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Biomedical subjects

J C Westman

Publications and source records attributed to J C Westman.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Children's rights, parents' prerogatives, and society's obligations.

The thesis of this article is that parents do not need specifically defined rights. They have prerogatives that flow from the right of their children to nurturing and protective parenting. The idea of individual rights springs from the vulnerability of human beings in the face of stronger forces. The most vulnerable individuals are children. For this reason, human rights ought to begin with the rights of children in our society and in their families. This article discusses individual rights, society's expectations of parents and children, parental prerogatives and liabilities, parenthood as a developmental stage in the life cycle, parenthood as the foundation of society, and society's obligation to support parenthood.

Child↗
PubMed1998

The child advocacy team in legal actions.

This paper provides a general description of child advocacy teams, which are formed in difficult child custody or abuse and neglect cases. They are created when a judge asks that a team assist in determining the child's psychological status and developmental needs, assessing parenting capacities, developing a treatment plan, and monitoring the family's progress. The team consists of representatives from the legal, social service, mental health, and educational systems. The author describes the principles and techniques of child advocacy, characteristics of the professional systems involved, and phases of the team's operation, such as the planning conference, the therapeutic-evaluation process, team meetings, report preparation, and courtroom participation. Outcomes of 77 cases handled by a University of Wisconsin child advocacy team over the past 20 years are presented to show that a team is an effective means of integrating professional and volunteer activities for a family during a child protection or divorce action.

Child↗
PubMed1997

Reducing governmental interventions in families by licensing parents.

Government has played an increasing role in family life because too many parents have not fulfilled their childrearing responsibilities. The misuse of parental power in child abuse and the abdication of parental responsibilities in child neglect have necessitated governmental interventions in order to protect children. A parent license would validate parental rights, establish parental responsibility, and provide a basis for the societal support of parenting in the form of financial benefits, parent education and training, and protective services for children when necessary. By generally increasing competent parenting, it would substantially reduce the need for governmental interventions in families.

Child↗
PubMed1996

The child advocacy team in child abuse and neglect matters.

The Child Advocacy Team is a means of counteracting the fragmentation and lack of continuity of professional and volunteer services for children and their families in child abuse and neglect cases. The experience of the University of Wisconsin Child Advocacy Service is used to illustrate the formation, operation, and efficacy of the Child Advocacy Team.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Welfare reform: a commentary.

Aid to the Families of Dependent Children (AFDC) has been successful in most cases. Welfare reform should focus on aiding children by identifying and helping dysfunctional, welfare dependent parents when possible and relieving them of parenting responsibilities with adoption of their children when they neglect and abuse their children and are unable or unwilling to become competent parents. AFDC is illsuited to be an employment or an antipoverty program.

Adoption↗
PubMed1991

Juvenile ageism: unrecognized prejudice and discrimination against the young.

Ageism is a form of prejudice and discrimination as virulent as racism and as pervasive as sexism. It has been described as it affects the elderly but has not been sufficiently recognized as it affects the young. Institutional juvenile ageism exists when social systems ignore the interests of children. Individual juvenile ageism exists when the developmental interests of a child are not respected. This article describes the dynamics, manifestations, and approaches to the amelioration of juvenile ageism.

Aged↗
PubMed1983

The impact of divorce on teenagers.

Divorce is common in the contemporary way of life and deserves objective study. It may have redeeming features, but from the point of view of children, divorce is a stressful experience because of the disruption of the home and its financial, emotional, and social costs. The adverse impact, however, can be minimized by realistic and sensitive attention to its effects on children. Although divorce alters the living arrangements of affected families, it does not end family relationships. For this reason, marriage and divorce counseling should deal with the perspectives of both adults and children. Most teenagers and their parents adjust to divorce and later regard it as having been a constructive action; but one-third do not. In those instances the turbulence of the post-divorce phase plays a crucial role in influencing pathological reactions in affected teenagers. The physician is in a strategic position to act as diagnostician, a clarifier of values, an educator in the facts of family life and divorce, a counselor in working through feelings about and attitudes toward divorce, and a source of support for teenagers.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Noise and stress: a comprehensive approach.

The fundamental purposes of hearing are to alert and to warn. As a result sound directly evokes emotions and actions. The processing of sound by the brain is outlined to provide a biological and psychological basis for understanding the way in which sound can become a human stressor. The auditory orienting response, startle reflex and defensive response translate sound stimuli into action and sometimes into stress induced bodily changes through "fight or flight" neural mechanisms. The literature on the health and mental health effects of noise then is reviewed in the context of an integrated model that offers a holistic approach to noise research and public policy formulation. The thesis of this paper is that research upon, and efforts to prevent or minimize the harmful effects of noise have suffered from the lack of a full appreciation of the ways in which humans process and react to sound.

Auditory Pathways↗