Digital Commons Network^™

Creating A Paradigm Shift: Culture Change Around Dementia, Ahna H. Soli

2019 Symposium

A Culture Change Presentation about Creating Dementia Friendly Communities that support residents who are affected by Dementia remaining integrated in their community through supports and community trainings. According to the Dementia Action Collaborative of Washington State, over 100,000 people live with Dementia’s or Alzheimer’s in Washington with that number continuing to grow. Our society and culture is not equipped with the tools to help them lead productive, purposeful lives. Currently, the population affected by Dementia is placed in institutional care communities where they are considered safe and well taken care of. Using the behavior strategies and culture change tools presented …

Lessons Of A Failed Study: Lone Research, Media Analysis, And The Limitations Of Bracketing, Katherine Gregory

Publications and Research

Failed research can function as the underbelly of all qualitative research projects that come to fruition. These shadow projects offer invaluable insights to future research and researchers alike. In this article, I trace a failed life history of sex offenders project from its conceptualization to its abandonment, after conducting a series of searches on the online National Sex Offender Registry database. Through the use of preliminary field notes and an analysis of media representations, I examine the role of bracketing of the topic, as a by-product of the phenomenological tradition, and other methodological issues such as physical and emotional vulnerability …

Partnering With The Health Professions To Promote Prevention Of An Alcohol-Exposed Pregnancy: Lessons Learned From An Academic–Organizational Collaborative, Leigh Tenkku Lepper, Diane King, Joy Doll, Sandra Gonzalez, Ann Mitchell, Joyce Hartje

ISER Articles

Background: Evidence-based strategies exist to train healthcare professionals to ask their patients and clients about alcohol use, and are successful. Implementation of these strategies utilizing a system-level approach has not been conducted nationwide. This case study reports on the success of academic partnerships with national health professional organizations to increase adoption of evidence-based strategies to prevent alcohol-exposed pregnancies. Methods: Authors reviewed and summarized multi-level strategies created as part of the developmental phase of this project in order to report successes and challenges. We applied the three principles of reflection, sense-making, and reciprocal learning, as identified in the practice change literature, …

Outcomes Of Mental Health Crises When Mental Health Professionals Partner With Mental Health Deputies, Melissa Kay Murray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Law enforcement has historically been on the frontlines of the mental health crisis. This expected role is difficult as police officers are not trained as mental health professionals. Collaboration between police officers, mental health professionals, and mental health authorities have produced integral models to assist with the mental health crisis. Crisis intervention teams (CIT), mobile crisis units, and street triage models are highlighted to gain understanding of the components of these models. This study desires to examine a collaborative, recently implemented mental health deputy grant program aimed at diverting mentally ill individuals in crisis from contact with the criminal justice …

Implementation And Evaluation Of Mindfulness-Based Interventions To Improve Mental Health And Overall Wellbeing Of College Student-Athletes, Haley Katherine Brock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Athletes have several challenges and demands that increase psychological distress

and disturbances to overall wellbeing. Currently, more research is being done to identify issues that college athletes face by not receiving mental health services. College athletes are now being identified in the literature as a vulnerable population. This pilot study looked at a possible mindfulness-based intervention by incorporating yoga sessions. The research hypothesis proposed that the participants who partake in the yoga sessions have a decrease in depression and anxiety, and overall wellbeing. This increase was measured using the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), PHQ-9, and the Behavioral Health Measure …

Exploring Factors Influencing Refugees' Mental Health Help-Seeking, Frediane Ndikumana

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Newly resettled refugees are at a higher risk of mental health disorders, but few seek formal psychological help. The purpose of this study is to explore the factors influencing refugees’ formal mental health help-seeking. Data were collected by surveying a sample of 45 refugees from three countries of the Great Lacs Regions of Africa: Burundi, Congo, and Rwanda. Multiple linear regression was conducted to examine the association between formal mental health help-seeking and factors of mental health knowledge, stigma beliefs, and socioeconomic factors.

