The use of frequency-based criteria to detect harmful substance use in adolescents is rare despite its potential to identify young people at risk. We compared high school students who use high amounts of substances to students with lower levels (or nil) of use across health and well-being indicators to explore the feasibility of this kind of…

Health care systems worldwide are experiencing similar pressures such as rising cost, aging populations, and increased burden of disease. While policy makers in all countries face these challenges, their responses must consider local pressures, particularly the implicit social contract between the state, medicine, and insurers. We argue that…

Community participation in program decision-making and implementation is an ideal that community and academic stakeholders aspire to in participatory research. This ideal, however, can be difficult to achieve. We describe lessons learned about community participation from a quasi-experimental trial aimed at reducing the uptake of smoking among…

A therapeutic play program in New Zealand aims to provide an environment that helps children cope with the stress of being in a hospital. A relatively new aspect of child health care in New Zealand, the therapeutic play program is a preventive mental health program that differs from play therapy, which is intervention for children who have an…