Videotaped improvisational drama with emotionally disturbed adolescents a pilot study

This pilot study examines effects of videotaped improvisational drama on social attitudes of emotionally disturbed adolescents, emphasizing locus of control. Researchers hypothesized that subjects who created and acted in improvised dramas would increase in a sense of control over both the dramas and their own lives. Subjects were 12ndash;17-year-old students at a residential school for emotionally disturbed children. Seven were selected for a videodrama class (treatment), seven for a control group. The class met three times weekly for nine weeks as part of the school's curriculum. To prevent subject bias, all secondary students at the school were pre- and posttested on the Nowicki-Strickland Personal Reaction Survey: A Locus of Control Scale for Children. Scores of the control group became more external on the post-test while treatment subjects' scores became more internal as hypothesized. Results were significant at the .05 level. In posttreatment interviews, teachers, caseworkers, and subjects reported increased prosocial behaviors and attitudes among subjects. Despite methodological limitations, the study is a promising step toward defining the benefits of drama with emotionally disturbed adolescents.     

Criteria for appropriate and inappropriate referrals to a Crisis clinic

The purpose of this study was to develop criteria for appropriate and inappropriate referrals by telephone counselors to a crisis clinic. Interviews were conducted with staff members and volunteers of the Suicide Prevention and Crisis Service to explore possible criteria for making a referral. Nine criteria for inappropriate referrals and eight criteria for appropriate referrals were established. Data were then collected from a larger sample of staff members and volunteers (N=56) in the form of a ranked-order questionnaire, and differences between the staff and volunteers were examined. Rankings were significantly different for only 2 of the 17 categories suggesting that there is general agreement between staff and volunteers on the criteria for appropriate and inappropriate referrals for counseling. Policy implications of the accepted criteria are discussed.The authors wish to express their appreciation to the staff and volunteers of the Erie County Suicide Prevention and Crisis Service, especially David Speer, Research Director, and Charles Haywood, Executive Director. This study was partially funded by NIMH Grant No. ROIMH 22644 MHSS.     

Mental Health Center and School District Partnership for Emotionally Disturbed Children

The award winning partnership between a school district and mental health facility to operate a special day program for severely emotionally disturbed children is described. The Northside Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas has contracted with the Southwest Mental Health Center for 15 years to provide clinical program management, counseling, and consultation plus the behavior management services by mental health workers. Over fifty elementary age children participate daily in the Northside Children's Center therapeutic program. The District assigns special education teachers and necessary support staff for this program plus the school facility. Parent satisfaction has been positive and school attendance is congruent with both District and State averages for regular students.     

The comprehensive community mental health center as a field placement for graduate social work students

The comprehensive community mental health center, as a new organization, has many characteristics that make it a unique setting for the training of social workers. The organization's struggles for identity create a fluidity that requires the development of flexibility greatly needed in the mental health professions. Students can make valuable contributions to the functioning of the center if allowed to become fully involved in its activities. A generation gap may exist between senior staff, trained in traditional settings, and new staff and students whose orientations are more relevant to community practice.     

Development and evaluation of a training program for volunteers working in day treatment.

When staff members of a community mental health center's day treatment program for adults with emotional problems found there was not enough time for planning and meeting program goals, they considered using volunteers to help in the treatment process. The center staff worked with the local mental health association to plan the training and use of volunteers. Twenty-five volunteers were initially selected and trained. They evaluated the training through questionnaires immediately after training and after three and six months of service. Respondents felt the training prepared them to perform their duties and understand their roles as volunteers. Volunteers have worked in the program for two and a half years; currently 28 volunteers each work approximately three hours a week.     

