Fiscal Mapping Autism Spectrum Disorder Funds: A Case Study of Ohio

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have complex needs requiring regular service utilization. Policymakers, administrators, and community leaders are looking for ways to finance ASD services and systems. Understanding the fiscal resources that support ASD services is essential. This article uses fiscal mapping to explore ASD funding streams in Ohio. Fiscal mapping steps are overviewed to assist ASD stakeholders in identifying and examining ASD-related funding. Implications are drawn related to how fiscal mapping could be used to identify and leverage funding for ASD services. The resulting information is critical to utilizing existing resources, advocating for resources, and leveraging available funds.     

Multiple Co-occurring Behaviours among Gamblers in Treatment: Implications and Assessment

A substantial portion of gamblers in treatment may have co-occurring mental health disorders including substance use disorders, especially alcohol dependency, personality disorders, affective disorders, anxiety disorders and impulse control disorders. Co-occurring mental health disorders affect treatment seeking, the treatment process and its outcome, quality of life and functioning in many mental health disorders. Participants in this study were 78 adults enrolled in state-supported out-patient services for pathological gambling and current Gamblers Anonymous attendees. The majority of participants (76.6%) had co-occurring behaviours; 55.8% had multiple co-occurring behaviours. Participants with multiple co-occurring behaviours were more likely to report that a co-occurring behaviour increased the severity of their gambling symptoms. A dose/response relationship between number of co-occurring behaviours and severity of gambling problems was found. Co-occurring behaviours can interact with gambling behaviour. Brief, validated screening instruments are available for screening and diagnosing co-occurring behaviours among gamblers presenting for treatment.     

The Rate of Return on Investment in Wine

Is wine an investment alternative to stocks and bonds? First, we review prior studies regarding the pecuniary rate of return to wine and other alternatives to financial assets. Next, we calculate the rate of return to holding red Bordeaux wine from 1986 to 1996 using a repeat‐sale regression. Finally, we contrast the financial performance of wine, both on an aggregate basis and for various portfolios, to that of other asset classes. We conclude that wine does not yield greater returns than financial assets, especially when the volatility of returns and transaction costs are taken into account.     

Interdisciplinary Applications: Providing a Past for “Bodies That Matter”: Judith Butler's Impact on the Archaeology of Gender

Recent archeological work on gender and sexuality has drawn on Judith Butler's discussions of abjection and gender performance in ways that promise to contribute to explicating these concepts. Representations of the past have the potential to lend the illusion of time depth, and thus cultural legitimacy, to contemporary social phenomena. Initially, feminist scholarship in archaeology did not critically interrogate gender. Consequently, it could be used to reinforce static, natural, and binary representations of gender in reconstructions of the past and their use in conservative ways in the present. Recently, some archaeologists have begun to focus on the regulatory modes through which gender was produced and reproduced in prehistoric communities. Archaeological work has been especially successful in examining the material dimensions of gender performance, thus addressing one of the repeated criticisms of this concept. The authors of this essay provide an overview of this recent archaeological writing with an emphasis on the ways it draws on, critiques, and extends the work of Judith Butler.     

Is Managed Mental Health Treatment Psychotherapy?

The corporate takeover of mental health treatment has dramatically affected mental health treatment. Two essential constituents of psychotherapeutic process, the relationship between patient and therapist and the special communicative process associated with a talking treatment, have been significantly compromised. Therapists and patients are being forced to consider whether in the absence of confidentiality, self determination, and a secure treatment partnership managed mental health care can be called psychotherapy. Drawing on several detailed sessions from the managed treatment of a young woman, the writer concludes that the answer is no.     

Sexual health education group for adolescents with mental problems

1. Providing sexual health education for adolescents with mental health problems presents a difficult but important clinical task. 2. Using a group format for this task is an effective way to provide information about sexual health and promote positive coping strategies related to relationships and sexual issues. 3. Group leaders need to be aware of their own values related to sexual issues and have the ability to be frank and nonjudgmental.