Falling through the Cracks: Deaf New Americans and Their Unsupported Educational Needs

Members of the Deaf New American community reported they arrived in the United States with no formal education, unable to read or write in their native language, and had zero fluency in English. Efforts to educate them have floundered, and the study aims to find out why and how to fix the problem. Interviews of eight Deaf New Americans yielded rich data that demonstrates how education policy in the form of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and other laws fail to address their needs, because these laws do not include them in their coverage. The study’s main findings are the deleterious effect of the home country’s failure to educate their Deaf citizens, America’s failure to provide accessible and effective instruction, and the combined effect of these institutional failures on the ability of Deaf New Americans to master English and find gainful employment. This article is an argument for a change in education policy that recognizes the unique nature of this community and provides for a role of Deaf educators in teaching Deaf New Americans.

Balancing Reproductive and Productive Responsibilities: Childcare Strategies Implemented by Migrant Mothers in the Thailand–Myanmar Border Region

Background: In Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, conflicts between ethnic minorities, the government, and the military have been ongoing for decades. Enduring unrest has caused thousands to flee to the region around Mae Sot, a city on Thailand’s western border. Women around the world assume a combination of reproductive and productive responsibilities, and during situations of armed conflict and displacement, conditions for women often worsen. This study investigated the parenting experiences of female migrants from Myanmar living in protracted refugee situations in Mae Sot. Methods: This research was part of a mixed-methods international comparative study on the experiences of parenting in adversity. In this analysis, 62 first-person qualitative narratives shared by migrant mothers in the Thailand–Myanmar border region were inductively analyzed using the Qualitative Analysis Guide of Leuven method. Results: The results highlight how migrant mothers undertake significant reproductive responsibilities, such as breastfeeding and child-rearing, as well as productive responsibilities, including paid labour in the agricultural, formal, and informal sectors. In order to care and provide for their families, female migrants in the Thailand–Myanmar border region utilized four childcare strategies: caring for children while working, caring for children instead of working, dispersing responsibilities amongst extended family members and children, and delegating reproductive responsibilities to formal and non-familial caretakers. Conclusions: Most mothers shared stories in which they or their immediate family members cared for their children, rather than depending on neighbours or formal childminders. Female migrants may face challenges locating desirable work that is compatible with childcare, rendering certain childcare arrangement strategies more prevalent than others. Further research could elucidate these challenges and how opportunities for gainful employment that are conducive to childcare can be generated for women living in protracted refugee situations.

Deriving Implications for Care Delivery in Parkinson’s Disease by Co-Diagnosing Caregivers as Invisible Patients

For persons with Parkinson’s disease, the loss of autonomy in daily life leads to a high level of dependency on relatives’ support. Such dependency strongly correlates with high levels of perceived stress and psychosocial burden in informal caregivers. Global developments, such as demographic change and the associated thinning infrastructure in rural areas cause a continuously growing need for medical and nursing care. However, this need is not being adequately met. The resulting care gap is being made up by unpaid or underpaid work of informal caregivers. The double burden of care work and gainful employment creates enormous health-related impairments of the informal caregivers, so that they eventually become invisible patients themselves. Expectedly, those invisible patients do not receive the best care, leading to a decrease in quality of life and, in the end, to worse care for PD patients. Suggested solutions to relieve relatives, such as moving the person affected by Parkinson’s to a nursing home, often do not meet the wishes of patients and informal caregivers, nor does it appear as a structural solution in the light of demographic change against an economic background. Rather, it requires the development, implementation and evaluation of new, holistic approaches to care that make invisible patients visible.

Legal Instruments to Support Borrowers (Consumers and Entrepreneurs) in Connection with the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland, and Vietnam

The COVID-19 pandemic restrictions introduced in 2020 in many countries on economic activity and gainful employment have in many cases, reduced the incomes of individual households. As a result, the actual ability to meet credit obligations has declined, particularly for those who have lost their jobs or livelihoods. The COVID-19 pandemic has become a significant challenge for economies, national authorities, and entrepreneurs, including borrowers. This article aims to analyse the legal regulations in Poland, and Vietnam, introducing instruments to support borrowers, consumers, and entrepreneurs, in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors will present the legal basis for the instruments to support borrowers provided in the studied countries, indicate their legal nature, forms, and conditions of using them. They also compare legal solutions introduced in connection with the pandemic aimed at mitigating its adverse effects on borrowers in Poland, and Vietnam, to indicate whether cultural differences and differences in legal systems, as well as individual approaches to the domestic credit market, affected the choice of legal instruments for supporting borrowers in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, or not.

Characteristics of people who died by suicide: record review of two and half years from the National Referral Hospital, Bhutan

Introduction To address the suicide issue in the country, the Royal Government of Bhutan implemented a three year suicide prevention action plan from 1st July 2015 to 30th June 2018. As part of that action plan a national suicide registry was established under the Ministry of Health in January 2016 to collect comprehensive national data on suicide. The purpose of this study is to generate national information on suicide by analysing the suicide cases investigated and reported to suicide registry by the Forensic Department during the first two and half years. Methodology The study is a descriptive, retrospective and quantitative analysis of the suicide cases investigated by the Forensic Department from 1st January 2016 to 30th June 2018. The variables included the characteristics of the suicide victims. Result Majority of the victims were young adults with no or low education and were either unemployed or employed with less income. 56.7% of the victims were women. Majority of them did not have physical illness or disability. About 45% had some form of mental health issues. Majority of them experienced some form of acute stressful event prior to committing suicide. Conclusion Improved socioeconomic conditions through gainful employment, easily accessible mental health services and social support networks as well as population with good social and emotional skills will contribute to prevention of suicide in the country.

