Showing papers on "Mental health published in 1982"

Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy: A Handbook for the Mental Health Practitioner

Abstract: In this updated and revised, third edition of his classic text, Worden incorporates his thinking on bereavement from extensive research, clinical work and the best of contemporary literature. Readers will find some refinements and several new areas of discussion. The model for understanding mourning not only includes the four "Tasks of Mourning" but his seven "Mediators of Mourning" as well. Important new and expanded materials address special types of losses, including children's violent deaths, grief and the elderly and anticipatory grief. A series of vignettes, the best of the first and second editions plus new cases based on Worden's files, offer powerful training tools for the mental health professional.

The effect of wives' employment on the mental health of married men and women.

Abstract: Evidence from a large national survey indicates a significant positive relationship between spouse's employment and psychological distress among married men in this country. Employment outside the home is associated with improved mental health among married women. Investigating the determinants of' these effects shows that the mental health advantage of employment for women is due to objective changes in their life situations as they move out of the home and into the labor force. We have a less clear understanding of the relationship between spouse's employment and psychological distress among men, but inferential evidence suggests that traditional sex role orientations explain part of this effect. There is no evidence that objective burdens associated with increased housework or childcare responsibilities play a part in the elevated rates of distress reported by husbands. These conclusions are brought together in a discussion of trends in the relationship between sex and psychological distress. To the extent that sex roles are implicated in the higher rates of psychological distress among women than men, this sex difference should attenuate as the roles of men and women become more alike. A recent analysis of trends in distress shows that this has occurred over the past two decades (Kessler and McRae, 1981). Curiously, though, the convergence resulted from greater increases among men than women, not from an improvement in the mental health of women. This could be due to counterbalancing effects of the stresses of modern living, which have deleterious effects on both men and women, and changing female roles. This interpretation is consistent with current thinking about the relationship between sex roles and mental illness, according to which the greater psychological distress among women is due to their more stressful and less satisfying roles (Gove and Tudor, 1973; Gove, 1978).

The mental health of Asian Americans

Abstract: This book critically reviews the literature on Asian American mental health. It then applies this knowledge to suggest improved ways of helping members of Asian ethnic groups, including Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Vietnamese, and Samoans.

Cultural Conceptions of Mental Health and Therapy

Abstract: Section I: Cultural Conceptions of the Person and Health.- 1. Introduction: Cultural Conceptions in Mental Health Research and Practice.- 2. Culture and Psychiatric Illness: Biomedical and Ethnomedical Aspects.- 3. The Ethnographic Study of Cultural Knowledge of "Mental Disorder".- 4. Does the Concept of the Person Vary Cross-Culturally?.- Section II: Cultural Conceptions of Mental Disorder.- 5. Toward a Meaning-Centered Analysis of Popular Illness Categories: "Fright- Illness" and "Heart Distress" in Iran.- 6. Cultural Definitions, Behavior and the Person in American Psychiatry.- 7. Samoan Folk Knowledge of Mental Disorders.- 8. Popular Conceptions of Mental Health in Japan.- 9. Science and Psychological Medicine in the Ayurvedic Tradition.- Section III: Cultural Conceptions of Therapy.- 10. The Unbounded Self: Balinese Therapy in Theory and Practice.- 11. Self-Reconstruction in Japanese Religious Psychotherapy.- 12. Psychotherapy and Emotion in Traditional Chinese Medicine.- 13. Shaman-Client Interchange in Okinawa: Performative Stages in Shamanic Therapy.- 14. Sunao: A Central Value in Japanese Psychotherapy.- Section IV: Issues and Directions.- 15. The Intercultural Context of Counseling and Therapy.- 16. Culture and Mental Health: An Overview.- List of Contributors.- Author Index.

