Search results

This study was conducted to address elder abuse within emergency departments in the United States. The aim of this study was to develop a screening protocol or more specifically, an emergency department based tool to discover this specific abuse and try to eliminate it.

This emergency department senior aid tool was created in two phases: the development phase and the validation phase. The purpose of the development phase was to test the reliability of this tool in detecting elder abuse in ages 65 and older individuals. On the other hand, the validation phase was to test the tool at three different locations: UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Cooper Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, and University of Florida Health in Jacksonville, Florida.

This study addressed a critical gap regarding the use of mobile phone technologies to assist in the treatment process for explicitly justice-involved populations. To address this gap, the study research included designing, implementing, and assessing the use of an appointment notification system called the Interactive Computer-Assisted Recovery Enabler (ICARE) tool. ICARE was developed to improve and support behavioral health nonclinical care management and probation compliance among individuals under community supervision who are referred by their probation officer (PO).

The purpose of the ICARE was to automatically transmit appointment reminders to Treatment Accountability for Safe Communities (TASC) clients, starting from the point of probation referral to the program, with the goal of increasing their care management appointment attendance, increasing their care management completion, and improving their probation compliance.

This research included a two study approach, one formative and one focused on outcomes, where the goal was to enhance the ability to support clients by:

• increasing their engagement and retention in care management and treatment
• reducing the degree of their substance use and improving mental health
• complying with their terms of supervision
• and reducing their criminal behavior.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) series (formerly titled National Household Survey on Drug Abuse) primarily measures the prevalence and correlates of drug use in the United States. Detailed NSDUH 2008 documentation is available from SAMHSA. The surveys are designed to provide quarterly, as well as annual, estimates. Information is provided on the use of illicit drugs, alcohol, and tobacco among members of United States households aged 12 and older. Questions included age at first use as well as lifetime, annual, and past-month usage for the following drug classes: marijuana, cocaine (and crack), hallucinogens, heroin, inhalants, alcohol, tobacco, and nonmedical use of prescription drugs, including pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants, and sedatives. The survey covered substance abuse treatment history and perceived need for treatment, and included questions from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of Mental Disorders that allow diagnostic criteria to be applied. The survey included questions concerning treatment for both substance abuse and mental health related disorders. Respondents were also asked about personal and family income sources and amounts, health care access and coverage, illegal activities and arrest record, problems resulting from the use of drugs, and needle-sharing. Questions introduced in previous administrations were retained in the 2008 survey, including questions asked only of respondents aged 12 to 17. These "youth experiences" items covered a variety of topics, such as neighborhood environment, illegal activities, drug use by friends, social support, extracurricular activities, exposure to substance abuse prevention and education programs, and perceived adult attitudes toward drug use and activities such as school work. Several measures focused on prevention-related themes in this section. Also retained were questions on mental health and access to care, perceived risk of using drugs, perceived availability of drugs, driving and personal behavior, and cigar smoking. Questions on the tobacco brand used most often were introduced with the 1999 survey. For this 2008 survey, Adult mental health questions were added to measure symptoms of psychological distress in the worst period of distress that a person experienced in the past 30 days and suicidal ideation. A split-sample design also was included to administer separate sets of questions to assess impairment due to mental health problems. Background information includes gender, race, age, ethnicity, marital status, educational level, job status, veteran status, and current household composition.