Employed Vocational Rehabilitation Applicants with Visual Disabilities: Factors Associated with Timely Service Delivery

2020 ◽  
Vol 114 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-42
Author(s):  
Adele Crudden ◽  
Zhen Sui ◽  
Emily Lund

Introduction: Employed applicants for vocational rehabilitation need timely services to improve the likelihood of their successful job retention or career advancement. Little research exists that examines timeliness of services among employed applicants, particularly for applicants with visual disabilities. This study investigated time from vocational rehabilitation application to a signed Individualized Plan for Emplolyment (IPE) for employed applicants with visual disabilities. Method: The sample of 5,096 competitively employed vocational rehabilitation applicants from the FY2015 RSA-911 report was combined with survey responses from 51 vocational rehabilitation agencies about services to persons with visual disabilities. Multilevel modeling was used to examine effects of state-level and individual-level characteristics and cross-level interactions on the length of waiting time from vocational rehabilitation application to signed IPE. Results: The time from application to IPE was shorter for employed applicants with visual disabilities who received services from separate vocational rehabilitation agencies compared to that of combined vocational rehabilitation agencies. Employed vocational rehabilitation applicants with visual disabilities waited longer if they were younger, non-White, or received disability benefits. Official job-retention policies in state vocational rehabilitation agencies appeared to reduce the delay of IPE implementation for persons with secondary disabilities, for applicants who received disability benefits, and for persons who worked more hours per week. Discussion: Additional research to determine how vocational rehabilitation can provide services to employed persons as soon as possible after application is indicated, particularly for persons applying to combined agencies. Implications for practitioners: Vocational rehabilitation providers should explore ways to expedite service delivery, particularly for persons who are younger, non-White, or receiving disability benefits. Implementing official vocational rehabilitation policies for addressing job-retention and career-advancement cases may be one avenue to expedite services to some employed applicants.

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fong Chan ◽  
Chia-Chiang Wang ◽  
Sandra Fitzgerald ◽  
Veronica Muller ◽  
Nicole Ditchman ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (12) ◽  
pp. 1590-1611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander H. Updegrove ◽  
Erin A. Orrick

Mexico exerts a unique influence on Texas through immigration. As immigrants bring perspectives from their country of origin when they immigrate, studying attitudes toward capital punishment in Mexico may provide insight into ways Mexican immigrants could affect its future practice in Texas. Multilevel modeling is used to examine individual- and state-level predictors of death penalty support among a nationally representative sample of Mexicans. Results indicate age and Catholic affiliation are associated with death penalty support, although not in the expected directions, whereas states bordering the United States are less likely to support capital punishment, despite experiencing less overall peace and a higher average homicide rate. Findings suggest the need for researchers to use culture-specific factors to predict death penalty support.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 2850-2874
Author(s):  
Alok Raj ◽  
Rupika Khanna

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to benchmarking the governance performance of Indian states. Design/methodology/approach This paper provides a framework to measure governance performance at the state level. Using the data on 28 key indicators, the authors evaluate Indian states on seven broad dimensions of governance quality covering several aspects of public service delivery, regulatory quality and law and order. The empirical methodology involves the application of multi-criteria decision making techniques in two steps. The authors, first develop suitable weights of the identified dimensions and criteria under each dimension by applying the inputs of an expert-based decision-panel in a best-worst framework. Next, using these weights, the authors evaluate ranking of each state using TOPSIS and PROMETHEE-II methods. Findings The results indicate wide disparities in the governance performance of Indian states. Based on different indicators, the paper evaluates the rank of all the major Indian states. Results reveal that “Social Service Delivery(S)” is the most influencing dimension for the development of a state. Overall, the authors find Andra Pradesh, NCT of Delhi and Goa to be the leading states in terms of governance quality. Research limitations/implications The paper provides policy makers with easy to use operational indicators to analyse the governance performance of Indian states. These would help in better monitoring of these states through competitive goal-setting for continuous improvement. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first formal assessment of governance quality in the Indian states in a multi-criteria framework. To this end, the paper addresses the issue of wide regional disparities in the country. The findings of the paper provide powerful insights to policy makers in setting up appropriate strategies to eliminate these disparities.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 1217-1243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Q. Gillion ◽  
Jonathan M. Ladd ◽  
Marc Meredith

This article argues that the modern American partisan gender gap – the tendency of men to identify more as Republicans and less as Democrats than women – emerged largely because of mass-level ideological party sorting. As the two major US political parties ideologically polarized at the elite level, the public gradually perceived this polarization and better sorted themselves into the parties that matched their policy preferences. Stable pre-existing policy differences between men and women caused this sorting to generate the modern US partisan gender gap. Because education is positively associated with awareness of elite party polarization, the partisan gender gap developed earlier and is consistently larger among those with college degrees. The study finds support for this argument from decades of American National Election Studies data and a new large dataset of decades of pooled individual-level Gallup survey responses.


2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. E13
Author(s):  
Catherine Veilleux ◽  
Nardin Samuel ◽  
Han Yan ◽  
Victoria Bass ◽  
Rabab Al-Shahrani ◽  
...  

