Policy & Practice articles from September 2000

Policy & Practice archives from September 2000

Letter from the Executive Director.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... William Waldman This year marks the 70th anniversary of the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) as the premier association representing those who lead, plan, deliver, or care about public human services. It is truly awesome...

Inside Story.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Two years ago, I wrote about a massive change taking place within public human services--welfare reform legislation, which radically transformed the nation's welfare system. With the enactment of federal welfare reform, caseloads have fallen...

Letters to the Editor.
September 1, 2000... Human Service Staff Qualifications "Changing Personnel Practices to Support Health and Human Services Reform" by Allen Kraus (June 2000) provides some useful suggestions to assist human service managers in recruiting staff. Kraus also...

The Future Is Now: Transforming, the Welfare System to Identify and Address Chronic Barriers.
September 1, 2000... As the summer 2002 deadline approaches for the first round of people hitting the five-year time limit, policymakers are beginning to debate the content of TANF reauthorization. Yet, concern about hard-to-employ clients, who are still on the...

RHODE ISLAND Keeping Families Together.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... It is clear from watching families interact at children's museums that, while they may well be learning about the physics of water or the history of the region, there is something else important and powerful taking place. As children and adults...

Arizona Seniors Facing Sticker Shock; Medigap Policies Won't Be Cheap.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The Arizona Republic Arizona seniors dropped by Medicare HMOs in 2001 can expect to pay higher premiums for supplemental insurance, or Medigap, policies to cover prescription drugs than seniors in the Midwest; California, Colorado, and...

California County Welfare Reform Strategy Supported by Study.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Los Angeles Times Los Angeles County's decision to revamp its welfare program and push poor mothers to find jobs quickly has paid off, boosting employment and earnings and markedly reducing welfare spending, a new study concluded. The...

Long Lane to Take Detention Overflow.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The Hartford Courant In a plan drawing strong criticism from state and national juvenile justice experts, Connecticut moved about 20 boys from pretrial detention centers to the grounds of the state's only facility for juvenile offenders....

Kansas' Bold Experiment in Child Welfare.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Christian Science Monitor It was billed as the grand experiment in privatizing child welfare. Kansas would bid out adoption, foster care, and other services to private companies. They'd be paid a lump sum, roughly $13,500, for each child....

Review & Outlook: Apologize to Newt.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Wall Street Journal In reference to the welfare reform legislation of 1996, at the time, opponents said it was a cruel attempt to scapegoat the poor, a gamble that would produce a "race to the bottom" among the 50 states. Georgia...

South Carolina Seniors May Pay More for Medicare.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Associated Press A new Medicare payment system could leave South Carolina's senior citizens paying more money for their medical care. The system was designed to reduce copayments for hospital outpatient services nationwide, according to...

Child Immunizations Rose in Georgia Program of Welfare Linkage.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Washington Post Threatening to withhold welfare payments to low-income families unless their children got regular vaccines significantly increased immunization rates in Georgia, a study found. Several states implemented similar measures in...

Medication Costs for Seniors Soar.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... Associated Press Older Americans are paying twice as much for their prescription drugs as they did in 1992, and prices are expected to soar over the next decade, says a group that advocates drug coverage by Medicare. Families USA argued...

A Conversation with Thomas Perez.(Interview)
September 1, 2000... In June 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in the Olmstead v. L.C. and E.W. case in favor of community settings over institutions for persons with disabilities. The case was brought by two Georgia women whose disabilities include mental...

Fiscal Reform and Managed Care in Child Welfare Services.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Within the past five years, efforts to reform child welfare systems around the country have focused on fiscal reform in general and managed care in particular. Today, the Government Accounting Office estimates that no fewer than 30 states are...

A Team Approach to Public Social Services Delivery.
September 1, 2000... Changing the culture of an agency is not an easy task but it can be done, as one Maryland county department of social services discovered. In May 1999, the St. Mary's County Department of Social Services (DSS) implemented a multidisciplinary...

Servicing the Needs of Elder Abuse Victims.
September 1, 2000... Over the years, adult protective service (APS) to the aged Victims of domestic violence has received little attention by researchers and the professional literature as compared with other forms of domestic violence. Yet, elder abuse has been...

CHANGING ADDICTIVE BEHAVIOR: BRIDGING CLINICAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH STRATEGIES.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Changing Addictive Behavior proposes that prevailing clinical approaches to treating addictive behaviors are actually best suited to a minority of the population with problems--in the case of substance abusers, those with substantial functional...

Welfare Reform: A Race to the Bottom?(Review)
September 1, 2000... Presents research contributing to the ongoing debate over welfare reform. Some chapters argue that the law will lead states to restrict benefits out of fear of becoming "welfare magnets." Other chapters assert that no such shift is taking...

American Health Care: Government, Market Processes, and the Public Interest.(Review)
September 1, 2000... Examines why harmful consequences too often follow when government sets out to direct health care through planning and regulating medical practices, qualifications, goods, services, and prices. The book demonstrates, for example, how current...

Personal Assistance: The Future of Home Care.(Review)
September 1, 2000... Examines how community-based long-term care can develop constructively in an environment in which expanded public financing is an unlikely option. Examining all aspects of current medical and home care services, the authors propose a new model...

Our Do'ers Profile.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... In "Our Do'ers Profile," we highlight some of the hard-working and talented individuals in the public human services field. This issue features the director of California's Department of Social Services, Rita Saenz of Sacramento, California....