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Enthält Rezensionen u.a. von: Arnson, Cynthia J.: Crossroads: Congress, the Reagan administration, and Central America. - New York/N.Y. : Pantheon Books, 1989. - 275 S

The Cooperative Extension National Framework for Health and Wellness calls for the Cooperative Extension Service (CES) to partner with healthcare professionals to support their patients in preventing illness and promoting health through community education. Strategies to connect the healthcare system with coordinated referrals to community-based health programs can help patients improve health outcomes. The Rx for Health Referral Toolkit pilot project was developed as part of a strategy to align CES's strengths with the medical community to promote quality healthcare experiences for patients. The toolkit educates healthcare providers about the many health programs offered by CES in Michigan. It helps ease the burden on healthcare providers by providing a ready-to-use, simple referral tool. Extension staff were recruited to serve as the point of contact for healthcare provider referrals and conduct outreach with primary care practices utilizing the Rx for Health Referral Toolkit. As a result of the pilot project, CES educators had 56 new participant referrals directly from healthcare providers. Prior to this pilot, referrals from healthcare providers were rare. Feedback showed that patients also needed to know what CES is and what it has to offer. Partnerships between healthcare providers and CES can improve the health of patients nationwide.

Evaluation capacity building (ECB) is an essential element for generating credible and actionable evidence on Extension programs. This paper offers a discussion of ECB efforts in Cooperative Extension and how such efforts enable Extension professionals to collect and use credible and actionable evidence on the quality and impacts of programs. Sufficient investments in ECB, both at the individual and organizational levels, can better equip Extension to advocate for and make changes to programs, advance as a learning organization, and have a more powerful impact on communities. Furthermore, as Extension program stakeholders often have varying perspectives on the credibility of evidence, these perspectives must also be accounted for in efforts to build Extension's evaluation capacity. Intentional investments in ECB efforts provide an opportunity for Extension to further deepen and expand impact, positioning programs to most effectively and positively benefit individuals and communities.

Recognizing the need for education that addresses social emotional and mental health issues faced by adults, Extension developed two different types of programs. Michigan State University (MSU) Extension developed the RELAX: Alternatives to Anger program (RELAX) to address anger management, and West Virginia University (WVU) Extension created Stress Less with Mindfulness (SLM) to build stress management skills among adults. At a national conference, the two states independently shared their programs' objectives and delivery implementation and then later cross-trained each other's Extension team. The research reported here shares the designs of both stress-reduction health programs and the results of a combined two-state SLM evaluation with 1,304 participants. The benefits of SLM included skill learning and practice. Recommendations for practice include state Extension services sharing curricula resources, training teams from each other's states, and jointly implementing evaluation protocols. Extension professionals looking for established programs that help people gain skills to promote emotional health and stress-reduction may consider implementing one of these community-based programs in their states.