Showing papers on "Mental health published in 1983"

The Managed Heart

Abstract: This chapter offers insight into how organizations shape workers' perceptions in such a way as to ensure that they place themselves in harm's way and stand firm when things begin to fall apart. It explains how the forest service socializes firefighters to understand risk and evaluates the degree to which firefighters accept this socialization process, demonstrating that they are trained to view firefighting as an activity dangerous only for the incompetent and explores how this position holds up when confronted with the death of a firefighter. The training booklet features the ten standard fire orders and the eighteen situations that shout "watch out!" or simply the ten and eighteen. Accepting these rules requires accepting unspoken institutionalized principles that influence the way firefighters understand risk. The external eulogy holds firefighters to be innocent victims whose altruistic and sacrificial deaths can be explained simply by the violent and volatile nature of wildfire. By exaggerating individual deviance, the forest service erases risk.

Stress, coping, and development in children

Abstract: How does stress affect the coping abilities of children? Is response to stress a matter of nature, nurture, or both? Is stress good, bad, or neutral? From a multiplicity of viewpoints, twelve eminent researchers and clinicians here examine the problems of stress in children. Considering stress from a neurochemical as well as a developmental perspective, they examine a wide range of specific stressors including prematurity, hospitalization, birth of a sibling, deprivation, death of a parent, divorce, and war. "Stress, Coping, and Development in Children" is a work of signal importance to psychologists and to every mental health professional involved with infants and children.

Does marriage have positive effects on the psychological well-being of the individual?

Abstract: Although a large number of studies show a correlation between marital status and mental health, the relative magnitude of the relationship, as compared to the strength of the relationship of other variables related to mental health, is not known. In this empirical evaluation, it is shown that in the present data, marital status is the most powerful predictor of the mental health variables considered. Data are then used to show that it is the quality of a marriage and not marriage per se that links marriage to positive mental health. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the psychological functions of marriage.

Social support and psychological disorder: a review.

Abstract: With the rapid growth in the literature on social support and psychological disorder, a review of the area is in order. The present article describes current conceptualizations of social support, and presents a distillation of empirical evidence on the relationships among stress, social support, and psychological disorder. The structure of support links and the quality of the relationships they provide appear to be associated with a range of mental health issues. Methodological problems with current research are assessed, and suggestions for appropriate design and conceptualization are offered.

Religiosity and Mental Health: A Critical Reevaluation and Meta-Analysis

Abstract: For many decades, lassitude and malaise hae afflieled the relationship btiween psychology and religion. Intemt and actioity in this rtlalionship are now being renewed, and old controoersies with ntID terms are resurfacing. This article rroiews the extensioe empirical literature on the topic and shows that rtligiosity is a compla phenomenon with numerouscorrtlates and consequencesthat defy simple inttrprtialions. A meta-analysis of 24 pertinent studies rroealed no support for the preconception that religiousness is necessarily correlated with psychopathology; but it also showed only slightly positioe corrtlates of rtligion. Sociological and psychiatric reports were more faoorable to religion. The data's ambiguities compare with those ambiguities that formerly charaelerized psychotherapy research. Beller specification of concepts and methods of measuring rtligiosity are alleoiating this problem. which suggests that ambiguous results ref/eel a multidimensional phenomenon that has mixed posit iDe and negatioe aspects. Aoeraging such dioerse factors generally yields unimpressioe findings. whereas using specificity promises clearer and more powerful results. Clinical education. practice, and research nud rroision so that professionals will be beller informed of the eoidence. more open to the study of such oariables. and more efficacious in their work with persons who approach life from a rtligious perspeelioe. In a recent article on psychotherapy and religious values, I indicated that a renascence of psychological interest in religion is occurring (Bergin, 1980a, 1980b). Value assumptions underlying clinical approaches are often considered alien by a large proportion of the population in treatment, who endorse more traditional religious perspectives. I argued that religion should be considered more systematically in personality theories and therapeutic interventions. Responses to these themes were numerous, divergent, and vigorous. The topic is not "dead," as was once lamented (Beit-Hallahmi, 1974), and a new National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) bibliography on the subject is now available (Summerlin, 1980). The present review considers the assertion by critics (Ellis, 1980; Walls, 1980) that religiosity is antithectical to emotional health and rationality, a view widely held in the clinical professions. Ellis (1980) stated this position bluntly and honestly:

