Untrained community help in the rehabilitation of stroke sufferers with language disorder

The Newcastle Speech-After-Stroke Project is one of many schemes in Britain that have used untrained helpers to set up community clubs and home visiting for dysphasic stroke sufferers. To examine the contribution to rehabilitation made by such activities, patients' language abilities and social confidence were assessed when they entered the project and after about six months. Formal tests of language showed no significant improvement after six months, but social confidence increased. Such projects can make a valuable contribution in helping dysphasic people to regain a role in the community. Nevertheless, too much should not be expected of them in the way of direct help in the patients' recovery of language.

[The formation of self-help groups. A report for participants and experts (author's transl)]

The report begins with a short summary of the various types and forms of self-help groups and their distribution. The usual requirements of a self-help group are briefly discussed. This is followed by basic information on the importance of group self-therapy. Expectations, initial steps, the question of whether guidance is necessary, and the organization of a general meeting are dealt with in the next section. Then the internal resistance on the part of experts and participants toward self-help groups, and hence their new relationship, is discussed. Finally, a suggestion is made concerning those persons for whom self-help groups might be helpful.

An experimental comparison of two community-based drug abuse treatment programs

An experimental comparison was made of the drug abuse treatment effectiveness of a halfway house and a community lodge program. Drug abusers, mainly heroin addicts, were randomly assigned to one of the two programs. After a three-month follow-up period, no significant differences between the two conditions were observed on four outcome variables: number of reinstitutionalizations, number of jailings, time spent in the program, and percentage of drug-free urines. The finding of no differences between the two approaches was interpreted as casting doubt on the argument for the need for highly structured programs for the treatment of chronic drug abusers. The factors that were found to be related to outcome generally supported the hypothesis that increased assimilation into the drug culture (as measured by longer time spent mainlining heroin, greater habit cost, illegal support of the habit, and more time spent in jail after beginning illegal drug use) leads to unfavorable treatment outcomes. No evidence was found that related treatment outcomes to social class, age, education, employment history, or marital status.