Results show that mental health knowledge factors and the stigma belief factors measured as stigma towards socializing …

Subtypes Of Neglect In Relation To Reporting Practices, Safety Outcomes Among Known Cases, And Risk And Protective Factors, Chien-Jen Chiang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Objectives: The overall objective of this dissertation is to build knowledge about the phenomena of neglect subtypes to better guide prevention and child welfare intervention efforts in the future. The first aim focuses on how we come to officially identify cases of child neglect and its relationship to policies that set definitions for what is reportable in a given state. The second aim highlights whether or not there appear to be differences in safety and permanency outcomes for children known to CPS for different forms of neglect. The third aim focuses on why families may develop specific neglecting behaviors that …

A Formative Assessment Of The Vulnerability Context Of Three Indigenous Communities In Rural Ecuador For Improved Intervention Design, Ivy Blackmore

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Nearly 20 % of the current world population are small-scale producers living in rural areas who rely on agriculture and related activities to support their families (IFAD, 2016; World Bank, 2008). Despite the almost 76 billion USD of official development assistance committed to agriculture improvement projects and associated activities over the past decade, many of the intended beneficiaries remain poor and struggle to meet their basic needs. The lack of success in addressing rural poverty highlights the need for quality research focused on understanding what type of intervention/s could help rural communities sustainably improve their livelihood security.The goal of this …

Social Engagement Among Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment And Conversion To Dementia, Takashi Amano

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Promoting social engagement is a promising approach to prevent or delay conversion from cognitive impairment no dementia (CIND) to dementia. However, little is known about social engagement among people with CIND. This dissertation project aimed to improve understanding of social engagement among people with CIND by addressing gaps in the literature. It had three specific aims including: to describe and identify factors associated with heterogeneity of social engagement among older adults with CIND, to assess the association between heterogeneity of social engagement and conversion from CIND to dementia, and to investigate the relationship among heterogeneity of social engagement, other types …

“You Have To Want It”: A Pervasive Mental Model Of Addiction Recovery And Its Implications For Sustaining Change, Erin Stringfellow

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Background: Addiction to illicit drugs is a complex phenomenon characterized by cyclical patterns of relapse, remission, and, for some, a full recovery. People who use drugs (PWUD) and their loved ones form ‘mental models’ of recovery that develop over time through experience and observation. The role of these mental models and how they interact to undermine or support recovery is poorly understood. Therefore, this study asks: 1) What do people who use drugs and their loved ones believe it takes to successfully recover from addiction? and 2) Given these beliefs about recovery and the available evidence on remission, relapse, and …

Promoting Child Behavioral Health In Homeless Services: A Community-Based System Dynamics Approach, Katherine Marcal

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Families with children comprise one-third of the entire homeless population (Henry, Watt, Rosenthal, & Shivji, 2017). Homelessness exposes children to chaotic, unsafe living environments that pose threats to healthy development; unsurprisingly, children in homeless services display high rates of mental health disorders compared to stably housed children (Bassuk et al., 2015; Buckner, 2008). Despite concerted efforts at the state and local levels to end family homelessness by 2020, rates have remained largely unchanged over the past decade (Henry et al., 2017; U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, 2015). Additional indicators such as increasing wait times, average length of stay, and reentry …

Spectator 2019-05-15, Editors Of The Spectator

The Spectator

No abstract provided.

Sinning Men, Sinful Places: Spatial Politics Of Moral Transgressions In The Franco-German Borderland, Oguz Alyanak

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Where do Muslim Turkish men who live in Strasbourg go after work? What are the kinds of places they socialize? Is it home? Is it the mosque? Or is it elsewhere, like coffeehouses, or wherever the car takes them in Strasbourg, and beyond, such as nightclubs, drinking alleys, bistro-casinos and brothels in Kehl and other neighboring German cities? And if it is the latter, and it rarely should be, as the imams would warn the pupils attending religious conversation circles, and the Friday sermons, how do these men justify their presence in these spaces? How do they reflect on their …

Bibliometric Analysis Of Research Publications Of Al-Jouf University, Saudi Arabia During The Year 2006-2017, Aquil Ahmed, Sulaiman Al-Reyaee Dr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The study investigates the research contributions of Al-Jouf University, Saudi Arabia in terms of its publication output during 2006-2017 as reflected through Scopus database. The study, using Microsoft Excel, analyses the year-wise research productivity, its citation impact, national and international collaborations, top collaborating institutions, subject-wise distribution of papers, journals used for communication, most preferred journals for publication, most prolific authors, number of citations received, and top cited papers of the University during the period under study. The paper concluded that Al-Jouf University is growing and improving in terms of research publication output.

