Building Capacity Among Laity: A Faith-Based Health Ministry Initiative

A systematic review of topic-specific faith-based health programs determined that health outcomes can be improved though faith-based health interventions. A university research team, in partnership with the Kansas United Methodist Church and a United Methodist philanthropy, facilitated planning and development of a statewide initiative to increase the capacity of laity-led health ministry teams. The purpose of this paper is to describe the processes utilized to design and implement an initiative to increase capacity for laity-led comprehensive health ministry among Kansas United Methodist Church congregations and to share the key elements of the initiative.     

Comparing Live and Video Observation to Assess Early Parent-child Interactions in the Home

Observation is the ‘gold standard’ for assessing parent-child behavior, however few studies have compared coding live, in real time, versus coding from videotapes in terms of their achievable levels of coder reliability within the field of parent programme research. This is important for practitioners and researchers for whom decisions might be influenced by time and financial constraints, but where outcomes may have real practical and clinical implications. Trained coders in the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System Revised, coded 40 half-hour videotapes of 33 parent-toddler dyads interacting in the home on 29 items of dyadic behaviour. Four theorised composite variables were constructed. Videotaped data were compared to data drawn from the same interactions previously coded ‘live’ in the home. Correlations indicated significant agreement between the two modes at the item by item level (p?<?.001). Wilcoxon Rank tests revealed significant differences (p?<?.001) between the two modes. Eight items exceeded a ±30% change in median score suggesting clinically relevant differences. Although both methods achieved acceptable levels of inter-rater reliability, video coding achieved higher levels of agreement. Subtle differences exist between the two modes. Whilst neither mode proved superior it is suggested that they should not be used interchangeably.     

Genetic Counseling for Early-onset Familial Alzheimer Disease in Large Aboriginal Kindred from a Remote Community in British Columbia: Unique Challenges and Possible Solutions

A novel, pathogenic presenilin 1 (PS1) mutation has recently been identified in a large Aboriginal kindred living in dispersed communities throughout British Columbia, Canada. Disseminating genetic information and ensuring that appropriate genetic counseling services are provided to all concerned relatives have posed several unique challenges. These challenges include knowledge exchange and continuity of care in a geographically remote and culturally distinct community. To our knowledge, this is the first time a specific genetic counseling approach has been needed for early-onset familial Alzheimer disease (EOFAD) in a North American Aboriginal community.     

An ethics perspective on transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and human neuromodulation

This paper concerns the ethics of human neuromodulation using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). We examine the challenges of modulating the brain with TMS through the research ethics lens and in clinical medicine for treating frank pathology, primarily in psychiatric diseases. We also consider contemporary issues raised in the neuroethics literature about managing unexpected findings, and relate these to TMS and to other frontier neurotechnology that is becoming openly available in the public domain. We argue that safety and informed consent are of paramount importance for TMS, but that personal values and sociocultural factors must also be considered when examining the promise of this technology and applications that ought to be highlighted for extra precautions.     

Young children make scale errors when playing with dolls

Prior research (DeLoache, Uttal & Rosengren, 2004) has documented that 18- to 30-month-olds occasionally make scale errors: they attempt to fit their bodies into or onto miniature objects (e.g. a chair) that are far too small for them. The current study explores whether scale errors are limited to actions that directly involve the child's body. We investigated whether children would also make scale errors with a doll and objects that were much too small for the doll (e.g. a chair, a bed). Many participants did try to fit the doll into or onto the miniature objects. Thus, the previously documented phenomenon of scale errors extends to situations in which the relevant size difference is between two objects. This finding supports the view that scale errors occur when visual information about object size fails to influence the decision to act on an object. The results are discussed in terms of the use of visual information for the planning and control of actions.     

Writing about patients: I. Ways of protecting confidentiality and analysts' conflicts over choice of method

Thirty American psychoanalysts who have published articles using clinical material from their patients were interviewed about their method for ensuring confidentiality. Almost twice as many analysts chose to disguise material as regularly requested permission for the use of patients' material. The other analysts in the sample varied their approach, depending on circumstances, between using disguise alone and using disguise but also requesting consent. Methods of disguise, the timing of request for permission in relation to the phase of analysis, and changes in analysts' ideas about the benefits and detrimental effects of these choices are discussed and illustrated. Each decision is reconsidered in light of its potential effect on patients and their analysis. The dilemma posed by the importance of writing about patients for the health and growth of psychoanalysis as a field and the potential negative consequences for patients and their analyses is considered.     

Patients reading about themselves: a stimulus to psychoanalytic work

Patients' reading of their psychoanalysts' papers about them as a vehicle for psychoanalytic work is a relatively new phenomenon in the field. Over the past five years, reports of analysts' employment of their writing in this fashion have begun to appear in the analytic literature. This paper presents clinical illustrations of this specific use of analysts' writing. These illustrations were drawn from interviews with analysts who published clinical articles in Psychoanalytic Dialogues between 1995 and 2003. The author considers some of the clinical and scientific implications of this use of papers written for publication.     

"Frog, where are you?" Narratives in children with specific language impairment, early focal brain injury, and Williams syndrome

In this cross-population study, we use narratives as a context to investigate language development in children from 4 to 12 years of age from three experimental groups: children with early unilateral focal brain damage (FL; N=52); children with specific language impairment (SLI; N=44); children with Williams syndrome (WMS; N=36), and typically developing controls. We compare the developmental trajectories of these groups in the following domains: morphological errors, use of complex syntax, complexity of narrative structure, and types and frequency of evaluative devices. For the children with early unilateral brain damage, there is initial delay. However, by age 10, they are generally within the normal range of performance for all narrative measures. Interestingly, there are few, if any, side specific differences. Children with SLI, who have no frank neurological damage and show no cognitive impairment demonstrate significantly more delay on all morphosyntactic measures than the FL group. Quantitatively, on morphosyntactic measures, the SLI group clusters with those children with WMS who are moderately retarded. Together these data help us to understand the extent and nature of brain plasticity for language development and those aspects of language and discourse that are dissociable.