Digital Commons Network^™

Prescription For Critical Thinking: A Discussion Of Psychotropic Medication And Counseling, Barton W. Biggs

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

This paper examines questions about the safety and efficacy of psychotropic medication, and looks at how these questions should impact the field of counseling. The paper first looks at increasing rates of use of psychotropic medication, and establishes that nearly every clinical mental health counselor will work with clients who are taking or considering taking such medication. The paper next examines the scientific literature and establishes that there is a legitimate basis for questions to be raised about the safety and efficacy of these medications. The paper goes on to establish that there is a foundation in ethical codes and …

Fighting Madness, Making Caribbeanness: Kelly Baker Josephs's Disturbers Of The Peace: Representations Of Madness In Anglophone Caribbean Literature, Sheri-Marie L. Harrison

Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal

Review of Kelly Baker Josephs's Disturbers of The Peace: Representations of Madness in Anglophone Caribbean Literature

Transformative Leadership: Building Social Equity Through Individualized Professional Development, Curtis David Gunn

Dissertations

Developing social justice awareness is a challenging task. Many educational institutions have limited discourse related to race and equity. This autoethnography examines one leader’s attempt to become a transformational leader by having ongoing conversations about race and racism, applying the individualized transformative model of professional development during conversations, utilizing a peer advisory group for feedback, and reflecting on the results. Findings reveal the most important element for growth is the act of engaging in the conversation regardless of one’s perceived level of competence. The individualized transformative model of professional development was demonstrated to be an effective approach to professional development.

Patient-Reported Outcomes Screening For Improved Patient Wellness: A Cancer Center Initiative, Alison Morris

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Background: People experiencing serious illness have significant unmet physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs. The Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI) requires patients to be screened for emotional wellbeing and pain by their second oncology visit. This project details one cancer center’s quality improvement initiative to (a) implement electronic screening of every cancer patient by their second oncology visit, (b) design processes for ongoing assessment and intervention of need(s), and (c) develop measurable and sustainable evaluation metrics to ensure that palliative care needs are met. Methods: In June 2015, we launched electronic collection of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) using the Patient Reported …

Using A Strategic Model For Professional Development: The Importance Of Evidence-Based Competencies As A Foundation For Professional Practice., Peggi B. Winter

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Abstract

A nursing professional practice model (PPM) is designed to provide a framework for how nursing practices, communicates, leads, collaborates, and provides the highest quality of care as we navigate the complex healthcare system. An infrastructure for learning, competency, and performance needs to be integrated into this model as a foundation for accelerating business and clinical initiatives, promoting standardization, and sharing successful practices. It is now, more than ever, a necessity to have a well-trained, highly competent nursing workforce. Simply having the knowledge and the skill to do a job is insufficient; rather, it is implied that a competency has …

Barriers To Leaving Poverty, Aouie R. Rubio

Master's Projects and Capstones

Rubicon Programs transformed its programs through recent strategic planning efforts to address the change in their mission that refocuses their goal on the eradication of poverty. The challenge for the design team was reimagining with fresh eyes the organization’s programs and service delivery model by examining what is needed from a holistic approach to move individuals out of poverty; becoming self-sufficient without recidivating back to poverty levels. This focus on moving people out of poverty and increasing sustainable self-sufficiency and not simply finding employment adds a complex level of program design aspects to consider. It is important for the participant …

Embedding Elements Of Positive Behavioral Interventions And Supports (Pbis) In A Summer Program, Laura Ruberto

Doctoral Dissertations

Summer programs are one of many out-of-school time opportunities offered to students. Out-of-school time programs are valuable to communities as they offer a supervised environment during times when risky behaviors can be prevalent and have potential to promote academic and socio-emotional growth in the nation’s youth (Zief & Lauver, 2006). Although federal mandates highlight a multitude of academic, enrichment, and family engagement objectives, less emphasis is placed on behavioral needs of students in out-of-school time programs (Afterschool Alliance, 2012). Furthermore, evidence suggests that behavioral support is needed in out-of-school time programs (Connecticut Commissioner on Education, 2008); yet, staff are often …

Hearing Officers' Perceptions Of Their Roles In Welfare Organizations, Karen R. Brown

Doctoral Dissertations

Little is known about the officials who conduct administrative hearings for aggrieved welfare clients. Hearing officers are charged with ensuring due process for welfare clients, called appellants in the hearing process, who believe that mistakes have been made in their cases and who wish to challenge those decisions. Administrative hearings are one of the few vehicles that afford clients the opportunity to contest welfare policies and procedures. This study explored welfare hearing officers and their perceptions of their roles in conducting hearings.

