A review of treatment programs for offenders with co-occurring addictive and mental disorders: support for booster interventions

Background: Treatment interventions are essential in supporting psychosocial skills, health promotion and successful reintegration to community living for incarcerated persons. Booster interventions are presumed to be important methods for maintaining the effects of treatment effects for persons with addiction and mental disorders, but there has been remarkably little empirical attention to this assumption. Objectives: This review aims are: (1) to describe existing literature on treatment programs for offenders with addiction and mental disorders in the reentry process, and, (2) to add to the literature on this topic by evaluating the impact of booster interventions upon maintenance of treatment effects and outcomes - specifically, a reduction in symptoms, reduced substance abuse, medication adherence, coping, independent functioning and decreased depressive symptoms. Methods: Electronic databases were searched for systematic reviews from January 2004 through January 2014 to include: CINAHL PubMed, and PsycINFO using selected keywords. Inclusion criteria were adult offenders, a treatment intervention in prison, jail, or forensic psychiatric hospital with a reentry focus for offenders with addiction and mental disorder. The AMSTAR was utilized to assess quality of the reviews. Results: Three systematic reviews were identified to examine treatment interventions for offenders with addiction and mental disorders. Little empirical evidence is available to demonstrate the contribution of booster interventions to overall treatment effects among justice-involved persons. Conclusion: Although evidence is not available, clinically it seems reasonable to expect booster interventions for offenders to reinforce treatment gains, strengthen self-care skills, and manage symptoms. Implications: Research designed specifically to study booster interventions are needed. Keywords: offender reentry, correctional institutions, offenders, treatment programs, mental illness, booster program

Dusky dolphins in New Zealand: group structure by sex and relatedness

The sex of and genetic relatedness among interacting individuals are known to be biologically fundamental features that characterize the composition of animal groups. Current work continues to illuminate reasons for the variety of animal social patterns, including patterns in group membership. I investigated the composition of dusky dolphin groups relative to sex and relatedness at two locations in New Zealand. In Kaikoura, dusky dolphins are found year-round, foraging nocturnally on verticallymigrating prey and socializing in distinct group types (mating, nursery, and adult) during the day. By contrast, dusky dolphins use Admiralty Bay, where they feed diurnally on small schooling fishes, primarily in the winter. Molecular sexing revealed the sex of 107 dusky dolphins. The Kaikoura data support previous findings that small mating groups consist mostly of males and indicate that small adult groups can consist of either or both sexes. In Admiralty Bay, the percentage of female dolphins present during the study was estimated to be only 7.4%âÂÂ22.2% (95% confidence interval, n=88). A randomization test further indicates that dusky dolphins in Admiralty Bay grouped preferentially with same-sex individuals. Nuclear and mitochondrial markers were used to investigate patterns of relatedness. Dusky dolphins sampled in Kaikoura (n=17) and Admiralty Bay (n=47) were genotyped at seven microsatellite loci, and genetic relatedness among all genotyped pairs was estimated. A randomization test indicates that dusky dolphins did not group preferentially by relatedness in Admiralty Bay. Grouping history for 13 genotyped samples was also known from a multi-year photographic record of individually distinctive dusky dolphins. No relationship was found between these longer-term grouping patterns and genetic relatedness. The d-loop region of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was sequenced for 197 dusky dolphins. The pattern of grouping among dolphins with different haplotypes indicates that dusky dolphin groups are not strongly structured by maternal lineages. However, data from eight individual dusky dolphins hint that nursery groups in Kaikoura tend to consist of dolphins that share a maternal ancestor. This investigation raises many questions about the nature of dusky dolphin social organization and suggests promising avenues for finer-grained investigations into the causes and consequences of dusky dolphin group structure

Measuring Time Costs in Interventions Designed to Reduce Behavior Problems Among Children and Youth

