Foreclosure and Health Status

In 2009, more than 2.8 million housing units in the U.S. received a foreclosure notice. That represents about 1 in every 45 properties and a 120% increase in the number of foreclosed properties since 2007. Real estate experts predict even more foreclosures in 2010 as high unemployment continues. The cascading effects of the foreclosure crisis on the U.S. economy are all too clear; the effects on individuals’ health status are less obvious. This Issue Brief summarizes two studies that examine the health implications of foreclosure and reveal a vulnerable population that may benefit from coordinated health and financial services

Advances in Digital Health Research

Social media and emerging mobile technologies have sparked radical shifts in human behavior, with people worldwide spending an average of 2 hours and 15 minutes daily on social networks. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have more than 2 billion users globally. Social networking site use has risen dramatically by all age groups, with the highest use among 18-29 year olds (see Figure below). Every second, Twitter users send 6,000 tweets, amounting to 500 million tweets per day. Instagram users post approximately 95 million photos, generating 4.2 billion likes, each day. A newer platform, Snapchat, has 178 million daily users, 60% of whom are under 25 years of age. They share an average of 3 billion snaps, or rapidly vanishing photos, every day. Researchers at Penn are turning these Tweets, posts, and snaps into innovative data sources that hold vital clues about behaviors, emotions, preferences, opinions, and social networks—all with potential implications for population health. Through the analysis of keywords, images, phrases, emoticons, likes, and hashtags, Penn teams are turning troves of digital information into human-centered health interventions and educational initiatives.https://repository.upenn.edu/publichealth_databriefs/1004/thumbnail.jp

The Opioid Crisis

Opioid use and addiction have reached epidemic proportions in Philadelphia, making drug overdose involving opioids a leading cause of death. Both pharmaceutical and illicit opioids contribute to this crisis. Opioid sales in Philadelphia more than doubled between 2000 and 2012, and health care providers continue to prescribe opioid pain medication in greater quantities than medically appropriate. The peak age group for overdoses is 45-54, an older age group than previously seen. Over-prescribing of opioids contributes to the recruitment of adults into drug dependence. While use of opioid pain medications usually does not lead to opioid use disorder, four out of five heroin users nationwide transitioned from original use of prescription medications. Heroin is easy to obtain, potent and cheap compared to prescription pain medications. There are estimated to be at least 70,000 heroin users in Philadelphia.https://repository.upenn.edu/publichealth_databriefs/1003/thumbnail.jp

Generating hypotheses about care needs of high utilizers: lessons from patient interviews.

Informed by a largely secondary and quantitative literature, efforts to improve care and outcomes for complex patients with high levels of emergency and hospital-based health care utilization have offered mixed results. This qualitative study identifies psychosocial factors and life experiences described by these patients that may be important to their care needs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 patients of the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers\u27 Care Management Team. Investigators coded transcripts using a priori and inductively-derived codes, then identified 3 key themes: (1) Early-life instability and traumas, including parental loss, unstable or violent relationships, and transiency, informed many participants\u27 health and health care experiences; (2) Many high utilizers described a history of difficult interactions with health care providers during adulthood; (3) Over half of the participants described the importance to their well-being of positive and caring relationships with primary health care providers and the outreach team. Additionally, the transient and vulnerable nature of this complex population posed challenges to follow-up, both for research and care delivery. These themes illuminate potentially important hypotheses to be explored in more generalizable samples using robust and longitudinal methods. Future work should explore the prevalence and impact of adverse childhood experiences among high utilizers, and the different types of relationships they have with providers. Investigators should test new modes of care delivery that attend to patients\u27 trauma histories. This qualitative study was well suited to provide insight into the life stories of these complex, vulnerable patients, informing research questions for further investigation

I Wouldn\u27t Know Where To Start : Perspectives From Clinicians, Agency Leaders, and Autistic Adults on Improving Community Mental Health Services for Autistic Adults

