Contexts shaping misdemeanor system interventions among people with mental illnesses: qualitative findings from a multi-site system mapping exercise.

Background: People with mental illnesses are disproportionately entangled in the criminal legal system. Historically, this involvement has resulted from minor offending, often accompanied by misdemeanor charges. In recent years, policymakers have worked to reduce the footprint of the criminal legal system.

Social Workers Critical to Honoring Commitments to Residents and Families in Long-Term Care.

Social workers have been at the forefront of research and advocacy to improve nursing home care for several decades. However, United States (U.S.

A Phenomenological Understanding of the Intersection-ality of Ageism and Racism Among Older Adults: Individual-Level Experiences.

Objectives: Ageism is a prevalent, insidious social justice issue that has harmful effects on the health of older adults. Preliminary literature explores the intersectionality of ageism with sexism, ableism, and ageism experienced among LGBTQ+ older adults. Yet, the intersectionality of ageism with racism remains largely absent from the literature.

Competing Concerns in Efforts to Reduce Criminal Legal Contact Among People with Serious Mental Illnesses: Findings from a Multi-City Study on Misdemeanor Arrests.

People with serious mental illnesses are disproportionately involved in the criminal legal system, often for low-level, non-violent misdemeanors. This paper examines how decision-makers at different stages of the criminal legal system articulate unique visions of the "best approach" for addressing this problem of over-representation. Focus groups and in-depth interviews were conducted with 94 stakeholders from Atlanta, Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia to understand how decision-makers from different agencies use and process specific misdemeanor charges in relation to people with serious mental illnesses.

Stigma experienced by ALS/PMA patients and their caregivers: a mixed-methods study.

Objective: Previous work suggests that stigma negatively impacts quality of life in people living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and progressive muscular atrophy (PMA). This study aimed to explore experiences of enacted stigma (experienced discrimination) and felt stigma (shame, fear of exclusion) among Dutch ALS/PMA patients and their caregivers. A secondary aim was to assess associated factors of enacted/felt stigma among patients.

Culturally sensitive prevention programs for substance use among adolescents of color: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to synthesize the efficacy of culturally sensitive prevention programs for substance use outcomes among U.S. adolescents of color (aged 11 to 18 years old) and explore whether the intervention effects vary by participant and intervention characteristics.

Adverse adult experiences and health outcomes: Racial and ethnic differences in a low-income sample.

Extending research on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), this study aimed to investigate whether the prevalence of and outcomes associated with adverse adult experiences vary among racial and ethnic subgroups. Survey data were collected from 1566 low-income women in Wisconsin using the Adult Experiences Survey (AES). Ten major adult adversities were assessed, including items that reference an intimate partner or household member (e.

Early life trauma and adult leucocyte telomere length.

Background: Telomere length, a biomarker of cell division and cellular aging, has been associated with multiple chronic disease endpoints. Experienced trauma over the life course may contribute to telomere shortening via mechanisms of stress embodiment. However, it is unclear how patterns of co-occurring trauma during sensitive periods (e.

Mental health among university employees during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of previous life trauma and current posttraumatic stress symptoms.

Objective: Previous studies indicated that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has harmed the mental health of diverse samples. Adopting a trauma lens with a sample of university faculty and staff, this study examined risk conferred by previous exposure to traumatic life events (TLE) on pandemic-related mental health harm (MHH) and stress and the mediating influence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.

Method: In Spring 2021, employees ( = 641) of a public university in the United States completed an online cross-sectional survey, including validated scales of TLE and PTSD and single-item measures of MHH and stress taken from published COVID-19 studies.

Information sharing across mental health service providers and criminal legal system stakeholders: Perspectives of people with serious mental illnesses and their family members.

Objective: The overrepresentation of people with serious mental illnesses in the criminal legal system has spurred information-sharing initiatives to transmit information between mental health service providers and criminal legal system stakeholders with the goal of improving resources and streamlining access to care. However, no research to date has examined the perspectives of people with mental illnesses who have their information shared across these systems or the perspectives of their family members. This study examined the perspectives on mental health-criminal legal system information sharing among people with serious mental illnesses and a history of arrest, as well as their family members.

Misdemeanor Charges Among Individuals With Serious Mental Illnesses: A Statewide Analysis of More Than Two Million Arrests.

Objective: Reducing the overrepresentation of individuals with serious mental illnesses in the criminal legal system requires a better understanding of the charges for which they are most commonly arrested. This study aimed to compare violent offenses, penal code classifications, Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) codes, and specific charges in arrests among individuals with and individuals without serious mental illnesses.

