ZARAGOZA, Spain (AP) — Financially stricken Zaragoza signed Portugal striker Helder Postiga and Luis Garcia before the close of the transfer deadline.
The Spanish club says on Thursday it signed Postiga from Sporting Lisbon for the next three seasons while former Spain forward Garcia joins from rival Espanyol for the next three years.
Zaragoza also loaned …
President Barack Obama is asking America's G-20 trading partners to work closely him "to safeguard and strengthen the recovery" from the near collapse of the global economic system in the fall of 2008.
Looking ahead to the coming G-20 summit in Toronto, Obama noted that "significant weaknesses" linger among the major and developing economic powers. He says …
Methods for the economic evaluation of health care programmes Drummond M, Schulper M, Torrance G, O'Brien B and Stoddart G 3rd edition, Oxford University Press, 2005 ISBN: 019-852945-7. RRP $99.95. 350 pages
AS THE NAME SUGGESTS, Methods for the economic evaluation of health care programmes, third edition, is a recently updated and revised textbook that explores the various forms of economic evaluation - applied to the health care setting. However, at first glance, the title of this book could be slightly misleading. One might even mistake it for being yet another introductory text in health economics! Indeed, it is quite the contrary, as the authors have gone beyond merely …
Dozens of Iraqi orphans were awarded Iraqi citizenship certificates and official identification cards Friday after the government repeatedly turned down their requests for documents affirming their legal status.
Interior Minister Jawad Bolani presented the papers to 26 boys aged 5 to 12 years. They boys wore white shirts with the words "I am Iraqi" emblazoned in them. They were also given applications for Iraqi passports.
"We wanted to put a smile on the faces of these orphans who lost their families and subsequently were deprived of the right of Iraqi citizenship," Bolani said.
Sameer Jassim, a volunteer working in the …
Vietnam's economy is expected to grow 6.23 percent this year, the lowest level in nearly a decade, as the Southeast Asian country grapples with inflation of nearly 23 percent, the highest in nearly two decades, the government said Thursday.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said the global economic slowdown was to blame for the new figures, but pointed out that things could have been worse.
"Growth of 6.23 percent in 2008, which does not meet the National Assembly target, is still relatively high in the face of many difficulties," he was quoted as saying on a government Web site Wednesday.
The assembly recently revised its growth target …
Mayor Sawyer said Thursday he might withdraw his support ofAurelia Pucinski for Circuit Court clerk unless she drops off Sen.Paul Simon's delegate slate for the March primary.
Sawyer, a supporter of the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson's presidentialcandidacy, told the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board, "I think thatit would be prudent for her (Pucinski) not to be a Simon delegate."
Pucinski was noncommittal when asked whether she was committedto remaining on the Simon slate. "All this can be worked out,"Pucinski said. "I haven't had a chance to congratulate the mayor onhis election yet. I'd like to talk with him. I owe it to him totalk with him if it's a legitimate …
NEW YORK - To put on its massive production of "War and Peace," the Metropolitan Opera will need an army - or two - of extras.
Dozens of men responded to a call to audition Saturday at Good Shepherd-Faith Presbyterian Church in Manhattan to work as extras portraying soldiers in the Russian and French armies in the Met's upcoming production, composed by Sergei Prokofiev.
The epic opera promises to be one of the Met's largest productions in its history, requiring 1,200 costumes, 52 soloists in 68 singing parts, 118 choristers, 41 ballet dancers, about 250 …
Ichiro Suzuki hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the sixth inning and connected twice overall, and the Seattle Mariners rallied from four runs down to beat the Boston Red Sox, playing without a benched David Ortiz, 5-4 on Friday night.
Suzuki hit a solo shot for Seattle's first run in the fifth, then sent a 3-1 fastball from Jon Lester into the first row of seats beyond right field for his fourth two-homer game and first since July 30, 2005.
Ortiz was benched indefinitely a day after he went 0-for-7 and stranded 12 base runners in an extra-inning loss at the Los Angeles Angels. Ortiz has gone 144 at-bats since his last home run on Sept. 22 against Cleveland's Zach …
Mount Carmel's Scott Radosevich stole one from St. LaurenceMonday, but not without the Vikings' help.
Radosevich scored from first on a steal attempt to break a 4-alltie in the fifth inning as Mount Carmel (13-5, 4-1) overcame a 4-0deficit to beat St. Laurence 5-4 in a Catholic League crossover.
Radosevich reached on an error with one out. He stole secondand went to third when the throw went into center field. When St.Laurence misplayed the relay from the outfield, Radosevich scoredeasily.
St. Laurence (11-5, 4-1) took a 4-0 lead when Mike LaRusso hit atwo-run single and scored on Bill Claussen's single in the third.
Mount Carmel tied it in the …
TOP STORIES:
UN-MIDEAST
UNITED NATIONS — Mahmoud Abbas' bold bid for U.N recognition of Palestinian statehood is doomed to fail but has won him admiration at home and re-energized international efforts to seek a negotiated settlement. By Tarek El-Tablawy and Amy Teibel.
AP Photos, videos.
GLOBAL FINANCE
WASHINGTON — The European debt crisis threatening the global economy with recession kept finance ministers and central bankers busy seeking ways to reduce the risk of events tumbling out of their control. By Harry Dunphy and Gabriele Steinhauser.
GLOBAL FINANCE-EUROPE
WASHINGTON — Germany and several other eurozone nations are pushing for Greece to …
IBM Corp. spent $1.1 million on lobbying Congress and other government agencies in the fourth quarter, slightly more than what the technology company spent in the same quarter last year.
One focus of IBM's lobbying has been on legislation surrounding the rollout of "smart" power technologies, such as new meters that transmit data to utilities in real-time.
IBM helps utilities deploy those technologies for a fee. Those jobs require specialized technical experience and can carry high profit margins.
According to IBM's latest lobbying-disclosure form, which was filed with the House clerk's office, the company lobbied the House and Senate, the Department of Energy and other government agencies on legislation surrounding "smart" power grids.
IBM also lobbied Congress, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies regarding U.S. trade agreements and other issues involving international sales.
It lobbied the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Commerce and Congress about cybersecurity.
In the last three months of 2009, IBM made $4.8 billion in profit on $27.2 billion in revenue.
A top U.S. diplomat has urged Syria to do more to prevent arms shipments to the militant Lebanese Hezbollah and stem the flow of militants into Iraq.
Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman said while relations remain uneasy, Syria was important to achieving a full Arab-Israeli settlement.
He told reporters Thursday that Washington wants to influence Damascus because of its ties to Iran and other U.S. foes in the region.
Feltman said that because Syria has the ear of Hezbollah, Iran and the militant Palestinian Hamas, the Obama administration felt it must make its own views known to Damascus to ensure peace and security in the region.
Mixing isn't exactly the most titillating topic, but it is an essential operation in the chemical process industries. Not only that, but it also has a substantial impact on a manufacturer's bottom line. In 1993, a major U.S.-based chemical company estimated that the value of mixing to the firm was in excess of $25 million annually. A recently published handbook on industrial mixing ( see p. 47 for a review of the book) estimates the cost of poor mixing to be as high as 0 $0 100 million/yr.
Mixing equipment has matured over the years and is now in an evolutionary state. New developments in design and performance are being driven by the characteristics of the product being manufactured. Today, formulations are becoming increasingly complex and viscous, and where a product's fluid characteristics are essential to its functionality (e.g., sunscreen, liquid detergents and conditioners), the rheology can be highly intricate. "In these cases, it is often essential to apply much higher shear rates than those achievable in agitated vessels, which drives the industries towards rotor-stator and similar devices," says Michael Butcher, marketing director of BHR Group's Fluid Engineering Centre (Bedfordshire, U.K.; www.bhrgroup.com).
