Hygienic evaluation of work condition and health status of female telephone operators in information services]

The authors conducted hygienic evaluation of work conditions for female telephone operators of inquiry office. The article deals with characteristics of health state according to periodic medical examinations and with evaluation of the workers' reproductivity according to poll data. The analysis covered influence of sensory and emotional load on health state of female telephone operators.     

The New Federalism and state mental health agencies: Roles for psychologists.

As state governments expand and become more influential and as universities constrict employment opportunities for psychologists, psychologists should consider career possibilities in state mental health systems. Four key functions in the state mental health agency are described: administration, training, research, and evaluation. Changes in professional training that are needed to adequately prepare psychologists for these nontraditional career roles are discussed. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Damage occurs early in systemic vasculitis and is an index of outcome

The use of products containing PCB in buildings resulted in indoor air contaminations. The search for appropriate measures is hampered by several different uncertainties in the regulatory toxicological process. These refer to problems in exposure assessment including measurement approaches, the toxicological evaluation of health risks including the derivation of a tolerable intake and the use of TCDD toxicity equivalency factors and finally the legal consequences of health risk evaluation. Since no consensus on these aspects has been achieved, the regulatory consequences vary considerably from one German state government to the other. FAO/WHO have not been able to arrive at a satisfactory supranational recommendation of a tolerable intake for PCB.     

Occupational hygiene in production and use of multicomponent metal compounds

The article deals with results obtained in hygienic evaluation of production and application of new monocrystalline compounds based on cesium, sodium, iodine, lead, scandium, fluorine. The evaluation covered work conditions and health state of those engaged into production of monocrystalline compounds, revealed the main occupational hazards. The experiments determined fundamental toxicometric parameters, studied characteristics of general toxic and specific effects induced by lead fluoride and cesium iodine. The results formed basis for sanitary measures, establishment of MACs for 4 monocrystalline compounds in the air of workplace.     

The risk of splenectomy

BACKGROUND: The controversely discussed effect of splenic loss and disturbances of the general state of health are to be reported by means of several check sheets. There is a control group for comparison and statistic evaluation. The results will be considered in relation to laboratory serum parameters. PATIENTS AND METHOD: 111 patients splenectomized for various reasons could be examined 3 to 17 years following surgery. We applied the depression check sheet by Beck, the Giessen complaint check sheet, and a specific splenectomy check sheet. The latter served to inquire an additional control group of statistic twins who underwent comparable upper abdominal surgery, but not splenectomy. Furthermore, 42 laboratory serum parameters were determined in every splenectomized patient. RESULTS: Compared to random tests with the Federal Republic's population, the Giessen complaint check sheet detected a more frequently disturbed state of health in "spleenless". An evaluation of the specific splenectomy check sheet detected an increased trend for infections after splenectomy (p = 0.0000001) compared to those after upper abdominal surgery. There was no statistical proof for other typical symptoms such as incompatibility with alcohol or vegetative dystonia. There was no significant anomaly in the 42 parameters measured. CONCLUSION: Every other splenectomized patient complained about frequent infections and, consequently, disturbed state of health (physical weakness, early exhaustion). These complaints did not correlate to the measured laboratory serum parameters.     

The family, the courts, and mental health professionals.

Discusses the different facets of the role of mental health professionals (MHPs) in the legal system. The MHP's role in the family court is compared with that in the criminal court. In the family court, MHPs generally deal in crisis intervention, evaluation, and referral for treatment. Involuntary civil commitment and child abuse are also major issues. MHPs are called on to intervene in divorce and child custody proceedings. Some state legislatures have mandated the employment of MHPs in mental health clinics attached to the courts. (0 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The nurse as first assistant

The article covers epidemiologic analysis of medical staff health state, epidemiologic evaluation of biologic factor's influence (degree and character of) on clinical staff, detection of principal risk factors for being infected. The aim is to create a supervision system and to elaborate effective measures for occupational risk prevention in medical personnel. Organizing a goal-seeking and effective system for occupational risk prevention and health care in medical staff, one should consider specificity in each medical establishment and in each occupational task.     

Evaluations of trial competency and mental state at time of offense: Report characteristics.

Despite the dramatic increase in conceptual and empirical attention to forensic mental health assessment that has occurred within the last 10 yrs, there is little published research on the normative characteristics of such evaluations. In the present study, a total of 277 reports describing evaluations of competency to stand trial and/or mental state at the time of the offense, based on evaluations performed in either a Florida forensic hospital (n?=?167) or in various communities in Florida (n?=?110), were rated to determine relevant characteristics of examiners and evaluation procedures. Comparisons between reports are made by site (hospital vs community), discipline (psychiatrists vs psychologists), and legal issues (trial competency vs mental state at the time of the offense vs both issues). Implications for the practice of forensic mental health assessment and further research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Revising sanitary norms of microclimate in industrial accommodations]

The article outlines new edition of a project "Sanitary norms of microclimate in industrial compartments". Up-to-date scientific data, results of studies concerning human heat state in experimental and industrial conditions, evaluation of the workers' health state helped to modify optimal and allowable parameters of microclimate, to rectify requirements for measurement conditions and measuring devices. When the recommended temperature could not be maintained, the duration of work in such conditions should be limited for prevention of overheating and overcooling. To examine prophylactic measures against overheating, the authors suggested an integral characteristic of heating environmental load (TNS-index) and set its safe values.     