Analytical Study Of Information Need And Use Pattern Of Resources By The Research Scholars Of Alagappa University, Mercy Angeline

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Information is an extremely complex task involving the interaction among users, the information need, and the information resources. The heterogeneous environment which users confront in academic libraries today increases the complexity, as not only the format of information, but also the number of resources seems to grow exponentially. The objective of this study is to know the need and purpose of the use of information resources among the research scholars of Alagappa University. Among the other thing, this study examined the examined the preferences of the scholars towards printed materials and electronic materials and patterns of using e-resources. The sample …

Counseling Professor Honored For Adolescent Mental Health Research, Andrew M. Abernathy

University of Mississippi News

Rick Balkin wins prestigious award from American Counseling Association

Segregation And A Path Forward To Inclusion In St. Louis, Henry S. Webber

Center for Social Development Research

Segregation and a Path Forward to Inclusion in St. Louis is adapted from an address given during Facing Segregation: Building Strategies in Every Neighborhood, the 2019 annual conference of the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council, on April 12, 2019, at Central Baptist Church, St. Louis, Missouri. This Perspective is presented here through a partnership between the Center for Social Development and the council.

Cultural Models Of Raça: The Calculus Of Brazilian Racial Identity Revisited, Henri J. François Dengah Ii, Jason A. Gilmore, Marcus Brasileiro, Anna S. Cohen, Elizabeth Bingham Thomas, Jenni Budge Blackburn, Mckayle Law, Jae Swainston, Richard Thomas

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Nearly 50 years ago, Marvin Harris published a seminal paper that examined how Brazilians create taxonomic categories of racial identity. In the intervening decades, new cognitive theories and analytical approaches have enabled researchers to investigate cultural domains with increased sophistication and nuance. In this paper, we revisit, replicate, and extend Harris’s research by utilizing modern cognitive anthropological approaches such as multidimensional scaling and cultural consensus analysis. Utilizing the same facial portraits as in the original study, we ask a contemporary sample of 34 Brazilians to identify and sort these images by racial identity. We then compare Harris’s original data, reanalyzed …

4 Honored With Provost's Awards For Faculty Excellence, Haley Herfurth

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Graduating Senior Lends Social Work Skills To Local Treatment Facility, Sarah Sapp

University of Mississippi News

Mikala Turner helps Mississippians battling drug, alcohol addiction

Data Communities: A New Model For Supporting Stem Data Sharing [Issue Brief], Danielle Cooper, Rebecca Springer

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Excerpt (page 5):

The Data Community

This issue brief focuses on understanding what makes scholars willing to share their data – and on applying that understanding strategically in order to improve and increase sharing going forward. We recognize that this is only one aspect of the work that is needed in this area. Numerous professional organizations (CODATA, DCC, FORCE11, GO FAIR, RDA, and RDAP, to name just a few), in addition to a panoply of smaller projects and working groups, are making significant strides in defining standards and best practices in important technical areas such as metadata creation, discoverability, machine …

An Exploration Of Self-Care In Relation To Burnout And Compassion Fatigue Among Social Workers, Michael Jared Gonzalez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the impact of self-care, burnout and compassion fatigue on mental health social workers. This correlational study was designed to provide a fuller understanding of this relationship. Stamm’s Theory of Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue and Orem’s self-care deficit theory served as the theoretical foundations of this study. The sample included 38 members of Millwood Hospital and the three Excel Centers, who volunteered to participate in this study. Participants completed online versions of the demographics questionnaire, Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL), and Self-Care Assessment Work Sheet (SCAW). Correlation, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and multiple linear regressions were performed …

Rhyming Through The Storm: Poetry As A Mental Health Intervention, Ava Dora Mandele

2019 All Essays

No abstract provided.

