Your search

This study examined the association among suicide attempts, parental alcoholism, psychopathology and drinking history in a sample of hospitalized alcoholics. Suicide attempters were found to have multiple psychiatric diagnoses (e.g., depression, antisocial personality disorder and substance abuse) and more severe psychiatric symptoms than nonattempters. Alcoholic suicide attempters also tended to have a parental history of alcoholism and began abusing alcohol at an early age. Alcohol abuse symptoms during the month before, and 6 month before, the current hospitalization were generally similar for suicide attempters and nonattempters. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed.

The present study assessed the presence of testing effects arising from the repeated administration of both the Beck and Zung depression scales to a group of 60 inpatient alcoholics. Thirty-seven men and 23 women were randomly assigned to one of three groups and administered the depression scales on one, two or three occasions, in successive weeks of treatment. Although the between group comparisons of initial test administration did not indicate a true change in depression, a within group comparison of initial with subsequent test administrations indicated a clear improvement in depression scores on both scales. Apparently the result of the reactive effects of testing, the within group differences could easily mislead a researcher into believing depression was alleviated when in fact it was not. This sizeable testing effect has obvious implications for studies which repeatedly assess depression. © 1987 Medical Council on Alcoholism.

This paper analyzes the sources of strain between the professions of medicine and social work. The two professions are compared in relation to (1) the organization and socialization process of professional training; (2) perspectives on patient care, illness and role of the health care professional; (3) attitudes toward knowledge and data; (4) attitudes toward and preparation for teamwork; (5) perspectives on the role of the patient; (6) perceptions of social work’s function. © 1985 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Genetic counselling represents a new and important health service, but little is known about how the clients of genetic clinics actually experience and view the genetic counselling process. This paper reports on the evaluations made by clients of a genetics clinic and their recommendations for ways to improve and expand this service. In their comments, clients stressed the need for more time and individual attention from genetic counsellors, additional follow-up and supportive counselling, and increased efforts to educate the general public about birth defects. Their recommendations are discussed in terms of the implications for developing and improving genetic counselling services.

Increasingly, grandmothers are parenting grandchildren in homes where parental presence is sporadic or nonexistent. A disproportionate percentage of African American grandparents fall in this category. The author reviews the literature on the African American grandmother in the context of the African American family and describes a practice model for service provision to those women who seek support as they “parent again.”

Mental health professionals and researchers have emphasized the importance of conducting outreach to locate homeless persons with mental illness, and of creatively engaging these persons into a therapeutic relationship. These outreach and engagement activities raise challenging issues in the areas of client-staff boundaries, professional ethics, and staff safety. While several issues in each of these three key areas have received attention in the growing literature on homelessness, certain issues within each area remain unexplored. The authors draw from the street experiences of outreach staff in a federally funded homeless outreach project to further explore each of these areas, and suggest that experiences of outreach workers are essential in shaping and redefining work activities in these, and other important areas.

This paper examines the factors surrounding the use of alcohol among Latino males. Prevention and treatment strategies for the provision of culturally competent treatment services are proposed, based on an analysis of the literature.

This article reports data collected from a national survey of all accredited social work programs conducted between December 1995 and February 1996. The purpose was to assess current usage of distance learning in social work education. The findings suggest that the use of distance learning has increased, and that the most prevalent issues reported by educators involve adapting instructional material for course presentation and faculty preparation. Implications of the study findings for social work education are also discussed.

Normalization is the use of culturally valued means to enable people with disabilities to live culturally valued lives. In this article, the authors describe an effort to bring normalization practices to acute psychiatric care. They describe a day hospital/crisis respite diversion program that serves as an alternative to acute inpatient hospitalization and sketch the research project that fostered it. The authors argue that a day hospital/crisis respite provides effective clinical care comparable to inpatient hospitalization but achieves greater potential for recovery through a normalizing philosophy and practice. An implication of this finding is that such programs based on the principle of normalization may be both cost effective as well as more empowering for patients.

It is important that the delivery of health and mental health prevention and treatment services within Latino communities be culturally sensitive. This article outlines several ways in which agencies can develop programs that can meet the needs of Latino communities. The most important aspect of the provision of health prevention and treatment services is that the organization integrates itself into the community through outreach, recruitment, and inclusion in decision-making. In addition, the organization needs to be structured so communication and participation from the community and health professionals are open and mixed. Otherwise, the likelihood of success of the provision of services in the community will be diminished. © 1996 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The numbers of children at risk who are referred to child treatment programs are on the rise. This article explores the therapeutic relationship as it develops with such a child, and questions the impact managed care will have on that treatment. Concepts of a holding environment, personalization (the development of self-love, a necessary precursor to object love), the good-enough mother and Else of the therapist as a real person. who furthers development, are highlighted via case material.

The authors hypothesized that schizophrenic communication disturbances reflect specific cognitive deficits in the areas of working memory and attention. They examined the cognitive correlates of communication disturbances, as measured by linguistic reference performance, in schizophrenic (n = 48), bipolar (n = 24), and nonpsychiatric control (n = 23) individuals. Reference performance ratings in the schizophrenic patients were associated with scores on tests of working memory and attention and were not related to performance on concept formation or verbal fluency tests. In contrast, in the bipolar and nonpsychiatric individuals, reference performance was associated with concept formation and verbal fluency test scores but was not related to performance on tests of working memory. Implications with respect to the processes underlying schizophrenic communication disturbances are discussed.

Most community college graduates do not continue on for study in 4-year colleges and universities. Fewer than 20% do so within the first few years after receiving their associate's degrees. Concerns have been expressed about the extent to which older students (e.g., students who received their degrees at age 25 and above) persist (go on) to 4-year colleges and universities and about the correlates of persistence for this group. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between a selected number of academic, social, and personal variables in the context of predicting persistence to a 4-year public university among older graduates of a New England state’s public 2-year institutions. Data were collected in 1988 and 1989 from a random sample of 3,762 older associate's degree students from the 12 community colleges in Connecticut. These data were then subjected to a two-group, single-function discriminant function analysis to determine the predictive power of the dependent measures used in the study. The results indicated that the higher the perceptions of social and institutional support in community colleges and the higher the age of the graduates, the more apt they were to persist to a 4-year institution. Further analysis, however, revealed that the average persister was 38 years old, whereas the average attritor was 34 years old, suggesting the need for further research among 2-year college populations among the over-30 age group as well as replication of the study in states with both similar and dissimilar demographic shifts in college populations. © 1996 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Homophobia and heterosexism are complementary social processes that shaped the social construction and the public health response to AIDS. Both concepts view gay and lesbian oppression from different vantage points. Homophobia is a weapon of sexism and is manifested in fear and hatred. Heterosexism is an ideological system that denigrates non-heterosexual behavior. Both processes are well served by the social institutions of family, religion, law, and the ideologies of sexuality and gender. The consequences have been societal and personal: inadequate HIV medical and social services; lack of a national AIDS policy; widespread discrimination and prejudice against gay men, lesbians, and persons living with AIDS; stress, violence, and suicide; substance abuse; and HIV risk behavior and relapse. Mental health and social services, social supports, education and prevention programs, community development, and social action to broaden civil rights and to challenge institutional oppression are required to counter the ravages of hate and discrimination. © 1995 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.