Interagency Response Research Articles

Borderline Personality Disorder and Interagency Response

People with borderline personality disorder (BPD) confront multiple agencies with behaviours that are often alarming and bewildering. However, different service providers appear to respond to the same patient population in different ways. We aimed to explore the emotional reactions, concerns and beliefs related to working with the person with BPD by health and non-health related agencies. A specifically designed questionnaire was completed by different agencies prior to their receiving educational training on an organizational and community-based model of care for people with BPD. Police believed that people with BPD are best medicated and hospitalized until they are no longer suicidal. A universal human response was noted as was support for interagency collaboration. Different agencies respond in different ways towards people with BPD. These differences reflect ideological splits between agency groups.

UNHCR's Expanded Role in Support of the Inter-Agency Response to Internal Displacement Situations

UNHCR's Expanded Role in Support of the Inter-Agency Response to Internal Displacement Situations

A framework for good practice in interagency interventions with cases of self‐neglect

Self-neglect is probably more common than has generally been thought and gives rise to a number of difficult conceptual, identification and intervention problems for health and social care workers. These patient management issues are compounded by the lack of any evidence-base for practice which nurses can draw on when faced with managing people who self-neglect. Nurses working with self-neglecters operate in an interdisciplinary context which includes professional groups, such as environmental health officers, who do not normally figure within health and social care teams. In the absence of such an evidence-base, a pragmatic solution in the form of a framework for interagency practice has been proposed. The background underpinning this framework, including a research study of housing in self-neglect and interagency responses, is briefly outlined in this paper.

Families on the brink: the effectiveness of family support services

ABSTRACTThis paper presents findings from a study of the costs and effectiveness of family support services offered to 40 families with a high level of need, in two neighbouring local authorities in North Wales. It describes the level and type of services offered by different agencies in each of the authorities, estimates the costs of these services, and assesses outcomes for the families receiving them after three months. Information is also provided about families’ experience of the support they received, and the kind of help they would have liked.Parents’ well‐being and family functioning were found to improve over the intervention period in both authorities, although only to a limited extent. Improvements were greater among those who were living with partners, and less among families identified by social workers as having financial difficulties or problems with drug or alcohol abuse. Respondents who rated their problems as very severe showed less improvement. The pattern of service provision and the costs involved turned out to be similar in both authorities, so it was not possible to reach conclusions about the relationship between services and outcomes. However, a number of themes emerging from the data are discussed, including the role of day care services in supporting families with young children, the impact of poverty and deprivation on parents’ ability to provide good care for their children, and the importance of an interagency response to children's and parents’ needs. The article also includes a discussion of problems encountered in undertaking comparative outcomes‐based research and cost‐effectiveness analyses in the social welfare field.

Terrorism in Taiwan, Republic of China.

The Republic of China on the island of Taiwan has experienced at least 20 terrorist events since 1979, including 13 aircraft hijackings and five bombings. Factors responsible for the relatively small burden of terrorism on Taiwan in the past include tight military control over political dissent until 1987, a warming relationship with the People's Republic of China in the 1990s, political inclusion of major internal cultural groups, geographic isolation, and a lack of other significant international enemies. Nevertheless, today Taiwan faces a new prospect of terrorism by adversaries of the United States and its allies and by an international paradigm shift in the types of weapons used by terrorists. National emergency management has been enhanced significantly since the Ji Ji earthquake in 1999, including the assignment of lead government agencies to the planning and preparedness for specific types of terrorist events involving nuclear, biological, and/or chemical releases. Other significant improvements at the operations level, include the establishment of two national disaster medical assistance teams, four urban search and rescue teams, 13 local disaster medical assistance teams, and eight chemical emergency response hospitals. Future challenges include improving the coordination of inter-agency response at the national level and the quantity and quality of local disaster response assets.

The Strange Case of the M/V Julia Woods1

ABSTRACT On October 19th, 2001, a crop dusting airplane over-flew the M/V Julia Woods near Rosedale, MS, while spraying a substance directly on the vessel; a commercial tow comprised of 17 open hopper coal barges plying a federal waterway. Starker, there were reports that crewmembers on deck were directly exposed to the substance released. The ensuing response involved many agencies and the owner of the commercial tow. For this incident, the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP) and the interagency relationships it describes provided the framework to deal with the “potential terrorist incident.” Discussing the response and management of this provocative act will aid efforts to improve and adapt current practices into the emerging national homeland security strategy for consequence management. The Wall Street Journal discussed in detail Zacarias Moussaoui Atta's actions in the months leading up to the September 11th attack on America, specifically noting his interest in crop dusting aircraft.2 A shocked nation watched as the FAA grounded the airplanes for weeks after the attacks, and the government toiled to assess the validity of the threat. Thus, when an “actual” or “potential terrorist incident” occurred in Marine Safety Office (MSO) Memphis’ territorial area of jurisdiction, the unit, acting as the Federal on Scene Coordinator (FOSC), responded to resolve the consequences of the contemptible act. Due to the absence of reliable information concerning the threat, the U.S. Coast Guard responded using the best operational judgment available and the interagency response tools (tactics, plans and procedures) in the NCP. The M/V Julia Woods’ response provides an excellent opportunity to discuss strengths and weaknesses of the current system. Importantly, the interagency coordination and response proved a flexible effective mechanism for dispatching resources to remote sites to achieve the objectives of the FOSC. Additionally, a unified command (UC) concept contributed to the success of the response as agencies succeeded in meeting public information demands during the response. On the other hand, a lack of a common intelligence system, disjointed plans, and weaknesses in creating and maintaining a common operational picture hampered the motivated interagency team's efforts.

