Utilizing a CBPR approach to assess the impact of COVID-19 on individuals who receive publicly funded behavioral health services.

The coronavirus disease pandemic has highlighted significant gaps in community mental health services, placing vulnerable individuals at greater risk for mental health and substance use difficulties via disrupting their wellness journey. Guided by a wellness framework, a needs assessment was conducted among adult consumers of behavioral health services to understand their needs during the pandemic and to help develop and strengthen service delivery strategies. A team of three university researchers and four Consumer Researchers, who receive services at a publicly funded community mental health center, engaged in a community-based participatory project in which 13 focus groups were conducted with 51 consumers. Several themes emerged from a thematic analysis of transcripts regarding consumer well-being and healthcare needs, coping strategies employed, and the accessibility, benefits, and perception of clinical and support services during the pandemic. Results highlighted strengths in service delivery and areas in need of enhancement. Findings may inform similar community services that seek to enhance delivery of care among vulnerable populations.

Stakeholders' perspectives on community-based participatory research to enhance mental health services.

Historically, consumers of mental health services have not been given meaningful roles in research and change efforts related to the services they use. This is quickly changing as scholars and a growing number of funding bodies now call for greater consumer involvement in mental health services research and improvement. Amidst these calls, community-based participatory research (CBPR) has emerged as an approach which holds unique promise for capitalizing on consumer involvement in mental health services research and change. Yet, there have been few discussions of the value added by this approach above and beyond that of traditional means of inquiry and enhancement in adult mental health services. The purpose of this paper is to add to this discussion an understanding of potential multilevel and multifaceted benefits associated with consumer-involved CBPR. This is accomplished through presenting the first-person accounts of four stakeholder groups who were part of a consumer-involved CBPR project purposed to improve the services of a local community mental health center. We present these accounts with the hope that by illustrating the unique outcomes associated with CBPR, there will be invigorated interest in CBPR as a vehicle for consumer involvement in adult mental health services research and enhancement.

Young weightlifters' performance across time.

Prestigious professional organisations have questioned the efficacy of resistive training by children or have often neglected to address weightlifting in their position papers on resistive training for children. The purpose of this paper was to address the deficit in data regarding the efficacy of training children for weightlifting and to report data regarding to safety in this population. Eleven subjects (3 female, 8 male) who had trained at the USA Weightlifting Development Centre in Shreveport Louisiana for a minimum of 22 months (mean = 28.8; SD +/- 4.4) served as subjects for this study. Means for the pool of subjects subjected to t-test to compare data obtained at each subject's initial competition with that obtained at the individual's most recent competition revealed significant positive changes in body weight, snatch weight, clean and jerk weight, and total weight lifted. The latter three were significant both in absolute weight and in weight lifted per kg of body weight. Total weight lifted at competitions plotted separately for boys and for girls across time indicated an apparently steeper slope of improvement for boys. The latter were not tested for significance because of the small sample sizes. The lack of injury in training and in 534 competitive lifts was discussed. None required medical attention or loss of training time. It was concluded that there can be no doubt regarding the efficacy of weightlifting as carried out at the USA Weightlifting Development Centre. The importance of proper application of scientific theory of conditioning in a conservative manner for this population was emphasised.