Measuring Sex Stereotypes: A Multination Study

Abstract: Preface to Revised Edition PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Sex Stereotypes and Cross-Cultural Research PART TWO: THE ADULT STUDIES: METHODS AND FINDINGS Description and Critique of Methods Item-Level Analyses Affective Meaning Analyses Ego-State Analyses Psychological Needs Analyses PART THREE: THE CHILDREN'S STUDIES: METHODS AND FINDINGS Studies in the United States Cross-Cultural Similarities Cross-Cultural Differences PART FOUR: SUMMARIES AND INTERPRETATIONS Pancultural Similarities Differences Across Cultures PART FIVE: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX-TRAIT STEREOTYPES Sex Stereotypes in Perceptions of Self and Others Sex Stereotypes in Education, Occupation, and Mental Health Retrospect and Prospect A Broader View PART SIX: ADDENDUM Findings in Additional Countries and Replications

Aliens and Alienists: Ethnic Minorities and Psychiatry

Abstract: In this classic text the authors examine the links between racism, psychological ill health and inadequate treatment of ethnic minorities. Through a series of case studies they discuss: * the psychological legacy of colonialism and slavery * the racist bias in psychiatric and psychological theory * diagnostic bias * the role of religion in mental health or illness * the value of anthropological and pschoanalytic insights. The concluding chapter in this edition reviews the development of 'transcultural psychiatry' and summarises changes in administration of the Mental Health Act.

Use of social and health services by the elderly.

Abstract: The differences in physical and social functioning between the elderly and the general population are likely to affect the utilization of social and health services we focus on two areas: (1) determining whether the elderly are affected by factors known to be important to service utilization among the general population; and (2) exploring the relationship between medical, mental health, personal care, and recreational services, and conceptually analogous factors. Results suggest that the elderly and the general population are similarly affected by need, enabling, and predisposing factors. Once need was taken into account, enabling and predisposing factors explained little variance in utilization of any services. With the exception of recreational services, both social and medical care service utilization can be explained by the same factors.

On the Importance of Marginality: One More Step into the Two-Step Flow of Communication

Abstract: the meetings of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, Toronto. Veroff, Joseph, Richard Kulka and Elizabeth Douvan 1981 The Inner American: Life, Work, and Mental Health from 1957 to 1976. New York: Basic Books. Weissman, Myrna M. and Jerome K. Myers 1978 "Rates and risks of depressive symptoms in a United States urban community." Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavia 57:219-31. Wheaton, Blair 1978 "The sociogenesis of psychological disorder: reexamining the causal issues with longitudinal data." American Sociological Review 43:383-403. 1980 "The sociogenesis of psychological disorder: an attributional theory." Journal of Health and Social Behavior 21:100-23. 1982 "Uses and abuses of the Langner index: a reexamination of findings on psychological and psychophysiological distress." Pp. 25-54 in David Mechanic (ed.), Symptoms, Illness Behavior, and Help-Seeking. New York: Prodist. Zung, W. 1965 "A self-rating depression scale." Archives of General Psychiatry 12:63-70.

Sex and Gender

Abstract: Preface 1. Commonsense beliefs and psychological research strategies 2. Stereotypes, attitudes and personal attributes 3. Origins 4. Developmental influences 5. Sexuality: psychophysiology, psychoanalysis and social construction 6. Aggression, violence and power 7. Fear, anxiety and mental health 8. The domestic sphere 9. Work, education and occupational achievement 10. Looking back and looking ahead.

Perspectives on the past and future of psychiatric epidemiology. The 1981 Rema Lapouse Lecture.

Abstract: Two generations of epidemiological studies of the true prevalence of mental disorders have been conducted since the turn of the century. The first and smaller in number took place prior to World War II and was characterized by the use of records and key informants to define "cases." The second, utilizing the greatly expanded nomenclatures that followed World War II, were based for the most part on personal interviews with all subjects or samples there of in communities all over the world. In total, more than 80 different communities were studied by more than 60 different investigators or teams of investigators in these first and second generation studies. The legacy from these studies comes in two main parts: the first consists of methodological problems centering on the question of how to conceptualize and measure mental disorders independently of treatment status; the second is a set of consistent substantive findings about the amounts of various types of mental disorder, the proportions treated and untreated by members of the mental health professions, and the distribution of the disorders according to gender, rural vs urban location, and social class. Analyses of this legacy from first and second generation studies are presented with a view to developing informed speculations about what might be hoped for in the future, vastly different, third generation of studies in this field.

Sociocultural determinants of the help-seeking behavior of patients with mental illness.

