An evaluation of the 'Skipper' designated driver program: Preliminary results

The general aim of designated driver programs is to reduce the level of drink driving by encouraging potential drivers to travel with a driver who has abstained from (or at least limited) consuming alcohol. Designated driver programs appear to be quite widespread around the world, however a limited number have been effectively evaluated. This paper reports the preliminary results from the outcome component of an evaluation of a designated driver program called 'Skipper', which was trialled in a provincial city in Queensland. In order to asses changes over time in self-reported designated driver awareness and behaviour, as well as drinking and drink driving behaviour, surveys were conducted three weeks prior to (baseline) and four months following (follow-up) the commencement of the trial. The sample comprised 413 individuals from representative drinking venues in the 'intervention area' (202 baseline; 211 follow-up) and 401 individuals from a 'comparison area' (203 baseline; 199 follow-up). The preliminary results indicate that awareness of the program in the intervention area was quite high four months following its introduction. The results also suggest that the 'Skipper' program and the related publicity had positive impacts on behaviour with there being an increase in the proportion of people participating in designated driver as a passenger and a tendency for those who act as designated drivers to do so more often. In addition, there was no evidence of an increase in alcohol consumption among the passengers of designated drivers compared to what otherwise may have been the case. It is less clear at this stage whether the 'Skipper' program has impacted on other behaviours of interest. Suggestions for further research and program improvement are discussed as well as limitations of the research

Inside the Black Box: Stakeholder Perceptions on the Value of Arts Field Trips

This descriptive, qualitative study, an extension of an experimental primary study, documents stakeholders’ experiences and perceptions of attending multiple field trips where urban elementary students in fourth and fifth grades were randomly assigned to receive three arts field trips including an art museum, a live theater performance, and a symphony concert. Evidence of declining K-12 attendance to educational cultural or arts field trips has been mounting for decades. Further, minority students in struggling schools and their teachers report attending fewer field trip experiences, as well as limited access to arts experiences in their schools. The full impact of this declining and restricted access to arts and culture on social-emotional learning (SEL) as well as on other academic outcomes is unknown. However, rigorous empirical evidence supporting the educational benefits of culturally enriching field trips continues to amass. I find that adult as well as student stakeholders report the importance of experience and exposure as the main impacts of educational arts field trips. Additionally, I find that classroom teachers support and advocate for experiential field trips for their students and consider it an important part of the job of educating students in their schools and community. Further, students make meaning from these experiences and articulate that meaning in intricate detail months after the field trips occur. Students also recall field trips from years past, connecting new experiences to prior learning, thus indicating that these are important and memorable experiences for them. I also find evidence of student-to-student connection via common experience, and shared meaning and learning. Lastly, students advocate for these experiences for themselves and for their peers, and articulate the importance of these experiences with poignant and compelling detail

Arts Smarts or Random Visits: Arts Field Trips in the American Education Policy Context

The school field trip is as much a part of the American educational experience as letter grades and recess. However, in response to a variety of pressures such as accountability, safety, and funding, the school field trip is reported to be in decline. Traditional field trip destinations, like museums and zoos, claim that attendance has declined. Further, these institutions feel pressure to connect field trips directly to state educational standards, or even design field trips to meet state standards that may be outside their areas of expertise, in order to justify a field. In this collection of three studies, I examine the effects of culturally enriching field trips to arts institutions on student outcomes in an experiment. I conduct a qualitative study of multiple field trips and report stakeholder perspectives. Finally, I examine the state of arts field trips across the country, including a longitudinal report on field trip attendance to art museums in multiple states. I find positive benefits of field trips to students on social-emotional outcomes. Further, there is evidence that these benefits compound with more field trip attendance. Stakeholders, including the student participants, report benefits from these field trips that both align with and expand from the experimental study findings. Lastly, I find that there is evidence of a decline in field trips to art museums and document the reported impact of the policy pressures on these field trips

Minimum Drinking Age Laws and Infant Health Outcomes

Alcohol policies have potentially far-reaching impacts on risky sexual behavior, prenatal health behaviors, and subsequent outcomes for infants. We examine whether changes in minimum drinking age (MLDA) laws affect the likelihood of poor birth outcomes. Using data from the National Vital Statistics (NVS) for the years 1978-88, we find that a drinking age of 18 is associated with adverse outcomes among births to young mothers -- including higher incidences of low birth weight and premature birth, but not congenital malformations. The effects are largest among black women. We find suggestive evidence from both the NVS and the 1979 National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY) that the MLDA laws alter the composition of births that occur. In states with lenient drinking laws, young black mothers are more likely to have used alcohol 12 months prior to the birth of their child and less likely to report paternal information on the birth certificate. We suspect that lenient drinking laws generate poor birth outcomes because they increase the number of unplanned pregnancies.

