Help a buddy take a knee: creating persuasive messages for military service members to encourage others to seek mental health help.

Helping service members returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who need mental health help is an important problem for the United States military. Tanielian and Jaycox (2008) estimated that approximately 14%, or 300,000, of the service members returning from the wars have posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet just over half of those needing psychological help seek it despite the availability of effective treatments. This article reports the focus group responses of military personnel about message factors associated with persuading individuals to encourage others to seek mental health help. The results have theoretical and practical implications for future message design for promoting increased usage of mental health services among members of this population. Responses are presented in terms of the communication variables of source, message, channel, and receiver factors.

Living kidney donor decision making and communication.

There is high demand for kidney donors in the United States, and it is widely accepted that living donation is optimal for individuals who need a kidney. Much research has focused on the potential recipient, but little has been studied about the communication and decision making of living kidney donors. Interviews assessed the communication and decision-making processes of 43 kidney donor volunteers. Almost all of the participants were not asked, but instead volunteered, to donate. The majority of donors reported having conversations with the recipient and speaking about their decisions with other individuals in their social networks besides the recipient. Some participants said that they stopped talking to others because of negative feedback. Future research should further examine the communication of donors with non-recipient others and potential methods of training recipients and donors to communicate effectively about the donation process.

Doctors' and nurses' explanations for racial disparities in medical treatment.

Racial inequality in medical treatment is a problem whose sources are not fully understood. To gain better insight into how race may affect treatment, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 doctors and nurses. Using an open coding scheme, the explanations of racial inequality in treatment were coded by two people. Four major categories of responses emerged to explain why Black patients are less likely to receive the same levels of medical care as Whites: access to care, physician bias, Black patients' perceived shortcomings, and White patients' demands. Interviewees commonly cited access and patient factors before naming physician bias. The majority questioned the validity of studies reporting disparities. Educational campaigns should emphasize evidence that racial disparities persist even after controlling for factors such as insurance and patient characteristics. Educational programs should also address subconscious racial bias and how it may operate in a clinical setting.