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Studiens syfte är att ur professionellas perspektiv undersöka hur personer med kognitiva funktionshinder är delaktiga i beslut gällande flytt till egen bostad samt hur professionellas handlingsutrymme påverkar besluten. Studien genomfördes som en kvalitativ intervjustudie med hermeneutisk ansats och kvalitativ innehållsanalys som bearbetningsmetod. Intervjuer gjordes med fem anställda, de flesta av dem socionomer inom en offentlig organisation som producerar tjänster för personer med kognitiva funktionshinder. Resultatet visar att personer med kognitivt funktionshinder har begränsad delaktighet och få valmöjligheter i beslut gällande flytt till egen bostad. Delaktigheten påverkas av klientens och socialarbetarens förmåga att kommunicera med varandra men trots det användes inga kommunikationshjälpmedel i utredningen. Anhöriga antar ofta rollen som klientens tolkningsföreträdare och när det gäller beslut om flytt till egen bostad är det anhöriga som tar beslutet oberoende klientens grad av funktionshinder. Socialarbetarna upplever sig styrda av överordnade men det hindrar dem inte från att ibland överskrida det formella handlingsutrymmet för att göra det som de anser vara det bästa för klienten.
When society is viewed in a social constructive manner, the social worker is as affected as the general population by the media and the image it portrays. A prejudice or bias social worker will not be as effective in his work as his intentions are.
The purpose of this thesis was to discover if there are any visible cultural differences in the usage and description of the concept of psychopathy or a psychopath himself in the media, more specifically, daily newspapers. There are three American newspapers and three Swedish newspapers examined in this study.
The study is based on a quantiative content analysis of articles published between 1st of January 2008 and 1st of July 2012. The collected data is categorized where the articles can fall under one or more of five available categories. Even though no clear results occurred, some interesting indications are visible between American newspapers and Swedish newspapers, but more so between different American newspapers. Psychopaths, people with an Antisocial Personality Disorder, are most frequently mentioned as criminals or maniacs/madmen in both countries with a modestly higher percentage for the United States of America.
The new "liquid" media environment involves a range of new professions, practices and practitioners (Deuze 2011). Based on a rich ethnographic study containing personal interviews and participant observation, this paper looks at semi-professional Influencers in the social media marketing industry and asks how these new branding professions and their practices emerge and institutionalize. Specifically, the material draws on data collected between 2011 and 2015 among women Influencers in the 'lifestyle' genre in Singapore who advertise products and services in the industry verticals of Fashion, Beauty, and Electronic goods on blogs, Twitter, and Instagram.
Objective:This study explored how professionals in interdisciplinary teams perceived the implementation of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, version for Children and Youth (ICF-CY) in Swedish habilitation services.
Design:Descriptive longitudinal mixed-methods design.
Methods:Following participation in a 2-day in-service training on the ICF-CY, 113 professionals from 14 interdisciplinary teams described their perceptions of the implementation of the ICF-CY at 3 consecutive time-points: during in-service training, after 1 year, and after 2.5 years.
Results:Implementation of the ICF-CY in daily work focused on assessment and habilitation planning and required adaptations of routines and materials. The ICF-CY was perceived as useful in supporting analyses and in communication about children's needs. Professionals also perceived it as contributing to new perspectives on problems and a sharpened focus on participation.
Conclusion:Professionals indicated that the ICF-CY enhanced their awareness of families' views of child participation, which corresponded to organizational goals for habilitation services. An implementation finding was a lack of tools fitting the comprehensive ICF-CY perspective. The study points to the need for ICF-CY-based assessment and intervention methods focusing on child participation.
Crime victims in Indicatorland – Open comparisons in the social services' work with victim support
Since the 90s there have been extensive changes in the public sector, such as rationalization and increasing demands for documentation and review. The changes have also affected the social services' victim support work that has increasingly been subject to various forms of regulation, such as requirements for monitoring, evaluation and quality assurance. This article aims to examine one of the monitoring systems applied in the victim support work: the instrument of open comparisons. This article is based on an exploratory study of the local organization of crime prevention in two municipalities and analyses how the processes of open comparisons are organized at local, regional and central levels. The empirical data consists of documents such as legal sources and handbooks from e.g. the National Board of Health and Welfare and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, as well as documents obtained locally in the two municipalities. Furthermore, interviews were conducted with professionals working on different organizational levels.
Analytically the study has been inspired by programme theory, which made it possible to concentrate on clarifying the operational idea in which open comparisons are based and capturing the consequences in the two cases.
The study shows that open comparisons have been implemented without support from existing research. However, strong normative support for open comparisons exists within governmental agencies and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions. They are included as one of many elements of New Public Management and result in changes in the victim support work. In contrast to present visions, the performance is not affected to any significant extent. In contrast, a comprehensive administration is created, where employees of municipalities are supposed to collect data, register information and analyse the results generated by the open comparisons.
Men's violence against women is a widespread global problem and a serious threat to women's health. This symposium will report from a study in Sweden that studies mechanisms that influence the design of interventions contesting domestic violence in two cities.
The symposiums three presentations will answer the following questions:
1. Given the fact that the organizations face many different views and ideologies; how does this affect the ways the problem of domestic violence is represented?
2. In what way affects ideas from performance measurement and new public management the interventions?
3. In what way are the social services organizing towards an evidence-based practice in this field?
Presentation 1 Interpersonal violence-From policy to local practice
Presentation 2 Open Comparisons in social work
Presentation 3 Negotiating in risk assessment practices
Idén om mål- och resultatstyrningen har fått stort genomslag i offentlig förvaltning. Det brottsofferstödjande arbetet som riktas mot våldsutsatta personer har liksom andra ansvarsområden inom socialtjänstens verksamhetsfält mött ökade krav på att säkra och redovisa kvalitet. Öppna jämförelser är ett instrument som används inom offentlig verksamhet för att mäta, offentliggöra och jämföra kvaliteten av det arbete som bedrivs. År 2012 lanserades för första gången öppna jämförelser inom brottsofferområdet. I studien analyseras Öppna jämförelsers programidé och dess implementering inom brottsofferområdet. Empirin utgörs av för studiens syfte, relevanta styrdokument samt intervjuer med aktörer på central nivå (Socialstyrelsen och SKL), regional nivå (Länsstyrelsen) samt lokal nivå (två fallkommuner i södra Sverige) Fokus riktas mot hur de har arbetat med Öppna jämförelser och vilka erfarenheter de har gjort. 12 I presentationen av studien visar författarna hur Öppna jämförelser avseende stöd till brottsoffer inte fått det genomslag som regeringen förutsatt. Den politiska styrningen är tydlig samtidigt som de olika "intressenter" som Öppna jämförelser är tänkt att vara till för i praktiken givits en marginaliserad position
The Nordic countries consistently rank in top positions of the best places to live and work in the world. They have resilient economies, a well-educated workforce, high labour market participation, job security, and encompassing welfare systems and are facilitated by an institutional context characterised by trust and transparency. Nordic HR practices are embedded in a tradition of workplace democracy, flat organisations, low power distance, open and informal communication, codetermination, and close cooperation between management and labour unions. But the Nordic countries are also embedded in the global economy. This book offers insights into how Nordic HRM responds to global challenges, such as demographic changes, migration, or skills shortages that necessitate inclusionary HR strategies focussed on workforce development.
This paper deals with document-document similarity approaches, the issue of similarity order, and clustering methods, in the context of science mapping. Using two data sets of bibliographic records, associated with the fields of information retrieval and scientometrics, we investigate how well two document-document similarity approaches, a text-based approach and bibliographic coupling, agree with ground truth classifications (obtained by subject experts), under first-order and second-order similarities, and under four different clustering methods. The clustering methods are average linkage, complete linkage, Ward's method and consensus clustering. The performance of first-order and second-order similarities is compared within the two document-document similarity approaches, and under each clustering method. We also compare the performance of the clustering methods. The results show that the text-based approach consistently outperformed bibliographic coupling with regard to the information retrieval data set, but performed consistently worse than the latter approach regarding the scientometrics data set. For the similarity order issue, second-order similarities performed better than first-order in 12 out of 16 cases. Average linkage had the best overall performance among the clustering methods, followed by consensus clustering. The main conclusion of the study is that second-order similarities seem to be a better choice than first-order in the science mapping context.
In Sweden adults with major and sustainable disabilities can be granted publicly financed support in the form of personal assistance after assessment and decision-making in accordance with government rules. The purpose of the present study was to explore more deeply the encounters in close care relations between personal assistants and disabled persons of working age, as well as the prerequisites for and obstacles to the success of such encounters, this from the perspective of the personal assistants. Thirty-two personal assistants (22- to 55-year old) who worked for 32 persons with serious neurological diseases living at home were interviewed. The transcribed unstructured interviews were qualitatively analysed using latent content analysis. The analyses resulted in five main themes: Perceptive awareness, Entering into the other's role, Mutuality, Handling the relationship and Personal difficulties facing the assistant. These themes illustrated that a prerequisite for the encounter's being meaningful is that the assistant should be able to observe and understand the unique needs of the disabled person. The assistant must furthermore be able to put herself/himself into the other person's position. It is also important that the personal chemistry between the assistant and the disabled person should be good. Being able to share feelings and interests with the functionally impaired person provides the assistant with positive emotional confirmation of a good relationship. A distressing dilemma the assistant faces is that of distinguishing between the working relationship and the personal friendship. In this borderline area are found experiences, feelings and events that the assistant may view as negative or even unacceptable. This study contributes to the understanding of the complexity underlying the daily community care of disabled persons with an extensive need for care and assistance.
