Consumers' Experience in Massachusetts: Lessons for National Health Reform

Based on interviews, explores the impact of the state's 2006 healthcare reform on access to affordable coverage and on medical debt burdens. Discusses remaining issues and outlines lessons for national reform, including on the role of public programs

Confidentiality in Mental Health with Deaf Populations Perceptions of the Consumer

Confidentiality issues have drawn concern among clinicians in the field of mental health. In part, managed care, fax machines, electronic records, and the use of the internet have added to the concerns related to the protection of client rights, especially related to confidentiality. The issues of confidentiality have always been a concern for therapists who work with deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. Due to the close-knit nature of the Deaf community, clinicians who provide psychotherapeutic services have the added burden of protection of confidentiality as it relates to chance encounters, dual role and boundary issues between consumers, and the use of interpreters

Apprenticeship and Didactic-Experiential Training for Paraprofessional Telephone Crisis Counselors.

Level of accurate empathy of 19 paraprofessional telephone crisis counselors was examined following participation in either an apprenticeship or didactic-experiential training program. The apprenticeship program consisted of 32 hours of on-the-job experience supervised by an experienced volunteer counselor and 28 hours of training provided by crisis center staff members. The didactic-experiential program consisted of 60 hours of preservice training provided by the center\u27s staff. Prior to training, participants in both groups were administered the Short Dogmatism Scale and the Adult Self Expression Scale, a measure of assertiveness, as well as questionnaires to assess demographic variables, knowledge of crisis theory and Center procedures, and empathy skills. Following training, pseudocalls were administered; trainees\u27 responses to three test statements included in the pseudocall were scored on the basis of the Truax and Carkhuff Accurate Empathy Scale. Also eight experienced counselors who served as apprentice-helpers completed the Attitude Toward Any Occupation Questionnaire before and after their participation as apprentice-helpers. Further, emotional intensity of rehearsal tapes of the three individuals who made the pseudocalls was rated by 10 mental health professionals. Results of pre-training measures indicated that the apprenticeship group had significantly more males, was significantly more knowledgeable of crisis theory and Center procedures, and was significantly more assertive. Also, a post facto comparison of individuals who completed training with those who dropped out showed that completers scored significantly higher on the pre-training knowledge of Center procedures measure. Importantly, post-training results indicated no significant difference between accurate empathy level of individuals who completed apprenticeship or didactic-experiential training; also, no interactions between levels of dogmatism, and assertiveness, and type of training were obtained. Additionally, no significant difference between pre- and post-apprentice-helper satisfaction scores was obtained. Finally, one of the pseudocallers was rated as significantly more sad, depressed, and lonely than the other two. However, raters\u27 perceptions of emotional intensity expressed by pseudocallers varied significantly on the following dimensions. Sadness, frustration, loneliness, depression, and hopelessness

Making the Match: Finding Funding for After School Education and Safety Programs

Outlines strategies for California school and community leaders to secure cash and in-kind resources -- including public- and private-sector funding -- for ASES programs