Kinds Of Help Research Articles

The Patient Requests Form: A way of measuring what patients want from their general practitioner

A consumer-oriented approach to the delivery of health care and an understanding of the processes that influence clinical management decisions require the measurement of what patients seek when they consult their doctor. The present study completed the development of an instrument (the Patient Requests Form) that can quantify the intentions of patients attending their general practitioner. The Patient Requests Form was completed by 410 patients attending two general practices: one in an inner city area, the other in a small town. Principal components analysis revealed that the responses from each sample yielded identical components that described three distinct types of request: (i) for explanation and reassurance, (ii) for emotional support, and (iii) for investigation and treatment. Scales constructed to measure each type of request have high internal consistency while being sufficiently brief to be acceptable to general practice patients. The Patient Requests Form is a novel, convenient method to quantify the intentions of patients when they consult a general practitioner. It permits research into neglected aspects of consultation behaviour, including the factors that influence patients' intentions to seek different kinds of help and GPs' perceptions of these intentions.

Patients' perceptions of need for primary health care services: useful for priority setting?

To assess the feasibility of using patients' perceptions of need for primary health care services to develop priorities. A postal survey of a random sample of 3478 patients registered with five general practices. Lothian, Scotland. Comparison of rankings of 36 different kinds of help or advice according to (a) popularity in the sample size as a whole and in healthy and unhealthy subgroups and (b) health status (severity of need) of potential service users. Popularity rankings differed between the healthy and unhealthy subgroups and the whole sample. Popularity rankings were almost the inverse of rankings based on health status. The analysis identified two areas of substantial need both in terms of popularity and severity: pain management and advice about welfare benefits. Methodological efforts to ensure equal participation in the processes of assessing health needs and of priority setting do not in themselves promote equity. To promote equity some opinions may need to be given greater weight.

Problems Eliciting Elders' Reports of Functional Status

Intensive interviews were conducted with 36 older people, using think aloud and cognitive probes, to study response errors in measuring functional status in health surveys. Consistent with the original hypothesis, words or phrases, such as "aids," "help from another person," and "difficulty," were not interpreted by respondents to have the same meaning as intended. Similarly, evidence was obtained indicating that the subjects did not recall all the kinds of help they received, nor report their health as the basis for needing assistance. Moreover, replies to a variety of functional status items were often conditional upon the circumstances. Recommendations for questionnaire design and further research are discussed.

The Partial Unacceptability of Money in Repayment for Neighborly Help

This study focuses on the acceptability of using money in repayment for three kinds of neighborly help. Questionnaires were distributed to 400 households in four different neighborhoods. Only in the case of the "loan" of food was money found to be an acceptable form of repayment. In most cases, the use of money was rejected because it would break a social convention. There was a strong preference for repaying help by offering the same kind of help in exchange. The data suggested that there are strong patterns of reciprocal helping. Multiple regression analyses showed that the amount of help received was correlated with age, place of previous residence, and the number of people in the immediate area whom the respondent would call by name. Respondents who scored higher on either help received or perceived neighborliness were slightly more willing to offer money in repayment of neighborly help. These results are consistent with the view that there are limits on the use of money in social exchanges.

Some limitations of Alcoholics Anonymous.

While recognizing AA's many positive features, this chapter focuses on AA's limitations with respect to the kinds of help the movement provides as well as its overall efficacy and appeal to persons with alcohol-related problems. Among the issues identified as limiting AA's effectiveness are the movement's preoccupation with drinking and sobriety and lack of concern for other problems. Also, the possibility is raised that AA's insistence that its members are but "one drink away from a drunk" can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Empirical studies indicate that those who affiliate with AA are, in several respects, different from those who do not. In particular, AA seems to appeal to drinkers who have a long history of drinking and have experienced loss of control. Reasonable levels of social stability, a lack of significant psychopathology, and signs of religiosity and authoritarianism have also been shown to characterize those who affiliate with AA. Some implications of these and other limitations for management of alcohol abuse are discussed. Specific emphasis is placed on the need for systematic assessment and the ongoing monitoring of AA referrals. The need for further research into the efficacy of AA is also emphasized.

