Violence Exposure, Mental Distress, Substance Use Behaviors, and Overdose Experiences Among People who Inject Drugs.

Rates of exposure to traumatic events are up to two times higher among people with substance use disorders (SUDs) compared to the US general population. Overdoses (OD) and overdose fatalities have continued to increase nationally and in Kentucky and are associated with elevated trauma symptoms. This paper examines the impacts of witnessing and experiencing OD among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Kentucky.

Traumatic Stress Among Seriously Delinquent Youth: Considering the Consequences of Neighborhood Circumstance.

Myriad factors have been found to have an impact on delinquent behavior and traumatic stress. This study proposes a model that tests the relationship between common predictors of delinquency (neighborhood condition, antisocial peer socialization, and exposure to violence) with traumatic stress. Serial mediation was used to test the relationships between these predictors and traumatic stress.

Burden among male Alzheimer's caregivers: effects of distinct coping strategies.

Focusing on the understudied, increasing population of male Alzheimer's disease (AD) caregivers, the purpose of this study was to identify their likelihood of utilizing 3 coping strategies (task focused, emotion focused, and avoidance focused) and to examine the effects of each coping strategy on caregiving burden. Data were collected from 138 male AD caregivers in southern United States, including geographically proportional representation of African Americans in the sample. Stepwise regression revealed effects of each coping strategy on caregiving burden, controlling for demographics.

Self-reported ageism in social work practitioners and students.

In this study, we focus on self-reported ageism in college students and social service providers using the Relating to Older People Evaluation (ROPE; Cherry & Palmore, 2008). The ROPE is a 20-item questionnaire that measures positive and negative ageist behaviors that people engage in during everyday life. Participants included undergraduate and graduate social work students and practicing social service providers in the nursing home and mental health setting.

Psychometric evaluation of the shortened resilience scale among Alzheimer's caregivers.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate psychometric properties of the shortened Resilience Scale (15-item version RS15) among a sample of Alzheimer's caregivers. Self-reported data were collected from 229 participants at 2 Alzheimer's caregiver conferences. RS15 principal axis factoring indicated a single-dimensional solution with all items loaded.

Demographic and psychosocial characteristics of cognitively-intact chronically Ill elders receiving home health services.

The intent of this study is to sensitize the home health care milieu to the psychosocial needs of home health patients in the effort to initiate effective discharge planning as soon as possible. All of the disciplines that comprise the treatment team play a vital role in relapse prevention; however, the role of the social worker, providing social and emotional interventions to speed recovery and/or prevent exacerbation, has become more prominent. Key demographic and multivariate analysis findings are discussed related to the prevention of relapse.