Children of parents with mental illness (COPMI) are often referred to in the literature as invisible given the lack of services dedicated to this large population at increased risk for a multitude of psychosocial difficulties. Of the services available, few have been empirically validated. This study undertook a qualitative evaluation of Kids in Control, a psycho-education and support program intended to enhance the resilience of children of mentally ill parents. The goals of this study were to: determine whether the program was beneficial to the participants, identify the critical program elements deemed helpful/unhelpful by the participants, determine whether program objectives were being met, and to provide insight on how to improve the program to better meet the needs of this population. It is ultimately hoped that this research will give children of parents with mental illness a voice, thereby boosting their visibility and contributing to their psychosocial well being. Flanagan’s (1954) critical incident technique (CIT) was employed to determine the participants’ perceptions of helpful and unhelpful aspects of the program. Twelve participants (10 boys, 2 girls) ranging in age from 8-12 were recruited from 4 groups held in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, followed by telephone interviews to discuss and verify the information shared. Participants reported a total of 121 critical incidents, which were classified into 8 helpful categories (105 incidents) and 2 unhelpful categories (16 incidents). The eight helpful categories were: identifying, communicating and managing feelings; learning about mental illness; helpful messages about responsibility, control, and empowerment; effective facilitator group management skills; having fun; connecting with other children experiencing parental mental illness; learning about stigma; and identifying supports. The unhelpful categories were: ineffective facilitation skills, and disruptive behaviour exhibited by other group members. Participants recommended improvements related to the areas of group instruction, time management, and group management. In addition, a 10-point rating scale was administered to determine the participants’ overall perception of program helpfulness. A mean rating of 7.63 was obtained which corresponds to very helpful on the scale. A comparison of incident categories with program objectives indicated a high degree of consistency, with a few exceptions. Implications for program improvements, wider program dissemination, and counselling practice are discussed. In addition, methodological issues related to using the critical incident technique with children are outlined.

Medicare is vital to the health and well-being of many American seniors. However, due to its complexity, beneficiaries often need assistance navigating the federal health insurance system. GeorgiaCares, Georgia’s State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), provides free and unbiased Medicare information and counseling. The aims of this thesis were to evaluate GeorgiaCares outreach events to discern the social and demographic characteristics of participants and decipher how to best market the events. Participants of nine GeorgiaCares outreach events (n=81) completed anonymous surveys; mixed-methods data analysis revealed the typical participant to be a 71-year-old African American female. Findings suggest an effective way to assist beneficiaries in Medicare-related decisions is through the formation of community partnerships. Suggestions to market outreach events include partnering with churches and grocery stores to disseminate information and enlisting the support of community leaders to overcome barriers of distrust.

How does PTS provide services of radio and television for audiences under thecompetition of numerous channels and without the support of related resources andpolicy ? Taking the scheduling strategy of ¡§PTS Evening News¡¨ as an example, this thesis analyzed the performance of its service to find this survival kit . Through this analysis of scheduling, it can reveal how PTS deal with public demands. The study adopted qualitative research method to interview five professional operators who are TV program planners and producers of PTS news to realize their articulation of public in service which are influenced by organization culture. By referring to the interview, it also further acted more review and examination of the appropriateness of publicity of PTS. Comparing to commercial broadcasters transmitted evening news at 7:00 pm permanently which competes with each others for advertising, it found that the scheduling strategy of ¡§PTS Evening News¡¨ is more flexible. The issue of suitable time for audience has been discussed since ¡§PTS Evening News¡¨ has started and it is also decided by PTS managers to strike the existed commercial patterns. And in the meantime, PTS also introduced ¡§multi-dimensional evaluation index¡¨ to measure the performances of programs and also expect to transcend the market rules that taking TV rating primarily. In addition, to understand the demands of audiences, PTS operators negotiate with audiences about this issue by the way of focus groups investigation. This paper then suggests that the scheduling strategy of PTS take the environment of multi-channels into consideration. PTS Evening News is most suitable to broadcast at 8:00 pm in this situation it mentioned. However, keeping away from 7:00 pm is not meant a supplement mechanism of commercial broadcasters. Instead, ¡§PTS Evening News¡¨ signified the value that commercial television company can not provide, and all the employees of PTS must compete with other news service using this time slot. PTS Evening News displays an audience profile that are mainly constituted by people who are ¡§the college-educated¡¨, ¡§the middle-aged¡¨ and ¡§office workers¡¨ . It doesn¡¦t averagely represent every layers of people and bridge the gap from it followed expected planning. Therefore, the thesis proposed PTS to do a self-criticism about its whole programming strategy to reconstruct a clearer concept of serving public. Although PTS adopt ¡§multi-dimensional evaluation index¡¨, we found that ¡§TV rating¡¨ is still the key factor among the considerations when making decision. This study also suggested PTS to avoid glorifying ¡§TV rating¡¨ simply and more importantly should focus on the real needs among audiences.

