Engagement with voluntary family services : views of parents and practitioners

This research aimed to understand engagement with voluntary family services, which has implications for service policy and practice. In regions of high social disadvantage, such as the Inner Gippsland region in the state of Victoria (Australia), engagement with voluntary family services is vital to reduce harm for children. However, barriers to engagement need to be understood from the perspectives of parents and practitioners. While the literature is replete with studies and records on engagement of parents and practitioners with statutory child protective services, there are few studies on engagement for families serviced by voluntary family services, which accept a range of referral sources. To address this gap, this study conducted ten qualitative semi-structured interviews with parents referred to Inner Gippsland family services and seven interviews with practitioners. These were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Interview data were supported by quantitative data drawn from voluntary family service system records on service use across the region for 2016–17 and 2017–18. Mixed methods were employed. This study found that these regional and rural practitioners and parents conceived of engagement as open communication, trust, rapport and understanding. Practitioners also discussed engagement occurring at different levels and involving parents’ willingness to change. However, these aspects were not referred to by parents. Practitioners explained that parents may show full or meaningful engagement and set goals to work towards, or they may engage at a superficial level where they consult but do not value change. This indicates that the notion of ‘engagement’ held by parents is dissonant with that of service providers who focus on the documentation of goals and achievements. Factors influencing engagement included parent perceptions, practitioner disposition, power relations, system design and implementation. Parents expected practitioners to clearly explain services that are tailored to meet needs. Some parents were reluctant to engage fully and trust practitioners due to potential harm and the possibility of removal of their children from their care. Parents wanted support without judgement and for practitioners to provide friendly advice and not be authoritarian. Practitioners balanced assessments of child wellbeing with responding to family needs and emphasised empowering clients and relating to them humanely. Many parents did not feel family services were voluntary as they are connected to and mandated to report serious concerns to Child Protection.1 Most parents were reluctant to ask for help and were negatively disposed towards government Child Protection. Parents who self-referred to family services expressed the most willingness to use a service, while those referred by police did not tend to use a service past initial phone calls. Practitioner-documented service hours in the home, an objective indicator of engagement, were highest for families where an early learning or early childhood intervention agency had referred. These findings were consistent with the interview data showing parental reluctance to engage where there was fear of Child Protection intervention. The practices of prioritising cases of complexity or crisis clashed with policy ideals of prevention and early intervention. More complex issues for families in the region increased the likelihood of service availability and use, yet many families did not complete activities negotiated in service plans or engage to make a plan with practitioners. This study demonstrated that for supportive relationships that promote child and family wellbeing to occur in a regional and rural area, family services need to be trusted. Only then, according to parents, will engagement eventuate.Doctor of Philosoph

IMAGES OF WOMEN IN NOVELS WRITTEN IN ENGLISH BY SOUTH AFRICAN WOMEN

The thesis discusses over a century of novel writing by South African women writers as they respond to political change from colonialism to apartheid. It follows the sequence of publica­tion. The first five chapters describe the work of Olive Schreiner, Sarah Gertrude Millin, Pauline Smith, Nadine Gordimer and other white writers; the last two chapters are on Bessie Head and other black writers. The thesis briefly examines problems of writing and publication, and the reasons why some writers choose or are forced to live abroad. Many novels are autobiographical, and many writers interpret the South African situation didactically for their readers in the West and South Africa. Most of the novels are written within the European realist tradition: exceptions like A Question of Power stress the importance of the inner life in bringing about personal and political change. The thesis examines the ways in which the writers use imagery, particularly from nature, to suggest changes in women's lives and even help to create myths. The novels reflect the divisions in the society: perhaps only Bessie Head and Phyllis Altman cross them successfully. The novels indicate how misuse of power by men can change the lives and characters of women, although white women's lives still rest on black labour. Although white bourgeois women increasingly insist on choosing the direction of their lives, becoming less dependent on personal relationships, the novels illustrate how rarely even educated black women can choose how to live. The break-up of families is a recurring theme, as is the isolation and fear of women. However, hope for the future lies in the creation of male characters with feminist sympa­thies, such as Waldo and Pholoso. In such ways the writers themselves become part of the process of change in South Africa

Course in Latin for secondary schools adapted to the changing ideals of secondary education.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

A Brief History and Assessment of the Health Occupations Education Division

The Health Occupations Education Division of the American Vocational Association is only 16 years old, but it has already compiled a history of accomplishments. The original interest group formed by an official of the United States Office of Education numbered 29 members in 1966; today, the Division boasts 2124 professional members. Division members have also organized a national student organization, Health Occupations Students of America; a teacher educators\u27 group: the Association of Health Occupations Teacher Educators; an administrators’ group: the National Association for State Administrators of Health Occupations Education of Health Occupations phase of professional and, a teachers’ group; the National Association of Health Occupations Teachers. The Division is advancing into the next growth and development with the publication of the Journal of Health Occupations Education and the HOE Newsletter

