Mental Agencies Research Articles

Immigration Reform and Social Work

IMMIGRATION REFORM has been a legislative topic of many states and the federal government for nearly 10 years. In 1985, legislation finally was at tained with passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 (P.L. 99-603, Immigration and Natural ization Service [INS], 1986). Still, in 1986, there was extensive discussion concerning the impact of the act—par ticularly on the employment status of Hispanics, because it was assumed that the majority of undocumented workers were of Hispanic origin. Implementation of the provisions of the act began in 1987. The implications of this immigration reform legislation for social welfare have not been addressed in these discussions. As is often the case, social workers experience firsthand the effects of social policy decisions on their clients. Unless the majority of undocumented aliens returns to their native country, social workers will find themselves attempting to remedy the effects of an immigration policy that prevents the undocumented alien from attaining satisfactory living conditions. In addition, social workers will have to confront problems involving health care, intergenerational assis tance, depression, domestic violence, homelessness, or criminal behavior. Social workers will confront these prob lems in mental health settings, state and county protective service agencies as well as in prisons. Social workers in public protective service agencies may become frustrated in trying to obtain services for their clients because of their illegal resident status. Social workers seeking to obtain ser vices for undocumented aliens will re quire knowledge not common among the majority of practitioners. Applicants for legal residence come from a wide range of countries, including many African and Asian countries whose citizens were formerly unable to migrate to the United States in any substantial numbers because of discriminatory immigration policies. Social workers who assist these clients will need to understand the dif Donald E. Gelfand Rebeca Bialik-Gilad

Who can provide new community services: A case study in provider agency development

There has been a dramatic expansion in community-based services for mentally disabled persons, frequently giving rise to the dilemma of who can or should operate the new programs. Existing mental health provider agencies may not have the capacity or interest to mount new initiatives. Other community service organizations may not have the needed experience in mental health services. This article describes the development of a new not-forprofit corporation, using structured consultation, to initiate the needed services. This innovative strategy may have utility in other areas.

Evaluating Piaget’s Infancy Books as Works-in-Progress

Piaget’s infancy books are examined in the light of an emerging climate of thinking about minds as loosely coupling and historically conditioned networks of mental agencies. The analysis is focussed on Piaget’s work on prehension. We provide reasons for suggesting that (1) Piaget changed how he observed his infants in ways which anticipated this present climate; (2) Piaget did not develop such views fully, in part, because of his commitment to ideas about stages of invariant mental progress, and (3) Piaget’s observations provide an especially apt base from which to develop such views of human mental origins.

A public policy for the long-term mentally ill: a positive alternative to reinstitutionalization.

The current movement toward reinstitutionalization is seen as rooted in myths and misunderstandings about policy, practice, and the nature of chronic mental illness. It is urged that this movement be countered by a coalition of mental health professionals, government agencies, and families of the mentally ill, coming together in a broad and integrated campaign to educate the public and secure the resources necessary for adequate and comprehensive care.

Promoting collaborative aftercare: Tapping support within the religious community for both mental health clients and agencies.

Promoting collaborative aftercare: Tapping support within the religious community for both mental health clients and agencies.

Countertransference Issues in Social Work With the Aged

Despite their growing number, their increased risk of mental disorders and social dysfunction, the elderly continue to be underserved by mental health workers. Two of the major obstacles to appropriate treatment and services for the elderly and their farnilies are countertransference and death anxiety. This article examines these issues through the use of case examples. It suggests that mental and social service agencies need to concern themselves with and provide opportunity for supervisors to review practitioners' work in order to identify countertransference issues and ageist stereotyping.

Receipt of aftercare services by problem types: psychiatric, psychiatric/substance abuse and substance abuse.

In the present study, a cohort of patients discharged from two state psychiatric hospitals were categorized into three groups: psychiatric, psychiatric/substance abuse and substance abuse. Patterns of service receipt postdischarge and the differential impact of service use on rehospitalizations and community tenure were analyzed. The psychiatric group were more receptive to contacting community mental health aftercare agencies and when they did connect, they received, on the average, greater amounts of service than the other two groups.

The Mental Health Needs of Mexican-American Agricultural Workers

We used three measurement procedures to produce a comprehensive profile of the mental health needs of Mexican-American farmworkers and to determine what kinds of mental health services were required to meet those needs. These measurement procedures were a field survey, a key informant survey, and a nominal group process. The results of the field survey indicated that rural Mexican Americans are not being served by mental health providers, despite their having higher symptom levels than would be expected in the general population and their substantial use of rural primary health clinics and private physicians. The key informant survey included mental health providers, health providers, and community agency personnel. According to these informants, the mental health sector is unable to provide services for the farmworkers; and the ability of other providers to reach them depends on a number of factors, including the nature of the services offered and the socioeconomic characteristics of the farmworkers themselves. Key informants identified the environmental conditions implicated in the farmworkers' psychosocial problems and recommended types of services, sites, and key personnel. Key informants concurred that general health settings and multiservice agencies were the most appropriate for reaching Mexican Americans, and that mental health services must include bilingual and bicultural staff members. Key informants disagreed, however, about the relative value of certain kinds of mental health services. The nominal group process identified 32 design criteria that could be used to improve mental health services for farmworkers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Affiliate relationship and methods of cooperation between a community mental health center and religious counseling agency.