The purpose of this study is to increase insight into the collaboration of different organisations that work against prostitution in a Swedish municipality. With this purpose as a basis, four research questions were formulated: How do different organisations working against prostitution in the municipality collaborate? Which factors promote collaboration between these organisations? Which factors inhibit collaboration between these organisations? What areas of improvement exist in regards to collaboration? The analysis is qualitative and based on semi-structured interviews with six organisations that work against prostitution in different ways. The interviewed organisations include government-controlled organisations as well as non-governmental organisations. In this study, the empirical data has been analysed with a deductive approach based on a set of themes. These themes are formed with the purpose and issue of this study in mind. The themes are "how different organisations in the municipality describe the collaborative work", "factors promoting collaboration", "factors inhibiting collaboration" and "areas of improvement".
Key words: collaboration, prostitution, promoting factors, inhibiting factors, areas of improvement
This article presents various forms of activities performed by locally based social welfare research and development (R&D) units in Sweden. The authors argue that these units are vital actors in the field of encouraging and strengthening evidence-based social work practice. They are close to social services organisations and have the ability to use flexible methods in order to bridge the gap between research and practice in a local context. The theoretical framework for the article is the organisational excellence model – an archetype for how research can be used in practice.
The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of how social workers reason about children's participation in decision-making. The study is qualitative, with, semi-structured interviews being conducted with eleven social workers, in different municipalities, working with children assessments. The study, which has an inductive approach, has been written from a social constructionist perspective. Analysis of the interviews was conducted in the style of a thematic analysis, where three themes were central. The first theme, flexibility, is about how social workers adapt to the child, the purpose of the meeting and the child's age. This means that they must be flexible in how they inform and be informed. The second theme, relationship, is about how the social workers look at the relationship's importance to children's participation. Some social workers believe that the relationship is of great importance, while others haven't put much emphasis on it. The last theme, influencing factors, is about how children's opportunity to participate in decision-making has increased over time and factors that may affect. All themes are about social workers perspective on children's participation and how it differs from case to case in various meetings with children.
The aim of this study was to describe and analyse social workers' approach in working with parents with mild intellectual disability. The study intends to find out if work approach is related to position and type of organisation. The data consists of six semi structured interviews with social workers from three different organisations that in work meet parents with mild intellectual disability. These organisations were Vuxenhabiliteringen, LSS and Individ- and Familjeomsorgen. In addition, an interview with a researcher that has expert knowledge in development for parents with mild intellectual disability was done. In the analysis the experiences of social workers were linked to organizational tasks and importance of cooperation. The study purposed to analyse the result from two theoretical perspectives; street- level bureaucracy and human-service organisations. The result shows that social workers in the organisations have different approaches dependent on what organisation they work in and the role and working tasks they have in work. The study also indicated how the organisations and their tasks affected the parenthood for persons with mild intellectual disabled parents.
The purpose of the study is to get the professional care-givers comprehension and awareness of constraining acts towards elder individuals within a nursing home. On what basis these acts are justified by the care-givers according to law. The professional's approach towards the usages of constraining acts on an individual level but also in the role of the inter-professional team. This purpose is achieved through a qualitative research method with semi-structured interviews. The result from the interviews has been thematically analyzed and linked to Foucault's ideas of normalization power and previous research. Our research shows that there is a complexity in the usage of constraining acts from professional care-givers in respect of the Elders autonomy. This complexity is based on that the acts within the constraining spectra doesn´t cover the Elders right to self-determination within the context. The results reveal that the care-givers within the inter-professional team use their professionalism to create alternate strategies to avoid or limit the usage of constraining acts within the nursing home. In our analysis based on Foucault's ideas on normalization and power the alternate strategies from caregivers can be viewed as a productive exercise of power. This because the ideas are based on the terms from the caregiver who is in control. Constraining acts are viewed by the professional care-givers as dark necessity in that sense that the acts lacked a legal basis and simultaneously were necessary to address the inevitable issue. The lack of legal basis causes the professionals to end up in ethical dilemmas where the results of the acts doesn´t always end up so well. In the usage of constraining acts the professional strives to act according to what is believed to be in the Elders best interest and to preserve the individual's self-determination as far as possible.
Title: Alcohol Use amongst Adolescents in Grade 8 and 9 - Influences from family and peers
Adolescents alcohol use is globally a major issue in social work. Research in the field is constantly evolving and has changed from historically having considered a single focus on the relationship between parents and adolescents to an overall perspective where youth is seen as an individual with active choices, and that they are influenced by the context in which the adolescent act. The purpose of this study was to illustrate through a Swedish context the relationship between a youth's alcohol use, parents approach to this and peers use of alcohol. This with a perspective on the influences the youth derives from their different relationships, as well as how young peoples' alcohol use is affected when the influences are in accord with or in conflict with each other. The current study has received its material from the research program Longitudinal Research on Development in Adolescence (LoRDIA), which has been funded by FORTE, Vetenskapsrådet, VINNOVA, Formas, Stiftelsen Säfstaholm, Stiftelsen Sunnerdahls Handikappfond and Forum region Jönköping. Quantitative data collected by LoRDIA from 1 324 adolescents in grade 8 and 9 have been analyzed. To investigate how adolescents alcohol use is influenced by parents and peers, the data has been analyzed with Pearson's correlation analysis, T-test, Welch's ANOVA test, and Dunnet's T3 Post-hoc test. The results showed that there is positive association between young people's own alcohol use and influences on this from parents and friends. This is in line with previous research. The current study's main findings were that different influences have variably strong effects on young people's own alcohol use, depending on the nature of the other group's influences. This indicates an additional complexity. Current study adds a wider overall picture of how young people are affected in their own alcohol use by surrounding influences.
The International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF) is meant to be a universal language for professionals working with functioning and health in children and adults. So far most applications of ICF have been in the field of health sciences. Is it also applicable to education? This paper aims to present the outcome of a systematic literature review in the fields of education, more specifically education of children with disabilities or special educational needs and the ICF. Devised as a complementary classification of health and functioning by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2001 with a child and youth version (ICF-CY) published in 2007, the ICF appears to be mostly used in the medical field with reviews highlighting its use and applications (Bruyère, Van Looy, & Peterson, 2005). Thus, this literature review intends to situate the current debates in education which relate to the ICF and its concepts, and also to report the extent to which it is being used. The major interest is to explore how the ICF/ICF-CY, are currently situated in the field of education.
This study uses a systematic review of the literature using database keyword searches. The keywords used to search in the databases were applied after qualitative test searches were carried out to establish the suitability of the terms. The selection of studies was then refined further using inclusion and exclusion protocols. The protocols investigated the paper contents at different levels: abstract, full -text, and full-text quality level. In addition an extraction protocol is also used on the included documents to draw on the points which arise from the research questions and provide the basis for the main discussion. Studies exploring the relationship between education, the ICF and its related concepts: participation, environment, and personal factors were reviewed.
Bruyère, S. M., Van Looy, S. A., & Peterson, D. B. (2005). The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: Contemporary Literature Overview. Rehabilitation Psychology 50(2), 113-121.
WHO. (2001). International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Geneva: WHO. WHO. (2007). International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, Version for Children and Youth, ICF-CY. Geneva: WHO.
This study is an enquiry into the processes shaping rural livelihoods in peripheral areas. The study is situated in the field of livelihood research and departs in the persistent crisis within African smallholder agriculture and in rural policy debates during the postindependence era. The research takes a critical stance to the way that people-centred and actor-oriented approaches have dominated livelihood research, thereby over-shadowing structural and macro-oriented features.
The aim of this study is to, through a historical perspective on rural livelihoods and policy regimes, uncover the political and economic processes, with their discursive foundations, that shape contemporary rural livelihoods in peripheral areas. The analytical framework emphasises four key factors: ideas of development and modernity; the terms of incorporation into the global economy; rural policy regimes; smallholders' ways of making a living. Inspiration is gained from critical political geography, world-systems analysis and different perspectives on rural livelihoods and development.
The empirical study is based on fieldwork in Chipata District in Eastern Zambia, investigations at the National Archives of Zambia, the British National Archives and library research. The findings are presented in three parts. The first part looks into contemporary policies and the situation among smallholders in Chipata District. The second part examines the history of the area up to independence in 1964. The third part examines the post-independence period which links colonial experience to the contemporary situation.
The findings suggest that smallholders' livelihoods are shaped by long-term politicaleconomic- discursive processes, rooted in the terms of the study area's integration into the world-economy in the colonial period. Colonial policies peripheralised the area through tax, labour, and market policies and the creation of native reserves, all of which have led to contemporary problems of food insecurity, soil depletion and a marginal role in agricultural markets. Since the inception of colonial rule, semi-proletarianisation has been a dominant process in the area. Current diversified livelihoods are more a contemporary expression of this semi-proletarianisation than a consequence of postcolonial policies. The households in the study area show preference for a farming way of life. However, the development goal of modernity has since long led to an 'othering' of smallholders, labelling them backwards and resistant to change. In the early twenty-first century this 'othering' has been played out through a development programme aimed at changing attitudes and mindsets among the farmers in line with individualistic and entrepreneurial behaviour. The 'othering' discourses of contemporary and colonial policymakers display striking similarities in this case.
