Maternal morbidity and maternal mortality in the United States

The following interview with Dr. Donna Strobino on maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States was conducted in May 2008. Dr. Strobino is Professor and Vice Chair of Education in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She received a PhD from Johns Hopkins University and a BA from Western Connecticut State University. Dr. Strobino is Director of the Maternal and Child Health Leadership Training Program, a core training program in the Department of Population and Family Health Sciences at the Women's and Children's Health Policy Center. Dr. Strobino's recent research includes studies of the social, psychosocial, and biologic risk factors for preterm birth among African American women, the impact of the Healthy Steps Program for Young Children, and the effect of maternal depressive symptoms on the growth of their young children.     

Maternal morbidity and mortality

The following interview with Dr. Yves Bergevin on the consequences of maternal morbidity and mortality in developing countries was conducted in November 2007. Dr. Bergevin, MD, MSc, FRCPC, FCFP, is Senior Program Advisor for Reproductive Health at the United Nations Population Fund's (UNFPA) Africa Division. He provides the overall program leadership for reproductive health programs in Africa for UNFPA, including HIV Prevention, Maternal Health, Family Planning, and Reproductive Health Commodity Security. Dr. Bergevin has held several senior level positions in global health, including Chief of Health at UNICEF, where he fostered a renewed focus on child survival. Prior to this, he was Principal Advisor for Health, Population, and Nutrition at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). He is the author of over 100 papers, abstracts, and reports. He has also served as a Member of the Board on Global Health, National Academies of Sciences (USA), a Member of the STOP TB Coordinating Board and of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership Board.     

Strategic Health Planning:

Dr. R. John Young is a pioneer in "strategic health planning." Originally a native of Northern Ireland, Dr. Young received his undergraduate degree from the University of London and his master's and PhD degrees from Purdue University. He conducted post-doctoral research in psychology at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Young is immediate past-President of the Society of Prospective Medicine, an international professional association dedicated to the scientific estimation of health risks and to the art of intervening to reduce those risks. He is also a regular Study Section Chairperson and reviewer of research grants for the National Institute of Health, and a member of both the American Public Health Association and the American Psychological Association. Dr. Young is President of Corporate Health Services, Inc., Charlotte, North Carolina.     

Keynote Address: Making Campuses Safer Communities for Students

As a chief spokesperson for a national movement to prevent violence and a frequent speaker in national media and public forums, Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith is a nationally recognized public health leader. In 1987, she was appointed the first woman Commissioner of Public Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In that role, she established the first Office of Violence Prevention in a state department of public health, expanded prevention programs for HIV/AIDS, and increased drug treatment and rehabilitation programs. Dr. Prothrow-Stith currently serves as Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Professor of Public Health Practice at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and founding director of the Division of Public Health Practice.

Dr. Prothrow-Stith supports the application of rigorous scientific methods to strengthen violence prevention programs. She developed and wrote The Violence Prevention Curriculum for Adolescents, a forerunner of violence prevention curriculum for schools and communities. She is the author of Deadly Consequences, the first book to present the public health perspective on violence to a mass audience. She has authored and co-authored more than 80 publications on medical and public health issues.

Dr. Prothrow-Stith was the keynote speaker for the annual meeting of American College Health Association in May 2006. The Editors of The Journal of American College Health have revised her speech to share her comments in this issue and thought her words would be a proper introduction to the ACHA White Paper on Domestic Violence.     

INQUIRY

The following interview with Awash Teklehaimanot was conducted in June 2005. Dr. Teklehaimanot is Director of the Malaria Program at Columbia University and a member of the Task Force on Malaria for the UN Millennium Project. He is a senior staff member of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, where he provides leadership in the development of the global Roll Back Malaria program. Dr. Teklehaimanot has extensive international experience in public health with particular focus on Africa. He provides technical support to malaria-endemic countries, coordinates a number of WHO-funded research activities in Africa, and spent several years as the director of Ethiopia's National Malaria Control Program. He is a professor of clinical epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, and has been lecturing at the Harvard School of Public Health since 1992.     

