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University of Massachusetts Boston

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2007

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Articles 1 - 14 of 14

Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Identifying Methods Nurse Managers Can Implement To Foster A Supportive Environment For Staff Where Disruptive Behavior Exists, Kathleen Leavitt Dec 2007

Identifying Methods Nurse Managers Can Implement To Foster A Supportive Environment For Staff Where Disruptive Behavior Exists, Kathleen Leavitt

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

We can all imagine the ideal work environment, where you are respected, empowered, and provided with the resources to perform to the best of your ability everyday. Your skills would be acknowledged and the challenging work that is accomplished each day would be appreciated by peers, team members, and managers. However, in my work environment, an operating room, a phenomenon called "disruptive behavior" often interrupts the ability of achieving this desired state. Initially I was focused on this behavior being displayed by physicians but was awakened to the fact that they are not the only offenders and that many caregivers …


Illness Stories: From Recognizing The Significance In Care To Planning My Own Storied Practice, Jane Lachance Dec 2007

Illness Stories: From Recognizing The Significance In Care To Planning My Own Storied Practice, Jane Lachance

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

In this paper, stories of illness are identified as belonging to a specific genre of story that represents an ill person's interpretation of experience and hence the meaning(s) of illness. The ill person is recognized as member of a family embedded in a social setting with cultural mores that contribute to experience and meanings. The meaning of illness is significant because it affects the care of illness. This paper focuses on chronic illness, an illness without cure that is managed over a lifetime and is characterized by remission and exacerbation of symptoms. Our current bio-medical health care system reframes the …


Massworks: Quality Employment Services: Where Research And Practice Meet, Rick Kugler, Cindy Thomas Sep 2007

Massworks: Quality Employment Services: Where Research And Practice Meet, Rick Kugler, Cindy Thomas

MassWorks Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

Providing quality employment services to people with disabilities requires a substantial commitment of time, energy, and resources. Given this investment and our obligation to individuals with disabilities, we as providers must deliver the most effective services possible.


Preps Surveillance: Summary Of Existing Survey Measures And Recommendations For Ongoing Efforts, Lois Biener, Karen Bogen, Catherine A. Garrett Aug 2007

Preps Surveillance: Summary Of Existing Survey Measures And Recommendations For Ongoing Efforts, Lois Biener, Karen Bogen, Catherine A. Garrett

Center for Survey Research Publications

Over the past decade or more, tobacco companies have introduced cigarettes with lower content of some toxins than regular and light cigarettes. These new cigarettes, referred to as a class as Potential Reduced Exposure Products (PREPs), have typically been introduced into test markets, not nationwide, which means they are not yet widely known or recognized by name or description by most consumers. However, the introduction of these products is of great concern to public health advocates, who do not believe that enough research, particularly long term research, has been done to know whether or not the PREPs, even if proven …


Should Massachusetts Regionalize Public Health?, Eric W. Hayden Jun 2007

Should Massachusetts Regionalize Public Health?, Eric W. Hayden

Financial Services Forum Publications

Amidst rising global concerns about bioterrorism and pandemic flu preparedness, the delivery capacity and effectiveness of public health service assumes increased importance and relevance. In the United States, the lack of a centralized, national public health system has meant that “public health” is the primary responsibility of state and local governments. Many states have established various types of intrastate regional structures to deliver the range of on-going, occasional, and/or episodic services that characterize the world of public health. However, Massachusetts is not among them. Despite its global reputation as a pre-eminent medical center, the state of Massachusetts has a highly …


A Trade-Off Proposal For Funding Long-Term Care, Yung-Ping Chen Jun 2007

A Trade-Off Proposal For Funding Long-Term Care, Yung-Ping Chen

Gerontology Institute Publications

Long-term care can be a depressing subject. Most of us tend not to think about it. However, we cannot long avoid it as the 76 million baby boomers begin reaching older ages in a few short years. According to projections, in 40 years, those aged 65 to 84 (numbering 31.6 million in 2005) will more than double, and those 85 plus (about 5.1 million in 2005), who are more at risk of dependency, will more than triple (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004 and 2006). Heavy reliance on Medicaid, already the second largest budget item in most states, would not appear viable. …


Preps Surveillance: Summary Of Cognitive Interviews And Recommendations For Preps Surveillance Measures, Lois Biener, Karen Bogen Apr 2007

Preps Surveillance: Summary Of Cognitive Interviews And Recommendations For Preps Surveillance Measures, Lois Biener, Karen Bogen

Center for Survey Research Publications

A review of existing research on population awareness of potentially reduced exposure tobacco products (PREPs) as well as results of cognitive interviews suggest that awareness of PREPs is quite low at this time, except in active test-markets. In order to monitor changes in awareness and perceptions of, and receptivity to these products over time, we have proposed using a set of questions as well as coding conventions that appear to result in reasonably accurate estimates of awareness of a particular group of products. The recommended items, which performed will in cognitive interviews, are presented in Appendix D of this report. …


