Suggests that many aspects of quality assurance in health care can be applied to social service agencies. Reviews what has been learned about quality assurance in health care and suggests guidelines for its implementation in social services. (Author/JAC)

Discusses community development efforts in Guatemala to illustrate the challenge political violence presents to community development. It concludes with suggestions for revitalizing community development conceptions with more encompassing political considerations. (CT)

Elderly persons (N=90) were tested for their reading ability and 126 documents from seven service agencies were analyzed for their readability. Results indicated two-thirds of the sample had reading abilities lower than eighth grade, whereas 98 percent of the documents had readability levels at or above ninth grade. (Author)

Examines differences in rural and urban Area Agency on Aging organizational characteristics and capacities, success in mobilizing resources, contextual environments, and service expenditure patterns. Results show rural Area Agencies are deficient in fiscal and professional staff resources and services for all at-risk, frail aged. (Author)

Describes the implementation of the hospice philosophy in rural areas and provides a model of how formal helping systems and natural helping networks can work together effectively. Suggests the emergence of the hospice can reorient social workers to the basic concepts of helping. (Author/JAC)

To effectively change public policy for children and families (1) the citizenry must have a sense of the immediacy of the problem, (2) a broad-based lobby must be built to support the formulation of policy, and (3) pivotal leverage points within government at which pressure can be directed must be identified. (Author/RH)

Develops the concept of "coordinated service delivery" in relation to the public library and describes several successful library-agency liaisons, including the bicentennial project, Operation Independence. (JD)

Describes a comprehensive program in New York City developed to coordinate efforts of several youth agencies and provide extensive social services to youth. (NRB)

Minimal service sheltered housing with peripatetic services adjusted to individual need may be more acceptable to the majority of elderly. The key program element in the British model is a resident warden, a housewife whose training and presence assures a proper and consistent flow of peripatetic support services. (Author)

The November 29-December 1, 1979 meeting included: presentations (here summarized) regarding curriculum and training of psychologists, applications and service concerns, family counseling, research, professional issues, and a model for a professional organization of Hispanic psychologists; committee reports; and minutes of the general session of…

Describes services provided by an atypical crisis care center for children (mostly preschoolers) in Madison, Wisconsin. The center, licensed both as a day-care and a foster-care facility, provides care for children on an emergency basis to enable parents to face their problems and to take steps to solve them. (RMH)

Representative models of program evaluation are described by their approach to values, and categorized by empirical style: positivism versus humanism. The models are: social process audit; experimental/quasi-experimental research design; goal-free evaluation; systems evaluation; cost-benefit analysis; and accountability program evaluation. (CP)

Describes an investigation of the proportions of Dona Ana County, New Mexico, social service agencies that have translated into Spanish the forms needed by consumers during the contracting phase of the social service cycle. Describes six categories of social service agencies. Includes recommendations for bilingual agency staff and forms. (SB)

Evaluation as a discipline requires knowledge based on: empirical evidence; public verification; and usefulness in various settings and contexts. Activities which aid in accumulating this knowledge include: compliance with federal requirements; critiques and secondary data analyses; impact and use studies; comparative field studies; and…

Commitment to planning for permanency is essential if the way foster care agencies work with cases is to be changed and the discontinuities experienced by foster children are to be reduced. (RH)