The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate adolescent drinking to drunkenness and connected contextual factors. The thesis is based on four studies, addressing different aspects: The first explores arenas of adolescent drunkenness, and the meaning the adolescents attribute to them. The second investigates Swedish adolescents discourse on alcohol and parties, as well as positive and negative effects of alcohol consumption. The third reports on early onset, i.e. before the age of 14, in substance use, including alcohol drinking and drunkenness, and predicts this from various psychological and social factors. The forth examines contexts of drunkenness, i.e. where and with whom 15-year olds in Sweden get drunk. Furthermore, the importance of the place and social context for drunkenness in adolescence, and what importance and strategies young people themselves associate with their alcohol consumption are examined.
The studies derive from two data samples. Articles I and II utilise qualitative methods and explore Swedish changing arenas for adolescent drunkenness and adolescent discourse on drunkenness and the importance of place and space. Article I stems from a qualitative interview-material with an ethnographic approach. Twenty-three adolescents (7 females and 16 males) from three small communities in the south of Sweden in the ages of 16 to18 were interviewed. The material also included contacts with outreach social workers on local, regional and national level as well participating observations. The data for Article II stems from the interviews with twenty-three adolescents. Article I was analysed through text-analysis and Article II through thematic analysis.
Articles III and IV conduct quantitative analyses, and stems from the multidisciplinary research programme, Longitudinal Research on Development In Adolescence (LoRDIA) which follows adolescents from the age of 12 and 13 until they are 18 years old, focusing on substance use and misuse, health and ill-health, peer relations and school functioning through self-reported questionnaires. Different data collection waves were used, and combined them two and two, for cross-sectional analyses. Article III combined the first two waves and by doing so, covered 91 percent of the study population of 1896 students aged 13-14. Article IV combined all 1355 grade 9 students from waves 3 and 3b. Article III investigated early onset in substance use and was analysed with bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models. Article IV investigated frequency of drunkenness and different outcomes from drunkenness in different contexts, as well as with whom adolescents got drunk together with and the negative consequences of getting drunk.
The result indicates a change from drinking to drunkenness at outdoor places. The outdoor places, both public and hidden, that has been used for adolescents socializing and drinking to drunkenness were empty. Homes, without present adults are the most common places for parties. The parties stand for mainly positive experiences and a break in everyday life. Being in a home arena allows for increased control, both over own drunkenness but also over who is allowed at the party and who is not. The dissertation also investigates early onset in use of alcohol and drunkenness and shows that delinquency, perceived parental permissions and availability of substances are the strongest factors predicting onset among 13-14-year-olds. The dissertation shows that most drunkenness experiences are reported in homes without adults present, not in outdoor and hidden places. Drinking in homes did not lower the association with high frequency of drunkenness, negative consequences or peer problems.
The conclusion shows the importance of place and space in understanding adolescent drunkenness and partying.
AIM – The study explores arenas of adolescent binge drinking in small Swedish towns and the meanings these have for young persons. The focus is thus on space and place, and on the geography of underage drinking.
DESIGN – An ethnographic approach was used, including direct observations, document studies and contacts with youth workers on local and national levels, and interviews with 28 underage binge-drinking adolescents chosen as informants.
FINDINGS – Adolescent binge drinkers seem to have moved away from street and other outdoor drinking arenas to home environments, where they feel they have more control over their party location and participants.
CONCLUSIONS – One consequence of outdoor drinking moving indoors is that professional youth workers and police cannot enter party arenas and the only adults who can do so are the parents. This has implications for preventive alcohol strategies and outreach social work. Measures should be directed to parents to make them fully aware of the importance of the party location in their homes.
Problem: Early onset, prevalence, and predictors of substance use - tobacco, alcohol-drinking, alcohol-drunkenness, and drugs - were studied in 13 and 14-year-old boys and girls in Sweden.
Methods: Self-reported data in four communities were used (n = 1,716). A large set of psychological and social factors were tried as predictors of early onset use (n = 1,459).
Results: There were few gender differences and low prevalence. Primary predictor for early onset in tobacco use was availability; perceived parental approval for alcohol use, and delinquent behaviors for alcohol-drunkenness and drug use.
Conclusions: Individual behavioral factors and parental norms seem to be most important in this age.
This article applies the concepts of place and space to understand youth and their engagement in risky behavior, such as drunkenness. It is based on the prolonged engagement with 23 underage youth coming from smaller municipalities in the south of Sweden. The study was comprised of semi-structured interviews, field visits, and observations at sites relevant for youths. In the stories narrated by youth, drunkenness is no longer an ad hoc activity conducted somewhere at the margins of society. The construction of drinking spaces was accomplished through highly managed, monitored, and organized practices, such as sending out invitations in advance, planning how much alcohol to drink, designating drivers, and securing transport means. Crucial to this was that spaces were products of relations existing between various youth, with no adults present. Spaces of drinking changed as those who participated in their construction changed. In addition, certain rules and codes of conduct (e.g. taking care of friends who drunk too much) were enforced to assure that the constructed spaces provided a sense of safety and enabled having fun. We conclude this article by arguing that a focus on place and space brings forward vital aspects in understanding the role of transforming party spaces that would otherwise remain obscure to social work knowledge and practice.
The use of internet for sexual activities among adolescents has not always been well received by society, due to the risks that it is associated with. The following thesis examines the attitudes and approaches of counselors at youth clinics and STI-clinics, when encountering adolescent's questions pertaining to sexuality on the internet. Data was collected through a qualitative survey using semi-structured interviews. Counselors from different regions in Sweden were approached whereof 3 from STI-clinics and 7 from youth-clinics chose to participate. A social constructive theory was used to analyze the result. The results of this study showed that counselors experience the internet as an implement for adolescents when learning about sexuality. It can provide a sense of not being alone by allowing them to get in contact with like-minded and share experiences. Internet can further function as a gateway to reach out to groups of clients that would not come to a physical meeting. Adolescents exploring their sexuality on the internet has resulted in a renewed professional approach, wherein a heavier emphasis than before is laid upon: (A) inquiring about internet-usage among their adolescent clients, (B) supporting them without condeming, (C) examining the prior knowledge of the clients in the meeting. Well-known social problems are taking place in new forms of expression over the internet, thus it's crucial for professionals and adults to understand this development.
Syftet med denna studie har varit att titta på hur alternativmedia i Sverige skriver om ensamkommande barn. Vår studie visar inte huruvida det som vald media har skrivit är sant eller inte, utan syftet är att visa på hur de ensamkommande barnen framställs av Samhällsnytt.
Studien är en kvalitativ innehållsanalys där vi har gått igenom artiklar från alternativmediet Samhällsnytt. Analysen har skett från ett urval av artiklar under september – oktober 2017, där vi läst igenom alla artiklar som kommit fram efter sökning på ordet "ensamkommande". Vår studie bygger på manifesta tolkningar av Samhällsnytts artiklar, i vilka vi har valt ut citat.
Teorier som har använts för att underbygga våra resonemang har varit Agenda setting theory och moralpanikteorin.
I vår studie kommer vi fram till att alternativmediet Samhällsnytt under den tidsperiod som vi valt ut tenderar att använda ord och uttryck som framställer de ensamkommande barnen på ett negativt sätt. Vi kan dock inte i vår studie säga att detta är gällande för all alternativmedia då vi endast har granska just Samhällsnytt och under en kort period.
Somali-born immigrants are often described as the most difficult group to integrate into Swedish society with an extensive underrepresentation on the Swedish labour market as well as traditional values and gender roles that often dictate the division of labour and functions in the family. This study aims to examine the effects of a job on Somali family roles from a migration perspective. By comparing wage-earning and unemployed Somali-born women's experiences, the study also aspires to elucidate the importance of a job in their everyday life. The essay is based on previous research on the historical, social and transnational dimensions of Somali family life and culture, as well as theoretical concepts such as role conflict, role change and role negotiation. A qualitative comparative case study has been conducted, based on data from semi-structured interviews. Eight respondents participated in the survey – four employed and four unemployed women born in Somalia. The results were then analyzed in the light of previous research and the theoretical concepts. The result shows that there are some interesting differences between the two groups. The Somali families in which the women are unemployed have a distinct division of the household work, where the woman assumes the majority of the workload. Here it is also clear that traditional Somali family roles are still of importance. However, in the families where the Somali-born women have employment, traditional family roles have changed and led to a more even distribution of household work, where the men, women and children share the responsibility. Furthermore, it appears that the unemployed Somali-born women are very keen to have a job, as independence from the state and government is a main driving force. For the wage-earners on the other hand, there is a clearer focus on being independent from the man and being able to be a decision-maker in family matters. The result also illustrates how society's expectations on women influence their driving forces to work and the way they think about their role in the family.
When a person is sentenced to serve a penalty the person is placed in a prison and placed in a group with other convicted inmates. The Swedish prison and Probation Service's vision is for the inmate to be better prepared for a life free from drugs and crime after the sentence is served. However research shows that the detainee group affects the individual in different ways, and not rarely negatively. The aftermath of this, is that the treatment of the individual detainee is put in the dark due to the negative group processes.
Donald Clemmer (1958) and Erwing Goffman (1973) are two prominent theorists that have conducted research regarding these kinds of problems. The first of these two proposes that more or less every detainee goes through an imprisonment process, that leads to the detainee adjusting to the current prison culture which is antisocial and pro crime. The culture also shows a distinct distance between the detainees and the staff, which creates two groups the detainees and the prison officers. For the individual, it is very important to acknowledge this.
