Health care has been an ongoing issue of public concern for decades, well before President Obama took office. Passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, in March 2010 and upheld by a Supreme Court in June 2012. With Republicans now in control of both the House and Senate as well as the presidency, the ACA in its current…

The concept of ideology is discussed. An evaluation design that is based on values and ideologies is advocated so that it can be applied to services in different categories and still produce valid comparisons. (Author/AL)

A program can be evaluated, and a cost-benefit ratio can be calculated to five decimal places, without ever directly examining outcomes. A useful vocabulary in economics and an understanding of the concepts involved is provided evaluators by an economist. (Author/RL)

The need for and applicability of general systems theory in human services evaluation is discussed. The role of evaluation in human services agencies is described and the necessity of combining the programs to be evaluated and the evaluation process itself in a single unifying conceptual model is demonstrated. (Author/AL)

The authors' previous work with long-term family caregivers demonstrated the importance of conversational cues, the reliance on humor to convey sensitive information, and the ways in which the interviewer can follow up, with appropriate probes and nonverbal encouragement, to gain necessary insight into the caregiver situation. This article offers…

The consumer of a service is of primary importance when defining groups most concerned with program impact. Program effectiveness for the consumer may be increased through the use of certain guiding principles based on the extension of existing quality assurance and program evaluation methodologies. (Author/RL)

This paper addresses the processes by which state agencies regulate services for individuals with developmental disabilities and explores whether the regulatory process can be directed to issues affecting the quality of life of people receiving developmental services. Limitations of regulations include the unpredictability of long-term effects,…

The vocational rehabilitation system has been largely unsuccessful in improving the lives and employability of the disabled. Proposes replacing public agencies with a more competitive voucher system of services for the disabled. This would empower the disabled to choose their own providers and to cull poor services from good. (CJS)

This report contains recommendations of a Wisconsin Task Assignment Steering Committee created to explore solutions to some significant problems facing adult chronic "revolving-detox-door" alcohol abusers (CRA's), persons with repeated admissions for detoxification services; and to examine the system that serves and funds them. This…

Discusses the phenomenon of burnout among human service professionals in general, and librarians specifically, and argues that lack of professional autonomy is the true underlying cause. Suggested measures for eliminating or coping with burnout include activities at the individual, professional, and societal levels. (10 references) (CLB)

Evaluation within human service organizations is defined in terms of accepted evaluation criteria, with reasonable expectations shown and structured into a model of systematic evaluation practice. The evaluation criteria of program effort, performance, adequacy, efficiency and process mechanisms are discussed, along with measurement information…

Given the fundamental program changes that have occurred in the nation's social programs since President Reagan took office, federal evaluation activities need to be rethought and redirected. It is critical that the utility of programs be documented, economical delivery services be developed, and redundancy of interventions be reduced to optimize…

An exploration is made of the issues implicit in human services education and the responsibilities of schools of education for providing expanded opportunities for their students. Graduates of schools of education frequently go on to a wide variety of roles in addition to or instead of classroom teaching. While these graduates continue to seek and…

Argues that three factors will cause the demise of social work in the next century: hypertechnologies that make intervention skill obsolete; fragmentation within the profession causing collapse of philosophical support; and changes in the social structure, caused by the corporate sector, that will obviate traditional human services delivery…

Political and economic developments are reshaping traditional social work practice. Government funding cuts, privatization, and cost containment in human services have altered service organization and availability. Programs have closed or downsized and critical services have been reduced. These changes have altered the environment for social work…