The Role of the Surviving Parent in the Adaptation of Bereaved Adolescents

The experience of having a parent become ill and die constitutes a major blow to an adolescent. One of the factors that may influence the ability of an adolescent to adapt in a healthy manner to the death of a parent is the degree of support available from the surviving parent. In the present study, 50 bereaved adolescents were seen for a semi-structured interview and psychological testing. Participants rated the overall helpfulness of their surviving parent and also described the kinds of help they received. The major dependent variable was level of depression, as assessed by the Beck Depression Inventory. Findings showed that individuals who had a good relationship with a surviving parent prior to and following loss adapted better than those with a poor relationship. Surviving parents tended to be rated in extreme ways – as either very helpful or as not at all helpful. Implications for interventions during the terminal phase of a parent's illness, as well as following death, are discussed.

Moral Foundations of Civil Rights Law

The idea of civil rights continues to arouse intense controversy. Despite the great advances in civil rights law during the past generation, American public life is still marked by severe disagreements over whether individuals and, especially, groups have rights to receive certain kinds of help from the state not only in the social and economic spheres but even in such matters as demarcation of voting districts and other political arrangements. The disagreements bear on the applications of certain basic principles of communal life and on the contents of the principles themselves. In this paper I will explore four avenues. First, I shall briefly analyze some of the main elements in the concept of civil rights law in order to clarify why the law needs moral foundations, and how civil rights are related to the human rights that are the central concern of morality. Second, I shall show how the moral principle of human rights can itself be rationally justified. Third, I shall briefly develop certain applications of this moral principle to the economic problems that constitute some of the main areas of controversy in civil rights law. Fourth, I shall indicate how the moral principle of human rights bears on certain residual controversies about the applications of civil rights law to the problems of affirmative action and preferential treatment.

Moral Foundations of Civil Rights Law

The idea of civil rights continues to arouse intense controversy. Despite the great advances in civil rights law during the past generation, American public life is still marked by severe disagreements over whether individuals and, especially, groups have rights to receive certain kinds of help from the state not only in the social and economic spheres but even in such matters as demarcation of voting districts and other political arrangements. The disagreements bear on the applications of certain basic principles of communal life and on the contents of the principles themselves.In this paper I will explore four avenues. First, I shall briefly analyze some of the main elements in the concept of civil rights law in order to clarify why the law needs moral foundations, and how civil rights are related to the human rights that are the central concern of morality. Second, I shall show how the moral principle of human rights can itself be rationally justified. Third, I shall briefly develop certain applications of this moral principle to the economic problems that constitute some of the main areas of controversy in civil rights law. Fourth, I shall indicate how the moral principle of human rights bears on certain residual controversies about the applications of civil rights law to the problems of affirmative action and preferential treatment.

Two Types of Rural Poor Need Different Kinds of Help

Two Types of Rural Poor Need Different Kinds of Help

On the malleability of people and computers: a focused approach to office ethnography

On the malleability of people and computers: a focused approach to office ethnography

Psychiatric consultation in a medical clinic: What do medical providers want?

A participant observation needs assessment of the use of a psychiatrist in a primary care medical setting was undertaken to quantify details of the interaction between a psychiatrist and primary care providers. Two hundred seventeen encounters involving 63 providers were recorded over a five and one-half month period. Utilization of the psychiatrist was widespread but skewed, with only 17% of the sample using 50% of the services. The mean number of encounters for all providers was 3.44. Consultation occurred mainly in a private area of the clinic, usually in an unplanned fashion. Only 21% of encounters involved seeing a patient. The range and content of these interactions was broad. Initial reasons for consultation were often redefined as the consultation ensued. The kinds of help most frequently requested involved discussing nonpsychopharmacologic treatments (35%), assisting providers with evaluations (31%), and exploring unresolved feelings about patients or patient care issues (29%). Slightly more than 50% of encounters required some type of follow-up. The findings suggest that psychiatrists who wish to work in primary care settings must have expertise in a multitude of areas and must be flexible in adapting themselves to the setting in which the primary care providers work.

