Mental health difficulties and service use of incarcerated women: The influence of violence perpetration and victimization

The study investigated the relationships between incarcerated women’s experiences with violence and their mental health with the goal of identifying avenues for more tailored, compassionate responses to their mental health difficulties during incarceration. To achieve this aim, a secondary data analysis was performed using data from the Survey of Inmates in State Correctional Facilities completed by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2004 (N=2553). Six research questions guided the inquiry, which involved univariate, bivariate, and multivariate statistical analyses, including latent class analysis—performed to identify patterns in mental health difficulties among incarcerated women—and multiple logistic regression procedures. The latent class analysis resulted in selection of a 4-class solution. The four classes presented subgroups of women with varying mental health difficulties, including the serious mental illness group, the mood and drug use disorders group, the substance use only group, and the resilient group. Women were less likely to be in the resilient mental health group and more likely to engage with a range of mental health services if they had perpetrated violence or experienced sexual or physical victimization in either childhood or adulthood. Social workers should develop and implement clinical mental health treatment in correctional centers that targets the specific co-occurring needs of incarcerated women, especially those needs related to trauma stemming from victimization and perpetration of violence. Additionally, social workers should advocate for policies and programs to prevent and remediate drug-related crime and divert women with serious mental illness away from the criminal justice system.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1031/thumbnail.jp

Mental Health Difficulties and Service Use of Incarcerated Women: The Influence of Violence Perpetration and Victimization

The present study aimed to expand the knowledge base regarding incarcerated women’s experiences with violence and their mental health with the goal of identifying avenues for more tailored, compassionate responses to their mental health difficulties in both macro and direct practice contexts. To achieve this aim, a secondary data analysis was performed using data from the Survey of Inmates in State Correctional Facilities (SISCF) completed by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in 2004. Six research questions pertaining to women’s experiences with violence and their mental health difficulties and service utilization guided the inquiry, which involved univariate, bivariate, and multivariate statistical analyses, including latent class analysis, performed to identify patterns in mental health difficulties among incarcerated women, and multiple logistic regression procedures. The latent class analysis resulted in selection of a 4-class solution which grouped women in the sample into four subgroups according to the latent variable of mental health difficulties. The four subgroups included the serious mental illness group (8.7%), the mood and drug use disorders group (30.3%), the substance use only group (11.7%), and the resilient group (49.4%). Women were less likely to be in the resilient mental health group and more likely to engage with a range of mental health services if they had perpetrated violence or experienced various forms of victimization, including sexual victimization in either childhood or adulthood, or physical victimization in either childhood or adulthood. Social workers should develop and implement clinical mental health treatment in correctional centers tailored to the mental health needs of subgroups identified through latent class analysis, including treatment for co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders. Clinical mental health treatment should also target those needs related to trauma stemming from victimization and perpetration of violence. Additionally, social workers should advocate for policies and programs to prevent and remediate drug-related crime and divert women with serious mental illness away from the criminal justice system

Be Your Best S.E.L.F.

The goal of our thesis was to use our knowledge as Exercise Science students and personal trainers to improve the health of an underserved population in South Carolina. We created a voluntary exercise and self-defense program for the girls residing at Epworth Children’s Home. The program began on October 1, 2018 and concluded on April 29, 2019 with data collecting taking place between October 8th and March 18th. Every other week SASS Defense taught their self-defense program, and on the alternating weeks we facilitated an exercise class. The program also included a mentorship aspect to create a supportive social environment that encouraged participation, and presentations from outside speakers and guests concerning topics related to self-worth, self-esteem, and physical and mental health. Through the use of surveys that were created by the researchers we hoped to find an improvement in the self-esteem self-worth, and self-perception of physical health of the girls who participated in our program. Survey data was analyzed, and results determined that perceptions of physical health increased over the course of the program, but no conclusion was made on feelings of self-worth due to conflicting data

