...Dan Sullivan Criminal Justice November 25, 2013 Massachusetts Corrections “The Massachusetts Department of Correction is responsible for operating the prison system of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, US Massachusetts houses over 11,400 inmates (about 1,925 are serving life sentences) throughout 18 correctional facilities [2] and employs over 5,200 employees (about 4,000 of whom are correctional officers). The MA DOC also has a tactical unit, a fugitive apprehension unit, a gang intelligence unit, a K-9 team, a Special Reaction Team (SRT), and a Tactical Response Team (TRT). Both of these tactical units are highly trained and are paramilitary teams. The Massachusetts DOC is the largest law enforcement agency in the state of Massachusetts with a staff of 5,200, 4,000 of which are sworn officers. The agency is headquartered in Milford, Massachusetts and headed by Commissioner Luis S. Spencer” ("Massachusetts Department of Correction") “The Department provides a variety of religious services, which are supervised and coordinated by chaplain staff. Volunteer clergy and community churches assist chaplains in the provision of services. Chaplains provide regular religious services, religious education and pastoral care. In addition, chaplaincy services include Bible Study, Prayer Groups, Christian Fellowship, Christian Twelve Step, Parenting Groups, Family Religious Services, Religious Seminars and Holiday Observances. The Department recognizes that Chaplaincy Services are...
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...articles nature publishing group Intervention and Prevention Behavioral and Psychological Care in Weight Loss Surgery: Best Practice Update Isaac Greenberg1, Stephanie Sogg2 and Frank M. Perna3 The objective of this study is to update evidence-based best practice guidelines for psychological evaluation and treatment of weight loss surgery (WLS) patients. We performed a systematic search of English-language literature on WLS and mental health, quality of life, and behavior modification published between April 2004 and May 2007 in MEDLINE and the Cochrane Library. Key words were used to narrow the search for a selective review of abstracts, retrieval of full articles, and grading of evidence according to systems used in established evidence-based models. Our literature search identified 17 articles of interest; 13 of the most relevant were reviewed in detail. From these, we developed evidence-based best practice recommendations on the psychological assessment and treatment of WLS patients. Regular updates of evidence-based recommendations for best practices in psychological care are required to address the impact of mental health on short- and long-term outcomes after WLS. Key factors in patient safety include comprehensive preoperative evaluation, use of appropriate and reliable evaluation instruments, and the development of short- and long-term treatment plans. Obesity (2009) 17, 880–884. doi:10.1038/oby.2008.571 Introduction Evidence-based best practice...
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....Page 3 What is Contingency Management? …………………………….Page 3 Traditional delivery of Treatment …………………………….....Page 4 What is the role of the Human service Worker?…………………Page 5 What Does Outcome Studies Report? …………………………..Page 7 Conclusion ………………………………………………………Page 11 References ………………………………………………………Page 13 Abstract Contingency management in medicine is a treatment plan that gives immediate rewards for desired changes in behavior. It is based on the principle that if a good behavior is rewarded, it is more likely to be repeated. This is often used in the treatment of drug and alcohol abuse, and is being studied as a smoking cessation method. Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit substance in the United States, with approximately 5.5 million regular weekly users and high prevalence among young adults. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in marijuana use as well as in rates of marijuana use disorders among adults in the 18- to 29-year old age range, most markedly among members of ethnic groups. This paper will define contingency management and how it is implemented by a competent and trained human service worker. By using contingency management the effective treatment of marijuana abuse and the ability to abstain will be investigated. Introduction Contingency management in medicine is a treatment plan that gives immediate rewards for desired changes in behavior. It is based on the principle that if a good...