A mobile conservation laboratory service

During the past three summers, the Canadian Conservation Institute operated five mobile conservation laboratories to provide basic assistance to museums, galleries and other cultural institutions across Canada. The purpose, operational needs and outfitting of the laboratories are described, as well as examples of kinds of help they are able to provide. An inventory of the material and equipment carried by the mobile laboratory is given

Consideration of alternative marketing organisations to serve small tropical farmers

For some time small farmers in the developing countries have been receiving specific attention from their governments and from aid agencies, including the World Bank. The programmes formulated to assist these farmers have not always been founded, however, on a clear understanding of their needs. This paper first sets up parameters for small farmers applicable in this context. It then attempts to analyse the kinds of help that a small farmer seeks in respect of marketing and to assess what can be expected from different forms of marketing organisation. Criteria include consideration along with larger scale suppliers, reliability and continuity of service, ease of access to guaranteed prices and to official purchasing agencies and the assistance provided on production methods and in the provision of production requisites and credit. These criteria can be met most easily when the small farmers are relatively concentrated in location and are engaged in high value production for which they have some comparative advantage.

Sharing Accountability for Educating Children with Special Needs

Who is accountable for the education of children with special needs? We can begin to find out by considering these additional questions:How can the school improve its approach to teaching handicapped children?What kinds of help can parents be expected to provide?How important is the influence of nonhandicapped peers and what role is best for them?What kinds of curriculum should the public favor in order to achieve integration?In what ways can the government offer effective leadership and support?When we pose these more specific concerns, some useful changes take place in our point of view. There is a shift in emphasis from who is at fault to who can be helpful, from limitations to possibilities. The resulting perspective identifies other people with whom we must work more closely in order for children to succeed.During recent years educators have made it a practice to specify the learnings for which they are willing to be held accountable. This policy is worthwhile but insufficient. I believe that we need a more inclusive definition of accountability, one that will acknowledge and clarify the different roles and obligations for those who teach elsewhere than the classroom or whose influence on child development is indirect. Surely the helping environment for educating children with special needs must include the collaborative efforts of school faculty, parents, students and the government. Let’s consider how each of these parties are implicated in the concept of shared accountability.

People who deliberately poison or injure themselves: their problems and their contacts with helping agencies.

A representative sample of 130 people was interviewed shortly following self-poisoning or self-injury. The interview method is described. Events in the week prior to the attempt, and the incidence of various kinds of chronic problems are reported. Events involving key relationships were much more common than other kinds. The most important event was a quarrel, particularly in the 48 hours prior to the attempts and more common with female than with male attempters. The possible relevance of quarrels to understanding overdose behaviour is discussed. Nearly a third were receiving non-psychiatric treatment at the time of the 'attempt'. Approximately one quarter were currently receiving psychiatric treatment and a half had received it at some time. A substantial proportion had been admitted to either psychiatric or non-psychiatric hospitals within the past year. The proportions indicating the need for various kinds of help are reported. Most people said they needed 'someone to talk to'. More than half had been in contact with some form of helping agency during the week prior to the attempt. The possible significance of these findings is discussed. An attempt was made to look for 'syndromes' or groupings of problems. The resulting analysis, whilst of interest, did not lead to a satisfactory method for classifying individuals. It was concluded that a more satisfactory typology of 'attempters' is likely if types of relationship problems are investigated in more detail.

Inflation Accounting: What Will General Price Level Adjusted Income Statements Show?

