Assessing Organizational Functioning as a Step Toward Innovation

Innovate and adapt are watchwords for substance abuse treatment programs in today’s environment of legislative mandates, effective new interventions, and competition. Organizations are having to evolve—ready or not—and those that are ready have superior chances for success and survival. The Texas Christian University Organizational Readiness for Change (ORC) survey is a free instrument, with supporting materials, that substance abuse treatment programs use to assess organizational traits that can facilitate or hinder efforts at transition. This article presents organizational change as a three-stage process of adopting, implementing, and routinizing new procedures; describes the use of the ORC; and outlines a step-by-step procedure for clearing away potential obstacles before setting forth on the road to improved practices and outcomes

RNA interference in Lepidoptera: an overview of successful and unsuccessful studies and implications for experimental design

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Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of diseases and injuries. Methods: GBD estimates incidence, prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to 369 diseases and injuries, for two sexes, and for 204 countries and territories. Input data were extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service use, air pollution monitors, satellite imaging, disease notifications, and other sources. Cause-specific death rates and cause fractions were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Cause-specific deaths were adjusted to match the total all-cause deaths calculated as part of the GBD population, fertility, and mortality estimates. Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age to calculate YLLs. A Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR 2.1, was used to ensure consistency between incidence, prevalence, remission, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality for most causes. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases and injuries to calculate YLDs. We considered results in the context of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and fertility rate in females younger than 25 years. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered 1000 draw values of the posterior distribution. Findings: Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates. After taking into account population growth and ageing, the absolute number of DALYs has remained stable. Since 2010, the pace of decline in global age-standardised DALY rates has accelerated in age groups younger than 50 years compared with the 1990–2010 time period, with the greatest annualised rate of decline occurring in the 0–9-year age group. Six infectious diseases were among the top ten causes of DALYs in children younger than 10 years in 2019: lower respiratory infections (ranked second), diarrhoeal diseases (third), malaria (fifth), meningitis (sixth), whooping cough (ninth), and sexually transmitted infections (which, in this age group, is fully accounted for by congenital syphilis; ranked tenth). In adolescents aged 10–24 years, three injury causes were among the top causes of DALYs: road injuries (ranked first), self-harm (third), and interpersonal violence (fifth). Five of the causes that were in the top ten for ages 10–24 years were also in the top ten in the 25–49-year age group: road injuries (ranked first), HIV/AIDS (second), low back pain (fourth), headache disorders (fifth), and depressive disorders (sixth). In 2019, ischaemic heart disease and stroke were the top-ranked causes of DALYs in both the 50–74-year and 75-years-and-older age groups. Since 1990, there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries. In 2019, there were 11 countries where non-communicable disease and injury YLDs constituted more than half of all disease burden. Decreases in age-standardised DALY rates have accelerated over the past decade in countries at the lower end of the SDI range, while improvements have started to stagnate or even reverse in countries with higher SDI. Interpretation: As disability becomes an increasingly large component of disease burden and a larger component of health expenditure, greater research and developm nt investment is needed to identify new, more effective intervention strategies. With a rapidly ageing global population, the demands on health services to deal with disabling outcomes, which increase with age, will require policy makers to anticipate these changes. The mix of universal and more geographically specific influences on health reinforces the need for regular reporting on population health in detail and by underlying cause to help decision makers to identify success stories of disease control to emulate, as well as opportunities to improve. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens

The Texas Christian University HIV/AIDS Risk Assessment. Outcomes measurement tool: drug use behaviour – safer use.

To assess HIV/AIDS risk among clients of substance misuse treatment programs. Includes risk behaviour associated with injecting substance use and sexual relationships

Ideas for better communication. A collection of materials for leading counseling sessions on ways to improve relationships through communication.

This manual includes a series of “topic-focused modular applications” designed particularly for counselors and group facilitators working in substance abuse treatment programs. The collection of applications contains focused, easily accessible, and brief adaptive strategies for engaging clients in discussions and activities on communication. This manual includes a collection of materials for leading counseling sessions on ways to improve relationships through communication. Modular applications in this manual include: • Communication Roadblocks is part of the Straight Ahead: Transition Skills for Recovery manual developed at TCU. This session features a leader’s script, with notes and handouts for leading a solution-focused or strengths-based discussion of dealing with perceptions that interfere with communication. Participants are invited to think about things they do and are aware of in others that get in the way of effective communication. Materials for a “mini-lecture” highlight healthy and unhealthy reactions to communication problems. Guidelines for leading an exercise to improve listening also are included. • Repairing Relationships provides worksheets and group leader instruction for facilitating a session on strategies to examine and begin to repair past relationship problems, including listing and reflecting on specific issues. Taken from a core set of materials developed by Matrix, Inc. (at UCLA), and adapted by NDRI, the intervention features an informational handout for participants as well as leader questions designed to encourage discussions about the situational aspects of communication problems. • Communication Styles is adapted from the Straight Ahead: Transition Skills for Recovery manual developed at TCU. This session features a leader’s script, with notes and handouts for leading a discussion on different communication styles and their impact on relationships. Participants are invited to think about communication habits that can get in the way of sustaining healthy relationships. Materials for a “mini-lecture” highlight problems that arise from passive and aggressive communication. Brief role-plays are used to help participants identify aspects of different communication styles. • Mapping Worksheets -- These Mapping Worksheets were selected from the manual TCU Guide Maps: A Resource for Counselors because of their specific focus on relationships and communicating with others. Each mapping worksheet follows a “fill in the blank” format to encourage participants to consider various cognitive aspects of how we communicate and manage problems with others. Once participants complete their worksheet, group discussions and commentary on the causes and effects of communication problems and strategies for overcoming unproductive habits are facilitated. • Links of Interest -- Websites featuring materials on anger

Building social networks. A collection of materials for leading counseling sessions on ways to build and strengthen social support in recovery.