Pentagon Family Assistance Center Inter-Agency Mental Health Collaboration and Response

After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the Pentagon, the Department of Defense established a Family Assistance Center to provide a single source of information and services for the families of those missing and deceased. Twice daily briefings were conducted for families by top Department of Defense leadership so that information provided was timely, accurate, and authoritative. Within the Pentagon Family Assistance Center, families were able to receive mental health, spiritual, financial, legal, and benefits support/counseling from a wide range of helping agencies and organizations. Family members were also provided meals, lodging assistance, and assistance with travel arrangements. This centralization of services along with a clear and coherent command structure may provide a model to be emulated in future community disasters.

Responding to people with a learning disability who offend.

This article reports on a small survey conducted in one NHS trust to establish the number of people with a learning disability known by staff to have committed, or be alleged to have committed, an offence. A sample of 35 members of staff who were likely to be in contact with this client group were sent questionnaires. Thirty responses were received, giving a response rate of 86 per cent. A total of four nurses and two clinical psychologists were in contact with 31 individuals known or alleged to have committed an offence. These offences were mainly sexual and some were violent. Several individuals had committed a number of separate offences. Respondents felt that the needs of these individuals were not adequately met by current service provision. A planned inter-agency response is required to deal with people with learning disabilities who carry out criminal offences, rather than the current system which is vague in terms of allocating responsibility for action. The nurse's role in providing sexual health education for those with learning disabilities also needs to be considered in the light of the survey results.

Interagency Operations Centers: An Opportunity We Can't Ignore

Few of the challenges facing America's expeditionary forces match that posed by the US government's interagency process for developing and conducting armed interventions. This is not to say that we have lacked opportunities to improve our system for planning and conducting military or military-supported contingency operations, both during the Cold War and since. US armed forces twice intervened in Lebanon (1957, early 1980s). In the Western Hemisphere they have been to the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, and Panama, and more recently to Haiti. They have supported a variety of interventions in Africa since 1989, and sustained the Kurds in Northern Iraq after ejecting the Iraqi army from Kuwait through its defeat in 1991 by a US-led coalition. Our operations in the Balkans will not end any time soon. Recent US intervention operations have ranged in size and scope from heavy force combat in 1990-91, to support for humanitarian relief in Rwanda in 1994, to unfinished peace enforcement tasks in Bosnia under the terms of the Dayton Accords.[1] The size of the force and the nature of the intervention may change the degree of difficulty of each operation, but size is not the issue here. Whenever the United States commits its armed forces to an operation in any part of the world, the same elements of the US government are energized to develop policies and guidance for the theater or operational commander of those forces. They are also involved continuously during peace operations, reacting to (if not anticipating) initiatives of coalition partners or other participants in the operation as well as those of friendly and hostile elements in the operational area. This article briefly examines the US government's interagency culture, looks at how the military anticipates or reacts to civil-military operational requirements, and proposes a change to standard practices in such matters. Our proposal involves establishing a full interagency team within the headquarters of each US regional commander-in-chief. The teams eventually could be empowered to have primary responsibility for planning, coordinating, prosecuting, and sustaining US interagency responses in their regions. The goal would be to improve reaction time to such requirements and to reduce, if not eliminate, the effects of communication stovepipes that exist between civilian agencies in Washington and their members operating abroad. This is more than an exercise in communication technologies, however, for it could involve devolution of a measure of authority from Washington to the representatives of federal agencies assigned to the

Interagency work and domestic violence in the UK

Abstract Multiagency work as a response to domestic violence is now being encouraged worldwide with the development of complex interagency intervention projects in some countries. In the UK, interagency coordination currently forms a principal plank of domestic violence policy. This paper reports on a major national study of the 200 or so multiagency initiatives presently existing in Britain. Domestic violence interagency forums of this type can clearly be a creative way forward, on one hand, but a smokescreen or a facesaver to disguise inaction on the other. The article discusses resources, possible competition with women’s services, and power, control and equality issues, including the way that women experiencing domestic violence are little involved at the moment and interagency initiativies are rarely accountable to them in any way. Possible marginalisation of the shelter movement, and the issues and difficulties involved in building a mainstream interagency response in which a vibrant social movement of women is centrally involved, are matters of concern in developing this potentially innovative approach to tackling domestic violence.

