Discusses ways foster parents encounter loss and grief in their foster care experiences. Considers factors that affect the intensity of the loss and the healthy expression and resolution of the foster parents' grief; problems that can result when grief is not properly addressed; and ways professionals can help these caregivers with grief issues.…

Increased longevity among people with learning disabilities is accompanied by an increase in morbidity. A possible explanation is that living in the community and a move to greater independence may bring higher health risks through obesity and smoking. The study aimed to see if rates of smoking have increased from earlier published rates and to…

The purpose of this survey was to describe nursing home social services staff roles and perceptions related to end-of-life medical decision making for nursing home residents in endstage dementia. Using a self-designed questionnaire, 138 nursing home social services staff from across New York State answered questions about advance directives,…

The Yellow School Bus Project (YSBP) was created to provide homeless children with the supplies and clothes they need to succeed in school and feel good about themselves. When given these gifts, they receive the explicit message that they are smart and worthwhile, the implicit message that there are people in the community who are invested in…

The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act has had a profound influence on social workers and social services administrators in virtually all work settings. Because of the multiple elements of the act, however, assessing the validity of claims can be a somewhat arduous and complicated task. This article provides a "decision tree" for…

This article discusses the history of low vision services in the United States. The field began to gain momentum as the term "low vision" was conceptualized and coined, and this momentum is rapidly increasing with changes in the demographics of visual impairment.

Children's services in England are undergoing a radical reorganisation. New arrangements for local authorities and statutory partners impact significantly on organisations in the voluntary and community sector that are encouraged to deliver more public services. Local voluntary organisations will need help to organise themselves and to build…

The aim of this research was to explore why workers in health and social services embarked on a Certificate in Community Care Practice and the extent to which they felt knowledge learnt related to their every-day work practice. The objective was to indicate how useful more academic courses are for health and social care staff, and to find out the…

Infants develop self-regulatory abilities with the responsive and nurturing care of consistent adults. Children who lack individualized, consistent care suffer emotional and physical harm. The authors of this article describe how infants in congregate care (a NICU and an orphanage) experience inconsistency and how administrators and …

There is little research into emergency presentations in child and adolescent mental health. The purpose of this study was to obtain an overview of number and types of presentations to a inner London child and adolescent mental health emergency service and to determine immediate and longer-term service demands. All available data on 107…

Purpose: The goals of this review are to synthesize what is known about caregiving among diverse groups and to identify gaps in knowledge to guide future research on caregiving. The review focuses on conceptual and theoretical approaches, sampling strategies, measurement techniques, and similarities and differences found among groups and across…

Many families provide lifelong support to their relative with an intellectual disability. However, relatively little information is available for national populations on the characteristics of the people for whom these families care and the supports they receive or need. A database of all persons in receipt of intellectual disability services has…

Vocational rehabilitation services will experience an increase in the number of applicants who are over 65 years of age in the next 25 years. The nature and severity of disabilities of senior applicants, as well as their motivations for obtaining rehabilitation services, are unclear. Prior research suggests that seniors may use vocational services…

"Kids Count in Colorado!" is an annual publication of the Colorado Children's Campaign, which provides the best available state- and county-level data to measure and track the education, health and general well-being of the state's children. "Kids Count in Colorado!" informs policy debates and community discussions, serving as…

The mere word "bureaucracy" brings to mind images of endless lines, piles of paperwork, and frustrating battles over rules and red tape. But some bureaucracies are clearly more efficient and responsive than others. Why? In "Teaching, Tasks, and Trust", distinguished political scientists John Brehm and Scott Gates show that a good part of the…