The distinguishing feature of a rotor-stator (R-S) mixer is a high-speed rotor in close proximity to a stator (Figure 1). Typical rotor tip speeds range from 10-50 m/s. They are also called high-shear devices because the local shear rate they can achieve in a vessel (20,000-100,000 1/s) is much greater than that which is possible by a mechanical agitator. Charles Ross & Son Co. (Hauppauge, NY; www.mixers.com) offers an ultra-high-shear inline R-S device called the MegaShear that can do everything from dispersion to disintegration of difficult solids, such as polymers and elastomers, converting them into submicron-sized particles in a single pass. As fluid enters the center of the stator, pumping vanes on the rotor, which spin at 55 m/s, accelerate the product through grooves in the respective parts, but in opposite directions, "the result being an opposed flow collision that imparts tremendous shear forces upon the product," says Doug Cohen, vice president of technical services at Ross.
A secondary trend is the goal of using a high-shear mixer to disperse a dry powder directly into the flow of a liquid, replacing older design concepts that relied on an additional pump to transport solids from the solids eductor to the mixer. "This is a critical issue because many powders are extremely hard to disperse efficiently, and conventional technology was prone to persistent clogging and slow induction rates, which always drove up cost while they drove down throughput," says Scott Anderson, IKAWorks' (Wilmington, NC; www.ikausa.com) technical services manager. The firm's multipurpose homogenizer and disperser, the MHD 2000 utilizes an auger and paddle in place of a venturi device to feed the solids into the mixing chamber at rates of up to 700 lb/min, while wetting out resins, polymers and other materials that have viscosities of up to several hundred thousand cP - a feature that is not feasible with vacuum-type systems. It also significantly reduces aeration of the product.
"Rotor-stator mixer technology has been refined as opposed to revolutionized over the last 10 years," says Arthur Etchells, III, a mixing consultant with DuPont Corp. (Wilmington, DE; www.dupont.com). "What has changed drastically is our understanding of its design and operation, mostly through a trial-and-error approach to process development and scaleup, because there is no fundamental basis for this mixer's performance," he continues. Bridging the gap are two consortia, BHR's Fluid Mixing Processes Research Consortium and the highshear mixing research program spearheaded by Richard Calabrese at the Univ. of Maryland (College Park, MD; www.umd.edu). Both have engaged in research and development to elucidate the complex hydrodynamic environment in R-S devices.
Gaining a deeper understanding
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has become an essential tool, along with conventional and new experimental techniques, in the conceptualization, scaleup and understanding of mixer performance. 'However, time-dependent mixing flows, coupled with complex geometry, bring uncertainty to the CFD predictions, especially for turbulent flows," says Calabrese. "Models that couple the local reaction and mixing processes allow the simulation of the spatial variations of concentrations due to mixing and diffusion and thus, the rates of chemical reaction."
CFD software companies have put more options into their packages to help users build a more realistic model of the flow field in the vessel. This includes the use of using velocity input from the outlet of the impeller obtained by techniques such as laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV). Particle image velocimetry (PIV) has evolved to be a powerful technique for 2D and 3D whole-field velocity measurements and is especially useful for examining instantaneous spatial shear rates, but it is not as accurate as LDV for time-averaged measurements.
CFD is touted as a helpful tool in vendors' efforts, as well. Once an agitator is designed at Chemineer, Inc. (Dayton, OH; www.chemineer.com), the file may be sent to a preprocessor that sets up all the required information for the CFD software, including the grid and boundary conditions. The output is standardized and sent to the agitator designer. "It has proven most beneficial when designing agitators for non-Newtonian fluids," says julian Fasano, director of engineering and development at Chemineer. David Dickey, senior consultant at MixTech, Inc. (Dayton, OH; www.mixtech. com), isn't as quick to praise the benefits of CFD. "With regard to high-shear applications, CFD has only been shown as a research tool for tracking flows in R-S mixers. Regardless of the sales pitches, it does not work well in multiphase, dispersed, or nonNewtonian fluids."
One challenge with CFD is often the lack of data to validate the results. "In such situations, analysts must count on engineering knowledge and ' experience," adds Victor AtiemoObeng, scientist, engineering and market development, Dow Chemical.
Designing around scaleup issues
Scaleup methods for batch and semibatch mixing systems have been modeled extensively. However characterization of the physical and chemical parameters of multiphase systems with complex reactants and interfacial phenomena is extremely difficult and may limit the usefulness of these correlations, especially for CFD simulation. "One of the most difficult aspects of scaleup in homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions is the prediction and control of byproduct distribution. "These byproducts may be negligible on the lab or pilot scale, but may increase upon scaleup to production. An increase of as little as 0.1-1% in the amount of a particular byproduct may not be acceptable when it cannot be adequately removed by downstream processing," says Etchells. These impurities may affect the physical form, particle size, downstream liquid-liquid separation or foaming tendency of the product.
"The problem is that when scaling up, people do not always recognize the critical factors involved in the basic process - e.g., proper heat and mass transfer, especially if fast reactions are occurring," Etchells continues.
In conventional emulsions processing, critical parameters, such as mixing energy, mixing time, and heating or cooling times, are not easily transferred from the laboratory to production. With Velocys, Inc.'s (Plain City, OH; www.velocys.com) microchannel emulsifier, which creates dispersions for the coatings, food, and cosmetics industries, these parameters remain constant for all scales of processing.
During operation, the discontinuous and continuous phases enter the device and flow in alternating microchannels measuring 250-5,000-�m in dia. (Figure 2). The discontinuous phase flows through a porous substrate aligned between the two flow channels and forms droplets less than 1,000 nm that are clipped by the continuous phase, creating the emulsion, which exits through one outlet port. The system operates at temperatures in the range of 80-200�C, and at low pressures. "An emulsion might be made at 50 psig, compared to 20 ,0 000 psig in a homogenizer," says Laura Suva, manager of business development at Velocys. Pressure drops are 10 -0 10 bar, with services up to 100 ,0 000 L/h.
A similar system was unveiled in 2003 by the Institute f�r Mikrotechnik Mainz GmbH (Germany; www.immmainz.de). Called the StarLaminator, it is a micromixer capable of handling flowrates of up to 300 L/h at a pressure loss of 12 bar. The complete unit, with dimensions of 45 � 25 � 30 mm^sup 3^, consists of a stack of 320-1,600 mixing foils measuring 50 �m thick. The foils have microchannels with three different patterns. With a careful choice of the sequence, both educts are fed alternately in thin layers to a central channel, where the streams merge to become thin fluid sheaths. Mixing occurs via diffusion through the sheaths, then by secondary turbulence, depending on process conditions.
Moving towards continuity
Where process conditions and scale of operation allow, there is a move towards inline continuous mixing and even chemical reactions, which would allow the ability to control the reacting environment much more closely, thus permitting higher mixing and heat removal rates, elevated operating pressures, and more successful scaleup. "It is a form of process intensification that often allows reaction routes not possible within the constraints of stirred tanks, and it also requires less space," says BHR's Butcher.
"In the fine chemical industry, most reaction chemistry is done in batch reactors, where scaleup usually requires multiple units and presents risks of batch inconsistency," says Irv Gruverman, CEO of Microfluidics, Inc. (Newton, MA; www.microfluidicscorp.com). The firm recently commercialized a multiple stream mixer/reactor (MMR), based on its microfluidizer platform, that continuously produces uniform nanoparticles using multiple reactant fluid streams in an ultraturbulent reaction zone. 'The MMR optimizes fast chemical reactions and can be scaled easily to commercial production without losing product quality, since the equipment geometry does not change," Gruverman continues.
Current applications include making nanosuspensions for intravenous delivery of pharmaceutical insoluble actives, high-purity metal oxides for the electronics industry and dings nanoencapsulated in polymers, according to Mimi Panagiotou, Microfluidics' director of R&D. "We built a prototype comprising two microfluidizers operating in parallel that delivers <1 L/min of product and expect to scale this system to 80 -0 10 L/min without difficulty," she says.
Multiple reactant streams are fed in stoichiometric ratios at up to 400 ,0 000 psi through a pencil-eraser-sized channel within the mixing chamber. Flow is directed into nanometer-length inlet channels (0.01-0.05 cm^sup 2^), where fluid velocities of 30 -0 30 m/sec are reached and maintained for tens of milliseconds, creating a small amount of microcrystalline product nuclei to seed the reaction. The streams enter a second set of narrower channels (0.0001-0.001 cm^sup 2^) at 80-300 m/sec and mix for a few milliseconds before being released to a relatively large exit channel.
