Baton Rouge Collective Healing Initiative: Final Report

In response to recent and historic traumatic events that caused distrust and strained relationships between law enforcement and their communities, the U. S. Department of Justice, Office of Victims of Crime (OVC), selected five demonstration sites to invest in restorative and healing activities to repair community-police relationships. The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) worked closely with the sites over the three-year grant period to improve relations through evidence-based interventions, technical assistance, and peer learning. The program, Law Enforcement and the Communities They Serve: Supporting Collective Healing in the Wake of Harm began in the selected cities, which included 1) Baton Rouge, Louisiana; 2) Houston, Texas; 3) Minneapolis, Minnesota; 4) Oakland, California; and 5) Rapid City, South Dakota. The purpose of Collective Healing was to foster meaningful dialogue and reconciliation among law enforcement agencies and the communities of color they serve, to increase the capacity of victim services programs, and to address officer health and wellness. Collective Healing programs were led by police departments and supported by victim assistance programs, behavioral health agencies, grassroots organizations, and academic partners. IACP provided technical assistance and training and conducted site visits to monitor accountability and effectiveness. The Baton Rouge Collective Healing Initiative was conducted from October 1, 2017, through September 30, 2020. The Baton Rouge Police Department (BRPD) served as the lead and fiscal agent for the project. BRPD hired a program manager to coordinate the partnership and complete grant activities. The original core members of the Baton Rouge Collective Healing Initiative included community partners who were vested in improving community-police relationships. The core partners included 100 Black Men of Metro Baton Rouge, the Baton Rouge Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Capital Area Human Services, LSU Social Research and Evaluation Center, and the Southern University, Center for Social Research

Louisiana-Recognized Native American Tribal Needs Assessment: Understanding the Perceptions, Resources, and Challenges Involving Opioid Use Disorder

Executive Summary The Social Research and Evaluation Center (SREC) at the Louisiana State University, College of Human Sciences and Education engaged Louisiana-recognized tribes to investigate their perceptions, resources, and challenges around the Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) crisis in their communities. The outreach and investigative process resulted in attending tribal council meetings, conducting key stakeholder interviews, and administering tribal listening sessions. The discussions and listening sessions facilitated open dialogue about the nature of OUD, prevention, treatment, and recovery as well as identification of strengths and challenges experienced by tribal communities. Tribal citizens reported limited knowledge about help for those experiencing addiction. Knowledge of resources was limited, and misinformation was also revealed. Tribal citizens reported little to no cultural practices that could assist those dealing with addiction. Tribal citizens listed an array of root causes contributing to addiction in their communities including historical and generational trauma. The interactions for this project with Native American citizens opened new channels of communication and established rapport among tribal citizens and the SREC research team to better understand the impact of OUD and identify appropriate solution

Louisiana Children\u27s Trust Fund Annual Report 2021-2022

Child abuse and neglect is a leading factor in the staggeringly high rates of child mortality in Louisiana. In 2017, Louisiana had 44,793 total referrals for child abuse and neglect of which 19,851 were investigated (CWLA, 2019). Child abuse and neglect can have multiple detrimental effects on a child’s physical, psychological, and behavioral health. Effective prevention efforts are critical to ensuring the immediate and long-term safety and well-being of children in Louisiana. Each year, LCTF selects high-quality proposals and funds a range of prevention efforts to protect children, strengthen family well-being, and educate the public about children’s safety. Local, national, and global events have greatly impacted our communities since 2020. These events included various social, economic, political, and medical crises. Events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, led to political, social unrest and the resulting business closures have caused a great deal of instability in communities around the state. It has taken a toll on individuals’ mental health and well-being. The Child Welfare Information Gateway (2022) says that family wellbeing is an important factor in reducing the likelihood of child abuse and neglect. These events do not impact everyone equally. However, difficult times for some can be felt more severely by other, even more so for the most marginalized populations in our community. Understanding the broader context of how policies and events have impacted our communities is important. These events have caused many to examine bias, resources available for families at risk, and how communities and individuals are making decisions for their children. It has also identified barriers that prevent some children and families from seeking the opportunities and accessing the resources they need to thrive

Improving Student Attendance: An Action Planning Workbook

Improving Student Attendance is an action planning workbook to address chronic absenteeism and the needs of students and families through school implementation of multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS). This workbook was developed by researchers at the LSU Social Research and Evaluation Center in conjunction with the Louisiana Department of Education\u27s Attendance Alliance Initiative. The workbook serves as an instructional guide to design and implement an effective plan to improve K-12 school attendance. Section 1 shows how to build a school team and define the need; Section 2 shows how to foster community and nurture collaboration, and Section 3 guides the team to develop and monitor MTSS for attendance

An Immersive Virtual Reality Intervention for Preoperative Anxiety and Distress Among Adults Undergoing Oncological Surgery: Protocol for a 3-Phase Development and Feasibility Trial

BackgroundPreoperative state anxiety (PSA) is distress and anxiety directly associated with perioperative events. PSA is associated with negative postoperative outcomes such as longer hospital length of stay, increased pain and opioid use, and higher rates of rehospitalization. Psychological prehabilitation, such as education, exposure to hospital environments, and relaxation strategies, has been shown to mitigate PSA; however, there are limited skilled personnel to deliver such interventions in clinical practice. Immersive virtual reality (VR) has the potential for greater accessibility and enhanced integration into an immersive and interactive experience. VR is rarely used in the preoperative setting, but similar forms of stress inoculation training involving exposure to stressful events have improved psychological preparation in contexts such as military deployment. ObjectiveThis study seeks to develop and investigate a targeted PSA intervention in patients undergoing oncological surgery using a single preoperative VR exposure. The primary objectives are to (1) develop a novel VR program for patients undergoing oncological surgery with general anesthesia; (2) assess the feasibility, including acceptability, of a single exposure to this intervention; (3) assess the feasibility, including acceptability, of outcome measures of PSA; and (4) use these results to refine the VR content and outcome measures for a larger trial. A secondary objective is to preliminarily assess the clinical utility of the intervention for PSA. MethodsThis study comprises 3 phases. Phase 1 (completed) involved the development of a VR prototype targeting PSA, using multidisciplinary iterative input. Phase 2 (data collection completed) involves examining the feasibility aspects of the VR intervention. This randomized feasibility trial involves assessing the novel VR preoperative intervention compared to a VR control (ie, nature trek) condition and a treatment-as-usual group among patients undergoing breast cancer surgery. Phase 3 will involve refining the prototype based on feasibility findings and input from people with lived experience for a future clinical trial, using focus groups with participants from phase 2. ResultsThis study was funded in March 2019. Phase 1 was completed in April 2020. Phase 2 data collection was completed in January 2024 and data analysis is ongoing. Focus groups were completed in February 2024. Both the feasibility study and focus groups will contribute to further refinement of the initial VR prototype (phase 3), with the final simulation to be completed by mid-2024. ConclusionsThe findings from this work will contribute to the limited body of research examining feasible and broadly accessible interventions for PSA. Knowledge gained from this research will contribute to the final development of a novel VR intervention to be tested in a large population of patients with cancer before surgery in a randomized clinical trial. Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT04544618; https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04544618 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)DERR1-10.2196/5569