This qualitative study consists of seven interviews with individuals who have previously served sentences at a prison with a high security class and have lived with a criminal lifestyle investigates; how the group of inmates can affect the individual with leaving their criminal lifestyle whilst still in prison. Grounded theory is used as a analysis method and the result notes how prisonization and the gap between staff and inmates makes the rehabilitation process difficult from a treatment point of view. However it is perceived to be marginally better on a treatment ward or in a prison with alignment towards treatment. On a treatment ward it is considered easier for the individual to open show his motivation to be drug free and work with his criminal lifestyle, which has perceived to be a big problem on a normal ward. The feeling of belonging to the group of detainees is very strong for the individual during incarceration, and the norms and approach to the treatment is dependent on the situation within the group the inmate is attached to, which has throughout these analysis of the interviews shown to have both a positive and negative effect.
There is some research that indicates that there is a difference being made between men and women in many different contexts in Swedish society, including in social services. The differences being made can be anything from how social workers think about men and women to the adaptation of the language according to the client's gender, and what kind of help the clients are being granted, based on their gender. There is however limited research in regard to how social services treat women and men according to their gender, and there are reasons to believe that there is room for more research in this field. A lack of gender awareness and reflection can cause harm for the individual, hence he or she does not receive adequate help. More research in this field could contribute to increased understanding of the problem and hopefully a disclosure of the gender awareness.
The intention of this vignette study has been to examine whether these differences are being made within the social services for children and youth, and how these differences are being expressed in the work field. The choice fell on examining social workers within the field from all cities with a population of between 100,000 and 150,000 citizens, thus a total sample of the chosen population. The number of the cities that are corresponding with the intended selection is eleven. However, the results in this study cannot be generalized to the entire selected population, due to the great lack of participation. Four cities participated in this study and 57 social workers answered the questionnaire. Regarding the question whether the youth should be granted any service, the results point at no significant difference between genders of the clients. On the other hand, there is a significant difference regarding which type of service would be granted for the youth social workers considered being in need of service. More respondents granted family treatment for the boy than for the girl. Regarding other types of services being granted there were no significant differences. Regardless of these findings, tendencies can be distinguished that more boys than girls are granted services. The possible explanation is that this has to do with clients' gender, inclination of the vignette or loss of participants.
The aim of this study is to explore and analyze whether a special Swedish law for refugees, called lag om introduktionsersättning (a subsidy for refugees during their introduction), gives opportunities for an increased self-determination and whether it is thereby, a way of empow-ering refugees. The study applies a social workers' point of view. The study starts with a de-scription of the government bill that led forward to the law. We also provide a definition of the term refugee and a short description of the Swedish immigration policy. The main theory in the study is the theory of empowerment, narrowed down to self-determination and paternal-ism as the opposite to empowerment concept. The results are based on interviews made with professionals in three different municipalities. These results are being analyzed in terms of empowerment, paternalism and self-determination. The study indicates that booth empower-ment and self-determination are hard to use in a context of social work that is based on regula-tions. One of the results is that the municipalities in the study have seen a connection between the new system and increased self-determination among refugees. The self-determination is however, limited by what the professionals assess as realistic and reasonable. This assessment associates strongly with what the law stipulates.
Domestic partner violence is violence in a partner relationship. Earlier research on domestic partner violence mainly focus on the violence against women, with male perpetrators. Male victims exposed to partner violence are rarely discussed, and research of the subject is limited. The purpose of this study is to investigate attitudes and assessments made by social workers who in their work encounter domestic partner violence, and if the social workers are affected depending on whether the person exposed to partner violence is a man or a woman. A quantitative vignette method with accompanying survey questions were used to investigate differences. Two separate groups of respondents answered survey questions based on vignettes divided into two parts. The respondents are each introduced in the vignettes to a heterosexual couple with a problem of partner violence. These vignettes are identical except for the characters' genders which have been swapped. The result reveals that violence towards the victimized man is considered less serious, that there is less risk of continued violence in the relationship and that the victimized man is in less need of individual interventions. Respondents also considered to a lesser extent that the female perpetrator needed individual interventions compared to the male perpetrator. Social constructivism and gender theory are the theories used to interpret these results. The study can add perspectives about the subject of male victims and highlight that assessments of people exposed to partner violence may differ depending on the victim's gender.
In this study, ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with social workers from the eldercare and addiction care. These social workers are working in four different municipalities in Sweden. This study aims to explore the social workers' experiences of cases that involves older people with addiction and to highlight factors that the social workers consider supportive in order to give the clients with an addiction the right help. This study also aims to explore the practical application of collaboration between the eldercare and the addiction care in these cases. The collected data was analyzed with a thematic analysis and thus three main themes were identified. These three themes are Challenges, Factors for the independent work and Factors for collaboration. The results in this study show that the majority of the social workers believe that cases that involves older people who have an addiction tend to differ from many other cases and that these brings challenges in the work of the social worker. The social workers highlight different factors which can contribute to the target group getting the right support and services. These are partly factors that the social worker can work independently from, but also factors that demands that the organizations work together. The study also illustrates that a majority of the social workers have positive experiences from working together in these cases but there is a need to develop this collaboration further. The result has been linked to previous research in the field and to Michael Lipsky´s theory "Street-level bureaucracy."
Boken Social mobilisering - Lärdomar från fyra svenska städer är skriven utifrån en vilja att vitalisera det sociala arbetet, både inom civilsamhället och den offentliga sektorn. Utifrån konkreta mobiliseringsprocesser visar boken på styrkan med att stödja människors egenorganisering. De sex presenterade fallstudierna täcker in alltifrån grannsamverkan till protest och politiskt påverkansarbete. I fallstudierna diskuteras framgångsfaktorer, svårigheter och motgångar i öppna och reflekterande texter i avsikt att lära och gemensamt stärka det sociala arbetet inför framtida utmaningar. Fallstudierna ramas in av en teoretisk genomgång och analys av det konkreta mobiliseringsarbetet. Boken riktar sig till yrkesverksamma, studerande och föreningsaktiva, och till alla som är engagerade och intresserade av samhällsarbete i bred bemärkelse.
Bakgrund och problem: Självbestämmanderätt är en grundprincip i socialtjänstlagen och ska genomsyra allt socialt arbete. Socialtjänstlagen gör ingen skillnad på friska eller sjuka människor, vilket kan skapa dilemman för biståndshandläggare vid behovsbedömning.
Syfte och frågeställningar: Studiens syfte är att uppnå en förståelse kring hur bistånds-handläggare arbetar med självbestämmanderätt och inflytande vid behovsbedömning.
Studiens frågeställningar är följande:
Metod: Studien är influerad av en kvalitativ och kvantitativ metodblandning och består av en vinjett besvarad av 24 biståndshandläggare, samtliga arbetande utifrån socialtjänstlagen inriktat mot äldreomsorg. Det insamlade empirimaterialet från biståndshandläggarna har bearbetats genom en tematisk analys.
Resultat och slutsatser: Resultatet visar att biståndshandläggare menar att den äldre har självbestämmanderätt trots bristande insikt i sina egna behov. Biståndshandläggarnas utsagor visar att den moraliska aspekten att göra gott för den äldre väger tyngre än dennes självbestämmanderätt. Resultatet visar att anhöriga har ett stort inflytande och spelar en viktig roll vid behovsbedömning.
This study examines differences in adolescent well-being between religious and non-religious youths, between groups of varying religious participation and lastly between those who mainly experience the social aspects of religion to those that focus on the fundamental aspects. Data was collected from the science project Longitudinal Research on Development in Adolescence (LoRDIA) and consists of 1231 adolescents. Data was collected via self-report questionnaires in classroom settings and was analyzed through univariate and bivariate analyzes. The main conclusions of this study are that there is a statistically significant difference in well-being between Christian and both non-religious adolescents and adolescents from the combined group of less frequent religions (like Hindu, Buddhism etc.) Results showed that Christian adolescents overall had a higher well-being than these groups. A significant difference was also found in adolescents that frequently participate in religious gatherings as they had an overall higher well-being compared to those that seldomly or never participate. Lastly, no significant differences were able to be discerned between adolescents who are religious in a more social sense and those who are more fundamental in their beliefs. The results are then discussed in relation to previous research and Durkheim's theory about anomie and social community.
Sexual health is an important area for social work. Social workers' failure to address sexual health issues in social work practice, due to experienced discomfort, may create barriers toward clients, and lead to their decreased health. Investigating social work students' attitudes toward sexual health, and their perceived competence in this area is crucial for developing social work education on sexual health issues. The aim of the present study was to explore Swedish social work students' attitudes and perceived competence and educational needs regarding communicating about sexual health in their future profession. A quantitative study using the Students' Attitudes toward Sexual Health (SA-SH) in a Swedish sample of 242 social work students. The students considered knowledge about sexual health as important for their future profession. The response patterns indicated that students considered themselves uncomfortable and insufficiently prepared to handle issues related to sexual health in their future profession, which may affect how they succeed in addressing the needs of their future clients. The conclusion of this study is that social work students are insufficiently prepared to address issues concerning sexual health in their future profession. Social work programs need to increase sexual health education as well as training in communicating about sexual health issues in order to meet the needs of the clients.
