The family empowerment program: an interdisciplinary approach to working with multi-stressed urban families.

The family empowerment program (FEP) is a multi-systemic family therapy program that partners multi-stressed families with an interdisciplinary resource team while remaining attached to a "traditional" mental health clinic. The rationale for this model is that far too often, families presenting at community mental health centers struggle with multiple psychosocial forces, for example problems with housing, domestic violence, child care, entitlements, racism, substance abuse, and foster care, as well as chronic medical and psychiatric illnesses, that exacerbate symptoms and impact traditional service delivery and access to effective treatment. Thus, families often experience fragmented care and are involved with multiple systems with contradictory and competing agendas.

Relationship between obesity and B-type natriuretic peptide levels.

Background: The relationships among B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels, body mass index (BMI), and congestive heart failure (CHF) as an emergency diagnosis are unknown.

Methods: Of 1586 participants in the Breathing Not Properly Multinational Study who had acute dyspnea, 1369 (86.3%) had BNP values and self-reported height and weight.