Health and Mental Health

In this book, the author relates the stories of 88 families and their 157 children (ages 3 to 17) who participated in a parent-guidance intervention through the terminal illness and death of one of the parents from cancer. The majority of the children successfully reconstituted their lives during the subsequent 8-14 months. Although recent studies of bereaved children have yielded important findings, they have not provided knowledge of how children's development affects their responses either before the death, through the dying experience, or in the later period in which families try to adapt to the new circumstances. Using qualitative analytic methods, The Legacy identifies five developmentally derived age groups that clarify important differences in children's grief and mourning processes, in their understanding of events, their interactions with families, and their varying needs for help and support. The author gives numerous examples of the ways parents and extended family interacted with the children, and also the ways that professionals, friends, and many others helped families to deal with this tragedy.

This book provides the most current theory, research, and practice with regard to preventing HIV in diverse Latino populations and communities in the United States. Chapters share innovative thinking and original research about the many causes of HIV risk in Latinos with overdue attention to social, structural, environmental, and cultural factors that comprise the context of individual-level behavioral risk. As such, this book imagines and researches preventing HIV in LGBT Latinos through community involvement and AIDS activism; in migrant laborers by scaling up community and cultural resources and community-based participatory research; in adolescent Latinas by facilitating communication with their mothers about sex; by decreasing the racism, homophobia, and poverty frequently experienced by Latino men who have sex with men; in transgender Latinas by decreasing familial, peer, and social rejection, and by providing care at local, state, and national levels; and in Latinas by improving their economic autonomy as well as improving gender-equity ideologies among men. This book responds to the diminishing returns of the behavioral model of HIV risk by deconstructing the many social ecological contexts of risk within the Latino experience.

In the wake of disaster, emergency service workers including police officers, firefighters, and paramedics are first on the scene and last to leave. Their heroic actions save lives, provide comfort to and care for the wounded, and inspire onlookers, but at what cost to themselves? We now know that rescue workers who are exposed to mutilated bodies, mass destruction, multiple casualties, and life threatening situations may become the hidden victims of disaster. The sequelea in terms of traumatic stress symptoms and depressive symptoms has the potential to be highly disruptive and long-standing for both the individual worker and their families, and the organizations in which they work. Additionally, emergency workers are exposed to events involving human pain and suffering on a daily basis. While for the most part emergency workers are equipped to deal with these events, on occasion one particular event will have a lasting impact. This book is based on the authors’ combined experience of over forty years of clinical work in emergency departments and with emergency service organizations. It provides an overview of the issue of trauma in the emergency services.

Employment is the highest priority for many people with severe mental illness and it is a central aspect of recovery. Over the past two decades, the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model of supported employment has emerged as the prominent evidence-based approach to vocational rehabilitation. This book synthesizes the research and experience on IPS supported employment: historical context, core principles, effectiveness, long-term outcomes, non-vocational outcomes, cost-effectiveness, generalizability, fidelity, implementation, policy, and future research. This book relates to areas of work with populations with psychiatric disabilities and in community mental health and social service settings. In tracing the evolution of IPS, readers are equipped with an elegant example of the transition from needs assessment, to model development, to testing, and to dissemination.

High rates of poverty and homelessness, especially among women and children; increasing alcohol and drug abuse problems; escalating teen violence; and inadequate services for the chronically mentally ill are just a few of the problems that human service professionals encounter. Unfortunately, traditional approaches and programs often fail these vulnerable populations, particularly since their multiple needs often require a multidimensional approach. New innovations in practice and service delivery are clearly needed, but the current literature is often idiosyncratic, fragmented, and does not offer a systematic approach to the issues and problems. This book, containing chapters written by leading scholars in social work and related fields in mental health and human services, presents an interdisciplinary approach to the examination of innovations in direct practice and service delivery, synthesizing the development and application of knowledge concerning practice and delivery across both problems and populations. It allows innovations in direct practice and service which have relevance across problem areas or groups to be shared by students and practitioners dealing with a range of problems across the lifespan. The book is divided into four parts, beginning with a conceptual overview of theory developed by the editors for the analysis of innovations in practice and delivery. The remaining sections focus on children and adolescents, adults and the elderly. Each section defines the relevant population; discusses those issues in practice and service delivery where innovation is needed; presents an overview of the types of innovations which are taking place; and outlines the implications for practice, service delivery, policy and research.

