A Pedagogical Paradigm for International Graduate Students Studying Community Counseling

The authors introduce a pedagogical paradigm for international graduate students studying community counseling in the United States. The paradigm is based on previous research conducted by the authors on the educational experience of four international graduate students in a master‟s level community counseling program. The paradigm includes five phases and is in the form of a path with an emphasis on respecting the world cultures of students from other countries and addressing the special needs of international students studying in the United States. The paradigm contributes to the ongoing dialog related to the pedagogy of counselor education

Locked Up Means Locked Out: Women, Addiction and Incarceration

In one of the quietest but most significant social phenomena of our time, national statistics indicate that the number of incarcerated women has quadrupled over the last 20 years. The status of women of color in America, already precarious, is further eroded under this new world order, as 54% of the incarcerated female population is African American or Latina. Harsh drug laws, mandatory sentencing, and policing strategies which focus on smaller crimes have succeeded in netting large numbers of mothers, grandmothers, single breadwinners and other women whose primary offenses prior to arrest were being poor and often having a substance abuse problem. Once incarcerated, new difficulties are visited upon these women, including family dissolution, precipitous declines in mental health, and often loss of child custody as legal cases wend their way slowly through the system. The commonly reported statistic that 80% of all crimes committed have drug involvement holds true for women as well. Most women in prison are untreated substance abusers with high recidivism rates that correlate with greater addiction severity. Typically, each return to incarceration signifies a deeper level of addiction, with associated declines in health, employment opportunity, and social functioning. The quantum increase in incarceration for women is linked directly to drug and alcohol addiction, yet little has been done to address the issue. Many prison systems are ill equipped to handle the influx of women, from a variety of perspectives. County jails, historically designed to be shorter term holding areas for those with minor offenses or awaiting a state prison bed, are now handling many more female prisoners for much longer periods of time. Social, health, and substance abuse services for these women are grossly inadequate, if available at all. This chapter will address the double bind of addiction and incarceration that women face today in unprecedented numbers. It will discuss, via case study and review, the precipitous erosion of mental health and family functioning that typically occurs when substance abusing women are incarcerated instead of treated. The paper will discuss the national silence which has surrounded this very public epidemic, particularly regarding the country\u27s discomfort and resulting inability to confront the debilitating effects of addiction and incarceration on women and families. Finally, this paper will discuss effective strategies for change, arguing that a first step must include an appreciation for the unique perspective and experiences that addicted women have and bring to a correctional environment

Africentric Cultural Values: Their Relation to Positive Mental Health in African American Adolescent Girls

The primary purpose of this study was to test a path model exploring the relationships among Africentric cultural values, self-esteem, perceived social support satisfaction, and life satisfaction in a sample of 147 African American adolescent girls. This investigation also examined the possible mediating effects of self-esteem and perceived social support satisfaction in the relationship between adherence to Africentric cultural values and life satisfaction in this sample. Although no significant mediating effects were found, results indicated that greater adherence to Africentric cultural values among African American adolescent girls was predictive of higher levels of both self-esteem and perceived social support satisfaction. Higher levels of self-esteem were then significantly predictive of greater life satisfaction. However, perceived social support satisfaction was not significantly predictive of life satisfaction in this sample of girls. Future research directions are identified

Coping Responses of Asian, Black, and Latino/Latina New York City Residents Following the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks Against the United States

This study examined mechanisms for coping with adversity in a sample of 24 Asian, Black, and Latino/Latina residents of New York City following the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center (WTC) terrorist attacks. Using consensual qualitative research methodology (C. E. Hill, B. J. Thompson, & E. N. Williams, 1997), the authors identified 7 broad coping domains used by the participants: (a) sought additional information about the WTC tragedy, (b) expressed a range of emotions, (c) sought or gave support, (d) engaged in religious or spiritual activities, (e) avoidance, (f) forbearance, and (g) used indigenous healing techniques. Although there were similarities across racial or cultural groups and genders with regard to the coping responses used, there also were unique coping strategies by racial or cultural background and gender

Priority actions for the non-communicable disease crisis

The UN High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in September, 2011, is an unprecedentedopportunity to create a sustained global movement against premature death and preventable morbidity and disabilityfrom NCDs, mainly heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory disease. The increasing global crisis in NCDs is a barrier to development goals including poverty reduction, health equity, economic stability, and human security. The Lancet NCD Action Group and the NCD Alliance propose five overarching priority actions for the response to the crisis—leadership, prevention, treatment, international cooperation, and monitoring and accountability—and the delivery of five priority interventions—tobacco control, salt reduction, improved diets and physical activity, reduction in hazardous alcohol intake, and essential drugs and technologies. The priority interventions were chosen for their health effects, cost-effectiveness, low costs of implementation, and political and financial feasibility. The most urgent and immediate priority is tobacco control. We propose as a goal for 2040, a world essentially free from tobacco where less than 5% of people use tobacco. Implementation of the priority interventions, at an estimated global commitment of about US$9 billion per year, will bring enormous benefits to social and economic development and to the health sector. If widely adopted, these interventions will achieve the global goal of reducing NCD death rates by 2% per year, averting tens of millions of premature deaths in this decade