A Different Look at Assessment Centers: Views of Assessment Center Users

This study aims to shed light on possible problems of assessment center users and designers when developing and implementing assessment centers. Semi-structured interviews with a representative sample of assessment center users in Flanders revealed that, besides a large variability in assessment center practice, practitioners experience problems with dimension selection and definition, exercise design, line/staff managers as assessors, distinguishing between observation and evaluation, and with the content of assessor training programs. Solutions for these problems are suggested.     

Parent Satisfaction with Case Managed Systems of Care for Children and Youth with Severe Emotional Disturbance

Case management has emerged as an integral component of current efforts to reform the delivery of mental health services to children and youth with Severe Emotional Disturbance (SED). We examined parental satisfaction with one program's case management system for SED children. In order to validly address parental satisfaction, the program first turned to a group of its parents to develop a satisfaction measure, the Family Satisfaction Survey (FSS). Of the 51 parents who returned an FSS, 74% of the parents were generally satisfied while 26% indicated that they were dissatisfied with their families' case management services. Multivariate regression analyses were employed to examine the role played by client, service, and outcome variables in predicting parental satisfaction. After controlling for child diagnoses, severity of impairment, and levels of psychosocial stress, parent satisfaction with case management services was best predicted by the frequency of monthly contact and fewer days is a psychiatric hospital proportional to length of service. Our results suggest that parent satisfaction is based not only on what case managers do but on how this service impacts SED children's ability to remain at home and in their communities.     

Developing community alternatives to group home placement for SED special education students in the Ventura County System of Care

Interagency planning and resource development were used to improve available services for severely emotionally disturbed special education students who were in or at-risk of being placed in residential care. Augmented local school-based and regional day treatment services were financed by a Ventura County Social Services Agency trust fund and delivered cooperatively by the County Mental Health Agency and local education agencies. Revenues generated by the new service positions were planned to restore the trust fund. Outcomes following service implementation included: (a) an average reduction of 3.5 youths in the expected number of youths in group home placement per month; (b) a total reduction of $290,011 in the expected annual cost of placement; and (c) generation of $281,238 in Medi-Cal revenue by the school-based and day treatment components of the system of care. The implications of these outcomes are discussed in terms of existing trends in numbers of identified seriously emotionally disturbed students and their service needs and the processes that were involved in planning and implementing the service augmentation.     

Developing Black Mental Health Provision: Challenging Inequalities in Partnership

This article describes and comments upon the process of developing the Sanctuary project in London, a project that will provide two community-based crisis support services for African and African-Caribbean women and men in mental crisis and distress. This initiative is informed by the extensive research documenting the ways in which mainstream, mental health services fail Black people, and by evidence suggesting that innovations in service provision for Black people are often vulnerable and limited in their impact. In an effort to avoid replicating these problems, considerable emphasis has been given to developing the project in partnership with the main stakeholders—in this instance statutory and Black voluntary sector agencies as well as Black users, carers and community members. Within this context, issues relating to inequalities can be proactively addressed, thereby reducing the risk that they undermine the effectiveness of service provision at a later stage. However, working in partnership can also hinder or delay service developments if discussions between stakeholders become protracted or conflicts unresolved. The author draws on experience gained from this project to identify the potential as well as the difficulties of using a partnership approach to developing effective Black mental health provision. The author's role in the development of these projects has been as representative of one of the partners, the King's Fund Centre for Development.     

Predictors of Placement Outcomes in Treatment Foster Care: Implications for Foster Parent Selection and Service Delivery

Treatment foster care (TFC) is a normalizing environment in which to treat those children whose particular needs are not addressed in traditional foster care and for whom an institutional setting is a restrictive and unnecessary alternative. However, when the foster care placements of these emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children fail, as they often do, the children are shifted from one home to another without the opportunity to experience permanence or emotional attachment, resulting in poor adjustment to foster care. Placement stability, which depends in part upon effective matching of foster children with potential foster families, is critical for achieving positive outcomes in TFC. Yet, there is a dearth of information to guide placement agencies in making decisions about matching foster children with families. Moreover, once a successful match has been made, it is equally vital that service delivery be of high quality so that permanence is maintained. We review research on the predictors of positive outcomes in foster care, focusing on studies involving emotionally or behaviorally disturbed children, and provide recommendations for selecting foster parents and for ensuring high quality foster care services and placement stability.     

The Demand-Control Model: Specific Demands, Specific Control, and Well-Defined Groups

The purpose of this study was to test the Demand-Control Model (DCM), accompanied by three goals. Firstly, we used alternative, more focused, and multifaceted measures of both job demands and job control that are relevant and applicable to today's working contexts. Secondly, this study intended to focus on particular demands in human services work and to incorporate these demands in the DCM. Finally, this occupation-based study investigated relatively large well-defined subgroups compared to a total sample. Workers from five human service sectors (n = 2,485) were included in a cross-sectional survey (i.e., health care, transport, bank/insurance, retail trade, and warehouse). Results showed that job demands and job control are able to show several interaction effects on employee well-being and health, but only in specific occupational groups. In conclusion, the current findings provide renewed empirical support for the view that high-strain jobs (high demand, low control) are conducive to ill health (i.e., emotional exhaustion, psychosomatic health complaints). Further, it appears that active jobs (high demands, high control) give rise to positive outcomes (i.e., job challenge, job satisfaction).     

The Child Behavior Checklist for Group Care Workers: A Study Regarding the Factor Structure

In this study we examined the factor structure of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) filled out by group care workers. Group care workers' judgements were collected on 846 children and adolescents treated in various residential settings in The Netherlands. Using confirmatory factor analysis, we were able to show that the original CBCL factor model based on parental judgments of child behavior also fits for the judgments of group care workers. This means that the well known 8 narrow-band syndromes (Withdrawn, Somatic Complaints, etc.) as well as the 2 broad-band syndromes (Internalizing and Externalizing) can be used to interpret the CBCL scores of group care workers. This confirmation of the CBCL factor structure is a first step to add a group care worker version to the CBCL family. However, as a second step, normative data need to be gathered to further enhance the use of the CBCL for group care workers.     

Male Mental Health Problems, Psychopathy, and Personality Traits: Key Findings from the First 14 Years of the Pittsburgh Youth Study

This paper reviews key findings on juvenile mental health problems in boys, psychopathy, and personality traits, obtained in the first 14 years of studies using data from the Pittsburgh Youth Study. This is a study of 3 samples, each of about 500 boys initially randomly drawn from boys in the 1st, 4th, and 7th grades of public schools in Pittsburgh. The boys have been followed regularly, initially each half year, and later at yearly intervals. Currently, the oldest boys are about 25 years old, whereas the youngest boys are about 19. Findings are presented on the prevalence and interrelation of disruptive behaviors, ADHD, and depressed mood. Results concerning risk factors for these outcomes are reviewed. Psychological factors such as psychopathy, impulsivity, and personality are described. The paper closes with findings on service delivery of boys with mental health problems.     

Capitalizing on the Benefits of Utilizing Part-Time Employees Through Job Autonomy

There are over 20 million part-time employees in the United States, however research on part-time employees is quite limited. Research has revealed inconsistencies when comparing part-time and full-time employees on various job outcomes (e.g., performance, commitment). As a test of Feldman's (1990) causal model of part-time work, this study provides evidence that autonomy mediates the relationship between job status (part-time vs. full-time) and such outcomes, which can help explain some of the inconsistencies in previous research. Managerial implications are discussed.