Australian Journal of Social Issues最新文献

The Medical Treatment Planning and Decisions Act 2016 (Vic) is a step toward law reform to implement supported decision making and the rights of people with disabilities enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Act includes provisions to enable a person, who might otherwise be assessed as being without decision making capacity, to make an advance care directive with support. This case study explores the implementation of the Act through the experiences of a person with intellectual disability, their medical practitioner and supporter in making an advance care directive. The findings identify shortcomings of the Act that effectively exclude people with severe intellectual disabilities from supported decision making. They illustrate the need for greater institutional support for supported decision making and educational strategies for medical practitioners if the potential of the Act is to be realised for people with intellectual disabilities. Finally, the findings indicate the relevance of the La Trobe Support for Decision Making Practice Framework as a guide to decision support in this context.

Many policymakers assume that children's neighbourhoods shape their career trajectories, but the facts are otherwise. Challenges: (1) Because many children in poor postcodes have disadvantaged families, modelling the causal influence of neighbourhood socioeconomic status (SES) requires a comprehensive set of control variables measuring family background. (2) Adults can choose where to live, so dwelling in a high SES postcode is partially a consequence of occupational success, not a cause. Hence, we must focus on childhood postcode SES. (3) Random measurement error in postcode SES can bias estimates. Data: Large, representative national samples from the International Social Science Survey/Australia. OLS and structural equation models. Correlations between a person's childhood postcode SES and their education, adult occupational status (which robustly measures job quality, social status and permanent income) and family income are all modest, around r = .15. Net of family background (fathers' occupational status, fathers' class, mothers' employment, parents' culture, ethnicity, demographics and respondent's IQ) multivariate analyses show that growing up in a low SES postcode is only a slight disadvantage, which arises entirely because children there get about half a year less education than comparable children in high SES postcodes. Otherwise, there is no statistically significant childhood postcode disadvantage in career opportunities.

This paper reports on changes in the social-emotional well-being of 6- to 12-year-old children tested before the COVID-19 pandemic and during 2020 and 2021. Well-being was assessed using a video game that empowers children to report their own well-being, including school attachment, social and emotional well-being, behavioural conformity and family support. We compared well-being over time for two groups of children in government schools in Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania. The treatment group of 580 children were tested in 2019 (Time 1) and a second time in mid-late 2020 and early 2021 (Time 2). The comparison group of 841 children were tested twice before the pandemic. Results showed that children in the treatment group reported significantly lower family support at Time 2 than those in the comparison group. This reduction in perceived family support was stronger for girls. In addition, children in the treatment group who reported lower levels of family support at Time 1 reported a steeper decline in family support by Time 2. Finally, boys in the treatment group reported significantly better behavioural conformity and emotional well-being relative to girls over time. Results highlight the varied impacts of the pandemic lockdowns and the need to provide continued support to vulnerable families.

Contributing to a national policy reform intended to make meaningful advancements to the social and economic inclusion of disabled people, local government councils in NSW, Australia, have been required to have in place a Disability Inclusion Action Plan since 2017 under the Disability Inclusion Act of 2014. Five years on, this qualitative policy content analysis examined the key achievements promoted by 32 councils under the first generation of plans, and also identified where action has been limited. Councils were found to have invested significantly in making improvements to the built environment. Hosting accessible events and programs was also a commonly reported achievement, as was facilitating access to accessible information and technology. Councils took proactive roles in supporting and educating communities, business and their employees in inclusive practice. There were many achievements related to employment opportunities; however, these were generally narrow in expectation and impact, suggesting this was the area councils struggled with most. Councils also showed they were forecasting ahead, outlining consultative processes and policy changes, which would influence systemic improvements in accessibility and inclusion into the future. Councils have taken significant steps to advance the inclusion agenda; however, there remain areas where greater attention and support are required.

The arts remain largely absent from place-based policy, planning and programming in Australia, despite a long history of working in place-based ways to create positive social change in communities. This systematic review aimed to address this absence, by providing a synthesis of evidence about the role that place-based arts can play in advancing social equity and addressing social disadvantage. Findings reveal a potential for the arts to create change across individual, community and societal levels, yet empirical evidence to support this potential is weak. Stronger evaluation frameworks that can support capturing the impact of localised place-based arts initiatives for translation into policy and practice are discussed.