Among teenage Latinas in the United States, suicide attempts occur at alarming rates, sometimes twice as high as other youth. For decades clinicians in mostly urban centers with large Hispanic populations witnessed the puzzling phenomenon of young Latinas who had attempted suicide. It was not until the 1990s when national surveys confirmed what clinicians were seeing in their practices. But the mystery of why some Latinas attempted when other Latinas with similar social and psychological profiles did not remained. Through the retelling of the history of research into this life-threatening act and the many factors that contribute it, this book begins to unravel the mystery of suicide attempts by young Latinas. Beginning with a description of the U.S. Hispanic population and the characteristics of the Hispanic family—its values, beliefs, norms, child-rearing—the book goes on to look at the development of young Latinas, girls straddling two cultures and struggling to reconcile them. Drawing on developmental, cultural and family psychology, acculturation and immigration theory and research, and the traditional and modern socialization of U.S. Hispanic girls, the book sets the stage for an in-depth look at the suicide attempts by Latinas. The book presents case studies and data collected from over 120 girls who attempted suicide and more than 110 who had not. It illustrates with the girls’ own words, and those of their parents, how social, psychological, family and cultural factors come together to a flashpoint. This book presents the anatomy of the experiences before, during and after the suicide attempt, suggests new ways of understanding suicide attempts, and offers ideas for prevention and treatment to save young Latinas.

This book reviews the evidence basis for the treatment of mental health disorders that present in children and adolescents, using both the American Psychological Association Division 12 Task Force Criteria for empirically supported treatment and the results of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The context of the child and its influence on the development of the mental health disorder, as well as treatment and recovery, is appraised through the risk and resilience framework. Barriers, facilitators, and recommendations for the practice and research of evidence-based treatment for child and adolescent mental health disorders are advanced.

African American males have never fared as poorly as they do currently on a number of social indicators. They are less likely to complete high school than their white male and female or African American female peers, are more likely to exhibit depressive symptoms, and they have fewer sanctioned coping-strategies. Arguably, no other group in American society has been more maligned, regularly faced with tremendous odds that uniquely threaten their existence. When they do receive education, mental health, and physical health services, it is often in correctional settings. They are marginalized in public policies on secondary and higher education attainment, marriage and parental expectations, public welfare, health, housing, and community development. Yet they remain overlooked in health and social science research and are stereotyped in the popular media. Taking a step back from the traditionally myopic view of African American males as criminals and hustlers, this book provides a more nuanced and realistic portrait of their experiences in the world. The chapters offer a comprehensive overview of the social and economic data on black males to date and the significant issues that affect them from adolescence to adulthood. Via in-depth qualitative interviews as well as comprehensive surveys and data sets, their physical, mental, and spiritual health and emerging family roles are considered within both individual and communal contexts. Chapters cover health issues such as HIV and depression; fatherhood and family roles; suicide; violence; academic achievement; and incarceration.

Therapy is frequently miscast as requiring an enormous amount of time and financial commitment, but helpful, goal-oriented therapy can produce positive results after only a few sessions. Solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) has been gaining momentum as a powerful therapeutic approach since its inception in the 1980s. By focusing on solutions instead of problems, it asks clients to set concrete goals and to draw upon strengths in their lives that can help bring about the desired change for a preferred future. Chapters review the current state of research on SFBT interventions and illustrate its applications—both proven and promising—with a diverse variety of populations, including domestic violence offenders, troubled and runaway youth, students, adults with substance abuse problems, and clients with schizophrenia. This text also includes a treatment manual, strengths-based and fidelity measures, and detailed descriptions on how to best apply SFBT to underscore the strengths, skills, and resources that clients may unknowingly possess.