Social science & medicine
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Social science & medicine · Dec 1995
ReviewCulture in treatment, culture as treatment. A critical appraisal of developments in addictions programs for indigenous North Americans and Australians.
Indigenous people in Australia and in North America have been creating innovative interventions in the addictions field for several years now--incorporating traditional healing practices and cultural values into otherwise western programs--although this process is more developed in Canada and the U. S. than it is in Australia. Through a process of cultural diffusion, Australian Aborigines have incorporated many ideas from Native Canadian treatment models. ⋯ Additionally, North American Indians have at their disposal a rich heritage of communal healing techniques; some (such as the sweat lodge) have been adapted and incorporated into the treatment both of solvent abuse by adolescents, and alcohol abuse by adults. In Australia on the other hand, traditional healing techniques have been less amenable to adaptation. On neither continent are indigenous people attempting to adapt recent mainstream models of intervention to suit their needs (such as Brief Intervention) which is currently receiving international attention in addictions research and treatment.
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Social science & medicine · Dec 1995
Public opinion regarding end-of-life decisions: influence of prognosis, practice and process.
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of changing key factors in survey questions on public opinion regarding end-of-life decisions. These factors were: (a) patient prognosis (likely vs unlikely to recover from the illness); (b) end-of-life practice (foregoing treatment vs assisted suicide vs euthanasia); and (c) and decision making process (competent patient vs incompetent patient based on living will vs incompetent patient based on family wishes). A representative quota sample of 2019 Canadians 18 years of age or older were surveyed using a 13-item questionnaire with 12 items eliciting attitudes towards end-of-life decisions. ⋯ The influence of these key factors was similar in other cases examined. Ten percent of Canadians said they had completed a living will. It was concluded that patient prognosis has a major effect, end-of-life practice a moderate effect, and decision making process a minor effect on public opinion regarding end-of-life decisions.