Police officer competence in handling Alzheimer's cases: The roles of AD knowledge, beliefs, and exposure.

This study seeks to understand the level of police officer competence for providing assistance during interactions with patients of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and to reveal the roles their knowledge of AD, beliefs of AD, and previous exposure to patients with AD play in influencing these competence levels. Data were collected from police officers in two Phoenix metropolitan-area police departments through focus group discussions and survey. Four focus groups comprised of 27 police officers discussed their perceptions of AD and challenges of dealing with individuals with AD. Building on the findings from the focus groups, an online survey ( n = 228) examined police officer AD knowledge, as well as their experience and competence in the handling of AD cases. Police participants had fair knowledge of AD with an average 71.8% accuracy rate. More AD knowledge ( B = 0.29) and higher levels of education ( B = 0.85) were associated with higher levels of competence of recognizing AD-related behaviors. Low levels of discomfort interacting with AD patients ( B = -0.75) and having a family member of dementia ( B = 1.32) were related to higher levels of competence of reacting appropriately to an AD patient. The findings suggest that information about the best practices for dealing with community residents with AD needs to be made available to police officers. To ensure a dementia-friendly environment, aging service providers need to reach out to local law enforcement departments and provide training that promotes AD knowledge, decreases AD-related stigma, and increases competence of handing dementia cases in a way that fits the policing culture.

The Native American adolescent: social network structure and perceptions of alcohol induced social problems.

Race/ethnicity and the structure of an adolescent's social network are both important factors in the etiology of delinquent behavior. Yet, much of the minority-group delinquency literature overlooks the Native American youth population that traditionally exhibits high rates of alcohol use and abuse. Utilizing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we compare the structural characteristics of school-based friendship networks of American Indian youth and other racial/ethnic groups. Our core sample for the descriptive analysis consists of 70,841 youth (Caucasian = 42,096; Black = 13,554; Asian = 4,758; Hispanic = 4,464; American Indian = 3,426; Other = 2,543; Female = 50%). We find that Native American youth generally occupy similar social positions within school hierarchies compared to other minority groups. However, American Indian youth have fewer ties at the school level than Caucasian youth, including reports of fewer reciprocated friendships, a smaller number of in-school friends, and membership in less cohesive personal networks. We also focus on the detrimental social and physical consequences of alcohol use during adolescence and offer an extended consequences model (n = 5,841) that includes the interactive effects of race/ethnicity, age, and drinking influences on relationships with friends (Caucasian = 59%; Black = 19%; Asian = 7%; Hispanic = 7%; American Indian = 5%; Other = 3%; Female = 54%). American Indian youth are no more likely than other youth to report personal drinking as being detrimental to social relationships with parents, peers, and romantic partners. We address ties between our findings and criminal justice policies and practices, as well as the implications for similar network analyses involving other racial/ethnic groups.