Parental Perceptions of Access to and Utilization of Services for Autistic Children in African American Families: An Exploratory Study.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) occurs within all racial, ethnic, and demographic pediatric groups. However, Black children with ASD are diagnosed at later stages of their development, and as a result may not receive or may age out of early intervention services, and demonstrate poorer long-term outcomes, across a range of factors. African American parent's perceptions regarding access to and utilization of healthcare services for their autistic children vary.

Service capacity and disability resource integration: A strategic survey of immigrant and refugee-serving agencies in Illinois.

Immigrants and refugees in the United States often face significant barriers in accessing social services, including mental health support, legal assistance, ESL or related education, housing, vocational training, workforce resources, transportation, and citizenship support. This article explores the strengths and challenges of community-based organizations welcoming centers (CBO WC) in Illinois that serve these populations, including people with disabilities, in culturally appropriate and inclusive ways. The Immigrant and Refugee-Led Capacity Development Network of Illinois, based at the University of Illinois Chicago, collaborated with the state's Office of Welcoming Centers to explore the service capacities of 17 CBO grantees.

Linking Black women to PrEP care using warm handoff referrals from emergency departments to local PrEP clinics.

New Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) cases continue to disproportionately burden cisgender Black/African American women in the United States due to a confluence of structural and systemic factors. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a safe and effective HIV prevention option, yet there is a striking gap between PrEP eligibility and uptake among cisgender Black women. The current study evaluates a novel warm handoff process in a hospital emergency department setting linking eligible women to local PrEP clinics within 72 hours of hospital discharge in a large southwestern metropolitan city.

Anxiety sensitivity among Black youth: A cross-sectional analysis of the direct and indirect effects of community violence exposure, neighborhood risk, parenting practices, and peer effects.

Youth exposed to community violence and neighborhood stressors report devastating mental health consequences. Black youth are at greater risk and experience community violence at rates higher than other youth populations. An underexplored mental health consequence is anxiety sensitivity, the fear of experiencing anxiety-related symptoms, which contributes to maladaptive coping strategies and the development and severity of other mental health problems.

Associations among drug acquisition and use behaviors, psychosocial attributes, and opioid-involved overdoses.

Aims: This study sought to develop and assess an exploratory model of how demographic and psychosocial attributes, and drug use or acquisition behaviors interact to affect opioid-involved overdoses.

Design: We conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (EFA/CFA) to identify a factor structure for ten drug acquisition and use behaviors. We then evaluated alternative structural equation models incorporating the identified factors, adding demographic and psychosocial attributes as predictors of past-year opioid overdose.

Seeking help as a strategy for ethical and professional decision-making in research: Perspectives of researchers from East Asia and the United States.

: A person's cultural background shapes how they interpret and navigate problems. Given that large numbers of international researchers work and train in the U.S.

Narratives of Disconnection: A Life Course Perspective of Methamphetamine Use Among Sexual Minority Men Living with HIV.

Background: Sexual minority men (SMM) are exposed to societal and structural stressors that translate into poor health outcomes. One such outcome is substance use, which research has long documented as a prominent disparity among SMM. Methamphetamine is a particularly deleterious substance for SMM because its use is often framed as a coping response to social and structural stressors.

Trauma context exerts intergenerational effects on child mental health via DNA methylation.

Unlabelled: Many people experience traumatic or negative events, but few develop mental health issues as a result. This study investigated whether newborn DNA methylation (DNAm) previously associated with maternal childhood physical abuse by her father affected the child's mental health and physical growth, as well as whether it mediated or moderated developmental outcomes.

Methods: Study sample ( = 903) and data came from Bristol University's Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

"We Take Care of Our Young, No Matter What," Experiences of Engagement in HIV Care Among Black Mothers Parenting Dependent Children in Southwestern Pennsylvania: A Retrospective Descriptive Qualitative Study.

This retrospective descriptive study sought to explore the lived experiences of Black mothers with HIV navigating HIV medical care while parenting dependent children. Six themes were generated from the semi-structured interviews conducted with mothers ( N = 9) related to motherhood, interactions with health care systems and providers, coping, social support, HIV self-management, and HIV prevention. Findings suggested that supportive interpersonal relationships with HIV health care providers, HIV nondisclosure to family and friends, and social network support, inclusive of health care providers, were protective factors in achieving optimal treatment adherence and viral suppression.

Histories of violence among clients seeking substance use disorder treatment: a systematic mapping review.

Introduction: There is a limited literature base regarding the intersection of drug and alcohol treatment, violence, and trauma. While research substantiates that exposure to violence and trauma impacts the propensity to misuse substances, the conceptualization in clinical trials and practice has largely been narrow and gendered, referring only to intimate partner or domestic violence. Our systematic mapping review explored a more inclusive and expansive review of survivors of and perpetrators of violence and trauma (e.

Provider Perspectives on Multi-level Barriers and Facilitators to PrEP Access Among Latinx Sexual and Gender Minorities.

Although pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a highly effective HIV prevention intervention, inequities in access remain among Latinx sexual and gender minorities (LSGM). There is also a gap in the PrEP literature regarding providers' perspective on access inequities. This qualitative case study sought to explore barriers and facilitators to PrEP engagement in a community-based integrated health center primarily serving Latinx populations in Northern California.

SLC6A4 gene variants moderate associations between childhood food insecurity and adolescent mental health.

