Engaging Youth to Reduce Depression and Risky Behaviors: Challenges of Empowerment

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-27
Author(s):  
Russell K. Schutt ◽  
Whitney Gecker ◽  
Heather Zaykowski
Keyword(s):  
Substance Abuse ◽  
Collective Efficacy ◽  
Formative Evaluation ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Risky Behaviors ◽  
Program Participation ◽  
Quantitative Survey ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Adult Mentors ◽  
Program Engagement

BackgroundYouth in communities with high rates of crime and low rates of collective efficacy are at risk of depression, substance abuse, and other types of delinquency.ObjectiveThis article presents a formative evaluation of an empowerment-oriented program intended to reduce depression and risky behaviors by improving social support, providing adult mentors, and facilitating prosocial action.MethodsQualitative interviews and observations are used to describe program delivery and a quantitative survey is used to identify correlates of program participation.FindingsQualitative data describe a systematic process of program engagement that supported individual and group empowerment. The analysis of quantitative survey results identifies an association of program participation with less depression and more self-esteem—with reduced feelings of loneliness as the mechanism of these effects—although without comparable patterns for substance abuse and other risky behaviors.ConclusionsEmpowerment-oriented programs that involve young people in supportive peer teams should be developed to help foster constructive social change.

Survivor or Laborer

Affilia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Anasti
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Human Service Organizations ◽  
Risky Behaviors ◽  
The United States ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Sex Trade ◽  
Sex Worker

Regardless of primary population served, human service organizations are likely to come into contact with individuals who have been currently or formerly involved in the sex trade. In the United States, social workers have had a fraught history with this population, either treating them like delinquents or like victims in need of rescue. Sex worker activists in the United States continue to decry the negative treatment provided by individuals in the helping professions, even as harm reduction, the practice of reducing the harm of risky behaviors, has entered the service provision lexicon as an antidote to abstinence-only services. This article uses qualitative interviews with managers of human service organizations in the city of Chicago to determine how they think about their work with sex workers and how they perceive the proposed solutions to “fixing” the sex trade: abolitionism and decriminalization. Findings show that despite the dominant discourse of abolitionism in the United States, most of managers in this project believe full decriminalization of sex work will best assist their sex worker clients. Future research needs to understand how this finding holds in different settings and how this affects current efforts to advocate for decriminalization.

scholarly journals Health dispossessions and the moralization of disease: the case of diarrhea in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panagiota Kotsila
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Mekong Delta ◽  
Risky Behaviors ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Political Purpose ◽  
Urban And Rural Areas ◽  
Can Tho City ◽  
And Function

Abstract Despite the swift development of Vietnam's water supply and sanitation (wat/san) sector, over the last ten years there have been 1.5 million annual documented cases of diarrhea. Western perspectives blame insufficient medical or economic advancement for failing to prevent diarrhea and its treatment, failing to grasp how disease is shaped in the cultural, moral and political domain. This article examines the nature and function of public health policy and discourse against the spread of the disease in Can Tho City, Mekong Delta. Some 94 qualitative interviews were conducted with government representatives, medical staff and water experts, and a survey of 131 households in urban and rural areas. Focusing only on improving the construction of wat/san 'hardware' does not improve 'cultural software', and ignores the needs of vulnerable minorities, compromising the control of diarrhea. I also show how state discourse follows neoliberal approaches in individualizing health responsibilities, and moralizing disease. Local (mis)perceptions and risky behaviors emerge as the result of structural constraints that include poverty, a lack of access to useful health information, and the cultivation of stigma around diarrhea. These types of health dispossessions serve a political purpose, where the state escapes responsibility for public health failures, and thus enhancing its efforts to maintain legitimacy as a good implementer and a 'caring head.' Keywords: Vietnam, public health, health individualization, moralization of disease, blame discourse, diarrhea.

