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open access

Evolution and Devolution of Inpatient Psychiatric Services: From Asylums to Marketing Madness and Their Impact on Adults and Older Adults with Severe Mental Illness

Description: I examined the factors that led to the rise and fall of psychiatric hospitals and its impact on two select groups of individuals: adults and older adults with severe mental illness. To explore the reasons behind these fluctuations, the State of Texas was used as a case study. Additionally, the fluctuations occurred for different reasons in public vs. for-profit investor-owned psychiatric hospitals. Using an investor-owned psychiatric hospital organization as a case study, I investigated the dif… more
Date: May 2017
Creator: Helmicki, Soni
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Culture Interrupted: Assessing the Effects of the Shining Path Internal Armed Conflict in the Peruvian Highlands

Description: This study was a qualitative examination of social, economic, political, and cultural dilemmas that face Peruvian survivors of the Communist Shining Path Revolution, an internal armed conflict that cut a swath of terror and destruction during the years 1980-2000, with a reported loss of 69,000 residents either killed or considered “disappeared.” The conflict affected primarily poor, uneducated Andean campesinos and townspeople in the highland areas of the Ayacucho District. In this study, I loo… more
Date: May 2014
Creator: Van Wye, Kalynn Hicks
Partner: UNT Libraries

Tuberculosis in the Nursing Home: A Policy and Procedure Manual

Description: Tuberculosis in the nursing home is an ever-growing problem for the health care community. The incidence of tuberculosis in the United States has risen alarmingly since 1982, and high-population environments such as nursing homes are among the places where it is most prevalent. The first part of this document is an introduction to the current concerns faced by nursing home infection control personnel. It includes information about the history, symptoms, and epidemiology of the disease, as well … more
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Date: May 2000
Creator: Mounts, Camilla M.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Impact of Genetics, Socioeconomic Status, and Lifestyle Factors on Visual Health in an Adult Population

Description: The purpose of this dissertation was to understand how genetics, socioeconomic status (SES), and lifestyle factors influence the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy in an adult population in Dallas County. Two hundred fifty-three older adults participated in this study as the sample. Crosstabulation and binary logistic regression were utilized to analyze the data. Results indicated a disparity among participants' test scores, visual health s… more
Date: December 2010
Creator: Mitzel, Gina Marie
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Chronic Homelessness and the Aging Population: Findings in a Homeless Sample from Arkansas

Description: Understanding underlying mechanisms and pathways that lead to chronic homelessness would help develop intervention strategies that could help prevent subsequent episodes of homelessness. Quantitative data for this cross-sectional study was gathered by interviewing individuals who were homeless in the State of Arkansas, using a structured survey between 2007 and 2011. Qualitative data was gathered using semi-structured interviews between 2016 and 2018. Chi-square statistics and a multivariate lo… more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Chekuri, Lakshminarayana
Partner: UNT Libraries

Long-Term Care Administrator Licensure and Certification: An Emerging Health Profession

Description: The long-term care administrator profession is one that is both new and evolving. The unique historical perspective of this health profession is brief in the number of years it encompasses and crucial in understanding the current issues facing the profession. Administrator experiences provide a point of reference regarding the profession's structural problems. Ethical considerations play a dynamic role in administrators' daily jobs as well as their continued licensure. The significance of the p… more
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Date: May 2000
Creator: Syverson, Thomas
Partner: UNT Libraries

Assisted Living: The Need for Creation of Affordable Options

Description: Assisted living, the fastest growing segment of the senior housing industry, allows individuals to remain as independent as they prefer and still receive necessary services. However, assisted living residences exist primarily to serve those seniors who can pay for the services from their own savings/income. We are facing a critical need for housing options for both the current senior generation and the soon-to-be-retired baby boomers. How will access to assisted living be opened to all types of… more
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Date: August 2000
Creator: Kretzinger, Robert W.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Effect of Age on Likelihood to Test for Hiv

Description: HIV/AIDS can affect individuals of any age. Efforts to educate those considered to be most at-risk, based on the age at which the most individuals are infected, are ongoing and public. Less work and mainstream education outreach, however, is being directed at an older population, who can be more likely to contract HIV, is more susceptible to the effects of HIV, and more likely to develop AIDS, than younger persons. Guided by the Health Belief Model theory, research was conducted to determine wh… more
Date: May 2012
Creator: Dreyer, Katherine
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Witchcraft: a Targeted Societal Discrimination Against Women in Northern Ghana