This manual includes a series of “topic-focused modular applications” designed particularly for counselors and group facilitators working in substance abuse treatment programs. The collection of applications contains focused, easily accessible, and brief adaptive strategies for engaging clients in discussions and activities on building social networks

Straight ahead: transition skills for recovery.

This manual provides substance abuse treatment professionals with a step-by-step curriculum for leading a 10-part workshop designed to reinforce key recovery concepts. The emphasis is on building and enhancing support networks for recovery in the community (12-step, family, friends) and on helping clients improve social skills, problem-solving, and perceptions of self-efficacy that foster recovery maintenance. The manual provides an easy-to-follow format for leading each 2-hour group session, including lecture notes, exercises and activities, discussion questions, and handouts. Topics covered include: • Maintaining recovery efforts • Social networks and recovery • Finding a support group • Family issues • Communication and coping skills • Managing stress and anger • Planning for the futur

Using client assessments to plan and monitor treatment (using CEST guide).

Using Client Assessments to Plan and Monitor Treatment is a guide for using the TCU Client Evaluations of Self and Treatment (TCU CEST) in individual or group counseling settings. Sections of this manual include: • Introduction: Ingredients of Effective Treatment -- The TCU treatment process framework is summarized, showing how client assessments and interventions “fit together” in adaptive treatment planning. • Part 1: TCU Client Assessment Scales -- TCU assessments – especially the TCU CEST – are described, including how scales are defined, scored, and interpreted. • Part 2: Combining Scores for Program Comparisons -- Averages of client scores are discussed as a basis for comparing clients between programs and evaluating changes over time. • Part 3: Assessment Alternatives and Methods -- Different instruments and formats for conducting client assessments are reviewed, noting that choices depend on program technology and objectives. • Part 4: Clinical Applications of CEST Scores -- Case study examples illustrate how CEST scores can be used for treatment planning and monitoring or as a group counseling activity. • Resources and References -- Handouts and templates for applying client assessments discussed in Part 4 are included, along with a list of publication citations

Unlock your thinking, open your mind. A collection of materials for leading counseling sessions that address thinking patterns that can hamper behavior change.

This manual includes a series of “topic-focused modular applications” designed particularly for counselors and group facilitators working in substance abuse treatment programs. The collection of applications contains focused, easily accessible, and brief adaptive strategies for engaging clients in discussions and activities on thinking patterns that can hamper behavior change. Modular applications in this manual include: • Feelings, Thoughts, and Mind Traps was developed as ancillary material to the Straight Ahead: Transition Skills for Recovery manual developed at TCU. This session features a leader’s script, with notes, worksheets, and handouts for leading a discussion on the interplay of feelings, thoughts, and “mind traps” (i.e., cognitive distortions) that can threaten recovery. Participants are invited to think about how they know the difference between what they are feeling and thinking, and how feeling-based distortions can get in the way of productive communication. Materials for a “mini-lecture” highlight common mind traps and introduce ideas for recognizing them and changing thinking patterns. • Road Block to Healthy Thinking was developed as ancillary material for the Straight Ahead: Transition Skills for Recovery manual developed at TCU. This session features a leader’s script, with notes, worksheets, and handouts for leading a discussion about how the use of thinking errors (“cognitive distortions”) can interfere with healthy thinking if left unchecked. Participants are introduced to common thinking patterns that lead to frustration, distortion, and avoidance of personal responsibility. Materials for a “mini-lecture” highlight healthy and unhealthy “ways of thinking” (WOT) and teach participants strategies for recognizing and challenging thinking errors. • Thinking and Behavior Cycles was developed at TCU for the CJ-DATS project. This session features a leader’s script, with notes, worksheets, and handouts for leading a discussion on the nature of behavior cycles and the interplay of thoughts and feelings that fuel cycles of unwanted behaviors or relapse. Materials highlight the structure of many types of “cyclical” behaviors and participants are invited to identify the thinking patterns associated with their own previous cycles of drug abuse and/or criminal activity and to plan strategies for interrupting future cycles before they begin. • Mapping Worksheets -- These Mapping Worksheets were selected from the manual TCU Guide Maps: A Resource for Counselors because of their specific focus on anger and emotional regulation. Each mapping worksheet follows a “fill in the blank” format to encourage participants to consider various cognitive aspects of how we respond to feelings. Once participants complete their worksheet, group discussions and commentary on the causes and effects of their specific focus on thoughts and actions