Public health initiatives for smoking cessation

The prevalence of adult smoking in the United States declined from 42.4% in 1965 to 20.9% in 2005. Much of the success in reducing the prevalence of adult smoking over the past four decades can be attributed to tobacco control policies. This paper provides an overview of public health initiatives for smoking cessation in the United States and provides a review of the existing literature on the effects of these tobacco control initiatives on adult smoking cessation.     

Community support services and functioning of the seriously mentally ill

A cohort of 729 chronically mentally ill patients receiving community support services (CSS) were followed over a nine-month period. Receiving needed community support services was shown to predict change in client functioning as measured by the Global Assessment Scale (GAS) even after the initial values on the GAS, as well as demographic, psychiatric, residential and medication maintenance variables were considered. Adequacy of social support from family, friends and others also contributed to predicting change in global functioning of the CSS patients.Johns Hopkins UniversityPresented at the American Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., August 16, 1992.