Assessing the Needs of Urban American Indians in North Texas: A Community-Based Participatory Research Project.

This article discusses a community-based participatory research project with university researchers, an urban inter-tribal center, and other community partners to develop, administer, and deliver a community needs assessment of an urban American Indian (AI) community. In the development process, community focus groups identified major domains of inquiry for a needs assessment survey: mental health and substance abuse, medical care, and social services, including cultural programming. Results are presented and discussed in each domain.

Correlates of Child Maltreatment Among Adolescent Mothers With Young Children.

Child maltreatment and teen pregnancy are serious social problems facing America today. In 2010, 3.3 million referrals of child abuse and neglect resulted in approximately 461,297 confirmed victims.

Child maltreatment: the neurobiological aspects of posttraumatic stress disorder.

Childhood trauma due to physical abuse, neglect, or sexual abuse is a serious problem in the United States. Trauma can result in disruption or injury to the developing brain and lead to neurodevelopmental deficits that affect a child's functioning and can result in lifelong problems. Research has provided insight into how early childhood maltreatment affects brain development.

Native American Indian child welfare system change: implementation of a culturally appropriate practice model across three tribal child welfare systems.

Currently, there are 565 federally recognized tribes in the United States who are independent sovereign nations. These tribes have varying capacities to manage and administer child welfare programs. Most provide some type of child welfare service to the children and families within their tribal land.

Adult protective services: state of the workforce and worker development.

As the population of older adults increases and their potential for abuse and neglect increases, it is important a well-trained and competent workforce exists. Research has shown inadequate training of Adult Protective Services (APS) program staff is a major concern for adult protection programs, and one of the most important resources needed is staff training and development. This article describes a study examining the characteristics of new employees in APS and their experiences in a three-month basic skills development training program.

Child welfare workplace: the state of the workforce and strategies to improve retention.

Child welfare systems throughout the United States are being closely scrutinized as sensational cases appear in the media in nearly every state. At the federal level, with the Child and Family Service Review process, the government is documenting that states across the country are not conforming to federal child welfare requirements (DHHS, 2007) put in place to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children. One of the most crucial underlying causes of these inadequacies is a workforce that lacks the manpower for the tasks it confronts.

Drug abuse in Vietnam: a critical review of the literature and implications for future research.

Aims: To provide an overall picture of drug abuse in Vietnam, its prevalence, correlates and patterns.

Methods: Studies addressing the drug abuse problem in Vietnam are reviewed. Attention is paid to studies conducted from 1993 onwards.

Assessment of families who have substance abuse issues: those who maltreat their infants and toddlers and those who do not.

Although an association exists among risk factors of age of child, substance use and child maltreatment, less is known about the differences between substance abusing families who maltreat their children and substance abusing families who do not maltreat their children. The relationship among substance use and maltreatment needs to be further explored to identify specific assessment techniques to discriminate between the two groups. The study findings, based upon case records analyzed in 2002, show there is a set of significant characteristics of families who have a history of substance use and who maltreat their infant and toddlers and those families who do not.

Ecological correlates of neglect in infants and toddlers.

Infants and toddlers are more likely to be victims of neglect than any other form of maltreatment. Infants and toddlers are at highest risk of fatality because of maltreatment and experience behavioral, social, academic, medical, and cognitive consequences of neglect during their most formative years. Within an ecological framework, this study examines the correlates of the substantiation of neglect in children 0 to 36 months of age.