Previous research regarding social work related to sexual health and sexuality shows the importance of competence in this field for social workers and therefore is a need to explore students´ attitudes, knowledge and view on working with sexual health in their future profession. This project aims to psychometrically test the questionnaire Students' Attitudes towards Addressing Sexual Health (SA-SH) for students in social work. The results show good content validity, construct validity, internal consistency and intra-rater reliability for the SA-SH for students in social work (response rate of 91%, 242 students). The SA-SH can therefore be recommended to be used to measure attitudes, believed competence, and knowledge regarding sexual health among social work students, and to follow up educational interventions.
Ingress: I socialtjänstlagen finns höga ambitioner, men för att kunna leva upp till dem krävs åtgärder. Utbildningen till socionom behöver förstärkas och det krävs mer resurser till forskning inom området, skriver flera sakkunniga gemensamt.


text:
The first time I heard about Odin – really heard, or perhaps really listened – I was listening to Alaric Albertsson speak. That was never what I called him, then or now; he is, and always will be, my uncle Alaric, the person my god-brother was named after, one of the many people who had known me since the day I was born. I was eighteen years old at that time, attending a Pagan festival on my own for the first time. It had been some years since I had last seen Alaric, and his path had evolved in that time. He had embraced something he called "Fyrn Sedu," or "the Old Ways," an Anglo-Saxon form of Heathenry. I had never heard the word "Heathenry" before, not with that meaning.
That weekend changed my life in many ways. It forced me to ask certain questions, questions which I am still struggling to answer. It brought me my first genuine mystical experience, undergoing a seidhr ritual by the campfire, diving deep into the roots of the World Tree. And it was the first time I was ever really forced to think about Odin in any context besides how much I loved his turn as Mr. Wednesday in Neil Gaiman's American Gods.
Alaric, being a Saxon Heathen, referred to Woden, the English cognate of the Norse god. But the Saxon names have never formed easily on my tongue; despite having a rich resource into Saxon Heathenry like Alaric at my disposal, I've always been called to the forms the gods took in Iceland, to the Old Norse tongue. To Odin. Óðinn.
"What you have to understand about Woden," said Alaric, "is that he has plans in mind, and they're bigger than you. And if you're part of his plans, that might not always turn out best for you. It will be best in the end, sure. But Woden never tells you the whole story."
It was a scary thought, the idea of a god whose plans were much bigger than yours. I had always thought of a relationship with a god as being a very individual, intimate thing. The language may be Christian, but it's not a solely Christian reflex: the desire for your own personal god, a deity who places your well-being at the top of her priorities. And to hear that Woden – Odin – was not that sort of god, was someone who might like you and care about you, but still was willing to use you if that would further his ends… That was a discomforting thought.
And yet…
When I first felt comfortable calling myself Heathen, several years later, I did not think much about Odin. I thought of myself as Thor's. I felt comfortable with him. When I went blindly into a Catholic midnight mass and felt nearly undone with fear, it was Thor who seemed to appear in the pew beside me, who calmed me with the warmth of his big, meaty hand. It was his hammer I wore around my neck; it was his hammer that I sanctified for my altar.
It's not that I ignored the Old Man; I gave him praise and offerings in thanks for the occasional sips he allotted me from the mead of poetry, and I looked to him for wisdom in the Havamal. But I thought of myself as Thor's man, even though I never took it upon myself to make that a formal bond.
It was just under a year ago now that I got the letter from the University of Missouri: I had been accepted into a PHD program at the only university I had seriously considered attending. I found out while on layover in Dallas between my home in St. Louis and the 2012 Pantheacon. I was overjoyed – I started jumping and weeping and laughing in the middle of the terminal. I could make it. I was the first person in my family to finish a bachelor's degree, and now I would go all the way.
Doctor Scott. To hell with the odds. I could beat them.
This was what I had always wanted.
The problem, I realized as I boarded the plane to San Jose, was that I wasn't sure I still wanted it.
This, you see, was to have been my farewell to the idea of graduate school. I had applied before, when I was still in my master's program; I hadn't been accepted. I applied again the next year, this time only to the school where I had done my master's; I had been told I was a shoo-in. That didn't work out either. I left the academy and thereby the plans I had made for my life. I went to work, and gradually, I got comfortable with that. I made okay money. I started to pay down my student loans. I had dinner with my family on Wednesday nights. I sent out the last round of applications on a lark; my test scores were all set to expire in 2013 anyway. I had planned on rejection. I hadn't planned on what I would do if I got in.
And then I got in.
I started dreaming about ravens a week after that. They were not pleasant dreams; the ravens chased me down the sidewalks and alleys of my adolescence, their eyes filled with vicious gleams and their beaks sharpened like daggers. Every night I found myself starring in a somnambulant remake of The Birds. I don't usually remember my dreams at all; I almost never have recurring nightmares. But this one kept reappearing. I kept waking up groggy and afraid.
I started to realize the details of the dream – the layout of the alleys and the streets, the landmarks, the buildings. I recognized the building where I went to high school – a loaded metaphor if there ever was one – and that's where I went. The ravens followed me, but inside the building, their character changed. They didn't attack. They watched.
They were waiting to see what I would do.
Even as I type this, it seems mad. You based your decision on whether to quit your job and move across the state on dreams of a Hitchcock cliché? Rationally, I don't accept this at all. You didn't make this decision because of a dream, my reason says. You were in a dead-end job and got a better offer. You took it. That's all.
But reason is such a small part of my soul. The rest frowns in wonder: who sent the ravens?
As if I couldn't tell.
What you have to understand, says Alaric, his voice a whisper in the folds of memory, is that he has plans in mind, and they're bigger than you.
I rebuilt my altar a little over a month ago. The night after I put it all together – nailed the pictures to the walls, arranged the statues and the tools the way I liked – I did an impromptu ritual. I simply meant to re-consecrate the altar itself, a sort of magickal stamp of completion. That was the intention.
Instead, I found myself swearing my life to Odin.
I had not expected to do this, and I fumbled through the ritual, searching for the words to properly express the terms of this bond. We came to an agreement. I offered him five years.
I felt anxious, terrified, excited, doomed. It felt like the day I left home, or the night I first made love. I don't want to make this sound like some heroic endeavor; it's only graduate school. It's not dragon-slaying. But I chose to sacrifice quite a lot for it: money, proximity to my family and my coven, any hope of "putting down roots." I traded those things for knowledge, for another few sips from the mead of poetry.
It's not quite the same as losing an eye. But yes, it will do.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Friday, November 14, 2014
Lady's Defence: Why the Pups Didn't Join Me at PetExpo
1) I did it as part of a day of fun with my sister. We went for lunch and did some other errands after. If the pups were with me, I wouldn't be able to have that fun.
2) It was a long drive away. It was in the South end of the city about an hour and a bit from our place. Most of you know that the car is very stressful for Phod and we do limited his rides (he needs very expensive meds that aren't that great for him to go in the car).
3) I wanted to enjoy the actual expo. While I believe Phod would have been well behaved, I can't say the same for Hailey. She does much better off leash in large groups like this. I tried to picture me with the two of them, I wouldn't have gotten to pick up one sample as I was dragged through the event. Perhaps if the Man wanted to come he could control Hailey better (I am not at all bitter that I do the bulk of the work with Hailey and she is better behaved for him, no not one bit). I don't think it would be as enjoyable with them.
That is my defence!
The terrible Lady who does nothing good with her pups!
Here are the faces of the hard done by:
18 comments:
Pawsome hard done by faces there dudes. Now show Lady the cold pay as well we say. Have a fabulous Friday.ReplyDelete
Best wishes Molly
I don't blame you for leaving them at home (guess I'm the bad guy now) because when you take dogs with you on a trip like that you have to make sure they are taken care of and don't get into any trouble.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 14, 2014 at 9:09 AM
I'm with Lee and Phod, but my mom said it was the right decision. It isn't the same when you spend a day with family or friends when you have to watch the dogs the whole time. Great that you had such a wonderful day :o)ReplyDelete
We can TELL by the HARD DONE BY Faces that you two are NOT buying those excuses..ReplyDelete
"THEY" were obviously having Fun... WRONG.
Butt in all honesty... our mom says SHE totally UNDERSTANDS... Not that HER opinion matters to anybuddy... IMPAWTANT. hehehehhehe
They are always filled with excuses. This one always tells us fibs tooReplyDelete
Lily & Edward
hey - you can be forgiven if you bought treats homesReplyDelete
Mom told me one time that sometimes parents have to make decisions that is not fun for us but the best so we understand.....as long as we get treats....treats are a must.ReplyDelete
stella rose
We agree with that whole treat thing...anything is ok as long as treats can be had!!ReplyDelete
Dory, Jakey, Arty & Bilbo
Hari OMReplyDelete
........ well... okay..... as long as there are a few extra hugs given out this very instant!!! (Phod, you are just too gorgeous!) Hugs and wagas, YAM-aunty xxx
We love those faces of indignation!
