Mental health support needs of people with a learning difficulty: a medical or a social model?

People with learning difficulties, like all disabled people, face social oppression. Much recent policy and practice are underpinned by at least some understanding of this oppression, and the social model of disability has been influential in discussions of services and supports for people with learning difficulties. However, in the area of mental health, the picture is somewhat different. This paper argues that the medical model has predominated in discussions of mental health support for people with learning difficulties, and that a social model approach could have much to offer. The paper draws on an ongoing action research study in which service providers, families and young people with learning difficulties are working together to articulate what is needed, in order to find routes to improve the support offered to young people with learning difficulties and mental health support needs.     

STEIN'S METHOD AND THE BERRY-ESSÉEN THEOREM

Stein's method is used to prove the Lindeberg-Feller theorem and a generalization of the Berry-Esséen theorem. The arguments involve only manipulation of probability inequalities, and form an attractive alternative to the less direct Fourier-analytic methods which are traditionally employed.     

Sex therapy with lesbian couples: a four stage approach

The many factors--social, cultural, psychological--that shape homosexual sexual expression render purely behavioral sex therapy models one-dimensional and ineffective for lesbian clients with sexual presenting problems. Though a behavioral approach may be useful later in the treatment of such problems, the effective clinician must first address the inimical social and cultural contexts that frame lesbian sexual impasses. This paper offers specific techniques, both direct and indirect, designed to illuminate and neutralize these contexts. Additionally, the author presents a sequence of sensate focus exercises tailored to the particular needs of lesbian couples.     

Factors influencing contraception continuation rates: The oral and the intrauterine methods

The technique of multi-sort analysis was used to compare the relative duration of use of oral and intrauterine contraception among low socio-economic groups in Baltimore City. The clinical records of over 12,000 women who had received contraception through the Baltimore public services were analyzed. The type of method a woman used was found to be the most important factor affecting her probability of continuing contraception. Her age, race, and how long she had been using the method also influenced this probability. The strictness of the criteria used for the definition of continuation rates and the fact that experience was incomplete for many intrauterine contraceptors probably in part explain the somewhat low continuation rates obtained for both methods. It is suggested that the intrinsic characteristics of each method may lead to a clinical impression favoring the oral even when statistical evidence, as presented here, favors the intrauterine method.     

Nonverbal decoding skill and attention to nonverbal cues: A research note

A measure of differential preference for attending to three channels of nonverbal communication was developed, with which scores for differential attention to face, body, and voice tone were generated for 17 college subjects. These scores were correlated with subjects' nonverbal decoding accuracy in the same three channels as measured by a standard test of decoding nonverbal cues. Significant positive relationships between channel preference and accuracy were found for the two video channels; no relationship was found for the audio channel.This research was conducted while both authors held National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowships at Harvard University. They wish to thank Robert Rosenthal for advice, Peter L. Rogers for technical assistance and Myron Wish for valuable criticisms of an earlier draft.     

BALANCED DESIGNS FOR ROW-AND-COLUMN EXPERIMENTS WITH TWO NON-INTERACTING SETS OF TREATMENTS, ONE SET NOT BEING APPLIED TO ALL THE ROWS1

This note gives and discusses balanced row-and-column designs for experiments with two non-interacting sets of treatments, one set not being applied to all the rows. These designs are potentially useful for occasions when trees that have tested one set of experimental treatments are needed for testing a second set before the residual effects of the first have become negligible, but when the experimenter wishes to apply the second set to only some of the rows. The designs are appropriate if the residual and new effects do not interact.     

Race Differences in Abortion Attitudes

Abstract Public opinion surveys since 1965 find that black respondentsare less in favor of legal abortion than white respondents.Using the 1982 NORC General Social Survey, we replicate andexpand one of the few studies (Combs and Welch, 1982) that examinedthe structure and determinants of prochoice attitudes of blacksand whites. Our major findings are (1) the racial differencein prochoice attitude is as great in 1982 as in the 1970s, (2)contrary to the suggestion of Combs and Welch, the demographicand attitudinal determinants of abortion attitudes differ forblacks and for whites, and (3) for those respondents who differentiatetheir acceptance of legal abortion, the pattern of prochoiceattitudes also differs by race.