The concepts of role theory, organizational climate and aspects of professional training were used to examine the role …

Improving Inpatient Influenza Compliance Rates With A Standing Orders Program, Marlee E. Gruber

Master's Projects and Capstones

Influenza vaccinations are recommended yearly as part of a primary care performance measure to prevent and control seasonal influenza. Rates of influenza are steadily increasing and can lead to severe negative impacts and even fatalities with patients. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC)’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), less than 40 percent of the U.S. population receives the flu vaccine yearly. It is suggested by the CDC that Annual vaccination is the most effective method for preventing influenza virus infection and its complications. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People 2020 includes a goal of …

Remembering Vietnam War Veterans: Interpreting History Through New Orleans Monuments And Memorials, Catherine Bourg Haws

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This thesis is concerned with the question of how America’s citizen soldiers are remembered and how their services can be interpreted through monuments and memorials. The paper discusses the concept of memory and the functions of memorialization. It explores whether and how monuments and memorials portray the difficulties, hardships, horror, costs, and consequences of armed combat. The political motivations behind the design, formation and establishment of the edifices are also probed. The paper considers the Vietnam War monuments and memorials erected by Americans and Vietnam expatriates in New Orleans, Louisiana, and examines their illustrative and educational usefulness. Results reflect …

Preliminary Results Of The Louisiana Sex Offender Treatment Program, Lee A. Underwood, Frances L.L. Dailey, Carrie Merino, Yolanda Crump

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

The purpose of this study was to offer preliminary support for the Louisiana Sex Offender Treatment Program (LSOTP) in addressing the needs of juvenile sex offenders. Research objectives were (1) to offer statistical evidence for reductions in anxiety, depression, cognitive distortion and negative attitudes towards women comparing a group of 21 adolescents, 12 of whom received services as usual and nine of whom participated in the LSOTP. A controlled experimental evaluation design was utilized. The juvenile sex offenders were randomly assigned to the experimental group for 12 weeks receiving treatment services and a control group receiving care “as usual” in …

Winter Commencement: December 17-18, 2015, University Of North Dakota

UND Commencement Programs

UND Winter Commencement program from December 17-18, 2015.

Commencement Program, December (2015), Minnesota State University Moorhead

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Stress-Free Christmas?, Erin Olson

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Christmas does not need to be a time of stress and anxiety, but it can easily become one. Even in the nativity, God gave peace to Mary in what should have been the most peace-less of circumstances."

Posting about focusing on the true miracle of Christmas from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/a-stress-free-christmas/

Professional Values And Conflict Among Social Workers In Prisons: An Examination Of Role Stress, Strain, And Job Satisfaction In Working With Inmates With Mental Illness And/Or Substance Use Disorders, Hiroki Toi

Doctoral Dissertations

As the incarcerated population increases in the United States, especially those with mental illness and/or substance use disorders, social workers are expected to assume essential discharge planning roles in assisting prisoners’ transition back into the community. Social workers, like other prison professionals, experience value dilemmas and difficulties in ethical decision-making due to incompatibility between professional values and the practices in correctional settings. Often, social workers in prisons face role problems mainly represented by role incongruity, role ambiguity, and role conflict. Such stress creates role strain, which may profoundly affect job satisfaction. Job satisfaction of staff is important because it affects …

Mhealth Risk Screening In Urban Primary Care, Martha R. Staeheli

Doctoral Dissertations

Background: Urban, underserved populations experience considerable disparities in the screening, prevention, and treatment of chronic disease, including behavioral health disorders. Screening patients for such problems is widely recommended, yet is challenging to do in a brief primary care encounter, particularly for this complex patient population. Electronic risk screening provides one method of eliminating disparities in the identification of risks, while limiting burden on providers.