Inquiry

The following interview with Dr. William Aldis, Regional Advisor for Africa for Emergency and Humanitarian Action at the World Health Organization (WHO), was conducted in August 2001. Dr. Aldis is head of the WHO unit for crisis situations in sub-Saharan Africa where he works on several public health programs related to children. He returned to his station in Zimbabwe in September. Previously, Dr. Aldis held the position of WHO Country Representative in Sierra Leone where he worked on developing programs to help child soldiers and to advance immunization programs.     

Psychotherapy Quality Assessment

Abstract

In the first section of this paper, Dr. Whitaker argues that there are both practical and heuristic reasons for developing a systematic method for assessing the quality of psychotherapy in a university mental health service. He maintains that, though the task of psychotherapy quality assessment is a complex undertaking, it is possible to take steps toward its accomplishment in a responsible way while still keeping the task within manageable proportions.

In the second section, Dr. Sarnat describes one in a series of efforts at quality assessment at the Mental Health Division of the University of Massachusetts Health Services. She describes the development of a new method of recordkeeping and record review, and the results of a review of three different samples of records. She concludes that the method is feasible, useful, and meaningful for quality assessment in that setting, although the method is admittedly limited in what it can measure.

In the final section, Dr. Arnstein comments on the above, adding a note of caution about both the feasibility and the wisdom of embarking on a program of quality assessment of psychotherapy. He elaborates some of the difficulties that may prevent one from arriving at a valid assessment.     

INQUIRY

The following interview with Frederica P. Perera, DrPH, was conducted in December 2006. Dr. Perera is professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and serves as director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH). A pioneer in the field of molecular epidemiology, she is internationally recognized for her research on environmental causes of cancer, developmental disorders, and asthma. The CCCEH focuses on the effects of ambient air pollution, environmental tobacco smoke, and pesticides on health outcomes in children and adults, and is currently conducting two major studies in New York City, a third study in the urban area of Krakow, Poland, and a fourth research project in Chongqing, China.     

Using the Image Exchange to Enhance Interdisciplinary Team Building in Child Welfare

A team building activity, the image exchange, was helpful to interdisciplinary teams in clarifying perceptions and opinions of participants about the roles of each discipline (child welfare, domestic violence, mental health, and substance abuse workers) at a five-day interdisciplinary training workshop. Discussion of team members’ perceptions and views provided opportunities to develop insights about misperceptions. Training in team development and role clarification provided a foundation for the development of effective interdisciplinary collaboration, which may improve interdisciplinary practice.Dr. Packard is an Associate Professor and Dr. Jones is a Professor in the School of Social Work at SDSU. At the time of writing, Ms. Nahrstedt was a Research Assistant in the School of Social Work at SDSU. This project was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children, Youth, and Families.     

History of the american college health association

Following Dr Edward Hitchcock's lead at Amherst College in 1861, soon other institutions of higher education established physical education departments that evolved into independent college health programs. As the field of college health expanded, leaders from numerous campuses began meeting to share information and discuss formation of a national organization. As a result, the American Student Health Association was founded in 1920 to promote campus health care for students and advance the interests of college health. The name was changed to the American College Health Association in 1948. The past history of this organization has been well documented in the literature, so this review will focus more on ACHA's accomplishments over the past 20 years.(1)(,) (2)(,) (3)(,) (4).     

Self-perceptions of unpopularity in adolescence: Links to past and current adjustment

Self-perceptions of unpopularity in 404 high school students were found to reflect current emotional and behavioral distress. The authors studied these youths from ages 9 to 15 to examine early risks and current factors associated with perceptions of unpopularity. Feelings of unpopularity in middle childhood increased the risk of similar feelings in adolescence. However, self-reports of unpopularity at age 9 were not strong predictors of emotional and anti-social problems at age 15. Identification of unpopular adolescents and recommendations for future practice and research are proposed.This research was supported in part by Grant MH41569, National Institute of Mental Health. It was adapted from the doctoral dissertation of Dr. Cohen, Simmons College School of Social Work, completed in June, 1991. The authors wish to thank the dissertation committee members, Craig Edelbrock and Barent Walsh for their major contributions.Dr. Cohen is affiliated with the Early Adulthood Research Project, Simmons College, School of Social Work, and the co-authors are affiliated with the School of Social Work.     

