Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Meeting The Needs Of Individuals With Autism: Considerations For The Future, Nina Wall-Coté Mss, Lsw

Annual Foundations Behavioral Health/La Salle University Autism Spectrum Disorders Conference

During this session, the Bureau of Autism Services will share information about its key initiatives, including: PA autism census data, the PA Autism Needs Assessment findings and recommendations, the ASERT Collaboratives regional projects, and information about the Adult Autism Waiver and the Adult Community Autism Program (ACAP). BAS will also share additional resources and collaborative efforts underway to help individuals with autism improve their quality of life, achieve independence, and become contributing members of their communities.

This program is designed to help you…

1. Identify implications of regional census data for systems supporting individuals with an ASD.
2. Understand the findings and …

The Influence Of Neighborhood Characteristics On The Existence Of Asthma In Children, Elizabeth Adejuyigbe

Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society

Asthma is one of the leading chronic diseases in children 17 years of age and under with nine million American children suffering from it. Previous studies to understand causal factors of disease including asthma tend to focus on the individual and sociocultural characteristics but there is little to no research using neighborhood characteristics, a factor that does influence health. Research shows that other community‐level environmental factors like collective efficacy, community structural factors, and neighborhood safety can affect a persons’ psychosocial well-being, and in turn increase morbidity. For this reason, researchers suggest that the need to understand asthma and its associated …

The Drawn-Out Battle Against Stigma: Mental Health In Modern American Comics And Graphic Novels, Swee Khee Brenda Seah

Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society

The discussion of mental health issues in the media significantly shapes public perceptions, most notably in negative portrayals that contribute to the stereotyping of mental health patients. Perhaps surprisingly, comics and graphic novels are forms of media that have potential to mitigate such stigma, despite earlier criticism of mental health stereotypes propagated in some comics. This is reflected in a recent trend of comics treating mental health issues in more sympathetic ways. This paper discusses three American comics from the last decade, examining depictions of post-traumatic stress disorder in Garry Trudeau's comic strip, Doonesbury, around 2005-2006, schizophrenia in Nate …