This study utilizes longitudinal, mixed-method data drawn from participants in an environmental education/international immersion program for middle high-school students to study outcomes and processes associated with program participation. Studies of program outcomes and processes are important for better understanding the design and impact of youth programs. The first study investigated the relationships between experience types (i.e., indirect vs. direct) and learning outcomes (i.e., knowledge vs. attitudes). In other words, what is the difference in impacts between reading a book about the rain forest and actually traveling to the rain forest? Findings suggest that experience type plays a significant role in the type of learning outcomes as well as how these outcomes influence behavior. More specifically, direct experiences appear to catalyze knowledge in a way that facilitates future behavior development. The qualitative data also suggest that participants' perceptions of perceived freedom during the program moderated whether participation was experienced as direct or indirect. The second study employed a social development model (SDM) to understand the relationship between within program socialization processes and program outcomes. The model provided a good fit for the data and predicted a significant portion of the variance in environmental behavior after controlling for baseline levels of this outcome variable. Additionally, analysis of qualitative data produced a proposed model of shared activities and bonding that suggests youth valued experiences where adults participated with them as equals rather than as disciplinarians or administrators. The final study provided insights regarding the degree to which the program was implemented as originally planned and how the domains of implementation integrity influenced program outcomes. The findings suggest that of the measured implementation domains, only participant responsiveness was significantly related to program outcomes. Data also suggest that implementer efficacy can have differing impacts on program adherence. The qualitative data suggest that most participants positively perceived the program and felt it was well organized. In sum, the findings provide a holistic perspective of the processes and outcomes of this program. Rather than merely presenting an overview of program impacts, the study offers insights into the processes (e.g., socialization) and characteristics (e.g., experience types) that produced observed outcomes. Thus, the study presents a more complete picture of what individuals gained through their participation in this program as well as the processes that led to these gains.

It is recognized that an iterative comparative analysis of large-scale homologous RNAs significantly promote the understanding of an RNA family. The Gutell lab is renowned for maintaining high quality RNA sequence alignments and accurately predicted RNA secondary structures using this approach. While the current available alignment and structure data are mainly obtained by trained domain experts with extensive manual effort, it is highly desired that this process is automated and replicable given the exponentially growing number of RNA sequence data and the amount of time required for expert training. In this thesis, we learn the processes involved in comparative analysis by manually aligning a non-coding RNA family, IVS sequences, with the supervision of Dr. Gutell. Each process is then simulated by mathematical objective functions and algorithms. We also evaluate the current available RNA analysis packages that aim each of the processes. Finally, a new RNA sequence alignment algorithm incorporating structure information that can be extended for different alignment tasks is proposed. / text

