The family's socioeconomic status and the social-psychological aspects of family functioning were found to influence children's physical well-being both directly as well as indirectly through access to good medical care. Quality of psychotherapeutic care had no effect on psychological well being, which was affected by family living conditions.…

The nature of interpersonal skills and the current status of visual aids for teaching human relations is reviewed, and ways that videotape productions with characters, story line, and action sequences can enhance learning are discussed. The experience of producing a series of videotapes about prehospital emergency care is described. (Author/MLW)

Evaluated the application of Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) to client case records as a measure of treatment effectiveness and examined its correspondence to other measures of outcome. Findings were that GAS scores converged significantly with therapist ratings of global improvement and GAS scores obtained from client reports at follow-up.…

Findings indicated no significant differences in academic adjustment between Ss hospitalized for short vs. longer periods and better social adjustment for Ss hospitalized for shorter periods. The entire sample was rated as well as their classmates in academic achievement and only slightly less than classmates in social adjustment. (DB)

The article explores the issues of role identity and role negotiation in establishing a viable psychiatric consultation contract with a school program for multihandicapped deaf children and offers guidelines for dealing with the consequences of role confusion and conflict in this consultation relationship. (Author/DLS)

The Balanced Service System specifies functions required to eliminate mental disabilities and environments in which services can be provided. The model was tested in western Pennsylvania. Although the number of agencies serving the mentally ill doubled between 1960 and 1976, relative availability of each service component remained stable.…

Questionnaires designed to assess subjects' feelings toward treatment in a university mental health program substantiate the assumption that college students can be treated effectively with brief psychotherapy. (MB)

Highly disturbed patients (N=75) were sent through the Silva Mind Control training to determine which patients might get into difficulty. Only one became appreciably more disturbed. The most consistent finding was a dramatic increase in reality testing, as determined clinically and on objective psychological testing. (Author)

A literature review found behavioral side effects occurred for 13% of 446 individuals with mental retardation who were prescribed benzodiazepine for either behavioral or psychiatric conditions (n=138, 17.4%), epilepsy (n=20, 15.4%), or other medical conditions such as myoclonus or cerebral palsy (n=100, 2%). Implications of nonrecognition are…

Implications for suicide prevention efforts are examined. It is concluded that psychiatric treatment of depression and restricting access to lethal methods for suicide are more useful tactics for suicide prevention programs in elderly, and crisis counseling from suicide prevention centers and educational programs are more useful in younger adults.…

A methodology was developed for conducting a benefit-cost analysis of an innovative supported employment intervention for the psychiatrically disabled. Results indicated that the program, which targeted 19 participants, approached cost efficiency of almost .90 of benefits to costs. The value of the methodology for program evaluation is discussed.…

Differences in service utilization and community adjustment between community mental health clients with and without substance abuse disorders were studied for 144 outpatients, 37 percent of whom had dual diagnoses (substance abuse and another disorder). The association of dual diagnosis with poor service use and adjustment is discussed. (SLD)

Drug use patterns were surveyed in Colorado's community services system for 1,282 individuals with developmental disabilities. A psychotropic drug use rate of 18.6 percent compared favorably to other reported rates and rates in Colorado's institutional settings. Substantial experience with psychotropic and anticonvulsant medications across all…

Client satisfaction with outpatient psychotherapy in New Zealand was studied for 93 adult subjects who completed the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire. Clients reported a high degree of satisfaction, and there were positive correlations between satisfaction and symptom change on both client-related and therapist-related outcome measures. (SLD)