Depending on optimum conditions for a reaction, the geometry features macro-, meso-, and micromixing regimes (Figure 3). In the case of a very fast reaction, the degree of micromixing is maximized, generating energy dissipation values on the order of 10^sup 8^-10^sup 10^ W/kg, "far greater than that achieved near the impeller in any stirred tank reactor, homogenizer or R-S mixers," says Gruverman. The products are nanoparticles in the 10-100 nm size range, and can usually be held within 0 �0 100 %0 of the target particle size.
Shifting expertise
Many vendors and users acknowledge a downward trend in new products and services, in part due to mergers and acquisitions, such as the recent unification of Bran+Luebbe, Lightnin and Waukesha Cherry-Burrell to create SPX Process Equipment, Inc. (Delavan, WI www.spxprocessequipment.com), and Sulzer Chemtech's (Winterthur, Switzerland; www.sulzerchemtech. com) purchase of the mixer business of Koch-Glitsch. Users have cut their own engineering staffs, and now rely more on vendors or consultants to handle processing issues that in the past would have been handled inhouse. "Ten years ago, we had ten inhouse mixing experts. Today we have two," says I-Hwa Midey ChangMateu, director of coatings process technology at Rohm & Haas Co. (Philadelphia, PA; www.rohmhaas. com). "Much of the capital budget has been allocated to addressing security concerns," she adds.
Furthermore, with the large decline in sales for mixers in the past few years, vendors have reduced, or even eliminated, research in mixer technology. Consequently, says Shaffiq Jaffer, senior engineer and mixing specialist for Procter and Gamble's (P&G;West Chester, OH; www.pg.com) corporate engineering technical laboratories, some users are becoming more of the expert on the mixing equipment than the vendors from whom it was purchased. "A large part of being successful in developing new processes for existing hardware is leveraging external capability - linking up with consortia and academia," he says. 'When it comes to allocating resources, mixing equipment R&D is not a priority. At P&G, it accounts for much less than 1% of the R&D budget (which is 3-5% of the outside sales)."
Against this backdrop, mixing equipment design has gone beyond mechanical and costing considerations, with the primary objective being how best to achieve the key mixing process objectives, says Edward Paul, a mixing expert who recently retired from Merck & Co. (Rahway, NJ; www.merck.com).
Growing markets
In the pharmaceutical industry, impinging jets mixer/crystallizer technology has come of age. Merck holds the original patent for crystallization of pharmaceuticals using an impingingjets mixer, where reactants in a solvent precipitate are mixed with an anti-solvent (or non-solvent) via the collision of opposed jet streams to achieve a particle size of ~5-20 �m. "Intense micromixing and high supersaturation is responsible for the rapid crystallization of monodisperse micron sized particles, which exhibit improved bioavailability and stability," says Merck's Brian Johnson, who is responsible for the scaleup of processes that make pharmaceutical ingredients. Merck, which also patented the production equipment, is currently using the technology for the production of a commercial drug product.
In 2003, Pfizer patented the use of impinging jets for a reactive crystallization where two streams react in a rapid mixer and then crystallize to produce the pharmaceutical. To avoid infringement on Merck's intellectual property in future inventions, Pfizer has applied for a patent on an impinging plate device.
Meanwhile, Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (Princeton, NJ; www.bms.com) recently patented a technology for creating submicron crystals of a drug that involves two impinging liquid jets are positioned within a flask that is sonicated near the jet-impingement point by a 20-kHz probe. The ultrasound is claimed to enhance the mixing process and promote the formation of crystals smaller than that which is possible with the impinging jets alone.
Over the last five years, Robert Prudhomme, a Univ. of Princeton researcher, and Johnson have developed a process they call Flash Nanoprecipitation, where rapid mixing of reactant streams containing colloidal stabilizers is performed in an analytical, confined impinging jets (CIJ) mixer to produce nanoparticles of pharmaceutical agents. The system, which has been qualified, requires a mixing time well below 100 ms for ideal nanoparticle formation. "We have quantitatively shown that the time for mixing should be less than the time for precipitation, for optimum performance - hence, the need for specialty designed high intensity mixers to produce uniform and small particles," says Johnson.
In the plastics industry, manufacturers have sought to improve the properties of commodity plastics by mixing them with another plastic or additive. "A shortcoming of existing mixing technology is that only a limited variety of blend morphologies are producible at low compositions of a property modifier," says Dave Zumbrunnen, professor of mechanical engineering at Clemson Univ. (SC; www.clemson.edu). To overcome this, Zumbrunnen and a team of researchers at Clemson developed a continuous blending device called the SmartB lender, which produces polymer blends with novel properties by folding the two melts together, rather than by distributing one evenly throughout the other.
The device uses a principle of fluid dynamics known as chaotic advection to repeatedly fold a masterbatch or other component into a matrix polymer, forming a variety of controlled and repeatable polymer morphologies, from layers, ribbons and platelets to spongy interpenetrating structures. In a typical run, material is fed by two 0.75-in.-dia. single-screw extruders into a crosshead die from opposite ends and into a distribution head. The matrix material passes through a single central port, while the secondary resin or masterbatch goes through nine small ports arranged in a circle around the central one.
From the distribution head, the material enters a cylindrical blending chamber containing two 22-mm-dia. stirring rods that are programmed for a sequence of speed and/or directional changes -i.e., they take turns spinning three times faster than the other for a specific number of turns. Changing the rod rotation protocol can produce blends of differing morphologies without any type of equipment modification.
Clemson researchers have used the technology "to produce sponge-like blends of immiscible polymers, such as polypropylene (PP) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) over broader compositional ranges (e.g., 70%:30% by vol.) than are achievable with conventional compounding equipment, yielding morphologies that improve PP's normally poor cold impact strength," he says. In this case, chaotic advection stretches and folds thinner and thinner layers of LDPE in the PP matrix. After repeated layering, the LDPE layers become so thin, they eventually rupture, letting the PP flow through the holes in the LDPE. Holes also form in the PP layers, creating a fibrous spongy structure out of the suffer PP.
Zumbrunnen says that the team is now performing developmental work with plastics for specific clients, extruding these materials into films and sheets for companies to test in their own labs. At least one machine supplier has been selected to produce commercial-scale equipment, and more agreements are expected in the near future.
Polling places A look at Nokia Sugar Bowl foes West Virginia andGeorgia in the Associated Press football weekly polls this season(the final poll is voted by writers and broadcasters after thenational championship Rose Bowl): Week WVU UGa Preseason 13Sept. 4 9 Sept. 11 7 Sept. 18 7 Sept. 25 7 Oct. 25 Oct. 9 5 Oct. 16 20 4 Oct. 23 18 4 Oct. 30 18 11Nov. 6 16 9 Nov. 13 13 14 Nov. 20 12 13 Nov. 27 12 13
War with Iraq was narrowly averted in February and althoughthere is compliance with United Nations Security Council inspections,a report published today says military conflict remains apossibility.
"There is light at the end of the tunnel, provided we can solvethe mystery" of Iraq's weapons, chief UN weapons inspector RichardButler, the report's author, said Monday at a lecture and discussionsponsored by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations at the DrakeHotel in Oak Brook.
"If Iraq gives us total cooperation, this would be over withinthe 1998 calendar year," the Australian native said.Butler credited UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan with avertingwar between Iraq and the United States."We were on the brink of war over access and now we haveaccess," Butler said. "We have four subsequent visits due to theaccord. Diplomacy backed up with force worked especially well. Icredit the secretary-general. The man is truly remarkable."Iraq was six months away from making sophisticated nuclearexplosive devices, but the facilities used for production are nowbeing monitored and it would take more than four years to re-arm,Butler said."The field of biological weapons is something of a black hole,"Butler added. "Iraq has never given an adequate account of itscapabilities, production or holdings. They spent the first fouryears in absolute denial. Two weeks ago our experts concluded Iraq'sdeclaration was not credible. What remains to be accounted for isserious."
Greece may see its credit rating downgraded further within a month, a leading credit ratings agency says, as much of the country went on strike to protest against upcoming austerity measures.