History, Principles, Context, And Approach: The Special Homeless Initiative Of The Massachusetts Department Of Mental Health, Martha R. Burt Apr 2007

History, Principles, Context, And Approach: The Special Homeless Initiative Of The Massachusetts Department Of Mental Health, Martha R. Burt

Center for Social Policy Publications

Preventing homelessness or ending it quickly for Massachusetts residents with serious mental illness (SMI) has been a strong element of the Department of Mental Health’s agenda for approximately two decades. The Department of Mental Health (DMH, or the Department) estimates that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is home to approximately 48,000 adults with SMI. Of these, the Department serves the most disabled and the poorest. Client incomes hover around 15 percent of the area median income. Most clients are not employed, and rely on SSI-SSDI benefits for their income. DMH efforts to prevent or end homelessness for its clients have been …


State Agency Promising Practice: Working Together To Convert The Last Sheltered Workshop In Vermont To Individualized Supports, Jennifer Sullivan Sulewski, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston Jan 2007

State Agency Promising Practice: Working Together To Convert The Last Sheltered Workshop In Vermont To Individualized Supports, Jennifer Sullivan Sulewski, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

Vermont’s Division of Disability and Aging Services (DDAS) and Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) worked with a local service provider to convert its congregate day services to community employment. Implementation Between 1987 and 2002, DDAS and DVR worked with several providers to close down sheltered workshops and move people into community supports.


State Agency Promising Practice: The Tennessee Employment Consortium (Tec) - A Statewide Collaboration For Change, Jean Winsor, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston Jan 2007

State Agency Promising Practice: The Tennessee Employment Consortium (Tec) - A Statewide Collaboration For Change, Jean Winsor, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

The Tennessee Employment Consortium (TEC) is a statewide organization focused on increasing the number of Tennesseans in integrated employment. The consortium comprises volunteers from the state’s Division of Mental Retardation Services (DMRS) and Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRS), the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities, the ARC of Tennessee, the Center on Disability and Employment at the University of Tennessee, community rehabilitation providers (CRPs), family members, and other stakeholders. TEC’s ability to organize collaborative activities across state agencies, advocacy organizations, and CRPs has played an important role in increasing integrated employment outcomes.


State Agency Promising Practice: Shifting Resources Away From Sheltered Workshops In Vermont, Jennifer Sullivan Sulewski, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston Jan 2007

State Agency Promising Practice: Shifting Resources Away From Sheltered Workshops In Vermont, Jennifer Sullivan Sulewski, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

Over six years, regulations in Vermont gradually restricted and eventually prohibited the use of state funds for sheltered workshops or enclaves. Concurrent with the change in funding regulations, the state worked with providers to convert the remaining sheltered workshops in Vermont.


State Agency Promising Practices: Washington State’S Working-Age Adult Policy, Allison C. Hall, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston Jan 2007

State Agency Promising Practices: Washington State’S Working-Age Adult Policy, Allison C. Hall, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

Washington’s Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) has recently issued a new policy which went into full effect on July 1, 2006. This policy “designates employment supports as the primary method of furnishing state-financed day services to adult participants.” Emphasizing community employment as the primary service option, the policy further states that: “services for persons under the age of 62 that do not emphasize the pursuit or maintenance of employment in integrated settings can be authorized only by exception to policy” (WA DHSH, DDD, “County Services for Working Age Adults” Policy 4.11). Initially adopted in 2004, this policy does not eliminate …


State Agency Promising Practices: Employment First! Making Integrated Employment The Preferred Outcome In Tennessee, Jean Winsor, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston Jan 2007

State Agency Promising Practices: Employment First! Making Integrated Employment The Preferred Outcome In Tennessee, Jean Winsor, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

The Tennessee Division of Mental Retardation Services (DMRS) implemented the Employment First! initiative in 2002. The goal of Employment First was to make employment the first day service option for adults receiving supports funded by DMRS, Medicaid, or the state. Employment First set the standard that employment was the preferred service option for adults with mental retardation and developmental disabilities (MR/DD).


State Agency Promising Practice: Integrated Employment Outcomes Through Person-To-Person Technical Assistance: New Hampshire, Allison C. Hall, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston Jan 2007

State Agency Promising Practice: Integrated Employment Outcomes Through Person-To-Person Technical Assistance: New Hampshire, Allison C. Hall, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

New Hampshire implemented an innovative technical assistance model that promoted organizational change to expand individual employment opportunities. This person-to-person change began at the micro level but “trickled up” through organizations across the state. In 2000, realizing that the state’s growth in integrated employment had stalled, the Bureau of Developmental Services invested aggressively in expanding its intervention strategy by recruiting a community provider to work directly through the bureau. The bureau hired John Vance-the director of ACCESS, a small individualized support organization in New Hampshire-half-time to provide individualized technical assistance to providers across the state. As part of the bureau, Vance …