Planning, implementing, and evaluating an effective community health program requires a basic understanding of the dynamics and precedents that affect such programs. A community health program's general goal is to assist individuals and communities in identifying and meeting their health problems. In order to accomplish this goal the American…

Individuals with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) or AIDS-related conditions (ARC) need continual care and support, at a level which can severely tax the health resources of a community. Public health nursing should have a central role in the effective and efficient response to this devastating problem. Since the early stages of the AIDS…

An indication of the failure of the mental health system in this country is reflected in the increasingly visible homeless population, many of whom suffer from some form of untreated mental illness. Public policy priorities have shifted from proactive, treatment-oriented policies to reactive, punitive institutionalization. The…

The following issues are addressed in this paper: (1) blacks are significantly dependent on public general hospitals for their medical care; (2) public hospitals represent an important community resource to the black community; (3) there are a number of forces at work on public general hospitals to either close or to significantly reduce the…

The health of urban America, particularly that of minority citizens who live in urban America, is so poor in comparison to that of the rest of our nation's citizens that it constitutes a national disgrace and an embarrassment. (Author/MW)

Many health and development programs have been initiated for the rural poor in the world, but few have achieved as strong an association with the cultural values of the people as has Dr. Carroll Behrhorst's work in Guatemala. The two major communication thrusts of his health programs are education of the native population, emphasizing…

Proceeding from the implicit message promoted by the National Cancer Institute to the communication profession--expertise in health communication is central to the effort to alleviate the costs of the national burden placed on the economy because of cancer--this paper proposes the development of health communication as a career. Specifically, the…

A plea for the improvement of mental health services for children is presented in this paper, which claims that children's needs in general are not adequately recognized. Quoting from a report of the Joint Commission on Mental Health of Children, the paper cites growing concern over the number of mentally ill and emotionally disturbed children in…

Infanticide in the United States today usually happens in the hospital. Occasionally, handicapped infants are killed by a direct act, but more often infanticide is accomplished by withholding something (for example, food, medication, surgery) that babies need to survive. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Baby Doe regulations of May 1982, and the…

The behavioral and social sciences offer the best perspective on changing individual and group behaviors and stopping the spread of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Social psychologists interested in basic research and/or theoretical issues have an opportunity to study naturally occurring independent variables. A potential area for…

A culmination of the efforts of many Indian and concerned non-Indian people, the conference, attended by almost 1,500 American Indians and Alaska Natives representing 171 tribes, aimed to promote effective and adequate services needed by the Indian elderly. Based on input from the Indian community and service providers, five concurrent workshops…