Evidence suggests that the current public interest effort is limited mainly by the number of jobs available in that sector. Various methods of increasing the funding of that sector and thus, the number of jobs, are reviewed. (Author/WI)

Because of existing gaps and inadequacies in the delivery of services, battered women often find it impossible to obtain the help they need. This article outlines a three-part strategy for improving service delivery. (Author)

Describes the training process for the local takeover of the New York University--Reading (Pennsylvania) Consortium interactive cable television project for the delivery of social services to senior citizens. The process included hiring and training of staff, training of users, and creation and staffing of the organization needed to operate the…

Raises several policy issues concerning interactive cable television, including the role of government and the regulation powers, and the implications of telecommunication/social service system concerning privacy and confidentiality, approaches to electronic opinion polling, and the potential widening of the information gap between rich and poor.…

Serving as liaisons between the schools and the parents in the economically depressed area of LeFlore County Mississippi, social workers have helped to increase school attendance rates and reduce dropout rates among the black educationally and economically deprived students of LeFlore County. (JC)

This article investigates the assignment of unit costs to community service activities. The author's position is that although preventive services typically are difficult to assess in cost analysis terms, their importance must not be minimized. (Author/DOW)

This is a report on the experiences of a small group of Canadian students who spent nine months living in Bogota, Columbia, studying recreational activities and social problems in the city and the surrounding countryside. (JD)

This article attempts to provide the social worker with a frame of reference for working with alcohol-related problems in the nonalcoholic treatment agency by: dispelling myths about alcoholism; providing a working definition of alcoholism; describing an effective means of identifying alcoholism; providing tools for intervention in the life of the…

Flawed social policies have led to the high cost and the failure of human service institutions. The inclusion of local community associations in the creation of these policies would change the focus from control to consent thus allowing target populations to be supported within a more suitable context. (VM)

Investigated whether block grants improve decision making through the decentralization of control of social programs to state governments. Found that department bureaucrats have sought to protect the new flexibility from encroachment by elected officials through the rationalization and systematization of decision-making procedures. (Author/ABB)

Offers graphic framework for assessment, the Developmental Assessment Wheel, which enables professionals to understand better the dynamic relationship between intrapsychic needs, social needs, and the importance of institutional resources. The process of assessment requires selection of combinations of data about clients, and involves a process of…

Illustrates how family systems theory has influenced the adoption services for infants at a family services agency, Catholic Social Services of Washtenaw County (Michigan), and describes the evolving practice of open communication between biological families and adoptive families. (BB)

Recent history has demonstrated the importance of political decision making in limiting or enhancing social welfare services and the quality of life in the United States. The needs of undergraduate social work students are explored as they become sensitized to the possibilities and processes of social change. (Author/MH)

Twenty-five landlords were interviewed to identify the follow-up supportive services they received when renting to mentally retarded tenants. Results suggested that the systematic delivery of services to landlords and their mentally-retarded tenants by community agencies was limited. Suggestions for services to be provided by independent living…

Through the Child and Adolescent Service System Program (CASSP), the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and a number of isolated Alaskan villages are addressing the mental health problems of Alaska's Native youths. (Author/BB)