Description: A combination of aging and poverty is becoming dominant in African society today, at a time when African countries are expected to be recovering from poverty, and are projected to house the economic growth of the next century. The emergence of aging in African context and the aging of the world population will expose the weakness of the current mechanisms used for older people around the world. As economies grow around the world, the distribution gap between the affluent and the poor widens, … more
Date: December 2013
Creator: Atumah, Oscar Nwagbo
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Caregiver Perceptions of Wandering Behavior in the Adrd (Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias) Patient

Description: The dissertation examined family caregivers’ perceptions of wandering behavior after their loved one has been diagnosed with ADRD (Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias). Semi-structured in-depth face-to-face interviews of a convenience sample of 22 caregivers in the Dallas metropolitan area were conducted. Responses were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. The use of qualitative methods facilitated the study of how caregivers of a loved one with ADRD understood and explained in t… more
Date: August 2012
Creator: Dickson, Patricia
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Legal Compliance in Guardianship Cases An Exploratory Study: Investigating Denton County Probate Court Visitors' Program Success with Legal Compliance in Guardianship Cases in 2013

Description: Dabner, Carol P. Legal Compliance in Guardianship Cases. An Exploratory Study: Investigating Denton County Probate Court Visitors' Program Success with Legal Compliance in Guardianship Cases. Doctor of Philosophy (Applied Gerontology), December 2016, 140 pp., 18 tables, references, 20 titles. Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of the legal compliance of the Denton County Probate Court Visitor's program in the year 2013. Rationale: Guardianship case management success is based on the presen… more
Date: December 2016
Creator: Dabner, Carol Patrice
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Retirees' Attitudes Toward Mental Illness Treatment: A Life-Course Perspective

Description: This purpose of this dissertation was to examine the attitudes of retirees toward mental illness treatment. Secondary data from the Survey Research Center at the University of North Texas was utilized for this study. The focus was on the influence that gender, income, education, race/ethnicity, personal experience, fear, goodwill, and social control might have had on retirees' attitudes toward mental illness treatment. An n = 225 was selected out of the existing data to serve as the sample popu… more
Date: May 2010
Creator: Starkey, Thomas Wayne, Jr.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Correlates of Depression in Elderly Asians in the United States

Description: The primary purpose of this study was to examine the correlation between depression and the personal characteristics of Asians who are 50 years or older. The secondary objective was to determine whether Asians 50 years or older living in the United States are more likely to be depressed than other ethnicities. The information for this study was secured from the National Health Interview Survey, spanning the years 2001 to 2010. In this study, I utilized the SAS-Callable SUDAAN statistical syst… more
Date: December 2013
Creator: Kung, Kevin Hsiang-Hsing
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Homeless Predictors in the Older Adult Population

Description: This secondary research study uses data from two convenience samples of homeless persons in Central Arkansas collected during 2004 and 2011 Point in Time Counts. The prevalence of predictors of homelessness are compared across years, and also compared by age (<50 and > 50) controlling for year of survey. The number of older adults increased significantly between 2004 and 2011 surveys, and reporting serious mental illness and veteran status significantly decreased from 2004 to 2011. Age differe… more
Date: May 2013
Creator: Lewallen, Jina P.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Working Baby Boomers’ Knowledge of Retiree Health Benefits and Costs

Description: This study was exploratory in nature, with the purpose of examining the relationships between working Baby Boomers’ knowledge of retirement health benefits and health costs and actions they have taken to prepare for retirement. An online survey was completed by 209 Baby Boomers who are employed by three city governments in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The research showed that health benefits knowledge does not predict retirement preparation but that Baby Boomers who demonstrate higher level… more
Date: August 2012
Creator: Henning, Janet L.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Assessing the Older Diabetic Population in the US: A Descriptive Look at This Population from 2001-2010 Focusing upon Education and Clinical Behaviors

Description: The focus of this research study was to gain needed information on the older adult population in the United States who have diabetes. The research method was quantitative retrospective study of American diabetes obtained from the National Health Interview Survey database from 2001 through 2010. The study results confirmed more than one-third of the U.S. diabetics are aged 65 and older. More than 75% of the older diabetic population report clinical limitations or comorbidities. Based on surr… more
Date: December 2016
Creator: Parker, Patti Annette
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Hospital Readmissions: the Need for a Coordinated Transitional Care Model: Analysis and Synthesis of Research on Medicare Policy and Interventions for the Elderly