Smoke screen or leap forward: interagency initiatives as a response to domestic violence

Multiagency work as a response to domestic violence now forms a prin cipal plank of domestic violence policy. This article reports on a major national study of the 200 or so multiagency initiatives currently existing. It discusses resources, possible competition with women's services, power, control and equality issues, and the role of government and the statutory sector. The potential marginalization of Women's Aid, and the issues involved in building a mainstream interagency response in which a social movement is centrally involved are discussed. Interagency forums are rarely accountable in any way to abused women and children who are often very little involved. However, the study found that some examples of innovative practice exist. Domestic violence interagency forums can clearly be a creative way forward, but can also be a smokescreen to disguise inaction.

Law and body politics: regulating the female body

Body politics and rights, Elizabeth Kingdom they gag women, don't they?, Jo Bridgeman the law's engagement with pregnancy, Anne Morris and Susan Nott making social judgements that go beyond the purely medical - the reproductive revolution and access to fertility treatment services, Susan Mills the law of abortion and the politics of medicalization, Sally Sheldon sterilizing the woman with learning difficulties - in her best interests?, Kirsty Keywood female circumcision - mutilation or modification?, Lois S. Bibbings legal responses to battered women who kill, Marie Fox working together - an analysis of collaborative inter-agency responses to the problem of domestic violence, Christina M. Lyon images of women - sentencing in sexual assault cases in Scotland, Susan R. Moody international human rights and body politics, Fiona Beveridge and Siobhan Mullaley.

Counties in Court: Interorganizational Adaptations to Jail Litigation in California

Criminal justice systems have been described as fragmented and decentralized “nonsystems,” but sudden changes in the environments of criminal justice organizations may affect the loose coupling that normally characterizes such agencies. Court orders against county jails create pressures to tighten the loose coupling among local organizational subsystems: the jail, law enforcement, courts, probation, and county government. Using interviews with key officials, court documents, and other archival data, we examined changes in interorganizational relations in three California counties under court orders to reform local jails. While court orders eventually resulted in tighter coupling of the subsystems and more proactive interagency responses, the more reactive mode of response characteristic of loosely coupled subsystems initially led to increased interagency conflict. Adaptations were influenced by the legal, political, and organizational environments of each jurisdiction.

Incidence of Behavioural and Emotional Problems Amongst Primary School Children

In 1988 the report entitled “Interagency Responses to School Children with Social and Behavioural Problems” was released in South Australia. The investigation, chaired by Ms. Penny Stratmann, was asked to review the current provision of services for children of school age in South Australia who exhibit social and behavioural problems, and to examineinter alia, the extent of the problem.The report stated that the extent of the problem was difficult to assess in numerical terms because; (i) schools do not keep systematic records, (ii) identification of disruptive students is a matter of definition and attitude (some schools would identify student behaviour as disruptive which other schools may be able to prevent or contain), (iii) it is even harderto identify is the number of children whose response to problems is passive (they are often compliant, no trouble, not noticeable), and (iv) small numbers of disruptive students create a disproportionately large amount of havoc in schools and stress in teachers. (These outcomes are the most significant in their impact but the least measurable).

Book Reviews

Marjat Bhardwaj, Industrial Language Training Unit, Butts Centre, Walsall., Multicultural Teaching: A Guide for the Classroom, Malcolm Saunders, 1982 McGraw-Hill, Paperback Ken Lambert, University of Birmingham, Work Experience and Schools, A. G. Watts (Ed), 1983 Heinemann, £9.50 Peter Ribbins, University of Birmingham, Disaffection From School: issues and interagency responses, Alison Skinner with Hilary Platts and Brian Hill, 1983 National Youth Bureau, 17-23 Albion St, Leicester LEI 6GD. £3.95; Practical Curriculum Study, Douglas Barnes, 1982 Routledge 8c Kegan Paul, £9.75, 510 pp. Maura Healy, Quintin Kynaston School, Case in Hand, Alun Phillips and Geoffrey Stuttard Cambridge Educational ISBN 0521 273935 £2.95

Energy Policy and Research: Discussion from the USDA Perspective

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has had funding difficulties because its energy research requires a longer research period compared with ERDA's orientation to rapid development and commercialization. Not enough money has come from ERDA to support the traditional method of research done by USDA, whose general research funds are committed to other priority programs. The USDA and state agricultural experiment station (SAES) need continuity in their funding if they are to follow up new technologies by modifying present systems or developing new systems for the food industry. Although the problem may soon be resolved, it is important to develop faster ways of applying new technologies and to improve interagency responses to priority needs. Several priority items are suggested.

Interagency Response to a Troubled Child

Interagency Response to a Troubled Child