Community Health Commons^™

Do Not Miss Your Shot: Improving Follow-Up In Patients Receiving Long-Acting Injectable Medications, Mary O'Hara

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Manuscripts

Background: Serious mental illness including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder affects 1 in 24 adults in California. These chronic disorders are difficult to treat and often sabotaged by medication nonadherence. Long-acting injectable (LAI) medications are one strategy to combat medication nonadherence. Effectively providing treatment with LAI medications can be challenging at the clinic level.

Objectives: Reduce the number of days without medication by reducing the number of days between injection due date and injection administration for patients receiving LAI medications.

Design: Establish appointments for all injection visits. Standardize visit protocol for injection encounters to optimize provider time. Arrange immediate follow-up and …

Supporting Marin County Youth Suffering From Anxiety And Depression, Victoria L. Grajeda

Counseling Psychology | Master's Theses

This toolkit was created to help shed light on the impact a stressful high school environment can have on today’s youth, and provide teachers, students, and parents with up-to-date information on what resources are available within the county of Marin. When working with adolescents, it is important to consider environmental threats to their mental health (i.e., lack of sleep) in order to make proper referrals and treatment plans. A study done by Kelley, Lockley, Kelley, & Evans (2017) implemented a 10:00 a.m. start time at an urban school in England. By delaying school start times, Kelley et al., found that …

Expressive Mindfulness: A Trauma-Sensitive Expressive Arts Therapy Group Method, Meghan Daly

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Mindfulness and expressive arts therapy are both supportive of directing attention in a manner that promotes integration and function of a person. In this paper, a trauma-sensitive method was created for use in a day treatment setting for adults with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI). This method utilized expressive movement, visual art making with three different materials, and creative writing to encourage mindful, non-judgmental acceptance of the present moment; a sense of relaxation; and an overall increase in quality of life. During development of the method arts-based research informed the choice of materials, music, and structure of the group. …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Peer Engagement And Knowledge (Peak): A Community-Based Group Intervention For Youth In Hawai‘I, Jennifer T. T. Ho

Doctoral Dissertations

This study is a program evaluation with a mixed methods design that evaluated the effectiveness of Peer Engagement and Knowledge (PEAK), a six-week community-based group intervention that incorporates mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) to address multiple health behaviors for multiracial youth in Hilo, Hawai‘i. A total of 51 youth, ages 12-23 years old, participated in this study which included pre-/posttest analyses of health risk factors such as substance use and depression and health promoting factors such as resilience, self-esteem, and mindfulness. Responses from two subsets of participants, who engaged in a focus group (n = 11) and composed gratitude letters ( …

Efficacy Of Integrated Mental Health Care With Dual Diagnosis Patients And Their Utilization Of Psychiatric Emergency Services, Denton Scott

Doctoral Dissertations

Historically, patients with dual diagnosis have been subjected to ineffective treatment and negative attitudes from healthcare providers. Further, these patients are plagued with myriad afflictions that exist beyond substance abuse and mental illness. The treatments and collateral damage associated with the diagnosis impose excessive healthcare costs and can be of significant detriment to society. Largely, patients suffering from dual diagnosis do not receive adequate treatment. As such, psychiatric emergency services are frequently utilized as an alternate treatment, wherein the main focus of care is on the substance abuse alone. This study argues that solely treating the substance abuse is not …

Perilous Times Call For Emergency Preparedness, Sonia K. Wrate, Ronda Christman

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

As disasters become more frequent it is important that people are ready to respond. University students along with community volunteers learn with and from each other during a disaster simulation. Learn how participant’s perceptions of spirituality and civic engagement has changed following a disaster simulation.

