Publications, College of Public Health
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Browsing Publications, College of Public Health by Subject "Disability"
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Item Designing Accessible Managed Care Services for People with Physical Disabilities: Consumer Suggestions Within an Emergent Design Process(2004) Wolf-Branigin, Michael; LeRoy, BarbaraPersons with physical disabilities have difficulty accessing health care. This has become more pronounced with the emergence of managed care and other efforts to limit growing healthcare costs. In responding to a state's Medicaid office interest in designing accessible health services, a consumer-based evaluation including a series of nine focus groups (96 participants) was conducted using an emergent design method. Our inductive analysis approach identified difficulties and provided the basis for recommending strategies to improve access. Two sets of consumer recommended strategies consistently were expressed during this process: (1) initiating one-to-one advocacy to improve local service coordination and (2) performing person-centered planning at enrollment in a managed care plan to facilitate appropriate and prompt access. These access strategies formed the basis for a later intervention design.Item Disability and Abuse in Relation to Substance Abuse: A Descriptive Analysis(2007) Wolf-Branigin, MichaelThis analysis reviewed five years of a state’s substance abuse treatment admissions and discharges in order to identify specific patterns among persons who had a disability. Using a series of group comparisons, Chi-squares, and logistic regressions, specific patterns of violence and abuse to this population were identified. Results indicate that persons who had a disability and abused substances were more likely to be victimized by physical abuse and domestic violence when compared with their peers without a disability. A person with a disability had about one-half to one-third the odds of receiving long-term residential, short-term residential and intensive outpatient care when compared with persons without a disability.Item Improving Quality of Life and Career Attitudes of Youth With Disabilities: Experiences From the Adolescent Employment Readiness Center(2007) Wolf-Branigin, Michael; Schuyler, Vincent; White, PatienceImproving quality of life is the primary focus as adolescents with disabilities enter adulthood. They increasingly, however, encounter difficulties transitioning into domains such as employment as these services occur near the end of their high school experience. Using an ecosystems model within a developmental approach, the program sought to improve the likelihood that adolescents will find and maintain meaningful employment as adults. The authors measured physical health, psychosocial functioning, and attitude toward employment of adolescents participating in the program during a 2-year period. Physical health, school functioning, and total functioning improved dur¬ ing the 2 years. Career attitudes were above the norms in earlier grades but fell in later grades. This suggests the need for early and continued intervention.Item Self-Organization in Housing Choices of Persons with Disabilities(2006) Wolf-Branigin, MichaelComplexity theory provides a promising exploratory framework for demonstrating quantifiable improvements of disability interventions. This paper introduces concepts of complex systems theory and applies one particular underlying concept, self-organizing, to a program providing housing and other support services to persons with disabilities. Using this specific component of complexity theory provides a beginning point to explore how consumers and their allies made choices on where their homes would be located.