This book presents a research-driven, competency-based approach for the health and human service professionals who work with older rural residents. It discusses both the problems facing older adults and their families and evidence-based solutions regarding policy and best practices. The book contains 13 chapters, organized into five parts. The first part provides an introduction to aging in rural places, including the overwhelming task of defining what is meant by “rural” and presenting demographics, descriptions, and the diversity of rural communities. It offers a picture of persons aging in rural areas, including their challenges and strengths, with special consideration for social and ethnic minorities within this population. Whereas the second part focuses on the health status and the specific health and human service needs and opportunities of rural older adults and their focuses on needs and opportunities, the third part moves toward addressing these issues with health and human services available to rural older adults and their families. The fourth part examines the role of health and human service professionals who work with rural older adults and their families in these programs and services, with attention to interdisciplinary practice and professional competency. In addition to the aforementioned content, the book offers several unique features, including the following: case examples, professional competencies, useful websites, suggested activities and exercises, discussion questions, PowerPoint slides, and instructors manual with test question bank.

This book is a “how-to” guide that describes the problem-solving method in detail. It provides an overview of the method, and step-by-step instructions, tips, tools, activities, and cases to facilitate practicing and learning the problem-solving method. The problem-solving method comprises of three phases, each of which has several steps namely how to define the problem, how to study the problem, and how to decide upon and implement the best course of action to resolve the problem. It imposes a logical thought process that builds leadership competencies in accurately and effectively defining problems, especially around very complex organizational issues that may involve multiple root causes, and supports arriving at recommendations that get implemented and actually solve the problem at hand. The book is especially useful in supporting experiential learning and coaching for students and professionals early in their careers—specifically providing a problem-solving method and tools for students, student teams, and early careerists working with healthcare organizations on consulting projects, or on projects as an administrative intern, resident, or fellow. It assists in facilitating teaching a structured approach to problem-solving and decision-making in undergraduate or graduate level case study, experiential learning, problem-solving and management decision-making courses. The book also supports teaching leadership and problem-solving skills in early careerist leadership training programs within organizations. It will be instructive for organizations that wish to enhance the problem-solving and decision making skills of its workforce more broadly. Organizations who adopt the text as part of their administrative fellowship development programs will find benefit in using the Problem-Solving Method as a structured approach to support the success of fellows in developing their ability to excel on their assigned organizational projects.

One of the historical pillars of rehabilitation counseling has been the use of assessment throughout the rehabilitation process. With this historical emphasis, it is not surprising that the focus on assessment and the methods and techniques used have changed and evolved. As a result, students, practitioners, and researchers are on a constant quest for updated and current information to guide and inform practice, policy, and research. This constant quest for updated and comprehensive information is directly relevant to the assessment of individuals typically served by rehabilitation and mental health practitioners and is the focus of this book. To date, there has not been a book that has been able to provide a comprehensive discussion of topics applicable to service delivery across both setting. This book attempts to fill this gap. One factor that guided the development of this book was the authors’ goal to provide both the foundational information necessary to understand and plan the assessment process and combine this material with information that is applicable to specific population and service delivery settings. To achieve this goal, each of the chapters is written by leaders in the field who have specialized knowledge regarding the chapter content. The chapters provide practical hands on information that allows for easy incorporation of the material to rehabilitation and mental health practice. To further strengthen practical application, case studies and templates have been incorporated where applicable to highlight specific key aspects to promote application to service delivery. Second, this is the first assessment book to be developed after the Council on Rehabilitation Counselor Education and Council on the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Programs merger. Finally, the authors hope that the readers of this book can apply this information to enhance the overall quality of life of the individuals they work with, especially individuals with disabilities.

