This review focuses on parental decision making regarding the care and treatment of children with cancer. Articles were abstracted from the following sources: Ovid Databases (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Review of Effects, Medline, and Social Work Abstracts) and EBSCOhost (Academic Search Premier and Academic Search Complete) using smart text. The criteria for the search were publications between 2005 and 2012 and publication in peer-review journals. The descriptors used were parents of children with cancer, decision making, decisions about childhood cancer, and parents. The search yielded 59 references, but after duplicates, as well as dated and irrelevant articles were removed, 17 articles were identified that focused specifically on the decisions parents make regarding the care and treatment of children with cancer. Coders agreed that the child's quality of life/well-being, parental hope/expectations, support/supportive care, communication, and information were important themes in considering the decisions parents made regarding the care and treatment of children with cancer. These themes provide insight into the needs of parents in making decisions about the care and treatment of children with cancer.

This study tested the hypothesis that users of mental health self-help services would be more satisfied with professional mental health services than clients who did not use self-help services. A survey was administered to 311 clients of professional mental health services, 151 (49 percent) of whom were users of self-help services. A multiple regression model showed that the use of self-help services was associated with greater satisfaction with professional mental health services. This finding provides support for the idea that the use of self-help services encourages appropriate use of professional services. The study provided evidence that self-help and traditional mental health services can function complementarily rather than in competition with one another.

The author examines the negative behaviors of children in milieus in which sheltered women report and do not report the occurrence of child abuse. The sample of women was randomly selected from those sheltered in a midwestern regional family-violence center at some point during a 22-month period. Data on children's negative behaviors were collected from women ex post facto by examining the intake forms they completed with shelter workers. The results of the study suggest that social work practitioners take a social-constructivist approach in working with children in milieus in which children observe and/or experience abuse and further suggest that social work practitioners work with public/community health professionals on behalf of those children. In addition, the findings indicate that the heuristic nature of the social-constructivist approach in working with children in abusive situations might provide insights into their interpretations of the violence occurring around them.

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