I don't blame you one bit for leaving them home! I took mine and it was so overwhelming!!ReplyDelete
Mom says she totally understands!ReplyDelete
Mr Bailey & Hazel
BOLOLOL!!!! Those faces!ReplyDelete
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
We hope she brought you back some treats!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 14, 2014 at 7:42 PM
Well they are sure express their unhappiness about staying home!ReplyDelete
The Mad Scots
For those reasons.....understandable!!!ReplyDelete
If you go to a Pet Expo without the doggies, it means you can concentrate on shopping for them and bringing home more treats.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 17, 2014 at 4:27 AM
I bet they laid on the guilt when you got home!ReplyDelete


text:
By Giyeon Kim
Dr. Mark Smith is a geriatric psychiatrist practicing in an outpatient clinic in Philadelphia. Several of his older adult Asian patients suffer from depression and anxiety. There is Mr. Chen, a 69-year-old Chinese immigrant who has lived in the United States for 36 years and speaks broken English; Mr. Yamamoto, a 74-year-old American-born Japanese who speaks only English; Mrs. Park, a 76-year-old Korean immigrant who has lived in the United States for 18 years but can't speak English well; and Mrs. Nguyen, a 67-year-old Vietnamese refugee who has lived in the United States for 37 years and is not fluent in English.
Even with his best efforts, Smith finds that his limited knowledge of diverse Asian cultures, plus an inability to communicate with his limited English–proficient patients, curtails how well he can provide culturally competent care.
Asian Americans are one of the fastest growing racial-ethnic minority population groups in the United States. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the Asian American older adult population has increased by 145 percent between 2000 and 2010, compared with a 59 percent increase among non-Hispanic white elders. Currently, there are more than 20 Asian American subgroups in the United States, with the largest older Asian American subgroups being Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.
Dr. Mark Smith is an invented character, used here to demonstrate the depth of diversity among Asian American patients. But many healthcare practitioners face the complexities of the above scenario—one that is common in clinical practices in modern-day America.
What Do We Know About Asian American Mental Health?
The best available scientific contribution on the mental health of ethnic minorities is the 2012 U.S.
Surgeon General's report, Mental Health: Culture, Race, and Ethni-city. Although this report addressed Asian American mental health issues, due to a lack of available research, older Asian Americans' mental health issues were not extensively discussed.
A general consensus on older Asian American mental health research has been that Asian American elders tend to have lower prevalence rates of mental disorders compared to other racial-ethnic groups. A 2012 study in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry (27(10): 1070–77) reported the lowest prevalence of serious psychological distress in the Asian group compared to other racial-ethnic elderly groups.
Another 2011 study comparing four racial-ethnic groups (non-Hispanic whites, African Americans, Latinos and Asians), published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry (19(5): 416–22), also reported Asians' lowest prevalence rates of mood and anxiety disorders from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV). While comparative studies provide useful information for understanding the current state of older Asian American mental health relative to other racial-ethnic groups, Asian ethnic subgroup differences are not considered.
Deconstructing Asian Subgroup Mental Health Status
There have been some recent efforts to deconstruct the mental health status of older Asian American subgroups. The limited existing studies consistently report significant variations in mental health status by ethnicity, but results are mixed. Using data drawn from the 2010 California Health Interview Survey, a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (58(10): 2003–08) compared five Asian American groups of elders (Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese) and found that Korean elders had the highest percentage of serious psychological distress (4.5 percent) and Japanese had the lowest percentage (0.3 percent) among the five subgroups.
Using data collected in New York, Asian American Elders in the Twenty-First Century (New York: Columbia University Press; 2008), also reported significant variations in mental health status among older Asian Americans. Older Japanese and Vietnamese were found to have higher levels of depressive symptoms, and older Filipinos and Koreans had lower levels of depressive symptoms. Previous studies by Kuo and Leong and Lau reported older Koreans had a higher level of depressive symptoms and more psychotic symptoms. Such inconsistent findings may be due in part to the use of different mental health−screening tools and varied geographical study locations, which suggests further research is needed.
Causes and Correlates ofPsychological Distress
In our recent analysis on psychological distress and its correlates among older Asian Americans, we found evidence that older Asian Americans' psychological distress differed significantly across five subgroups (Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese). Koreans had the highest level of serious psychological distress (7.9 percent) compared to Chinese (3.1 percent), Filipinos (4.2 percent), Japanese (1.2 percent) and Vietnamese (3.5 percent). We also found ethnic-specific correlates of psychological distress in older adult Asian American subgroups.
Disability was commonly connected to psychological distress in all five Asian American subgroups. But other correlates between ethnicity and psychological distress varied widely. For Chinese, higher educational attainment and lower income corresponded to psychological distress. For Filipinos, it was lower educational attainment and being a non-immigrant; for Koreans, lower educational attainment and a greater number of chronic diseases; and for Vietnamese, younger age, higher educational attainment and lower income. There were no ethnic-specific correlates found among older Japanese. Further investigation would help to understand the relation between potential confounding factors and psychological distress among diverse Asian American subgroups.
There is great heterogeneity of mental health status within the older Asian American groups. Researchers, clinicians and practitioners working with or serving older Asian Americans should understand that "Asian American" is a very diverse term—diverse in ethnicity, language, immigration history and culture. Each group needs to be treated separately, rather than as a single racial group, which can be misleading for decision-making in clinical practice and health policy. Clinicians may not be able to diagnose their elder Asian patients' diseases accurately if they don't understand their ethnic subgroup differences.
Clinicians can better serve older Asian patients if they have an accurate picture of the burden of mental health in specific Asian subgroups, as well as by providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services.
Giyeon Kim, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the Center for Mental Health and Aging and the Department of Psychology at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Editor's Note: This article appears in the January/February 2013 issue of Aging Today, ASA's bi-monthly newspaper covering issues in aging research, practice and policy nationwide. ASA members receive Aging Today as a member benefit; non-members may purchase subscriptions at our online store.
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Originally posted 2013-10-08 09:42:57.


text:
One of the great things about our nation is that every so often we get a chance to elect like valued people into public office. One of the not so great things is trying to sort their perceived values, from their true values and sort campaign rhetoric, from what are sometimes just outright lies. I don't necessarily choose a person solely on their faith, but a person's faith and how sincere they are in their following of that faith can help predict how a person will carry themselves once elected. After all, when the big decisions are made behind closed doors, only God will be watching and I want elected officials who care about what God thinks.
I wrote a post a while back titled Governor Gregoire – Catholic, Christian, or what? because her faith claims and her actions were not in sync. For instance, as a self proclaimed follower of the Catholic faith I would expect her to be pro-life, but her actions as Governor said different. If I had voted for her based on an assumption that she, as a Catholic, would be pro-life, I would be sorely disappointed.
So what of Barrack Obama? I think it's a stretch to believe some of the stories of Senator Obama being a secret "sleeper Muslim" based on his early childhood and his father's religious affiliations. I spent quite a few years in an LDS church growing up, yet I am not a Mormon. And his very loose affiliations with the Nation of Islam doesn't make him a Muslim either. Some would argue that even devout members of the Nation of Islam are not really Muslim. So, there really isn't much to traction for the secret Muslim conspiracy.
But is there anymore traction for believing that he is a Christian? You don't have to do much Googling to find those who treat him as if he were a messiah and he apparently has attended a Christian church for the past two decades and enjoys a strong relationship with his pastor; but is he a Christian? First, I'll admit that the ultimate answer to that question rests with Christ and certainly not I, but I do think we voters have a right to consider the state of a candidate's faith.
So continuing to consider the Christian faith of Barrack Obama, let's consider his words.
During a campaign stop yesterday in Greensboro, North Carolina, Senator Obama told the audience that he believes he "can have everlasting life" because Jesus Christ died for his sins. But he then told a questioner that he believes Jews and Muslims who live moral lives are just as much "children of God" as he is.
The Illinois Democrat added that his late mother didn't share his faith but was a kind and generous person, so he's "sure she's in heaven."
OK, I've considered his words and have one very gigantic concern. Mr. Obama is obviously claiming that he is a Christian and then following with several statements indicating that he really does not understand Christianity. In John 14:6 Christ said very plainly:
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
The tough love is that you don't get to heaven on kindness and generosity alone, you don't get there by being a "moral" Jew, nor a "moral" Muslim and of course you can't get there on roller skates. You must become a follower of Christ and you must choose to follow him on the narrow road.
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. "
Contradicting God's word, Senator Obama is claiming that the wide gate and the broad road, lead to heaven. It's my feeling that Sen. Obama is either using false doctrine to gain support in this election, or he is espousing false doctrine because he really doesn't understand Christianity. I prefer to believe it is his lack of understanding. And this seems quite likely given that his church of the last 20 years, Trinity United Church of Christ, seems confused as to whether they are joined by skin color or by faith in Christ. But if Sen. Obama and/or Rev. Wright are putting forth false doctrine for their own gain, then I pray they would take a glance at this small verse.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
(Mark 8:36 KJV)
And I hope that for the sake of those who look to them for leadership, that they would put Christ's full message at the forefront of their life and ministry.


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by WBSC Baseball Division, www.ibaf.org
TOKYO – Debuting in a two-game series at the Tokyo Dome against the top-ranked nation in the world, Europe recorded its historic first victory for the continent, defeating Japan 6-2.
Like in Game 1, Europe managed to get out of the gates early off Samurai Japan, tagging starter Takahiro Matsuba for back-to-back doubles in the second inning, authored by Italy's Mario Chiarini and Spain's Blake Ochoa, which put Europe up 2-0.
A towering three-run home run by the Netherlands' Yurendell De Caster in the bottom of the third gave Europe a 5-0 lead. (VIDEO: Decaster HR)
With the cushion, Europe starter Diegomar Marwell (Netherlands) kept Japan's bats quiet through three innings, only allowing three hits.