This book is intended to introduce the exciting, challenging, stimulating, and inspiring world of behavioral intervention research. It is about the science and state-of-the-art practices in designing, evaluating, and then translating, implementing, and disseminating novel behavioral interventions for maximum impact on the health and well-being of individuals, families, and their communities. Each chapter tackles critical considerations in behavioral intervention research. The approach is to be as broad and inclusive as possible of the many nuances, intricacies, and issues in this form of inquiry. The book covers a wide range of topics including examining the heart of the matter or strategies for developing behavioral interventions including the pipeline for advancing interventions, the role of theory, intervention delivery characteristics, standardizing treatments, and use of technology. This is followed by evaluative considerations including selecting control groups; identifying recruitment, retention, and fidelity strategies; using mixed methodologies; and ethical challenges. Then the book examines outcome measures and analytic considerations including economic evaluations for maximizing the yield of trial data, and how implementation science can inform the development and advancement of behavioral interventions. Finally, the book explores a host of professional issues unique to this form of inquiry including challenges in staffing behavioral interventionist studies, how to obtain funding for developing and evaluating an intervention, and what, when, and where to publish. Case examples from successful behavioral intervention trials are used throughout each chapter to illustrate key concepts.

The purpose of this book is to make R readily accessible, on a hands-on level, to all future epidemiologists for research, data processing, and presentation. The book is essentially about learning R with an emphasis on applications to epidemiology, public health, and preventive medicine. The book is systematically organized into seven chapters, each with a number of main sections covering the spectrum of applicable R codes for biostatistical applications in epidemiology and public health. It first introduces interactional relationships among medicine, preventive medicine, public health, epidemiology, and biostatistics in general, as well as special concepts that have been (and are being) developed to address quantitative problems in epidemiology and public health in particular. A review of the basic elements in the theory of probability is presented to introduce or reinforce readers’ ability to handle this important basic concept. Then, the book covers simple data handling using R programming and presents the graphics capabilities available in R. Following these initial forays into R, the book gives an overview of the theory of probability and mathematical statistics, which is necessary because both of these areas have become integral parts of biostatistical applications in epidemiology. Finally, the book shows how R may be effectively used to handle classical problems in case-control studies and cohort investigations in epidemiology. Similarly, survival analysis, the backbone of much epidemiologic research, finds excellent support in the R environment.

An understanding of biostatistics is necessary for reading and comprehending published literature, for performing retrospective research, and for designing and analyzing prospective clinical trials. Biostatistical concepts are also tested on oncology board exams. This book is organized into four sections covering 13 chapters. Section I begins with the basic foundations of biostatistics that are tested on board exams such as summarizing and graphing data, sampling, and statistical estimation. In Section II, these basics are then expanded on to include the concepts used in retrospective study design, analysis, and interpretation. It discusses hypothesis testing, correlation, regression, categorical data analysis, survival analysis methods, and noninferiority analysis. Section III focuses on prospective clinical trials, guiding readers in their understanding of published clinical trials and in the design and analysis of novel clinical trials. It describes cohort studies, case-control studies, cross-sectional studies, matched studies, analysis of studies, and sample size. The final section presents self-study multiple choice questions with answers and rationales.

Integral to the growth of radiation oncology over the past 110 years has been the rise and fall of various types of brachytherapy, often in a reciprocal manner to the changes in external beam radiation therapy technology. This book serves to update practitioners and students on the latest developments in brachytherapy by assembling the literature, describing techniques, and illustrating these with actual clinical examples. It should be a practical source to clinical teams answering two basic questions: why and how. Ten clinical disease site chapters are preceded by chapters on the history, practical radiobiology, practical physics considerations. Chapter 2 starts with a very clear explanation of the basics of this subject, through the explanation of radiobiologic equivalence, to the four Rs of radiobiology: repair, repopulation, reoxygenation, and reassortment. Starting off with the needs for personnel, imaging equipment, and treatment planning, the third chapter goes on to cover the facilities and equipment, written procedures, the Quality Management Program, calibration, and emergency contingencies. Chapters 4 to 12 are on clinical disease sites and talk about genitourinary brachytherapy, gynecologic brachytherapy, breast brachytherapy, thoracic brachytherapy, skin brachytherapy, head and neck brachytherapy, central nervous system brachytherapy, gastrointestinal brachytherapy, soft tissue sarcoma brachytherapy, pediatric brachytherapy, and vascular brachytherapy. The final chapter deals with on organizational practical considerations.

