The success of crisis intervention work with international students is highly dependent not only on the skill of the professional staff involved, but also the availability and use of other student services that may be provided to the International Student Services (ISS) Office. There are many cultural issues that must be considered when counseling…

The special education program of Ozanam Home for Boys, Inc. (Kansas City, Missouri), a private residential psychiatric facility serving about 60 emotionally disturbed adolescent males, was examined. Detailed eco-behavioral data were collected on a sample of one "active" student, one "passive" student, and two controls. Data for…

An indication of the failure of the mental health system in this country is reflected in the increasingly visible homeless population, many of whom suffer from some form of untreated mental illness. Public policy priorities have shifted from proactive, treatment-oriented policies to reactive, punitive institutionalization. The…

The field of mental health has had difficulty in developing an adequate conceptualization of racism as a mental health problem. Based on conventional classifications of mental illness, racism might be described as a functional disorder. The racist, however, appears quite normal except for a paranoid disorder in the area of racial relations. The…

This report presents findings on the social and demographic factors associated with drug abuse, alcoholism, and major psychological impairment in a population of Cuban American patients presenting at the Spanish Family Guidance Clinic (Miami, Florida) in 1974-75. The analysis indicates a number of factors operating to increase the likelihood of…

This study investigated relationships among subjective experience, verbal formulations, and effective purposeful behavior in psychiatric nursing. The Quest (an unstructured, short paragraph paper and pencil test using 30 randomly chosen English words) was administered to a random sample of Northern California student nurses. A highly consistent…

Two papers in this report deal with early childhood. "Developmental Factors--Early Cognitive Growth" discusses the experimental-analytical and existential-experimental approaches to religious cognitive growth. The second paper, "Developmental Factors--Early Emotional-Social Growth" asserts that emotional and social integrity has to be achieved…

In the recent past, there has been a great deal of effort directed toward developing techniques for documenting therapeutic outcome. Funding sources and the general public seem to be demanding more meaningful data which indicate, in a clear manner, whether or not the services they are paying for are of value. Mental health centers, like other…

At present, the interaction-oriented approach dominates psychiatric research and clinical practice in conjoint family therapy and also permeates much of the work in family and group sociology. This paper focuses on the communication variables which have been measured in family interaction therapy, the ways in which family interaction investigators…

The development of a child psychiatric unit in a municipal, ghetto-located hospital is described. Initial problems and their solutions are discussed. Accepting the fact that the problems of the political scene and gross underfunding were uncontrollable, focus was put on devising a service comparable to those utilized by middle class populations. A…

This report compares the characteristics of Indian American new court commitments with the characteristics of Negro, Mexican-American, and white new court commitments during the same period of time. A total of three categories of individuals was examined, juveniles, youth, adults. The populations used are not representative of the ethnic groups in…

This paper calls for a philosophic and operational reorganization of Comprehensive Mental Health Centers to effect a more efficient and parsimonious use of scarce resources. It translates the laws of parsimony into clinical terms as those interventions and methods of care requiring: (1) the least disruption of the patient's life; (2) use of the…

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…

This study was designed to determine whether a training program which focuses primarily on interpersonal relationships, communication and observation skills, and knowledge and understanding of both one's own behavior and that of others would increase the empathetic ability of psychiatric aides. Two studies were conducted. A pilot study was done to…

Issues of changing positions and roles for paraprofessionals are considered in the context of the hierarchical structure and process of mental health organizations. Discussion focuses on problems arising when paraprofessionals are promoted in the functional hierarchy while continuing to occupy the lowest level in the professional caste system.…