This chapter focuses on women, who are HIV positive, from a global perspective. It illustrates more easily what makes groups of people, and in this case women, vulnerable and then consider vulnerability from a global health (GH) perspective using the chronic illness, HIV. The chapter presents some examples of situations that make women vulnerable to HIV and, once infected, vulnerable for life, and use a case-based approach to highlight women as a vulnerable population. It also focuses on the real ethical issues that occurred with each case, which one anticipate will help prepare the new GH nurse for practice in the global environment. The chapter demonstrates by using an exemplar of HIV-positive women, vulnerable populations exist both within and outside the United States. Reasons for vulnerability may include stigma, victimization, mental illness, migration, limited access to needed health care or food, or substance use.

Divorce is a lengthy developmental process and, in the case of children and adolescents, one that can encompass most of their young lives. This chapter explores the experience of divorce from the perspective of the children, reviews the evidence base and empirical support for interventions. It provides examples of three evidence-based intervention programs, namely, Children in Between, Children of Divorce Intervention Program (CODIP), and New Beginnings, appropriate for use with children, adolescents, and their parents. Promoting protective factors and limiting risk factors during childhood and adolescence can prevent many mental, emotional, and behavioral problems and disorders during those years and into adulthood. The Children in Between program is listed on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices. The CODIP and the New Beginnings program are also listed on the SAMHSA National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices.

This chapter reviews the empirical support for such a multifaceted approach by considering selected neurodevelopmental concerns and medical variables that present as obstacles to healthy neurodevelopment. It discusses select neuro-developmental prenatal complications that can be prevented or ameliorated through behavioral interventions with the pregnant mother. The chapter addresses the deleterious effects of legal substances on the developing fetus, but professionals should be vigilant about preventing or reducing intrauterine exposure to illicit substances as well. Tobacco is a legal substance that, when used during pregnancy, has the potential to harm both the mother and fetus. Of particular concern with tobacco use are the detrimental health risks, such as hypertension and diabetes, which adversely affect the cerebrovascular functioning of pregnant women. The process of neurodevelopment is complex and represents a dynamic interplay among genetics, behavior, demographics, the environment, psychosocial factors, and myriad physiological factors.

The purpose of the life histories is to introduce doctoral students to a methodology that is not usually covered in qualitative texts but that has applicability to the study of nursing phenomena. Three doctoral students conducted abbreviated life history interviews as a class assignment for their course on qualitative methods. Their interviews were part of a larger study by de Chesnay on successfully overcoming adversity, for which she obtained institutional review board (IRB) approval from the university. The first publication was a set of life histories with successful African American adults. The second publication was a series of life histories conducted by master’s degree students on clinical topics related to their interests. These topics were surviving colostomy surgery, multiple sclerosis, and bereavement. The third publication involved undergraduate nursing students who interviewed affluent adolescents about their experiences of substance abuse.

This chapter explains the theoretical basis for motivational interviewing (MI). It reviews the empirical evidence for the use of MI with diverse populations in forensic settings. MI involves attention to the language of change, and is designed to strengthen personal motivation and commitment to a specific goal by eliciting and exploring the person’s own reasons for change within an atmosphere of acceptance and compassion. It is now internationally recognized as an evidence-based practice intervention for alcohol and drug problems. MI involves an underlying spirit made up of partnership, acceptance, compassion, and evocation. The chapter discusses four key processes involved in MI: engaging, focusing, evoking, and planning. It also describes five key communication microskills used throughout MI: asking open-ended questions, providing affirmations, offering summarizing statements, providing information and advice with permission, and reflective statements.

The baby boom cohort brings with it multiple types of substance abuse. Bisexual older adults have more co-occurring psychological problems than heterosexual older adults, older gay males, and older lesbians. An interesting finding is that immigration is contributory to older adult substance abuse. Older adults with alcohol-abuse problems do not seek help for their problems. Rather, they are often identified as having an alcohol-use problem when seeking care for other medical or psychological problems. Social workers assessing an older adult for alcohol abuse often confuse symptoms of possible alcohol abuse with dementia. Prescribing opioids and synthetic opioids to an older adult is complicated. An older adult can suffer from many forms of inner tension. Combining motivational interviewing with cognitive behavioral therapy is shown to be more effective for treating substance abuse that either therapeutic modality alone.

As in the non-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, gender and sexual minority (GSM) individuals who are also members of one or more racial/ethnic minority populations face unique sociocultural dynamics that impact the ability to achieve and maintain health. This chapter describes the literature that has examined racial/ethnic disparities in a variety of outcomes, and describes what is known regarding the actual impact of intersectionality whenever possible. Reflective of the current literature, the chapter centers on the African American and Hispanic sexual minority male population, HIV, substance use, and mental health as outcomes. It begins with an exploration of barriers to health that reach across outcomes and populations and discusses four specific outcomes with more developed bodies of literature (HIV/sexual health, substance use, mental health/suicide, and victimization). Finally the chapter summarizes the initial evidence from three emerging lines of inquiry (chronic conditions, incarceration, and women’s health).

Rural America may seem an unlikely setting for new trends in substance abuse. This chapter compares rural and urban areas and the rural continuum for prevalence of substance use and abuse, efforts to prevent substance abuse, treatment availability and accessibility, and continuing care and long-term support for abstinence. It also presents models of service delivery that address resource limitations common to rural areas. Van Gundy also found that substance abuse rates vary across racial and ethnic groups, though rates differ when socioeconomic status and other factors are considered. Nonmedical use of prescription drugs is a growing national problem and one that heavily impacts rural areas. Societal effects include the strain and economic costs absorbed by emergency rooms, treatment agencies, social service agencies, and the legal and criminal justice systems in coping with the consequences of meth abuse. Treatment models with relevance for rural providers address the shortcomings of existing services.

In the therapeutic community (TC), recovery is viewed as a change in lifestyle and identity. It is a view that can be contrasted with the conventional concept of recovery in medicine, mental health, and other substance abuse treatment approaches. In the public health experience of treating opioid addiction and alcoholism, drug abuse is viewed as a chronic disease, which focuses treatment strategies and goals on improvement rather than recovery or cure. The TC view of recovery extends much beyond achieving or maintaining abstinence to encompass lifestyle and identity change. This chapter outlines this expanded view of recovery and details the goals and assumptions of the recovery process. It presents the TC view of right living, which summarizes the community teachings guiding recovery during and after treatment. The terms “habilitation” and “rehabilitation” distinguish between building or rebuilding lifestyles for different groups of substance abusers in TCs.

Therapeutic communities (TCs) are designed to enhance the residents’ experience of community within the residence. This chapter explores how the physical environment of the TC, its setting, facilities, and inner environment, can contribute to this perception and affiliation with community. Its separateness from the outside community in addition to its living spaces, furnishings, and décor are all utilized to promote affiliation, a sense of order, safety, and right living. TCs for the treatment of addiction are located in a variety of settings, which may be determined by funding sources and the external resistance to or acceptance of rehabilitation programs. Within the context of the TC perspective, privacy is considered an earned privilege based on the individual’s social and psychological growth. There are four physical features of the inner environment that instantly identify what is unique about a TC program: the front desk, the structure board, wall signs, and decorative artifacts.