Notes From "How to Get Published in Health Sciences and Human Services Journals"

The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.Thyer, Bruce A., Ph.D., L.C.S.W., School of Social Work, The University of Georgia - "Notes From 'How to Get Published in Health Sciences and Human Services Journals'"The Ohio State University College of Social Wor

Project Prevention: Concept, Operation, Results and Controversies About Paying Drug Abusers to Obtain Long-Term Birth Control

This Article describes the origins and current operation of Project Prevention, a privately-funded program that provides a payment of $300 to substance abusers who obtain long-term birth control. This practice is intended as a means to prevent the conception of babies to mothers who are prone to expose their developing child to toxic levels of alcohol or other drugs during pregnancy, likely to be unable to care for their child once born, and at risk for having their child removed from their custody by the state and placed in foster care or an adoptive home. Children born to such mothers are at a high risk for developmental disadvantages and incur a high cost to society, which all too often has to provide medical or custodial care for them. Substance-abusing men who enroll in Project Prevention and obtain a verified vasectomy receive a similar payment. Thus far, Project Prevention has enrolled over 5,000 clients and paid out over$1 million in incentives. Some critics of Project Prevention have raised objections to this program; this Article describes and responds to a number of these objections. The Article concludes that this circumscribed program is highly effective and ethical, and provides a needed preventive service. In this manner, it emulates much larger-scale initiatives funded by the federal government, which have paid for the costs of long-term birth control, including sterilization, for indigent people. The federal government has long-provided financial inducements through foreign aid programs for the poor of other countries to obtain long-term birth control, also including sterilization. Therefore, any criticisms of Project Prevention must also be extended to existing, analogous federally funded programs

Community-Based Self-Help Groups for the Treatment of Agoraphobia

The design and conduct of community-based self-help groups for the treatment of agoraphobia are discussed. Such groups incorporate procedures encouraging members to engage in prolonged therapeutic exposure to anxiety-evoking situations. Exposure therapy and its variants have been empirically established as the treatment of choice for agoraphobia, and self-help groups lend themselves extremely well to community mental health outreach and service efforts

Is hyperbaric oxygen therapy an effective treatment for autism? A review

Objectives: We review outcome studies regarding the effectiveness of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Method: Studies were identified through electronic bibliographic databases and manual searches of article reference lists. Results: A total of 8 studies met eligibility criteria, consisting of three randomized controlled trials (RCTs), one quasi-experimental study involving a comparison group, two pre-experimental one-group pretest–posttest studies, and two single-system designs. Studies reviewed did not offer credible evidence to suggest that HBOT is an effective treatment for autism. Conclusion: It is premature to call HBOT an effective treatment for Autism and ASD. Individuals clinically treated with HBOT outside the context of a RCT should have the effects of the therapy evaluated using rigorous single-subject designs

Behavioral Social Work in Community and Organizational Settings

Principles and methods of behavioral social work have found little application at the community and organizational levels of intervention. It is the contention of the authors that integration of such content would enhance practice at these levels. Components of behavioral community intervention are indicated and illustrated in micro/macro settings, with advantages to practice specified. Ethical Considerations in using this methodology are discussed

Health and Social Welfare Needs of the Elderly: A Preliminary Study

In a period of shrinking fiscal resources it is especially important that budgetary decision-making processes be based upon empirical data relating to the actual health and social service needs of the elderly. The present study consisted of a comprehensive survey of the social service needs of a random sample of 75 normative elderly citizens drawn from a multi-ethnic population. The results provide a preliminary data-base for administrative and policy-making bodies to allocate scarce social service resources. In an era of shrinking fiscal resources and drastic cuts in the provision of human services, funding decisions and budgetary allotments are often made on the basis of special interest group pressures, arbitrary preference or in response to the latest fad \u27need\u27 which has caught the public interest. Obviously it is vital that the available resources allocated to community mental health and other social service needs be distributed on a more equitable and rational basis

Promoting Voting Behavior Among Low Income Black Voters Using Reminder Letters: An Experimental Investigation

A controlled experimental design applied in a field setting was used to determine the effectiveness of a bipartisan mailed letter reminding registered low income black voters to participate in the 1988 Presidential election. Each member of three groups of approximately 85 voters received either one, two or three such reminder letters shortly before the election. A fourth, control group of voters did not receive any letters. Statistical analysis revealed that the reminder letters appeared to have no effect on voting behavior

Burn-Out Among Social Work Professionals: A Behavioral Approach to Causal and Interventive Knowledge

Although the phenomenon of staff burn-out represents a significant problem for the effective administration and functioning of social service settings, there has been a general paucity of empirically based research on this issue. The staggering financial, personal and social costs associated with staff burn-out emphasize the fact that we can no longer accept the sole use of descriptive and correlational studies of the problem. This paper suggests refocusing our theoretical perspective of the problem of staff burn-out from an emphasis on the dispositional qualities of burnedout staff members, to examining the social and situational contingencies of reinforcement responsible for the acquisition and maintenance of burnout. In addition, this paper discusses the application of experimental methodologies designed to identify causative factors and evaluate interventive procedures. It is believed that this approach will facilitate our understanding of the causes of burn-out and assist in developing effective interventive procedures

Climate-informed stochastic hydrological modeling: Incorporating decadal-scale variability using paleo data

A hierarchical framework for incorporating modes of climate variability into stochastic simulations of hydrological data is developed, termed the climate-informed multi-time scale stochastic (CIMSS) framework. A case study on two catchments in eastern Australia illustrates this framework. To develop an identifiable model characterizing long-term variability for the first level of the hierarchy, paleoclimate proxies, and instrumental indices describing the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) are analyzed. A new paleo IPO-PDO time series dating back 440 yr is produced, combining seven IPO-PDO paleo sources using an objective smoothing procedure to fit low-pass filters to individual records. The paleo data analysis indicates that wet/dry IPO-PDO states have a broad range of run lengths, with 90% between 3 and 33 yr and a mean of 15 yr. The Markov chain model, previously used to simulate oscillating wet/dry climate states, is found to underestimate the probability of wet/dry periods >5 yr, and is rejected in favor of a gamma distribution for simulating the run lengths of the wet/dry IPO-PDO states. For the second level of the hierarchy, a seasonal rainfall model is conditioned on the simulated IPO-PDO state. The model is able to replicate observed statistics such as seasonal and multiyear accumulated rainfall distributions and interannual autocorrelations. Mean seasonal rainfall in the IPO-PDO dry states is found to be 15%-28% lower than the wet state at the case study sites. In comparison, an annual lag-one autoregressive model is unable to adequately capture the observed rainfall distribution within separate IPO-PDO states. Copyright © 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.Benjamin J. Henley, Mark A. Thyer, George Kuczera and Stewart W. Frank