This book provides a state-of-the-art overview of the principles of cancer care and best practices for restoring function and quality of life to cancer survivors. Cancer rehabilitation interventions including physical, occupational, or speech therapy; exercise training; psychosocial and cognitive interventions; and physician-directed diagnostic imaging, injections, and pharmacologic symptom management have the potential to treat many impairments from cancer treatment, thereby improving functioning and quality of life. Multimodal rehabilitation interventions have also been shown to improve return to work compared to usual care. The chapters of the book review the latest evidence about which interventions should be used to treat specific impairments thereby constituting the most comprehensive and up-to-date reference on this topic. The book is organized into nine parts comprising 90 chapters. Part one presents history of cancer rehabilitation, cancer statistics, and principles of cancer care. Part two discusses various cancer types, which includes breast cancer, gastrointestinal malignancies, head and neck cancer, pediatric cancers, and primary bone tumors and their assessment and management. Parts three through six describe cancer pain, medical complications, neurological and neuromuscular complications, and musculoskeletal complications of cancer such as radiculopathy, plexopathy, autonomic dysfunction, and bone metastases and their management. Part seven discusses general topics related to cancer rehabilitation, which includes physical and occupational therapy, therapeutic modalities in cancer, therapeutic exercise in cancer, nutritional care of the cancer patient, sexuality issues, and distress and other psychiatric considerations in cancer rehabilitation. Part eight thoroughly explores the identification, evaluation, and treatment of specific impairments and disabilities that result from cancer and the treatment of cancer such as balance and gait dysfunction, cancer related fatigue, radiation fibrosis syndrome, and bowel dysfunction. Part nine discusses functional measurement in patients with cancer, health maintenance and screening in cancer survivors, research issues, barriers to accessing cancer rehabilitation, and building a cancer rehabilitation program.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) is the result of the first significant revision of the publication DSM-IV in 1994. With advances in research and clinical applications, modifications were needed to accurately frame client symptom presentation and reflect the changes and advances in science and technology. The collection of cases presented in the book has been compiled from seasoned clinicians that have experienced complex client symptomology. These cases illustrate real world examples of actual clients seen in practice. The details of the cases are organized to provide readers with examples of case conceptualization examples, as well as, diagnostic impressions, conclusions, and treatment recommendations. The book provides a practical and realistic way for students in such mental health professions as clinical psychology, counseling psychology, counseling, and social work to put the new DSM-5 into practice by presenting actual clinical experiences from practitioners. By exploring detailed clinical vignettes, this text offers trainees the opportunity to explore their own ideas on symptom presentation, diagnosis, and treatment planning with a full range of disorders and conditions covered in the DSM-5. The book provides vignettes, but also explores the rationale behind diagnostic criteria and connects diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5 with symptomology in the case. In addition, each case includes a discussion of treatment interventions that is crucial for students in helping professions. These treatment considerations are inclusive of a wide range of evidence-based approaches as appropriate for each case. Techniques/treatment recommendation section will allow the reader to understand how colleagues have conceptualized the case and how specific interventions have been effective in treatment. The goal is for students to enhance their case conceptualization skills and sharpen their ability to understand symptom presentation in light of diagnosing.

This book provides the ultimate resource for all students and practitioners seeking the professional credential and committed to lifelong learning and career growth in public health. Chapters are organized by all ten core competency domain areas, beginning with Evidence-Based Approaches to Public Health and including chapters on Communication, Leadership, Law and Ethics, Public Health Biology and Human Disease Risk, Collaboration and Partnerships, Program Planning and Evaluation, Program Management, and Policy in Public Health, before concluding with Health Equity and Social Justice. Covering over 150 topic areas, each chapter introduces the core objectives of each domain area to frame the goals of the CPH exam and highlight the complete content outline featured on the exam. Chapters include the fundamental information public health professionals must learn to be effective workers in the field followed by approximately 600 practice questions with detailed rationales for correct answers at the end of each chapter. Using this method, the number of practice questions are divided equally among each domain area for comprehensive study and exam preparation. Written by a CPH certified educational leader in public health and containing over three exams’ worth of questions, this book is the most useful and thorough exam review resource on the market, great for on-the-go study and preparation.