End-of-Life Doulas: Documenting Their Backgrounds and Services

2021 ◽  
pp. 003022282110470
Author(s):  
Amy Dellinger Page ◽  
Jonelle H. Husain
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Original Survey

This is an exploratory study to document the demographic characteristics, backgrounds, and services provided by trained and certified INELDA end-of-life doulas. Like birth doulas, end-of-life doulas represent a divergent, yet complementary form of care for dying persons. The purpose of end-of-life care is to facilitate comfort of the dying person and their closest family members. Surveys were completed by 618 end-of-life doulas regarding their demographic characteristics, employment backgrounds, services, and their experiences providing end of life care to dying persons and their closest family members. Follow-up qualitative interviews were also conducted with a subset of 39 respondents who completed the original survey. Results show that trained doulas are largely white (91.4%), female (90.4%), hold a Bachelor’s (32.3%) or Masters (32.4%) degree, and are employed outside of their EOLD work (70.1%). Qualitative data details services provided to dying persons and family members in addition to the benefits and challenges of working with traditional healthcare settings.

Implementation of a Brief Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) Skills Group in High Schools for At-Risk Youth: Going 4 Goals Protocol (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamika Zapolski ◽  
MacKenzie Whitener ◽  
Shirin Khazvand ◽  
Queenisha Crichlow ◽  
Rebecca Revilla ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Risky Behaviors ◽  
Control Group ◽  
School Students ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Skills Group ◽  
Risk Taking Behaviors

BACKGROUND Adolescence is a developmental period marked by engaging in risk-taking behaviors, with higher risk among youth who are impulsive or emotionally dysregulated. Thus, interventions that teach skills to reduce the risk for negative outcomes as a consequence of dysregulation are needed. Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs have been developed to address both adolescent emotion dysregulation and risk-taking behaviors. However, current programs have mostly been implemented among younger youth and have rarely been empirically evaluated for their effectiveness among high school students. OBJECTIVE The primary outcomes of the study are to test whether participating in the skills group intervention produces significant increases in the core DBT-A skills of mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness while also producing significant decreases in substance use and risky behaviors. These primary outcomes are based on changes in participant scores between baseline and post-intervention, as well as follow-ups at 1, 3, and 6 months in comparison to a control group of youth who are participating in the school’s health curriculum at the same time points. A secondary objective of this study is to also examine the acceptability, facilitators and barriers of the intervention through qualitative interviews with intervention participants and school staff. The current paper describes the protocol of the 9 session school-based adaptation of the DBT-A intervention and discussion of the strengths and limitations of the study, as well as future directions. METHODS N/A RESULTS N/A CONCLUSIONS N/A

scholarly journals Health-risk behaviors among Iranian university students, 2019: a web-based survey

2020 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhad Shekari ◽  
Peyman Habibi ◽  
Haidar Nadrian ◽  
Asghar Mohammadpoorasl
Keyword(s):  
Substance Abuse ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Cigarette Smoking ◽  
Risk Behaviors ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Latent Class ◽  
Risky Behaviors ◽  
High Risk Behaviors ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Risk Class

Abstract Background High-risk behaviors are among the most serious threats for the physical and mental health of adolescents and young adults. Our aims in this study were to investigate the subgroups of students based on risky behaviors and to identify the prevalence rate of these subgroups. Methods This cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted from July to August 2019 in Tabriz, Iran. We performed proportional sampling in all nine universities of the city, according to the number of students in each university. Applying an online survey questionnaire, the data were collected from 3649 students and analyzed using Latent Class Analysis. Results For total sample, standardized prevalence rates of cigarette smoking, hookah use, alcohol consumption, substance abuse and unsafe sex were 18.5 (Confidence Interval (CI) 95%: 17.3–19.8), 9.1 (CI 95%: 8.2–10.1), 9.2 (CI 95%: 8.3–10.2), 8.3 (CI 95%: 7.4–9.3) and 14.5 (CI 95%: 13.3–15.7), respectively. Three latent classes of risky behaviors were determined among students: a) low risk b) smoking and c) high risk. About 18% of boys and 1.5% of girls were in the high risk class. Cigarette smoking (18.5%, CI 95%: 17.3–19.8) and substance abuse (8.3%, CI 95%: 7.4–9.3) were the most and the least common risky behaviors among the students. Conclusion In this we-based survey, a considerable number of students, particularly boys (18%), was at high-risk class, stressing the need for preventive interventions for this group of youth. Our findings are beneficial for planning and development of risky-behavior preventive strategies to prevent high-risk behaviors among college students.

