Distress Tolerance and Emotion Regulation: Promoting Maternal Well-Being Across the Transition to Parenthood

Objective. This study examined the association between newborns’ daily crying and five measures of new mothers’ emotional states. Design. One hundred seven new mothers responded via a one-time, anonymous, online survey that assessed their stress, well-being, emotion regulation, frustration, and coping skills. Mothers also reported their infant’s daily cry duration. Results. Average daily crying was related to mothers’ emotional experiences, and relations also existed among the five mental health measures. Regression models indicate the strongest predictors of frustration were infant’s average cry duration, maternal well-being, and infant’s health status at enrollment. Conclusion. Mental health professionals can support families through the normative, but often stressful, experience of their infant’s cries. However, a re-evaluation of the clinical criteria for excessive crying is needed, as the results suggest that mothers whose infants cry considerably less than the widely used Wessel’s 3-hour-per-day criterion for excessive crying experience significant negative mental health.     

Responding to the needs of students with mental health difficulties in higher education: an Irish perspective

Abstract

This article presents findings from a recent national study supported by Association for Higher Education Access & Disability and the National Learning Network (2016) to investigate the experiences of students with mental health difficulties in higher education in Ireland. The data investigation was a combination of both survey and qualitative research activities. A total of 22 out of 28 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Ireland participated in a national survey. In addition 14 students and 11 professionals participated in focus groups and semi-structured one-to-one interviews. This article focuses on the qualitative data collected. While the topic of the needs of students with mental health difficulties is an under-researched area in Ireland, this study does recognise and build on recent work both nationally and internationally. The study demonstrates the benefits of a whole campus approach to meeting the needs of students with mental health difficulties combined with specialised supports. It recommends that that individual HEIs review existing policies and practices for students with mental health difficulties.     

Evidence-based health promotion in nursing homes: A pilot intervention to improve oral health

ABSTRACT

Nursing home residents over the age of 65 years are at high risk for poor oral health and related complications such as pneumonia and adverse diabetes outcomes. A preliminary study found that Massachusetts’ nursing homes generally lack the training and resources needed to provide adequate oral health care to residents. In this study, an intervention targeting Certified Nurses’ Aides (CNAs) was developed and tested. We hypothesized that following the training, CNAs would have increased knowledge and self-efficacy toward providing oral health care to the residents in their charge.

This pilot study used a one-group pretest-posttest design to test the effectiveness of a psycho-educational training intervention. Utilizing the constructs of knowledge and self-efficacy from the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Social Cognitive Theory, we framed the content of a training intervention and administered a 21-item instrument. The survey was distributed to the CNA staff of a single midsize nursing home immediately prior to and after the intervention. The 1-hour training intervention was empirically supported by formative data and delivered by dental faculty researchers.

Findings indicate increases in two areas of oral health knowledge: toothbrush position and frequency of brushing. Self-efficacy, however, did not significantly change. Although the results marginally supported our hypothesis, this pilot study demonstrates the feasibility of delivering interventions to CNAs who have direct responsibility for promoting the oral health of long-term care facility residents.     

American Revolution in Mental Health Care Delivery

Abstract

The American health care system is in the midst of unprecedented changes under the name of “managed care,” including preauthorizations for care, cost and outcome accountability, formulary regulations and restrictions, and corporation of multi-professional collaboration. How to prepare practitioners for new responsibilities in such a time of exponential change while preserving professional values and priorities is the rightful concern of mental health educators. This paper identifies and examines some fundamental professional skills as essential criteria for assessing the preparation of social work professionals for the new mental health care environment. They are (1) communication skills, (2) cultural competency, and (3) state-of-the-art treatment. The paper also discusses the manner in which rapid scientific advance, managed-care environments, and changing patterns of practice might test, extend and alter traditional pillars of professional competence. Finally, it is stressed that social work education should prepare professionals to distinguish between constructive and destructive aspects of managed care and should teach the moral imperative to confront harmful practices.     