Prevalence of depression and its correlates in older adults

Abstract: Depression was studied in a community sample of 962 males and 1555 females aged 55 years and over living in Kentucky in 1981. The sample was representative of the population in Kentucky in that age group and quite similar to that US population. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale was used as a measure of depression, and 13.7% of the males and 18.2% of the females were at or above a previously established cutpoint of 20 for adults over age 55 years. Significant relationships to depression were found in both sexes for age, education, income, housing quality, marital status, and health. For females, the age-depression relationship was not linear. By far the strongest relationship was with self-reported physical health. Significant proportions of those with self-reported kidney or bladder disease, heart trouble, lung trouble, hardening of the arteries, and stroke were above the depression cutpoint. For those conditions, physicians could expect high levels of concomitant depression in about one fourth of males and at least one third of females. These levels of depression were not found for those with high blood pressure, stomach ulcers, cancer, or diabetes. Over half of the sample reported taking prescribed medication and over half had needed a physician's care in the previous six months. Only 3.9% of the males and 3.2% of the females admitted to needing help for mental health problems. Thus, older adults with depression would probably be more likely to seek help from physicians than from services or professionals with explicit mental health labels.

Coping with domestic violence: Social support and psychological health among battered women

Abstract: This study suggests a conceptual framework for examining the impact of stress (i.e., level of violence), personal resources, social support, institutional responsiveness, and coping upon the psychological health (i.e., depression, mastery, and self-esteem) of battered women. Respondents were 60 women who had sought assistance from a shelter for battered women. Results indicated that increased levels of violence, minimal personal resources, lack of institutional and informal social support, and greater avoidant coping styles were related to lowered self-esteem and more severe depressive symptoms. Exploratory analyses suggested that stress (i.e., level of violence) and personal resources may have indirect effects upon functioning through their impact on coping responses and the availability of social support. In particular, women who had fewer social contacts unaccompanied by their partner were less likely to receive supportive responses from friends. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Familial risk and child competence.

Abstract: Components of familial risk are examined in the context of a 4-year longitudinal study of children with mentally ill mothers. The risk factors examined are parental mental health, social status, parental perspectives, and family stress. The interactions among the risk factors were found to be complex in nature and different for child cognitive and social-emotional competence. These findings are discussed in the context of a systems approach to development in general, and to the development of children at risk in particular. Parental beliefs, attitudes, and coping abilities are hypothesized to be important mediators between environmental stress and child competencies.

Social Support Strategies: Guidelines for Mental Health Practice

Abstract: A summary of research about the use of family, friends and neighbours as a natural adjunct to professional human services. The book is also full of practical ideas and examples, covering a range of applications which show how social support can be used in preventative programmes, in medical practice, at work, in caring for the elderly, and in the social services. Gottlieb also uses research to show how alterations to organizational structure can transform an unsupportive milieu into one in which social support plays a prominent part. '...Social Support Strategies, is a useful addition to the SAGE range and to the ever-growing literature on community mental health...This is a useful book for social workers and residential care staff concerned with developing social support strategies, and it would be a helpful read for community nurses.' -- Health and Social Service Journal, March 1984 'A monumental task very effectively carried out, the book will be a welcome aid to both theorists and field workers.' -- Journal of the Institute of Health Education, Vol 21 No 4, 1984 '...(the author) has thoroughly reviewed social support research in order to suggest practical implications for professional helpers. ..What is striking about this book is Gottlieb's thorough familiarity with the social support literature; his bibliography reflects research from various fields, including medicine, business management, and behavioral sciences. Several models of social support interventions, useful in a wide variety of contexts, are presented for review, Human service professionals will find (this book) to be an excellent overview of social support research as well as a valuable resource of treatment options.' -- The American Journal of Family Therapy, Vol 12 No 3, Fall 1984 '(The author) demonstrates an unusual ability to distill essential concepts and research findings from a vast array of studies and to present these in a clear and concise manner...Through his understanding of the worlds of both the research scholar and the practitioner, and his ablitiy to communicate effectively with both, (the author) has been able to produce an excellent, practical and well written volume which makes a long overdue contribution to the social support literature.' -- Health Education Quarterly, Vol 12 No 1, Spring 1985

Stress, coping, and Black mental health: preliminary findings from a national study.