The use of volunteers in a community mental health center emergency and reception service: A comparative study of professional and lay telephone counseling

A model of volunteer participation in a community mental health center emergency and reception service is presented and tested by comparing the telephone counseling effectiveness of volunteers and community mental health professionals. Experienced and inexperienced volunteers, professionals, and control subjects responded to simulated telephone crisis calls that were taperecorded and replayed for ratings along seven scales which assessed various dimensions of counseling effectiveness. The results suggested that carefully selected and trained volunteers can function as effectively as professional staff in providing supportive and emergency telephone services for distressed callers and community mental health center clients.Ms. George is a former volunteer and former cocoordinator of the Ben Gordon Community Mental Health Center Crisis Line. The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of Drs. David O. Hill and Seymore Simon to the experimental design of this study, and the contributions of James W. Graves, Marilyn O'Hair, Dr. Len Pecilunas, seminar students of the Community Mental Health Program at Northern Illinois University, and members of the 1970 Community Mental Health Board of DeKalb County to the design of the emergency and reception service.     

Rating management difficulty: a study into the prevalence and severity of difficult behaviour displayed by residents in a large residential hospital for the mentally handicapped

ABSTRACT. This survey assessed the prevalence and severity of difficult behaviour displayed by residents in a residential hospital for the mentally handicapped as reported by the direct-care staff. Of the hospital residents, 30.2% were reported as having at least one problematic behaviour. The men were generally more difficult than the women and those on the disturbed wards more difficult than those on residential wards. Men and women exhibited the same types of behaviours in both disturbed and residential wards. However, withdrawn/uncooperative behaviour, stealing and inappropriate sexual behaviour were more prevalent on disturbed wards; withdrawn and inappropriate sexual behaviour being exhibited by more men than women on disturbed wards. The factors most likely associated with being on a disturbed ward were sex and age; young men presenting with most management difficulty. Approximately 12% of the hospital population were defined as presenting with a 'severe' management difficulty. Difficult behaviour is the main reason for admission to and remaining in hospital. The concept of management difficulty and the implications on service provision are discussed.     

Comparison of clinical types of Wilson's disease and glucose metabolism in extrapyramidal motor brain regions

In Wilson's disease a disturbed glucose metabolism especially in striatal and cerebellar areas has been reported. This is correlated with the severity of extrapyramidal motor symptoms (EPS). These findings are only based on a small number of patients. Up to now it is unknown whether EPS are caused by various patterns of disturbed basal ganglia glucose metabolism. We investigated 37 patients and 9 normal volunteers to characterize the disturbed glucose metabolism in Wilson's disease more precisely. The glucose metabolism was determined in 5 cerebellar and cerebral areas (putamen, caput nuclei caudati, cerebellum, midbrain and thalamic area) by using ¹⁸ F-Fluorodesoxyglucose-Positron-Emission-Tomography ( [ ¹⁸ F]FDG-PET). The database was evaluated by a cluster analysis. Additionally, the severity extrapyramidal motor symptoms were judged by a clinical score system. Three characteristic patterns of glucose metabolism in basal ganglia were obtained. Two of them may be assigned to patients with neurological symptoms whereas the third cluster corresponds to most patients without EPS or normal volunteers. The clusters can be identified by characteristic consumption rates in this 5 brain areas. The severity of EPS can not clearly be assigned to one of the clusters with disturbed glucose metabolism. However, the most severe cases are characterized by the lowest consumption in the striatal area. When there is marked improvement of EPS impaired glucose consumption reveals a persistent brain lesion. Finally, the neurological symptoms in Wilson's disease are caused by (at least) two different patterns of disturbed glucose metabolism in basal ganglia and cerebellum. The severity of EPS seems to be determined by a disturbed consumption in the striatal area. Received: 6 July 2001, Received in revised form: 14 November 2001, Accepted: 3 December 2001     

The role of nonprofessional volunteers in a Suicide Prevention Center

The procedures in the selection, training and supervision of 10 nonprofessional volunteers, to provide direct therapeutic crisis services to patients in a Suicide Prevention Center are described. One year's experience indicates a high degree of proficiency achieved by the volunteer in the handling of suicidal crises. The volunteers' reactions to the program are reported. Significant problems for the agency emerged in reference to precipitous increase in size of staff communication, and for the volunteer, in stimulation of problems of identity and selfconcept. The comments are limited to agency situations involving the use of nonprofessional volunteers in regular collaboration with a professional staff. Other models, such as entirely volunteer staffed groups, must be evaluated separately.     

Modifying an Evidence-Based Summer Treatment Program for Use in a Summer School Setting: A Pilot Effectiveness Evaluation

This report evaluates a pilot implementation of a modified version of the Summer Treatment Program (STP; Pelham et al. in Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents. The Guilford Press, New York, 2010) as an afternoon adjunct to a mandatory summer school curriculum in three inner city elementary schools (Summer School STP; SSSTP). Using preliminary post-test measures, the SSSTP was compared with afternoon adjunct programs implemented in two comparison schools. Students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade who failed to meet grade-level requirements for grade promotion were required to attend the program and served as participants (SSSTP n?=?585; Comparison n?=?686). Measures collected include the following: student self-reports, teachers?? program evaluations, staff evaluations (of students, program, benefit to self), staff ratings of benefit to junior counselors (i.e., adolescent employees), and independent observations. Results suggest that the SSSTP is an acceptable and feasible adjunctive intervention for the summer school setting in inner city schools. Further research is needed to examine academic and therapeutic benefits.     

Environmental risk factors in MS: a case-control study in Moscow

Environmental influences operating as possible risk factors in MS were studied in Moscow. The study included 155 MS patients from the Neurology Departments and the outpatient clinics of the First City Hospital of Moscow and 155 controls matched for sex, age in 5-year intervals, nationality, and origin (Moscow vs. non Moscow). 72.3% of controls were recruited among patients from the same hospital as the cases. The remaining controls were volunteers from the hospital staff or medical students. Exposures before age 15 were of special interest. MS patients reported a higher frequency of: 1) tonsillitis; 2) allergic reactions after age 15; 3) head trauma below age 16; 4) a predominant meat vs. vegetable diet during childhood. Stratified analysis and logistic regression pointed to "meat predominance" as the most significant risk factor. Other associations were confounded by the respondents' occupation/education.     

Collaborating with Public School Partners to Implement Teacher–Child Interaction Training (TCIT) as Universal Prevention

This study expands on prior work investigating the transferability of parent–child interaction therapy, an efficacious treatment program targeting parents of children with disruptive behavior problems, for use as a universal preventive intervention targeting classroom teachers. Using a case study design, Teacher–Child Interaction Training (TCIT) was implemented sequentially with two groups of teachers (N = 20) and 169 preschool and kindergarten students in a public school setting. This study served as a pilot test for the feasibility of having local school staff independently implement TCIT, following training and participation in an initial delivery of TCIT conducted by a research team. Controlling for teacher effects, teacher ratings of children’s total protective factor scores (TPF) significantly increased and ratings of behavior concerns (BC) significantly decreased over the course of the intervention. Boys and students qualifying for special education received lower TPF and higher BC ratings at baseline, yet interactions with time were nonsignificant, suggesting that all students improved according to teacher ratings across time. Observational data showed that teachers in both researcher-delivered and local staff-delivered groups substantially increased in their use of positive attention skills following training. Intervention effects, as well as program implementation factors (e.g., teacher attendance, homework completion), were comparable across researcher and school-based staff deliveries, suggesting that school staff were able to implement TCIT effectively. We discuss future research directions for TCIT implementation and development, as well as practical considerations for partnering with school systems.     

