Enhancing staff attitudes, knowledge and skills in supporting the self-determination of adults with intellectual disability in residential settings in Hong Kong: A pretest-posttest comparison group design

Background: The ecological perspective recognizes the critical role that is played by rehabilitation personnel in helping people with intellectual disability (ID) to exercise self-determination, particularly in residential settings. In Hong Kong, the authors developed the first staff training programme of its kind to strengthen the competence of personnel in this area. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of staff training in enhancing residential staff's attitudes, knowledge and facilitation skills in assisting residents with ID to exercise self-determination. Methods: A pretest-posttest comparison group design was adopted. Thirty-two participants in an experimental group attended a six-session staff training programme. A 34-item self-constructed scale was designed and used for measuring the effectiveness of the staff training. Results: The results showed that the experimental group achieved statistically significant positive changes in all domains, whereas no significant changes were found in the comparison group. Conclusions: The findings provided initial evidence of the effectiveness of staff training that uses an interactional attitude-knowledge-skills model for Chinese rehabilitation personnel. The factors that contributed to its effectiveness were discussed and recommendations for future research were made. © Journal Compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.postprin

Probing Two-Dimensional vs Three-Dimensional Molecular Aggregation in Metal-Free Tetraphenylporphyrin Thin Films by Optical Anisotropy

: Porphyrins represent molecular building blocks for the development of a large variety of functional materials. The control of subtle intramolecular and intermolecular processes in solid porphyrin aggregates is promising for the establishment of organic nanotechnology, which requires the knowledge of the properties of nanometric aggregates down to single atoms. Within this framework, the optical anisotropy in thin and ultrathin metal-free tetraphenylporphyrin (H2TPP) films deposited on graphite carries interesting information related to their molecular aggregation. In this work, we compare the surface morphology and the optical anisotropy of H2TPP 2D layers, obtained following a recently developed experimental strategy, with thin films where both 2D and 3D aggregates are present. After reaching a fine control of the relative amount of the two phases present in films of different thicknesses, we propose a precise physical model for the optical response of the pure 2D phase, therefore correlating its optical anisotropy with the electronic properties of single H2TPP molecules, the occurrence of intramolecular chemical reactions, and the molecular arrangement. The response of thicker films, characterized by the coexistence of the 2D and 3D phases, is described by a phenomenological model that considers the main spectroscopic feature