The cash market in health care: a community-based approach

Medical care

Evaluation of African American Adolescent Health Status With Gender Comparison

The goals of Healthy People 2010 are to increase the quality of life and life expectancy, and eliminate health disparities. There is no clear picture, however, if these goals are being addressed by African American adolescents. This study was conducted to evaluate health status of African American adolescents aged 13-19 in Florida’s Big Bend Region. Healthy People 2010 objectives were consulted for the evaluation. Responses from a convenience sample of 35 participants (63% female, 34% male) who completed a survey comprised of questions based on Likert scale are summarized here. The results show that the African American adolescents are engaging in some physical activity; however, only about half of them reported maintaining a healthy body weight. The majority of the adolescents reported avoiding smoking, but fewer adolescents reported avoiding drinking alcohol. Only a small percentage of the adolescents reported that their friends carried a gun or knife to school within the last 30 days; the percentage increased when the adolescents were asked if their friends got into a fist fight within the last 30 days. The adolescents sampled in this study have only achieved the Healthy People 2010 objectives in one of the health concern areas examined herein. It is also important to note that there are substantial gender-based disparities. In order to meet all Healthy People 2010 objectives, health education and promotion must be increased. Future research should explore different aspects of health status of adolescents in general, and further examine gender disparities and contributing factors

Coping and Assumptive World Views: Comparing Parents of Murdered Children and Parents of Missing/Returned Children in the Management of their Grief

This study investigates the relationship between psychological coping, religious coping, and assumptive world views of parents of murdered children and parents of missing/returned children. The latter group refers to parents who had a missing child who was returned prior to participating in the study. A sample of 82 parents of murdered children and 14 parents of missing/returned children completed a series of self-report measures assessing grief, coping, and assumptive world views. Due to statistical power limitations in the missing/returned group, proposed hypotheses were examined using only data from parents of murdered children. The hypothesis that longer time since the event would be associated with lower levels of grief was supported. The hypotheses that higher levels of positive religious coping, task-oriented coping, and avoidant coping would be associated with lower levels of grief was not supported. The hypothesis that lower levels of emotion coping would be associated with lower levels of grief was supported. Regarding assumptive world views, the hypothesis that a stronger belief in the meaningfulness of the world would be associated with lower levels of grief was not supported for parents of murdered children, while hypotheses that stronger beliefs in the benevolence of the world and worthiness of the self would be associated with lower levels of grief were supported. Data from parents of missing/returned children were examined in a secondary analysis. Grief scores between parents of murdered children and parents of missing children were not significantly different. A significant difference in worthiness of the self was found between the two groups, such that parents of missing/returned children viewed themselves as more worthy than did parents of murdered children. Clinical implications and directions for future research are addressed

The Adoption of Food Safety Practices and the Implications of Regulation for Small Scale Farms

In this article we examine the adoption of food safety practices among produce growers in the south and discuss implications of food safety regulations in the U.S. Produce growers have adopted standard food safety practices to varying degrees, but there is still an adoption gap, particularly among small scale operations. Market-driven and regulatory food safety enforcement continues to tighten, and this can further hinder market access for small scale producers

College and Career Ready: What’s the Library Got to Do With It?

College and Career Ready, Career Clusters, and Career Pathways are buzz words often heard but not always understood. These terms will be discussed as information about the collaborative activities between Emporia High School (EHS) and Flint Hills Technical College (FHTC) is shared. One responsibility of Emporia High School guidance counselors is to assist students in exploring and choosing career pathway courses. To support the counselors, the librarians at both institutions have created resources and activities that engage students in career exploration. The FHTC librarian created a LibGuide that includes online handbooks, reports, and crosswalks from FHTC programs to the six career fields and sixteen career clusters. Resources and activities created by the EHS librarian for the career fair, which helped students explore their learning styles and career interests, will be discussed. Although the activities are specific to these institutions they can be generalized for other settings

Using parent metaphors for learning about the neonatal care experience: an interpretive perspective

© 2019 The Author(s). The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Journal of Child Health Care by Sage Publications Ltd. All rights reserved. It is available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1367493519875853.This study focuses on how metaphors are used by parents who have had a premature baby to describe their neonatal care experience and how these can contribute to empathic learning of health professionals. In health, metaphors are commonly used to communicate and explain difficult topics. When patients tell their story, metaphor can be a means of expression from which we can learn about their experience of illness or hospitalisation. Limited research exits on how metaphor can improve our understanding of parent’s emotional experience in neonatal care and subsequently inform education in this field. Employing narrative inquiry within an interpretive, constructivist paradigm, 20 narrative interviews with 23 parents of premature babies were analysed using a process of metaphor identification. Findings revealed common metaphors used to describe experience. Metaphor clusters used by parents in order of frequency were journeying, altered reality, darkness, breaking, connections, fighting, salvation and being on the edge. Parents widely used compelling and emotive metaphors to describe and express both difficult and challenging times as well as progression forward. Metaphors serve as a powerful way for health professionals to learn about the emotional experiences of parents and potentially enhance their empathic understanding.Peer reviewe

Estabelecimento de um Índice de Mudança Confiável para o GAD-7

Aim: It is increasingly important for mental healthcare providers and researchers to reliably assess client change, particularly with common presenting problems such as anxiety. The current study addresses this need by establishing a Reliable Change Index of 6 points for the GAD-7. Method: Sample size included 116 online community participants using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and archival data for 332 clinical participants. Participants completed measures of the GAD-7 and the MDI in 2 rounds. Using previously established cutoff scores and Jacobson and Truax’s (1991) method, we establish a Reliable Change Index which, when applied to 2 administrations of the GAD-7, indicates if a client has experienced meaningful change. Results: For the GAD-7, the mean score for the clinical sample was 10.57. For the community sample at Time 1, the mean score was 4.14. A Pearson’s correlation was computed to assess the 14-28-day test-retest reliability of the GAD-7, r(110) = .87, indicating good test-retest reliability. Conclusion: Using the RCI equation, this resulted in an RCI of 5.59. For practical use the RCI would be rounded to 6.Objetivo: É de extrema importância que os profissionais de saúde mental e investigadores consigam avaliar de forma fidedigna a mudança do cliente, especialmente no que diz respeito a problemas comuns como é o caso da ansiedade. O presente estudo aborda esta necessidade estabelecendo um Índice de Mudança Confiável de 6 pontos para o GAD-7. Método: A amostra incluiu 116 participantes de uma comunidade online utilizando a Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) juntamente com dados de arquivo de 332 participantes clínicos. Os participantes completaram os instrumentos de avaliação GAD-7 e MDI em 2 momentos. Utilizando scores de cutoff previamente estabelecidos e o método de Jacobson e Truax’s (1991), foi estabelecido o Índice de Mudança Confiável (RCI) que, quando aplicado a dois administradores do GAD-7 indica se um cliente experienciou uma mudança significativa. Resultados: Para o GAD-7, o mean score para a amostra clínica foi de 10.57. Relativamennte à amostra comunitária no primeiro momento, o mean score foi de 4.14. Foi utilizada a correlação de Pearson para avaliar a fiabilidade teste-reteste de 14-28 dias do GAD-7, r(110) = .87, indicando uma fiabilidade de teste-reteste boa. Conclusão: Utilizando a equação RCI, o resultado diz respeito a um RCI de 5.59. Para que exista uma utilização prática, é necessário que o RCI seja próximo de 6