Comparing expression levels of PERIOD genes PER1, PER2 and PER3 in chronic insomnia patients and medical staff working in the night shift

AimThis study was done to determine the changes in expression levels of PERIOD family genes in chronic insomnia patients and night shift healthcare staff with irregular sleep hours.MethodA total of 24 chronic insomnia patients aged between 25 and 55 that were admitted to Erciyes University Medical Faculty Neurology Polyclinic, 32 medical staff aged between 23 and 42 that work in night shifts with no neurological diagnosis were included as volunteers in the experiment. Additionally, a control group consisting of 29 healthy individuals between 21 and 50 years of age who do not work in shifts was volunteered in the study. Since PERIOD family gene expressions are affected by time of day and season changes, blood samples were taken from the groups within the same week and at the same time periods. RNA isolation followed by cDNA synthesis from leukocytes was performed from blood samples that were kept in 10 cc EDTA tubes. Expression levels of the genes were then determined by quantitative PCR method and analysed.ResultsThere was a significant decrease in the expression levels of PER1 and PER2 genes in chronic insomnia and night shift healthcare professional groups compared to the control group (p = 0.0001 for PER1; p = 0.0023 for PER2), but no significant change was observed in PER3 gene (p = 0.619).DiscussionThe decrease in PER1 and PER2 gene expressions in chronic insomnia and shift working healthcare personnel seems to be more of a result for short sleep periods than a cause.     

Students with autism spectrum disorder in college: Results from a preliminary mixed methods needs analysis

BackgroundThere is a growing call for empirically based programming to support the success of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as they transition to college.AimsThe purpose of this study was to identify the needs and challenges faced by adolescents and young adults with ASD in postsecondary education.MethodsA mixed methods approach was taken to explore the needs of college-bound and college-enrolled students with ASD. Primary stakeholders (i.e., parents, educators/support staff from secondary and postsecondary institutions, and students) participated in an online survey (n = 67) and focus groups (n = 15).ResultsAcross the stakeholder groups, commonly identified areas of difficulty included limited interpersonal competence, managing competing demands in postsecondary education, and poor emotional regulation. There was a high degree of agreement across stakeholders in the identified needs and challenges.ImplicationsFindings from this preliminary needs analysis will inform the development of programming to support students with ASD.     

Assessing the psychosocial environment of halfway houses for the retarded

The Community-Oriented Programs Environment Scale (COPES) was used to assess the psychosocial environment of two halfway houses for the mentally retarded. Residents of the houses were individually asked each question and the staff completed the same scale. Results showed general agreement between staff and residents, suggesting that the retarded were adequately able to describe their treatment program. The results were meaningfully graphed on the existing norms for the mentally disturbed.     

Effectiveness of behavioral skills training on staff performance in a job training setting for high-functioning adolescents with autism spectrum disorders

Few studies have focused on improving staff performance in naturalistic training settings for high-functioning adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Behavioral skills training, consisting of group instruction and supervisory feedback, was used to improve staff performance on (a) providing positive reinforcement, (b) providing error correction, and (c) initiating opportunities for students to show the target response (i.e. asking for help). Also changes in students’ target response and generalization of staff performance were evaluated. Data were collected in a multiple baseline design across three staff skills. There were improvements in all staff skills and changes in ‘error correction’ as a result of intervention were statistically significant. Improvements in staff skills were maintained over time. Effects of intervention on students’ target responses and generalization of staff performance, however, were limited. Staff evaluated the intervention as effective and acceptable. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Challenges Relating to the Interface Between Crisis Mental Health Clinicians and Police When Engaging with People with a Mental Illness

Symptoms of mental illness can increase the risk of disturbed behaviour. Joint intervention between police and mental health services is therefore sometimes needed to manage crisis events safely, and to divert people with a mental illness from further criminal justice system contact. This study explored how crisis mental health clinicians and police officers experience the service interface to identify perceived challenges tocollaboration and possible solutions. This was explored through circulation of a developed questionnaire to staff of the Crisis Assessment Team of Alfred Psychiatry and police officers from three Melbourne police stations. In addition to identifying the high frequency of contact between interfacing services, a number of challenges to effective interface were identified. These included: inefficient communication before or following a joint event; difficulty accessing support from the interfacing service and delays in handing over care in hospital emergency departments; and staff occasionally not respecting the professional abilities of staff from interfacing services.