Some signposts for medical and nursing educational policy formulation for aboriginal healthcare

As part of a larger ethnographic inquiry designed to ascertain how the Cree communities of the James Bay in northern Quebec viewed, interpreted, and handled the growing incidence of diabetes, this study explored the perceptions, knowledge, and experiences of health professionals serving aboriginal clientele in connection with diabetes. Qualitative data were gathered through in-depth interviews with 28 health professionals. Findings indicate that health professional perceptions of lifestyle are generated from within a nonaboriginal context and that knowledge and understanding of diabetes are rooted within patterns of health practices attributed to individual behaviour. The study concludes that trends towards individualizing the incidences and prevalence of diabetes obfuscate the socioeconomic processes affecting Cree people.     

History at the Open University

Abstract

Conventional assumptions about how children should be brought up seem no longer tenable in the face of recent trends. Yet policy makers and professionals as well as parents of young children must establish criteria for judging the boundaries of adequacy. Identifying children's needs is one commonly used strategy, which appears both objective and authoritative. But this is deceptive. ‘Need’ statements project decision criteria on to children, and disguise complex implicit assumptions. Four different bases for identifying children's needs can be distinguished. They can be thought of as reflecting: basic qualities of human nature; prerequisites for mental health; processes of cultural adaptation; or conformity with dominant social values. A more explicit specification of the empirical and evaluative basis of judgments about early child rearing is called for.     

Towards a model of interprofessional preparation to enhance partnering between educators and families

Abstract

Interprofessional education (IPE) involves cross disciplinary learning, teaching, and supervision to foster greater interdisciplinary collaboration. In the field of medicine, this training approach has been adopted to improve collaboration amongst health care professionals. Rarely has this approach been adopted in regard to the preparation of student teachers. Yet professionals from the disciplines of general and special education, school social work, and school psychology often must work together and with families and pupils. A rationale will be forwarded for offering IPE to graduate students in these fields before they graduate. A multi departmental project was undertaken to design a new IPE training programme to foster collaborative knowledge of, dispositions towards, and skills in family school partnering. The components of the programme, the proposed criteria to gauge the success an initial pilot of the programme, and challenges faced in setting up such cross-discipline training will be described with lessons learned for the future.     

Organizational Effectiveness as a Function of Managerial Style,Situational Environment,and Effectiveness Criterion

Military and civilian personnel (N = 4786) were administered an attitudinal survey that measured managerial, situational, and organizational effectiveness factors. Three managerial styles in three situational environments, extracted from the survey data, were compared using three effectiveness criteria. Results indicated one managerial style was associated with higher scores on all three criteria.     

Development of the ‘Museum Health and Social Care Service’ to promote the use of arts and cultural activities by health and social care professionals caring for older people

ABSTRACT

It is well documented that engagement in arts and cultural activities contributes to improving and maintaining the health and well-being of older people. Despite this, many health and social care professionals do not recognize or accept arts and cultural activities as relevant to their care remit. To address this, a team of 17 individuals comprising older service users, and staff from a range of health and social care, arts, and museum and archive services in North East England worked collaboratively to design and develop the Museum Health and Social Care Service (MHSCS). MHSCS is a resource and training package that reinforces the care and clinical benefits of arts and cultural activities to older people’s health and wellbeing, aimed at supporting health and social care professionals to acknowledge and use these activities as integral to care delivery.     

Child physical abuse and concurrence of other types of child abuse in Sweden-Associations with health and risk behaviors

