Background: Studies focusing on pathways in the criminal justice system for individuals with intellectual disability are limited in that they only study individuals once they are involved in the system and do not consider the pathways into it. The purpose of this study is to examine predisposing factors that lead to various outcomes for…

Investigated frequency of thoughts of suicides. Depression was related to respondent's reports of his/her own suicidal thoughts and to reports of frequent suicide ideation in others. Discrepancies suggest several factors which increase or decrease the likelihood that someone with thoughts of suicide will attempt suicide. (Author/BEF)

This survey of suicide prevention and crisis services around the world provides evidence of a trend toward a broadening range of services, a more active case-finding approach, greater visibility, increased integration into the community care system, and creative leadership by newer and smaller centers as well as the well-established ones. (Author)

Chronic callers (N=67) are reviewed; 51 percent were diagnosed as drug or alcohol dependent. Four were known to have committed suicide and 37 had made suicide attempts; 47 percent of the group was eventually referred to an ongoing treatment resource. Agency strategies for dealing with the chronic caller are discussed. (Author)

Examines the circumstances and characteristics of sexual assaults against adult males presenting to a crisis unit in a large metropolitan area. Most victims were young gay men, many of whom had physical or cognitive disabilities making them particularly vulnerable. Results suggest a need for increased awareness of acquaintance sexual assault in…

Describes the results of a survey on characteristics of Youthliners, adolescent peer counselors who staff a hotline service in New Zealand. (SS)

Outcome data on smoking cessation has emphasized that most people have difficulty not in quitting smoking, but in maintaining cessation. An attempt was made to develop a more meaningful typology of relapse-promoting situations using a sample of 183 exsmokers who called a telephone hotline seeking help to stay away from cigarettes. Two higher order…

Interviews with 137 primary caregivers with developmentally disabled family members (ages 2-62) on waiting lists for out-of-home placement found that caregiver stress was a significant predictor of the urgency of placement need. Behavior problems of the disabled person were almost as important. Lack of support services was correlated with…

Peak performance in the death crisis as a critical incident of creative response to the awareness of one's own or another person's death is the concern of this report. The topology of peak performance in the death crisis was examined in an investigation of retrospective self-reports of 20 adult respondents and a factor structure of peak…

A study was conducted of 217 clients with developmental disabilities and behavioral and psychiatric disorders, who had been referred for crisis intervention, to determine what factors predicted their rereferral. Factors included nonfamily residence and self-injurious behavior for those under age 30, and aggression for those over age 30. (CR)