Abstract: Despite the fact that blacks are disproportionately exposed to social conditions considered to be antecedents of psychiatric disorder, epidemiologic studies have not conclusively demonstrated that blacks exhibit higher rates of mental illness than whites. The present paper employed a research approach which considered not only rates of psychological distress, but also the stressors that blacks face and the various coping strategies used to adapt to those stressors. The data were obtained from the National Survey of Black Americans, the first study of a national probability sample of the adult black population. The information on mental health and coping was collected within the context of a single stressful personal problem. The analysis indicates that prayer was an extremely important coping response used by blacks especially among those making less than $10,000, above the age of 55 and women. The informal social network was used quite extensively as a means of coping with problems. This was true for all sociodemographic groups studied. The young (18-34) were less likely than those age 35 and above to seek professional help, while women were more likely than men to seek formal assistance. Income was not related to professional help seeking. With respect to the use of specific professional help sources, hospital emergency rooms, private physicians and ministers were used most frequently. The implications of these findings for research on black mental health and primary prevention are discussed.

Crime and Mental Disorder: An Epidemiological Approach

Abstract: The analytic framework of epidemiology can be used to study the relation between crime and mental disorder, distinguishing between the true rates of crime and mental disorder, that is, the rates at which crime and mental disorder actually occur, and their treated rates, that is, the rates at which the criminal justice and mental health systems respond to them. The conclusion that emerges is that rates of true and treated criminal behavior vary independently of rates of true and treated mental disorder when appropriate controls are made for such demographic factors as age, gender, and social class and for such life history factors as prior experience in the mental health and criminal justice systems. When these controls are not applied, rates of true and treated mental disorder are higher among criminals than among the general population, and rates of true and treated crime are higher among the mentally disordered than among the general population. When these controls are applied, the observed relations te...

Social support networks : informal helping in the human services

Abstract: This book offers for the first time a clear conception of what social support networks are, why they are important, how they are identified and sustained, where they fit in an overall framework of human services, and their limits and potential in selected fields of practice. Individual chapters explore: child, adolescent, and family services; daycare and early childhood development; divorced and stepfamilies; schools; delinquency prevention and treatment; mental health; service to the elderly; development disabilities; healthcare and health promotion; and drug treatment. The use of "social support networks"--extended family, friends, neighbors, and other "informal" helpers--is an idea whose time has come in the human services field. At a time when spiraling costs and popular sentiment weigh against any major expansion of services, it is apparent that a service strategy based primarily on the notion of professional helping delivered on a case-by-case basis, usually in a one-to-one relationship, has serious limitations. Professional response to this major work has been uniformly positive: "[The editors] have assembled a book of considerable importanceAbrilliant in both scholarship and constructionAwill appeal to a broad readershipA"--Gerald Euster, University of South Carolina. "Aoffers a much needed balance to the focus on individual and internal dynamics which has characterized social work education for several decades."--Eleanor Reardon Tolson, University of Chicago. "Social Support Networks is a valuable contributionAa unique, original, and authoritative book...an exciting, timely, and definitely practice-oriented book with a strong theoretical and research base."--Anthony N. Maluccio, University of Connecticut. James K. Whittaker is professor of social work at the University of Washington. A former childcare worker, therapist, and administrator in residential childcare, he has been a consultant to governmental and voluntary children's agencies throughout the United States. "James Garbarino "is Elizabeth Lee Vincent Professor of Human Development in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. He was president of the Erikson Institute for Advanced Study in Child Development, Chicago, Illinois, from 1985 to 1994. He is the co-author of "Troubled Youth, Troubled Families," also available from AldineTransaction.

