When Does Human Life Begin? Conception and Ensoulment

Is “human life” strictly a biological phenomenon measured from the moment when sperm and egg combine? Or does “human life” not actually begin until the immaterial aspect known as “the soul” appears at some indeterminate point? This essay examines the views held by various adherents of the Christian faith regarding the concepts of “conception” and “ensoulment” and the relation of these views to contemporary ethical issues having to do with abortion, in vitro fertilization, contraception, and stem cell research. The essay discusses the fact that Christians historically have been characterized by a marked lack of unity concerning the teachings of the Bible and tradition on these issues. The paper concludes with a discussion of how Pre-existentianists, Traducianists, and Creationists might or might not be troubled by contraceptive and abortive procedures, depending upon their varying convictions regarding ensoulment

Understanding Refugee Mental Health and Employment Issues: Implications for Social Work Practice

Resettled refugees have high rates of some mental health disorders, such as PTSD and MDD, largely due to trauma histories and current resettlement stressors. Resettled refugees also have employment struggles that are unique to their status as refugees. This article provides overviews of refugee mental health and refugee employment issues with a specific focus on how these factors are interrelated in U.S. resettled refugee populations. The article describes prevalence rates of mental health disorders among refugees, barriers that limit refugees’ access to mental health treatment, and evidence-based mental health. Additionally, prevalence rates of refugee unemployment and underemployment are reported, along with barriers to adequate refugee employment. The article concludes with recommendations for social work professionals in their practices with resettled refugees in multiple settings: clinical practice, refugee resettlement, policy work, and research

Mental Health

This session will be focusing on these three abstracts: 1.Exploring Differential Impacts of COVID-19 related Fear and Psychological Health Consequences on College Students 2.The Societal Impacts of COVID-19 on Asian Americans: Mitigating Mental Health Disparities Stemming from Labels Like the “China Virus” 3.The Ecological Impact of COVID on the Mental Health of Black Childre

Self-assessment and goal-setting is associated with an improvement in interviewing skills

Purpose: Describe the relationship between medical students’ self-assessment and goal-setting (SAGS) skills and development of interviewing skills during the first-year doctoring course. Method: 157 first-year medical students completed three two-case standardized patient (SP) interviews. After each of the first two, students viewed videotapes of their interview, completed a SAGS worksheet, and reviewed a selected tape segment in a seminar. SAGS was categorized into good and poor quality and interviewing skills were rated by trained raters. Results: SAGS improved over time (37% good week 1 vs. 61% good week 10). Baseline SAGS and interviewing skills were not associated. Initial SAGS quality was associated with change in interviewing skills – those with poor-quality SAGS demonstrated a decrease and those with good-quality SAGS demonstrated an increase in scores by 17 weeks (ANOVA F=4.16, p=0.024). For students whose SAGS skills were good at both week 1 and 10, interviewing skills declined in weeks 1–10 and then increased significantly at week 17. For those whose SAGS remained ‘poor’ in weeks 1–10, interviewing skills declined in weeks 10–17. Conclusions: In general, the quality of students’ SAGS improved over time. Poor baseline SAGS skills and failure to improve were associated with a decrease in interviewing skills at 17 weeks. For students with better SAGS, interviewing skills increased at week 17. Improvement in SAGS skills was not associated with improved interviewing skills. Understanding structured self-assessment skills helps identify student characteristics that influence progressive mastery of communication skills and therefore may inform curriculum and remediation tailoring

Poly(GP) proteins are a useful pharmacodynamic marker for C9ORF72-associated amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

There is no effective treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a devastating motor neuron disease. However, discovery of a G4C2 repeat expansion in the C9ORF72 gene as the most common genetic cause of ALS has opened up new avenues for therapeutic intervention for this form of ALS. G4C2 repeat expansion RNAs and proteins of repeating dipeptides synthesized from these transcripts are believed to play a key role in C9ORF72-associated ALS (c9ALS). Therapeutics that target G4C2 RNA, such as antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) and small molecules, are thus being actively investigated. A limitation in moving such treatments from bench to bedside is a lack of pharmacodynamic markers for use in clinical trials. We explored whether poly(GP) proteins translated from G4C2 RNA could serve such a purpose. Poly(GP) proteins were detected in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from c9ALS patients and, notably, from asymptomatic C9ORF72 mutation carriers. Moreover, CSF poly(GP) proteins remained relatively constant over time, boding well for their use in gauging biochemical responses to potential treatments. Treating c9ALS patient cells or a mouse model of c9ALS with ASOs that target G4C2 RNA resulted in decreased intracellular and extracellular poly(GP) proteins. This decrease paralleled reductions in G4C2 RNA and downstream G4C2 RNA-mediated events. These findings indicate that tracking poly(GP) proteins in CSF could provide a means to assess target engagement of G4C2 RNA-based therapies in symptomatic C9ORF72 repeat expansion carriers and presymptomatic individuals who are expected to benefit from early therapeutic intervention