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...Contents INTRODUCTION 1 EFFECTS OF THE DIFFERENT SUBSTANCES ON THE FETUS 2 Marijuana (also known as weed, pot or grass): 2 Cocaine: 2 Alcoholism 3 LAW AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE MOTHERS 4 THEORIES OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE 6 Biological Theories 6 Genetic Factors 6 Metabolic Imbalance 7 THEORECTICAL PERSPECTIVE 8 MANAGEMENT AND TREATMENT 10 SOLUTION TO PROBLEM 11 EXPECTED RESULTS/TIMEFRAME 12 CONCLUSION 13 REFERENCES 14 PICTURES ILLUSTRATING PREGNANT SUBSTANCE ABUSE WOMEN AND FETUS 15 INTRODUCTION Social problems exist at the door step of every community it has been in existence decades ago and still lives on today. Social problems can be defined as an issue that relates to society’s perception of an individual’s personal life and their behaviour is considered to be out of the norm. Substance abuse has vast becoming an epidemic in today’s society and it is considered as a social problem. Substance abuse is one thing but to see pregnant women abusing these endangering substances is another issue. People use drugs for many different reasons but for a pregnant woman to use drugs she may be mentally ill or depressed. Substance abuse may not have a serious or long-lasting effect on you but the same is not always true for a foetus. Mothers that abuse substances give birth to "drug babies." These children have serious developmental problems. Researches show that using substances legal or illegal during pregnancy has a direct impact on the foetus, whether smoking...
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...NEW RESEARCH Does ADHD Predict Substance-Use Disorders? A 10-Year Follow-up Study of Young Adults With ADHD Clancey Bateman, Timothy E. Wilens, B.A., M.D., MaryKate Martelon, M.P.H., Gagan Joshi, M.D., Ronna Fried, Ed.D., Carter Petty, M.A., Joseph Biederman, M.D. Objective: High rates of substance-use disorders (SUD) have been found in samples of adolescents and adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Predictors of SUD in children with ADHD who are at risk for the development of SUDs remain understudied. The main aims of this study were to identify clinically meaningful characteristics of children that predicted the future development of SUDs and to see whether the role of these characteristics varied by sex. Method: Subjects were children and adolescents with (n 268; mean age standard deviation 10.9 3.2 years) and without (n 229; mean age 11.9 3.3 years) DSM-III-R ADHD followed prospectively and blindly over a 10-year follow-up period onto young adult years. Subjects were assessed with structured diagnostic interviews for psychopathology and SUDs. Results: Over the 10-year follow-up period, ADHD was found to be a significant predictor of any SUD (hazards ratio 1.47; 95% confidence interval 1.07–2.02; p .01) and cigarette smoking (2.38; 1.61–3.53; p .01). Within ADHD, comorbid conduct disorder (2.74; 1.66 – 4.52; p .01) and oppositional defiant disorder (2.21; 1.40 –3.51; p .01) at baseline were also found to be significant predictors of SUDs...
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...The Effects of Child Abuse: Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy MiChelle Cochran Concordia University St. Paul College of Education and Science Forensic Mental Health 510 Family Violence PTSD and Trauma Cohort 401 Assignment Six Families of children with disabilities have an added burden of providing protection to their children from various types of abuse or neglect. Although all children have the same risk of abuse at the early infancy ages, the risk increases for the disabled as they age. National data indicates that children labeled as disabled are two times more likely to experience abuse and neglect. Wallace and Roberson (2014) state that individuals with developmental disabilities are affected by violence differently than the general population and may experience violence levels up to five times higher than the general population. Other studies have indicated that 60% of children with developmental disabilities and impairments experience some form of abuse and neglect. Mandell et al. (2005) point out that these estimates may be grossly underestimated, as sometimes children with disabilities suffer from cognitive and/or verbal deficits, which prevent them from reporting the abuse. Sexual victimization tends to be the most prevalent form of abuse committed against the developmental disabled. Sorensen (2002) estimates anywhere from 4 times to 10 times higher because the victims may be repeatedly abused by the same abuser. One reason that the rate is only an estimate is...
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...Ashley Clark-Johnson Professor Stansbury English 101 27 May 2015 The Reason Why Same-Sex Marriage Should be Legal Everywhere “The question before us is whether, consistent with the Massachusetts Constitution, the commonwealth may deny the protections, benefits, and obligations conferred by civil marriage to two individuals of the same sex who wish to marry… The Massachusetts Constitution affirms the dignity and equality of all individuals. It forbids the creation of second-class citizens. In reaching our conclusion we have given full deference to the arguments made by the commonwealth. But it has failed to identify any constitutionally adequate reason for denying civil marriage to same-sex couples” (Baird & Rosenbaum 21). The first request for same-sex marriage was in 2001 in Massachusetts. There was a long 180 day trial regarding the topic. Eventually, the Supreme Court decided to allow same-sex couples to marry, or at least recognize their union. This stirred up a lot of controversy. Many people felt like victims and were disgusted with the final ruling. The people that felt this way did not know how to fathom that this could be happening in the United States and may have even felt ashamed of living in the county. This was the first time that same sex marriage was even brought to court in the United States and many people believed that it never would be. “Mike Huckabee, the erstwhile presidential candidate and former governor of Arkansas who now hawks the Religious...
