Best in Mental Health (10/10/16 – 10/23/16)

Mental Health Roundup

This contains some of the latest news in social work, healthcare, private practice and more!

This week’s wrap-up has 6 main themes:

• Therapy/Relationships
• Advocacy
• Healthcare
• Self-Care
• Social Work, Tech & Education
• NonProfit Career/Private Practice

Therapy/Relationships

• Applying the Science of Child Development in Child Welfare Systems – Harvard University – “individuals in child welfare systems… toxic stress… Child welfare systems can work with other systems to reduce environmental stressors… focus on helping people develop and practice… [core life] skills… self- regulation…experiment with coaching models…”
• Chilled: Reducing Baseline Arousal Levels in Therapy-Avoidant Teens – Teenage Whisperer – “A particularly good form of exercise for me is rhythmic repetitive exercise… it helps me to focus on how my body feels rather than on my thoughts… instead of sitting with me… take me out for a walk…”
• Equine-Assisted Survivors of Trauma Therapy – Therapy Chat podcast interview w/Charlotte Hiler Easley -“horses are able to read our body language and react to our emotional experience… survivors of trauma working with horses are able to learn and practice new ways of being in relationship…”
• Family of Origin Exploration for the Therapist – Ili Walter – “If we can see our parents as people within their life story… We can understand their limitations and their strengths… we can love them and be with them as they are. We can do this for ourselves, too…”
• How perfectionism impacts relationships from male perspective – Launching Your Daughter podcast interview w/Melvin Varghese – “combated perfectionism with: Setting time limits for activities… Using “both”/“and” vs “either”/“or”… self-awareness regarding old thoughts and beliefs…”
• Multisystemic Therapy: Approach for Working with Negative Adolescent Behaviors – inSocialWork podcast interview w/Steven Halady, Erin DeWolfe, and Jessica Bonczar – “intensive intervention that works with the adolescent and their family, while also engaging the other important systems in the child’s life…”
• Old Rules of Family Togetherness No Longer Apply – Psychotherapy Networker/Ron Taffel – “Understanding how a child constitutionally metabolizes information… each child responds to a different tone and pacing from a parent… These differences are apparent from the first years of life and remain relatively constant…”
• An open letter to the police officer who helped my autistic son – Alexandra Samuel – “I was sitting on top of my kicking, screaming, 10-year-old son. I thank heaven that you were the police officer who came to the scene…”
• Parenting’s troubled history: Why changing family patterns is our most important work – SJS/ACEs Too High – “To create a bully-free world, we need a clear definition of bullying, and wide social agreement on healthy childrearing methods…”
• Personal Connection is How We Will Heal From This Election – Cathy Hanville – “Prior to this election politics and elections were rarely discussed in my counseling room… We can still almost always find ways to connect with others, even those we disagree with…”
• Practice of Being Seen – Women-in-Depth podcast interview with Rebecca Wong – “need to be seen is a basic human need that fuels relationships… What it looks like to NOT be seen… Where to begin in being seen…”
• Preventing Retraumatization: Macro Social Work Approach to Trauma-Informed Practices – New Social Worker/Karen Zgoda, Pat Shelly, Shelley Hitzel – “Retraumatization is a conscious or unconscious reminder of past trauma that results in a re-experiencing of the initial trauma event… Systems that operate in isolation… that lack resources… can retraumatize…”
• Ritual Abuse – Good Therapy – ” psychological, physical, or sexual abuse of a person or group of people… more likely to occur in the context of small religious sects and cults and in highly secretive and authoritarian families…”
• Talking to Teens So They Listen: Use “And” Instead of “But” – Your Teen Magazine/Diana Simeon – ““But” says “whatever comes after this word I find much more important than what I just said to you.”
• Transitioning into Middle School – Mercedes Samudio – “this is when children begin to have the most difficulty in transitions… Find out what school your child wants to go to… Get to know your child’s teachers…”

