<p> The purpose of this project was to locate a potential funding source and write a grant to fund an evidence-based program, Buried in Treasures, that will help women 35&ndash;55 years old with hoarding behaviors. An extensive literature review was performed to investigate the best way to treat Hoarding Disorder in the community. The proposed program will be located at Mariposa Women's Center and funded by a Promoting Innovation grant by the California Wellness Foundation. </p><p> The primary goal is to help people with Hoarding Disorder while utilizing web tools and newer technology in an evidence-based program. The objectives are to increase quality of life by 20% and knowledge by 30% and to reduce the amount of items acquired. If funded, this structured program will decrease hoarding behaviors and improve mental health. The actual submission of the application was not a requirement of the thesis project.</p>

<p> Diagnosis of cancer found in a child impacts not only the child being diagnosed, but the siblings, parents, and family as a whole. The purpose of this thesis project was to write a grant in order to fund the development and implementation of a support group for parents who have children with cancer. In partnership with Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times, the program would create a 6 week long support group that would provide parents with skills, resources, and interventions needed to parent a child diagnosed with cancer. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was selected as a funder because of the foundation's dedication to promote the health, happiness and well-being of children. This grant reviews the challenges parents have as well as the positive impact this program could have on the parents and their children. Submission and funding of this grant were not requirements of successful completion of this project. </p>

<p> Auditory hallucinations or hearing voices is one symptom that individuals with schizophrenia may experience. Although the majority of people with schizophrenia may hear voices, the vast majority of voice hearers do not have schizophrenia. </p><p> This study interviewed 15 voice hearers residing in and around Long Beach, California. Each voice hearer participated in an in-depth interview to explore how they perceive their voices and to gather voice hearers' recommendations for mental health professionals.</p><p> The present study found that many voice hearers expressed a desire for mental health professionals and social workers just to "listen" to them without asserting opinions and judgment. This study also discusses social stigma as a treatment barrier to individuals who hear voices. The findings in this study suggest that more education on voice hearing is needed within the field of social work and mental health.</p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to locate a potential funding source and write a grant for the funding of a program for significant others of sexual violence victims. Based on the literature review, individuals who interact with primary victims may be impacted by the sexual violence experience, making them secondary victims. A psychoeducational group will be developed to meet the needs of secondary trauma victims. This group will take place at Peace Over Violence, in Los Angeles, California. The selected funding source for this project will be the Marisla Foundation which takes a special interest in human services programs.</p><p> The project goals include networking with community organizations, engaging families or significant others who are experiencing challenges related to the sexual violence experience, and to reduce secondary trauma symptoms among secondary trauma victims. Actual submission and/or funding of the grant proposal was not required for successful completion of this project.</p>

<p> Coordinating care is of particular concern in Alaska due to expansive geography, difficulty of travel, and often limited behavioral health care resources. This study explored how individual, organizational, and systemic factors influence clinicians' use of video teleconferencing to conduct "live" discharge plans from urban psychiatric facilities to rural communities. </p><p> Semi-structured key informant interviews were conducted, in person and by telephone, with urban clinical staff (n = 10), urban administrative staff (<i>n</i> = 6), and rural outpatient staff (<i>n</i> = 14). Two researchers analyzed the transcribed interviews in a recursive manner using a grounded theory methodology. </p><p> Participants described infrequent, but generally positive experiences with live discharge planning: connecting patients to providers, temporarily joining treatment teams, evaluating patients for appropriate placement, engaging patients in their own care, addressing medication issues, and coordinating with family and village resources. Providers recommended hiring interns or dedicated staff, installing equipment "on unit," or using wireless tablets. Rural participants ascribed a greater value to emergency psychiatric consultations at admissions than coordination at discharge. </p><p> Continued selective use of live discharge plans is indicated with patient length of stay being an important consideration in determining feasibility. Future implementation should involve dedicated resources and use video teleconferencing to formally enhance other transitional services. Once issues of organizational readiness are addressed, a Knowledge-Attitudes-Behavior framework may be useful for managing providers' underuse. Future research could evaluate rural, village-based intensive case management supported by consultation with the psychiatric hospital via video teleconferencing.</p>

<p> Holocaust survivors are a diminishing population, yet they share a wealth of knowledge, and their vast experiences, life stories, and perspective are relevant now and for future generations. The goal of this exploratory study was to elicit information about posttraumatic growth among Holocaust survivors and the factors that may come into play. The questions focused on the time before, during, and after the war. This study is about a positive change an individual may experience as a result of a traumatic event, posttraumatic growth, a term coined by Tedeschi and Calhoun. A total of 13 people (7 females and 6 males) were interviewed for this qualitative study. All of the subjects identified with suffering from PTSD at one point in their lives, and 10 (77%) indicated that posttraumatic growth has been prevalent, mainly in domains of greater sense of personal strength and more profound appreciation of life. </p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-05, Section: A, page: 1989. Adviser: Dean Barry Ackerson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-133) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

<p> The purpose of this project was to create program to identify funding sources, and write a grant to fund a support group for veterans who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) at the Department of Veterans Affairs of, Long Beach. The literature allowed this write to find the main causes of PTSD in this case being exposed to combat, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBO), and the consequences to PTSD (substance abuse, commit suicide, experience family conflicts). This writer also found Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PET), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to be effective intervention in treating veterans with PTSD. The proposed program is aimed at providing psychoeducation to veterans and to help improve the lives of our service men and women who suffer from PTSD. The program includes group counseling, and individual counseling for veterans, family counseling. Providing the proper training will help social worker better assess and serve our veterans who return from combat with PTSD. Actual submission and/or funding of the grant were not required for the completion of this project.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to examine various social and ecological factors that affect adolescents' nervousness and/or depression. Secondary data from the 2011- 2012 California Health Institute Survey were used to examine these factors. Chi-Square analyses were utilized to test if relationships existed between the variables in the data. This study examined race, poverty level, immigration status, physical well-being, safety of environment, and the receipt of psychological/emotional counseling as factors for influencing feelings of nervousness and/or depression among adolescents. Results indicated that adolescents feeling nervous were affected by race, poverty level, environmental safety, and the receipt of psychological/emotional counseling. Feeling nervous did not have a significant association with physical well-being in this study. Furthermore, adolescent depression was affected by race, poverty level, physical well-being, environmental safety, and the receipt of psychological/emotional counseling. Immigration status was not found to be associated with affecting adolescent nervousness or depression. Further research is suggested.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to explore the association between adolescent characteristics, community factors and mental health. This was achieved by completing a quantitative study analyzing secondary data obtained from a mental health agency in Orange County, California, and an online database, City-Data.com. The results rendered a statistically significant relationship between age and those who had the presenting problem of depression, relational problems, and poor coping. A statistically significant relationship between females and poor coping was also revealed. The most interesting finding, however, was the statistically significant relationship between presenting problems in relation to their community factors. Both poverty levels and educational attainment less than high school among the residents in the communities where these adolescents live were associated with depression and relational problems. The findings of this study are beneficial in identifyirig the need for further research regarding the relationship between educational attainment and mental health.</p>