The Virginia Abstinence Education Initiative Evaluation Structure: A Lesson in How to Successfully Overcome the Challenges of Multi-Site Program Evaluation

This discussion provides an overview of the evaluation process of the Virginia Abstinence Education Initiative (VAEI). It details the basic principles that premise the evaluation structure. The evaluation structure utilized by the VAEI is an intentional one, designed to provide the most rigorous approach possible in order to have maximum confidence in the quality of the data produced by this statewide, multi-year effort. The authors argue that this type of informed approach grounded in a high degree of evaluation rigor can help to overcome the challenges typically associated with multi-site program evaluation

What Is the Evidence to Support the Use of Therapeutic Gardens for the Elderly?

Horticulture therapy employs plants and gardening activities in therapeutic and rehabilitation activities and could be utilized to improve the quality of life of the worldwide aging population, possibly reducing costs for long-term, assisted living and dementia unit residents. Preliminary studies have reported the benefits of horticultural therapy and garden settings in reduction of pain, improvement in attention, lessening of stress, modulation of agitation, lowering of as needed medications, antipsychotics and reduction of falls. This is especially relevant for both the United States and the Republic of Korea since aging is occurring at an unprecedented rate, with Korea experiencing some of the world's greatest increases in elderly populations. In support of the role of nature as a therapeutic modality in geriatrics, most of the existing studies of garden settings have utilized views of nature or indoor plants with sparse studies employing therapeutic gardens and rehabilitation greenhouses. With few controlled clinical trials demonstrating the positive or negative effects of the use of garden settings for the rehabilitation of the aging populations, a more vigorous quantitative analysis of the benefits is long overdue. This literature review presents the data supporting future studies of the effects of natural settings for the long term care and rehabilitation of the elderly having the medical and mental health problems frequently occurring with aging

Remembering, Repeating and Working Through: The Impact of the Controversial Discussions

Freud's recognition that what cannot be remembered may well be repeated in action is useful for understanding the trauma and aftermath of the Controversial Discussions. I shall be concentrating on disavowal, repeating, working through and remembering in the evolving context of the process of the impact of the Discussions. I suggest that we can distinguish three phases of the impact of the Discussions: the first a silence as if the Discussions constituted something too traumatic or too shameful to speak about; the second a phase of mutual influence between two or more groups which constitutes one form of working through, an attempt to integrate (with its opposite a concentration on irreconcilable differences); and third a further stage of working through which is closer to remembering, treating the Discussions as a historical point of reference in the service of sorting out clinical and conceptual problems