This special edition summarizes the discussions which proceeded during the Indian Health Service (IHS) Mental Health Plenary Session. Following introductory comments by four session participants are seven discussion topics: mental health status of American Indians and Alaska Natives; history and description of the program; services for children…

This paper describes the multidisciplinary group therapy teams that provide services to older persons in board and care residences in the catchment area of Thalians (California) Community Mental Health Center. It reports on the manner in which the decision to form teams was arrived at, the process by which the teams were established, and the…

Findings from a qualitative evaluation of the Coordinated Consumer Health Education Project in rural Eastern Kentucky are presented. The purpose of the project is to provide health education for pregnant and lactating women and their infants up to one year of age through a coordinated effort with other health care providers. The evaluation…

Current social policies for the elderly are intended to assure a better standard of living, promote adequate medical treatment, and assure safe and clean housing, but they have unintended consequences. It is argued that these social policies serve to keep older people in a state of dependency, poverty, and segregation. Some social policies may be…

Based on the researcher's observations during a month-long visit to the Soviet Union as a specialist in gerontology and guest of the Soviet Ministry of Health, comparisons were drawn between educational intervention procedures in gerontology and/or geriatrics for health care professionals in the Soviet Union and the United States. Locus of such…

The program to provide basic health information and skills for older persons was sponsored by the city of Palo Alto with the cooperation of 14 health agencies. Weekly morning classes featured 12 topics ranging from exercise to coping with cancer and were presented by health professionals in as nontechnical a manner as possible. The classes were…

The paper presents the conceptual framework and research strategy of the psychiatric utilization review and evaluation (PURE) project at the Connecticut Mental Health Center. Review by structure, by outcome and by process are considered briefly. The Basic Utilization Review Program was developed to provide a more sophisticated and economical…

Seriously ill female psychiatric patients (N=59) were randomly assigned to an inpatient or day service. Data indicate the day treatment is, on the whole, superior to inpatient treatment in subjective distress, community functioning, family burden, total hospital cost, and days of attachment to the hospital program. (Author)

Beginning in the fall of 1999, all programs of the Child and Youth Services Administration of the District of Columbia Commission on Mental Health Services were ordered to implement a performance improvement plan. This report looks at how successful one clinic was in improving performance in one year. The objectives were to: (1) increase the…

From mid 1998 to mid 1999, The Australian Network for Promotion, Prevention and Early Intervention for Mental Health (Auseinet) provided funding and intensive support for eight agencies that provide services to young people to reorient an aspect of their service to an early intervention approach. The agencies developed a range of tailored,…

This project consists of three interrelated streams which aim to: (1) develop and maintain a national network of mental health service providers, and an easily accessible clearinghouse of relevant information, to facilitate the development of innovative early intervention services across Australia; (2) address challenges in reorienting service…

This publication is intended to serve as a practical guide to the development of relevant curricula for the education and training of environmental health professionals. This book aims to: (1) set out principles for developing policies on education and training for environmental health professionals at national and subnational levels; (2)…

Organizing a preventive health education program for prisoners presents special problems in planning and implementation. (MB)

An analysis of patient views toward very brief interventions (counseling consisting of three or fewer sessions) indicates that counseling termination should not be viewed as a failure or a patient drop-out, but rather that the original expectations of the patient are met in a relatively brief contact. (MB)

The authors discuss the need for alternative techniques in mental health programs in the schools in both prevention and intervention, review findings on the effectiveness of preschool programs, and present a rationale for school-based prevention programs using non-professional personnel and a multi-disciplinary approach. (IM)