The most significant and persistent complaint about published financial statements in recent years has been that they do not recognize the economic facts of life. Inflation is a reality throughout the world, yet its effects go unrecognized in financial statements prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States and in most of the other countries of the Western World. Inflation distorts all financial statements, but primary attention in the many public discussions of this topic is usually focused on the way inflation affects reported income. This article analyzes the likely income statement effects of recording inflation adjustments. Two different approaches to adjusting for inflation have been suggested in the accounting literature. One substitutes for the recorded historical cost data of each of the items in the financial statements the current cost. The other adjusts the recorded historical cost data for changes in the value of the monetary unit since each item was acquired. The former deals with specific price changes of individual items, the latter with changes in the general price level. Since most adjustments are made by the use of price indexes, the first approach relies on indexes of specific prices, the second on an index of the general price level. The appendix of this article explains and illustrates the essentials of both approaches. The current cost approach is conceptually superior (and presents more meaningful statements) in our view, but the general price-level approach has received authoritative support because of its greater objectivity and auditability. In both the United States and the United Kingdom, the authoritative accounting bodies are currently considering the question of general price-level adjusted financial statements and may issue pronouncements requiring their publication in the near future. In both countries, the general pricelevel statements would be supplemental to the conventional unadjusted historical cost statements. 1 Since general price-level adjusted statements are likely to be the only adjustments for inflation with official sanction, the rest of the body of this article is concerned with the effect of such adjustments on reported earnings. (Some of the results of using current cost adjustments are illustrated in the appendix.) In the remaining sections we analyze the effects of general price-level adjustments on the 30 Sidney Davidson, Arthur Young Professor of Accounting, University of Chicago, is currently on leave as a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California. Roman L. Weil is Mills B. Lane Professor of Industrial Management, Georgia Institute of Technology. The authors thank Christine Ciarfalia and Samy Sidky for their research assistance and the Ford Foundation Faculty Research Fund of the Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago and the National Science Foundation for research support. They thank Richard M. Cyert, Yuji Ijiri, and Mary Peeler for various kinds of help. 1. Footnotes appear at end of article. (Pp. 83-84)

Long-Term Managment and Some Follow-Up

This paper on the symptom picture called “hyperkinetic impluse disorder” and its effect upon learning and behavior in childern and adolescents. Clinical experience hasd indicated that there may be a specific, beneficial, controlling effect from the use of psychic energinzers and cereberal stimulants, all characterized by causing an increase in available norepinephrine at cell surfaces in the central nervous system. it has also been found that the symptom picture may be worsened by medications which reduce the the level of available norepinphrine at cell surfaces. The medications in use of are quite potent ones and concerns as to how they may best be administered are discussed. Possible side effects and long term outcomes of their use are described. A method is given for determining proper dosage, lisiting and controlling side effects. other concurrent necessary kinds of help are described. Means of recongnizing the eventual outgrwoing of the hyperkinetic impluse disorder are indicated. Last, results of a follow-up study are presented: a group of private patients were followed up for varying periods after medication had been terminated. The study show the current levels of functioning and presence or absence of persistinig toxix effect from long-term use of these medications.

OLD FOLKS AT HOME: The Kinds of Help They Need

OLD FOLKS AT HOME: The Kinds of Help They Need

The "Open Door": A Point of View

What is the responsibility of the family agency to families needing various kinds of help? Should the family agency serve only the family that seeks help and that gives evidence of ability to use it? Does the agency have an obligation to reach out to families who need but resist help with a view toward enabling them to use the services of the agency? In its report on Scope and Methods1 the Family Service Association of America has made an important contribution to clarifying the function of the family agency. The report lists two major functions?provision of casework service and participation in community planning? and three secondary functions?group education, professional education, and research. The committee which prepared the report took a clear position on the need for the family agency to make its services widely available. It stated:

ON THE CARE OF EPILEPTICS.Read before the Section of Neurology and Medical Jurisprudence, at the Forty-fourth Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association.

The care of epileptics really includes their medical treatment as well as all other kinds of help extended to them. But medical care, such as it is, has been given to them for some thousands of years, and yet without adding much to the happiness of individuals under treatment, or accumulating much evidence of positive value concerning medication in epilepsy. Our results have been, indeed, almost valueless; for, with all our dosing with bromids, borax, belladonna and so on through the alphabetical index of the Pharmacopoeia, it is extremely doubtful if in ordinary practice, 1 per cent, of the cases of idiopathic epilepsy are cured. Besides the practical incurability and hopelessness of the disease, its victims have suffered untold sorrows in the way of negligence and illtreatment at the hands of the communities in which they live. It is a peculiarity of this disease that the seizures may be momentary