Brief Psychiatric Treatment and Symptom Improvement in University Students

Abstract

A total of 242 university students seen in an outpatient mental health clinic were evaluated for symptom changes during treatment using both a self-report inventory and chart notations. Specific clusters of major presenting and major improving symptoms, based on combined frequency and severity measures, were obtained for each of the largest diagnostic groups. Self-rated improvement on major symptoms ranged from 81.8 to 88.4% for patients with anxiety neurosis, depressive neurosis, and adjustment reaction, while personality disorder patients reported 54.5% improvement. Chart-based overall improvement rates were uniformly lower (36.4 to 77.3%) than corresponding self-report figures for each diagnostic group. The extent to which chart-rated overall improvement correlated with self-rated improvement on specific symptoms was analyzed.     

Abstinence and Relapse Rates Following a College Campus-Based Quit & Win Contest

Abstract

Objective: To conduct and evaluate Quit & Win contests at 2 2-year college and 2 4-year university campuses. Participants: During Spring semester, 2006, undergraduates (N = 588) interested in quitting smoking signed up for a Quit & Win 30-day cessation contest for a chance to win a lottery prize. Methods: Participants (N = 588) completed a baseline survey, provided a urine sample to verify smoking status before joining the contest, and completed a follow-up survey at contest end to assess abstinence. Participants reporting continuous 30-day abstinence were surveyed again 2 weeks post contest to assess relapse. Results: Participants smoked an average of 9.8 ± 6.7 cigarettes/day on 26.7 ± 5.7 days/month. Among participants completing a follow-up survey (74%), 72.1% reported abstinence during the entire contest period (Intent-to-Treat Analysis = 53.2%). 55.3% of those abstinent at the end of contest had resumed smoking 2 weeks post contest. Conclusions: Campus Quit & Win contests appear feasible, acceptable, and effective at facilitating short-term abstinence. Further research is needed to identify strategies to prevent postcontest relapse.     

Confronting the “Threat” of Private Practice

Although an increasing number of social workers are engaging in private clinical practice and a majority of entering MSW students plan to do so, content on private practice is generally not included in MSW curricula. This article reports on a 1992-93 survey of faculty and student attitudes concerning various aspects of studying private practice in MSW programs. It compares the views of the two groups, assesses the implications for social work education, and encourages creative approaches to integrating the realities of professional practice with the traditional values and mission of social work.     

Gambling Revenues as a Public Administration Issue: Electronic Gaming Machines in Victoria

Gambling activities and the revenues derived have been seen as a way to increase economic development in deprived areas. There are also, however, concerns about the effects of gambling in general and electronic gaming machines (EGMs) in particular, on the resources available to the localities in which they are situated. This paper focuses on the factors that determine the extent and spending of community benefit-related EGM-generated resources within Victoria, Australia, focusing in particular on the relationships between EGM activity and socio-economic and social capital indicators, and how this relates to the community benefit resources generated by gaming.     

Producing ratio measures of effect with quantitative microbial risk assessment

Estimating the risk of infections or other outcomes incident to pathogen exposure is a primary goal of quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA). Such estimates are useful to predict population-level risks, to evaluate exposures based on normative or tolerable risk guidelines, and to interpret the likely public health relevance of microbial measurements in environmental media. To evaluate alternative control measures (interventions), ratio estimates of effect (e.g., odds and risk ratios) are needed that are more broadly interpretable in the health sciences and consistent with convention in epidemiology. In this paper, we propose a general method for estimating widely used ratio measures of effect derived from stochastic QMRA approaches, including the generation of appropriate confidence intervals. Such QMRA-derived ratios can be used as a basis for evaluating interventions via hypothesis testing and for inclusion in systematic reviews and meta-analyses in a form consistent with risk estimation approaches commonly used in epidemiology.     

The Hidden Costs of Informal Elder Care

Demographic, socio-economic, and political trends throughout the developed world have contrived to make elder care an issue of utmost policy importance. They also have led to sharp reductions in health and social program expenditures. Policymakers are looking to communities to help meet growing care needs because community care is believed to be better and cheaper than institutional care. However, these beliefs become untenable when costs beyond public sector costs are considered. In fact, informal care carries a number of hidden costs that seldom are considered in health and social policy discussions. This article introduces a taxonomy of the costs of informal elder care, which can be categorized as out-of-pocket expenditures, foregone employment opportunities, unpaid labor, and emotional, physical and social well-being costs. Then, an illustration is provided regarding how the taxonomy can be applied to understanding the incidence, magnitude, and distribution of these costs among stakeholder groups. This taxonomy can help inform ongoing debate about health and social policy reform.     

Decision-making in Social Work Field Education: A “Good Enough” Framework

This qualitative study was designed to explore decision-making processes used by directors of field education in social work programs in the USA. It is a follow-up to previous research showing the dilemmas that field directors face [specifics deleted to maintain the integrity of the review process]. We asked 22 field directors to explain how they would handle different dilemmas designed to simulate the kinds of issues that typically arise in field education. Analyses revealed that field directors use a four-dimensional decision-making process to address competing demands, employing a ‘good enough’ framework. The four dimensions include student learning, professional ethics, agency relationships, and administrative expectations.     

Ethnic Classification and Culture: The Case of the Tujia in Hubei,China

Specific cultural practices, or their absence, definitively mark many ethnic identities. Why then are cultural practices frequently at odds with ethnic categories? The case of the Tujia, an ethnic minority in China, demonstrates the disjuncture between officially assigned ethnic categories, culture and local identity. It also suggests a potential explanation for why such disjunctures occur. State officials apparently classified Tujia in terms of actual cultural practices that were not important locally. There may be a general pattern that outsiders classify others based on culture while locals classify themselves based on socio-political experience.     

Going Green: The Process of Lifestyle Change1

This article draws on 40 in‐depth semi‐structured interviews of three groups of people who restrict their consumption in various ways: voluntary simplifiers, religious environmentalists, and green home owners. I identify common patterns in the emergence of green lifestyles across all groups. Green practices are not isolated decisions or actions, but components in an ongoing project. As a result, green lifestyles are often experienced as both a work in progress and a provisionally coherent life narrative. Furthermore, I explore bricolage, the cobbling together of resources at hand by nonexperts, as a mechanism for lifestyle change and expand the concept to include environmental practices and themes. I adopt a pragmatist perspective to understand lifestyle change as a deliberate process undertaken in response to a problem left underaddressed by current policies and practices. This article also weighs in on the debate in the sociology of culture over how culture influences action.