Most autistic adults struggle with mental health problems, and traditional mental health services generally do not meet their needs. This study used qualitative methods to identify ways to improve community mental health services for autistic adults for treatment of their co-occurring psychiatric conditions. We conducted semistructured, open-ended interviews with 22 autistic adults with mental healthcare experience, 44 community mental health clinicians, and 11 community mental health agency leaders in the United States. The participants identified clinician-, client-, and systems-level barriers and facilitators to providing quality mental healthcare to autistic adults. Across all three stakeholder groups, most of the reported barriers involved clinicians’ limited knowledge, lack of experience, poor competence, and low confidence working with autistic adults. All three groups also discussed the disconnect between the community mental health and developmental disabilities systems, which can result in autistic adults being turned away from services when they contact the mental health division and disclose their autism diagnosis during the intake process. Further efforts are needed to train clinicians to work more effectively with autistic adults and to increase coordination between the mental health and developmental disabilities systems

Study Protocol: Implementation of a Computer-Assisted Intervention for Autism in Schools: A Hybrid Type II Cluster Randomized Effectiveness-Implementation Trial

Background: The number of children diagnosed with autism has rapidly outpaced the capacities of many public school systems to serve them, especially under-resourced, urban school districts. The intensive nature of evidence-based autism interventions, which rely heavily on one-to-one delivery, has caused schools to turn to computer-assisted interventions (CAI). There is little evidence regarding the feasibility, effectiveness, and implementation of CAI in public schools. While CAI has the potential to increase instructional time for students with autism, it may also result in unintended consequences such as reduction in the amount of interpersonal (as opposed to computerized) instruction students receive. The purpose of this study is to test the effectiveness of one such CAI—TeachTown—its implementation, and its effects on teachers’ use of other evidence-based practices. Methods:This study protocol describes a type II hybrid cluster randomized effectiveness-implementation trial. We will train and coach 70 teachers in autism support classrooms in one large school district in the use of evidence-based practices for students with autism. Half of the teachers then will be randomly selected to receive training and access to TeachTown: Basics, a CAI for students with autism, for the students in their classrooms. The study examines: (1) the effectiveness of TeachTown for students with autism; (2) the extent to which teachers implement TeachTown the way it was designed (i.e., fidelity); and (3) whether its uptake increases or reduces the use of other evidence-based practices. Discussion: This study will examine the implementation of new technology for children with ASD in public schools and will be the first to measure the effectiveness of CAI. As importantly, the study will investigate whether adding a new technology on top of existing practices increases or decreases their use. This study presents a unique method to studying both the implementation and exnovation of evidence-based practices for children with autism in school settings. Trial registration: NCT02695693. Retrospectively registered on July 8, 2016

A Mixed Methods Study of Individual and Organizational Factors that Affect Implementation of Interventions for Children with Autism in Public Schools

Background: The significant lifelong impairments associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), combined with the growing number of children diagnosed with ASD, have created urgency in improving school-based quality of care. Although many interventions have shown efficacy in university-based research, few have been effectively implemented and sustained in schools, the primary setting in which children with ASD receive services. Individual- and organizational-level factors have been shown to predict the implementation of evidence-based interventions (EBIs) for the prevention and treatment of other mental disorders in schools, and may be potential targets for implementation strategies in the successful use of autism EBIs in schools. The purpose of this study is to examine the individual- and organizational-level factors associated with the implementation of EBIs for children with ASD in public schools. Methods: We will apply the Domitrovich and colleagues (2008) framework that examines the influence of contextual factors (i.e., individual- and organizational-level factors) on intervention implementation in schools. We utilize mixed methods to quantitatively test whether the factors identified in the Domitrovich and colleagues (2008) framework are associated with the implementation of autism EBIs, and use qualitative methods to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the factors associated with successful implementation and sustainment of these interventions with the goal of tailoring implementation strategies. Discussion: The results of this study will provide an in-depth understanding of individual- and organizational-level factors that influence the successful implementation of EBIs for children with ASD in public schools. These data will inform potential implementation targets and tailoring of strategies that will help schools overcome barriers to implementation and ultimately improve the services and outcomes for children with ASD

Engaging Students Through Technology Symposium 2011: Photo Documentaries as Student Projects by Carolyn Cannuscio

Carolyn Cannuscio, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health, discusses student projects, including the Health of Philadelphia Photo Documentary Project. The 2011 symposium tackled two broad questions: How should I use technology, in my classroom and outside my classroom, to engage my students? How should I manage the technology (laptops, smart phones, tablets, etc.) that my students bring to my classroom?https://repository.upenn.edu/showcase_videos/1061/thumbnail.jp