For youth workers and youth-serving organizations, making a commitment to improve adolescent health outcomes can be complex. Given the data on gaps in access to health information and services, however, it is important for youth workers to have some concrete ways to respond. In Forum Focus: What's Health Got to Do With It?, we attempt to examine…

Surveyed parents of third graders in an urban public school system regarding their knowledge about school health services, value they placed on the services, and barriers to health care access. Overall, parents highly valued school health services, knew little about service availability and use, and were often unaware their children received many…

This article responds to some important issues that Mallen, Vogel, Rochlen, and Day raise in "Online Counseling: Reviewing the Literature from a Counseling Psychology Framework." This reaction reviews the appropriateness of online counseling for underserved populations. The author provides suggestions for better serving historically undeserved…

While most people see Special Olympics as traditionally centered around sports, what many do not realize is that the movement is also a leader in research about people with intellectual disabilities. In that role, Special Olympics hosted a National Research Symposium at the National Games on July 1, 2006. The symposium drew a wide range of…

No standard definition of rural areas exists for use in developing health care policy, research, and planning, or for purposes of federal program administration or distribution of funds. Families in rural areas define themselves in terms of values--typically a solid work ethic; traditional morals and values; hardiness; determination; a general…

Background: People with intellectual disability (ID) leaving institutions pass through a transition stage that makes them vulnerable to inadequate health care. They enter into community care under general practitioners (GPs) who are often untrained and inexperienced in their needs. Specifically designed health reviews may be of assistance to both…

A health education program was evaluated which used child development specialists as home visitors and served a population of first-time mothers living in rural communities. The evaluation compared health and safety outcomes between intervention and control groups. The research staff, separate from the intervention staff, collected data in the…

In this article, the authors use qualitative and quantitative research to identify the performance of social actors whose decisions impact students and teachers, elucidate a set of measurements for their performance, and offer both a theoretical and research justification for these measurements. The work challenges two faulty assumptions behind…

Purpose: The aims of this study were to evaluate the efficacy of telehealth delivery of the Lidcombe Program of Early Stuttering Intervention, compared with a control group, and to determine the number of children who could be regarded as "responders." Method: A speech-language pathologist provided telehealth delivery of the Lidcombe…

The mission of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children through age 4 who are at nutritional risk. WIC provides nutritious foods to supplement diets, nutrition education, and referrals to health care and other social services.…

In January 2004 faculty from the University of Scranton traveled to Mexico to establish relationships with universities, clinic personnel, hospital personnel, school personnel, and parents in order to increase their understanding of the role disability play in that country. This interdisciplinary group of professionals in special education,…

The growing influx of immigrant families into the USA necessitates an understanding of how these families manage mental health disorders. Few studies have documented the ways in which autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are understood across different immigrant groups. This lack of knowledge creates barriers for practitioners who are encountering…

Using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey for 2000 and 2002, we compared potential and realized use of health care for a national sample of working-age women with cognitive disabilities. Despite having similar likelihoods of potential access to health care as compared to nondisabled women, they had markedly worse rates of receiving…

Despite having similar or better potential access to health care, women with disabilities experience worse health care and worse preventive care than nondisabled women. This study examined the health care of a national probability sample of 8,721 disabled and 45,522 nondisabled women living in the United States. Logistic regression models,…

School nurses spend considerable time caring for the needs of children with asthma and thus can offer valuable insights into barriers to asthma care within the school setting. Investigators conducted focus groups with school nurses in Dayton Public Schools to evaluate barriers to asthma care for children in an urban school system. The school…