Client Circumstances Research Articles

Taxonomies of Inequality: Lawyers, Maps, and the Challenge of Hybridity

Intersectional discrimination challenges not only the structure of equality law, but also the techniques that lawyers employ in assessing and arguing discrimination cases. Client forms, akin to questionnaires, assist lawyers in obtaining a full picture of the client's circumstances and in avoiding the omission of any potential legal remedies. Chronologies of events assist lawyers in mapping discriminatory events and establishing that the client is within the time limit for submitting a claim to the Employment Tribunal. These techniques reflect discrimination law's defensiveness against lived complexities, which in itself restricts possible intersectional analyses. For example, through chronologies, each discriminatory event is defined by reference to only one ‘ground’. Discrimination law therefore links the passing of time itself to the categories it has produced. In this context, Homi Bhabha's concept of hybridity provides a useful way of describing how intersectional subjects relate to their categorization through law. It shows how legal subjects simultaneously adopt and resist the grounds that lawyers use to describe their experiences. If discrimination law is based on enabling legal subjects to speak for themselves, then we should investigate these possibilities for resistance.

Diagnostic formulations in psychotherapy

Conversation analysts have noted that, in psychotherapy, formulations of the client's talk can be a vehicle for offering a psychological interpretation of the client's circumstances. But we notice that not all formulations in psychotherapy offer interpretations. We offer an analysis of formulations (both of the gist of the client's words and of their implications) that are diagnostic: that is, used by the professional to sharpen, clarify or refine the client's account and make it better able to provide what the professional needs to know about the client's history and symptoms. In doing so, these formulations also have the effect of shepherding the client's account towards subsequent therapeutic interpretation. In a coda, we notice that sometimes the formulations are designed discreetly. We examine one such discreet formulation in detail, and show how its very ambiguity can lead to its failure as a diagnostic probe.

Ethical Analysis in Counseling: A Case for Narrative Ethics, Moral Visions, and Virtue Ethics

The author presents an overview of the current content of ethics education in counseling, grouping that content into 3 areas: decision‐making models, principle ethics, and the standard of care. It is argued that as the field of ethics education has grown, so has the need for additional content models, especially ones that enhance moral sensitivity and reduce objectification of client circumstances. The author presents 3 possible approaches to revising the conceptualization of professional ethics that meet the need for new models: moral visions, narrative ethics, and virtue ethics.

Effects of two models of nutritional intervention on homebound older adults at nutritional risk

Objective To test the feasibility of two models of home meal delivery with Meals-on-Wheels (MOW) applicants who were identified as being malnourished or ″at-risk” as determined by the validated Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA). Design A 6-month, prospective comparative study of two nutrition intervention models with data collection at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. Randomized treatment assignment was followed, with a few exceptions linked to particular client circumstances. Subjects A total of 203 older adults (age range = 60 to 90 years) newly applying for homebound meal service were enrolled. At baseline, the body mass index (BMI) was 26.3±7.2 (mean±SD) in the ″Traditional” MOW model (101 subjects including 30 malnourished), and the BMI was 27.6±9.0 in the ″New” MOW model (102 subjects including 26 malnourished) (P = ns). Intervention Study participants received either the Traditional MOW program of five hot meals per week, meeting 33% of the Daily Reference Intake (DRI) or the restorative, comprehensive New MOW program of three meals and two snacks per day, 7 days a week, meeting 100% of the DRI. Assessments were conducted in the home of the participants. Main outcome measures The MNA was used to evaluate nutritional risk and status of participants at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. Standardized functional impairment scales, Activities of Daily Living (ADL), and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) evaluated limitations in activities of daily living and life management skills. Statistical analysis Comparisons between treatment groups were calculated with t tests or Wilcoxon rank-sum tests when appropriate. Comparisons among time periods between treatment groups were conducted with repeated measures analysis of variance. A general linear model was used to evaluate the relationship between change in functional status and BMI, controlling for sex. Results The New MOW group gained significantly more weight between baseline and 3 months than did the Traditional MOW group (2.78 lb vs −1.46 lb, respectively, P = .0120) and again between baseline and 6 months (4.30 lb vs −1.72 lb, respectively, P = .0004). MNA improved faster in the New MOW group. Functional change appeared to be related more to BMI and age than to treatment intervention. The malnourished participants in both groups took longer to affect positive change in nutrition measurements, with the New MOW group showing the most improvement over the 6-month measurement period. Both delivery models were well accepted. Conclusions Applicants for home meal delivery have varying nutrition needs. By addressing nutritional risk, interventions can be targeted to meet these needs. A new, restorative, comprehensive meal program improved nutritional status and decreased nutritional risk and can possibly impact independence and functionality. J Am Diet Assoc. 2003;103:329-336.