The Medicalization Of Sleeplessness: Results Of U.S. Office Visit Outcomes, 2008–2015, Mairead Eastin Moloney, Gabriele Circiurkaite, Robyn Lewis Brown

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Previous analysis of U.S. physician office visits (1993–2007) indicated that the medicalization of sleeplessness was on the rise and had potentially negative implications for population health. Our study asks if the medicalization of sleeplessness at the level of patient-physician interaction has persisted over time. Using the most recent years available (2008–2015) of the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey we calculated nationally representative estimates for four sleeplessness-related outcomes of physician office visits: sleeplessness complaint, insomnia diagnosis, and prescription of benzodiazepine and non-benzodiazepine sedative-hypnotics (NBSH). To test for the significance of the linear trajectory, we ran a series of bivariate linear models. …

Branding White Saviorism: The Ethics And Irony Of Humanitarian Discourse On Instagram, Elizabeth Smith Cooney-Petro

Theses - ALL

Humanitarian aid work, service trips, and missionary volunteer opportunities are ingrained in much of Western society. Situated at the intersection of visual culture and rhetorical studies, this thesis uses a postcolonial feminist lens to explore how the online discourse of white saviorism came to be accepted and valorized while making invisible the imperial undertones of humanitarian work, and what strategies or efforts are being made toward disrupting this trend. I look at images and posts by current Peace Corps volunteers on Instagram to explore the performance and ethical substance of today’s humanitarian. Additionally, I examine ironic representations of this discourse …

Therapists' Experiences Of Trauma, Compassion Fatigue, And Compassion Satisfaction: The Role Of Post Traumatic Growth, Tracey Reichert Schimpff

Dissertations - ALL

Experiencing traumatic events can have a profound impact on human beings, ranging from mild distress to severe symptomology. The mental health professionals that serve traumatized populations are also at risk of exposure in their work. While there are many factors that contribute to negative and positive consequences of clinical work with trauma, the influence of a therapist’s own trauma seems to have mixed findings. This study was designed to better understand the role of a therapist’s personal trauma on negative and positive associations of clinical work, specifically compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction. There were no significant correlations found between the …

Make Your Life A Masterpiece, Eric F. Spina

President's Blog: From the Heart

My message to the Class of 2019: Strive to live meaningful lives, filled with great purpose and deep faith in what is possible. Take the canvas of your life — and make it a masterpiece.

Implementing An Sbirt Interprofessional Simulation Curriculum: When More Is More, Iwona Pawlukiewicz

Master's Theses

Background. Regular screening for psychoactive substance misuse in primary care and other health care settings enables earlier identification and management of substance misuse; however, wide-scale implementation of Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) services is lagging. The early exposure of health professional students to simulated interprofessional SBIRT education is one solution to address barriers in the uptake of service delivery methods in health care settings. Methods. The feasibility of a newly-developed SBIRT simulation curriculum was tested with 35 interprofessional Urban Service Track Scholars during two separate training events in April and November of 2018. Results. The evaluation …

Lunch Money: Understanding Community-Led School Food Programs In Regina, Saskatchewan, Maegan Krajewski

Theses - ALL

Unlike many countries throughout the world, Canada does not have a national school food program (Rutledge, 2016). As such, school meals in Canada are typically provided by community-led organizations or are paid for out of individual school budgets, if they are provided at all (Gougeon, Henry, Ramdath, & Whiting, 2011). In the absence of a national program, community-led organizations can be effective at providing nutritionally-adequate meals to students in need (Gougeon et al., 2011). Across the country, community members are participating in these organizations as staff and volunteers to meet the food needs of schoolchildren (Gougeon et al., 2011). However, …

Within The Heart Of Every Human Being: Sarah Farmer, Her Life, Her Work, And Her Search For Universal Truth, Seren Gates Amador

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation considers Sarah Farmer (1847-1916), the founder of the Greenacre Summer Conferences. Beginning in 1894 and continuing through 1916, Sarah Farmer hosted a program of lectures and classes intended as a continuation of the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago the year before. While the Parliament arranged representatives of the “world religions” speaking side-by-side, the Greenacre Conferences emphasized conversation between religious and social movements, as well as encouraging attendees to experience and practice elements of religions, experimental healing, and more. They also emphasized a program of comparative religious study. The Conferences were particularly notable in the history of …