scholarly journals ‘Every day is hard, being outside, but you have to do it for your child’: Mixed-methods formative evaluation of a peer-led parenting intervention for homeless families

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 860-876
Author(s):  
Caroline Bradley ◽  
Crispin Day ◽  
Caroline Penney ◽  
Daniel Michelson
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
User Satisfaction ◽  
Formative Evaluation ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Target Population ◽  
Parenting Intervention ◽  
Homeless Families ◽  
Parenting Knowledge ◽  
Behavioural Difficulties

We conducted a mixed-methods, formative evaluation of a peer-led parenting intervention for homeless families. Participants were parents living in temporary accommodation with self-identified difficulties related to parenting an index child aged 2–11 years. An evidence-based programme (‘Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities’) was adapted for delivery with the target population in London, UK. We assessed feasibility in terms of session attendance rate, intervention completion rate and potential for impact on a range of parent-reported outcomes measures. Acceptability and appropriateness were examined by a user satisfaction measure and qualitative interviews. The intervention was delivered across three group cohorts ( N = 15). Thirteen parents completed the programme (including one parent who required two attempts). We found improvements in child behavioural difficulties, parenting knowledge and practices, while parental well-being and social support were unchanged. Participants were highly satisfied overall, with indications that the peer-led model mitigated negative expectancies of services and normalized experiences of parenting in challenging conditions. Parental self-care and ‘the good enough parent’ were strongly endorsed topics, although some content (e.g. timeout) was deemed impractical. These promising findings warrant further testing under controlled conditions.

Kuwait is the Past, Dubai is the Present, Doha is the Future

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Gremm ◽  
Julia Barth ◽  
Wolfgang G. Stock
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Knowledge Society ◽  
Abu Dhabi ◽  
Gulf Region ◽  
Quantitative Survey ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future

Many cities in the world define themselves as ‘smart.' Is this term appropriate for cities in the emergent Gulf region? This article investigates seven Gulf cities (Kuwait City, Manama, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, and Muscat) that have once grown rich due to large reserves of oil and gas. Now, with the threat of ending resources, governments focus on the development towards a knowledge society. The authors analyzed the cities in terms of their ‘smartness' or ‘informativeness' by a quantitative survey and by in-depth qualitative interviews (N = 34). Especially Doha in Qatar is well on its way towards an informational city, but also Dubai and Sharjah (both in the United Arab Emirates) make good scores.

scholarly journals The OSCE as a formative evaluation tool for substance abuse teaching

2005 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 529-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa R Stein ◽  
Sharon J Parish ◽  
Julia H Arnsten
Keyword(s):  
Substance Abuse ◽  
Formative Evaluation ◽  
Evaluation Tool

The Role of Controlled Substance Use in Diversion Outcomes Among Mentally Ill Offenders: A Pilot Study

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (9) ◽  
pp. 2709-2725
Author(s):  
Jennifer K. Boland ◽  
Barry Rosenfeld
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Substance Abuse ◽  
Substance Use ◽  
Psychotic Disorders ◽  
Mentally Ill Offenders ◽  
Program Participation ◽  
Diversion Programs ◽  
Diversion Program ◽  
Drug History

Diversion programs offer opportunities to offenders with substance abuse or mental illness to attend treatment as an alternative to incarceration. The present study identified variables associated with drug relapse and recidivism and the moderating role of substance use on recidivism in a diversion sample. Data were collected from 80 clients with psychotic disorders from a diversion program in New York City. Outcomes were examined after 6 and 12 months of program participation. Individuals who used controlled substances other than alcohol or cannabis were more likely to have a positive toxicology result than those who used alcohol or cannabis only or those with no alcohol/drug history. Individuals with schizoaffective disorder were more likely to be rearrested than individuals with other diagnoses, as were those with a violent offense (e.g., assault, robbery). Positive toxicology results were unrelated to rearrest and did not moderate recidivism, suggesting substance abuse may be only indirectly related to rearrest among diverted offenders.

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