Invisible Lives: The Experiences of Parents Receiving Child Protective Services (FULL REPORT)

Involvement with child protective services (CPS) may be expected to be a stressful experience for parents. Usually their involvement is involuntary, initiated because someone believes they are not caring adequately for their children: this tells them that the community, or someone in the community, does not approve of them as parents. As families who become involved with CPS tend to be economically deprived and socially marginalized, they may view agency intervention as one more sign that they are not accepted by their community. Moreover it brings the fear of losing their children, perhaps forever. In this context, it is especially important to understand parents’ perspectives, so that service providers can respond sensitively to them through the crisis of CPS entering their lives. A sensitive response contributes to a good working relationship, and to the parents’ sense of being respected and valued, conditions that are essential in helping them to improve their family situations. This research report explores the experiences of sixty-one parents who have had substantial involvement with CPS, with a focus on their own perceptions of this involvement. To better understand the context of parents’ experiences, we asked them to discuss freely their histories, their daily lives, their relationships with family, friends, neighbours, and more formal sources of support. We did not interview CPS workers or foster carers. Other team members in the Partnerships for Children and Families Project did include workers in their interviews; for our part, it was a massive task to organize the 5 data from lengthy interviews with 61 parents, thus the inclusion of other viewpoints was beyond our capacity

Aggressive Kaposi's Sarcoma in a 6-month-old African infant: Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), known to exist in Africa for a century now, was rare in children and unknown in the newborn. With the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a more aggressive, disseminated type of KS (AKS) was recognized. Recently KS was diagnosed in a 6-month-old infant in Tanzania. Data support the notion that HHSV8 infectivity can be potentiated with HIV infection and thus produce multiple lesions in different anatomical sites early in life. Furthermore, the available evidence would suggest a nonsexual route of HHSV8 infection, possibly from mother to fetus

Investigating the Evidence of Behavioral, Cognitive, and Psychiatric Endophenotypes in Autism: A Systematic Review

Substantial evidence indicates that parents of autistic individuals often display milder forms of autistic traits referred to as the broader autism phenotype (BAP). To determine if discrete endophenotypes of autism can be identified, we reviewed the literature to assess the evidence of behavioral, cognitive, and psychiatric profiles of the BAP. A systematic review was conducted using EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PsycEXTRA, and Global Health. Sixty papers met our inclusion criteria and results are discussed according to the proportion of studies that yield significant deficits per domain. The behavioral, cognitive, and psychiatric endophenotypes in parents of autistic probands are still not clarified; however, evidence suggests mild social/communication deficits, rigid/aloof personality traits, and pragmatic language difficulties as the most useful sociobehavioral candidate endophenotype traits. The existence of deficits in the cognitive domain does suggest familial vulnerability for autism. Furthermore, increased depressed mood and anxiety can also be useful markers; however, findings should be interpreted with caution because of the small number of studies in such heterogeneously broad domains and several methodological limitations

Aging with Dementia and an Intellectual Disability: A Case Study of Supported Empowerment in a Community Living Home

This case study explores the qualitative experience of 4 consumers with a dual disability living in a home specializing in dementia support. Drawing insights from participant observation, daily living log notes, and interviews with 4 each of family/friend caregivers, direct-care staff, and administrators, the study has 3 main goals: (i) to understand how the onset of dementia in people with an intellectual disability changes their needs, what adjustments have to be made in the support practices, and what service barriers and successes are experienced; (ii) to understand how people with dual disabilities experience living in a home specializing in dementia support and how stakeholders perceive this model of support; and (iii) to identify ways policymakers can better respond to the changing needs of people with dual disabilities. The findings of the study identify two social processes; one of marginalization and the other of supported empowerment. The process of marginalization depicts how dementia affects people with intellectual disabilities as they incur multiple losses in ability, home, and community. In spite of losses, the data illustrate how these individuals maintain their selfhood with good health support, decision-making, self-agency, and autonomy. Further, a home of choice with an individualized transition process, consistent and person-centered support, and elevated empathy facilitate their freedom of choice. Engaging the self in community, both inside and outside the home, is emphasized. The findings are contrasted with divergent perspectives on support practices and barriers in providing empowering support to consumers living in the home. The study generates a theory of supported empowerment grounded in the data. This theory yields an empowering social model and micro-practices that harness elements of empowerment necessary to support people with dual disabilities. Seven policy considerations that prevent premature placement in nursing homes, enable aging in place, and maintain a participatory life in community are recommended from insights gained. Several research implications are raised by this study, notably, inclusive research methodologies to access the voice of people with a dual disability, caregiver support, inclusive community participation, the benefits of social versus medical models of long-term support, and personhood created in quality of lives