Building a Client's Risk Profile: Working with Clients to Identify Risk

Because investment professionals' perspectives of risk often differ from those of their clients, managers must develop techniques to identify how their clients actually perceive risk. Using a well-designed questionnaire and meaningful discussions, managers can glean enough information about a client's circumstances and attitudes to come up with an appropriate investment action plan. In designing optimal portfolios, however, managers must not only understand clients' risk tolerance, they must be aware of clients' emotional stake in their portfolios.

The Production of Audit Services: Evidence from a Major Public Accounting Firm

In this research, we examine the empirical relation between client characteristics and the nature and mix of labor resources used by an international CPA firm to obtain a desired level of assurance that clients' financial statements are free of material misstatement. The level of assurance is the output of an audit, while the input resources measure the effort required to produce that output, under varying client circumstances. We use disaggregated labor hours by rank within the firm (partner, manager, senior, and staff) as the measure of inputs, in order to examine how client characteristics affect both the amount and mix of labor used. To the extent that client characteristics have differential effects on the various types of labor, only disaggregated data can reveal changes in labor mix and may also provide a more powerful test (relative to tests

Incentive Fees: The Basic Issues

Most money managers may now choose between three broad categories of compensationfixed-dollar fees, asset-based fees and incentive fees. Under a fixed-dollar fee, the manager receives a specific sum of money for managing an account over a specific time period-for example, $100,000 per year. Under an asset-based fee (currently the most common form of compensation), the manager receives a percentage of the market value of assets under management, the amount of the fee varying with this value. Incentive fees include those that are contingent upon account performance versus an independent index and those based upon a percentage of the portfolio's absolute net gains over some time period. Whatever form the incentive fee takes, the client and manager must decide whether the fee will involve a penalty for underperformance, the length of the period over which performance is to be measured, the relative magnitudes of the base fee and the incentive, and whether an incentive fee is appropriate to the account. Like any compensation scheme, an incentive fee should be fair and reasonable in light of the manager 's and client 's circumstances. The fee should be clearly understood by both client and manager. And the fee should not provide the manager with an inherent incentive to take actions that may benefit the manager but may not be in the best interests of the client.

Accommodation for Elderly People With Special Needs: 1971–1981

The first five years of the decade under review was marked by an expansion in the provision of public sector residential care for the elderly, spurred on by the government's guidelines for a growth in capital spending. After 1973 attention focused on ideas concerning welfare pluralism and the forms it might take. Any major restructuring would include two major factors: an examination by the state of priorities on provision of professional and technical skills, a clarification of the goals of those services on offer and an assessment of changes in the circumstances of clients and the character of services. A regulatory jole would require tapping in resources in the voluntary and private sectors and taking adequate care on responsibility and public accountability, monitoring procedures and evaluating results.

Harry Longterm, Portfolio Manager, Consults Charley Broadview

. Harry Longterm, portfolio manager, had good reason to be proud of the performance of his client's pension portfolio. On the other hand, he was troubled by the fact that it actually outperformed the market in only 11 of the past 20 years. How could he make his short-term performance more consistent? According to Charley Broadview, a consultant in performance measurement, the pension portfolio had an alpha of one per cent and a residual standard deviation of eight per cent a fancy way of saying that the portfolio had one chance in six of lagging its average market-adjusted performance by eight per cent or more in any one year. Broadview deduced from these numbers that Longterm's chance of beating the market in any five-year period was roughly three out of five. On the other hand, relatively few portfolios maintain a positive alpha of one per cent for 20 years. Although lots of portfolios will do five per cent better than the market in a given year, the same ones don't succeed year after year. Broadview suggested that, instead of abandoning his successful approach to search for an even higher alpha, Longterm should consider a four-part program: (1) Pay as much attention to minimizing diversifiable risk as to maximizing expected return; Longterm could probably reduce his residual standard deviation from eight to five per cent without diminishing his alpha. (2) Do everything possible to pare transaction costs; a 25 per cent per annum reduction in transaction costs would increase Longterm's chance of beating the market over five years from six to seven out of 10. (3) Keep the portfolio correctly balanced between equities and fixed income securities, adjusting promptly for changes in the client's circumstances. (4) Carry on a continuing education program with the client; most clients put at least as much weight on their confidence in the portfolio manager as on his shortterm performance. o