Reference Weeding: Ideas and Challenges

We will discuss the impetus behind our respective weeding efforts and some of the projects on which we have worked. We will share what was successful, what wasn\u27t, and why. This will be an informal presentation followed by a conversation with the audience about what has worked at their respective institutions

Reshaping Institutions: Evidence on Aid Impacts Using a Pre-Analysis Plan

Although institutions are believed to be key determinants of economic performance, there is limited evidence on how they can be successfully reformed. Evaluating the effects of specific reforms is complicated by the lack of exogenous variation in the presence of institutions; the difficulty of empirically measuring institutional performance; and the temptation to “cherry pick” a few novel treatment effect estimates from amongst the large number of indicators required to capture the complex and multi-faceted subject. We evaluate one attempt to make local institutions more egalitarian by imposing minority participation requirements in Sierra Leone and test for longer term learning-by-doing effects. In so doing, we address these three pervasive challenges by: exploiting the random assignment of a participatory local governance intervention, developing innovative real-world outcomes measures, and using a pre-analysis plan to bind our hands against data mining. The specific program under study is a “community driven development” (CDD) project, which has become a popular strategy amongst donors to improve local institutions in developing countries. We find positive short-run effects on local public goods provision and economic outcomes, but no sustained impacts on collective action, decision-making processes, or the involvement of marginalized groups (like women) in local affairs, indicating that the intervention was ineffective at durably reshaping local institutions. We further show that in the absence of a pre-analysis plan, we could have instead generated two highly divergent, equally erroneous interpretations of the impacts—one positive, one negative—of external aid on institutions.

Reducing Overtreatment of Urinalysis in Obstetric Triage Patients

Overtreatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) is a major issue that has been coming to the forefront in recent decades. Studies have shown that it can lead to adverse side effects, extra costs and antimicrobial resistance. The purpose of this study was to determine the number of patients presenting to obstetric triage who were over treated for a urinalysis (UA), and if an educational intervention could reduce the incidence of overtreatment for suspected ASB. This was a retrospective chart review analyzing UA results and outcomes of OB triage patients that came through labor and delivery before and after an educational intervention.Two time periods were identified: Cohort 1 (Pre-intervention) included patients from March- May of 2017. Cohort 2 (Post-intervention) included patients from March – May 2018.These time periods were chosen to have similar training levels on labor and delivery triage. Based on UA criteria it was then determined if subjects were treated appropriately. 1312 charts were reviewed; 601 in Cohort 1 (pre-intervention) and 711 in Cohort 2 (post intervention). There was a significant reduction in subjects who were over-treated for UA following the intervention. In our study, a resident to resident didactic session appears to have reduced the incidence of overtreatment of bacteriuria. This type of intervention could lead to more cost-efficient care and reduce complications for individual pregnant patients

Biotic Interactions Shape the Ecological Distributions of Staphylococcus Species.

Many metagenomic sequencing studies have observed the presence of closely related bacterial species or genotypes in the same microbiome. Previous attempts to explain these patterns of microdiversity have focused on the abiotic environment, but few have considered how biotic interactions could drive patterns of microbiome diversity. We dissected the patterns, processes, and mechanisms shaping the ecological distributions of three closely related Staphylococcus species in cheese rind biofilms. Paradoxically, the most abundant species (S. equorum) is the slowest colonizer and weakest competitor based on growth and competition assays in the laboratory. Through in vitro community reconstructions, we determined that biotic interactions with neighboring fungi help resolve this paradox. Species-specific stimulation of the poor competitor by fungi of the genus Scopulariopsis allows S. equorum to dominate communities in vitro as it does in situ Results of comparative genomic and transcriptomic experiments indicate that iron utilization pathways, including a homolog of the S. aureus staphyloferrin B siderophore operon pathway, are potential molecular mechanisms underlying Staphylococcus-Scopulariopsis interactions. Our integrated approach demonstrates that fungi can structure the ecological distributions of closely related bacterial species, and the data highlight the importance of bacterium-fungus interactions in attempts to design and manipulate microbiomes.ImportanceDecades of culture-based studies and more recent metagenomic studies have demonstrated that bacterial species in agriculture, medicine, industry, and nature are unevenly distributed across time and space. The ecological processes and molecular mechanisms that shape these distributions are not well understood because it is challenging to connect in situ patterns of diversity with mechanistic in vitro studies in the laboratory. Using tractable cheese rind biofilms and a focus on coagulase-negative staphylococcus (CNS) species, we demonstrate that fungi can mediate the ecological distributions of closely related bacterial species. One of the Staphylococcus species studied, S. saprophyticus, is a common cause of urinary tract infections. By identifying processes that control the abundance of undesirable CNS species, cheese producers will have more precise control on the safety and quality of their products. More generally, Staphylococcus species frequently co-occur with fungi in mammalian microbiomes, and similar bacterium-fungus interactions may structure bacterial diversity in these systems

Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) on the tibialis anterior muscle and the effects on strength and gait mechanics on stroke patients: A systematic review.

Purpose: To establish the effects of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) on the tibialis anterior muscle (TA) on chronic stroke patients in order to improve gait mechanics. Subjects: 6 Materials & Methods: A systematic search of Pubmed, PEDro, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library was conducted to identify all pertinent randomized control trials (RCTs). RCTs that met the inclusion criteria were then assessed using the 11-point PEDro scale. Studies were assessed by two raters, and articles that scored 6 or above were accepted for review. Results: The initial search yielded 34 articles: 21 were pulled for data extraction, six met selected inclusion and exclusion criteria. PEDro scores for selected articles range from 6 to 9, with a mean score of 6.8. Conclusions: Studies varied widely in parameters of application and prescription of NMES and baseline characteristics of subjects. Research supports the use of NMES to treat impairments of the TA following stroke, such as ankle range of motion and TA strength, as well as functional parameters, such as Fugl-Meyer Assessment scores, obstacle avoidance, and modified Emory Functional Ambulation Profile. However, these results were equivalent to outcomes using ankle-foot orthoses (AFO) or conventional rehabilitation program (CRP). In conclusion, NMES improved gait mechanics in patients with chronic stroke, but was not superior when compared with AFO or CRP. Clinical Relevance: This systematic review demonstrates that NMES improves gait mechanics in chronic stroke patients, however, is no more effective than CRP or AFO interventions

Owner-reported lower urinary tract signs in a cohort of young cats

Objectives The most common cause of lower urinary tract signs (LUTS) in cats under the age of 10 years is feline idiopathic cystitis (FIC). The prevalence of LUTS in the UK pet cat population is difficult to assess. This study used data collected prospectively to investigate the prevalence of, and risk factors for, owner-reported LUTS in a cohort of young pet cats. Methods Cat owners were recruited into a long-term longitudinal study and asked to complete questionnaires at specified age points for their cats. All cats were at least 18 months of age at the time of analysis. The prevalence of owner-reported LUTS at 18, 30 and 48 months of age was calculated, based on whether the owner had seen the cat urinating, and whether the cat had displayed one or more of the following clinical signs: dysuria, haematuria or vocalising during urination. A case-control study to investigate the risk factors for owner-reported LUTS in study cats at age 18 months was also conducted, using a multivariable logistic regression model. Results The prevalence of owner-reported LUTS in cats seen urinating by the owner was 4.3%, 3.8% and 6.0%, with 95% confidence intervals of 3.2-5.7%, 2.5-5.7% and 3.4-10.5% at ages 18, 30 and 48 months, respectively. An indoor-only lifestyle at the age of 18 months and a change in diet between the ages of 12 and 18 months were identified as risk factors for owner-reported LUTS at the age of 18 months from the multivariable model. No clear type of change in diet was identified in our sample of cats with LUTS. Conclusions and relevance The prevalence of owner-reported LUTS in a cohort of young pet cats was higher than the previously reported prevalence of LUTS in cats presenting to veterinary hospitals for LUTS or other reasons. A novel risk factor of change in diet between 12 and 18 months of age warrants further investigation