Are Grittier Front-Line Therapists More Likely to Implement Evidence-Based Interventions?

Substance use disorder remains a pervasive problem in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention as Standard Practice: Working with the American Indian/Native Alaskan Populations.

Alcohol use and the resulting problems associated with high-risk drinking in the American Indian/Native Alaskan (AI/NA) population are well-documented, as alcohol misuse has taken an incredible toll on many AI/NA communities. Presently, both overall health issues and alcohol use occur disproportionately within this population. This article provides an updated overview of the impact of alcohol use in the United States and within AI/NA communities specifically.

Refining the Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale: An Alternative Confirmatory Factor Analysis.

Barriers to adopting evidence-based practices into real-world mental health organizations have received considerable attention and study. One particular attempt is Aarons's Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale (EBPAS), which measures a worker's attitudes toward adopting new treatments, interventions, and practices. This study follows Aarons's work by conducting a confirmatory factor analysis of the EBPAS administered in a large child and family human service agency in New York state ( = 1,273).

Is Openness to Using Empirically Supported Treatments Related to Organizational Culture and Climate?

The overall purpose of this study is to investigate workers' openness towards implementing a new empirically supported treatment (EST) and whether the workers' openness scores relate to their workplace culture and climate scores. Participants in this study (N=1273) worked in a total of 55 different programs in a large child and family services organization and completed a survey measuring their attitudes toward ESTs. Results indicate that work groups that measure themselves as being more open to using ESTs rated their organizational cultures as being significantly more proficient and significantly less resistant to change.

Individual Worker-Level Attitudes Toward Empirically Supported Treatments.

OBJECTIVES: There is a growing literature indicating that organizational and individual worker-level factors affect decisions about whether or not empirically supported treatments (ESTs) are adopted within health care agencies. The purpose of this pilot study is to further investigate and measure worker's attitudes within a community organization. METHOD: A small organization participated in the study due to their diversity in services offered.

Empirically Supported Treatment's Impact on Organizational Culture and Climate.

OBJECTIVES: With the continued push to implement empirically supported treatments (ESTs) into community-based organizations, it is important to investigate whether working condition disruptions occur during this process. While there are many studies investigating best practices and how to adopt them, the literature lacks studies investigating the working conditions in programs that currently use ESTs. METHOD: This study compared the culture and climate scores of a large organization's programs that use ESTs and those programs indicating no EST usage.

Organizational Barriers to Adopting an Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention in Community-Based Mental Health Organizations.

This paper examines two factors related to successfully implementing a brief alcohol screening throughout all community-based mental health organizations. The first issue is related to an organization's internal structures, such as culture and climate that can impede evidenced-based practice implementation. There is literature suggesting that organizational culture and climate affect decisions about whether evidence-based practices are adopted and implemented within health care agencies.

Measuring a Community-Based Mental Health Organization's Culture and Climate Scores Stability.

This project builds on the work of Glisson et al. (2008) and the knowledge learned from community-based mental health organizations' internal structures (e.g.

Disparities in access to reproductive health options for female adolescents.

Fifty percent of female adolescents in the United States have intercourse by age 17, yet they do not have the autonomy under the law to access reproductive healthcare services that can address and prevent the negative consequences often associated with adolescent involvement in sexual activity. This article discusses disparities in access to reproductive health services for adolescents in three areas: abortion, over-the-counter emergency contraception, and the provision of the human papillomavirus vaccine. Suggestions for advocacy efforts necessary to eliminate such health disparities are also presented in an effort to elevate female adolescents to a status where they have the same access to health services that are available to adult women.

A psychosocial profile of adolescent pregnancy termination patients.

This study examined the psychosocial problems of a sample of adolescent women who presented for a pregnancy termination appointment at a family planning clinic located in the southeastern region of the United States. The sample consisted of 120 adolescent women, age 14-21 who were administered the Multidimensional Adolescent Assessment Scale (MAAS) while waiting for their pregnancy termination procedure. The MAAS is a self-administered instrument with multiple subscales that measure a variety of psychosocial problems.

Significance of gender and age in African American children's response to parental victimization.

This study examined gender and age differences in children's psychological response to parental victimization in a convenience sample of African American children. Thirty youths, ages six to 12, whose parents had been a victim of community violence (that is, gunshot or stabbing), and a control group of 30 children matched on variables of race, age, gender, and neighborhood served as the sample for this study. Parents completed a demographics sheet and the Child Behavior Checklist.

Policy recommendations for the use of victim-offender mediation to redress criminal actions.

Understanding how to respond effectively and efficiently to crime victims and their offenders, and identifying what policies assist victims in having their victimization redressed is a major social concern. Social workers have contact with these vulnerable populations in many different ways, yet the social work profession, in general, is unfamiliar with how to redress victims through restorative justice. Restorative justice is an innovative method of viewing crime, and a paradigm shift is required when considering the application and implication of various forms of restorative justice.