(Press-News.org) COLUMBUS, Ohio – For troubled war veterans, a friendly bartender can be the source of more than just drinks and a sympathetic ear.
A pilot study suggests that some bartenders may be in a good position to identify veterans in need of mental health services and help connect them to the appropriate agency.
Researchers at Ohio State University surveyed 71 bartenders employed at Veterans of Foreign Wars posts in Ohio.
The results showed that bartenders felt very close to their customers and that these customers shared their problems freely with them, said Keith Anderson, lead author of the study and assistant professor of social work at Ohio State.
"Many of the bartenders said that their customers were very much like family," Anderson said.
"Given the closeness of the relationships, these bartenders are in a really great position to help these veterans – if they are given the right training and the right tools."
Anderson conducted the study with Jeffrey Maile and Lynette Fisher, former undergraduate students at Ohio State. The study appears in the current issue of the Journal of Military and Veterans' Health.
The researchers sent surveys to 300 randomly selected VFW posts in Ohio. They received responses from 71 bartenders working at 32 different VFW posts.
Of the bartenders surveyed, 73 percent said their role with their customers was "like family." And about 70 percent of the bartenders said that the veterans they interacted with "always" or "often" shared their problems with them.
Encouragingly, 80 percent of the bartenders said they would be willing to refer veterans to services at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
These results show why bartenders may be especially well-suited to help troubled veterans, Anderson said.
"We need to find the veterans where they are. Many of them may not be willing to go to a VA clinic to seek out help on their own. The VFW bartenders may be one of our best chances to reach some of these veterans," he said.
In addition, Anderson said he suspects that these bartenders may actually know more than anyone else about the problems of some veterans.
"Some veterans will tell things to bartenders that they wouldn't even tell their spouses or family," he said.
"And bartenders can probably say things to the veterans that a spouse would be reluctant to say – like 'I think you need to get some professional help.'"
That doesn't mean that VFW bartenders should be practicing therapy or be expected to be mental health counselors, Anderson emphasized.
About two-thirds of those surveyed rated their ability to recognize depression in their patrons as "moderate," while the remaining third rated their ability as "high."
Only 14 percent rated their ability to recognize symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder as "high" while 43 percent rated their ability as low.
But about 60 percent said they would be interested in additional training on how to spot physical and mental health problems in their customers, if the training was offered through the VFW.
That's one reason Anderson said he selected bartenders at the VFW for the study, rather than bartenders at public bars or nightclubs. Nearly all the customers are veterans, so bartenders are familiar with their problems and struggles and may even be familiar with VA services that may be available to them.
Anderson said he has contacted the national VFW headquarters to see if he and his colleagues can put together a brief online training program for their bartenders. Such a program would teach bartenders the symptoms of mental health problems, the resources available to veterans, and techniques for referring veterans to services in a way that does not alienate them.
Anderson said he suspects some people will be concerned about any program that addresses mental health issues in an environment where alcohol is served. But he said it is appropriate to have bartenders offer assistance.
"If the person who needs help is at a bar, that is where the outreach has to occur," Anderson said. "It doesn't make any sense to discard bartenders as potential helpers just because they are serving alcohol."
###
Contact: Keith Anderson, (614) 247-8963; Anderson.1630@osu.edu
Written by Jeff Grabmeier, (614) 292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu
END
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State University researchers recently tested the merits of two new dishware sanitizers, and found them more effective at removing bacteria from restaurant dishes than traditional sanitizers.
Melvin Pascall, co-author of the study and associate professor of food science and technology at Ohio State, said that the two new sanitizers reflect the industry's recent efforts to develop more effective germ killers that are also environmentally friendly.
The two sanitizers – one carrying the name brand PROSAN® and the other called neutral electrolyzed ...
In regenerative medicine, large supplies of safe and reliable human embryonic stem (hES) cells are needed for implantation into patients, but the field has faced challenges in developing cultures that can consistently grow and maintain clinical-grade stem cells.
Standard culture systems use mouse "feeder" cells and media containing bovine sera to cultivate and maintain hES cells, but such animal product–based media can contaminate the cells. And because of difficulties in precise quality control, each batch of the medium can introduce new and unwanted variations.
Now, ...
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- An Ohio State University mathematician and his colleagues are finding ways to tell the difference between healthy cells and abnormal cells, such as cancer cells, based on the way the cells look and move.
They are creating mathematical equations that describe the shape and motion of single cells for laboratory analysis.
Though this research is in its early stages, it represents an entirely new way of identifying cell abnormalities, including cancer. It could one day be useful in gauging future stages of a disease -- for example, by detecting whether ...
AURORA, Colo. (Jan. 25, 2011) – A new study led by researchers at the Children's Outcomes Research (COR) Program at The Children's Hospital and Colorado Health Outcomes Program (COHO) at the University of Colorado School of Medicine explores the barriers, facilitators and alternative approaches to providers sending reminder notices for immunization using a statewide immunization registry. Reminder or recall messages, usually in the form of postcards, letters, or phone calls, have long been regarded as an effective way to increase immunization rates within primary care ...
COLUMBIA, Mo. – One of the first studies published from the University of Missouri Brain Imaging Center (BIC) gives researchers insight into the brain and memory and may provide researchers clues to treating a variety of debilitating disorders.
Nelson Cowan, director of the BIC and Curator's Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences, used the BIC's magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to produce graphics that depict the structure and function of the brain during various mental tasks in an effort to understand abstract working memory. People use their abstract ...
DURHAM, NC – Duke University bioengineers have developed a new method for rapidly producing an almost unlimited variety of man-made DNA sequences.
These novel sequences of recombinant DNA are used to produce repetitive proteins to create new types of drugs and bioengineered tissues. Current methods for producing these DNA sequences are slow or not robust, the researchers said, which has hindered the development of these increasingly important new classes of protein-based polymers.
Researchers have already demonstrated that when a large protective macromolecule – known ...
Surgery has not been an option in the past for children with ACL tears because of the possible damage to the growth plate that can cause serious problems later in life.
With this new technology, surgeons can actually see from one point to the other on either side of the knee, and can safely position the tunnels where they will place the new ligament.
John Xerogeanes, MD, chief of the Emory Sports Medicine Center, and colleagues in the laboratory of Allen R. Tannenbaum, PhD, professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and ...
WASHINGTON, DC, January 25, 2011 – The tiger reserves of Asia could support more than 10,000 wild tigers – three times the current number – if they are managed as large-scale landscapes that allow for connectivity between core breeding sites, a new paper from some of the world's leading conservation scientists finds. The study, co-authored by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) scientists, is the first assessment of the political commitment made by all 13 tiger range countries at November's historic tiger summit to double the tiger population across Asia by 2022.
"A Landscape-Based ...
VIDEO:
Jerry Nick, M.D., associate professor of medicine at National Jewish Health, discusses recent research on biofilms, bacterial infections and contact lenses.
Click here for more information.
Researchers at National Jewish Health and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have discovered a new method to fight bacterial infections associated with contact lenses. The method may also have applications for bacterial infections associated with severe burns and ...
A study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has raised safety concerns about an investigational approach to treating cancer.
The strategy takes aim at a key signaling pathway, called Notch, involved in forming new blood vessels that feed tumor growth. When researchers targeted the Notch1 signaling pathway in mice, the animals developed vascular tumors, primarily in the liver, which led to massive hemorrhages that caused their death.
Their findings are reported online Jan. 25 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation and will appear ...