Standard & Poor's, one of the world's leading three credit ratings agency, said Wednesday it is maintaining its rating on the country's debt but that it is vulnerable to a downgrade over the coming month _ which would make it more difficult and more expensive for Greece to borrow in the international money markets.
The Greek government has pledged to reduce the country's borrowing but is meeting resistance from many quarters in the country.
DuPage County officials on Tuesday agreed to begin work on a $15.6million highway underpass they say is needed to end safety problemsand traffic congestion at a busy rail crossing in Wheaton.
About 30,000 cars and trucks cross the Union Pacific RR tracksevery day at County Farm Road, and 120 trains cross the four-lanehighway daily.
The project would route cars under the crossing, eliminatingsafety problems that have contributed to 24 accidents in the lastnine years, board members said.
While most of the accidents have involved crashes with othervehicles or crossing gates rather than trains, board members said thecrossing remains a trouble spot.
"We shouldn't wait until we have a tragedy," said board memberWilliam Maio.
The board agreed unanimously to begin acquiring land for theproject, which is expected to require buying or condemning nine homeson County Farm Road just north of the tracks. The project could takefour years to complete.
State grants could pay for as much as 60 percent of the work,officials said.
Putnam class to aid
small business
A "Going Into Business in West Virginia and Financing a SmallBusiness" workshop will be offered Friday in Putnam County.
The workshop will be from 9 a.m. to noon at the Putnam CountyChamber of Commerce, 5664 W.Va. 34, Winfield. The fee is $10 perperson. For more information, call the chamber, 757-6510.
Service firm chief
speaking at WVU
W. Robert Grafton, managing partner and chief executive ofAndersen Worldwide, will speak about "The Changing BusinessEnvironment" Friday in Morgantown.
Grafton will speak at 3:30 p.m. in Room 459 of the Business andEconomics Building on the West Virginia University campus. Graftonis a graduate of the WVU College of Business and Economics. AndersenWorldwide is the largest professional services firm in the UnitedStates.
For more information, call Gordon Haggett, 293-8888.
Library highlights
marketing research
"To Market, To Market," a business breakfast program highlightingthe market research materials in the Charleston Library, will beheld on the library's third floor from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Thursday.
The program will include demonstrations of online databases andprint materials about the collection. The event is free and open tothe public.
COMPILED BY
GEORGE HOHMANN
Within two weeks of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck the Caribbean island nation of Haiti on January 12, elements from the active Army, Army National Guard and Army Reserve were dedicated to the relief mission - called Operation Unified Response. More than 17,000 U.S. military personnel were headquartered in and around Haiti's capital city of Port-au-Prince.
The XVIII Airborne Corps Headquarters deployed a liaison team to U.S. Southern Command on January 13 to help plan the relief effort. A team from the Army's Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, Fort Eustis, Va., arrived in Haiti the next day. U.S. Army South's 470th Military Intelligence Brigade deployed teams to assist in relief and sustainment support. Paratroopers from 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, deployed January 14 and were among the first soldiers on the ground to help establish security and distribute food and water. The 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, established a staging area near a golf course southeast of the capital city; in one day, they handed out more than 15,000 bottles of water and 4,000 meals ready to eat. Some 3,000 paratroopers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, distributed food and water and enforced security.
T he 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, landed on the lawn of the devastated presidential palace, one of the few safe landing areas in Port-au-Prince, and secured the hospital about five minutes away.
The 478th Civil Affairs Battalion, which includes Creole-speaking soldiers trained in foreign humanitarianassistance operations, provided a critical link to local civil authorities. The Miami-based team is part of the U.S. Army Reserve Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne).
Three landing craft utility vessels (LCUs) from the 97th Transportation Company (Heavy Boat), part of the 7th Sustainment Brigade, 3rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), from Fort Eustis, diverted from a training mission off Florida to join the relief effort. The LCUs provided heavy-lift vehicles and a water-purification unit from the 49th Quartermaster Group at Fort Lee, Va., to assist in port-opening operations in Port-au-Prince. A tug with barge derrick crane from the 7th Sustainment Brigade was also diverted from training to help in Haiti, and a logistics support vessel was scheduled to deliver supplies.
The 244th Aviation Brigade, headquartered at Fort Dix, N.J., deployed 300 soldiers, nine CH-47 Chinook helicopters and four UH-60 Black Hawks to distribute supplies. The 196th Transportation Company, 143rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, an Army Reserve unit from Orlando, FIa., transported some 300,000 pounds of food aid to Miami for shipment to Haiti. The Army Reserve had called upon aviation, water purification, port operations and medical capabilities to support the operation, and it mobilized boat units capable of landing supplies on unimproved beaches.
As of late January, three UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and 13 personnel of the Puerto Rico Army National Guard were airlifting water and rescue equipment, evacuating casualties and moving personnel in Haiti. Additional Army National Guard assets, including an aviation company, were prepared to deploy if needed.
[Sidebar]
Above, the January 12, 7.0-magnitude earthquake reduced houses in Port-auPrince, capital of the Caribbean island nation of Haiti, to rubble. Left, landing craft utility vessel Aldie, loaded with a water purification unit and Army lift vehicles, docks January 16, in Port-auPrince. Below, soldiers in Port-auPrince load water and humanitarian supplies onto an MH-60S Seahawk helicopter for distribution.
Above, soldiers from 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C., assigned to assist Haitian relief effons, arrive in Port-au-Prince. Below, workers from 3/405th Army Field Support Brigade, Camp Darby, Italy, load shipments of humanitarian aid supplies, including water bladders and purification units, for transport to Haiti.
CPT Mark Poirier, a medical officer with 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, examines a baby brought to the squadron's forward operating base in Port-au-Prince.
[Sidebar]
Right, U.S. Army and Haitian soldiers load patients aboard an MH-60S Knighihawk helicopter for transport to the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship anchored off Port-auPrince. Below (left), CPT Jon Hartsock, 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, oversees food and water distribution in Port-au-Prince. Below (right), SSG Junior Florestal, a native of Haiti with the 82nd Airborne Division, offers a drink of water to a woman at the squadron's medic station.
[Sidebar]
SPC Brent Nailor, 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, distributes prepared meals. A tent camp near the squadron's forward operating base sheltered thousands of earthquake survivors.
Hi Lo Otlk
Anchorage 28 24 Snow
Baltimore 51 33 Clr
Boston 49 33 Clr
Chicago 44 31 PCldy
Dallas-Ft Worth 62 43 PCldy
Denver 24 07 Snow
Detroit 41 30 PCldy
Honolulu 83 69 PCldy
Houston 72 55 PCldy
Indianapolis 45 29 Clr
Kansas City 46 24 PCldy
Las Vegas 54 41 Clr
Little Rock 56 33 Clr
Los Angeles 68 48 PCldy
Memphis 54 33 Clr
Miami Beach 74 64 PCldy
Milwaukee 44 29 Cldy
Nashville 56 31 Clr
New Orleans 65 47 Clr
New York City 51 38 Clr
Oklahoma City 55 33 Cldy
Orlando 71 52 Clr
Phoenix 64 45 Cldy
St Louis 52 32 Clr
Salt Lake City 36 20 Clr
San Diego 66 51 PCldy
San Francisco 62 42 Clr
Seattle 43 32 Clr
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgaria's government is proposing a total ban on smoking from next June in indoor public places, after earlier attempts failed due to strong opposition from restaurant owners.
The ban, which has to be approved by parliament, could also prove unpopular among ordinary Bulgarians, at least 40 percent of whom are believed to smoke.
Bulgaria's smoky restaurants and cafes are at the heart of the social life in this traditional tobacco-growing European Union country of 7.3 million.
Many owners of such establishments fear the new ban will scare away customers and ruin their businesses, already struggling because of the economic slowdown.
Owners of Sidekick phones may have lost all the personal data they stored on the phone, including contact numbers.
The phones are made by a Microsoft Corp. subsidiary and sold by T-Mobile USA, which say many Sidekick owners' information is "almost certainly" gone after a failure of servers operated by Microsoft wiped the data out. The companies said they hoped to update customers on recovery efforts Monday.