Ten Questions Concerning The Built Environment And Mental Health, Andrew J. Hoisington, Kelly A. Stearns-Yoder, Steven J. Schuldt, Cody J. Beemer, Juan P. Maestre, Kerry A. Kinney, Teodor T. Postolache, Christopher A. Lowry, Lisa A. Brenner

Faculty Publications

Most people spend the majority of their lives indoors. Research over the last thirty years has focused on investigating the mechanisms through which specific elements of the built environment, such as indoor air quality, influence the physical health of occupants. However, similar effort has not been expended in regard to mental health, a significant public health concern. One in five Americans has been diagnosed with a mental health disorder in the past year, and, in the United States, the number of suicide deaths are similar to the number of deaths due to breast cancer. Increases in mental health disorders in …

Use Of Smartphone Application To Facilitate Weight Loss And Promote Accountability In Obese And Overweight Patients, Angela M. Turner

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

In 2015, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published a National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES) on obesity from 2011 through 2014. From the survey, it was determined that the prevalence of obesity in the U.S. was 36% in adults and 17% in young adults/children (Ogden et al., 2015). Lifestyle modifications including moderation of caloric intake and increased exercise have been shown to be effective for both prevention and treatment of obesity. The purpose of this evidence-based practice (EBP) project involved the design, administration, and evaluation of a technology-assisted weight loss intervention to address the health problem of …

Health Literacy Challenges And Opportunities: Bringing Children’S Mercy And Kansas City Together, Jennifer A. Lyon, Angie Knackstedt, Barbra Rudder, Mamta Reddy Md, Courtney R. Butler

Posters

BACKGROUND: A multidisciplinary group at Children's Mercy Kansas City applied for and received the NNLM MCR's Immersive Workshop Grant in December, 2017, and used the funding to organize and host a two-day immersive, interprofessional workshop in April, 2018, that 1) brought together health literacy-invested groups and individuals within the Kansas City community to learn about health literacy including cultural, language, numeracy and digital inclusion factors; and 2) provided specialized training to targeted CM participants to improve the provision of bedside health information to patients and caregivers. Objectives included: increasing community-wide collaboration, sharing resources, encouraging participants to become change agents, and …

Mental Sensorium, Brittany Adkins

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

According to ADAA, nearly one-half of those diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders are highly treatable but only 36.9% are receiving any kind of treatment. Anxiety disorders develop based on a set of factors including genetics, brain chemistry, personality, and life events. Many do not realize but our environment, especially the built environment we inhabit every day can have a positive or negative effect on our mental well-being. Architecture should not just focus on the physical needs of their inhabitants but the mental health needs as well.

The built environment has a considerable impact …

Assessment Of The Perceived Access To Health Care By Migrant And Seasonal Farm Workers In Southern New Jersey, Karen Custodio, Xitlalichomiha O'Dell, Lori Talbot

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Migrant and seasonal farm workers (MSFW) are one of the most economically disadvantaged populations in the United States. MSFW confront numerous health challenges as a result of occupational hazards, poor living conditions, and inadequate nutrition, in addition to common health concerns like diabetes and hypertension. The objective of this study was to identify major barriers to health care for individuals working in the agriculture industry in southern New Jersey. Though there are numerous factors which impact health for migrant farmers, we hypothesized that language, financial burden, and fear from immigration status will be the most significant. Research was conducted using …

A Bilingual Approach To Pediatric Occupational Therapy: The Importance Of Communication Between Providers & Spanish-Speaking Families In Northwest Arkansas, Emily Ann Davidson

World Languages, Literatures and Cultures Undergraduate Honors Theses

Due to the demographic demands of Northwest Arkansas and the prevalence of disparities in health care, this study aims to assess the current practices, perceived need, and willingness to provide bilingual Spanish-English outpatient pediatric occupational therapy options in Northwest Arkansas. The hope of this study is to better inform pediatric occupational therapy providers of the growing need for bilingual services so that they may respond appropriately in order to better serve Latino and Spanish-speaking patients and their families or caregivers.