Recent research on teachers’ achievement goals suggests that the teacher with a mastery goal is more likely to retain a high degree of interest in teaching, more willing to seek help with their teaching, and less likely to report professional ‘burnout.’ Section one of this study extends this line of research by testing the hypothesis that teachers with mastery goals toward teaching are more likely to display the traits of the adaptive expert. Achievement goals and adaptive expertise are measured for a sample of secondary school mathematics teachers who have attained National Board Teacher Certification. A multiple regression model is used with score on the adaptive expertise measure as the dependent variable and four independent variables. The second part of this study proposes the development and evaluation of a challenge-based model of professional development. The Legacy Cycle has been used extensively to teach transfer and adaptive expertise to college students. It has not been used, however, in the professional development of teachers. A professional development program using the Legacy Cycle for teaching high school Algebra teachers how to implement a new conceptually-based Algebra 1 curriculum is proposed. Its accompanying evaluation plan will enable further exploration of the role teacher goal orientation and school climate play in a teacher’s willingness and ability to innovate; and if having an adaptive expert in the classroom can improve student learning. / text

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A substantial number of community members access food in community-based organizations in the Winnipeg's North End. However, many staff and volunteers in these organizations do not have adequate nutrition knowledge and food skills, nor are there healthy food policies to guide food programs. Food Matters Manitoba developed a food and nutrition education program, Community Tables. The purpose of this study was to evaluate Community Tables for its effectiveness in increasing staff/volunteer basic nutrition knowledge and food skills, and facilitating the adoption of healthy food policies by participating organizations. Data collection included questionnaires to determine knowledge acquisition and participant satisfaction, and in-depth follow-up interviews to determine each participant’s experience with developing/implementing a healthy food policy. Results suggest that the program was moderately successful in increasing participant food and nutrition knowledge; and while three organizations were able to implement policies to some degree, others faced challenges, which prevented full implementation. / October 2015

INTRODUCTION: Healthcare needs among homeless populations are difficult to meet within the scope of a standard healthcare model. A street medicine model addresses the specific needs of those experiencing homelessness; healthcare professionals seek to build trust and rapport with people who are living unsheltered by taking their clinical practice to the streets. The street medicine program evaluated in this study provides primary and behavioral care in a metropolitan area in the Southeastern United States. AIM: This program evaluation aimed to answer the following questions: how has the street medicine program affected the perceptions of ill-health and access to healthcare among its current patients? Further, how would the current patients of the street medicine program rate their satisfaction with the program and are they aware of all available services? METHODS: Using a mixed methods approach, 40 semi-structured interviews and participant observations were conducted with patients of the street medicine program. Participants were asked to rate their satisfaction with the program and their overall health status on a 5 point Likert scale. Informed by Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) analysis methods, the qualitative data were transcribed and coded. All quantitative analyses were done using SPSS. RESULTS: Overall, 70% of participants rated their satisfaction with the street medicine program as excellent (n=28). For self-rated health status, there was a normal distribution across the Likert scale with 43% reporting their overall health status as moderate (n=17). Using CQR, four key domains emerged from the qualitative data: community trust, rapport building, needs addressed, and needs not addressed. These domains encompassed specific participant responses. Examples include: heard about the street medicine program through word of mouth (community trust), team showed kindness (rapport building), received diagnosis and treatment (needs addressed), and needing help getting into housing (needs not addressed). CONCLUSION: Overall, this study validated the effectiveness of the street medicine program in building trust and rapport with its patients. Satisfaction with the street medicine was high across patients. This study contributes information regarding patient experiences within an alternate healthcare model serving a highly vulnerable population.

The research study proposed in this report reviews and integrates the literature on client/parent satisfaction with Therapeutic Assessment. Specifically, the importance of parent collaboration and the intervention potential of child assessment are highlighted. The result is the development of a parent self-report measure that could be utilized in multiple settings to assess the interpersonal and collaborative experiences of parents. It is these experiences of parents which have been shown to be more highly related to general satisfaction than outcomes or demographics. The methodology includes Confirmatory Factor Analysis to revise the scale and MANCOVA to compare traditional assessment with collaborative/therapeutic assessment practices in multiple settings. / text