Abstract: This descriptive study employed semistructured interviewing and questionnaire administration to delineate the sociocultural determinants of the help-seeking process in 48 psychiatric patients. The help-seeking process is considered in two stages. The first stage starts from the recognition of initial symptoms and ends in the first contact with a mental health professional. The second stage is defined as that time between the first contact and actual participation in a planned treatment program. In both stages, patients typically go through phases of lay consultation, nonpsychiatric professional consultation, and referral. The multiple steps which are usually involved in help seeking often result in significant delay of both mental health contact and treatment. The help-seeking process was found to correlate strongly with ethnicity. Both Asians and Blacks showed more extended family involvement, and the involvement of key family members tended to be persistent and intensive in Asians. Ethnicity was also associated with the length of delay, with Asians showing the longest delay and Caucasians the least. These ethnic differences were also reflected in help-seeking pathway assignment using Lin's criteria. Although modernity and parochialism, as measured by the level of modernization and the cohesiveness of the social network system of the subjects, were also found to be correlated with delay, they appeared to exert an influence independent from that of ethnicity.

Mentally disordered offenders: A national survey of patients and facilities.

Abstract: Persons believed both to be mentally ill and to have committed criminal behavior"mentally disordered offenders"' are enmeshed in a Byzantine pattern of relationships between mental health and correctional agencies, such that they often receive the worst that both systems have to offer (Kittrie, 1971; Wexler, 1976). As well, they confront forensic psychiatry and psychology with ethical dilemmas that defy easy resolution (Roth, 1980) and with demands for levels of predictive accuracy and treatment efficacy that appear to exceed the state of the mental health sciences in the present or foreseeable future (Steadman, 1980; Monahan, 1981). A confluence of several factors has served to highlight the salience of mentally disordered offenders to mental health and criminal justice agencies in recent years.

The process and dimensions of burnout in psychotherapists.

Abstract: The present study focuses on the phenomenon of therapist burnout—a problem of rapidly increasing public and professional concern. Two-hour semistructured interviews were conducted with a heterogeneous group of psychotherapists (N = 60) in order to investigate their experiences of therapeutic practice. According to therapists, professional satisfaction derives from the ability to promote a helpful therapeutic relationship; dissatisfaction stems primarily from lack of therapeutic success; and burnout is primarily a consequence of the nonreciprocated attentiveness, giving, and responsibility demanded by the therapeutic relationship. The data suggest that although therapists expect their work to be difficult and even stressful, they also expect their efforts to "pay off." Burnout is not only psychologically debilitating to therapists, it also critically impairs the delivery of mental health services. As part of a comprehensive project to investigate the effects of psychotherapy on psychotherapists, the present study was designed to focus on the phenomenon of therapist burnout. Freudenberger (1974) originally coined the term burnout to describe the emotional and physical exhaustion of staff members of alternative health care institutions. In recent years a small but growing number of investigators have studied the burnout phenomenon (Cherniss, 1980; Cherniss, Egnatios, & Wacker, 1976; Edelwich & Brodsky, 1980; Freudenberger, 1974, 1977; Freudenberger & Richelson, 1980; Kahn, 1978; Maslach, 1976, 1978; Maslach & Pines, 1977; Mattingly, 1977; Pines & Aronson, 1980; Pines & Kafry, 1978). Maslach (1976), for example, in studying a broad range of health and social service professionals, found that burned-out professionals "lose all concern, all emotional feelings for the persons they work with and come to treat them in detached or even de-humanized ways" (p. 16). Burned-out professionals may become cynical toward their clients, blaming them for creating their own difficulties or labeling them in derogatory terms. To maintain a safe emotional distance from an unsettling client, professionals may increasingly resort to technical jargon and refer to clients in diagnostic terms. Furthermore, the emotional frustrations attendant to this phenomenon may lead to psychosomatic symptoms (e.g., exhaustion, insomnia, ulcers, headaches) as well as to increased family conflicts. Burnout has become a problem of increasing public and professional concern. Indeed, it may well become a "catch-phrase" of the 1980s (Kennedy, 1979). There is, however, a notable paucity of research on stress and burnout in psychotherapists. This gap exists despite the fact that over 40 years ago Freud (1937/1964) wrote of the "dangers of analysis" for analysts, despite the fact that the inner experience of the therapist has come to be acknowledged as an important variable in the psychotherapeutic process (Burton, 1972), and despite, too, the fact that the manpower shortage in the mental health field (Albee, 1959,1968; Hobbs, 1964) critically increases the need to maximize the job satisfaction and efficiency of available personnel. The literature bearing on the issue of therapist stress and burnout consists primarily of (a) studies that have investigated the general nature of burnout in the human services field (e.g., Cherniss, 1980, Edelwich & Brodsky, 1980; Freudenberger & Richelson, 1980; Pines & Aronson, 1980); (b) clinical accounts of the difficulties of therapeutic

