Welfare, Due Process, and Brutal Need : The Requirement of a Prior Hearing in State-Wide Benefit Reductions

This Note examines the right of welfare recipients to request a prior hearing in the context of state-wide, across-the-board benefit reductions by a state. After reviewing the due process requirement of a pretermination hearing articulated by the Supreme Court in Goldberg v. Kelly, the Note examines the standard for reductions established by the HHS regulations. The Note also considers the various approaches taken by the courts in attempting to determine the constitutional and statutory requirements of a prior hearing in a state-wide reduction. The Note argues that the standard delineated by the HHS regulations and by some courts fails to provide the full procedural protection necessary to safeguard the benefits of impoverished individuals from wrongful reduction. Observing that the Supreme Court has declined to recognize a substantive due process right to welfare, the Note points out that recipients must depend upon the requirements of procedural due process to protect their very means of economic survival. The Note contends that Goldberg dictates that states be extremely cautious in reducing benefits and that consequently, because a wrongful reduction would subject recipients to a condition of brutal need, due process requires that states provide the opportunity for a fair hearing even when the intended reduction is due to a policy of whole-sale cutbacks. Because the regulations have in fact encouraged blanket denials of requests for prior hearings in across-the-board reductions, the Note concludes that, in order to reconcile the statutory requirements for prior hearings with the constitutional imperatives, HHS must either rewrite or eliminate the provision of the federal regulations concerning automatic, state-wide reductions

SLIDES: Climate Change Action in Arizona & the West

Presenter: Stephen A. Owens, Director, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. 24 slides

Developing Evidence-Based Practice in Chaplaincy: A Study of Unit and Chaplain-Specific Integration

Health care chaplains provide spiritual care across diverse hospital units. As a result of the complex and interprofessional nature of health care services, different units are associated with unique integration and collaboration needs. Effective chaplain practice and patient-centered care are enhanced by sensitivity to unit differences. Our research, aimed at quality improvement, examined unit and chaplain integration to promote unit-specific evidence-based practice. Integration was conceptualized by five dimensions: interdependence, newly created professional activities, flexibility, collective ownership of goals, reflection on process. data was collected using the Interprofessional Integration and Collaboration Instrument (Bronstein, 2002), which has appropriate measurement quality (Bainbridge et al., 2015). Addition questions captured chaplain-specific integration and methods of chaplain engagement (charting, referrals). The survey was available in electronic and paper format. Over 150 staff from 10 units participated in the 2017 convenience survey. Survey results were used to develop profiles of unit and chaplain-specific integration; of chaplain engagement; and of perceived contributions of chaplains to patient care. Demographic information was summarized to determine representativeness. The findings contribute to quality improvement and evidence-based practice by identifying how chaplains can effectively integrated within specific units. The findings are being disseminated to unit stakeholders, hospital administration, and other chaplains.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1026/thumbnail.jp

Quartz-amethyst hosted hydrocarbon-bearing fluid inclusions from the green ridge breccia in the snoqualmie granite, North Cascades,WA, USA

We wish to acknowledge the constructive criticisms made by the three anonymous reviewers.Their suggestions and comments greatly improved the first version of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A Theory of Mind investigation into the appreciation of visual jokes in schizophrenia

BACKGROUND: There is evidence that groups of people with schizophrenia have deficits in Theory of Mind (ToM) capabilities. Previous studies have found these to be linked to psychotic symptoms (or psychotic symptom severity) particularly the presence of delusions and hallucinations. METHODS: A visual joke ToM paradigm was employed where subjects were asked to describe two types of cartoon images, those of a purely Physical nature and those requiring inferences of mental states for interpretation, and to grade them for humour and difficulty. Twenty individuals with a DSM-lV diagnosis of schizophrenia and 20 healthy matched controls were studied. Severity of current psychopathology was measured using the Krawiecka standardized scale of psychotic symptoms. IQ was estimated using the Ammons and Ammons quick test. RESULTS: Individuals with schizophrenia performed significantly worse than controls in both conditions, this difference being most marked in the ToM condition. No relationship was found for poor ToM performance and psychotic positive symptomatology, specifically delusions and hallucinations. CONCLUSION: There was evidence for a compromised ToM capability in the schizophrenia group on this visual joke task. In this instance this could not be linked to particular symptomatology

Rural Gambian women's reliance on health workers to deliver sulphadoxine – pyrimethamine as recommended intermittent preventive treatment for malaria in pregnancy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The use of most anti-malarial medications is restricted during pregnancy, but two doses of sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine are recommended after the first trimester as intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp). In The Gambia, only 32% of women receive two doses and very little research has been conducted on women's awareness of drug safety during pregnancy. The objective of this paper was to assess whether rural Gambian women were aware of the importance of the timing of the two-dose IPT dose schedule and its relevance to drug safety.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was a qualitative study in which 41 interviews and 16 focus group discussions with women, adolescents, men and traditional birth attendants were conducted. A generic qualitative approach was used to generate a theory as to why women might not participate in IPTp as recommended.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Although most women used calendar months to count their stage of pregnancy, these months did not correlate with their concept of foetal development. Foetal growth was described following Islamic tradition as water, clot, piece of meat and human being, although there was little consensus about the order or timing in which these stages occurred. Common signs and conditions of malaria were known. Women were anxious about miscarriage and recognized that some medicines should not be taken in the first trimester, but were urged by men and traditional birth attendants to attend for antenatal care in the first trimester to "start treatment." General knowledge about the purpose of pregnancy medications and when they should be taken was poor among both men and women. One important result was that women relied entirely on health workers to provide safe drugs, at the correct time.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Women did not have relevant information to judge the safety and appropriate timing of pregnancy drugs, which made them over-reliant on health workers. They should be encouraged to date their own pregnancies in culturally relevant terms and to anticipate when and which medications they should receive.</p

Prenatal Smoke Exposure Predicts Hyperactive/Impulsive but Not Inattentive ADHD Symptoms in Adolescent and Young Adult Girls

We examined the longitudinal associations between prenatal tobacco smoke exposure (PSE) and attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptom domains in adolescence and young adulthood. A sample of girls with ADHD combined presentation (N = 93), ADHD predominantly inattentive presentation (N = 47), and matched comparisons (N = 88) was assessed prospectively. Symptoms of hyperactivity/impulsivity (HI), inattention (IA), and oppositionality (oppositional defiant disorder) were measured via multiple informants 5 (M age = 14 years; retention rate = 92%) and 10 years (M age = 20 years; retention rate = 95%) following childhood ascertainment. PSE was captured via maternal self‐report. We used linear regressions to examine the prediction from PSE to both HI and IA in adolescence and early adulthood after stringent control of relevant confounding variables. PSE significantly predicted HI during adolescence and young adulthood across multiple informants but did not predict IA at either wave. Symptoms of HI may have partial etiological independence from IA symptoms. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133536/1/icd1943_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133536/2/icd1943.pd