The phones have been troubled by data outages for more than a week. Some users attempted to restart their phones by removing the battery, which erases data on the device. Normally, the data is then restored from servers, but with the server data gone, the device is left empty.
Because of that, customers are being advised not to let the battery completely run down either.
It's not clear how many customers have been affected, or how many Sidekicks are in operation. The phone has never been a huge seller, but it's very popular among young, urban customers, and it has had a certain cachet as a celebrity phone. Most famously, Paris Hilton used a Sidekick. Users have appreciated its large QWERTY keyboard for text messaging, a feature now copied by mainstream phones.
Microsoft bought Danger Inc., the maker of the Sidekick, last year in an attempt to revitalize its "smart" phone software portfolio.
Much of the literature on worker-client boundaries in clinical practice is based on assumptions that the relationship between the two parties is structured and formal. These assumptions do not always apply in community-based case management practice, where the worker and client interact in a wide variety of settings and circumstances. The relative informality of case management makes the establishment of appropriate worker-client boundaries both critical and difficult. In this article key principles for recognizing and managing boundary issues are presented and discussed.
In community-based case management practice with persons having mental illness, the worker and client interact in a variety of settings such as fast food restaurants, the client's home, grocery stores, laundromats, parks, job sites, and recreational settings. The case manager often develops relationships with the client's friends, family members, landlords, employers, and other helping professionals. The scope and intensity of intervention challenges the case manager's ability to develop appropriate working relationships with clients. Considering relationship issues from the perspective of boundaries provides an important source of guidance for the case manager. This concept is most fully developed in the psychology literature. Other professionals are familiar with the concept, but do not always appreciate that attention to boundary issues can help them negotiate clear and consistent relationships with clients, their significant others, and members of interprofessional teams. In this article the author presents and reviews principles for managing interpersonal boundaries in case management practice.
BOUNDARIES IN CASE MANAGER/ CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS
Boundaries can be understood as the assumed, and generally unspoken, rules that we internalize about the physical and emotional limits of our relationships with other people and groups. They protect our privacy and reflect our individuality. Through boundaries we organize our social worlds and communicate our positions within them. We differentially construct boundaries to facilitate our desire to be close to, or separate from, others. We open and close them to control the flow of our interactions. Each person's boundaries are unique; we covertly communicate them to suit our assumptions and intentions about particular relationships.
Curtis and Hodge (1994) state that, "if community workers are not facing relationship boundary issues in their daily work, they are probably not doing their jobs most effectively" (p. 341). The nature of community based case management, with the worker providing services in the client's territories, ensures that boundary dilemmas frequently develop. Still, as indicated in two research studies, case managers do not often focus on them. In their review of a pioneering community case management program, Diamond and Wikler (1985) observed that case managers did not ordinarily view their work as raising significant ethical issues, and that they did not see extended discussion of ethical concerns to be a good use of their time. Case managers tended to be more active than reflective. In a more recent study (Fisk, Rakfeldt, Heffernan, & Rowe, 1999), ethical issues related to worker-client boundaries were still not a routine topic of reflection among case managers. Staff did not want to be perceived as resisting program procedures or as inept. Still, when asked, case managers readily admit to frequent boundary dilemmas (Perkins, Hudson, Gray, & Stewart, 1998). The possibility that such issues are common and yet not confronted in supervision seems dangerous for both clients and case managers.
Case managers often participate in a broad range of their clients' life activities. They need to be careful in developing interpersonal boundaries and deciding when they can be crossed. When these issues are openly addressed, and boundaries are consistently negotiated, clients are more willing to participate in the helping process. Mutually understood boundaries provide for both clients and case managers an appropriate sense of control, power, protection, and selfdetermination. Any case manager's actions perceived by clients to be violations of interpersonal boundaries, intentional or not, may have negative consequences for the intervention. Clients may feel exploited, angry, and lose their trust in the worker (Gutheil & Gabbard, 1998). In extreme circumstances, boundary violations can have legal consequences for the worker.
Boundaries include rules about the following aspects of relationships:
* Contact time. How much time is appropriate for me to spend in the company of the other person? Will this vary depending on whether that time is spent face to face, on the phone, on-line, or otherwise? On the time of day, day of the week, or time of the year? On the purpose of the contact?
* Types of information to be shared. What is the appropriate range of topics for me to discuss with the person? Will it be limited to job topics or social topics? What about politics, religion, and sex? How much depth can I be expected to provide about these topics?
* Physical closeness when together. What are my expectations about personal space when in the person's company? How closely will I sit with him or her? Can she look me in the eye? Can he touch me? What range of nonverbal communications is appropriate?
* Territoriality. To which of my environmental spaces does this person have access? Is he or she restricted from others? Can we meet at my home? Her home? Will our interactions be limited to social settings? Recreational settings? The office?
* Emotional space. To what extent am I willing to share my feelings about sensitive topics with this person? Are there limits to the topics about which I will share my feelings?
Boundary-making begins as early as 6 months of age, when as infants we first develop a sense of separateness from parent figures (Gabbard & Lester, 1995). Boundaries continue to develop through life, and like our personalities, they tend to become more stable over time. Still, it is healthy to be flexible in boundary setting, as this promotes our adaptation to changing relationships and environments.
Clear boundaries help the case manager-client relationship by providing the following benefits for clients:
* A relationship in which the client feels affirmed, respected, and empowered.
* A safe, predictable environment in which the client is likely to feel comfortable about sharing personal information.
* A stronger sense of individuality which derives from having control over boundaries.
* A basis from which to determine whether and when the case manager can cross certain boundaries. Boundary crossing implies appropriate efforts to adjust boundaries toward greater intimacy, while boundary violations are inappropriate transgressions into a person's privacy and space (Hermansson, 1997).
* For some clients, such as those with psychosis, the external structure produced by clear and consistent boundaries becomes a model for the development of a more clear internal structure (this speaks to the inner boundaries described earlier).
Clear boundaries provide the following benefits for the case manager:
* Role clarity regarding the range and limits of the worker's activities.
* A basis from which to make decisions about how and when to cross physical or psychological boundaries.
* A means of preventing burnout by avoiding role overload.
* Reminders about legal issues which may emerge if certain boundaries are violated
* Physical safety, when territorial boundaries are maintained (Ranter, 2000).
It is important to understand the distinction between inner and outer boundaries (Gabbard & Lester, 1995). Inner boundaries separate what is real from what is unreal in our perceptions. They may be conceptualized as ego functions. Outer barriers, about which this article is primarily concerned, separate the self from the outside world, and from other persons. In some mental disorders such as schizophrenia, both types of boundaries may be weakened.
Our social and personal characteristics determine our boundaries (Bruhn, Levine, & Levine, 1993; Wallace, 1997). We may be included with or excluded from other groups based on, for example, our gender, race, ethnicity, class, position in a hierarchy, and cultural traditions. Natural boundaries tend to exist between members of successive generations, gangs, students at different schools, and subgroups of families (such as children vs. parents). Boundary patterns are also reflected in personality types. The person with rigid boundaries tends to be intolerant of ambiguity, to have a high internal locus of control, to value predictable behavior, and to be controlling, confrontational, and guarded. The person who maintains flexible boundaries, generally considered to be desirable, likes autonomy but is adaptable, arbitrative, and open. The person with fluid boundaries, which is not a desirable trait, is tolerant of ambiguity but has a high external locus of control, needs to be liked by others, and is impulsive, prone to interpersonal withdrawal, and ambivalent.
In summary, boundary establishment is important to the professional survival of case managers. Caring for clients may foster strong emotions in professionals, and clear boundaries provide protection from overextending themselves (Farber, Novack, & O'Brient, 1997). When clients violate boundaries about which they may be unclear, case managers may feel angry, manipulated, and lose objectivity about the client's needs. This can interfere with the quality of the intervention as well as lead to burnout.
Crossing Boundaries
The discussion thus far has focused on boundaries as limits, but the concept also has implications for bridging, access, and integration (Petronio, Ellemers, Giles, & Gallois, 1998). All of us experience natural tensions to remain apart from and to join with others, and this tension underscores the importance of flexibility, permeability, and balance in boundaries. We decide whom to "let in" as well as whom to "keep out." In most of our relationships that persist, boundaries change. We test the boundaries of others to determine who they are, how we should behave toward them, and if and when we can move closer. If we attempt to cross a boundary about which another person is not comfortable, he or she may choose to withdraw, and perhaps erect new, tighter boundaries in response.