PARSEC: A Constraint-Based Parser for Spoken Language Processing

PARSEC (1), a text-based and spoken language processing framework based on the Constraint Dependency Grammar (CDG) developed by Maruyama [26,27], is discussed. The scope of CDG is expanded to allow for the analysis of sentences containing lexically ambiguous words, to allow feature analysis in constraints, and to efficiently process multiple sentence candidates that are likely to arise in spoken language processing. The benefits of the CDG parsing approach are summarized. Additionally, the development CDG grammars using PARSEC grammar writing tools and the implementation of the PARSEC parser for word graphs is discussed. (1) Parallel ARchitecture Sentence Constraine

Stromelysin-1 and mesothelin are differentially regulated by Wnt-5a and Wnt-1 in C57mg mouse mammary epithelial cells

BACKGROUND: The Wnt signal transduction pathway is important in a wide variety of developmental processes as well as in the genesis of human cancer. Vertebrate Wnt pathways can be functionally separated into two classes, the canonical Wnt/beta-catenin pathway and the non-canonical Wnt/Ca(2+ )pathway. Supporting differences in Wnt signaling, gain of function of Wnt-1 in C57mg mouse mammary epithelial cells leads to their morphological transformation while loss of function of Wnt-5a leads to the same transformation. Many downstream target genes of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway have been identified. In contrast, little is known about the Wnt/Ca(2+ )pathway and whether it regulates gene expression. RESULTS: To test the hypothesis that a specific cell line can respond to distinct Wnts with different patterns of gene expression, we over-expressed Wnt-5a and Rfz-2 in C57mg mammary epithelial cells and compared this cell line to C57mg cells over-expressing Wnt-1. These Wnts were chosen since previous studies suggest that C57mg cells respond differently to these Wnts, and since these Wnts can activate different signaling pathways in other systems. Using DNA microarray analysis, we identified several genes that are regulated by Wnt-5a and Rfz-2 as well as by Wnt-1. We then focused on two genes previously linked to various cancers, mesothelin and stromelysin-1, which are respectively up-regulated by Wnt-1 and Wnt-5a in C57mg cells. CONCLUSION: Different Wnts have distinct effects on gene expression in a single cell line

Ichthyological Bulletin of the J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology; No. 45

Fifteen species of the labrid fish genus Halichoeres occur in the western Indian Ocean (west of the southern tip of India): hortulanus (centiquadrus of many authors), scapularis, (ziczac is a synonym), marginatus (lamarii, ianthinus and virescens are synonyms), dussumieri (nigrescens of many authors; javanicus, dubius and dianthus are synonyms), pardaleocephalus (first western Indian Ocean record), hoevenii (vrolikii is a synonym), nebulosus (previously confused with margaritaceus which does not occur in the Indian Ocean), zeylonicus (bimaculatus of most authors is a synonym), lapillus, and six new species (stigmaticus, pelicieri, cosmetus, iridis, trispilus, and leucoxanthus). H. stigmaticus from the Persian Gulf is distinctive in having 28 lateral-line scales, 6 or 7 suborbital pores, and a U-shaped black mark on side above pectoral fin tips in males; H. pelicieri from Mauritius is a close relative of H. zeylonicus, differing chiefly in the colour of males (pelicieri with a broad blackish zone in dorsal fin and no large black spot on upper side); H. cosmetus, wide-ranging in the western Indian Ocean and a close relative of H. ornatissimus of the Pacific and Cocos-Keeling Islands, is alternately striped with bluish gray to green and salmon pink or yellow; H. iridis, also a species of the western Indian Ocean, has a dark brown body except for a red band along the back and an orange-yellow head with green bands; H. trispilus, known only from Mauritius and the Maldives, is pale pink with a diagonal row of three dark brown spots on upper caudal base and usually three black dots on back; H. leucoxanthus, known only from the Maldives, southwest Thailand and Java, is yellow dorsally and abruptly white on ventral half of body with a dark spot behind the eye, a black spot on upper caudal base, and three others in the dorsal fin.Rhodes University Libraries (Digitisation

Identification of proteins in the postsynaptic density fraction by mass spectrometry

Our understanding of the organization of postsynaptic signaling systems at excitatory synapses has been aided by the identification of proteins in the postsynaptic density (PSD) fraction, a subcellular fraction enriched in structures with the morphology of PSDs. In this study, we have completed the identification of most major proteins in the PSD fraction with the use of an analytical method based on mass spectrometry coupled with searching of the protein sequence databases. At least one protein in each of 26 prominent protein bands from the PSD fraction has now been identified. We found 7 proteins not previously known to be constituents of the PSD fraction and 24 that had previously been associated with the PSD by other methods. The newly identified proteins include the heavy chain of myosin-Va (dilute myosin), a motor protein thought to be involved in vesicle trafficking, and the mammalian homolog of the yeast septin protein cdc10, which is important for bud formation in yeast. Both myosin-Va and cdc10 are threefold to fivefold enriched in the PSD fraction over brain homogenates. Immunocytochemical localization of myosin-Va in cultured hippocampal neurons shows that it partially colocalizes with PSD-95 at synapses and is also diffusely localized in cell bodies, dendrites, and axons. Cdc10 has a punctate distribution in cell bodies and dendrites, with some of the puncta colocalizing with PSD-95. The results support a role for myosin-Va in transport of materials into spines and for septins in the formation or maintenance of spines