Resonant Retiring? Experiences of Resonance in the Transition to Retirement

In the process of life course transitions, relations between the self and the world transform, which can according to Hartmut Rosa be framed as resonance. This article focuses on the retirement transition and thus on the exit from gainful employment as one of the central spheres of our world relationship in late modernity. It raises the following questions: How do experiences of resonance change in the course of the retirement transition? Does the loss of gainful employment lead to disruptions or even the absence of resonance in terms of alienation? And which role do dimensions of social inequality, such as gender, income, education or mental health status play for resonance transformations in the transition to retirement? In terms of a reflexive mixed-methods design, this article combines quantitative panel data from the German Ageing Survey (2008–17) with a qualitative longitudinal study from the project “Doing Retiring” (2017–21). Our results show that the transition from work to retirement entails a specific “resonance choreography” that comprises a phase of disaffection (lack of resonance) at the end of one’s working life followed by a liminal phase in which people search for intensified experiences of resonance. We outline practices in which transitioning subjects seek out resonance, and the experiences they make within this process according to their social positions. We thereby find that the desire for resonance tends to be beyond intentional resonance management which manifests in products and services like coaching or wellness. In our conclusions, we discuss how resonance theory and retirement research/life course research can be fruitfully combined, but also highlight the methodological challenges the operationalization of resonance entails.

Development of a theoretical framework for examining youth worker perspectives on their relationships with adolescents and emerging adults in the United States

It is important to understand how youth workers perceive their work with clients to support them in facilitating positive outcomes (e.g., gainful employment, academic achievement) for those they serve. There is a paucity of peer-reviewed research that explores youth workers’ perspectives on their social service practices in the United States despite their integral role in supporting positive adolescent and emerging adult development. This article discusses a theoretical framework founded on anthropology and social work paradigms. Researchers can use this theoretical framework to examine youth worker perspectives on building relationships with adolescents and emerging adults in the United States.

Raising the Bar in Disability Arts

This article discusses my pedagogical approach towards teaching dance, movement, and theatre to artists with cognitive disabilities. I have developed a training method for artists participating in my classes and productions that invites individual creative exploration and professional rigour. My inclusive dance-theatre company, Les Productions des pieds des mains, creates productions that are presented on professional artistic platforms and not limited to the context of disabled art presentations. Our productions are regularly subject to the same selection criteria as would be a non-inclusive company. With this in mind, I aim for excellence. I work towards creating high quality shows while helping artists with a disability push past their perceived limits and surpass themselves. In this article I will share my findings and strategies, perfected throughout my many years of experimentation, explaining how to reach a high-level of quality in inclusive productions, as well as how I help artists with a disability reach a level of quality in their performances which allows them to find gainful employment within the artistic domain.

Disability insurance benefit application in Switzerland: an analysis of linked administrative and survey data

Background The guiding principle of disability insurance in Switzerland is ‘rehabilitation before pension’. Access to rehabilitation measures to restore, maintain or improve the earning capacity of individuals with disabilities is essential. Gainful employment enables them to be an active part of society, improves their quality of life, and may mitigate the adverse health effects of disability pension receipt. The aim of this study was therefore to identify factors for disability insurance benefit application in Switzerland. Methods A novel dataset was created linking the 2010 Social Protection and Labour Market cross-section with administrative register data on disability insurance benefit application (2009–2018). Multiple logistic regression was employed to examine the associations between long-term health-related activity limitation, region of residence, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and disability insurance benefit application in adults aged 18–55 (N = 18,448). Sensitivity analysis based on age was performed in individuals aged 18 to retirement age and aged 25 to 55. Results The regression results showed higher odds of disability insurance benefit application for individuals suffering from long-term health-related activity limitations (OR 2.88; 95% CI 1.29–6.44; p-value 0.010); born outside of Switzerland (OR 1.75; 95% CI 1.32–2.32; p-value 0.000); living without a working partner (OR 1.54; 95% CI 1.17–2.02; p-value 0.002); living without a child aged 0–14 years (OR 1.70; 95% CI 1.29–2.26; p-value 0.000); aged 18–39 (OR 1.41; 95% CI 1.09–1.83; p-value 0.009); with a learnt occupation in ‘Manufacturing’ (OR 2.75; 95% CI 1.68–4.50; p-value 0.000), ‘Construction and mining’ (OR 2.03; 95% CI 1.13–3.66; p-value 0.018), ‘Trade and transport’ (OR 2.12; 95% CI 1.30–3.45; p-value 0.003), ‘Business and administration’ (OR 1.68; 95% CI 1.03–2.72; p-value 0.036), and ‘Health, teaching, culture and science’ (OR 1.55; 95% CI 1.05–2.29; p-value 0.026); and renters (OR 1.44; 95% CI 1.00–1.94; p-value 0.016). The results were robust to alternative samples defined by age – albeit with some differences in regional and learnt occupational patterns. Conclusions The results suggested that disability insurance benefit application is more than a health-related phenomenon in Switzerland. However, the results provided a less consistent picture on the role of marginalization in application than in other European countries.