Euler Systems and Selmer Bounds for GU(2,1)

We investigate properties of the Euler system associated to certain automorphic representations of the unitary similitude group GU(2,1) with respect to an imaginary quadratic field $E$, constructed by Loeffler-Skinner-Zerbes. By adapting Mazur and Rubin's Euler system machinery we prove one divisibility of the ``rank 1" Iwasawa main conjecture under some mild hypotheses. When $p$ is split in $E$ we also prove a ``rank 0" statement of the main conjecture, bounding a particular Selmer group in terms of a $p$-adic distribution conjecturally interpolating complex $L$-values. We then prove descended versions of these results, at integral level, where we bound certain Bloch--Kato Selmer groups. We will also discuss the case where $p$ is inert, which is a work in progress

Passivity: Looking at Bystanding Through the Lens of Criminological Theory

Criminologists have long since marginalized passivity as a variable of interest when studying the phenomenon of harm-doing. In this thesis, I explore the role of passivity in such instances and build a case for its centrality to deviance. I also undertake a number of other tasks. First, I review the extent to which research throughout the academy has connected passivity to violence. Second, I explore whether criminological theories have incorporated the variable of passivity and how they could. Lastly, I reflect on why more work on passivity has not been done given its manifest connection to harm, and I offer suggestions on how criminology can move forward in integrating bystander behavior in its theories of harm-doing

Interest mediation and democratic transitions : NEDLAC and South Africa's experiment in Corporatism

The release of Nelson Mandela in 1990 marked the beginning of a transition process during which South Africa would finally move from an authoritarian apartheid state to a democratic state that respected and upheld the basic principles of human rights. The field of ""transition politics"" is huge. It necessarily encompasses and is a reaction to the years of history prior to the period of transition, which may have (and has often) been marked by struggle, whether it was violent or passive, against the former regime. It covers areas as broad as the field of politics itself from constitution design to public administration reform. Ultimately the raison d'etre of a political transition period is encapsulated in the attempt to create a utopian ideal state or political entity which corrects the perceived injustices and faults of the system it is attempting to replace or redesign. This dissertation focuses on a small but nonetheless significant area of that attempt to create the ideal political system. It is an area than has been and remains particularly pertinent in South Africa and was particularly important during the transition period, namely the intermediation of the demands of interest groups, and in particular, the mediation of the demands of key producer interest groups

It Doesn't Feel Human

“It Doesn't Feel Human” was a very worthy entry, and it was an easy decision to nominate it as our honorable mention. The essay uniquely blended personal and factual narratives, and was equally informative and well-researched. Both the structure and idea were thoughtfully presented and worked well together, creating a methodical breakdown of one of the most pressing issues on campuses today. Careful attention to social media's role in organizational crisis management is thoughtfully addressed and opens up novel means by which institutional stakeholders can be informed and learn from each other

Social Policy and Rights in Africa

Summaries The agenda for social development in Africa, and therefore the framework in which social policy is defined, has undergone major shifts over the last forty years. This has partly been the result of the ability of post?colonial governments to depoliticise poverty and demobilise the movements that brought them to power. But the major reason has been the current phase of the globalisation of capital, which has demanded a major restructuring of the world economy to suit its needs. The primary instruments used in effecting those changes were structural adjustment programmes and associated policies. These have resulted in the few accumulating (on a global as well as national level) immense wealth while the majority were condemned to greater poverty, and a reversal of the social gains of independence. In effect, there has been an increasing disenfranchisement of the majority in determining the goals of social development. With the rise of globalisation, the agenda for social development is being set, largely unilaterally, by undemocratic institutions of globalisation in the interests of multinational corporations