Engagement intervention versus treatment as usual for young adults with serious mental illness: a randomized pilot trial

Background: Young adults have elevated rates of mental health disorders, yet they often do not receive consistent care. The challenge of continuing to engage young adults has been pervasive worldwide. Few engagement interventions have been designed for young adults with serious mental illness. Just Do You is a theoretically guided engagement intervention. It uses innovative modalities (i.e., technology, expressive arts activities, narrative expression, mentoring) to engage participants in conversations about services and how they work, while simultaneously orienting them to treatment. Methods/design: This pilot and feasibility study utilizes a hybrid research design, examining feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary impact, alongside implementation. The study combines qualitative methods, a small pilot randomized trial, and a small cost-benefit analysis. Respondents are clinic staff and young adults who have made initial contact with the Personalized Recovery Oriented Services (PROS) program. Quantitative survey data are collected at baseline, 2 weeks (post-intervention), 1 month, and 3 months. The assessments focus on measuring feasibility, acceptability, engagement, and mental health outcomes. Medical record extraction will be used to triangulate self-report data. We will conduct single degree of freedom contrasts to examine whether Just Do You leads to improved outcomes relative to Treatment-As-Usual using robust regression for each outcome measure. We will examine whether changes in the proposed mediating variables occur across groups using a similar contrast strategy. In addition, we will use structural equation modeling to examine the contribution of mediators to ultimate outcomes. Finally, we will use constant comparison coding techniques for qualitative analyses. Discussion: The aim of this study is to examine the feasibility of a young adult engagement meta-intervention through an intensive preliminary pilot trial, learning through collaboration with stakeholders. Just Do You has the potential to fill a gap in the service system for young adults with serious mental illnesses, improving the seemingly intractable problem of disengagement. The program uses culturally responsive strategies, is recovery-oriented, and builds upon the best evidence to date. Our efforts align with local and national health care reform efforts embedding people with lived experience. Trial registration: This trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: NCT03423212) on April 18, 2018, as Protocol Record R34 MH111861-01, New York University, as the Just Do You Program for Young Adults with Serious Mental Illness

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Satisfaction with counseling among black males in transition from the foster care system

Using the Multidimensional Adolescent Satisfaction Scale (Garland, Saltzman, & Aarons, 2000), satisfaction with counseling and associated variables were examined among Black males (n = 47) transitioning from the foster care system. Potential associated variables assessed were foster care custody status, counseling status, diagnosis of major depression and disruptive behavior disorder based DSM-IV criteria, history of placement in congregate care settings, attitudes toward mental health services, stigma beliefs, and masculine norms. Results from simultaneous multiple regression analysis showed that attitudes toward mental health services contributed significantly to satisfaction with counseling. Specifically, Black males who expressed more positive attitudes toward mental health services in terms of confidence in mental health professionals and the therapeutic process reported greater satisfaction. Implications and future research directions are discussed.Black males Foster care Client satisfaction Counseling Attitudes toward mental health services

A steady presence in the midst of change: Non-kin natural mentors in the lives of older youth exiting foster care

The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of the non-kin natural mentoring relationships among 19-year-old youths (N = 189) in the process of "aging out" of the foster care system. Data for the present study are from the final interview of a longitudinal study of older youth exiting the foster care system in Missouri. Participants that reported a natural mentoring relationship at age 19 were asked a series of qualitative questions about their reported relationship. The sample in this study was 65% female and 58% youth of color. Thematic analysis, informed by relational-cultural theory (Miller & Stiver, 1997), was utilized to explore the nature of the relationships from the youth's perspective. These youth reported having natural mentors who served in a range of roles in their lives, including youth service professionals and friends of their families. These older youth also described the (a) qualities of their natural mentors that were important to them, (b) specific features of their natural mentoring relationships that they perceived to be especially helpful, and (c) the various kinds of support these relationships had offered to them. Implications for social work policy, practice, and research are discussed.Natural mentoring Foster care Older youth Qualitative inquiry Relational-cultural theory

Parental Perceptions and Recommendations of Computing Majors: A Technology Acceptance Model Approach Cloud-based Versus Local-based Web Development Education: An Experimental Study in Learning Experience Role-Playing and Problem-Based Learning: The Use of

Abstract For the past several years, there has been an increase in the number of job opportunities in the computing field. As a result, many schools and universities are facing a significant increase in the number of students seeking to major in one of several computing disciplines. This increase in the numbers and variety of majors in the computing field poses challenges for higher education institutions in the areas of advising, retention, scheduling, and enrollment management. This paper builds upon prior research documenting the association of personality type and affinity for a computing career, and proposes using personality testing early in a student's university experience by including it as one factor in the advising process. This study employs the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as a tool to help students select an appropriate computing major better suited for their given personality. This initial exploratory study shows that there is a significant difference in personalities among computing majors, specifically in the area of introversion versus extroversion, and intuition versus sensing. Testing students early, before starting a specific major, allows institutions to provide better advising to students as they choose their major, with the goal of increasing retention, degree satisfaction and completion of the degree