The Medical College of Pennsylvania has introduced a four-hour interdisciplinary class for sophomore students in the role of folk and popular healing systems in patient care. Student and faculty responded enthusiastically, and the program will be expanded. (MSE)

A survey of curriculum directors at 51 pharmacy schools investigated attitudes and discrepancies concerning the current and ideal emphasis placed on 33 topics, as well as barriers to curriculum change. A move toward primary and outpatient care and better relationships and communication between pharmacists and patients were evident in the…

Background: This study aimed to identify personality features characterizing adolescent girls and boys with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and to see whether meaningful patterns of heterogeneity exist among adolescents diagnosed with the disorder. Methods: Two hundred and ninety-four randomly selected doctoral-level clinicians described…

The problem use of alcohol causes over 100,000 deaths in the United States per year and has substantial negative impact on family structure, the economy and the criminal justice system. Screening and early treatment of individuals with problem use of alcohol by health professionals can significantly reduce mortality and morbidity. Students from…

Regardless of whether a patient's health-care provider works from a traditional biomedical or a new biopsychosocial model, therapists and counselors need to work with patients and their families challenged by the onset of a serious illness. This book addresses this need and outlines the five goals of medical family therapy: (1) help the family…

This study analyzed doctor-patient communication from a sociolinguistic perspective, focusing on two issues: (1) why patients are not more effective in asserting themselves in talking with doctors, and (2) why doctors don't talk more like normal people (i.e., patients). Research on communication in health care contexts is reviewed, looking at such…

This training manual for emergency medical technicians, one of 14 modules that comprise the Emergency Victim Care textbook, contains appendixes, a glossary, and an index. The first appendix is an article on communicating with deaf and hearing-impaired patients. Appendix 2, the largest section in this manual, is an introduction to medical…

This booklet, intended primarily for the trainers of middle-level community health workers in underdeveloped countries, is designed to help such workers present the topic of diarrhea treatment and prevention in training courses. Divided into five sections, the booklet gives guidelines on treatment and prevention, with particular emphasis on the…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 17 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) subordinates' perceptions of the androgynous communication style of supervisors as an index of job satisfaction; (2) comprehension and perception variables…

Papers on hospital and health libraries and library services to the blind and deaf which were presented at the 1982 International Federation of Library Associations conference include: (1) "Leisure Pursuits of the Blind" by Antun Lastric (Yugoslavia); (2) "Library Services for the Handicapped in Canada: An Overview" by…

The mental health intervention process, which entails the 12 essential services to be offered by community mental health centers, is studied as an interactive process involving: (1) the cultural foundations within which mental health and illness are defined; (2) the range of cultural variability of Mexican American service recipients and their…

The use of admission interview comments to predict clinical clerkship success of medical students was evaluated. Narrative comments made by admissions interviewers regarding an applicant's skills and attitudes were coded, as were narrative evaluations of these students during year III of required clerkships in pediatrics and internal medicine in…

Articles by social work educators on some of the critical issues in community mental health are presented. Examined are some conceptual and program developments related to coordination, continuity of care, and the use of teams in planning and service delivery for community mental health (Lawrence K. Berg). The issue of civil commitment to and…

As described at a 1969 conference and summarized here, the training and use of nonprofessionals in the demonstration program (1962-68) of the Dona Ana Mental Health Services, New Mexico, represented a significant change in structure, manpower utilization, and delivery system for such services. The conference itself reviewed such aspects as…

This document describes the methodology followed in obtaining abstracts (see volumes 2 and 3) of more than 8,000 critical behaviors of nurses and attendants in delivering care in 50 psychiatric and mental health facilities throughout the country. The abstracts were derived from reports of actual observations by 1,785 mental health practitioners in…