removed most of the larger particles (> 50 μm) but the smaller particles remained. Commercial syringe filters (0.45 and 0.22 μm) produced a dramatic reduction in particles but tended to block unless used after a cigarette filter. Morphine was retained by all filters but could be recovered by following the filtration with one or two 1 ml washes. The combined use of a cigarette filter then 0.22 μm filter, with rinses, enabled recovery of 90% of the extracted morphine in a solution which was essentially free of tablet-derived particles.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Apart from overdose and addiction itself, the harmful consequences of injecting morphine tablets come from the insoluble particles from the tablets and microbial contamination. These harmful components can be substantially reduced by passing the injection through a sterilizing (0.22 μm) filter. To prevent the filter from blocking, a preliminary coarse filter (such as a cigarette filter) should be used first. The filters retain some of the dose, but this can be recovered by following filtration with one or two rinses with 1 ml water. Although filtration can reduce the non-pharmacological harmful consequences of injecting tablets, this remains an unsafe practice due to skin and environmental contamination by particles and microorganisms, and the risks of blood-borne infections from sharing injecting equipment.</p

Going electronic? Receipt of print journal issues and their electronic availability

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