Knowledge of legal rights as a factor of refugee and asylum seekers' health status: a qualitative study.

Objectives: To examine health behaviours of refugees and asylum seekers, in relation to their knowledge of public benefits and legal rights.

Design: Qualitative study, utilising an open-ended, semi-structured interview guide to ensure information-rich data collection. Thematic content was analysed using qualitative research software.

Creating Systems-Level Change to Better Support Expectant and Parenting Young People: A Case Study.

Introduction: Expectant and parenting young people (young parents) require diverse services to support their health, educational success, and family functioning. Rarely can the needs of young parents be met by a single school or service provider. This case study examines how one large school district funded through the pathways to success initiative was able to facilitate systems change to increase young parents' access to and use of supportive services.

Using Social Network Analysis to Strengthen Organizational Relationships to Better Serve Expectant and Parenting Young People.

Introduction: Expectant and parenting young people (young parents) need a range of supports but may have difficulty accessing existing resources. An optimally connected network of organizations can help young parents navigate access to available services. Community organizations participating in the Pathways to Success (Pathways) initiative sought to strengthen their network of support for young parents through social network analysis (SNA) undertaken within an action research framework.

The psychology and practice of youth-adult partnership: bridging generations for youth development and community change.

Youth-adult partnership (Y-AP) has become a phenomenon of interest to scholars and practitioners. Despite the potential of Y-AP to promote positive youth development, increase civic engagement, and support community change, the practice remains unfamiliar to many. Although research has increased over the past decade, the construct remains vague with an insufficient grounding in developmental theory and community practice.

Long-term effects of prenatal and infancy nurse home visitation on the life course of youths: 19-year follow-up of a randomized trial.

Objective: To examine the effect of prenatal and infancy nurse home visitation on the life course development of 19-year-old youths whose mothers participated in the program.

Design: Randomized trial.

Setting: Semirural community in New York.

Pursuit and implementation of hospital-based outpatient direct access to physical therapy services: an administrative case report.

Background And Purpose: Despite legislative approval of direct access to physical therapy, other regulatory barriers and internal institutional policies often must be overcome before this practice model can be fully adopted. Few institutional initiatives have been published describing strategies designed to change policies restricting direct patient access. This case report describes steps and strategies associated with successful implementation of a direct access physical therapy model at a large academic medical center.

Engaging youth in participatory research and evaluation.

Although participatory research has been applied by a wide range of disciplines, the engagement of youth as partners in research and evaluation efforts is relatively new. The positive youth development movement has influenced scholars and practitioners to include youth as partners in the design and implementation of research involving issues that affect their lives. Engaging youth in research and evaluation not only generates useful knowledge for communities and individuals but also provides opportunities for the development and empowerment of youth participants, leading to benefits for young people, organizations, the broader community, and the research process.

The virtual cutting edge: the internet and adolescent self-injury.

The 2 studies reported here use observational data from message boards to investigate how adolescents solicit and share information related to self-injurious behavior. Study 1 examines the prevalence and nature of these message boards, their users, and most commonly discussed topics. Study 2 was intended to explore the correlations between content areas raised for discussion.

People Improving the Community's Health: community health workers as agents of change.

People Improving the Community's Health (PITCH) uses teams of community health workers to provide targeted outreach, to enroll those eligible in health coverage plans, to provide information and linkages to health and social support services, and to engage community members in community improvement activities. The initiative is based on the assumption that communities must work on the determinants of health and effectively mobilize all their assets to improve not only individual health, but also community health. Developed with support from the Kellogg Foundation's Community Voices Initiative, PITCH addresses intertwined public health concerns about access to health care and community health improvement.