Equality, public policy, and professional psychology.

Views psychologists as having substantial roles to play in the advocacy, development, and implementation of federal, state, and local policies that promote equality. Research, evaluation, education, and consultation are considered important components of strategies that professional psychologists can use to effect change. Specifically, the roles of psychologists in formulating public health care practices and in understanding the impact of child care services are discussed. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

State authority, medical dominance, and trends in the regulation of the health professions: the Ontario case

The relationships amongst the health professions and between them and the state are rapidly changing. I argue that analysis of these relationships has to take into consideration: the fact that medicine played an intermediary role (through medical dominance in health care) between the state and the other health occupations; the permeability of the boundaries of the state and the professions; and the dual nature of professional organizations (as sites of intra-occupational conflict and as possible vehicles of extra-occupational control). In Ontario the medical profession partially 'mediated' the relationships between 'non-physician' health occupations and the state through medical control over other health care occupations. National/provincial health insurance brought the state into the health care system as an actor and forced a reconsideration of its relationships with medicine and with the other health care occupations. The state came to be directly involved in 'rationalizing' health care. This involvement meant curbing the power of medicine and modifying the relationships between medicine and the para-medical occupations. State influence is partly constructed through a particular kind of professional organization, namely, the professional College. These changing relationships are illustrated by historical and recent developments regarding medicine, nursing and chiropractic in Ontario.     

Properties of elastase from Atlantic cod, a cold-adapted proteinase

Examining the effects of Oregon's statutory reform excluding personality disordered individuals from the insanity defense, we previously identified a study sample of insanity acquittees, each of whom was given a primary diagnosis of a personality disorder during subsequent evaluation at the state hospital. In the present study we explore the relationship between that diagnosis and the pretrial psychiatric diagnosis presented to the trial court. By reading the forensic mental health evaluations used at trial we found that 50 percent of our study sample of 34 personality disordered patients were diagnosed with psychotic disorders, affective disorders, retardation, and organic brain disorders. In addition to investigating the diagnosis offered as evidence at trial, we performed assessments of 38 mental health reports using published standards for forensic evaluation reports. We found compliance rates in the various categories ranged from 8 to 84 percent with a mean of 45 percent. We question the value of the mental health input to these trials, and believe that the data tend to validate past aspersions of forensic practice.     

Preoperative evaluation of children

Preoperative evaluation and preparation are directed toward minimizing the intrinsic risks of anesthesia and surgery by having the child in the healthiest possible condition prior to surgery. The pediatrician can contribute to this goal by understanding the effects of general anesthesia on the physiology of children. This knowledge allows an appreciation of the anesthesiologists' concerns regarding underlying diseases, which may seem "stable" (and, therefore, of little present concern to the pediatrician) but which may have grave consequences during anesthesia. The preoperative evaluation is designed to ensure that the child's preoperative needs may be met by providing the anesthesiologist both qualitative and quantitative information regarding the child's state of health and disease. The relationship between the child, parents, and pediatrician places the pediatrician in an ideal position to prepare families for their children's surgical experience.     

Evaluating quality and effectiveness in the promotion of health: approaches and methods of public health and social sciences

Health promotion and health education have often been limited to evaluation of the effectiveness of actions and programmes. However, since 1996 with the Third European Conference on Health Promotion and Education Effectiveness, many researchers have become interested in "quality assessment" and new ways of thinking have emerged. Quality assurance is a concept and activity developed in industry with the objective of increasing production efficiency. There are two distinct approaches: External Standard Inspection (ESI) and Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI). ESI involves establishing criteria of quality, evaluating them and improving whatever needs improvement. CQI views the activity or service as a process and includes the quality assessment as part of the process. This article attempts to answer the questions of whether these methods are sufficient and suitable for operationalising the concepts of evaluation, effectiveness and quality in health promotion and education, whether it is necessary to complement them with other methods, and whether the ESI approach is appropriate. The first section of the article explains that health promotion is based on various paradigms from epidemiology to psychology and anthropology. Many authors warn against the exclusive use of public health disciplines for understanding, implementing and evaluating health promotion. The author argues that in practice, health promotion: -integrates preventive actions with those aiming to maintain and improve health, a characteristic which widens the actions of health promotion from those of classic public health which include essentially an epidemiological or "risk" focus; -aims to replace vertical approaches to prevention with a global approach based on educational sciences; -involves a community approach which includes the individual in a "central position of power" as much in the definition of needs as in the evaluation of services; -includes the participation and socio-political actions which necessitate the use of varied and specific instruments for action and evaluation. With the choice of health promotion ideology, there exist corresponding theories, concepts of quality, and therefore methods and techniques that differ from those used until now. The educational sciences have led to a widening of the definition of process to include both "throughput and input", which has meant that the methods of needs analysis, objective and priority setting and project development in health promotion have become objects of quality assessment. Also, the modes of action and interaction among actors are included, which has led to evaluation of ethical and ideological aspects of projects. The second section of the article discusses quality assessment versus evaluation of effectiveness. Different paradigms of evaluation such as the public health approach based on the measurement of (epidemiological) effectiveness, social marketing and communication, and the anthropological approach are briefly discussed, pointing out that there are many approaches which can both complement and contradict one another. The author explains the difference between impact (the intermediate effects, direct or indirect, planned or not planned, changes in practical or theoretical knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes) and results (final effects of mid to long term changes such as changes in morbidity, mortality, or access to services or cost of health care). He argues that by being too concerned with results of programmes, we have often ignored the issue of impact. Also, by limiting ourselves to evaluating effectiveness (i.e. that the expected effects were obtained), we ignore other possible unexpected, unplanned and positive and negative secondary effects. There are therefore many reasons to: -evaluate all possible effects rather than only those lined to objectives; -evaluate the entire process rather than only the resources, procedures and costs; -evaluate the impact rather than results; -evalu     

