Best in Mental Health (9/7/15 – 9/20/15)

Below is a round-up of some of the latest news in mental health (and more)!

This week’s wrap-up has 4 main themes:

• Cultural Sensitivity/Stigma
• Technology and Mental Health
• Therapy
• NonProfit/Career

Cultural Sensitivity/Stigma

• Alternative identities – DJ Williams addresses some of the personal and professional issues helping professionals face when working with people who identify as alternative identities such as vampires.
• Culturally Competent Therapy: The Value of Personalismo –  Benjamin Meyer explains why he accepts small gifts and engages in other examples of culturally competent ways of reciprocity with Latinos.
• Discovering Disabled Characters in Literature  – Vilissa Thompson notes the lack of books written about disabled characters and is asking for recommendations and/or new books to be written to fill this void.
• First Generation College Students Share Their Stories – Relando Thompkins-Jones shares how first generation college students often have to work multiple jobs with a full class load and feel invisible vis a vis their counterparts.
• How We Talk about It Matters – two helpful guides were made to change the way mental health is talked/portrayed: Journalism Resource Guide for Reporting on Behavioral Health and  Entertainment Depiction Suggestions for Portraying Behavioral Health Conditions

• Mental Illness, Stigma & Suicide: Finding Hope in the Darkest Times – Dr Christina Hibbert talks about the necessity for us to combat the stigma around mental illness, addiction, and thoughts of wanting to die; the silence plays a key role in people not getting the help they need.
• A Panel Discussion on Systemic Racism (part 2 of 2) – Professors Bowen, Elze, Kim, and Syms of the UB School of Social Work talk about whey they believe it is important for social work education to address the issue of racism from a trauma-informed perspective.
• Race Matters: How to Talk Effectively About Race – (own) Dr Kenneth Hardy provides a framework to facilitate a conversation; the tasks you take on vary according to whether you are the subjugator or one with more privilege and power in the relationship.
• What Liane Learned: Pretending To Be Normal – in Stephen Borgman’s interview of Liane Holliday Wiley, one learns about the sensory challenges of Aspergers, misreading social cues, how the SHAPE acronym can help Aspergian women (and men) stay safe and more.

Technology and Mental Health

• Digital technologies in mental health – some of the insights Victoria shares include the importance of putting people first and technology and how the benefits we believe people will derive from digital technologies may be different to what happens in practice.
• Doxing and Cyberbullying – doxing (or doxxing) typically occurs when someone shares another’s private personal information to the public without permission; Sameer Hinduja provides examples that highlight the nature of this problem.
• Dr. Tom Insel to Step Down as NIMH Director – Dr Insel will be joining Google’s GLS (Google Life Sciences) team whose mission is to transform healthcare via technology and exploring how to do so within the field of mental health.
• Failed Mental Health App Highlights Pitfalls of Social Media – Robert T. Muller talks about the challenges the Samaritans Radar app faced in trying to serve as a suicide prevention tool by tracking Twitter tweets and offering prevention resources.
• Infographics for social work – Pat Shelly has curated a comprehensive roundup of infographics on a wide range of social work topics from self care, social media and technology, mental health, career tips, to social justice and human rights.
• My Favorite Parenting Podcasts – Mercedes Samudio recommends a few podcasts including Parent Nation, Mom and Dad Are Fighting and the Longest Shortest Time to help parents become more reflective.
• National On The Move Wellness Challenge – WELCOA, the Wellness Council of America, is hosting a 12-week competition to stimulate health initiatives to combat physical inactivity and initiate behavior change.
• New ways to engage with research evidence – Andre Tomlin conveys that the chances of evidence reaching practice is only about 21%; to increase the odds of you and others using evidence based practice, get social, share your knowledge and expertise…
• NowMattersNow.org – Sean Erreger recommends this site as a valuable resource for individuals and a supplement to therapy; it works to help individuals with suicidal thoughts and promote mental wellness.
• Parenting assessments in family courts – Tracee Green is conducting research on the use of PAMS (Parenting Assessment Manual Software), a parenting assessment tool, and is inviting practitioners to participate.
• Twitter for Social Workers – Beginner’s Edition – Dr Kristie Holmes provides a video tutorial on how to use twitter, a place where your social work colleagues are sharing information, news, and inspiration.