Boundaries and Power
Boundary awareness is particularly important in case manager-client relationships because a power differential exists between the two parties (Backlar, 1996). A client will loosen a boundary when he or she perceives some benefit to doing so. The client needs to trust the worker and feel confident that the relationship will be enriched as a result of realigning a boundary. Despite the prescriptions of client empowerment and partnership in recent literature (e. g., Saleebey, 1997), case managers have more formal power in those relationships. They control certain material and emotional resources needed by the client, and the client must be compliant with the worker's agency-sanctioned procedures to qualify for and receive those resources. The lack of equal power in the relationship may compromise the client's ability to defend him or herself with regard to privacy issues. Any negative reactions to ambiguous boundaries will not necessarily be articulated by the client, however, who has less power and perhaps is unclear about what appropriate professional boundaries should be. Some workers fail to see how their power may stir the client's resentment in times of conflict.
BOUNDARIES AND PROFESSIONAL GROUPS
The case manager's ability to successfully coordinate interventions for clients also necessitates the existence of clear boundaries with other professionals. As with case managers and clients, members of professional groups maintain boundaries between themselves and other such groups, marked by different bodies of knowledge, languages, values, histories, and intervention preferences. Issues of power among the professions have consequences for the quality of client care (Teram, 1999). For physicians, psychologists, social workers, and nurses, boundaries set conditions for group identity and demark realms of expertise.
Professionals tend to assert that the problems relating to their specialty should be kept within their domain. This presents challenges to case managers, who may represent a variety of professions, or perhaps do not identify with any profession. Case managers tend to have relatively unclear professional boundaries. Because of their diverse educational backgrounds they experience a lack of clarity about their range of job responsibilities, professional identity, and organizational status. They may be excluded from the activities of other professional groups with more clearly defined areas of specialization. Case managers may at times act out their relative lack of organizational power by overpowering their clients in some ways. Separation from other staff may also result in case managers restricting their case consultations, and thus not benefiting from the input of other professionals (Petronio, Ellemers, Giles, & Gallois, 1998).
WARNING SIGNS OF POSSIBLE BOUNDARY TRANSGRESSIONS
Fourteen possible boundary violations that may emerge in the course of the case manager's work are listed below. None of these is necessarily a transgression- whether it is so depends on various circumstances, which will be considered later.
* Most dual relationships, or those in which the professional interacts with the client or the client's significant others in more than one role (Herlihy & Corey, 1997). For example, the client or significant other might be the case manager's mechanic, grocer, neighbor, fellow church member, and so forth. These situations create potential conflicts of interest as well as opportunities for confidentiality violations. They are most common in rural settings but can occur anywhere.
* Fluid boundaries between home and work environments may indicate that the case manager does not maintain good personal boundaries and is at risk for job burnout (Nippert-Eng, 1996). Examples of fluid boundaries include a single home and work wardrobe, home and work items kept together in one's purse or wallet, addresses and phone numbers for clients, friends, and family kept in the same book, few distinctions between work time and personal time, and making or receiving job-related phone calls from home.
* Intrusion into the client's territory. The higher utilization of home visits provides one example of how community care has shifted the balance of power somewhat back to the client. The home represents an especially private territory in which persons can exercise control and expect that visitors abide by their rules (Bruhn, Levine, & Levine, 1993). Intrusive activity includes visiting the client who does not want to be visited or making unannounced home visits, both which are commonplace, for example, in child protective services work.
* Self-disclosure by the case manager. This practice may be legitimate at times as a means to a therapeutic end, but it may also reflect a sharing of personal information for the worker's benefit. A case manager who shares that he had an argument with his son that morning may be using the client as a resource for venting. This may put the client in the inappropriate position of being a caregiver.
* Socializing between intervention and socialization (talking about or attending to issues that are unrelated to the major purposes of the interaction) is often difficult to distinguish in community care. A case manager may be invited to a client's graduation ceremony, a family's holiday cookout, or a party planned by a group of clients. These may be appropriate activities, depending on what the case manager communicates in doing so. Sometimes, however, the case manager may spend too much time socializing with a client, even during a contact that is taskspecific. While socializing is useful for establishing a relationship and building a client's social skills, it may indicate that the case manager is gratifying his or her own needs.
* Referring to clients as friends. Case managers rarely interact with their clients in the same manner as they do with their friends. With friends, we tend to be self-disclosive about our weaknesses and fears, willing to sacrifice personal time to offer assistance, loan money, and give advice about personal matters. Communicating to clients that they are friends is misleading. It may cause eventual hurt to the client or discourage clients from developing their own friends.
* Investigating certain details of clients' personal lives (Doreen, 1998). The need to know some personal information about clients does not mean that the case manager has a right to know everything. The case manager's curiosity may be voyeuristic at times (about, for example, a client's sexual practices).
* Sharing information about a client with an outside party, particularly for reasons that have nothing to do with coordinating an intervention. This is a violation of the client's right to privacy.
* Loaning, trading, or selling items to a client. This includes such practices as lending money, trading compact discs, or buying and selling items such as artwork and furniture.
* Accepting or giving gifts. This may or may not be appropriate, depending on the client and worker's motivations, the nature of the relationship, and the value of the gift. It may be an important action to help clients practice reciprocity in relationships (expressing gratitude for assistance, for example). Often, agencies have policies that the worker must follow to establish limits in this area.
The final four items represent countertransference reactions by the case manager, or responses to clients based primarily on personal feelings and the client's helping the case manager get his or her personal needs met.
* Exceptional behavior with clients, such as doing too much, protecting too much, identifying too much, or having extended meetings (Walker & Clark, 1999). The case manager should attempt to examine his or her reasons for this behavior so that certain clients are not treated with more of less favoritism.
* Experiencing strong positive feelings about a client (Hepworth, Rooney, & Larsen, 1997). This is a normal human process that happens frequently to all case managers and should not be denied (as it tends to be). It is an indication that the case manager needs to understand the reasons for the feelings, and how they have impact on service delivery.
* Touching or physically comforting the client. While appropriate at times, this needs to be monitored in relation to its purpose and the message it gives the client.
* Sexual contact. Most codes of ethics prohibit this behavior, although it remains a leading reason why professionals are dismissed from their organizations (Strom-Gottfried, 1999). A client's flirting may not need to be confronted. It may be mild, a function of the client's illness, or a harmless characteristic of the client's general interpersonal style (Ranter, 2000).
Intervening Factors
The above list consists of possible, not actual, violations. A variety of intervening factors must be considered when assessing the case manager's boundary conduct (Curtis & Hodge, 1994). These include:
* consultation with colleagues or a supervisor in assessing the situation.
* the functioning level of the client (his or her ability to use judgment in interpersonal situations).
* the client's history in relationships (patterns of behavior and his or her ability to manage conflicts or differences of opinion).
* the history and dynamics of the particular relationship (what patterns of interaction have been established, and whether a boundary-crossing activity by the worker is likely to be growth-enhancing or a setback for the client).
* the case manager's level of professional experience (more experienced practitioners tend to develop better judgment about whether, when, and how to negotiate boundaries).
* cultural norms reflected in the behavior of both the worker and client.
* legal liabilities that the case manager might face.
* the value base of the case manager (and his or her consideration of principles from relevant codes of ethics).
MANAGING BOUNDARY ISSUES
Listed below are guidelines that case managers and supervisors can follow to help them reflect on boundary dilemmas and decide what to do about them.
Guidelines for Case Managers
* Set clear boundaries with clients at the beginning of those relationships about what the case manager's roles and activities will and will not include. Clients should participate in establishing these boundaries.
* Clarify boundaries with the client over time, as they will change. As examples, the case manager and client may decide that home visits, not made before, are now indicated, or that they will address a broader or narrower scope of the client's issues than was done initially.
* Consider the preservation of the client's privacy to be a major guiding value. The case manager should always reflect on how much he or she needs to know about a client, and what the purposes are of acquiring certain information.