Background: Food insecurity is a persistent concern in the United States and has been shown to affect child mental health and behavior. The SLC6A4 gene has been indicated as a moderator of the effects of chronic stress on anxiety in adolescents aged 14-21. However, it is unclear if SLC6A4 may also play a role in the effects of childhood food insecurity, a form of chronic stress, on adolescent mental health.

Latent class analysis of emergency department patients engaged in telehealth peer recovery support services and associations of identified classes with post-discharge outcomes.

Background: People with substance use disorders (SUDs) frequently use emergency department (ED) services. Despite evidence demonstrating that post-discharge SUD treatment linkage effectively reduces the number of ED re-presentations, relatively few hospitals have implemented interventions to identify and connect patients with SUDs to appropriate care. ED-based peer recovery support specialist (PRSS) interventions have emerged as a promising approach for hospitals, but more research is needed to understand the extent to which these interventions meet the needs of patients who present to the ED for different reasons and with various underlying concerns.

Community engagement tools in HIV/STI prevention research.

Purpose Of Review: Community engagement is key to the success of sustainable public health interventions. This review highlights recent published studies that describe the use of community-engaged methods in sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention research.

Recent Findings: We organized the findings using a socio-ecological model.

Fentanyl Exposure and Detection Strategies Utilized by Clinical Trial Participants Seeking Linkage to Opioid Use Disorder Treatment at a Syringe Service Program.

Introduction: The USA continues to face a fentanyl-driven overdose epidemic. Prior research has demonstrated users of illicit opioids are concerned about fentanyl exposure and overdose, but the strategies they report using to detect fentanyl's presence lack empirical support. This study compares self-report and biologically detected fentanyl use and investigates overdose risk and risk reduction behaviors among a sample of high-risk people who use opioids.

Community Violence Intervention in African American Communities: Resilience and Coping among Outreach Workers.

African American communities are at risk of negative psychological and physical health problems associated with structural and community violence. Street outreach, a community-based social service violence intervention, can build resilience and coping to buffer against these negative effects. Using qualitative case study, the authors explored the effects of street outreach on the resilience and coping of ten outreach workers in two Southside communities in Chicago.

The Effects of Childhood Adversity and Self-Regulation on the Well-Being of Adults with Delinquency Histories: A Mediation Model.

Purpose: Most youth with delinquency histories experience childhood adversity leaving them vulnerable to poor adult well-being. Previous research indicates that self-regulation difficulties could explain how childhood adversity affects adult well-being. Yet, very few studies target adult self-regulation intervention.

Mental health and substance use disorder comorbidities among Medicaid beneficiaries: Associations with opioid use disorder and prescription opioid misuse.

Background: Medicaid presently insures about one-fourth of the US population and disproportionately insures about 38 % of non-elderly adults with an opioid use disorder (OUD). Owing to Medicaid's prominent role insuring persons with an OUD and that Medicaid coverage includes pharmaceutical benefits, there has been considerable interest in studying potential prescription opioid misuse among Medicaid beneficiaries and identifying subpopulations at higher risk for misuse and possible progression to an OUD.

Methods: The study goals were to explore the associations among prescription opioid misuse, OUD, and co-occurring mental health and other substance use disorders (SUD).

Stress Biomarkers in Black Youth: Exploring Psychological, Behavioral, and Socio-Ecological Correlates.

Exposure to chronic stress is a major public health concern. Black youth are vulnerable to chronic stress exposure given their overrepresentation in urban neighborhoods characterized by socio-ecological stressors. We contribute to this emerging body of knowledge by (1) investigating stress-induced variability in cortisol response patterns among Black youth, and (2) examining risk and protective factors associated with physiological stress responses.

Development and validation of a liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method for the analysis of 53 benzodiazepines in illicit drug samples.

An LC-MS/MS method for the analysis of 53 benzodiazepines, including various designer benzodiazepines, was developed. The developed method was applied to a total of 79 illicit street drug samples collected in Chicago, IL. Of these samples, 68 (84%) had detectable amounts of at least one benzodiazepine.

In the Interest of Time: Assessing the Role of Resilience Across an Intergenerational Sample of People Living with HIV.

Background: Biomedical advances have improved the quality of life of people living with HIV (PLWH); however, barriers to optimal well-being remain. A key feature in understanding the lived experiences of PLWH is resilience. The concept of resilience is quite complex in terms of its antecedents and expressions, suggesting the need for more nuanced understandings of how it could be harnessed to better support this population.

Current attitudes toward drug checking services and a comparison of expected with actual drugs present in street drug samples collected from opioid users.

Background: The opioid epidemic continues to be associated with high numbers of fatalities in the USA and other countries, driven mainly by the inclusion of potent synthetic opioids in street drugs. Drug checking by means of various technologies is being increasingly implemented as a harm reduction strategy to inform users about constituent drugs in their street samples. We assessed how valued drug checking services (DCS) would be for opioid street drug users given the ubiquity of fentanyl and related analogs in the drug supply, the information they would most value from drug checking, and compared expected versus actual constituent drugs in collected samples.

Assessing PrEP messaging and communication: A review of the qualitative literature.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a biomedical HIV prevention intervention approved by the FDA in 2012. Nevertheless, most sexual minority men (SMM) who could benefit from its use are not currently prescribed PrEP. The literature during the first decade of PrEP availability has suggested a diverse set of multi-level barriers and facilitators to PrEP uptake and adherence.