Barry E. Jones and David L. Edgerton
Revealed preference axioms provide a simple way of testing data from consumers or firms for consistency with optimizing behavior. The resulting non-parametric tests are very…
Abstract
Revealed preference axioms provide a simple way of testing data from consumers or firms for consistency with optimizing behavior. The resulting non-parametric tests are very attractive, since they do not require any ad hoc functional form assumptions. A weakness of such tests, however, is that they are non-stochastic. In this paper, we provide a detailed analysis of two non-parametric approaches that can be used to derive statistical tests for utility maximization, which account for random measurement errors in the observed data. These same approaches can also be used to derive tests for separability of the utility function.
Barry Jones, Georgia Juett and Nathan Hill
Following on from an earlier published study, the purpose of this paper is to further clarify with a larger sample and over a longer timescale of two years the effect of a…
Abstract
Purpose
Following on from an earlier published study, the purpose of this paper is to further clarify with a larger sample and over a longer timescale of two years the effect of a therapeutic-community informed personality disorder service intervention upon psychiatric in-patient bed use. The service integrates two psychoanalytical models; a mentalization-based treatment (MBT) and a service user network (SUN) model.
Design/methodology/approach
The number of psychiatric bed days used by patients attending each arm of the service model (SUN and MBT) was collated using the electronic patient records system. Bed use in the six-12-18-and 24-month period before each patient started treatment was compared with bed use in the same periods after starting treatment.
Findings
There appeared no significant increase after intervention in the group of patients using no psychiatric beds prior to intervention. Bed use in the second group (those using beds prior to intervention) appeared significantly reduced by six months and the reduction continued to prove significant at 12 and 18 months post-intervention. In relation to the component arms of the service, a significant reduction in bed use was seen in each of the MBT and SUN interventions at six, 12, 18 and 24 months after commencement. However, due to the small sample sizes, these results lacked sufficient power to afford a meaningful comment upon the effect of component arms.
Research limitations/implications
Intervention by the TC informed two-model integrated personality disorder service had a statistically significant effect overall on reducing bed use, which was maintained at six and 12 months.
Practical implications
The paper supports the finding of the authors’ previous study; a therapeutic model of care that significantly reduces psychiatric bed use. That the reduction in psychiatric bed use continues to further appear highly significant at 18 months suggest that our service has an enduring effect upon inpatient psychiatric resources.
Originality/value
The paper describes a unique model of care currently successfully employed in the therapeutic management of people with personality disorder. The model is replicable and effective and offers some possibilities for the development of therapeutic-community informed practice.
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Markowitz’s mean‐variance approach is used to identify the returns to vertical investment in the pork industry. In addition to previous efforts, this paper considers not only…
Abstract
Markowitz’s mean‐variance approach is used to identify the returns to vertical investment in the pork industry. In addition to previous efforts, this paper considers not only returns to stock ownership, but uses operating return on investment in pork slaughter and hog production to evaluate the impacts of vertical investment within the industry segment. Results suggest there are indeed diversification incentives for vertical investment in the pork industry. However, results do differ for vertical direct investment versus investment through stock ownership.
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The author argues that we must stop and take a look at what our insistence on human labour as the basis of our society is doing to us, and begin to search for possible…
Abstract
The author argues that we must stop and take a look at what our insistence on human labour as the basis of our society is doing to us, and begin to search for possible alternatives. We need the vision and the courage to aim for the highest level of technology attainable for the widest possible use in both industry and services. We need financial arrangements that will encourage people to invent themselves out of work. Our goal, the article argues, must be the reduction of human labour to the greatest extent possible, to free people for more enjoyable, creative, human activities.
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Barry Jones, Georgia Juett and Nathan Hill
This study aims to describe the effectiveness of two arms of a personality disorder service: a modified mentalization based therapy (MBT) day programme and an open access…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to describe the effectiveness of two arms of a personality disorder service: a modified mentalization based therapy (MBT) day programme and an open access service‐user network (SUN) support. Both arms utilised therapeutic community principles in service delivery.
Design/methodology/approach
Personality disorder subtypes for all patients entering the modified MBT programme were diagnosed at a clinical assessment interview and corroborated through use of a standardized semi‐structured interview (SCID II). All patients were also allowed open access to a service user network community support group (SUN Project). Outcome measures were applied at baseline, mid‐therapy and end of therapy and included self‐report measures of depression, anxiety, general symptom distress, interpersonal function, social adjustment and patient satisfaction. Clinician‐rated measures of general health and functioning were also used. Data analysis used paired sample T‐tests and Wilcoxon Rank Sum tests, depending upon the assessment of parametric or nonparametric tests of trend. The open access nature of the SUN Project demanded a different data collection method. All members received a Standardized Assessment of Personality – abbreviated scale (SAPAS). Two validated empowerment questionnaires were sent to all SUN members that had achieved six months of membership: the first relating to the six‐month period before joining the SUN and the second to the six‐month period after joining the SUN Project. Paired sample T‐tests were used to compare sets of empowerment scores.
Findings
Patients who completed 18 months of MBT‐tc treatment showed a statistically significant improvement on the clinician‐administered measures relating to psychological, social and occupational functioning, compared to baseline. Patients also reported statistically significant improvement in using the brief symptom inventory. All SUN members perceived significant increases in empowerment across the five score subscales. No completed suicidal acts were recorded within the period of analysis within either arm of the service.
Originality/value
An integrated therapeutic community day service appears to afford improvements in perceived empowerment and symptom severity for patients. Further data collection with a larger sample is needed to clarify whether these outcomes support the development of a wider integration of the relatively low cost SUN Project model and MBT within therapeutic communities.
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The Service User Network (SUN) follows the ethos of the therapeutic community and draws upon coping theory and psychoanalytic understanding of personality disorder to provide a…
Abstract
Purpose
The Service User Network (SUN) follows the ethos of the therapeutic community and draws upon coping theory and psychoanalytic understanding of personality disorder to provide a supportive group-based resource to adults struggling to cope. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The original SUN Project has been successfully replicated, with the further addition and integration of psychoanalytically – derived approaches to the treatment of personality disorder within that replication. The most notable theoretical additions come from the mentalization-based therapy model and the Independent School of Psychoanalysis. In this paper, the author expands the original description of the model to include these theoretical additions, together with a fuller account of the original tenets of the treatment paradigm than previously described.
Findings
This provides an outline of a network-based therapy (NETBT) as a first stage in manualizing the model, as well as extending its use to support adolescents.
Originality/value
Network-based therapy is a new, evolving group treatment for adolescents and adults struggling to cope.