Advocacy

• Empowering Woman and Children to Follow their Dreams – Innovate@BCSocialWork – Shanta Pandey- “In the United States, our research shows that the risk of living in poverty drops almost to a single digit percentage even for single mothers with children if they have a bachelor’s degree…”
• Hispanic Heritage Month – Fordham GSS – “Hispanics vary in terms of such important characteristics as national origin, racial and ethnic identification, immigration status, language use and proficiency, place of residence, and socioeconomic status…”
• How To Support Black Lives Matter In Our Schools – Jon Greenberg – “social change is always met with pushback… help the district… by making it overwhelmingly clear… no matter how vile the backlash, we believe that Black Lives Matter…”
• New National Bullying and Cyberbullying Data – “nationally-representative sample of 4,500 12-17 year-olds… 73% of students reported that they had been bullied at school some point in their lifetime (44% said it happened in the last 30 days)… 34% of students had experienced cyberbullying in their lifetime (17% within the last 30 days)…”
• Parents Need Flexible and Affordable Child Care – Kristin Schubert – “new poll illustrates the challenges that parents face in accessing quality, affordable child care, and the opportunities for improvement…”
• Visiting Museum of African American History & Culture: My Disabled Thoughts – Vilissa Thompson – “To walk/roll our way across the journey of life in Africa to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, and seeing/reading/hearing the grotesque treatment of African slaves was an emotional one…”
• While Trump Leered, the Other Men Laughed – Marie Hartwell-Walker – “It is the action (or inaction) of others that gives guys like Trump permission and approval… Women, even very powerful women, can’t put a stop to rape culture on their own…”
• Online Disability Advocacy:  What is the role of allies? – archive of #MacroSW Media Night 10.13.16 available – “Vilissa Thompson: Learn our history, become educated about the barriers we face, & allow us to exercise self-determination… Non-disabled advocates need to advocate WITH disabled people…”
• #PoliticsNOW –  archive of #MacroSW Chat 10/20/16 available – “@UBittic: Political inclusion is a Human Rights issue… votingissocialwork.org… @laurelhitchcock: Election source of stress for 50% in US…”

Healthcare

• 11 things your psychiatrist wants you to know – Kristen Compton – “We watch the time to pace ourselves, not because we want the session to be over… use time management as a way to model appropriate boundaries… We don’t analyze anyone outside of the office…”
• Bridging Mental Healthcare Gap With Artificial Intelligence – Alison E. Berman – “speaking with a machine takes away a feeling of judgment or social stigma… memory of a machine is also far better… Tess is always consistent and provides the same high quality work…”
• Concentrating on the social billions – “Using online social media does not lead to long-term problems with our ability to concentrate, according to new research…”
• Does weed help you sleep? Probably not – “daily marijuana users actually scored higher on the Insomnia Severity Index and on sleep-disturbance measures than those who did not use it daily…”
• Eureka! Gender affects how we judge competence, genius – “Think of the word “genius,” … Whatever mental picture is conjured up… person is male… Researchers looked at two metaphors that describe scientific discovery: a light bulb turning on… a seed that is nurtured until it takes root…”
  
• Pediatricians update digital media recommendations for kids – “parents not only need to pay attention to the amount of time children spend on digital media — but also how, when and where they use it…”
• Virtual Reality for Healthcare Education – INVIVO – Janet Kennedy – “virtual reality… computer generated environment… you can immerse yourself… block out real world… augmented reality… you superimpose computer generated images on user’s view of real world… Pokemon Go is augmented reality…”

Self Care

• Creating a Healthy Lifestyle- Exercise, Play… (bonus) – Christina Hibbert – “create a healthier lifestyle. Whatever your current way of eating, sleeping, working, or playing, there is room to grow… Having friends who not only support you but engage in exercise with you can also make a big difference in sticking with it…”
• Happy Healthy Marketer: Self-Care for Nonprofit Marketers – free webinar Oct 25th at 1PM EST – Beth Kanter and Aliza Sherman… Take a self-assessment to determine burnout symptoms and opportunities to create self-care habits… tips and methods for self-care activities that go beyond physical health…”
• How to Cope with Election Stress When You’re a Highly Sensitive Person – Sharon Martin – “to the extent that you can, avoid social media posts about politics, the debates, news, talk shows, and newspapers…”
• Living Mindfully with Chronic Pain and Illness – Melanie Greenberg – “physical discomfort has three components: the unpleasant physical sensation itself; our emotional reaction to that sensation (anger, frustration); and the stressful thoughts we spin from that…”
• Putting A Positive Spin on Anxiety – Julie Hanks – “everyone gets nervous… acknowledge our emotions… reframe the situation to instead focus on what you can learn… anxiety exists for a reason, so utilize it to work to your advantage…”
• Seeking Safe Touch During Eating Disorder Recovery – HealthyPlace/Z Zoccolante – “Explore touching yourself in a loving and kind way. Wrap your arms around yourself and tell yourself kind words. Touch parts of your body gently and thank them for what they provide for you…”
• Value of Taking Mini-Breaks During Work Day – Beth Kanter – “When we are not actively doing tasks or taking information – and embracing silence, this is good for our brains because is enables reflection and creativity…”