Aging & mental health: Positive psychosocial and biomedical approaches

Abstract: Designed for professionals working with the elderly, this text provides comprehensive coverage of the ageing process and its effects on mental health. It sets out the nature and problems of old age, including the problems of older people in their families, and explores some of the common emotional problems and psychiatric disorders which can affect the elderly. It also outlines the evaluation, treatment and prevention of some common effects of ageing. There is specific coverage of race, ethnicity, gender, crime, alcoholism and physical disabilities, including deafness and blindness.

Grandparenthood: An Overview of Meaning and Mental Health

Abstract: This study explored the meaning of grandparenthood to grandparents, the importance of grandparenthood across the life cycle, and the relationship   

Social networks and mental health: on overview.

Abstract: Research has shown that social networks can act as social support systems to promote mental health and buffer psychological stress. In this selective review the authors illuminate patterns and characteristics of social networks that maintain health and help prevent illness, explore the relationship between social networks and the course and outcome of treatment for mental illness, and describe clinical network interventions that have been used to facilitate inpatient care and maximize performance of ex-patients in the community. The authors also discuss the implications of research findings for mental health practice.

Occupational stress among student nurses: a natural experiment.

Abstract: This article describes a natural experiment that overcomes a number of methodological problems inherent in previous studies of occupational stress and strengthens evidence for the causal role of the work setting in influencing mental health and well-being. Student nurses (N = 164) were randomly assigned to one of four possible combinations of ward types such that two factors—type of nursing (medical/surgical) and sex of patients (male/female)—were systematicall y varied with counterbalancing of order effects. Self-reported levels of affective symptoms and perceptions of the work environment, together with independent data on sickness/absence, performance, and the objective work environment, were recorded longitudinally over the two ward periods. Within-subjects analyses showed significant differences between medical and surgical wards in affective symptoms and in perceived and objective measures of the work environment. Male and female wards differed primarily in the perceived environment, work satisfaction, and performance. Correlational analyses were used to examine the relationships between different types of measures. Further analysis of the main effects, with control for covariance, indicated that the perceived work environment contributed to the observed differences in affective distress between medical and surgical wards, while mitigating differences between male and female wards. In spite of extensive research, the causal role of the work environment in influencing mental health and well-being has not yet been adequately demonstrated. The difficulties in resolving this important issue are primarily methodological, and several recent papers have emphasized the limitations of

Intergenerational Exchange and Subjective Well-being among the Elderly.

Abstract: Previous research has generally found that no relationship exists between the morale or life satisfaction of the elderly and their interaction with kin, including adult offspring. This may be due to the fact that most studies have measured interaction in terms of quantity and/or frequency, ignoring other dimensions of these relationships. This study focuses on the exchange of aid between older persons and their children. Hypotheses regarding relationships between mutual aid and the morale of the elderly are developed and tested on a sample of 403 parents aged 60 and over. No relationships between morale and the exchange of aid are found. These results, while not conclusive in themselves, add to the growing body of evidence which suggests that interaction with kin has no demonstrable consequences for the emotional well-being of the elderly.

How Families Evaluate Mental Health Professionals, Resources, and Effects of Illness

Abstract: Evaluations by families (of chronically mentally ill individuals) of mental health professionals and resources were solicited through a mail survey. The respondents, largely better educated, white, and female, indicated a generally high level of dissatisfaction. Emotional support, information, and aftercare resources were identified as particular areas of concern. The survey findings present a challenge to mental health professionals to reconsider the effects of chronic mental illness on the family and the needs of the non-ill family members.

The Foster Care System and Health Status of Foster Children

Abstract: The foster home care system is the most commonly used alternative for the care of dependent children in the United States. However, it often fails to achieve its objective of returning the child to his home or providing a permanent substitute family. Children entering foster care have frequently suffered social, emotional, and medical neglect, and physical abuse. They have a high rate of chronic medical problems, educational handicaps, and severe emotional impairment. In many cases the health care that foster children receive fails to recognize and/or adequately address their disabilities. In order for the pediatric practitioner to work successfully with a foster child, he must not only provide comprehensive health care, but also must be familiar with the social welfare system within which the child lives.