Live Your Life Out Loud

Susan Love, MD, MBA, has dedicated her professional life to the eradication of breast cancer. Author of the bestselling Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book, Dr. Susan Love's Menopause and Hormone Book, and Live a Little, Susan is Chief Visionary Officer of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation where she oversees an active research program centered on breast cancer cause and prevention. Susan co-founded the National Breast Cancer Coalition in the early 1990s, and she served on President Clinton's National Cancer Advisory Board from 1998–2004. Her recent projects include recruiting 377,000 women for the Love Army of Women, an Internet program that partners women and scientists to accelerate breast cancer research; and the online Health of Women Study designed to identify the cause of breast cancer. A recipient of six honorary doctorate degrees, Susan is Clinical Professor of Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. In June of 2012, Susan was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia and was treated with an allogenic stem cell transplant.     

Marital conflict

During 1968, a centre for the treatment of autistic children was established in Perth, Western Australia, under the administration of the Mental Health Services. It was named in honour of Dr. Mildred Creak, whose authoritative contribution to the study of autism and her invaluable assistance in establishing this centre is thereby recognized.     

Group psychotherapy with pathological gamblers

This paper reviews some of the group therapy techniques utilized in the authors' work with pathological gamblers. These conceptual tools ranged from rational-emotive psychotherapy to Zen philosophy which provided a background and foundation for working with pathological gamblers. Many therapeutic and antitherapeutic beliefs and behaviors of gamblers are discussed including narcissism, manipulative behavior, and rejection of Gamblers Anonymous. Each technique, behavior or belief discussed is explained in terms of how each affects the group process and how each is managed in group therapy.This paper represents a discourse on the group treatment of pathological gamblers primarily from the experiences of Julian Ingersoll Taber, Ph.D. who was the coordinator of the Gambling Treatment Program at the Cleveland Veterans Administration Medical Center for seven years. Dr. Taber is currently Chief of the Addictive Disorders Treatment Program at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Reno, Nevada. Martin Paul Chaplin, Ph.D., who is specializing in the treatment of addiction, assisted in the theoretical and editorial aspects of this article. He worked under the aegis of Dr. Taber as an intern at the Gambling Treatment Program and currently has a position at Community Mental Health Services of Medina in Ohio.     

Response to Acierno’s comments on Wong and Waite, “Elder mistreatment predicts later physical and psychological health: Results from a national longitudinal study”

We respond to Dr. Acierno’s concerns about the measurement of elder mistreatment and social support in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project. We made our analytic decisions carefully and conducted systematic robustness checks and believe our findings are theoretically important.     

Misperceptions of reproductive ideals among American husbands and wives

In this paper data from the Michigan Time Use Survey are used to document the extent of misperceptions of reproductive ideals among couples. Perceptual errors of spouses are found to be common and also nonrandom. The errors are influenced by a variety of socioeconomic variables. The paper concludes that research on fertility intentions and contraceptive use-effectiveness, which uses wife-only data, may be flawed. The paper also speculates on the extent and quality of marital communication.This research was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.Daniel Seiver is a Professor of Economics, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056. He received his Ph.D. from Yale. Dr. Seiver's research interests include financial economics, fertility, and microeconomic theory.Donald Cymrot received his Ph.D. from Brown University. His research interests include labor economics and the economics of pensions. Dr. Cymrot is a researcher for the Center for Naval Analyses, 4401 Ford Avenue, P.O. Box 16268, Alexandria, Virginia 22303-0268.     