The impact of pathological gambling on the spouse of the gambler

Abstract: The present investigation focused on the spouses of compulsive gamblers and attempted to obtain baseline information on their personal characteristics, family backgrounds, as well as information about their awareness of gambling as a behavioral disorder, their reactions to the problems they encountered as a result of living with a compulsive gambler, and how they attempted to cope with those problems. The results indicate that the spouse of the compulsive gambler is affected by significant social, psychological, and economic stresses that can be directly related to the partner's gambling activities. The impact of such stresses can be observed in a variety of dysfunctional coping responses. The participants in this investigation eventually obtained assistance in dealing with their problems from Gam-Anon, the family counterpart of Gamblers Anonymous. But, prior to their contact with Gam-Anon, they sought assistance from members of the medical, religious, financial, legal, and mental health fields. For the most part such individuals were perceived as being unable to assist the survey participants in dealing with their problems. Recent advances in our understanding of the psychological bases of compulsive gambling and its treatement have led to the development of community-based treatment services for the gambler. The results of this investigation point out the need for the provision of services to those affected by the gambler as well.

Effects of Stressful Life Events on Individual Performance Effectiveness and Work Adjustment Processes Within Organizational Settings: A Research Model

Abstract: In administrative and organizational sciences, the impact of stress on valued work outcomes generallv has been conceptualized in terms of work, organization, and occupation related factors. This paper presents a new conceptual model and a series of research propositions that underscore and integrate the etiological significance of stressful life events in one's personal life with stresses originating from one's organizational life. Implications for future research are discussed.

Legal coercion and retention in drug abuse treatment.

Abstract: The criminal justice system is increasingly referring offenders who have mental health problems to the community mental health system for treatment. The effects of such referrals on treatment outcome and on the mental health and criminal justice systems are not well understood. Because the length of time an individual remains in a drug abuse treatment program is an important indicator of treatment effectiveness, this paper assesses the impact of court referrals by examining the relationship between a drug abuser's length of stay in treatment and his referral by legal and nonlegal sources. Regression analyses on data for more than 2,200 individuals indicate that clients who are legally induced to seek treatment stay in treatment longer than, and do at least as well as, those who seek treatment voluntarily. The implications of these findings for drug abuse treatment and policy are discussed.

Development of the Spanish-Language Version of the National Institute of Mental Health Diagnostic Interview Schedule

Abstract: • The use of the National Institute of Mental Health Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) to elicit DSM-Ill -defined mental disorders among Hispanic respondents in the Los Angeles site of the Epidemiologic Catchment Area project required development of a Spanish translation of the instrument that would be understood readily by persons of Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban origin The translation was carried out using back translation, bilingual test respondents, a bilingual translation staff, an extensive committee of experienced bilingual clinicians as translation consultants, and revision following clinical evaluation A study of its reliability and comparison with clinical diagnoses obtained with Spanish-speaking psychiatric outpatients indicated satisfactory equivalence of the Spanish DIS to the English version Early international use of the Spanish DIS promises new data on the cross-cultural validity and prevalence rates of DSM-Ill -diagnosed disorders

A guide to benefit-cost analysis, as seen through a controlled experiment in treating the mentally ill

Abstract: The study reported on here is the first benefit-cost analysis of a controlled (random assignment) experiment in the mental health field. It compares, in terms of an unusually wide variety of tangible and intangible forms of benefits and costs, a traditional, hospital-based approach to treating the mentally ill with a nontraditional community-based approach. The research reported here supports the hypothesis that hospitalization of the mentally ill is, except for emergencies, less effective than community-based treatment of approximately equal cost. The research also confirms the hypothesis that the forms taken by the social costs of alternative programs can be so different that it is easy to mistake a change in the form of costs for a change in their level. Finally, this study highlights the fact that benefit-cost analysis, despite advances at both the conceptual and empirical levels, remains a mixture of science and art.

Personality characteristics of community mental health volunteers: a review

Abstract: Community volunteers provide assistance to a wide variety of client populations. Indeed, without the efforts of these individuals, many services, particularly those in the mental health field, would be greatly reduced or become unavailable altogether (Carter, 1975). An examination of the determinants of this altruistic behavior, therefore, is of practical significance, as well as theoretical import.

Effects of bereavement on indicators of mental health in elderly widows and widowers.

Abstract: The effects of bereavement on self-report measures of psychological distress were evaluated in widows and widowers at approximately 2 months after the death of a spouse. These data represent the first time of measurement in an ongoing longitudinal study of conjugal bereavement in elders. Responses of 95 male and 104 female elderly bereaved on measures of grief, depression, global severity of psychological distress, and general mental health functioning were compared with those of 79 male and female elderly individuals who were not currently suffering from the loss of a spouse. In general, means for the bereaved group were not in ranges consistent with the presence of serious psychopathology. Women in both groups reported greater distress than men, and significant sex-by-bereavement-status interactions on mental health measures were not observed.