Methods: The authors analyzed all arrests (N=2,224,847) in New York State during 2010-2013.

Quasinatural Experiment of Postnatal Home Visiting: An Independent Impact Study of Family Connects.

Introduction: Family Connects (FC) is a postnatal nurse home visiting program that has scale-up potential because it is brief, inexpensive, and universal. Three investigations have linked Family Connects to improved maternal and family outcomes, but no independent impact studies have been conducted to date.

Methods: This study investigates a FC program in Racine County, WI that was implemented by a multimunicipal health department in partnership with a local hospital.

Modeling the effects of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training for police officers: How knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy drive de-escalation skills and referral decisions.

Objective: Prior research on Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training for police officers has demonstrated improvements in knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, and stigma, but how these factors work together to influence behavioral outcomes like de-escalation skills and referral decisions remains unstudied.

Method: 251 CIT-trained and 335 non-CIT officers completed in-depth surveys measuring these six constructs. We used structural equation modeling to test fit of the data to our hypothesized model and made indicated changes to improve fit.

Secondary traumatic stress among home visiting professionals.

Objective: This study examined the reliability and factor structure of the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS) and the prevalence and correlates of secondary traumatic stress (STS) among home visitors.

Method: Survey data were collected between 2015 and 2020 from 301 home visitors with caseloads. Participants completed the 17-item STSS, which assesses intrusion, avoidance, and arousal symptoms using the diagnostic criteria.

Building a community-academic partnership to improve screening for intimate partner violence: Integrating advocates in healthcare clinic settings.

Aims: To develop an innovative community-academic partnership to advance, test and promote intimate partner violence screening and referral protocols by comparing the effect of integrating intimate partner violence advocates versus enhancing medical training in medical clinic settings serving women from vulnerable populations. Detecting intimate partner violence in healthcare settings allows for survivors to connect to safety and referral resources prior to violence escalating. Screening for intimate partner violence and connecting patients to referral resources requires creating a safe and trusting relationship between healthcare providers and patients.

Adherence to and changes in mental and physiological health during an 8-week yoga intervention: A pilot study.

Background: Participating in yoga may be ideal for college students to increase physical activity and improve mental health.

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility and impact of an 8-week yoga intervention within a university setting on mental and physiologic heath.

Methods: This 8-week yoga intervention included twelve yoga-naïve adults, (23.

A time for me: A virtual program to engage African American caregivers.

To address the self-care needs of African American family caregivers, a community-engaged approach was used to develop and implement a half-day virtual self-care program. This study evaluates experiences of program attendees. All attendees were emailed an electronic survey containing Likert-type and open-ended questions.

Characterizing Arrests and Charges Among Individuals With Serious Mental Illnesses in Public-Sector Treatment Settings.

Objective: Individuals with serious mental illnesses are overrepresented in all facets of the legal system. State-level criminal histories of patients with serious mental illnesses were analyzed to determine the proportion who had been arrested and number of lifetime arrests and charges, associations of six variables with number of arrests, and the most common charges from individuals’ first two arrests and most recent two arrests.

Methods: A total of 240 patients were recruited at three inpatient psychiatric facilities and gave consent to access their criminal history.

Hospital-based inpatient quality improvement initiatives on safe infant sleep: Systematic review and narrative synthesis.

This review aimed to better understand the application of Quality Improvement (QI) processes to increase adherence to safe infant sleep recommendations in inpatient hospital settings. Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) 2020 guidelines, we searched MEDLINE/PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycINFO for articles published between 1992 and 2021 describing safe infant sleep QI processes in inpatient settings. Data were extracted from eligible articles based on the hospital setting, intervention target, and QI elements in addition to QI improvement efforts.

"When She Says Daddy": Black Fathers' Recidivism following Reentry from Jail.

We report on the findings of a mixed methods longitudinal study of 84 African American fathers of young children who were enrolled into the study during the father's jail stay. Participants were assessed using interviews, self-report measures, and administrative records on frequency of father-child contact, father-caregiver relationship quality, family support, paternal pre-incarceration employment, fathers' plans to live with the child upon reentry, history of substance abuse, and new convictions one year following release from jail. Qualitative analysis revealed three primary identities of fathers during incarceration: father as nurturer, father as protector, and father as provider.

Respite Service Use Among Dementia and Nondementia Caregivers: Findings From the National Caregiving in the U.S. 2015 Survey.

This study examined factors related to respite service use among caregivers and further tested the moderating effect of dementia caregiver status in these relationships using nationally representative U.S. data.