ObjectiveTo examine the associations between child physical abuse executed by a parent or caretaker and self-rated health problems/risk-taking behaviors among teenagers. Further to evaluate concurrence of other types of abuse and how these alone and in addition to child physical abuse were associated with bad health status and risk-taking behaviors.MethodsA population-based survey was carried out in 2008 among all the pupils in 2 different grades (15 respectively 17 years old) in Södermanland County, Sweden (n = 7,262). The response rate was 81.8%. The pupils were asked among other things about their exposure to child physical abuse, exposure to parental intimate violence, bullying, and exposure to being forced to engage in sexual acts. Adjusted analyses were conducted to estimate associations between exposure and ill-health/risk-taking behaviors.ResultsChild physical abuse was associated with poor health and risk-taking behaviors with adjusted odds ratios (OR) ranging from 1.6 to 6.2. The associations were stronger when the pupils reported repeated abuse with OR ranging from 2.0 to 13.2. Also experiencing parental intimate partner violence, bullying and being forced to engage in sexual acts was associated with poor health and risk-taking behaviors with the same graded relationship to repeated abuse. Finally there was a cumulative effect of multiple abuse in the form of being exposed to child physical abuse plus other types of abuse and the associations increased with the number of concurrent abuse.ConclusionsThis study provides strong indications that child abuse is a serious public health problem based on the clear links seen between abuse and poor health and behavioral problems. Consistent with other studies showing a graded relationship between experiences of abuse and poor health/risk-taking behaviors our study shows poorer outcomes for repeated and multiple abuse. Thus, our study calls for improvement of methods of comprehensive assessments, interventions and treatment in all settings where professionals meet young people.     

Exploring Educational Opportunities for Foreign National Prisoners in Europe

ABSTRACT

To gain insight into the educational opportunities for European foreign national prisoners, an online survey was distributed among educational providers and prison managers (N?=?108). The results demonstrate that courses for learning domestic languages are most frequently offered. Other educational courses mostly relate to primary education and psychosocial courses. Based on the online survey, four organizations are investigated in depth to gain more information about how they work. We conducted 12 semi-structured individual and one group interview with professionals and prisoners. The results of the hybrid thematic analysis showed that different models exist to organize education for FNPs. The findings make contribution to the development of European pilot projects that provide distance education to FNPs offered by their home country.     

Examining the Connections between the Work We Do and Our Mental Health

ABSTRACT

Solving the issues brought forward in previous Hanna lectures and current discussion requires serious amounts of energy. This energy comes from individuals, working together, while also simultaneously working through internal struggles and challenges. Although small group and individual discussion can focus on mental health and burnout, these discussions have not been presented in public. There is little that kinesiology professionals do to discuss how self-care is approached, how to maintain or improve emotional well-being, and what happens when professionals burnout. A combination of personal experiences, research literature, and recommendations are discussed as a way to highlight the internal struggles that kinesiology professionals face while pursuing their work.     

Interdisciplinary Training Program (ITP) in child abuse and neglect: Long term effects

BackgroundUniversity of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center has offered Interdisciplinary Training Program (ITP) for Child Abuse and Neglect since 1987. However, there are limited evaluations on multidisciplinary/interprofessional training for early professionals in the field of child abuse and neglect.ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine the effects of the ITP on young professionals in developing their careers and taking leadership roles in the field of child abuse and neglect.MethodsThe anonymous online survey was conducted for students who completed in the ITP from 1989 to 2016 (n = 405, with contact information out of total 508 graduates). One hundred seventy nine alumni (44.2%) responded to the survey.ResultsSatisfaction for the ITP was high (m = 9.3, sd = 0.97 on a 10 point scale with higher numbers being positive). Their current contributions to the field of child abuse and neglect were widely seen in child advocacy (43.0%), clinical treatment (39.1%), primary prevention (29.6%), or research (27.9%). Graduates reported they made 133 presentations to civic or professional groups and published 69 articles since they finished the ITP.ConclusionThe ITP trainees have made significant contributions to the field in clinical treatment, research, and child advocacy. Alumni were highly satisfied with their experience and continue to see the importance of the ITP to their jobs and career.     