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...Juvenile Drug Abuse and Prevention Abstract The appetite for drugs and drug abuse is problematic in the United States. Powder cocaine is the adult recreational drug of choice. The United States is the world’s largest consumer of cocaine shipped from Colombia through Mexico and the Caribbean. Pharm parties are the Juveniles’ new trend for getting high. When it comes to our children the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, revealed that more than 2.1 million persons 12 year of age or older used prescription type pain relievers for the first time in 2006. It is the moral obligation of parents, communities, together with law enforcement agencies; educational systems and social organizations to find the programs that will work, engage them and save the children from drug abuse. We know that one way a child learns, is through role modeling. Therefore we as adults should be mindful about what our actions teach them. Juvenile Drug Abuse and Prevention Drug abuse by Juveniles is particularly problematic in the United States. Teenage years are filled with searching, confusion, rebellion, and insecurity. If these are not managed properly, it may lead to problems and inappropriate coping in several ways; one being use and abuse of drugs. Use and abuse are considered to be synonymous by most authors when juveniles are considered. Because juveniles are legally barred from the recreational use of any drug, including alcohol; any use would constitute abuse (Whitehead...
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...Somatic Symptom Disorder A Nature vs. Nurture Debate By Jennifer Nguyen July 3, 2015 The Disorder While many mental disorders are well-known and commonly referred to, such as bipolar disorder, depression, and anorexia, one mental disorder that has less limelight are somatoform disorders. WebMD defined somatoform disorders as “mental illnesses that cause bodily symptoms, including pain” where these symptoms cannot be “traced back to any physical cause” and they are “not the result of substance abuse of another mental illness” (WebMD). The Criteria & Associated Behaviors In DSM-IV, somatization disorder was the major somatoform disorder. There were many criteria for this disorder. However, in DSM-V, somatoform disorders were largely replaced by the term somatic symptom disorder, hereon referred to as SSD, which DSM-V characterizes by “somatic symptoms that are either very distressing or result in significant disruption of functioning, as well as excessive and disproportionate thoughts, feelings and behaviors regarding those symptoms. With this new change in DSM-V, somatization disorder (previously in DSM-IV) is now completely removed and replaced. The previous diagnosis of somatization disorder required very specific criteria. However, the new criteria for SSD is not as specific, but it does state that “somatic symptoms must be significantly distressing or disruptive to daily live and must be accompanied by excessive thoughts, feelings, or behaviors” (DSM). To see...
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...The “father of adolescence,” Granville Stanley Hall is best known for his prodigious scholarship that shaped adolescent themes in psychology, education, and popular culture. Granville Stanley Hall was born in a small farming village in Massachusetts, and his upbringing was modest and conservative. He has produced over 400 books and articles and had become the first president of Clark University, Massachusetts, but his greatest achievement has been his research work on child centered research, education, and adolescence to a society in transition. He was instrumental in the development of educational psychology, and attempted to determine the effect adolescence has on education. “The Contents of Children’s Minds,” an 1883 publication of Hall helped him establish himself as the leader of the “child-study” movement, which aimed to utilize scientific findings on what children know and when they learn it as a way of understanding the history of and the means of progress in human life. Searching for a source of personal and social rebirth, Hall turned to the theory of evolution for a biologically based ideal of human development, the optimum condition of which was health. His pure and vigorous adolescent countered the fragmented, deadening, and reutilized qualities of urban industrial life. Hall theorized adolescence as the beginning of a new life and welded this vision to a scientific claim that this new life could contribute to the evolution of the race, if properly administered...
