No description available.

No description available.

The effects of disability on individuals, their parents and their family as a whole have been extensively researched. However, the specific effects on siblings have not been given adequate attention by mainstream society until recently. Consequently, few services have been available for siblings in our community. Of the research that has explored sibling needs, most have relied on parental reports or used measures developed for alternate populations measuring more general variables such as psychopathology. This research project is concerned with the development of a self-report measure of Perceived Effect of Disability for teenage siblings (12 -17 years) of children with an intellectual disability and the development and pilot of an intervention that aimed to assist the positive adjustment of teenage siblings. The development of the measure involved three stages. First, an extensive item pool was constructed from past literature with 150 potential items identified. To ensure the validity of the item pool for siblings themselves, a sample of 24 teenage siblings rated the importance of the items and subscales. This reduced the number of items. Next, focus groups were run with an alternate sample of 41 teenage siblings for further evidence that all pertinent issues were included and to explore items identified as having low importance in Stage 1. The last stage involved testing the measure’s psychometric properties with a further 80 siblings. Exploratory factor analyses were conducted to determine the measure’s underlying factor structure. Results identified four factors underlying the measure, Positive Influence of Disability, Family Differences, Worry About What Others Think and Lack of Time With Others, all of which exhibited high internal consistency and test-retest reliability over a six-week period. / The final measure included 40 items and included two parts, the impact on family life and the impact on social life for siblings. The issues identified through the development of the Perceived Effect of Disability measure were then used to develop a pilot intervention that aimed to assist the positive adjustment of teenage siblings. The result was a 6-week program, consisting of 90-minute groups covering Sharing My Story, Exploring Differences and Disabilities, Exploring and Communicating Feelings, Coping Skills I, Coping Skills II and Finding Meaning. The impact of the program was piloted with two groups, consisting of 16 teenage siblings (aged 12-17 years). A matched comparison sample was also used to determine if the intervention resulted in improved perceptions of the effect of disability on siblings using the Perceived Effect of Disability (PED) subscales. There was no significant interaction between time and group on any of the PED subscales. A main effect was found for time on the Lack of Time With Others subscale only. The non-significant time x group interaction, however, indicates that the main effect of time on Lack of Time With Others scores applied to both groups. There was no significant change in family functioning or self-esteem from pre to post-test for the intervention group. However, extensive qualitative data provided strong support for the importance of such an intervention for this unique group of individuals in our community.

Abstract not available

Drug Consumption Rooms (DCRs), where injecting drug users (IDUs) can use pre-obtained drugs in a hygienic and professionally supervised low threshold setting, aim to engage high risk IDUs, reduce public drug use, injecting-related morbidity and mortality, and improve access to drug treatment. This thesis evaluates the service demand, accessibility, utilisation, and coverage of Australia???s first DCR, the Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC), located in an area with a history of illegal shooting gallery operation. MSIC impact on injecting practices and injecting related health, and referral to drug treatment were also examined. Methods included cross-sectional IDU surveys, key informant interviews, staff focus groups, analysis of client registration and surveillance data and routinely collected data on needles and syringes - including multiple indirect prevalence estimation, and prospective follow-up of MSIC referrals. Shooting gallery users expressed demand for and willingness to use the MSIC. Injecting episodes previously occurring in shooting galleries appear to have been transferred to the MSIC, although shooting galleries continued to operate at a reduced level. The MSIC service model was accessible, with few refusals of entry, high levels of client satisfaction and limited non-use for reasons relating to the model. MSIC engaged high risk IDUs - regular injectors, sex workers, and those injecting in public places and shooting galleries - who were also more likely to be frequent attendees. MSIC clients were more likely than other IDUs to inject in public places and shooting galleries, be HCV seropositive, have riskier injecting practices and more severe injecting related health problems. MSIC achieved good coverage of the local IDU population (70.7%, range 59.1%-86.7%) and modest coverage of their estimated total injecting episodes during its operating hours (8.8%, range 7.3%-10.8%). MSIC use was associated with improvements in injecting practices and health. Frequent MSIC use was also associated with higher rates of referral to drug treatment than less frequent use. Drug treatment referral uptake was positively associated with a recent history of daily injection and sex work and negatively associated with a lifetime history of psychiatric treatment and/or self harm. This research was confounded by substantial changes in heroin availability during the study period but provides new evidence on DCR coverage, impact on injecting practices and health, and referral to drug treatment. Implications for future research are discussed.

