A criminal justice-engaged research collaborative: Findings and lessons learned from Western Massachusetts

The Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) and Re-entry Initiative was one of several projects funded in 2018 by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to expand capacity to deliver medications to treat opioid use disorder (MOUD). Nationwide, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) was the only criminal justice institution to be awarded a grant. The project created a new criminal justice-engaged evaluation and research collaborative in Western Massachusetts that now involves the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass), the Hampshire County House of Corrections, and several community-based providers of health and social services. Building on this foundation, the collaborative is now a key component of several NIH-funded research projects. Presenters will provide an overview of the SAMHSA-funded project, report on findings, and present lessons learned from the first year of implementation. This session will also provide guidance on how to launch, sustain, and grow criminal justice-engaged evaluation and research collaboratives

The accidental youth worker

Author's note: This is an informal, personal and reflective paper that contains my thoughts and feelings on being invited to participate in the European Outdoor Education Network Seminar, held near Keswick, in October 2012. It includes elements of an article submitted as partial requirements of my MA in Youth Work and Community Development. This, together with the research also conducted as part of the qualification, formed the basis for my workshop delivered at the seminar and provides the foundations for my doctoral research. I will begin by providing a summary of my background with an explanation of how I came to be at the conference. I will then reflect on my experiences and conclude with my future plans

Thought control strategies and rumination in youth with acute stress disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder following single-event trauma

Objective: Certain thought control strategies for managing the intrusive symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are thought to play a key role in its onset and maintenance. Whereas measures exist for the empirical assessment of such thought control strategies in adults, relatively few studies have explored how children and adolescents manage posttraumatic intrusive phenomena. Methods: In a prospective longitudinal study of 10-16-year-olds with PTSD, who were survivors of road traffic collisions and assaults, a variety of thought control strategies were assessed in the acute phase. These included strategies thought to be protective (reappraisal, social support) as well as maladaptive (distraction, punishment, worry). Ruminative responses to the trauma were assessed at the follow-up assessment. Results: Posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) at each assessment were associated with the use of punishment and reappraisal, whereas social support and rumination were associated with PTSS symptoms at follow-up. Distraction was unrelated to PTSS at any time point. Rumination accounted for variance in PTSS symptoms at follow-up, even when accounting for baseline PTSS, and was found to mediate the relationships between reappraisal and punishment at baseline and PTSS at the follow-up assessment. Conclusions: The present study found no evidence to support advocating any particular thought control strategy for managing the intrusive symptoms of PTSD in youth in the acute posttrauma phase, and raised concerns over the use of reappraisal coping strategies. The study underscores the importance of ruminative responses in the onset and maintenance of PTSD in trauma-exposed youth

Acknowledging Emotive Response and Epistemic Positionality: Disruptive Transformative Pedagogy Amidst a Global Pandemic

In the dynamic and iteratively changing landscape of global Higher Education, processes of learning, teaching and professional practice have been irrevocably impacted upon by the COVID-19 virus. This brief paper explores how the concept of emotive response generally and emotional labour specifically, have impacted on the context of Higher Education Institutions globally and the implications of this in practice based educational settings. Wider civic society will bear the burden of this pandemic via processes of economic restraint for a generation, yet transformative perspectives have great significance to both how people’s capacity to reflect and make meaning of current times will continue to drive a proactive and reflexive response to the challenges and opportunities it provides. Mezirow’s, now seminal, Transformative Learning Theory (2009), and the Hayes and Corrie (2020) Disruptive Pedagogical Approach to facilitating learning provide the baseline theoretical frameworks for this conceptual discussion

Gypsy moth in Minnesota: the early years

1 online resource (PDF, 6 pages)This archival publication may not reflect current scientific knowledge or recommendations. Current information available from the University of Minnesota Extension: https://www.extension.umn.edu

Multistate Assessment of Public Health Surveillance Relevant to American Indians and Alaska Natives, 2007

Improving the health of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations involves multiple agencies, levels of government, and jurisdictions. We assessed collaboration between state health departments and AI/AN Tribes and agencies through an online survey of State Epidemiologists. Frequencies and percentages of responses were examined by univariate and bivariate analyses. Among 39 states with federally recognized or state-recognized Tribes or federally funded urban Indian health centers, 25 (64%) participated. Nineteen had discussed public health surveillance with an AI/ AN government or nongovernment entity in the past 2 years (10 (53%) of these had ongoing, regular discussions about public health surveillance; nine (47%) had these discussions as needed). Nine (36%) responding states have a point person for working with AI/AN communities and/or agencies on public health surveillance. Four (16%) states have an active memorandum of understanding or other formal agreement with an AI/AN government or nongovernment entity regarding surveillance. To prepare for public health emergencies, six (24%) states involve the Indian Health Service, and eight (47%) involve another AI/AN entity. Functional relationships between state health departments and AI/AN agencies have not been consistently established. Strengthening these relationships will facilitate surveillance and response capacity to address continuing and emerging public health problems

A promising Start? The Local Network Fund for Children and Young People: Interim Findings from the National Evaluation

This is a summary of the interim evaluation report of the National Evaluation of the Local Network Fund (LNF) for Children and Young People. It is based on data gathered during the first phase of the evaluation (between October 2002 to December 2003). A final report of the National Evaluation will be available early in 2005. A consortium of research organisations, led by the University of Hull and including BMRB Social Research, The University of York and the University of Sheffield were commissioned in August 2002 by the-then Children and Young People’s Unit (CYPU) to carry out the evaluation

Focus, Vol. 1 No. 1

A literary magazine of student writing published by the Department of English of Stephen F. Austin State College.https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/focus/1000/thumbnail.jp

Low Fidelity Imitation of Atypical Biological Kinematics in Autism Spectrum Disorders Is Modulated by Self-Generated Selective Attention.

We examined whether adults with autism had difficulty imitating atypical biological kinematics. To reduce the impact that higher-order processes have on imitation we used a non-human agent model to control social attention, and removed end-state target goals in half of the trials to minimise goal-directed attention. Findings showed that only neurotypical adults imitated atypical biological kinematics. Adults with autism did, however, become significantly more accurate at imitating movement time. This confirmed they engaged in the task, and that sensorimotor adaptation was self-regulated. The attentional bias to movement time suggests the attenuation in imitating kinematics might be a compensatory strategy due to deficits in lower-level visuomotor processes associated with self-other mapping, or selective attention modulated the processes that represent biological kinematics

FAPRI 2009 U.S. and World Agricultural Outlook

The FAPRI 2009 U.S. and World Agricultural Outlook presents projections of world agricultural production, consumption, and trade under average weather patterns, existing farm policy, and policy commitments under current trade agreements and custom unions. The outlook uses a macroeconomic forecast developed by IHS Global Insight