In the 5th, Tetsuto Yamada launched a solo home run and Yoshitomo Tsutsugo's RBI single cut Europe's lead to 5-3.
Europe manager Steve Janssen handed the ball to Germany's Luke Sommer, who pitched a clean 6th to 8th innings.
Dutch flamethrower Tom Stuifbergen pitched the final inning, using a 95 mph / 153 kmh fastball close out the game and register the save for Europe.
Sommer was credited with the win. Japan starter Matsuba took the loss.
The historic win for Europe follows the announcement by baseball's world governing body, WBSC, to establish Team Europe. Europe was immediately pitted against the world No. 1 Japanese National Team, "Samurai Japan", made up of top stars from Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). The majority of players on Japan's current roster were part of the Samurai selection that faced Team MLB in a best-of-five series, won by hosts Japan, last November.
Both WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari and NPB Commissioner Katsuhiko Kumazaki went down on the field Wednesday night to congratulate the European team, following their 6-2 win and two exciting contests in as many nights.
"These two games and this win send another message to the world that Europe can compete with anyone and that our sport is more global than ever," President Fraccari said.
Samurai Japan manager Hiroki Kokubo said, "We have to give them credit. They've come a long way and played the game at a high level."
"The victory was a historic one, as it was the debut of the multinational Team Europe," The Japan Times reported.
Head coach Janssen (Netherlands National Team manager) and bench coach Marco Mazzieri (Italy National Team manager) compiled a roster of 28 European players from six countries: (by world rank) No. 5 Netherlands, No. 11 Italy, No. 17 Spain, No. 18 Germany, No. 20 Czech Republic and No. 27 France. No. 39 Austria was also represented as part of Team Europe coaching staff.
Yokohama BayStars rising star Tsutsugoh, 23, was one of the bright spots for the Samurai in the series, collecting a pair of hits and RBIs. "I would like come up with positive results during the [NPB} season [that is] worthy of a Samurai Japan member," he said.
Over 44,000 people attended the historic matches, with an increase in attendance of approximately 2,000 more fans for Game 2, following Samurai Japan's thrilling 4-3 come-from-behind victory Tuesday night.
The two-game series was broadcast free-to-air nationally across Japan by the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS), while Eurosport 2 transmitted the games live to potentially 73 million households across more than 50 European nations.
Prior to the start of Game 2 there was a moment of silence to honor the victims and raise awareness of ongoing recovery efforts four years after the 11 March 2011 Tsunami devastated the Fukushima region.
NPB — the second highest-attended major sports league in the world in 2014 (approx. 23 million) and WBSC Associate Member — hosted the Europe versus Japan two-game series.
Umpires from the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL; WBSC Associate Member) officiated the two games.
Leading sports performance brand Asics backed Europe as the official kit sponsor.
In the two-game series, Japan outhit Europe 16 to 13. Japan played spotless defense with the glove, committing no errors on defense; while Europe also flashed the leather, executing a pickoff and making only one error on defense.


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Adalah, Democracy, Haifa Courts, Hassan Nadaf, Israeli Police, Jihad Abu Raya, Political Detention, Shabak
Hassan Was Freed on October 22
After 18 days under intensive interrogation by the Israeli Shabak, Hassan Nadaf was
released without indictment. He was put under house arrest for 10 day in the home of relatives in Ba'aneh in the Shaghour (in the middle of the Galilee). He was ordered not to enter Akka, his hometown, and to avoid surfing social networks, both for 30 days.
Below you can find the original post that was published in "Free Haifa" upon the news of Hassan's arrest.
The Original Post: Free Hassan Nadaf! How Hooded Shabak takes control of the Haifa court…
When the police invaded Hassan Nadaf's house in 'Akka, at about 16:00 on Monday, October 5, 2015, nobody was really surprised. Hassan, a 20 years old worker and a well-known political activist, had already been detained and interrogated several times, and his parents' house, where he lives, had already been searched before. Last time, on August 9, he was one of 8 youth detained after a demonstration in 'Akka against the burning alive of the Dawabsha family in Duma, and they were all beaten brutally in the 'Akka police offices before being held for several days and released without any charge.
More than 10 policemen entered the small house, most of them uniformed but some of them in plain clothes. Um Samer (Hassan's mother) requested to see a court order allowing them to search the house. They didn't have one but insisted on searching the house anyway, ignoring the quiet protest of the dwellers. They let the family understand that their visit was in response to something that Hassan had written on Facebook – a regular cause for interrogations in these days. They even said initially that they will interrogate Hassan at home – but then took him away. All in all, it was a relatively "polite search" – as far as this term can be applied when police invades your house without permission and search and take your private things. They took the home computer and a laptop, some posters, books and a Kufiya, the eternal symbol of Palestinian identity.
So it was a great surprise for everybody when Hassan's lawyer, Jihad Abu Raya, who went to see him the same day in the Jalameh detention center (officially known as "Kishon"), was told that he is held by the Shabak (Israel's secretive "internal security" services) and that he is prevented from meeting any lawyer.
It was an even greater surprise when today, Tuesday October 6, a police representative named "Marcel" presented a request to the Haifa court to extend Hassan's detention for another 15 days (the longest period he could legally ask for) on the accusation of "possessing arms!" Um Samer protested to the lawyers: "Not only did they not find any arms; they didn't even try to search for any! They only looked through Hassan's personal belongings, leaving the rest of the house intact…"
Adalah lawyers, Suhad Bishara and Myssana Morany, prepared a fast appeal against the decision preventing Hassan from meeting his lawyer and presented it to the Haifa district court at about the time that the remand hearings where supposed to start. The low court judge was ready to wait for the hearing of this appeal before holding the remand in Hassan's absence, but the state prosecutor office requested for time "to study the case" – so the appeal hearing was finally set for tomorrow, Wednesday, 8:30 am.
The "decision" itself, preventing Hassan from meeting a lawyer, a copy of it is published below, is the most revealing evidence of Israeli injustice when it comes to the oppression of Palestinian political activists, be it that they are in the "disputed" West Bank, Al-Quds "residents" or "semi-citizens" in the 1948 occupied territories. It is an order to the police, signed by "Lavi," supposedly the Shabak officer responsible for Hassan's investigation. In Israel, any official signature will require a first name and a last name, so that any person can know who exactly stands behind that order. But "Lavi" is none of these two. If you had any doubt about this – here comes the official stamp saying "Hamekhuneh Lavi" – or, in plain English, "so called Lavi"!!!
By claiming that if Hassan will meet a lawyer it might prevent the detention of other suspects or the confiscation of evidence, it actually assumes that any lawyer is likely to be engaged in illegal activity at the service of his clients. This works very well for the Shabak but it goes against all the modern concepts of due proceedings and it is not applied to Israeli murderers and rapist…
The remand hearings were another display of the annulment of any due process.
"Marcel," wearing jeans and T-shirt, announced that the court is closed and that the proceedings are secret. To the lawyer's request, he failed to show any official order to that purpose, but, speaking for the Shabak, he felt all-powerful. He didn't even turn to the Judge before ordering the guards to remove from the court all of Hassan friends, including his mother. Just before exiting, we heard the judge ordering the "Nakhshon" guards, those responsible for carrying around and harassing the detainees, to bring Hassan but let him stay out of the court room while the hearing of his case will take place.
We waited outside while the three lawyers stayed in, doing their best to defend Hassan's case without being able to talk with him or see the "secret evidence" that the police submitted to the judge. After some time, the lawyers were ordered to leave the court while Hassan was brought before the judge. Even eye-contact between the detainees and his lawyers is not allowed – all a part of the Shabak police tactic to isolate their victim, breaking his spirit by harsh conditions and torture, in order to force upon him false confessions.
In the end, we were informed that the judge remanded Hassan's detention for two days, apparently feeling uneasy about the brutal rape of her court by the Shabak.
* * *
Wednesday Evening, October 7
The Haifa district court reclaimed today his reputation as a rubber stamp for the Shabak.
In three separate hearings it:
- Accepted the prosecution's appeal for the "too short" extension of Hassan's detention – and ordered his detention for 8 days until Wednesday, October 14.
- Rejected 'Adalah's appeal against the order that prevents Hassan from meeting a lawyer.
- Imposed a wholesale GAG order preventing any publication about the case.
Friday, October 9
The decree that prevents Hassan from meeting a lawyer was extended until Saturday, October 10.
Place Holder
In order not to be in violation of the GAG order, the text of the post was replaced for some time with the following Place Holder:
What happened to Hassan Nadaf?
Was he kidnapped by Aliens?
Is he held by a secretive criminal gang?
We don't know and those that might know are not allowed to tell us…
What kind of a state is it that people are just vanishing and we are not even allowed to ask where they are???
(You can read more about Hassan Nadaf in Tikun Olam)


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Ryan provided us with a fantastic podcast this week to showcase the DJ he has become in the years he's spent on the island. In previous years he has currated the Red Box at Space with the Burlington Project (for We Love), and run parties with his Vitalik label. This year things have changed up a bit as he moves in to the main rooms to DJ, with an amazing Vitalik event on the 2nd September. Enjoy this short interview as we catch up with Ryan.
Thanks for the podcast! We loved it... could you just talk us through the mix?