Touch,status, and gender at professional meetings

Observers unobtrusively recorded instances of interpersonal touch at three large academic meetings (two of psychologists, one of philosophers). The names and affiliations of the individuals involved in these touches were later referred to published sources in order to develop codes reflecting the relative personal and institutional statuses of these individuals. There was mixed but on balance no overall evidence that higher-status individuals touched lower-status individuals more than vice versa. However, higher- and lower-status individuals initiated different kinds of touch. Higher-status individuals initiated touch that was judged more often to be affectionate and that was more often directed to the arm or shoulder, whereas lower-status individuals initiated more formal touches and handshakes. Gender asymmetry in touch was very weak overall, but favored male-to-female over female-to-male touch when the two individuals had equal professional status.Judee K. Burgoon served as Action Editor for this article.This research was supported by grant #RR07143 (Biomedical Research Support Grant, Department of Health and Human Services) to Northeastern University and by National Science Foundation grant # SBR-9311544. Thanks are extended to Ellen M. Veccia, who collaborated on the study design; Sabrina Herman, Treniece Lewis, Vanessa Roberts, Garry Germaine, Voravut Ratanakommon, and Alex Zelenchuk, who served as observers; and Denise Marcoux, Curtney Jacobs, Christopher O'Brien, and Alex Zelenchuk, who helped code the status indicators and prepare the touch data for analysis.     

Interview with Dr. Marsha Martin,US Department of Health and Human Services

With this edition, the Journal of Children & Poverty introduces a new section titled Inquiry. The purpose of this section is to highlight a series of frontline issues simultaneously facing policymakers and practitioners, as well as the burgeoning research interests of the academic community. Inquiry is not meant to be an opinion or editorial section, but rather a glimpse into what some of the journal's readership, be they academics, policymakers or practitioners, are currently thinking. This section also intends to put forth a cross-national perspective on issues that transcend national boundaries, while being deeply rooted in a country's political, economic and social history. Our hope is that the Journal of Children & Poverty's Inquiry section can provide a place for thought and reflection on the issues that affect children and their families today, as well as the bold and pragmatic solutions necessary for tomorrow. We launch Inquiry with an interview conducted on September 6, 2000 with Dr. Marsha Martin, Special Assistant to Secretary Donna Shalala, US Department of Health and Human Services. In her role as Special Assistant, Dr. Martin is assigned to work on issues at the discretion of the Secretary. Given that the Health and Human Services Agency is the only federal agency dedicated to the health and social well-being of all Americans, particularly America's families, her position requires that she work on a variety of cross-cutting issues that confront the public. She functions as the eyes and ears of the Secretary, focusing on the issues as brought to the attention of the Secretary by various constituencies, particularly those that are disproportionately or adversely affected by policy changes, as well as vulnerable populations or those with special needs. She must function in both a responsive and proactive way assuring all the while that the Department's domestic and international policies are consistent.     

Economic distress and mental health: The role of family coping resources and behaviors

Relationships among economic distress, family coping resources and behaviors, and mental health are examined among a sample of 203 married men and 207 married women. Economic distress is negatively associated with mental health. Although family coping resources are lower among those experiencing economic distress and are generally positively related to mental health, their role as mediators of relationships between economic distress and mental health is limited. Economic distress is positively related to family coping behaviors. However, these behaviors do not have positive relationships with mental health and do not counteract the effects of economic distress on mental health. Some coping resources and behaviors have buffering effects on relationships between economic distress and mental health while others have exacerbating effects.This article is a revision of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, August, 1986. The research was supported by grant 84–164 from the Office of Program Evaluation and Research, Ohio Department of Mental Health. Additional support was provided by the Office of Computing Activities, University of Dayton.Patricia Voydanoff is Director of the Center for the Study of Family Development, University of Dayton. Dr. Voydanoff holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Wayne State University. Her research interests include work and family life and coping with economic distress.Brenda W. Donnelly is a Research Associate at the Center for the Study of Family Development, University of Dayton. Dr. Donnelly received her Ph.D. from the University of Delaware. She is currently conducting research on adolescent childbearing and religion and family life.