The authors develop and test a culturally sensitive, low-intensity smoking cessation intervention for low-socioeconomic African Americans. African American adult smokers were randomly assigned to receive either a multicomponent smoking cessation intervention comprising a printed guide, a video, and a telephone booster call or health education materials not directly addressing tobacco use. The results of the study were mixed. Although no significant effects were observed for the entire treatment cohort, the results of post hoc analyses suggest that culturally sensitive self-help smoking cessation materials plus a single phone contact can produce short-term cessation rates similar to those reported for majority populations. This conclusion should be tempered by the low completion rate for the booster call and several design limitations of the study.

This study tested the efficacy of self-instruction intervention to reduce avoidable risks for HIV infection associated with drug use and unsafe sexual activity among African-American and Hispanic adolescents (N = 60). After completing pretests, adolescent participants in the study were randomly divided into three conditions. Participants in one condition received a self-instructional guide about AIDS and its transmission along with group instruction in using the guide. Adolescents in another condition received the guide without group instruction. Participants in the third condition received neither the guide nor group instruction. Outcome findings indicate that participants in the two self-instruction conditions improved more between pretest and posttest assessments on measures of HIV infection risk compared with adolescents in the control condition.

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Among the many issues regarding the care of chronic mental patients, none is more pressing than the need for administrative and clinical models designed to organize and systematize the efforts of diverse community service providers. This paper describes the functioning of the Community Residential Treatment Service of the South Beach Psychiatric Center, a large‐scale project of a state facility created to respond to this issue. By blending sophisticated clinical and administrative technology, programs operated by the state, voluntary, and proprietary health care sectors have been integrated to form a balanced service delivery system. This system provides a broad continuum of inpatient and outpatient residential settings developed in accordance with social learning principles. The components of the system, with the Community Residential Treatment Service as the major integrative force, are linked together by detailed contracts as well as common behavioral clinical and behavioral administrative language. The treatment successes of this sytem have been significant enough to suggest that a positive synergistic effect is generated by this programming combination.