* Be aware of one's own emotional and physical needs as much as possible, and be wary of obtaining too much personal gratification at the expense of a client.
* Secure the client's informed consent for all service activities. This may involve written consent for some activities but may otherwise involve explaining the rationales for all interventions, and providing clients with choices about services.
* Promote the psychological separateness of the client (Simon & Williams, 1999). All activities should be focused on the goal of making the client more self-sufficient, rather than dependent on the case manager.
* Be educated about the client's cultural and community standards of behavior, so as to understand what boundaries are reasonable in those contexts (Herlihy & Corey, 1997).
* As much as possible, avoid dual relationships with clients or significant others. When considering situations where such a relationship may exist, the worker should assess potential risks and benefits, discuss these with the client, and then make a decision about acting as the service provider. If the dual relationship is unavoidable, the case manager should secure informed consent, seek ongoing supervision, and document all activities to minimize the risk of charges of conflict of interest (Herlihy & Corey, 1997).
* Use peer consolation and formal supervision routinely.
* Refer to codes of ethics when applicable.
* In any situation where ethical dilemmas arise, consider the following questions: What is the justification for my action, and its intended effect? Are there other ways of achieving the same outcome? What is the benefit to me of this action? What possible problems might this action provide to the client, other staff, my agency, and myself?
Guidelines for Supervisors
* Be proactive in identifying and evaluating boundary concerns of case managers. Most of the guidelines that follow expand on this principle. Supervisors need to prepare case managers to expect boundary dilemmas, and to feel confident that their supervisors are open to discuss them.
* Promote clarity in staff roles. Communitybased case management is stressful in part because boundaries are blurred. Supervisors and job developers have a responsibility to specify limits in case manager functions. With role clarity, case managers have an easier time deciding about what is or is not appropriate in their activities with clients.
* Model the process of boundary maintenance in relationships with staff.
* Provide a safe forum for worker disclosure. Because many boundary dilemmas are related to the personal needs of workers, they are not always easy to discuss with another person unless trust is established.
* Pursue discussions of boundary dilemmas with guided exploration rather than crossexamination (Gutheil & Gabbard, 1998). In guided exploration, the case manager is helped to reflect on and resolve his or boundary concerns in an atmosphere of support and affirmation. A case manager's experience of confrontational cross examination puts him or her on the defensive and discourages the processing of dilemmas. Likewise, supervisors should avoid writing policies as "dos" and "don'ts."
* Be sensitive to the worker's personal situation, and help him or her differentiate normal emotional reactions from feelings that promote boundary violations. This point is related to the one above. Case managers cannot be concerned that an admission of a boundary dilemma will put his or her job or reputation at risk. It is in fact a sign of maturity when a case manager admits to uncertainty about how to work with some clients.
* Pay attention to countertransference issues. This is related to the above two points, but it refers more generally to the supervisor's awareness of the case manager's positive and negative reactions to certain types of clients.
* Focus with workers on those clients who have a tendency to be manipulative in relationships as a means of establishing influence. These clients tend to have fluid boundaries and to violate the boundaries of other persons.
* Advocate for case managers within the agency with regard to status issues. In this way interprofessional and departmental conflicts can be minimized. Case managers will be less likely to isolate themselves from others and negatively act out their frustrations related to status.
SUMMARY
The proliferation of community-based case management models of intervention since the 1970s has created an array of challenges to practitioners. One of the most striking of these is the establishment and maintenance of appropriate worker-client boundaries. The many informal settings where meetings take place, and the complex problems and interpersonal deficits of clients, evoke a range of conscious and unconscious reactions from case managers. These must be acknowledged so that the worker can maintain a focus on goals that are client-centered, rather than focusing (perhaps unconsciously) on his or her own wishes for the client. The purpose of this article has been to detail procedures for recognizing and managing boundaries for the benefit of clients and also case managers, who tend to "burn out" because of a lack of role clarity in their work. Both case managers and their supervisors share responsibility for managing these boundaries.
[Sidebar]
Case managers often participate in a broad range of their clients9 life activities. They need to be careful in developing interpersonal boundaries and deciding when they can be crossed.
[Sidebar]
When clients violate boundaries about which they may be unclear, case managers may feel angry, manipulated, and lose objectivity about the clients needs. This can interfere with the quality of the intervention as well as lead to burnout.
[Reference]
REFERENCES
Backlar, P. (1996). The three Rs: Roles, relationships, and rules. Community Mental Health Journal, 32, 505-509.
Bruhn, J. G., Levine, H. G., & Levine, P. L. (1993). Managing boundaries in the helping professions. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas.
Curtis, L. C., & Hodge, M. (1994). Old standards, new dilemmas: Ethics and boundaries in community support services. In L. Spaniol (Ed.), Introduction to psychiatric rehabilitation (pp. 340-354). Columbia, MD: International Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services.
Doreen, C. (1998). Knowing patients: How much and how well? In P. Griffiths & J. Ord (Eds.), Face to face with distress: The professional use of self in psychosocial care (pp. 135- 146). Oxford, England: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Diamond, R. J., & Wilder, D. I. (1985). Ethical problems in community treatment of the chronically mentally ill. In L. I. Stein & M. A. Test (Eds.), The training in community living model: A decade of experience (pp. 85-93, New Directions for Mental Health Services Series, 26). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Farber, N. J., Novack, D. H., & O'Brient, M. K. (1997). Love, boundaries, and the patient-physician relationship. Archives of Internal Medicine, 157, 2291-2295.
Fisk, D., Rakfeldt, J., Heffernan, K., & Rowe, M. (1999). Outreach workers' experiences in a homeless outreach project: Issues of boundaries, ethics and staff safety. Psychiatric Quarterly, 70, 231-246.
Gabbard, G. O., & Lester, E. P. (1995). Boundaries and boundary violations in psychoanalysis. New York: Basic Books.
Gutheil, T. G., & Gabbard, G. O. (1998). Misuses and misunderstandings of boundary theory in clinical and regulatory settings. American Journal of Psychiatry, 155, 409-414.
Hepworth, D., Rooney, R., & Larsen, J. (1997). Direct social work practice: Theory and skills (5th ed.). Belmont, CA.: Brooks/Cole.
Herlihy, B., & Corey, G. (1997). Boundary issues in counseling: Multiple roles and responsibilities. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
Hermansson, G. (1997). Boundaries and boundary management in counseling: The never-ending story. British Journal of Guidance and Counseling, 25, 133-146.
Kanter, J. (2000). Clinical issues in delivering home-based psychiatric services. In A. Menikoff (Ed.), Psychiatric home care: Clinical and economic dimensions (pp. 19-37). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Kanter, J. (2000). Beyond psychotherapy: The communal relationship in community care. Smith College Studies in Social Work, 70, 397-426
Kanter, J. (Ed.) (1995). Clinical issues in case management. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Nippert-Eng, C. E. (1996). Home and work: Negotiating boundaries through everyday life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Perkins, D. V, Hudson, B. L., Gray, D. M., & Stewart, M. (1998). Decisions and justifications by community mental health providers about hypothetical ethical dilemmas. Psychiatric Services, 49, 1317-1322.
Petronio, S., Ellemers, N., Giles, H., & Gallois, C. (1998). (Mis) communicating across boundaries: Interpersonal and intergroup considerations. Communication Research, 25, 571-595.
Saleebey, D. (1997). The strengths perspective in social work practice (2nd ed.). New York: Longman.
Strom-Gottfried, K. (1999). Professional boundaries: An analysis of violations by social workers. Families in Society, 80, 439-450.
Simon, R. I., & Williams, I. C. (1999). Maintaining treatment boundaries in small communities and rural areas. Psychiatric Services, 50, 1440-1446.
Teram, E. (1999). A case against making the control of clients a negotiable contingency for interdisciplinary teams. Human Relations, 52(12), 263-276.
Walker, R., & Clark, J. J. (1999). Heading off boundary problems: Clinical supervision as risk management. Psychiatric Services, 50, 1435-1439.
Wallace, A. C. (1997). Setting psychological boundaries: A handbook for women. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey.