The economic evaluation of psychosocial interventions is a growing area of research. Though time costs are central to the economist’s understanding of social costs, these costs generally have been ignored by prevention scientists. This article highlights the need to measure such costs and then reviews the principles economists use in valuing time. It then considers the specific time costs that often arise in interventions designed to reduce behavior problems among children and youth. These include classroom time devoted to program activities, the time of parents or other caregivers, the time of teachers (outside of the classroom), and the time of volunteers. We consider the economic principles that govern how economists value these inputs and then apply these principles to data from an evaluation of a prominent intervention in the field, the Incredible Years Program. We find that the time costs are potentially rather large and consider the implications for public policy of ignoring them

Fulfilling the Hope of ICWA: The Role of Community Context

28 pagesThis paper suggests that long-term foster care, especially when it is provided within an American Indian Cultural Environment (AICE), may be a culturally appropriate alternative form of permanency for American Indian children. Administrative data on foster care placements of children from four California counties over a five-year period indicate that children in the county with the strongest AICE had fewer placements and placements that were, on average, significantly longer. Within counties that had recognized tribes, children from local tribes had longer placements. Data on individual placements were available for one county and indicated that children whose home tribes were within that county and who were placed on Rancherias had significantly longer placements than other children. These relationships remained significant when children’s demographic characteristics were controlled. Implications for policy and practice related to ICWA are discussed

A Calcium-dependent Tyrosine Kinase Splice Variant in Human Monocytes: ACTIVATION BY A TWO-STAGE PROCESS INVOLVING ADHERENCE AND A SUBSEQUENT INTRACELLULAR SIGNAL

Freshly isolated human monocytes do not express p125(FAK) but upon adherence to substrata activate the highly related calcium-dependent tyrosine kinase (CADTK), also known as Pyk2, CAKbeta, RAFTK, and FAK2. The monocyte CADTK was 5 kDa smaller than protein from epithelial cells; isolation and sequencing of the monocyte CADTK cDNA revealed a predicted 42-amino acid deletion between the two proline-rich domains of the enzyme. The nucleic acid sequence suggests that the deletion is caused by alternative RNA splicing. This species was also found in T and B lymphocytes and appears to be the predominant form of cytoskeletal associated tyrosine kinase in non-neoplastic, circulating, hematopoietic cells. CADTK was not activated when monocytes maintained in suspension were treated with agents that produce an intracellular calcium (thapsigargin) or protein kinase C (phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate) signal including a chemokine, RANTES, that binds to the HIV co-receptor, CCK5. In contrast, monocyte adherence to tissue culture plastic-stimulated CADTK tyrosine phosphorylation, a process that was enhanced by thapsigargin, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, and RANTES but that was completely blocked by preincubation with cytochalasin D. When compared with plastic, adherence to fibronectin- or collagen-coated surfaces produced only minimal CADTK activation but permitted significant stimulation by added thapsigargin. These data suggest that in a cell type that lacks p125(FAK), CADTK plays an early role in post-adherence signaling. Its activation involves two stages, cytoskeletal engagement, which is permissive, and co-stimulatory signals (calcium or protein kinase C) generated by extensive cell surface engagement, agonists, or inflammatory chemokines

A Call to Action: A Blueprint for Academic Health Sciences in the Era of Mass Incarceration

Over 100 million Americans have criminal records, and the U.S. incarcerates seven times more citizens than most developed countries. The burden of incarceration disproportionately affects people of color and ethnic minorities, and those living in poverty. While 95% of incarcerated people return to society, recidivism rates are high with nearly 75% arrested again within five years of release. Criminal records impede access to employment and other social services such as shelter and health care. Justice-involved people have higher rates of substance, mental health, and some chronic medical disorders than the general population; furthermore, the incarcerated population is rapidly aging. Only a minority of academic health science centers are engaged in health services research, workforce training, or correctional health care. This commentary provides rationale and a blueprint for engagement of academic health science institutions to harness their capabilities to tackle one of the country\u27s most vexing public health crises