The Shape Study : The Survey Of Health And The Perceived Environment Study., Colette Patrice Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Few studies have considered how an individual’s perception of their built environment may be a risk factor for being overweight or obese. Adolescents may be particularly vulnerable in the context of “impoverished environments”, which they may perceive to be difficult, dangerous, resource deficient, and unaesthetic. This study aids in clarifying how the built environment influences the risk of obesity among adolescents residing in a neighborhood in Louisville, KY. Objective: The overall objective was to conduct a cross-sectional epidemiologic pilot study among adolescents aged 12-17 years residing in West Louisville, Kentucky to evaluate the association between perceptions of …

Using “Remote” Training And Coaching To Increase Providers’ Skills For Working Effectively With Older Youth And Young Adults With Serious Mental Health Conditions, Janet S. Walker, Caitlin Baird

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Since about the turn of the century, a growing awareness of the poor outcomes resulting from “as usual” community mental health care has led to increasing efforts to implement programs and interventions with empirical evidence of effectiveness. However, these efforts have encountered numerous barriers, in particular the high cost of implementation, which has severely limited uptake and sustainment of empiricallysupported programs and interventions. Typically, the largest contributor to cost is the training and coaching required to ensure provider competence and fidelity to the intervention or program model. This paper describes a social innovation that aims to provide high-quality training and …

Female Genital Mutilation In The United States: Estimating The Number Of Girls At Risk, Phyllis Chesler

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Female genital mutilation (FGM) destroys the capacity of women to experience sexual pleasure. It causes serious medical complications such as bleeding, painful urination, cysts, dangerous and recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, the growth of scar tissue that make marital intercourse a nightmare and that turns childbirth into an experience of danger and torture. Due to immigration, FGM now poses a potential health crisis in the West, both in Europe and in the United States. To estimate how many girls who live in the West are at risk, one can measure the prevalence of FGM in the non-Western countries where …

Adverse Childhood Experiences, Homeless Chronicity, And Age At Onset Of Homelessness, Joseph T. Tucciarone Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Childhood adversity is associated with numerous negative outcomes across multiple domains, including mental and physical health, interrelationships, and social functioning. Notably, research suggests that childhood adversity has a dose-response relationship with these outcomes; that is, greater numbers of adverse experiences in childhood are associated with worse outcomes. These outcomes overlap with many risk factors of homelessness. This study sought to address two questions: 1) Does a dose-response relationship exist between childhood adversity and chronic homelessness? 2) Does childhood adversity negatively predict the age at which homelessness first occurs? Adults experiencing homeless who are accessing homeless services in the Tri-Cities area …

Health Program Quality Evaluation To Identify Program Improvement Opportunities, Sheila V. Phillips

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Abstract

Objective: to identify Health Program improvement opportunities including reducing risk of unplanned visits.

Background: Health Program is a program in a Midwest community assisting persons with diabetes and Medicaid to help patients better self-manage their diabetes and connect with community resources. Communities are challenged with helping a growing number of persons with diabetes with multiple chronic conditions, medications, and increased use of unplanned visits. Information was needed to understand unmet needs of this population associated with unplanned visits to develop program improvements.

Methods: In a quality evaluation of a single center, a model of baseline prognostic factors associated with …

Great Plains Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Project, Florence G. Duran

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Background: Great Plains American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) experience higher mortality rates than Non-Hispanic Whites from the same region. The National Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey can have limitations of the estimates the health risks behaviors and services from one Tribal community to another. Goals and Objectives: The goal of this project is to address the lack of Tribal specific data among AI/ANs in the Great Plains region (ND, SD, NE, IA) by using Great Plains Tribal BRFSS data that captured information for three tribes in the Great Plains region. Tribal specific data will allow tribes to access, …

Utilizing Wellness Champions To Live Ohiohealthy, Elizabeth K. Krebs

Masters Theses/Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

A Collaborative Perspectives Approach For Understanding Effective Care Coordination In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Rachel Severs

Dissertations

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that causes significant impairment in social and communication areas. The severity of the disorder can often result in a substantial degree and amount of service access and expenditures relating to a child’s needs. This study examined the experiences of how family caregivers and service providers of children with ASD view service delivery using a basic qualitative research design. For the study, 10 participants (five family caregivers and five service providers) were enrolled and interviewed. Interview data were collected and coded to produce a qualitative analysis of the experiences of these individuals who …