Meera Adya

Do Healthy People Worry? Modern Health Worries, Subjective Health Complaints, Perceived Health, and Health Care Utilization

BackgroundModern health worries (MHW) are concerns related to modern or technological features of daily life (e.g., air pollution, x-rays, food additives, etc.), and have been associated with subjective health complaints (SHC) and health care use.PurposeThe MHW scale was expected to predict aspects of health status in healthy individuals (e.g., health care visits, health perceptions, and medication use). SHC was thought to mediate the relationship between MHW and health care use. Likewise, negative affect was considered to mediate the relationship between MHW and SHC.MethodUniversity students (n = 432) completed assessments for MHW, SHC, perceptions of health, medication use, and health care visits.ResultsMHW were positively related to the number of subjective health complaints with negative affect partially driving this relationship. MHW were negatively related to reports of present health and medication use. MHW were marginally related, whereas SHC were significantly associated with health care utilization.ConclusionConcerns over modern technology appear to influence symptom reporting, perceptions of current health, medication use, and, to a degree, visits to health care providers even in young healthy samples.

Assistive/rehabilitation technology, disability, and service delivery models

The United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals do not explicitly articulate a focus on disability; similar failures in the past resulted in research, policy, and practice that are not generalizable and did not meet the needs of persons with disabilities since they were developed for an “average” population. Academics and professionals in health and other disciplines should have a knowledge base in evidence-based practices that improve well-being and participation of people with disabilities through effective service delivery of assistive technology. Grounded by a theoretical framework that incorporates a multivariate perspective of disability that is acknowledged in the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, we present a review of models of assistive technology service delivery and call for future syntheses of the fragmented evidence base that would permit a comparative effectiveness approach to evaluation.

Corporate Culture and Employment of People With Disabilities: Role of Social Workers and Service Provider Organizations

Corporate culture reflects an organizations value system and impacts the recruitment, retention, and promotion of employees. Individuals with disabilities are positively impacted by a corporate culture that espouses and establishes a diverse workforce as a priority. This article provides an overview of corporate culture and the employment of individuals with disabilities, and presents a case example of the corporate culture of a large not-for-profit disability service organization. With an in-depth understanding of corporate culture and disability issues, social workers can be particularly helpful to applicants and employees with disabilities as well as employers.

Introduction to special issue on people with disabilities in the workplace

People with disabilities make up a large and growing population around the globe. The World Health Organization estimates that close to one billion people have disabilities, including 15–19% of the...

Assessing Individual Functioning and Disability

This chapter explains enabling activities and participation using assistive technology (AT) from an occupational therapy perspective. This perspective is based on facilitating people to do the things they want and need to do. Occupational therapy is complex owing to the need to consider a wide range of roles, activities, environments, and contexts for each person and their AT. Occupational therapy aims to achieve a person–environment–occupation fit, which may be achieved through skill acquisition, education, environment adaptation, and/or activity redesign in conjunction with AT. The AT process involves four steps (stages/phases) imagining possibilities, seeking information, choosing the best option, and living successfully with AT. The occupational therapists role is to actively involve the person in all stages of this process. This process has been illustrated using two case studies. The occupational therapist using a person–environment–occupation lens and breadth of knowledge across AT devices is well placed to partner with people to attain optimal AT solutions.

Future Directions in Employment, Occupational Rehabilitation, and Disability: Introduction to the Special Section

Purpose From an array of disciplinary perspectives, the articles in this special section examine opportunities and challenges in the economic, social, and civic participation of individuals across the spectrum of disabilities. Methods At multiple levels of analysis, the contributors consider employment law and policy frameworks, occupational and vocational rehabilitation strategies, and corporate practices in support of the full and equal inclusion of people with disabilities in society. Results and Conclusions The implications for policymakers, public and private sector stakeholders, and occupational rehabilitation professional are presented to help inform future policies, practices, and strategies to improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities.

What Can Researchers Tell the Courts, and What Can the Courts Tell Researchers About Sexual Harassment?

The chapters by Gutek and by Wiener and Winter (this volume) highlight what is possibly the most vexing component of sexual harassment jurisprudence, namely, how does the law of sexual harassment influence psychological research on the topic, and vice versa? As Gutek points out, it is difficult to determine exactly what the law is, because it is continually evolving. Both authors make the excellent point that the broader concept of “social-sexual behaviors” in the workplace—in contrast to the narrower legal concept of sexual harassment—affords a wealth of interesting psychological research topics, in areas such as person perception, attitudes, stereotypes, etc. Indeed, as we discuss in the text that follows, the concept of a continuum of “social-sexual behaviors” seems to be a promising guide for future research. However, to ensure that psychological research is still relevant in its applications such that it can influence the courts, public policy, and companies’ policies, it is essential that it address relevant real-world and legal scenarios (Wiener & Hurt, 2000; Wiener et al., 2002;). In this chapter, we use the preceding chapters as a springboard to address several issues that have implications for how researchers should conduct studies of sexual harassment, and for the legal and policy implications of that research. First, we consider the diverse meanings of sexual harassment—that is, how the law and the public construe the term—and discuss some of the intended and unintended effects of sexual harassment policies. Second, we look at how the “totality of the circumstances” test applies to sexual harassment. Third, we consider some of the difficulties inherent in measuring sexual harassment and similar behaviors. We conclude with recommendations for what researchers and the courts can both do in addressing this vexing issue together.