The New Zealand Government�s repatriation measures to assist Great War veterans have largely been considered a failure. This thesis examines repatriation through the experiences of Dunedin and Ashburton veterans, demonstrating that within the context of the 1920s pre-welfare state these provisions proved to be both generous and far more successful than is often suggested. The Government�s repatriation response to returning veterans reflected contemporary attitudes towards dependency and need. Belief in self-reliance underpinned repatriation policy, with a stated aim of restoring veterans to the civil position they held prior to enlistment rather than providing assistance to move up the occupational ladder. Fear of the morally corrosive effect of dependency, as well as economic concerns, meant the repatriation provisions were principally concerned with ensuring veterans regained financial independence through employment. To that end war pensions compensated for lost earning power, rather than providing a full living income, and repatriation provisions largely consisted of assistance in finding jobs or obtaining farms and businesses. The Government�s repatriation provisions also reflected contemporary medical knowledge. The repatriation legislation restricted war pensions and free medical care to veterans with disabilities directly attributable to military service. However the link between military service and disability remained unclear in many cases. Slightly more than half of those discharged unfit suffered from sickness rather than wounds, many from conditions common among the civilian population. Contemporary aetiological knowledge often did not support the war pension applications lodged by returned soldiers disabled as a result of non-contagious disease, and an absence of clinical evidence undermined claims of latent illness. In addition the medical profession�s failure to adopt psychological theory and practice meant that by the early 1920s shell shock sufferers were treated according to psychiatric medicine�s understanding of mental illness. Within the context of 1920s New Zealand the repatriation provisions were generous: the Repatriation Department�s work had no precedent; the war disabled were one of the few groups to receive state pensions and received more than other state pensioners; and the provisions of the soldier settlement scheme were available to all veterans, regardless of health, capital or farming experience. Despite the limited aims of the Government�s repatriation provisions many veterans did successfully re-establish themselves in civilian society. By the 1930s Ashburton soldier settlements had proved more successful than others in Canterbury, and compared well with other crown settlements in Ashburton County. More generally war service produced no dramatic change in the occupational structure of veterans: veterans generally retained their occupational status during the post-war decade, volunteers faring slightly better than conscripts but neither as well as their civilian counterparts. Although some veterans certainly did experience need and indigence after the war the majority of urban and rural men in the sample groups were financially stable, particularly after the boom and bust of the immediate post-war years. The men in the Dunedin and Ashburton sample groups represent the most successful of the returned soldier population nevertheless they show that a significant proportion of Great War veterans were successfully repatriated by the end of the post-war decade.

School of Social Sciences Includes bibliographical references (p. 263-300)

Although police generally exercise wide discretionary powers across most of their duties, it is with respect to young people that these powers are the most extensive. Both sociological and psychological factors influence the use of police discretionary powers. There are said to be strong relationships between authoritarianism, for example, and justice outcomes. Other measures, such as cynicism and punitiveness, have been observed to be influential predictors of police behaviour. Extending the work on jury decision-making, along with other police research, the present research examines use of police discretionary powers with young offenders. Sworn police officers from two jurisdictions, New Zealand and New South Wales, responded to written surveys about their past and intended future behaviour surrounding four crimes most commonly conducted by young offenders. In all, over 500 officers took part in the studies. Further, participants responded to a battery of personality and attitude questionnaires, along with questions about situational variables normally taken into consideration by officers. Results show that police behaviour towards the same offending varies greatly, both within and across jurisdictions. New Zealand police officers were much more likely than New South Wales police officers to report that they diverted, rather than arrested, young offenders who had committed shoplifting and burglary offences. However, when responding to scenarios of underage drinking and assault, it was New South Wales police who were more likely to divert young offenders. There were very few significant relationships between attitudes and behaviour when examining either group, with significant results possibly being a side effect of large sample sizes. Further there were few significant relationships when considering demographic or situational variables. However, in an exploration of police personality, through cluster analysis, evidence was found for different 'typologies', or resonances, of police. The results indicate that police are not an homogenous group. In addition, quite complex relationships between measures of police behaviour and individual difference were found within the resonances, with effect sizes showing moderate results. The findings support the need to investigate further personality typologies and extend them to the examination of attitude-behaviour relationships. In addition, research into the use of an attitudinal measure, such as discretionary ideology, as an alternative to measuring behaviour could be expanded. Moreover, broadening of the research into additional areas of the juvenile justice systems, such as legal representatives, magistrates, and youth detention centre officers, would provide further insight into the appropriate use of discretion within juvenile justice for both minor offending and more serious offending. / thesis (PhDBusinessandManagement)--University of South Australia, 2004.

This thesis explored the lives of carers of disabled people, and the research process itself within the collaborative framework of a support group. It used as its data sources an extensive review of the literature, interview transcripts and fieldnotes from carers, participants from the local service system, and the records of meetings and activities of the Group over 5 years. The study highlights the way public discourse on deinstitutionalisation has so captured our consciousness on care of disabled people that the personal reality of care in the family home has been effectively lost. It traces the disordering discourses of disablement and their link with constructions of caring. The personal reality of care and the isolating nature of this union of caring and disablement was the primary research focus. This may be characterised by social loss, and a lifestyle bound up with disablement which involves a search for a supportive or caring culture. The isolation and exclusion of carers occurs behind the screens of apparently caring institutions such as marriage, family, community and the service system. In the search for a caring cuture carers find their lives bound up with that of state and service systems which offer some hope of a supportive response. Instead they invariably find that the culture is an alien one. The research informed attempts of the Group to explore improved forms of caring culture, and more relevant public policy approaches. The study attempted to bridge the gap between the process of knowledge construction and discourse, and the material experience of carers / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis is concerned with migrants’ experience of their acceptance and well-being in Australian society, particularly the unconscious processes reflected in dreams and communication patterns; the provision of services intended to be of help in settlement; and the relationship between the unconscious processes and the provision of services. Collaborating with clients, colleagues who share similar interests and concerns, people with special skills and cultural knowledge, and some Management Committee members of the Migrant Resource Centre of Canberra and Queanbeyan, Inc. the author has investigated the multicultural unconscious, government policies and guidelines related to services to recent arrivals and people of non-English-speaking backgrounds, measures to address gaps in services for appropriate improvement. The research approach is naturalistic with a strong emphasis on the author’s personal reflections and case studies of people and projects. / Master of Science (Hons) Social Ecology