Therapy

• Body Image Trauma – Sara Staggs notes how American culture teaches us to catalog each body flaw and ultimately reject one’s body; she advises instead body love, care and acceptance, “to see yourself as those who love you most see you.”
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy for eating disorders –  post provides the results of research advocating for all CBT therapists to weigh their patients in session and for the patient to be aware of their weight to maximize the patients’ emotional and behavioral progress.
• Death Ed. – Martha Crawford suggests facing our fears of death and talking about it; she offers guidance on what to say (or not) to individuals who are dealing with loved ones dying.
• Making Sense of the Money Disconnect and How it Affects Your Clients – Reeta Wolfsohn explains how the additional forms of payment are increasing individuals’ money disconnect and thus negatively impacting their relationship with their money, and ultimately their financial circumstances.
• New PTSD Study for Sleep Medication Seeks Participants – Michele Rosenthal discloses a study’s need for participants; it is about a non-habit-forming medication for PTSD survivors.
• New Resource on End-of-Life Care – Richard B. Stuart created 6stepslivingwill.org, a guide to help people decide whether to attempt to prolong life or experience a natural death. It also guides users on required documentation and how to tell providers about preferences.
• Should I NOT Use Insurance for Therapy? – Nathan Feiles provides several rationales as to why clients may prefer pay for their therapy sessions out of pocket.
• Social Workers and Superheroes – Chey Heap shares Anna Scheyett’s TED talk about social workers being superheroes and provides several illustrations of how much of our work requires beyond the call of duty to help individuals through some of life’s most difficult challenges.
• Supporting a Grieving Child: The Importance of Modeling – Eleanor offers guidance and resources on how to cope with your emotions when grieving vis a vis your child.
• Teen Suicide: Prevention and Intervention – Lauren Isaac discusses the epidemic of suicide among adolescents in our society today and how sharing knowledge and working on prevention and intervention are our best tools in this fight.
• Trauma Informed Care – all the questions asked, resources shared and link to archive of Sept 10 #MacroSW Twitter Chat
• Why Do Women Have Sexual Fantasies of Rape? – Laura K Kerr posits that the gendered sexual violence (and its trauma) faced by women is partially witnessed as intergenerational transmission of trauma via sexual fantasies of rape.

NonProfit/Career

• 20 Must-Know Fundraising and Social Media Stats – stats indicate a steady increase in online fundraising, and mounting evidence that as the use of social media grows, so does online giving.
• Building Great Mastermind Groups –  Melvin Varghese shares several tips of how to create and work with a mastermind group of your own such as limiting the group to only 3 to 5 members, having each with different skills/strengths and at different points in their careers and more.
• Business and Self-deception – Lynn Grodzki talks about 3 fallacies of control, fairness and heaven’s reward that may be impacting the way you run your business and tips on what to do/think of instead to help yourself move ahead.
• Grant-writing survival tips -“Doc Warren” Corson III advises doing what you can to learn about the organization providing the grant, customizing your program to meet both the grantor’s expectations and your client and facility needs and more.
• My Leadership Moment – Mozart Guerrier redefines leadership in a positive and motivating way for diverse communities; leadership = making a difference [any positive change].
• Online Course Future of Work in Africa: Innovations for Youth Employment – a description of a free six-week online professional development course you may apply for to learn methods which enable youth success.
• Therapist turned Entrepreneur – in Dr. Julie Hanks’ interview of Dr. Maelisa Hall, you learn about her business helping therapists find a simpler way of handling their clinical documentation and her free paperwork crash course.

Any great posts that I missed? Please feel free to share them below.

Like this Post? Please Share it!