Emphasis has increasingly been focused on subjects and methods being explored in different countries. Such cross-national studies not only provide new knowledge which can be used to strengthen and evaluate welfare programs in the country and in the United States but also serve as a basis for comparative studies. Findings which reveal the needs and aspirations of people can, moreover, help the United States carry out more effectively our role of leadership in international organizations, foreign aid, and training of personnel. New funds requested will make possible more broad-scale research activities and an increased number of demonstration projects. The funds will be used to support neighborhood centered programs for older people; services for rehabilitation of dependent families; new community demonstration projects in prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency. Experimental programs in family planning and treatment of alcoholism provide new areas for cooperation in research and demonstration. In some countries, e.g., India, encouragement will be given to establishment of one or more social welfare research centers. Such centers could conduct a long range research program specializing on such critical problem as: effective social services required to meet displacements caused by rapid industrialization and urbanization; the effectiveness of community development in meeting problems of disadvantaged people with few material resources; or innovations and experimentation in use of less than fully trained professional social work per sonnel. 1. Current priority areas (a) Aging Cross-national studies in Israel and Poland (as well as the United States, United Kingdom, and Denmark) reveal that older people are most concerned with some similar problems. Some life patterns, however, seem to be unique or more marked in specific settings. Extension of similar studies to more countries with still different social structures will further clarify the nature of some of the problems of the aged and provide a more scientific basis for planning of community services. The needs of older people, particularly in urban communities, present new demands on community social, health and recreational services. New funds will make possible complementary studies and demonstration of services which will provide information basic for planning new and expanded services for the aging in the United States. Increased avenues of communication in this field are illustrated in the opportunities opened up in relation to the study of the aging in Poland during the course of which an outstanding U.S. sociologist has provided consultation in Poland and arranged for exchange of experience and comparison of problems among social scientists in Denmark and Israel and the Polish principal investigator for whom plans are now being made to meet with scholars in the United States. Use of Public Law 480 funds will be encouraged for researchers to travel to the International Congress on Gerontology in Vienna where findings of these cross-national studies will be presented for analysis by international scientists. (b) Families including chronically dependent and migrant Chronic dependency and difficulties in adjustment to new situations are widespread social problems. Two projects in Israel, one completed and the other in process, have identified factors related to the use or failure to use available social services. U.S. research and family service specialists will meet with overseas experts and in a workshop in Israel to consider these findings and formulate alternative modes of helping socially deprived families. New funds will be used to finance experimental methods of providing services. Proposals for demonstrations of public social services in small communities and of group services for practical work training of potential wage earners have also been received from Israel and from the United Arab Republic. (c) Juvenile delinquency International exchange in this field is well established and provides an excellent basis for cooperation with scientists in Poland, India, United Arab Republic, Yugoslavia, as well as Israel. The director of an action-research project with delinquent street-corner groups reports on the familiar phenomena of disorganized poverty area or the "slumin transition" in Tel Aviv as well as in New York where he had worked with young delinquents for 8 years. Some behavior and attitudes of the youngsters show a remarkable resemblance. There are marked differences, however, in the degree of severity of the delinquent activities. Among the Tel Aviv "thieves' groups" robberies that involve the use of violence are the exception, rather than the rule and brawling, while not unusual, is neither as frequent nor as brutal as some outbreaks witnessed in New York. Findings from this study and a delinquency project in the United Arab Republic point to the desirability of followup projects. Proposals are already under consideration for similar projects in other cities in Israel, United Arab Republic, and India. Experimental programs useful in combating spread of delinquency among juveniles are being initiated. A cross-national study of juvenile delinquency has been introduced in 1966 in four countries and will be extended to new countries as new funds become available. This study will provide for the first time valuable comparable data on the work of the courts and effectiveness of services in juvenile delinquency. This investigation will make a modest start toward answering the knotty questions of differences among delinquents, delinquencies, treatment methods, and results. Additional funds will facilitate increasing the number and amount of grant awards on the basis of logical requirements of a project instead of having to tailor the proposal stringently to limited funds. (d) Child care In the United States and internationally there is continuing debate regarding the best methods of providing care for children outside their own homes. A welfare administration-supported study in Israel has developed and is now testing criteria to determine what type of facilitiy will best promote the development of individual children. Results from this and other studies in the United States and abroad will be used as a basis for developing new approaches to providing services. The emphasis on group care of children in some of the countries in contrast to current practice in the United States will make it easier and less costly to collect data overseas. This would vastly enhance a Children's Bureau program developed at the Yale study center to study characteristics and problems of infants and young children being given different types of care, to develop and evaluate approaches to providing services which will support the development of the children, and to develop a training program for child care workers. 2. New areas (a) Alcoholism A survey on alcoholism undertaken by the Welfare Administration, Division of Research, indicates a serious gap of information on alcoholism and problem drinking as it relates to low-income status, disordered family life, child abuse and neglect, and chronic economic dependecy. Other countries such as Poland. Yugoslavia, as well as the United States, are concerned with the problem of alcoholism associated with absenteeism from work, chronic dependency and family breakdown. Through a coordinated plan of study on causes and effective therapy in several countries, the Welfare Administration would hope to uncover and develop new knowledge on alcoholism. The results would be tested in the United States in programs of social treatment and rehabilitation. Additional foreign currency will permit comparable experiments abroad. (b) Family planning Family planning has become an international concern as countries undertake to establish programs to control population growth in relation to economic development. Social agencies with an overall goal to promote the well-being and improve the functioning of families have a special concern because of the relationship between size of family and economic dependency. Evaluation of experimental programs in the United Arab Republic and India, will be shared internationally. Social welfare agencies aware of family attitudes and values are in a partic ularly good position to take leadership in developing and staffing positive programs. The role of social welfare in this planning needs to be clearly identified and welfare approaches built into programs. THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1966. OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER, SALARIES AND EXPENSES WITNESSES DR. ELLEN WINSTON, COMMISSIONER OF WELFARE ROY L. WYNKOOP, EXECUTIVE OFFICER, WELFARE ADMINISTRATION ELMER W. SMITH, DEPUTY EXECUTIVE OFFICER, WELFARE ADMINISTRATION JAMES B. CARDWELL, DEPARTMENT DEPUTY COMPTROLLER |