There are 28.6 million children of alcoholics in the United States; one out of every eight Americans. Many of them suffer negative physical, mental and emotional consequences as a result of parental alcoholism. Research investigations of their health status, cognitive abilities and adaptive behaviors confirm these problems although notable impediments to research efforts presently exist. Among the fruitful areas for future study are investigations which explore levels of vulnerability and risk factors for children of alcoholics in combination with genetic and psychosocial factors. Other recommendations for study as well as the major activities of the Children of Alcoholics Foundation to promote and disseminate research findings and new data are described.
The education of direct care workers (DCWs) is key to improving job quality and the quality of care in long-term care (LTC). This paper describes the successful integration of a supervisory training program into a continuing education intervention (WIN A STEP UP) for DCWs, identifies the factors that appear to influence the integration of the learning into practice, and discusses the implications for educators. The WIN A STEP UP program achieved its strongest results when the DCW curriculum was paired with Coaching Supervision. Attention to pre-training, training and post-training conditions is necessary to successfully integrate learning into practice in LTC.
A program titled "The Images Within" was implemented and evaluated in three sites on the east coast of the United States. This school curriculum uses art work developed by children of alcoholics to stimulate classroom discussions of the problems of parental alcohol abuse. The evaluation with 278 experimental and 310 control students indicated increased knowledge about the effects of alcohol and improved skills in coping with alcohol problems and help seeking behavior. Process data indicated that related programs were initiated, students were stimulated by the program and teachers were positive in their perceptions of the program. Schools implementing this program need to have developed referral networks to handle the individual concerns that are expressed as a result of participation in "The Images Within."
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