Best in Mental Health (10/19/2015 – 11/8/2015)

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:

• Advocacy
• Behavioral Health
• Therapy/Relationships
• Career/Private Practice

Advocacy

• 15 Things I’ve learned While Working For Social Justice – Relando Thompkins shares 15 links to 15 things he has learned, including: there is no hierarchy of oppression, sometimes we are our own worst enemy, self care is important and more.
• Aid to Zen: D – Dignity – Alessandra Pigni raises a call for aid workers’ to be treated with dignity.
• Building Micro/Macro Common Ground – Rachel West shares the transcript from the 10/22/15 #MacroSW Twitter chat.
• Cyberbullying Prevention Software Encourages You to ReThink – with ReThink, developed by 15-year-old Trisha Prabhu, over 93% of the time, teens changed their minds and decided not to post a hurtful message; overall willingness to post hurtful messages dropped from 71% to 4%!
• Heroes – Mike Langlois tells us about Miss Boo, his companion and co-therapist who developed cancer but continues to act as his co-therapist.
• I Was Called the R-Word – Vilissa Thompson discloses her painful experience of being called an ableist slur, so as to transform a negative encounter into a teachable moment.

• Mental Health Provider-Based Stigma – Sean Erreger provides an illustration of Dr. Keast-Charles’ poster providing the results of her study on how to assess mental health stigma, how it impacts care and provider implications.
• Racial (In)Equality in the U.S. – Teresa Irene Gonzales explains how we have have built systems, as a nation, that overwhelmingly disenfranchise communities of color, women, and the poor, and perpetuate racial inequity.
• “Stand Your Ground” Legislation and Implications for State-Sponsored Racism [UBSSW inSocialWork podcast] Dr. Devonya Havis explains how legislation, intended to protect society’s most vulnerable members, ends up perpetuating disparities.
• Why Are We Still Sterilizing Women with Disabilities? – while the United Nations deems sterilization without full consent a violation of fundamental human rights, Robert Muller warns that women who are incarcerated and/or with disabilities remain at risk of sterilization in the U.S..
• Your Role as Your Child’s Advocate – Judith Canty Graves and Carson Graves provide several recommendations to help you advocate on your child’s behalf such as periodically studying your child’s special education documents, comparing your child’s goals from year to year etc.

Behavioral Health

• Affordable Care Act Open Enrollment Resources for Social Workers – NASW has curated a nice list of resources to address different populations; open enrollment will end on Jan. 31, 2016.
• Fifth Annual International Symposium on Digital Ethics #digethics5  – chronological archive of all social media posts about digital ethics H/T Jonathan Singer.
• How Data, Technology and Big Business are Changing Everything – Jacob Levenson discusses the transformation the field of addiction is undergoing (& the whole system of healthcare); we must improve treatment success rates & standardize clinical protocols.
• Mental health in America requires a collaborative solution –  one in five adults in the United States will suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder and a staggering 77 percent of counties in the U.S. report a “severe shortage” of available mental health services.
• A New World! CEU Requirements for New York Licensed Social Workers – Lesa Fichte provides much needed clarification on the requirements for approved continuing education hours to renew your NY license registration.
• NASW Charts Path for the Future of Social Work – in NASW’s celebration of its 60th anniversary, Charles E. Lewis Jr. shares key themes presented such as the need to harness technology, influence social welfare policies and  downplay the distinction between micro and macro social work.
• Nature Meets Nurture: A New Approach to Childhood Mental Illness –  Sarah Murray discusses developments that are bringing us closer to knowing which children are most at risk for mental illness and how this will allow us to focus limited resources where they matters most.
• @SPSMchat on #Storify: #Tutorial, #tips, #tricks – archive of tweets about social media tips from the 11/1/15 Suicide Prevention Social Media Chat.
• Suicide prevention at suicide hotspots – Suicide hotspots are defined as specific, accessible, and usually public sites that are frequently used as locations where people take their own life and have a reputation as such; restricting access can reduce deaths.
• A tough time on campus: Majority of freshmen feel emotionally unprepared for college – survey results shared by Bethany Bray suggest that students would benefit from some emotional and independent life skills preparation prior to beginning college.
• Using resources creatively to support a youth’s wellbeing – Ashley Mark brings alive the concept of customizing access to an item such as a coat to enhance social connectedness for teen’s wellbeing; not all clothing is created equal.

