At the Victorian Child Trauma service, we are using a sensorimotor framework to help children recover from their experiences of trauma. Informed by the work of Pat Odgen, this approach helps children to feel safe, aware and connected to their bodies and minds. In this article, we will describe the development of a group program incorporating sensorimotor principles, with the aim of helping children to regulate and engage in healing relationships. Group outcomes suggest that the use of sensory elements and principles in guiding our group program helps dysregulated children to establish safety and connection in meaningful ways with those around them.

Employers of business graduates require them to be effective communicators and team members in twenty-first century work environments. As a means of developing these skills, we believe group work is important to an undergraduate business teaching pedagogy preparing graduates for the challenges of modern workplaces. Student responses to a series of qualitative and quantitative focus group activities highlighted the ‘big issues’ encountered in group activities involving an increasingly internationalised and diverse cohort of students. These issues related mainly to communication within the group and the fear of social-loafers. These insights established the basis on which proactive strategies were introduced in a subsequent teaching period to nurture and advance the quality of the learning experience within a tertiary undergraduate business education setting. Given that reduced Government funding to Australian universities has prompted the management of institutions to look to full-fee paying international students to offset shortfalls in their operating budgets, this paper explores the particular impact of increasing numbers of English as a Second Language (ESL) students on the quality of, and student receptiveness to, group based study activities.

This article presents the initial implementation and adaptation of a group for people who hear voices in a psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) using a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) approach. It highlights the lack of evidence-based psychosocial group interventions designed specifically for the PICU environment and challenges the traditional medical-model of PICU care. It also highlights national policy and guidelines advocating the implementation of CBT approaches for severe and enduring mental illness. An overview of the group sessions is described, with particular focus on adaptations of the group content and delivery for PICU populations. The authors note that twenty three clients have attended the PICU voices groups to date, demonstrating the feasibility of voices groups in PICU environments. Further work is currently being undertaken including formal evaluations of group outcomes using standardised measures.

This paper proposes and demonstrates a method toobtain macroscopic work out of distributed microactuatorsfabricated by IC-compatible micromachiningprocesses. We have coordinated the simple and smallmotion of microactuators in order to perform a task. Theconcept and a control scheme are discussed first. In orderto show the feasibility, the fabrication and operation ofarrayed microactuators for conveyors are described. One uses thermally driven cantilevers and the other uses controlled air flow from micronozzles to carry flat objects.

Aims: The aim of this research is to evaluate a seven week abstinence-based drug treatment programme and to use this to assist policy makers in the planning and provision of future programmes.

Methods: Design: Seventy-nine clients were interviewed at two stages. Stage I, prior to the treatment programme, stage II, immediately after the treatment programme. A selected group of 20 clients were followed-up and interviewed at stage III, up to 24 months after the treatment programme.

Setting: All clients were prisoners at Mountjoy Prison, Dublin Ireland.

Participants: Seventy-nine male prisoners were recruited. A sample of 20 of the original cohort of 79 was selected using a snowball sampling method approximately 24 months following treatment. This latter sample of 20 clients consisted of eight prisoners who had re-offended and returned to prison, three prisoners who were still in prison serving their original sentence and nine prisoners who were out of prison. These 20 also participated in a more detailed quantitative and qualitative survey.

Measurements: In order to measure prisoner's criminogenic attitudes and needs the Crime Pics II instrument was used. This is a semantic differential scale which measures attitudes toward offending behaviour. It includes a problem checklist which can be used to measure change over time.

Results: An 82% follow-up rate was achieved on the original group of 79 clients, similarly a follow-up rate of 100% was also achieved for the selected group of 20 clients who were interviewed three times. Regardless of category of client, findings demonstrate an improvement over time for the outcome variables, general attitude to offending, anticipation of re-offending and perception of current life problems. However, the study failed to demonstrate any significant change for the outcome variables victim hurt denial and evaluation of crime as worthwhile.

Conclusions: These results were short lived for many prisoners, who failed to sustain the gains made. Interviews with the cohort of 20 who underwent stage III interviews possibly suggest that those clients who did not receive continuity of treatment post programme, in terms of case management and structured treatment did not fare as well as those who did.