Description: The transition from hospital to home or alternate care setting is a time of vulnerability for all patients and particularly for our elders. If not handled appropriately there is a risk to our elders for readmission to the hospital environment that may decrease their overall quality of life and further compromise their health status. in addition to the individual risks associated with patient readmissions, there are societal impacts that reach far beyond our current generation of elders 65 and… more
Date: May 2012
Creator: Wolfe, Laura M.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Determinants of the Applications to the Institutional Care in Turkey: Darulaceze Example

Description: Although institutional care has started to be outmoded in the developed countries with development of different models of care, it still has a considerable place in the developing countries such as Turkey. This is because, changes in the demographic structure, extended family, and urban development of Turkey has brought about several aging problems leading older adults to end up in institutions. Loneliness was one of the significant reasons given in the Social Inquiry Survey of Applicants of … more
Date: May 2013
Creator: Esendemir, Serif
Partner: UNT Libraries

Humor and Nursing Home Residents

Description: Although humor is a generally accepted part of everyday life for humans, its existence, importance, and positive influence on older persons are often underestimated. The purposes of this study are to determine whether humor is a normal experience for nursing home residents, enhancing their activities of daily living, and whether it plays a role in contributing to their psychological well-being. The study includes a discussion of research on humor, particularly as it relates to the elderly and t… more
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Date: May 2000
Creator: Cecil, David P.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Pets and the level of loneliness in community dwelling older adults.

Description: Loneliness is a significant problem for older adults and can lead to negative health and social outcomes. Having a companion pet is beginning to be recognized as a way loneliness can be reduced for older persons. The purpose of this descriptive study was to determine the effect of pets on the level of loneliness in persons 60 years old or older who live alone and independently in a large metropolitan community in the North Central Texas area. Using a non-random snowball sample of older individu… more
Date: December 2006
Creator: Nunnelee, Jane Baker
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Disaster Experience and Self-efficacy As Factors Influencing Emergency Planning in Community-dwelling Older Adults

Description: This study design was to identify and examine how disaster experience, self-efficacy, and demographic factors influence disaster preparedness in community-dwelling older adults. Current data indicates the United States is rapidly aging. Parallel to this significant increase among the elderly population, natural disasters are more prevalent. Consequently, older adults are affected adversely by these disasters and exposure to social vulnerabilities during the disaster cycle. For the purpose of… more
Date: August 2014
Creator: Symonette, Erika
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Implementation of Person-Centered Care (PCC): A Descriptive Case Study

Description: To meet the growing demand for community-based adult services (CBAS) adult day health care (ADHC) programs, it is important these programs make the necessary modifications in their systems of care to embrace a person-centered care (PCC) model. This study was designed to create an assessment to determine a community-based CBAS/ADHC program's readiness to meet the new federal standards as determined by the program's current operational evidence and by center participants', their families' as well… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Cole, Min
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Investigating the Effects of Polypharmacy Among Elderly Patients with Diabetes on Glycemic Control and Clinical Outcomes in Home Health Care

Description: The focus of this research study is glycemic control in the presence of multiple morbidities and polypharmacy in homebound individuals with Type 2 diabetes aged 65 years and older. The research method is a quantitative retrospective cohort study of discharged patients of a nonprofit community-based home health agency from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2011, using OASIS data. Glycemic control is assessed using the hA1C laboratory test following the recommendation of the American Diabetes Ass… more
Date: December 2012
Creator: Bernier, Shelia Alathia
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Domestic Violence Shelters in Texas: Responding to Programming Needs of Older Victims of Intimate Partner Violence

Description: This study examined if domestic violence shelters in Texas are responding to the needs of older female victims of intimate partner violence. Data for this study was collected through online questionnaire surveys of 45% of Texas domestic violence shelters. Findings of this study indicated that less than 10% of Texas shelters are providing specialized programming for older victims of IPV. In Texas, the demographic growth of older adults has remained comparable to increased national trends. The st… more
Date: December 2010
Creator: Lozano, Yvonne M.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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