Therapy/Relationships

• 5 Things People Get Wrong About Domestic Violence – To decrease stigma and help people understand domestic violence, Rosemary Clark shares that marriage counseling may not be a good idea if there is active violence, no two situations are identical and more.
• A little more about that dirtyword: Blame – Therapydoc suggests that we tend to get upset and want to blame something/someone when things go wrong due to biological and learned dependency, annihilation anxiety and more.
• Developing and using a case formulation to guide cognitive-behavior therapy – open access article describes an approach that helps a therapist make many clinical decisions that are not directly addressed in the Empirically-Supported Treatment (EST) protocols.
• Finding spaces – Ermintrude writes about the importance of remembering to find the time to reflect even if you are not given this time at work.
• Fine-Tuning Your Therapy Approach For Male Clients – the importance of understanding shame as a perception of threat to manhood is key as per David Weller; he recommends various shifts in your approach from how you describe your work (not psychotherapy) to the goals in therapy (framed in terms of masculine independence and personal agency).
• Free eBook and Video: How to Create a Debt-Free Holiday with Six Simple Steps – Reeta Wolfsohn recommends making the choice and commitment, creating your spending plan and log and four additional steps to ensure a debt free holiday.
• Holiday Message to Parents Everywhere: What Kids Want the Most – Lisa Brookes Kift shares touching video ad from Ikea; your attention, time, and interest is the most precious gift.
• How to Build Mental Strength (Even If You’re Overwhelmed) – [own] CBT based tips on how to improve your ability to cope with life’s challenges plus a review of the ecourse developed by Amy Morin, based upon her list of 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do.
• Intergenerational Trauma: Sometimes The Trauma Isn’t Yours – Karen Carnabucci describes how family constellations may help explain the transmission of traumatic experiences from past generations, affecting our physical health, prosperity, relationships, emotional stability and more.
• In The Trauma Therapy Movement – Rick Greenwald describes the exciting growth of his Child/Trauma Institute and its future plans.
• The Myth of the Perfect Intervention – Danna Bodenheimer relieves new social workers of the expectation of there being one perfect thing to say to a client. Also, make sure to check out Jonathan Singer’s podcast interview with her on Becoming a Clinical Social Worker.
• Reverse, re-route, re-arrange your path and reap the rewards for yourself and your clients – for example, Lisa Mitchell suggests asking a client with whom the rapport is a bit shaky and you feel the relationship could benefit from more collaboration, for some feedback…
• Solution-Focused Supervision – Claudia Dewane explains what solution-focused therapy is and how you would apply it in supervision, thereby focusing on creating solutions rather than examining problems.
• Virtual selves can help boost better real world health, exercise habits – research suggests that the use of avatars in virtual environments are an effective way to encourage people to be more healthy.

Career/Private Practice

• 4 Ways To Tackle Fear In Your Career – in a halloween-themed video, Idealist provides job seekers with 4 helpful tips to paint your personal picture of empowerment.
• 12 Best Tips For Helping A Reporter Out – Rosellen Reif provides helpful guidance on how to respond to a journalist’s request for an expert or quote via HARO (Help a Reporter Out).
• How can you reach potential clients on Facebook without promoting the posts? – Juliet and Clinton provide social media tips to build up your private practice.
• How to Make Better Business Decisions with the Therapy Business Triangle – Casey Truffo illustrates how you consider every business decision from three sides: your business, your clients and yours as the clinician.
• Make sure you have an elevator speech – Cathy Hanville talks about the importance of being able to describe your specialty/ies when meeting other therapists/individuals who may serve as prospective sources of referrals.
• Make Your Own Social Work Salary – Eva Forde recommends commanding a higher salary by positioning yourself as an expert, taking advantage of technology and online tools in a variety of ways from establishing your own website to writing a book & more.
• Technology Tutor: Bring your idea to life through crowdfunding – Rob Reinhardt explains how you may apply crowdfunding to a mental health project you’d like to create.

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