Tutor Perceptions of the Personal Academic Tutor Role: An Appreciative Inquiry

The research project came about as a result of informal conversations between teaching staff in the Department for Children and Families at the University of Worcester (UW). Anecdotal evidence suggested that staff whose roles included that of Personal Academic Tutor (PAT) had a variety of ideas and strategies evolved through experience and we wanted to learn more, challenge our assumptions and share best practice with colleagues across the School of Education. Responses in relation to workload, PAT boundaries and accessibility were interesting. Challenges of the role and the importance of self-care were also explored

The Meaning of Recovery from Co-Occurring Disorder: Views from Consumers and Staff Members Living and Working in Housing First Programming

The current study seeks to understand the concept of recovery from the perspectives of consumers and staff living and working in a supportive housing model designed to serve those with co-occurring disorder. Interview and focus group data were collected from consumers and staff from four housing programs. Data analyzed using an approach that combined case study and grounded theory methodologies demonstrate that: consumers’ and staff members’ views of recovery were highly compatible and resistant to abstinence-based definitions of recovery; recovery is personal; stability is a foundation for recovery; recovery is a process; and the recovery process is not linear. These themes are more consistent with mental health-focused conceptions of recovery than those traditionally used within the substance abuse field, and they help demonstrate how recovery can be influenced by the organization of services in which consumers are embedded

Observing the CMB at High-l using the VSA and AMI

We discuss two experiments - the Very Small Array (VSA) and the Arcminute MicroKelvin Imager (AMI) - and their prospects for observing the CMB at high angular multipoles. Whilst the VSA is primarily designed to observe primary anisotropies in the CMB, AMI is designed to image secondary anisotropies via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. The combined l-range of these two instruments is between l = 150 and ~10000.Comment: 8 pages, 13 figures. To be published in the proceedings of "The Cosmic Microwave Background and its Polarization", New Astronomy Reviews, (eds. S. Hanany and K.A. Olive

The Evolution of Elderly Telehealth and Health Informatics

Many elderly individuals experience memory loss and often dementia as they age. This causes problems for the elderly due to diminished skills and increase in medical problems and natural decline. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) introduced a national home telehealth program, Care Coordination/Home Telehealth (CCHT). Its purpose was to coordinate the care of veteran patients with chronic conditions and avoid their unnecessary admission to long-term institutional care. Such programs are cost-effective. Long-term care insurance companies are likely to cover these services. Home care and nursing home corporations are following the VHA’s lead. We have recently witnessed significant advances in technology. Internet and mobile applications have opened a new world, providing information and opportunities for individuals to learn more information about illness and at a much faster rate. Smart home technology has evolved. Elderly patients often encounter difficulties using these technologies. Despite the advances in telehealth and telemedicine and the evolution of the technology, many individuals cannot afford the treatment or the technology. These same individuals and families are part of the digital divide, and they have not embraced the new technology. Federal programs have been developed and implemented to help this portion of the population

Developmental Approach to Measuring Spiritual Maturity from a Christian Perspective

Although broad measures have revealed relationships between spirituality and other psychological variables, the exact nature of these remains unclear. Further, many measures fail to consider values significant to practitioners of faith and of psychology. The purpose of this study was to formulate a measure of spiritual maturity that took into account both the beliefs of Christian participants and indices of behavioral health considered important to secular psychologists. Employing the expertise of two sets of subject matter experts, first to construct items and then to evaluate their face validity, resulted in 42 items comprising two subscales of the new Christian Maturity scale based upon Clairvaux (n.d.): Loving God for Self's Sake and Loving God for God's Sake. The items were administered along with multiple construct validity indicators to 541 young adults enrolled in a private Christian university. Item analysis revealed large inter-item correlations. Ten items were retained for each of the two subscalesSchool of Teaching and Curriculum Leadershi