Trauma-related impairment in children—A survey in Sri Lankan provinces affected by armed conflict

ObjectivesThe present study examined traumatic experiences, PTSD, and co-morbid symptoms in relation to neuropsychological and school performance in school children affected by two decades of civil war and unrest.MethodThe epidemiological survey of children's mental health included a representative sample of 420 school children. Local teachers were trained to administer a translation of the UCLA-PTSD Index Form. The instrument and the epidemiological findings were validated by assessment through clinical expert interview, school grades, and neuropsychological testing in a subsample (N = 67).ResultsNinety-two percent of the children surveyed had experienced severely traumatizing events such as combat, bombing, shelling, or witnessing the death of a loved one. Twenty-five percent met the criteria for a diagnosis of PTSD. Traumatized children reported lasting interference of experiences with their daily life, which was corroborated by memory testing, scores in school performance and ratings of social withdrawal. Depressive symptoms and poor physical health were frequent in these children. The majority of trained teachers achieved valid results in the structured interviews.ConclusionPerformance and functioning in children are related to the total load of traumatic events experienced. An important component of psychosocial programs in post-conflict areas should include increasing community-based awareness of the consequences of traumatic stress, both as a preventative measure and as a way of decreasing stigmatization of affected individuals.     

Comparing successful aging,resilience, and holistic wellness as predictors of the good life

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to compare the relative contributions of Rowe and Kahn’s definition of successful aging (SA), resilience, and the holistic wellness paradigm for predicting happiness, life satisfaction, and self-rated physical health in late life.

Method: A cross-sectional research design was used to survey 200 residents across 12 senior housing sites. Criteria with strong psychometric properties representing the three constructs were operationalized using hierarchical regression within the context of relevant control variables to compare the relative strengths of the three paradigms for predicting measures of quality of life.

Results: In this study, 8.5% of the sample met modified criteria for SA and were used as a comparison group with those who did not meet the criteria. Overall, holistic wellness and resilience predicted happiness, life satisfaction, and physical health better than SA alone. When predicting happiness and life satisfaction, race and holistic wellness were significant predictors. Age and holistic wellness were the best predictors of self-rated physical health.

Conclusion: The criteria underlying SA poorly predicted happiness, life satisfaction, and self-rated physical health compared to the resilience and holistic wellness models. The results suggest that definitions of aging well are complex and require greater nuance. The findings have important implications for clinicians seeking translatable theoretical models that are amenable to practice with older adults, especially for those living in independent senior housing communities.     

A commitment to justice at a jesuit university: A comparison of criminal justice majors to non-majors

While both criminal justice programs and Jesuit institutions claim commitment to the realization of justice, their conceptions of justice differ. This exploratory survey of 31 criminal justice majors and 51 non-majors compares criminal justice majors' concept of justice with that of non-criminal justice majors. We find that criminal justice majors and non-majors generally do not differ in their views of justice or their rank of goals for specific criminal justice professionals, regardless of the number of theology/philosophy or criminal justice courses taken or other demographic factors.     

Therapeutic interventions with child survivors of sibling sexual abuse: The professionals’ perspective

BackgroundSibling sexual abuse (SSA) is a continuum of childhood sexual behaviors that do not fit age-appropriate curiosity. SSA may be the most prevalent, longest lasting form of intrafamilial sexual abuse – and the least reported, studied and treated.ObjectiveThis exploratory qualitative study examined the experience of intervention with SSA survivors from the perspective of mental health professionals, and explored their major therapeutic challenges.Participants and settingThe sample consisted of 20 Jewish Israeli mental health professionals working in private clinics or public social welfare services who had experience with SSA.MethodsSemi-structured interviews focusing on the characteristics of SSA events, perceptions about the effects of abuse, intervention priorities and therapeutic challenges compared to other types of child abuse.ResultsProfessionals working with SSA survivors are preoccupied with the need to provide them with physical and emotional protection, as well as to help them process the abuse narrative. They also find themselves dealing with survivors who do not experience themselves as victims despite external evidence of abuse, or with the need to reconcile their perception of the sexual relationship as mutual, as opposed to the formal requirement to differentiate between “offender” and “victim”. In either case, the reality of these survivors can be just as painful as in other SSA cases.ConclusionsThe complexity of SSA calls for unique intervention skills, including working with survivor narratives that do not fit the victim/offender dichotomy on one hand and that do not minimize the potentially harsh consequences of SSA on the other.