OBJECTIVEAlthough the past decades have seen a steady increase of women in medicine in general, women continue to represent a minority of the physician-training staff and workforce in neurosurgery in Canada and worldwide. As such, the aim of this study was to analyze the experiences of women faculty practicing neurosurgery across Canada to better understand and address the factors contributing to this disparity.METHODSA historical, cross-sectional, and mixed-method analysis of survey responses was performed using survey results obtained from women attending neurosurgeons across Canada. A web-based survey platform was utilized to collect responses. Quantitative analyses were performed on the responses from the study questionnaire, including summary and comparative statistics. Qualitative analyses of free-text responses were performed using axial and open coding.RESULTSA total of 19 of 31 respondents (61.3%) completed the survey. Positive enabling factors for career success included supportive colleagues and work environment (52.6%); academic accomplishments, including publications and advanced degrees (36.8%); and advanced fellowship training (47.4%). Perceived barriers reported included inequalities with regard to career advancement opportunities (57.8%), conflicting professional and personal interests (57.8%), and lack of mentorship (36.8%). Quantitative analyses demonstrated emerging themes of an increased need for women mentors as well as support and recognition of the contributions to career advancement of personal and family-related factors.CONCLUSIONSThis study represents, to the authors’ knowledge, the first analysis of factors influencing career success and satisfaction in women neurosurgeons across Canada. This study highlights several key factors contributing to the low representation of women in neurosurgery and identifies specific actionable items that can be addressed by training programs and institutions. In particular, female mentorship, opportunities for career advancement, and increased recognition and integration of personal and professional roles were highlighted as areas for future intervention. These findings will provide a framework for addressing these factors and improving the recruitment and retention of females in this specialty.


2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 791-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikel Norris

AbstractExternal political efficacy, the belief that government is responsive to the demands of its citizens, has been declining in the United States since the 1960s. However, scholars do not yet fully understand the reasons for its decline. Nor have they found suitable explanations for why it fluctuates within the electorate. Drawing on the growing literature on the effects of income inequality on public policy, I posit that increasing income inequality factors into the decline of external political efficacy. Using multilevel regression models accounting for individual and contextual factors, I find increasing state-level income inequality has a substantial negative effect on external political efficacy. It is greater than most state and national-level economic measures or individual-level variables on external political efficacy. These results have important implications both for research on income inequality and political participation and also for research on income inequality and distributional public policy.


2021 ◽  
pp. 106591292110345
Author(s):  
Scott Radnitz

Conspiracy theories are playing an increasingly prominent role worldwide in both political rhetoric and popular belief. Previous research has emphasized the individual-level factors behind conspiracy belief but paid less attention to the role of elite framing, while focusing mostly on domestic political contexts. This study assesses the relative weight of official conspiracy claims and motivated biases in producing conspiracy beliefs, in two countries where identities other than partisanship are salient: Georgia and Kazakhstan. I report the results of a survey experiment that depicts a possible conspiracy and varies the content of official claims and relevant contextual details. The results show that motivated reasoning stemming from state-level geopolitical identities is strongly associated with higher conspiracy belief, whereas official claims have little effect on people’s perceptions of conspiracy. Respondents who exhibit higher conspiracy ideation are more likely to perceive a conspiracy but do not weight motivated biases or official claims differently from people with lower conspiratorial predispositions. The findings indicate the importance of (geopolitical) identities in shaping conspiracy beliefs and highlight some of the constraints facing elites who seek to benefit from the use of conspiracy claims.


2012 ◽  
pp. 1806-1823
Author(s):  
Hyun Jung Yun ◽  
Cynthia Opheim

This study examines the effects of states’ e-government efforts, more specifically the progress of e-service and e-democracy, on citizens’ general political engagement and electoral participation. Utilizing the combined data with the state level of West’s e-Government measures (2008) and the individual level of the 2008 American Election Study, this study finds a strong link between state sponsored efforts at e-Government and traditional forms of the public’s political participation. State sponsored digital services and outreach increase general political participation more than campaign activities, and the implementation of e-democracy has a greater effect on mobilization than e-service. The results imply that e-government has potential to ameliorate political exclusion by letting the politically disadvantaged access a higher quality of information with an equalized accessibility through state governments’ electronic systems.


Author(s):  
Hyun Jung Yun ◽  
Cynthia Opheim

This study examines the effects of states’ e-government efforts, more specifically the progress of e-service and e-democracy, on citizens’ general political engagement and electoral participation. Utilizing the combined data with the state level of West’s e-Government measures (2008) and the individual level of the 2008 American Election Study, this study finds a strong link between state sponsored efforts at e-Government and traditional forms of the public’s political participation. State sponsored digital services and outreach increase general political participation more than campaign activities, and the implementation of e-democracy has a greater effect on mobilization than e-service. The results imply that e-government has potential to ameliorate political exclusion by letting the politically disadvantaged access a higher quality of information with an equalized accessibility through state governments’ electronic systems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-66
Author(s):  
Nathan Mann ◽  
Ann Malarcher ◽  
Lei Zhang ◽  
Asma Shaikh ◽  
Jesse Thompson ◽  
...  

AbstractIntroductionThe duration of incoming quitline calls may serve as a crude proxy for the potential amount of reactive counseling provided.AimsTo explore whether call duration may be useful for monitoring quitline capacity and service delivery.MethodsUsing data on the duration of incoming quitline calls to 1-800-QUIT-NOW from 2012 through 2015, we examined national trends and state-level variation in average call duration. We estimated a regression model of average call duration as a function of total incoming calls, nationally and by state, controlling for confounders.ResultsFrom 2012 through 2015, average call duration was 11.4 min, nationally, and was 10 min or longer in 33 states. Average call duration was significantly correlated with quitline service provider. Higher incoming call volume was significantly associated with lower average call duration in 32 states and higher average call duration in five states (P-value <0.05). The relationship between call volume and call duration was not correlated with quitline service provider.ConclusionsVariation in average call duration across states likely reflects different service delivery models. Average call duration was associated with call volume in many states. Significant changes in call duration may highlight potential quitline capacity issues that warrant further investigation.


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