Objectives: 1) Screening data were compared to EHR data to assess differences in the prevalence of 12 risk factors and clustering of risks; 2) Patients screening positive for behavioral health problems were followed to determine rates …

Integrating Emotion Regulation Strategies And Religiosity/Spirituality In Counseling Sessions: Perceptions Of Counselors In Christian School Settings, Kathleen Karigan

Dissertations

Counselors working in religious schools have a unique opportunity to help students integrate religious/spiritual (R/S) practices, teachings, or beliefs and emotion regulation (ER) strategies to control intense emotions. The primary research question guiding this study was to explore how school counselors integrate ER strategies with R/S practices, teachings, or beliefs to support adolescents in grades 7-12. Eighteen interviews, journal entries, and responses to a vignette were analyzed using grounded theory methodology. Four males and 14 females (ages 32-69) from 15 schools, (4 all female, 5 all male, and 9 co-educational) participated in this study. The findings revealed that counselors are …

Gender And Attitudes About Mental Health Help Seeking: Results From National Data, Douglas Wendt, Kevin Shafer

Faculty Publications

Men often express less emotion than women do, are hesitant to express weakness, and seek professional help much less frequently than do their female counterparts. The lack of help seeking is common across characteristics such as age, race, ethnicity, and nationality. Authors used data from the 2006 General Social Surveys mental health module to suggest that the gender gap in help seeking may be rooted in attitudes regarding help-seeking behaviors generally. Using structural equation modeling, we linked vignette type (depression and schizophrenia) to the endorsement of help seeking from informal and formal sources. Men showed similar support for informal help …

Family Affairs Newsletter 2015-12-15, Zack Paakkonen

Family Affairs newsletter (2004-2016)

FAMILY AFFAIRS was a free, twice-a-month, social activities newsletter for the GLBTQI (gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans/queer/intersex) community, sent out around the 1st and 15th of each month. It covered the State of Maine only. The list was begun and maintained for many years by Jean Vermette in Bangor, and later operated by Zack Paakkonen of Portland. Over the years it evolved from a social activities newsletter into a business directory, classified ad service, and community bulletin board.

Housing Research Realities And Perceptions: A Mixed Model Study Of Quantitative Data For Sioux County, Iowa And Orange City, Iowa With Qualitative Data Collected In Orange City, Iowa, Jenna Beeson, Amber Beyer, Corryn Dahlquist, Clarissa Ipema, Dakotah Jordan, Andrew Powell, Kelcie Scarlett, Hannah Twedt, Anthony Wubben

Student Projects

A mixed methods study on housing affordability, availability, and quality of rental properties and single-family home properties gathered data for Sioux County, Iowa and Orange City, Iowa. With quantitative data about Sioux County and more focused qualitative research in Orange City. Quantitative research was conducted through examining and compiling existing data. Qualitative survey research included a clustered sample and stratified random sample of homes in Orange City. The qualitative research had four major themes and three minor themes. The major themes are: Unknown Needs and Bias: Hispanic Community, (Un)Affordability, Lacking Rentals, and Lacking of Housing Awareness among Homeowners. The three …

Paying It Forward - Tyler Olsen, Usu Jon M. Huntsman School Of Business

Jon M. Huntsman School of Business News Collection

Tyler Olsen, proud Huntsman School of Business alumnus and long-time supporter, gives back to help ensure that talented Huntsman students don’t miss out on realizing their potential because of finances.

Physical Activity And Aging Research: A Bibliometric Analysis, A.M. Müller, P. Ansari, N. Ale Ebrahim, S. Khoo

Research Publications (2011 to 2015)

Physical activity and aging research has burgeoned in the past few decades. Despite the increase in scholarly publications no attempts have been made to summarize the publication landscape and to identify works that had great impact to physical activity and aging research. We conducted a bibliometric analysis and collected publication data from 1980 to February 6, 2015 in the Web of Science Core Collection. Of the overall 9,935 publications most were published after 2007 and almost 60% were in the category of Geriatrics and Gerontology or Sport Sciences. Highly cited publications (n = 45) were mostly authored by researchers from …

A Comparison Of Walk-In Counselling And The Wait List Model For Delivering Counselling Services, Carol A. Stalker, Manuel Riemer, Cheryl-Anne Cait, Susan Horton, Jocelyn Booton, Leslie Josling, Joanna Bedggood, Margaret Zaczek

Lyle S. Hallman Social Work Faculty Publications

Background: Walk-in counselling has been used to reduce wait times but there are few controlled studies to compare outcomes between walk-in and the traditional model of service delivery.

