Editorial regarding the recently announced change in resident duty hours

When entering and settling into adulthood in a less than ideal developing world, youth with minimal resources continuously need to manoeuvre between opportunities and their living situation. This research project explores the phenomenon of youth residing in the inner city of Pretoria to understand their housing situation through the lens of homelessness and personal development. A qualitative field study, embedded in the research paradigm ethnomethodology, was conducted through interviews and observations with low-income, young males. The research has shown that respondents do not see themselves as ‘homeless’, even though the essence of what a ‘home’ means to them does not resonate with their perception of the inner city. Still, the various housing typologies and channels of socio-economic support that are accessed provide enough reason and resources to retain their position in the inner city. The impact of these negotiations on the identity and overall development of the respondents need further investigation - beyond what the research has suggested.

No description available.

Background The demand of long-term care facilities has increased because of the geriatric population growing up rapidly. How to reduce the frequency of the nursing home residents¡¦ being hospitalized is one of the most important indicators for the quality of long-term care. Objective To understand the characteristics of facilities and nursing home residents. To test the effect of the characteristics on the probability of hospitalization of nursing home residents and to analyze the predictors of readmission in order to improve the quality of nursing care and the life quality of their residents. Methods We collected 329 residents of a hospital-based nursing home in southern Taiwan before March 31, 2011 and who stayed more than 90 days at the facility. The medical records were reviewed retrospectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (correlation and one way ANOVA) to test the effect of the resident¡¦s and facility¡¦s characteristics on the probability of hospitalization. Multiple linear regression was used to study the risk factors and the predictors of readmission frequency. Results Of the 29 residents, 141(42.9%) were male. The average age was 78.06. 33.7% of the residents died in the facility. The total individual admissions were from 0 to 18. The hospitalized frequency was 0.42 in each 90-day period. Infectious disease was the majority diagnosis of admission. The three leading causes of admission were pneumonia(45.5%), urinary tract infection (20.0%) and upper gastrointestinal bleeding(10.3%). Correlation analysis showed the age had a positive correlation with the frequency of readmission. The hemoglobin level, serum albumin level, serum cholesterol level, body mass index, mini-nutritional assessment score and mini-mental status evaluation score disclosed a negative correlation with the frequency of readmission. Multiple linear regression showed the male gender, age, lung diseases, complete bed-ridden and mini-nutritional assessment score were significant predictors of readmission frequency. Conclusion The evaluation of the risk factors and predictors might help to identify the nursing home residents who are likely to be readmitted. It is hoped that the hospitalizations from nursing home may be prevented and the results of this study might contribute to the quality of long-term care facilities.

China has experienced the rapid socioeconomic change that leads to the evolution of social and physical environment in urban neighborhoods. In recently built neighborhoods, residents lack mutual trust and a sense of community; the neighborhood open spaces have been improved but still do not function well for developing resident social capital. Social capital is a comprehensive concept for evaluating community development. The purpose of this study was to evaluate residents’ social capital in China’s urban context and to examine the relationships between social capital and neighborhood open spaces. The review of literature identified five interpersonal factors of social capital: social network, trust, security and safety, belongingness, and engagement, which were related to neighborhood physical environment. In the city of Guangzhou, two neighborhoods were selected as study fields and two hundred and fifty subjects were randomly selected in each neighborhood to participate in a questionnaire survey. More than 75% subjects returned questionnaires. Ten residents of them then participated in semi-structured interviews. Observation recorded residents’ activities in open spaces. Data were analyzed by statistical methods and domain analysis strategy. The results of statistical examinations demonstrated that residents living with a large number of neighborhood open spaces had higher degrees of social capital than residents lacking open spaces; residents using open spaces frequently developed higher degrees of social capital than residents using open spaces less; residents who were satisfied with their open spaces held higher degrees of social capital than those who were not satisfied with open spaces. Semi-structured interviews explained that well-designed open spaces attracted inhabitants to participate in outdoor activities, which encouraged social interaction among residents, enhanced their mutual trust, expanded social network, and strengthened belongingness to neighborhood. However, open spaces were found not to obviously improve resident engagement. Observations unveiled that a highly versatile and flexible outdoor space was the favorite place for residents of all ages.

Despite its potential to enhance the mental health of college student populations, the efficacy of gatekeeper programs in connecting suicidal students with professional help is unclear. Potential negative side effects of peer helping programs, such as gatekeeper training, are rarely examined and there is not a sufficient body of evidence documenting the efficacy or safety of peer helping programs, despite their widespread use. The challenge of implementing a safe and effective peer based gatekeeper campus suicide prevention effort lies in balancing the benefits of connecting suicidal students to professional help more often and sooner, with the potential adverse mental health impacts of participation on gatekeepers. This study examines how a gatekeeper training program might increase suicidal student help seeking and measures the mental health impact of participation on Resident Assistants (RAs) trained in suicide prevention. This study will explore whether a more intensive helping role by the RA amplifies the effect of referring and securing professional help for suicidal students. This study also measures how differing the intensity of help provided by RAs impacts the gatekeepers’ own stress and suicidality levels. RAs will be trained under high versus low intensity helping conditions. RAs in the low intensity helping condition will be trained to identify potentially suicidal students and refer them for professional help. RAs in the high intensity helping condition will be trained to identify potentially suicidal students, engage them in a quasi-professional helping role, and refer them to professional help. This study will also explore whether promotion of telephone counseling as a helping resource will impact referrals to and utilization of professional help, either in-person or through telephone counseling. / text

Violent crime and aggressive behaviour are of increasing concern in New Zealand. Much of this is displayed by adolescent males who have an association with some form of substance use, abuse or dependence. This is especially relevant for stimulant drugs, especially methamphetamine (MA), and 1-benzylpiperazine (BZP). Previous research has shown that BZP has similar neurochemical and behavioural effects to MA, and there is a large volume of research showing an association between chronic MA use and aggression. In contrast to this, there has been little research into the consequences of a single administration of MA, which is often portrayed by the media as having the same detrimental effects as chronic use. The present study was designed to determine whether or not acute MA would induce aggressive behaviour in adolescent male hooded rats. In addition, the study also examined whether BZP had a similar effect to MA. Sixty male hooded rats aged between 41 to 50 postnatal days (PND), were utilised and divided into five groups of 12 rats each: saline; 1mg/kg (low dose) or 2mg/kg (high dose) MA; 10mg/kg (low dose) or 20mg/kg (high dose) BZP. The rats were tested using the resident/intruder test of aggression, consisting of eight measures of aggressive behaviour. The results suggested that, rats treated with either a low or high dose of MA or BZP were significantly less aggressive than saline-treated rats. There appeared to be little to distinguish between the two drugs in their effects on the responses recorded. It was concluded that an acute administration of either MA or BZP did not increase aggression, and thus did not support the view that aggression will result from a single dose of MA (or indeed BZP that has not been previously investigated in this context).

Zugl. Teildr. von: Berlin, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2006 u.d.T.: Engel, Kathrin: Qualität in Einrichtungen der vollstationären Langzeitpflege

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Rowan University, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.