Socio-Economic Impact Of Social Ties On Community Care For Older Australians

Mounting pressure on government expenditure, from the needs of an ageing population, has led to the introduction of the Home and Community Care (HACC) programme, based upon the self-reliance principle. This programme may, however, disadvantage certain groups, as its success depends, in part on the informal support from family and friends. It is essential, therefore that we examine older Australians individual characteristics to help explain the levels of informal care and support presently available, as represented by the social network. Using a regression analysis of the information collected from 401 non-institutionalised older Gold Coast residents sampled in a household survey conducted in 1999, we test two hypotheses: 1. gender, education and household type explain levels of social network accessed by older people; 2. older males are more vulnerable than older females to the social network effect of living alone. Based on the findings of our study, we have concerns about the accessibility of the informal care and support (from family and friends) available for older men living alone as the level of the social network was the lowest for this group of older Australians.

The Supply of Doctors in Australia: Is There A Shortage?

understand the situation better, this paper reviews the current English language literature on the supply of doctors in developed and developing countries with a special interest in Australia. The definition of doctor shortage and the accepted ratio of patients to full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors that is followed in this paper, is the one that is provided by the Australian Government�s Department of Health and Ageing. The issue of supply imbalance with respect to doctors is one that is particularly controversial in Australia, with some policy-makers arguing that it is a problem of under-utilisation of existing doctors, not under supply. The paper focuses on the literature on (1) mobility issues relating to geographical and sectoral imbalances, (2) incentive issues (monetary and non-monetary) relating to medical specialisation imbalance and (3) government regulation issues relating to geographical, sectoral and professional specialisation imbalances. The paper offers some suggestions to deal with the problem of supply imbalance. One of the key findings is that developed countries such as Australia cannot continue to rely on foreign-born overseas trained doctors to fill the gaps in supply. Hence, to solve the medical workforce crisis, Australia will have to increase the number of doctors being trained.

Government Policies On Employment And Superannuation: Contradictions And Consequences For Older Australians

Older women today are most likely to live on limited incomes and are more dependent on the age pension than men. This paper examines the Federal government's employment policies that have reduced older women's opportunities to save for retirement and the government's attempt in recent years to equalise women's economic status. These policies also discouraged the participation of women in the paid workforce and confined them to low paid, part time, casual employment. Up until 1988 very few superannuation schemes allowed part time and casual workers to join or retain membership. As Superannuation Guarantee Charge is based on continuous paid work people in unpaid work, such as household chores and caring, are excluded. The principle of self-reliance as reflected in the Home and Community Care programme will further erode women's employment opportunities since it relies on unpaid carers, who are mostly women. Recently the gender gap has narrowed owing to increased Federal funding for childcare, the equal pay case, affirmative action and the universal superannuation provisions that bridge broken work patterns. However these come too late for today's older women. The past inequalities experienced by Australian women are now amplified during their retirement. Many older women today are the major recipients of the very institution that contributed to their lower economic status.

Determinants Of Unionisation For Part-Time Women Employees In Australian Banks

Against the declining trend of Australian employees to join unions, unionisation of part-time female employees in the banking industry is relatively strong. For the finance and insurance industry in 2001, 30.3% of total part-time female employees were unionised compared to 25% of full-time female employees and 17.2% of full-time male employees. Overall, 22.3% of employees from this industry were members (ABS, 2002). Under freedom of association, what can influence an individual's decision to unionise? A survey was conducted on three major Australian banks in August 2000. We use a binary choice regression model to analyse personal and union-organising characteristics that significantly influence individual's decision to unionise. Previous membership under union preference provisions and earning relatively high wages would lead to a higher probability to join the union. Union's role in enterprise bargaining and whether union did anything to recruit have significant impact on individual decisions. Thus, part-time female employees are not unwilling to join when they recognise the need for job protection.

STUDENT’S DIFFICULTIES IN SOLVING PROBLEM OF REAL ANALYSIS

Main goal of learning mathematics is students able to solve mathematics problems. Students acquire high order thinking, e.g. critical and creative thinking, by solving mathematical problems. Students also acquire habits of persistent and confidence in unfamilitar conditions (NCTM, 2000). Actually, university students of mathematics education had difficulties to solve a problem to prove of Real Analysis. Subjects of the lecture can help students to have ways of mathematical thinking. The aim of this research was to describe difficulties of students to solve a Real Analysis problem. Three students had solved a problem while being interviewed by the researcher. The interview was based on Polya’s heuristic of problem solving. The activities was recorded by audiotape. The results were all students understand the problem. They could determine what is known and target/unknown of the problem. One of the students also had known concepts in the problem, but she could not synthesize the concept to make a plan. Students lack in having problem solving scheme. It is interwining between concepts in the problem and strategy of previous solved problems

How Animal Assisted Therapy with Dogs is Understood and Perceived among Health Care Providers and the General Public in Canada

When a dog is included in treatment to meet an individual’s therapeutic goal it is known as Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT). Although AAT has increased in popularity, limited research exists regarding its efficacy. According to the diffusion of innovation theory an innovation must be properly communicated to all appropriate channels before it may be adopted into practice. Little is known about how AAT is understood and perceived among healthcare professional and public populations in Canada. In the present study, health care professionals and the general public in Canada were surveyed. Attitude toward dogs, openness to experience, agreeableness, and subjective distress were investigated. Results suggest that both professional and public populations have limited knowledge of AAT but are interested in learning more about the intervention. Although attitude toward dogs appears to be positively associated with attitude toward AAT, the impact of openness to experience, agreeableness, and subjective distress is limited

TANOS (TaN, Al2O3, Si3N4, SiO2, Si) Charge-trap Flash Devices

Goal: To demonstrate charge-trapping in a TANOS Stack at RIT Gate stack film depositions determined by experimentation, testing C-V structures fabricated and tested by patterning gate stack with GCA C-V Mask. NMOS charge-trap flash devices currently being fabricated with modified version of AdvCMOS150 Process w/ TANO gate stack