Sure… The first track on the mix is a spotlight exclusive preview of the next track in the Vitalik gold series, a vinyl only project we have been working on. We kicked off the series with Jimmy Edgar and The Mole last month, this next one is from Franklin De Costa and is in my humble opinion.. spectacular. The mix is (without sounding too cliche) a bit of a journey… it starts off expansive then gets stripped back to the minimal soul of Darling Farah, into the sublime beats of Matthew Burton, followed by some unadulterated house joy from Maxi Mill and Genius Of Time, ltaking you into some epic Juno business from Xosar, followed by some weirdness from Jacob Sory and Peter Van Hoesen… rave from George Fitzgerald, then I finish off with something wonderful from Joy Orbison. It's not a club mix, it's stuff I like to listen to, music and producers that I am excited about at the moment, self indulgence basically, there is a nice dynamic to the mix though, I hope you enjoy it.
We did, thanks! You've been ever present over the years with your Burlington Project… what's happening with that now?
Well burlington project is in essence a website, a guide to good music and events, we are still bringing some of the more interesting figures in electronic music to peoples attention, little has changed except the development of the site. We do events also, which I guess is what you are referring to here. For the last 3 years we held court in the Red Box for We Love and we made the events an extension of what we try to do with the site… ie bringing interesting people in electronic music to a wider audience. We brought people like Wolf + Lamb, dOP, Appleblim, Levon Vincent +++ to Ibiza for the first time and the Red Box was the perfect testing ground for this. I think it will be hard to top what we did at Space so anything we do with burlington's events in Ibiza will have to be pretty forward thinking and different from anything that is going on here at the moment. We are looking at an option for this right now so watch this space.
How did the whole thing start up, I imagine your background helped?
I met some people in a brothel and they offered me a load of cash to make this happen, why not right?
Erm, fair enough. How does it feel to move into being a regular resident in the main rooms of Space?
It's amazing, I mean… it's funny because I have been in Ibiza for over a decade relatively quietly doing what I do. I have been part of the We Love family since we started doing Vitalik with them in 2006 so they know what I am about. I don't think it was until last year when I first played the terrace that they really thought it might be quite good to have me out there on a more regular basis. I am first and foremost a DJ and I think when you adopt different roles (ie promoter, label boss, editor) that can be overlooked, last year was a good opportunity for me to remind people how I got here in the first place. So yeah I am incredibly proud and joyous about the whole thing.. I mean it's perfect, serendipity, fate or design.. whatever, I feel very much at home.
Looking over the lineups for We Love this season, there are some massive gigs. Any highlights for you?
Well yeah, the line-up's are immense, the best so far for me personally, I take my hat of to Mark and Darren for that. Highlights, yes there are many but the 2nd of September is pretty huge for me, Vitalik will be hosting the terrace and the line-up is off the hook.. Carl Craig, Caribou vs Fourtet, Paul Woolford and me and jozif playing a back-to-back set. The last time we played together at Space we tore it up, it was a lot of fun…so we are very excited about this one, it's going to be good.
Cool, so update us on all the Vitalik goings on…
We have some amazing music on the way, I have literally just this moment confirmed a new release from Agnes, this is something I have been working on since he remixed our first release on Vitalik 3 years ago, it's one of my favorite releases to date and the music he has given us for the next release is outstanding so I am really pleased about that. We have the next in the Gold series coming up which you can hear on the podcast, there is a super deep remix from Anonym on that release too. We are also working on a really interesting edit project in the lead up to the Vitalik date at We Love, we will be teaming up with Pulse Radio and We Love and giving away edit's from jozif, Pezzner, Soulade, Franklin De Costa, Hugo Barrit, Paul Lorraine + more tbc. It's going to be a fun musical exercise, we already have some of the edits in and they are sounding really hot.
And finally for yourself, what does the future hold? Will you be releasing under any other aliases?
Ah! yes indeed, secret aliases…. top secret : )


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Sunday, February 27, 2011
Saw this guy crash at the Tour of Qatar
From the looks of it he has already crashed at the Tour down under and the Tour of Qater. I hope for all the other riders in the peloton that Cavendish learns to handle his bicycle.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Sunny Side lift, Mary Jane Mountain, Colorado
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GDSN is a collaborative effort between the UCC (Uniform Code Council), original overseers of product bar-code information, and EAN International, another international standards group.
The new network will implement XML to improve the interchange of product information among the various "data pools" used by retailers and manufacturers around the world, said David Garcia, vice president of marketing at Transora, one of GDSNs supply chain partners.
"You can think of a data pool as a database with additional applications around it," Garcia said in an interview.
Under the GDSN initiative, the data pools are translating information that might be received from suppliers and retailers in any of a number of formats—including XML, EDI and Microsoft Excel spreadsheet formats—into a common set of XML schema, said Bobby Patrick, senior vice president of marketing at Global eXchange Services (GXS).
The new GDSN registry—known as the GS1 Global Registry—was put into production Aug. 1 by EAN International.
Just prior to GDSNs launch, Transora, GXS and five other data pools successfully passed a "proof of concept" pilot that began in June. In the pilot, participants tested their translated data for interoperability with the directory as well as with other data pools.
But beyond these seven, some data pools that took part in the pilot did not pass the test, Patrick said.
Ultimately, data pools that comply with GDSNs specifications will be able to cut the surcharges customers now pay when data is sent to out-of-network data pools, according to Garcia. "The goal is to reduce the numbers of custom connections," he added.
GDSN participants are also eyeing easier inventory control through near-real-time database synchronization.
Transora will soon start testing GDSN with Wal-Mart and P&G, Garcia said. Other Transora customers include Kroger, Publix, Kraft, Unilever, Coca-Cola and Hormel Foods.
Beyond operating its own data pool in the United States, GXS also offers data pool technology and services to several other data pools worldwide.
GXS is looking at testing GDSN with ECCnet in Canada and with e.centre in the United Kingdom, and possibly with additional international partners, too, according to Patrick.
Other data pools that successfully passed this summers initial GDSN interoperability test included UCCnet, Sterling Commerce, bTrade Inc., CABASnet and the WorldWide Retail Exchange.
Be sure to add our eWEEK.com enterprise applications news feed to your RSS newsreader or My Yahoo page


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In a landmark decision on Friday that could have far-reaching implications for federal coal leasing, a U.S. District Court judge ruled against the expansion of Arch Coal's West Elk mine in Colorado for failure of federal regulators to consider the social cost of carbon in their environmental review.
The decision issued by Judge Jackson of the U.S. District Court in Colorado found that the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service overlooked the costs of carbon emissions from the mining and combustion operations associated with the mine's expansion even though the agencies acknowledged that expanding West Elk's operations would likely result in greater greenhouse gas emissions.
Friday's ruling is the result of a challenge brought by environmental groups contesting three agency decisions on the Colorado Roadless Rule and expansion of the West Elk mine in the Sunset Roadless Area. This region is a part of the treasured North Fork Valley backcountry in western Colorado which abuts the iconic West Elk Wilderness and is a destination for hikers and hunters and habitat for the threatened lynx.
The agencies' decisions would have permitted Arch Coal to expand the West Elk Mine into 1,700 acres of the Sunset Roadless Area, the bulldozing of six miles of road, and the construction almost 50 well pads for the venting of methane from the mine expansion. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and the second-most prevalent GHG emitted in the United States after carbon dioxide.
According to the decision, the BLM and Forest Service initially found that the social cost of carbon associated with the expansion could be as high as $984 million, but the agencies arbitrarily scrapped this analysis from the final environmental impact statement. However the associated benefits of the project were still included in the agencies' analysis. The court called this error "more than a mere flyspeck."
The ruling goes on to acknowledge that agencies are required to analyze the effects of their actions on climate change. The court noted that the BLM and Forest Service "acknowledged that there might be impacts from GHGs in the form of methane emitted from mining operations and from carbon dioxide resulting from combustion of coal produced," and "this reasonably foreseeable effect must be analyzed." The decision was issued just in time before Arch Coal's exploration activities were set to begin on July 1, and stops the expansion of the West Elk coal mine and any associated surface or below-ground activity, including bulldozing or construction, for now until the parties can agree on how to move forward.
Expanded coal leasing in the American West, particularly the coal-rich Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana, has been a hotly contested issue in recent years, with parties raising significant concerns over the climate effects of burning the coal mined in the region.
This court's decision reminds agencies to consider climate impacts when making decisions affecting federal lands.


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Once just a sleepy little resort town 28 mi (45 km) northwest of Madrid, San Lorenzo de El Escorial now hosts thousands of tourists coming in throngs to see the famous royal monastery. In addition to being home to an order of monks, this attraction also acts as a royal palace, museum and school.
Commissioned by King Felipe II as a testament to Spain's devout Catholic faith, El Escorial was built in the 16th century after defeating the French in the Battle of Saint Quentin (with help from the heavens).
The highlights of the immense complex include the elegant basilica, the marble Pantheon de los Reyes, where many kings and their relatives are buried, and the Patio de los Reyes, the entrance to the monument.


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Graham Farish is synonymous with British outline N gauge (1:148), until recently a family run business, they are now part of Bachmann Industries Europe.
One of the first things Bachmann did was to introduce a new chassis to most of the diesel locomotives; this features a new motor and flywheel drive system which has proved to be a large improvement over the earlier models. Although work on new steam chassis will take longer to introduce, careful assembly and improved quality control have made huge strides to them in terms of smoother running.