Aims: To compare change in psychological distress by clients receiving services from two models of service delivery, a walk-in counselling model and a traditional counselling model involving a wait list

Method: Mixed methods sequential explanatory design including quantitative comparison of groups with one pre-test and two follow ups, and qualitative analysis of interviews with a subsample. 524 participants 16 years and older were recruited from two Family Counselling Agencies; the General Health …

Collective Action Dynamics In Urban Neighborhoods: A Study Of Urban Community Gardens, Nishesh Chalise

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Lessons from various policies and programs both in the United States and international development have led to a knowledge base concluding that an engaged community is a critical component for developing a thriving community. This is based on a premise that even in the modernized world community still has a role to play along with government and the market in their own development. Community’s role is further highlighted in areas such as low-income urban neighborhoods where both the government and the market may not be able to fulfill all the needs.Research has followed by trying to understand why people engage …

The Role Of Trauma And Mental Health Problems In The Perpetration Of Intimate Partner Violence In Post-Genocide Rwanda, Sarah Myers Tlapek

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Exposure to political violence or war is associated with intimate partner violence (IPV) in post-conflict settings (Clark et al., 2010; Gupta, Reed, Kelly, Stein, & Williams, 2012), and civilians and veterans who develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after exposure to combat or violence are more likely to perpetrate violence against an intimate partner (Taft, Watkins, Stafford, Street, & Monson, 2011). Rwandan health professionals estimate that after the 1994 genocide more than one-quarter of the country’s population now suffers from PTSD (Munyandamutsa, Nkubamugisha, Gex-Fabry, & Eytan, 2012). Although the majority of Rwandan women (56%) have experienced IPV in their lifetime (National …

The Female Perception Of Safety On A College Campus, Kimberly N. Miles

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Previous research has shown the prevalence of females on college campuses across the nation experiencing a generalized fear of being victimized or violently assaulted while on campus. This fear is generated by the knowledge of violent crimes towards women on campus, as well as the perception alone that there are assaults happening on campus. Studies have noted that this fear held by female students can significantly affect their academic progress and overall wellbeing while at school. This study chose to examine the female students of Western Kentucky University and their personal perception of safety on college campuses comparing students who …

Karen Jordan, Karen Jordan, Kelsey Duinkerken

Jefferson Nursing Oral Histories

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Karen Jordan was a member of the civil rights movement in Philadelphia during the 1960s, first becoming involved with the fight to desegregate Girard College. After a semester at Cheyney University Ms. Jordan took time away from school before deciding to study nursing. She enrolled in the Jefferson Diploma Nursing program in 1973 and graduated in 1976. She would later go on to also receive her Bachelor’s in Nursing Science, also from Thomas Jefferson University. Ms. Jordan has spent her long career at Jefferson working as a medical-surgical, oncology, and neonatal nurse. In her free …

The Hidden Epidemic: Mental Health Epidemiology In Post-Conflict Populations And Implications For Conflict Transformation Practices, Jennifer Sato

Capstone Collection

This capstone explores the ramifications of unmitigated mental health illness in conflict populations, paying special attention to refugees and migrants. The intersection between conflict and mental health is explored and analyzed in order to highlight the implications of the findings and to make recommendations to both metal health and conflict transformation practitioners. This capstone depends predominately on secondary resources and personal interviews and is informed by my own practicum experience at a refugee health center. The need to improve mental health outcomes in order to pursue conflict transformation and peace building is a key focus and is supported by the …

Refinement And Pilot Testing Social Networks For Encouraging Healthy Behaviors: The Social Pounds Off Digitally (Social Pod) Study, Sarah B. Hales

Theses and Dissertations

Currently about 71% of adults in the US are considered overweight or obese. Overweight and obesity are associated with higher risk of developing many chronic diseases; however, health risks associated with overweight and obesity can be reduced by as little as a 3% to 5% reduction in weight. Mobile health (mHealth) has shown promise as a way to deliver weight loss interventions, yet maintaining participant engagement over time has been a challenge. The purpose of this study was to develop, refine, and pilot test the Social Pounds Off Digitally (POD) Android app for personalized health monitoring and interaction; revise the …

Finding A Place To Belong: The Role Of Social Inclusion In The Lives Of Homeless Men, Meaghan Bell, Christine A. Walsh

The Qualitative Report

This study explores the role of informal social support networks of male homeless shelter residents. Authors utilized ethnographic methods, relationality and reflexive research approaches and key informant interviews with 10 shelter residents to investigate perceptions of belonging in overcoming social exclusion and countering the stigmatization cast onto as a result of their condition of homelessness. Study findings challenge our normative conceptions of homelessness by discerning between “rooflessness” and “rootlessness” suggesting that homelessness is more than the absence of shelter, but rather denotes the absence of support and inclusion in one’s community. This research highlights a community within the shelter characterized …