Victims to Survivors: Liberians’ Experiences and Resilience during the Liberian Civil War

Warfare is an ever-present phenomenon that impacts people all over the world. Many of those who live in a war-torn country encounter horrific experiences that cause trauma, loss, and grief. The Liberian people are an example of those who have experienced the tragedies of war in their country. The Liberian Civil War caused many individuals to flee, becoming displaced and seeking safety in other countries or refugee camps. This research study interviewed eight Liberian refugees who were children or adolescents during the war in order to explore their experiences and resilience. The participants in this study experienced horrific violence, separation, long travels, harsh conditions, and tremendous loss. The participants were resilient by relying on their faith in God, family, determination, adaptability, and hope. The resilience the Liberian refugees embodied allowed them to become survivors of war. The findings of this research are significant and an important addition to the literature on warfare, refugees, trauma, loss, resiliency, macro-level social work, and cross-cultural social work

Elementary School Administrators’ Perspectives of Expanded School Mental Health Systems and Implications for Further Training

School administrators play a crucial role in the development and implementation of mental health systems that allow all students access to universal, preventative interventions and services. Understanding their perspectives about the fundamental features of effective Expanded School Mental Health systems is critical to understanding the research to practice gap as it relates to the successful implementation of school-based mental health services. Furthermore, it is necessary to understand administrators’ perspectives about the training and supports teachers need to increase knowledge, confidence, and self-efficacy in the delivery of effective school mental health services. The purpose of this pragmatic qualitative research study was to explore elementary school administrators’ perspectives of the essential elements that lead to successful development, implementation, and sustainability of effective Expanded School Mental Health programs and services. For the purpose of this study, five elementary school administrators in an urban Midwestern school district were chosen to participate in semi-structured interviews to 1) gain their perspectives about the most concerning behavioral, emotional, and mental health issues observed in students in the school environment, 2) obtain an understanding of administrators’ beliefs about what constitutes and defines an effective Expanded School Mental Health system, and 3) acquire information about the training administrators believe are necessary for school personnel to better support students within these systems. The findings from this study revealed that when elementary administrators were asked to identify the most concerning mental health issues seen in schools, the common themes centered around physical aggression, the inability to use coping strategies to self-regulate emotions, and self-harm. Second, the participants in this study described many of the common core features of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), Multi-tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), and the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF) as being necessary for the effective development, implementation, and sustainability of Expanded School Mental school-based mental health systems and services. Finally, professional development in the areas of mental health literacy (e.g., identifying the characteristics of mental health conditions, strategies to intervene with students, and ways to support students in gaining access to mental health services) were identified as critical training areas for teachers. Additionally, administrators specifically mentioned the use of ongoing coaching as being the most beneficial methodology for effective teacher training

Victims to Survivors: Liberians’ Experiences and Resilience during the Liberian Civil War

Warfare is an ever-present phenomenon that impacts people all over the world. Many of those who live in a war-torn country encounter horrific experiences that cause trauma, loss, and grief. The Liberian people are an example of those who have experienced the tragedies of war in their country. The Liberian Civil War caused many individuals to flee, becoming displaced and seeking safety in other countries or refugee camps. This research study interviewed eight Liberian refugees who were children or adolescents during the war in order to explore their experiences and resilience. The participants in this study experienced horrific violence, separation, long travels, harsh conditions, and tremendous loss. The participants were resilient by relying on their faith in God, family, determination, adaptability, and hope. The resilience the Liberian refugees embodied allowed them to become survivors of war. The findings of this research are significant and an important addition to the literature on warfare, refugees, trauma, loss, resiliency, macro-level social work, and cross-cultural social work

On Character varieties of two-bridge knot groups

We find explicit models for the PSL(2,C)- and SL(2,C)-character varieties of the fundamental groups of complements in S^3 of an infinite family of two-bridge knots that contains the twist knots. We compute the genus of the components of these character varieties, and deduce upper bounds on the degree of the associated trace fields. We also show that these knot complements are fibered if and only if they are commensurable to a fibered knot complement in a Z/2Z-homology sphere, resolving a conjecture of Hoste and Shanahan.Comment: 36 pages, 4 figure

Economic burden of chronic bronchitis in the United States: a retrospective case-control study

Christopher M Blanchette1, Melissa H Roberts1, Hans Petersen1, Anand A Dalal2, Douglas W Mapel31Division of Clinical and Outcomes Research, Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, Kannapolis, NC, USA; 2US Health Outcomes, GlaxoSmithKline, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA; 3Lovelace Clinic Foundation, Albuquerque, NM, USABackground: Chronic bronchitis (CB) is often misdiagnosed or diagnosed at a later stage of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We examined how this later diagnosis may impact health care costs and utilization during the 12 months prior to and 24 months post initial CB diagnosis.Methods: This retrospective case-control analysis used claims data from a large US database from July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2007. Patients with CB aged 40 years and older were propensity matched (N = 11,674) to patients without evidence of COPD or asthma by demographics, CB diagnosis quarter/year, and comorbidities. Group differences were assessed using Student's t-test and Pearson chi-square test statistics.Results: Six months prediagnosis, CB patients had higher frequencies of any hospitalization (9.6%, 6.7%; P < 0.05), emergency department/urgent care visits (13.3%, 6.7%; P < 0.05), and prescriptions (97.3%, 94.1%; P < 0.05). Six months postdiagnosis, CB patients had 5.6 times more hospitalizations (P < 0.05) and 3.1 times more emergency department/urgent care visits (P < 0.05) compared with controls. Mean total costs (US) for CB patients 12 months prediagnosis were significantly higher than controls (months 12–7: 4212, 3826; P < 0.05; months 6–1: 5289, 4285; P < 0.05). CB patients had higher mean total costs (8919; P < 0.05) 6 months postdiagnosis. Costs remained $2429 higher for CB patients 19–24 months postdiagnosis (P < 0.05).Conclusion: Health care costs and utilization among CB patients are increased both prior to diagnosis and during the 2 years postdiagnosis. This study suggests that not accurately diagnosing CB early has a substantial impact on health care costs, and that the economic burden for CB patients remains elevated even after adjustment for comorbidities associated with COPD.Keywords: chronic bronchitis, burden, economic, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseas