Critical failures in a regional network of residential treatment facilities.

The present descriptive case study reports on the state of treatment services and environmental settings in adolescent residential treatment facilities (RTFs) conducted as part of the Residential Treatment Center Evaluation Project. The project frequently uncovered poor quality of care exposing youth to deleterious conditions. Observations related to harsh treatment practices, psychiatric practice and medication management, educational and aftercare planning, and general treatment planning were closely examined.

Ethical issues in the evaluation of competence in persons with acquired brain injuries.

The evaluation of competency in an individual with acquired brain injury has become an area of increasing concern to health care professionals in recent years. The evolving neurobehavioral status, nature and extent of diminished cognition and the post-discharge environment are factors which must be considered when assessing the competency of a person with brain injury to function independently in the community. In addition, clinicians must be familiar with the distinctions between various definitions and models of competency.

Unclaimed Children revisited: the status of state children's mental health service systems.

In 1982, Jane Knitzer's Unclaimed Children described continued nationwide failure to provide services for children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances. Since 1982, there has been considerable change in the philosophy, administration, and operation of services for this population. The current study compared state child and adolescent (C/A) mental health systems to those described in Unclaimed Children.

Predicting community integration after traumatic brain injury with neuropsychological measures.

A neuropsychological test battery was administered to 23 subjects with traumatic brain injury during initial inpatient rehabilitation who were participating in the national Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems study. Trails B and the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test total scores obtained during inpatient rehabilitation were significantly correlated with the Community Integration Questionnaire total score that was administered at one year postinjury. These findings suggest that performances on tests of cognitive speed and flexibility, complex attention, and memory during the acute phase of recovery may be useful for the later prediction of "real world" behavior and psychosocial outcome after one year postinjury.

Determination of cytomegalovirus antibody titers in sera of volunteer blood donors by use of complement fixation and two immunoenzymatic tests.

A total of 255 serum samples taken from male volunteer blood donors were used for the determination of the level of anti-CMV antibody. Among the serum samples tested by CF, ELISA and EIA procedures, 67,8%, 70% and 68%, respectively, showed the presence of CMV antibodies.

An evaluation of male contraceptive acceptance in rural Ghana.

To evaluate the effect of male contraceptive acceptance on fertility, the Danfa Family Planning Project in rural Ghana studied a sample of its male family planning acceptors. The findings show that half of the survey respondents accepted foam for use by their partners and half accepted the condom. The continuation rate (69 percent at 12 months) and use-effectiveness rate (80 percent at 12 months) reported by men were higher than those reported by women program acceptors.

Comparison of morbidity interviews with a health examination survey in rural Africa.

This paper describes a study of the Danfa Comprehensive Rural Health and Family Planning Project, Ghana. The report compares information obtained from morbidity interviews with information obtained during subsequent health examinations. One to 4 days prior to examination by a team of physicians, 3,653 rural Ghanaians were interviewed by a team of auxiliary workers.

A household morbidity survey in rural Africa.

A household morbidity interview survey with 2,000 randomly selected households (14,729 people) in rural Ghana is reported for a two-week recall period; 20-8 percent of people reported some illness, injury or disability. This prevalence is lower than reported during surveys in Columbia, USA, Britain and Australia. Adults averaged 0-5 days lost from work, which results in an estimated annual work loss of 13-4 days.

Guinea worm in southern Ghana: its epidemiology and impact on agricultural productivity.

In southern Ghana guinea worm disease was found to occur almost exclusively in villages dependent upon pond water during the dry season. The recent occurrence of guinea worm for the first time in many villages in the survey area suggests that the disease is spreading. The risk of increasing disease in the Accra plains is serious, because almost half of the 159 villages surveyed use pond water, and residents frequently travel to endemic areas.