Development of Independent Living Skills in Project Panther LIFE Students during the Summer Residential Program

Project Panther LIFE: Panther Learning Is For Everyone is an ongoing collaborative partnership between Florida International University (FIU), Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS), and Parent to Parent of Miami, Inc. to develop, implement, support, and expand a non-degree postsecondary transition program for students with intellectual disabilities (ID). In Summer 2014, the program launched its first on-campus three-week Summer Residential Program (SRP) which focused on the development of independent living skills and self-determination skills An overview of the SRP components, program support systems, and benefits of the experience will be given through the perspective of key personnel, partnerships, and students.

Stress Urinary Incontinence in Female Athletes

Objective: The purpose of this study is to educate allied health professionals and female athletes of the anatomy of the pelvic floor, and the pathology, etiology, and prevalence of stress urinary incontinence in female athletes. Background: Urinary incontinence is not a life-threatening or dangerous condition, but it is socially embarrassing, may cause the individual to remove herself from social situations, and decrease quality of life. While typically associated with parous women who had vaginal delivery, research has shown prevalence of the condition in physically active women of all ages. Stress urinary incontinence has shown to lead to withdrawal from participation in high-impact activities such as gymnastics, aerobics, and running. It may be considered a barrier for life-long athletics participation in women. Description: An in-depth introduction to the cause and origin of stress urinary incontinence including review of the female pelvic floor anatomy and prevalence of stress urinary incontinence in the female athletic population. Clinical Advantages: Athletic trainers and other allied health professionals will develop an understanding of the multiple mechanisms that cause stress urinary incontinence. Clinician competency of the dynamics and mechanism of urinary incontinence prepares the individual to learn diagnostics, prevention, pharmacological intervention, and treatment of this pathology.

A comprehensive assessment of self -report experiences of adoptive parents of special needs children in Florida

Adoption of special needs children is now seen as a life long event whereby the adoptive child and family have unique needs. The need for postplacement resources throughout the life cycle of the adoption process is evident. This exploratory-descriptive research employed a random stratified cross-sectional design. The purpose of the study was to describe, identify, examine, and assess the relative influence of identified empirically and conceptually relevant variables of self-report experiences of adoptive parents of special needs children. Primary areas of exploration included: (1) adoptive children and families' characteristics, (2) postplacement service needs, utilization and satisfaction, and (3) adoptive parents' perceptions of their adoption experiences. A proportionate stratified random mail survey was used to obtain 474 families who had adopted special needs children from the 15 geographic districts which make up the state adoption social service agency in Florida. A 144-item survey questionnaire was used to collect basic information on demographic data, service provision, and adoption experiences. Four research questions were analyzed to test the effect the predictor variables had on willingness to adopt another special needs child, successful adoption, satisfying experience, and realism about problems. All four research questions revealed that the full model and the child's antecedent and the adoptive parents' intervening variable blocks were significant in explaining the variance in the dependent variables. The child's intervening variables alone were only significant in explaining the variance for one of the dependent variables. The results of the statistical analysis on the fifth research question and the three hypotheses determined that (1) only one postplacement service, crisis intervention, had a statistically significant impact on the adoptive parents' perceived level of satisfaction with the adoption experience; (2) adoptive parents who rate their adoption as successful are more likely to express a desire to adopt another special needs child; (3) the more adequate information on the child the adoptive parents perceived that they had prior to placement, the more they perceived they were realistic about the problems they would encounter; and (4) six specific postplacement services were found to be significant in predicting successful adoptions--crisis intervention, outpatient drug/alcohol treatment, maintenance subsidy, physical therapy, special medical equipment, and family counseling. Implications for the social work field and future research are discussed. ^