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...ability to learn and most of the time goes unnoticed. We have all heard the saying “sticks and stones may break your bones but words can never hurt you” however, that statement is very untrue. Words are some of the most hurtful forms of bullying. Even when not face to face. The words written on social media about someone are extremely hurtful. Cyberbullying on social media is linked to depression in teenagers, according to new research that analyzed multiple studies of the online phenomenon. Victimization of young people online has received an increasing level of scrutiny, particularly after a series of high-profile suicides of teenagers who were reportedly bullied on various social networks (Stephanie Pappas). Michele Hamm, a researcher in pediatrics at the University of Alberta, says the health effects of cyberbullying on social media sites is largely unknown. Regular, face-to-face bullying during the teen years may double the risk of depression in adulthood, and bullying’s effects can be as bad, or even worse than child abuse. (Alexandria Symonds) The kids who are cyberbullied are more likely to be depressed which directly correlates to being suicidal, and feeling unwanted. That unwanted feeling is the worst feeling a person can have. What...
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...E P I DE M IC: R E SP ON DI NG T O A M ER ICA’ S PR E S CR I P T ION DRUG A BUSE CR I SI S 2 011 Background Prescription drug abuse is the Nation’s fastest-growing drug problem. While there has been a marked decrease in the use of some illegal drugs like cocaine, data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) show that nearly one-third of people aged 12 and over who used drugs for the first time in 2009 began by using a prescription drug non-medically.1 The same survey found that over 70 percent of people who abused prescription pain relievers got them from friends or relatives, while approximately 5 percent got them from a drug dealer or from the Internet.2 Additionally, the latest Monitoring the Future study—the Nation’s largest survey of drug use among young people—showed that prescription drugs are the second most-abused category of drugs after marijuana.3 In our military, illicit drug use increased from 5 percent to 12 percent among active duty service members over a three-year period from 2005 to 2008, primarily attributed to prescription drug abuse.4 Although a number of classes of prescription drugs are currently being abused, this action plan primarily focuses on the growing and often deadly problem of prescription opioid abuse. The number of prescrip tions filled for opioid pain relievers—some of the most powerful medications available—has increased dramatically in recent years. From 1997 to 2007, the milligram per person use of prescription...
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...North Carolina for the homeless. Teresa M. Holmes HS5401 March 14, 2014 Dr. Edward Muldrow Abstract The homeless population is aging faster that the general population in the U.S. As this vulnerable population continues to age, and having to address the health and housing needs is becoming increasing important. This will address overlooked concerns of homeless older adults, including their poor health status and unique care needs, the factors contribute to homelessness in this population, and the costs of homelessness among older adults, including to the U.S. health care system. The majority of homeless populations are people of color. There has been little study of racial differences among the homeless population, and racial finding have not been reported separately for homeless man and women. There is a study which the (MCKV) The McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Improvement Act of 2001 which provides funds to local educational agencies (LEAs), is almost a decade old, yet no evaluations of its academic effectiveness have been reported. Social networks analysis has utilized mathematical models and graphical constructs to examine information exchange and diffusion. Poverty has existed in some form in American society and individual shortcomings and inadequacies in explaining the raise of the homeless over the past several decades. Poverty has existed in the some form in America society since the founding of the nation in the late eighteen century. I strongly...
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...in existing studies and further answers the question,...
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...Higher Risks of Suicide among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Youth in America Teela Oxendine-Cummings CST5334 – Ethnic and Cultural Awareness Capella University Abstract This paper presents an overview of what is known about suicide and suicidal behavior among LGB youth. For the intention of this paper, the term youth is generally defined as people age 15 through 24. In developing this paper, the learner reviewed the relevant literature published from 1996 through 2011; researched suicide prevention and mental health support programs, and researched services for LGBT youth. After summarize research findings about the higher risk of suicidal behavior for LGBT youth, the paper explores risk and protective factors for this group and provides suggestions to the field that is used to reduce suicidal behavior among LGBT youth. Table of Contents Research Paper Title…………………………………………………………1 Higher Risks of Suicide among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) youth in America…1 Abstract …………………………………………………. 2 Table of Contents………………………………………..3-4 Introduction…..…………………………………………..5 Overview on Suicide ……………………………5 Illustration of the LGBT Youth………….............5-6 Sexual Orientation and Suicide………………...6-7 Scope of the Problem : Suicidal Behaviors ………….7 Suicide Deaths Among LGBT Youth…………...7 Suicide Attempts Among LGBT Youth…………7-8 Suicide Ideation Among LGBT Youth………….8 Conclusion on Suicidal Behaviors of LGBT...
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