Social Work/Tech & Education

• Five Personal Safety Apps for Women – SWH/Emma Bailey – “Using [Guardly]… you can preprogram vario us types of emergencies – everything from assault… to… medical emergencies – and specify exactly who you would like contacted…”
• #ESCUNO2016 Annual Conference – 10/11/16 – Laurel Hitchcock –  “Engaged Scholarship Consortium… presenting a poster… about our work with poverty simulations at #UAB… 10/12/16… learning approaches in higher education…”
• Fostering a Scientifically Informed Populace – Social Science Space – “webcast replay on demand – some of the more widely bemoaned instances of public mis-understanding of science… ways to create ‘instructional scaffolds’ to combat this threat to informed policy choices…”
• The Hashtag Activism of Things – PsychTech podcast – “Hashtags aren’t just about what’s trending, they can bring entire communities together and connect people through shared experiences.”
• Hooked on social media – All in the Mind interview – “FONK and FOMO, fear of not knowing, and fear of missing out… sleep disturbance is… an issue… the more social media use, the higher the risk of being depressed… increased our intelligence… diversity of interactions and… diversity of role models… “
• Introducing the new Click Guide to Dementia – Shirley Ayres – “A diagnosis of dementia can be scary for the individual, their family and friends… From blogs and tweetchats to personal support networks and life changing products…”
• Online Connections for Professional Learning – Nancy J. Smyth – “stay current on new developments and trends that affect our profession… strategy is the professional/personal learning network (PLN) that I’ve developed online…”
• Plato’s VR Pencil – Headshots podcast – “Plato thought the pencil would ruin learning… actual effects of violence in video games and how that discussion will change as we step into virtual reality…”
• Sex, Sexuality and Sex Work – open access issue – “Part 1: Power, agency, race and place… Part 2: Love, legalisation, health access and stigma…Part 3: Hazard, context and vulnerability for men and trans people…”

Non-Profit Career/Private Practice

• Building a Therapy Practice Using the Controversial Method of Exposure Therapy –  Businesses in Bloom podcast w/Michael Stein – “Exposure therapy is based on the idea that anxiety is maintained in the long term by what you do to avoid it in the short term. Exposure therapy makes a patient confront the anxiety, in a series of sessions…”
• A Case For Only Using Secure Email and Texting With Clients – Roy Huggins – “Encryption is the cyber-equivalent of sound-resistant walls, closed doors and noise machines in the hallway… most clients will follow your lead when it comes to deciding what’s right for them in therapy…”
• Fraudster targets counselor’s innate empathy – Bethany Bray – “potential client contacts you via the email address listed on your practice website… fraud occurred when the emailer sent the counselor a cashier’s check in advance to pay for his couples counseling sessions…”
• How To Build A Great Money Mindset – Rosetta Thurman and Amber Berry – “way we FEEL about money is powerful and many times holds us back from experiencing freedom and effectiveness in the way we pursue making and saving money…”
• How Shine Foundation is Fighting for the Financial Health of Domestic Abuse Survivors – Jhia Jackson – “organization is a volunteer-run organization… program for Barrier Free Living (Freedom House) was around saving for housing
• NASW Hosts First Virtual Grad Fair! – “a MSW degree opens up more career paths than other comparable degrees… Wednesday, November 9, 2016 from 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. (EST).”
• Non-compete Agreements in Private Practice – Lisa Fraley – “Be sure to have an attorney review the contract, including the non-compete clause, and explain it to you so you can be crystal clear as to what it says BEFORE you sign it…”
• Prepare Your Records for Release – Maelisa Hall – ” Clients do have the right to access their records… talk with your client about the purpose for the release… When writing notes, treatment plans and assessments, work under the assumption that your client will one day view these…”
• Tips for Growing Your Private Practice – Selling the Couch podcast interview w/Jo Muirhead – “Three biggest mental roadblocks in starting private practices: fear of rejection, the sense that I’m “not good enough,” and avoidance… different developmental stages of your practice…”

Like this post? Please share it!