The WHO collaborative study on strategies for extending mental health care, II: The development of new research methods.

Abstract: Teams in seven developing countries under sponsorship of the World Health Organization have been carrying out collaborative operational research on providing mental health care through primary health care services. New techniques of identifying mental disorders in children and adults have been developed and tested. Methods of assessing the skills and attitudes of health workers toward mental health work and of gauging community attitudes toward mental illness have also been developed. Results have been directly applied in planning better mental health care. The authors conclude that cross-cultural collaborative research is effective in improving mental health care for those in greatest need.

Family therapy in schizophrenia

Abstract: For the families of persons with schizophrenia and other chronic mental health problems, psychoeducational groups offer a powerful means of improving this book offers coping skills, reducing stress, and providing information to enhance caregiving. Empirical research also suggests that participation in such groups may have positive long-term effects on patients' interpersonal functioning and clinical stability. This volume provides a complete guide to the multifamily psychoeducational approach. .Also covered in depth are applications of the model to a variety of other contexts and disorders, including bipolar disorder, depression, OCD, borderline personality disorder, and medical illness.

An Overview of Patient Satisfaction With Psychiatric Treatment

Abstract: Patient satisfaction with psychiatric treatment can strongly influence pursuit and use of mental health services as well as treatment compliance and treatment outcome. Although assessment of patient satisfaction is crucial to designing effective mental health programs, no standard methodology exists to measure satisfaction; thus it is difficult to compare findings from different satisfaction studies. The author examines the studies in four areas of satisfaction research: patient satisfaction with treatment, with participation in research, with participation as subjects in psychiatric teaching, and with involuntary commitment. He notes the variance between mental health professionals' expectations of patient satisfaction and the higher satisfaction that patients themselves report. He also discusses the need for more study of the subjective experience of patients who participate in research projects, teaching conferences, and observed psychotherapy and who undergo involuntary commitment.

Counteracting the Deviance of Depression: Peer Support Groups for Victims

Abstract: Early laboratory research has shown that when people are faced with a stressfull situation they prefer the company of those facing the same unpleasant event. In this paper we extend this work by examining the impact that peer support group membership has on the mental health of participants, individuals who have sought the help of similarly afflicted others. We present a theoretical argument which proposes that needs for evaluating the appropriateness of one's emotional reactions to victimization are not likely to be met through normal social interactions, leading to feelings of perceived self deviance which could contribute to depression. We suggest that needs for validation, however, could be fulfilled when a victim is able to share emotional reactions with those having similar experiences in peer support groups. Indirect evidence from other research and relevant data from our pilot study on peer support for rape victims indicates that feelings of deviance do tend to decline after group participation. The findings on the reduction of negative affect of group members are rather limited, but positive outcomes generally have been obtained in groups facilitated by professionals. We conclude by suggesting some of the functions that peer support groups may serve for participants in the hopes of increasing their general effectiveness as vehicles for depression reduction.

The role of theory

Abstract: In his psychosocial theory of development, Erik Erikson poses a viable framework from within which occupational therapists may evaluate and assess adjustment to dysfunction. Occupational therapist are familiar with the application of Erikson's eight stages to developmental problems. The authors present suggestions for the application of this theory to a variety of psychosocial and physical dysfunctions affecting mental health. These problems may result in the need to resolve Eriksonian crises at later points rather than regarding each crisis from a purely age-oriented developmental view. Awareness of the role of theory in the clinical application of occupational therapy skills may suggest new approaches for the therapist.

Mental Health Act 1983

Abstract: KIE: After reviewing the history of mental health legislation in England, Hamilton discusses some provisions of the new Mental Health Act that went into effect in September 1983. Among the issues pertaining to involuntary commitment covered by the act are the terminology and definition of mental illness; criteria for emergency admission, admission for assessment, and length of detention; patients' rights; mental health review tribunals; and consent to treatment. Two of the more controversial provisions are the reinstitution of a mental health commission with protective functions for detained patients, and a mandatory second opinion for certain forms of treatment.