Emergency and Disaster Services in Brookings County, South Dakota

The nature of disasters has changed over the years. There is a need for informing the general public of the nature of these changes so that they can be prepared for disasters that may be possible in the future. This thesis addresses the nature of these changes and what the response has been to each. An effort will be made to predict the types of disasters that may be most certain in the future. Most counties in South Dakota do not have written plans for their communities in the event of a disaster. Brookings County is one of the few that does. For some of the counties that are attempting to get their Emergency and Disaster Services and their county plans moving, Brookings County is the model they use. It is one of the best in the state of South Dakota. This thesis attempts to examine why emergency services are needed in Brookings County, and why a Emergency and Disaster Services program will continue to be important in the future. If there were no disasters in Brookings County, there would be no need for an Emergency and Disaster Service or the various plans that go with it for the future. When examining the geography of a given area, one is interested in more than just where something is located and why. All living organisms on the earth\u27s surface interrelate with one another in various ways. The purpose of this study is to investigate a small, but very important, aspect of a county\u27s future; how it can mitigate the losses of lives and property should a-disaster occur

Do Children\u27s Advocacy Centers improve families’ experiences of child sexual abuse investigations?

Abstract Objective The Children\u27s Advocacy Center (CAC) model of child abuse investigation is designed to be more child and family-friendly than traditional methods, but there have been no rigorous studies of their effect on children\u27s and caregivers’ experience. Data collected as part of the Multi-Site Evaluation of Children\u27s Advocacy Centers were used to examine whether CACs improve caregivers’ and children\u27s satisfaction with investigations. Methods Nonoffending caregiver and child satisfaction were assessed during research interviews, including the administration of a 14-item Investigation Satisfaction Scale (ISS) for caregivers. Two hundred and twenty-nine sexual abuse cases investigated through a CAC were compared to 55 cases investigated in communities with no CAC. Results Hierarchical linear regression results indicated that caregivers in CAC cases were more satisfied with the investigation than those from comparison sites, even after controlling for a number of relevant variables. There were few differences between CAC and comparison samples on children\u27s satisfaction. Children described moderate to high satisfaction with the investigation, while a minority expressed concerns about their experience. Conclusions The CAC model shows promise for improving families’ experiences, but to build upon this promise, agencies will need to systematize procedures for refining and adapting the model as new research becomes available

Supporting Sleep and Health of Employed Parents with Typical and Exceptional Care Demands

Employed parents of children with disabilities and serious health conditions report high levels of stress increasing the level of risk for sleep and physical health problems. This study examines the influence of personal, family, and work supports on sleep and health. Conservation of resources theory and the continuum of dependent care model frame the conceptual development of this exploratory study. Using secondary analysis of the 2016 National Study of the Changing Workforce, employed parents providing disability care were compared to those providing care to children without disabilities to determine how personal, family, and workplace resources affect sleep and physical health. Bivariate and multivariate tests revealed organizational support was the strongest predictor of sleep and physical health problems. Exceptional care demands were associated with poorer sleep and physical health. Job autonomy and coworker support moderated sleep and physical health outcomes for employed parents of children with disabilities. Practice implications include developing family supportive organizational cultures and interventions that aid employed parents with exceptional care demands. Occupational social workers can assist ensuring organizational health promotion and prevention initiatives include targeted interventions. Future research should examine the long-term effects of exceptional care demands and impact of workplace initiatives

Employed Parents of Children with Typical and Exceptional Care Responsibilities: Family Demands and Workplace Supports

Employed parents caring for their children with disabilities struggle to meet both work and family responsibilities and attain fit between their work and family lives. Employed workers who parent children with disabilities can experience high levels of stress as a result of their exceptional care demands. Few studies have examined how personal, family, and workplace characteristics influence conflict and stress among employed parents of children with disabilities. A secondary analysis of the 2016 National Study of the Changing Workforce addressed this need. Personal, family, and workplace characteristics of parents providing disability care were compared to those of employed parents providing typical family care. How these characteristics mitigate or exacerbate work and family conflict and stress was examined. Whether having exceptional care demands moderates workplace supports on employed parents’ work and family conflict and stress was also investigated. Results from this study found significant differences between the two groups on personal, family, and workplace characteristics as well as conflict (work-family conflict, family-work conflict) and stress. Regression models investigating personal, family, and workplace supports found that caring for a child with a disability is associated with higher levels of work-family conflict, family-work conflict, and stress. Exceptional care demands also moderated the effects of workplace supports on family-work conflict and stress. Implications for organizational practice suggest that building family supportive organizational cultures and targeted interventions might reduce both work-family conflict and stress for this group of workers

Quality-of-Life Priorities in Patients with Thyroid Cancer : a Multinational European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Phase I Study

Background: The objectives of this study were to determine quality of life (QoL) issues that are relevant to thyroid cancer patients cross-culturally, and to identify those with highest relevance to them in addition to the more general issues covered by the core European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer QoL questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30). Methods: A systematic literature search provided a list of potentially relevant QoL issues to supplement the core questionnaire EORTC QLQ-C30, which is widely used in research and in care and addresses QoL issues relevant to all groups of cancer patients. A panel of experts revised this list, and thyroid cancer patients rated the issues regarding their relevance for QoL by selecting the 25 issues that they would include in a thyroid cancer- specific QoL module. Results: The literature search and expert discussion provided a list of 71 QoL issues that was rated by thyroid cancer patients (n = 110) from seven countries. All issues were of high priority to at least some of the patients. The most frequently selected issues were sudden attacks of tiredness, exhaustion, quality of sleep, employment, social support, fear of cancer progression, fear of second operation, difficulties swallowing, and globus sensation. Conclusions: Thyroid cancer patients cross-culturally rate fatigue-related issues as highly important for their QoL, calling for increased efforts to find successful treatments for this problem. Vocational rehabilitation is also highly relevant for them and should therefore be an important aim of multidisciplinary care. The third important area of concern is psychological issues, especially fear of progression and of additional treatments.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

The EORTC module for quality of life in patients with thyroid cancer: phase III

Item does not contain fulltextThe purpose of the study was to pilot-test a questionnaire measuring health-related quality of life (QoL) in thyroid cancer patients to be used with the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) core questionnaire EORTC QLQ-C30. A provisional questionnaire with 47 items was administered to patients treated for thyroid cancer within the last 2 years. Patients were interviewed about time and help needed to complete the questionnaire, and whether they found the items understandable, confusing or annoying. Items were kept in the questionnaire if they fulfilled pre-defined criteria: relevant to the patients, easy to understand, not confusing, few missing values, neither floor nor ceiling effects, and high variance. A total of 182 thyroid cancer patients in 15 countries participated (n = 115 with papillary, n = 31 with follicular, n = 22 with medullary, n = 6 with anaplastic, and n = 8 with other types of thyroid cancer). Sixty-six percent of the patients needed 15 min or less to complete the questionnaire. Of the 47 items, 31 fulfilled the predefined criteria and were kept unchanged, 14 were removed, and 2 were changed. Shoulder dysfunction was mentioned by 5 patients as missing and an item covering this issue was added. To conclude, the EORTC quality of life module for thyroid cancer (EORTC QLQ-THY34) is ready for the final validation phase IV