[Author Affiliation]
Joseph Walsh, PhD, LCSW
[Author Affiliation]
Offprints. Requests for offprints should be directed to:
Joseph Walsh, PhD, LCSW
School of Social Work
Virginia Commonwealth, University
1001 West Franklin Street
Richmond, Virginia 23284-2027
CPS `Child Find' program offers free developmental screenings citywide
The Chicago Public Schools is offering free developmental screenings to children birth through five years of age. The screenings are offered monthly at 12 locations citywide.
The "Child Find" screening program provides valid developmental screening and informs parents of their child's development. Infants, toddlers and young children identified through the screening may have conditions that can result in later learning and/or behavior problems The 20-minute screening assesses vision, hearing, cognitive, speech and language and motor skills.
Screenings are held monthly at two sites in each of the school system's six regions. Screenings are held on the same day every month. Screenings that fall on a day when schools are closed will not be rescheduled.
The Chicago Public Schools, Early Childhood special Education Department administers the screenings. For additional information, contact 77:} 553-1900.
Article Copyright Sengstacke Enterprises, Inc.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials insist that a world championship should include an American race. Or at least a North American race.
Formula One won't have either on the schedule next year.
On Tuesday, F1 announced it was dropping the Canadian Grand Prix from its 2009 schedule, possibly creating another barrier for the speedway to win back the United States Grand Prix _ the only American race held on the circuit this decade.
"We're certainly in a period, not only in the U.S. but worldwide, of economic concerns and that may have been a factor in this decision. It may make the hill a little steeper for us to climb," speedway spokesman Fred Nation said. "If you had one race in Canada, as well as one race in the U.S., you may have been able to save money from a travel standpoint."
It marks the first time since 1987 that the Canadian GP will not be on the schedule. The Canadian race, first held in 1967, also was left off the calendar 21 years ago because of a dispute between local organizers and F1 over sponsorship.
This time, contractual problems between Circuit Gilles Villeneuve officials and commercial rights holder F1 management are believed to have contributed to the decision, and the series will instead hold the inaugural Abu Dhabi GP next year.
Canadian GP officials said in a statement they learned of the news through the media.
"Consequently, we will not release any comment until we've spoken to the interested parties, both Formula One Management and the Federation International de l'Automobile," the statement said.
The 2009 schedule, which was ratified Tuesday, features 18 races, the same total as this year, but North America will not be represented.
Last year, F1 dropped the USGP from the schedule when IRL founder Tony George and F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone could not agree on an extension to keep the race in Indianapolis. Since then, there have been persistent rumors Ecclestone has been looking at other American venues, such as New York or Las Vegas.
But the speedway, which added the first motorcycle race in nearly a century to this year's schedule, still wants F1 back even though Nation said there have not been recent discussions between the two parties.
"We still believe that in order to have a proper world championship there ought to be a race in the U.S.," Nation said. "And we believe that the best place for that to occur is Indianapolis Motor Speedway."
The historic track, which hosts both the Indy Racing League's Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR's the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, had the distinction of hosting all three circuits from 2000-2007.
But the eight races in Indy were often marred by controversy. In 2002, Michael Schumacher let teammate Rubens Barrichello win, a tactic most considered payback for a race earlier in the year when Barrichello was told to park his car on the course and let Schumacher go past.
In 2005, just before taking the green flag, 14 of 20 drivers pulled off the track because of safety concerns over Michelin's tires.
And before Indy's final race in 2007, Ecclestone made it clear that the series did not need an American race, comments that made fans unhappy.
Yet, the USGP consistently drew one of the biggest crowds on the circuit, attracting about 125,000 fans each year. And getting rid of the Canadian GP could have a trickle-down effect on Indianapolis' hopes.
"If you have only race in North America, there may be a bigger market for tickets," Nation said.
The Turkish GP, originally scheduled to be raced in August, takes the Montreal spot on June 7. That leaves a four-week break between the Hungarian GP on July 26 and the European GP on Aug. 23 at Valencia, Spain.
At the World Council meeting held at the FIA headquarters in Paris, FIA also gave president Max Mosley the power to negotiate directly with the Formula One Teams Association about proposed measures to cut F1 team costs in half by 2010.
Should negotiations with the 10 teams fail, then the FIA can "enforce the necessary measures to achieve this goal."
Also, Marco Piccinini will leave his post as deputy president for the sporting side of the body a year early "to focus on other professional commitments." Piccinini, whose successor will be elected at the Nov. 7 general assembly, was serving out his second term.
Boulder, Colorado
Executive Director Eric Lombardi of Eco-Cycle and its newest project EcoCycle International describes his travels to Ireland leading him to the "perfect food composting system for Boulder County." In Ireland, he writes in the latest Eco-Cycle Times, the cost to landfill is $150 per ton (more than ten times the rate at Boulder sites. The "recycling tax" on garbage in Ireland is over $20/ton (117 times as much as the 17 cents collected in Colorado). "And then there's the government's legal obligation from the European Union to radically reduce the amount of untreated biodegradable waste going into landfills by the year 2016 (as compared to no federal requirements to reduce landfilling in the U.S.) The sum of all these factors is Ireland getting serious about reducing its landfilling rates, and composting has been one of their primary tactics."
Tom Nicklas traveled 2,300 miles and waited four years to becomeMount Carmel's baseball coach this season.
Nicklas played third base at Western Michigan from 1968 to 1972,then moved to the West Coast to teach and coach baseball and footballat a small Catholic school. Before he left, the baseball team hadgone from the bottom to the top of its conference.
When he came to Mount Carmel, he hoped to be a coach. But hisfour-year experience amounted to one game as a substitute coach in1983.
"I was here for four years, waiting and waiting," he said. "Itwas frustrating for me and the kids. You could see it in theireyes. They had the talent and they wanted …
NEW YORK (AP) — On Facebook, people talk about births and deaths. They share party shots, ultrasound scans and deliver news about serious illnesses in a way that was unimaginable just a few years ago.
Facebook doesn't want that openness to end, which is why the company has been trying to put its privacy problems behind it. But a big settlement with the Federal Trade Commission is once again putting this thorny issue front and center for the world's biggest online social network.
On Tuesday, Facebook agreed to settle federal charges that it violated users' privacy by getting people to share more information than they agreed to when they signed up to the site. As part of a …
athletics
* Scottish Schools Championships, Grangemouth (* denoteschampionship best performance)
Boys
Over 17. 200m: Z Bryson (St Andrew's & St Brides HS) 22.66 800m:P Loudon (Preston Lodge) 1min 56.63sec 5000m: F Scott (Merchiston)15:40.54 400m hurdles: C Henderson (Gryffe HS) 56.54 High jump: ASmith (St Augustine's HS) 2.08m=* Pole vault: J Robertson (StAndrew's & St Brides) 3.20m Triple jump: A Hamilton (GeorgeWatson's) 14.77m* Javelin: W Lerche (Merchiston) 59.20m
15-17 200m: T Holligan (Firrhill HS) 21.98 800m: G Muir(Williamwood HS) 1:55.61 3000m: J Wightman (Fettes) 9:06.60 400mhurdles: E Dyer (St Columba's HS) 56.51 Pole vault: P O'Donnell …
athletics * Scottish Schools Championships, Grangemouth (* denotes championship best... [Derived headline]athletics
* Scottish Schools Championships, Grangemouth (* denoteschampionship best performance)
Boys
Over 17. 200m: Z Bryson (St Andrew's & St Brides HS) 22.66 800m:P Loudon (Preston Lodge) 1min 56.63sec 5000m: F Scott (Merchiston)15:40.54 400m hurdles: C Henderson (Gryffe HS) 56.54 High jump: ASmith (St Augustine's HS) 2.08m=* Pole vault: J Robertson (StAndrew's & St Brides) 3.20m Triple jump: A Hamilton (GeorgeWatson's) 14.77m* Javelin: W Lerche (Merchiston) 59.20m
15-17 200m: T Holligan (Firrhill HS) 21.98 800m: G Muir(Williamwood HS) 1:55.61 3000m: J Wightman (Fettes) 9:06.60 400mhurdles: E Dyer (St Columba's HS) 56.51 Pole vault: P O'Donnell …