Affiliate relationship and methods of cooperation between a community mental health center and religious counseling agency.

Evaluation of publicity concerning a mental health center.

If a community mental health center decides that the public is not sufficiently aware of its services, efforts to increase community visibility can be made. In this study, a random telephone survey of a community indicated that about 44% of the respondents had heard of the mental health center's parent agency. After the survey, a series of public service announcements about mental health appeared in the local newspaper during a four-week period. A postpublicity survey revealed that the campaign did not significantly penetrate the population and increase community awareness of the mental health center or significantly improve attitudes toward it.

Test for Formaldehyde Off-Gassing Rates From Insulation and Other Building Materials

The concern for formaldehyde off-gassing or release from various products has been a major concern of govern mental agencies in recent years. The Commonwealth of Massa chusetts has held public hearings and declared formalde hyde a hazardous substance. The Consumer Product Safety Com mission has also held public hearings but has not released the results of their findings, to date.

K‐Lines: A theory of Memory

Most theories of memory suggest that when we learn or memorize something, some drepresentation of that something is constructed, stored and later retrieved. This raises questions like:How is information represented?How is it stored?How is it retrieved?Then, how is it used?This paper tries to deal with all these at once. When you get an idea and want to “remember” it, you create a “K‐line” for it. When later activated, the K‐line induces a partial mental state resembling the one that created it. A “partial mental state” is a subset of those mental agencies operating at one moment. This view leads to many ideas about the development, structure and physiology of memory, and about how to implement framelike representations in a distributed processor.

Recidivism, Crime, and Delinquency: A Psychoanalyst's Perspective

A comprehensive review of the subject of recidivism is presented. It is found that sociological and simplistic psychological theories of crime and delinquency fail to explain variation in individual outcome under similar social conditions. It seems that severely deprived and traumatized children from disorganized multiproblem families commonly develop ego pathology typical of the borderline disorders, and contribute disproportionately to the numbers of recidivist delinquents. In a classification of adult criminal behavior based on the nature and severity of disturbances in the three mental agencies, it is found that the less the ego pathology, the more is criminal behavior attributable to disturbances of superego development.

Administrative considerations in developing a volunteer program.

A volunteer program can become a solid, smooth-functioning part of a community mental health center or other agency if it is built around the needs of both the agency and the volunteers. The author discusses the need to develop realistic job descriptions, to screen the applicants carefully, and to provide continued training and supervision both individually and in groups. She emphasizes that staff resistance to a volunteer program can be overcome by involving staff members in the program and by making them aware of the high quality of work the volunteers do.

Professionals' participation in community activities: is it part of the job?

Professional involvement in community mental health centers and other inner city agencies, especially schools, requires a new kind of professional collaboration and participation in the community's social and political processes. Current questions are: Can involvement be professional, effective, responsive to changing community needs and survive conflicting pressures? Can and should these skills be taught?

Basic psychoanalytic concepts. VII. The negative therapeutic reaction.

The clinical concept of thenegative therapeutic reactionhas been included in this series for a number of reasons. It is a concept of particular importance in the history of psychoanalysis, for it represents the clinical phenomenon chosen by Freud (1923) to illustrate the workings of an ‘unconscious sense of guilt’ and to indicate the existence of what he conceived of as a special mental agency—thesuperego.Moreover, it is a concept widely used in clinical psychoanalysis, although little has been written on the subject since Freud's original formulation of it. Unlike such concepts astransference(Sandler, Dare and Holder, 1970) andacting out(Sandler, Holder and Dare, 1970a) it has not been extensively applied outside clinical psychoanalysis. This may be regarded as surprising in view of the fact that it would seem to be readily capable of application without alteration to a wide variety of clinical situations.

A study of current trends in the use and coordination of professional services of psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers in mental hygiene clinics and other psychiatric agencies and institutions.

A study of current trends in the use and coordination of professional services of psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers in mental hygiene clinics and other psychiatric agencies and institutions.

Steam boiler explosions

It is often assumed that opportunities can be known ex ante in spite of the fact that the future is simultaneously acknowledged to be unknowable. This paper endeavors to resolve this epistemological paradox in a manner that facilitates a more meaningful treatment of the knowledge problems of entrepreneurship. To this end, we draw from linguistic philosophy and undertake three interrelated analytical steps at the conceptual foundations of entrepreneurship theory. First, we clarify subtle logical aspects underlying the meaningful use of the word “uncertainty” qua unknowability. When properly used, uncertainty reflects the epistemological assessment that enterprising actors may only believe – not know – that new ventures can succeed. When incorrectly used, uncertainty is misrepresented as an obstacle that can be overcome by some and not others. Second, we explain how prevalent linguistic practices (“opportunity discovery”, “opportunity recognition”) lie at the root of epistemological tensions in opportunity theory. They act as a distorting mirror that trivializes the unknowability of the future and nourishes impressions of mental agencies allowing entrepreneurs to know the unknowable. Third, we urge a more nuanced understanding of the knowledge problems of entrepreneurship. On the one hand, we submit that opportunities are ineliminably unknowable. On the other hand, however, we argue that there exist knowable Opportunity-Ingredients (OIs) whose knowability varies across contexts. These analytical developments further contribute to the ongoing “opportunity wars”, strengthen the epistemological foundations of opportunity-actualization, improve construct clarity, and reveal new possibilities for research.