Evaluating psychosocial aspects of telemedicine and telehealth systems.

Telemedicine and telehealth evaluations often address the technological aspects of health care while neglecting the psychosocial implications of the technology. Currently, little is known about the meaning of telehealth care in terms of access, quality of care, or financial impact. This article focuses on the human aspects of using technology to provide mental health care and the insight that psychology can bring to the evaluation process. It discusses telehealth's impact on and interface with health care facilities, specifically in relation to training, informatics, remote consultations, patient outcomes, provider health, and professional practice. It also presents guidelines and suggestions for the implementation of a telehealth evaluation. It also presents guidelines and suggestions for the implementation of a telehealth evaluation, including evaluation design, examples of outcome-related questions that may be pertinent to telehealth evaluation, and suggestions for psychology's continuing role in telehealth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social problems of transition society and health of populations of the North of the European Russia

Dramatic changes in Russian economic life led to worse health state of population, higher children's mortality. Unfavorable influence of environmental pollution on health state is also seen in Northern regions. Governmental institutions should participate in creation of system for health care and preservation.     

Medical intervention and the interaction model of anxiety.

Employed the interaction model of anxiety to assess the state anxiety of 30 females (aged 19–55 yrs) who underwent either a diagnostic dilation and curettage or a laparoscopy in hospital. Ss were administered the Present Affect Reactions Questionnaire, S-R Inventory of General Trait Anxiousness, and Perceptions of Situations Rating Form in both a high stress condition (2 hrs prior to undergoing the medical intervention) and a low stress condition (2 days after discharge). It was predicted that ambiguous trait anxiety would correlate significantly with state anxiety changes since the high stress condition was primarily ambiguous in nature. It was also predicted that significant correlations between state anxiety changes and the noncongruent facets of trait anxiety (interpersonal, physical danger, innocuous, and social evaluation) would not occur. Results indicate that the correlation between ambiguous trait anxiety and state anxiety change scores was significant and that none of the interpersonal, innocuous, and physical danger trait anxiety correlated with state anxiety changes. The unexpected significant correlation between state anxiety changes and social evaluation trait anxiety is attributed to the minimal components of social evaluation present in the high stress condition being relatively potent determinants of state anxiety for high social evaluation trait anxiety persons. (French abstract) (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Practice, policy and parity: The politics of persistence.

The road to comprehensive mental health parity legislation at the state level often reaches a dead end when mental health advocates are forced to compromise by accepting partial parity for "severe mental illness" (SMI) only. In 1999 Connecticut became the first state to modify a biologically based or SMI mental health parity law into comprehensive mental health and substance abuse parity legislation. In this article we chronicle the fight for mental health parity in Connecticut and discuss subtleties of legislative advocacy. This information should prove useful to psychologists who are pursuing parity in other states. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A survey of master's-level staffing patterns and clinical roles.

1,157 mental health agencies were surveyed concerning the employment of master's-level clinical psychologists, and usable data were provided by 637. Numbers and proportions of staff positions, salaries, job functions performed, and training models preferred for master's-level clinicians are reported for 9 types of mental health agencies. Community mental health centers and state hospitals provided the best sources of employment. The optimal training program should prepare the student to perform group and individual therapy, psychological testing, and community mental health functions. Research skills were more important in state hospitals than in community mental health centers. (1 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Handbook of pain assessment, second edition.

Reviews the book, Handbook of pain assessment, second edition edited by Dennis C. Turk and Ronald Melzack (see record 2001-05101-000). This book is a comprehensive review of the state of the art of pain assessment. The book consists of 36 chapters organized in six major sections, an introduction and a conclusion. The sections are: measurement of pain, assessment of behavioural expressions of pain, medical and physical evaluations, psychological evaluation, specified pain states, and methodological issues. The Handbook of pain assessment should be in every university and health centre library. All health professionals and students who see patients who have pain (and that is probably all of them) should have this text readily available. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)