Best in Mental Health (9/26/16 – 10/9/16)

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:

• Advocacy
• Education/Technology
• Therapy/Relationships
• Self-Care/Creativity
• Healthcare
• NonProfit Career/Private Practice

Advocacy

• Advancing Long and Productive Lives –  Pat Shelly… #MacroSW chat on 10/6 – check out archive… what is productive aging… How does productive engagement benefit society?… How can social work lead the way with this challenge?…”
  • Financial Elder Abuse – Detection, Intervention & Prevention – Center for Financial Social Work – “free webinar – Oct 13 at 2PM EST… different types of financial abuse… How to identify… most effective interventions…”
• A college is cutting tuition for 529 savers. It shouldn’t. – Brookings – “plan will reward those from affluent backgrounds and potentially trigger a merit aid-style arms race…”
• Corporal punishment is still legal (and used) in US public schools in 19 states – Science Daily – “in some states, a behavior that would be considered abuse when inflicted by a parent on a child cannot be prosecuted if inflicted by a school employee…”
• Enhancing Relationships Forums: People and Law Enforcement Agencies Moving Change Forward – InSocialWork podcast interview w/Dr. S. McGee, T. Hobson, K. Gale, and S. Breault –  “widening divide between the African-American community and law enforcement officials…”
  • 13TH Is A Documentary You Should Watch Right Now – Relando Thompkins-Jones – “connections of the legal and political system to the mass incarceration of Black people…”
• Let’s Eliminate Physical Restraints in Group Homes – Trauma And Attachment Report – “between 2010 and 2015, some 45,000 restraints were used in Ontario residential programs to discipline vulnerable children and youth…”
• Online Disability Advocacy & Social Work –  Vilissa Thompson – “call to participate in survey… Oct 13 #MacroSW twitter chat… how to become better allies and practitioners in the work that we are doing in our communities…”
  • Do we really want a world without Down’s syndrome? – Social Care Network – “new prenatal test could eradicate Down’s syndrome… Sally Phillips, who has a child with the condition, explains why that would make the world a poorer place…”
• Presidential Debate 2016: A Psychological Analysis of Donald Trump’s Performance – Dr. Bilal Ghandour – “His narcissism, or the feeling he is an exceptional individual who can do no wrong, is in fact rooted in deep insecurities about his self-worth…”

Education/Technology

• 5 tips for aspiring social media savvy academics – “Share what you care about online… seek out exemplars, both positive and negative…
  • Special Issue Journal of Nonprofit Education & Leadership – JimmySW – “call for papers is going out… how are scholars and educators using digital media to train and prepare the next generation of nonprofit professionals…”
• 7 Compelling Reasons to Launch a Podcast – Melvin Varghese – “caters to our strengths as mental health providers… Podcasting is a new medium that’s rapidly growing…”
• Docz – Stuck on Social Work – “an online [real time] community for those affected by mental health issues and the people who care about them…”
  • Lack of Mental Health Services for Students of Color – “application… Knowledge Center… free, online resource center aims to connect with students nationwide regardless of region and financial circumstance…”
• Dyslexia, a disability or an ability to think differently? – JKP/Veronica Bidwell – “a multisensory approach… Let them hear it, see it and do it… Many dyslexics love to see the big picture before they are asked to learn or cope with details…”
• How to Effectively Manage Screen Time for Kids – Your Teen Mag/Diana Simeon – “model good habits… American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that kids spend less than two hours a day… be willing to take the screens away…”
• Mobile App Aims to Track Mental Health Worldwide – Good Therapy/Will King – “largest mental health project in history… overview of emotional trends and differences across ages, genders, and geography… Spur Projects hopes… further discussion on the increasing rate of suicide”
• Professionalism In Engaging With Clients by Email and Text – Roy Huggins – “We recommend that emoticons and emojis get used… intentionally and for the purpose of accurately expressing the therapist’s intentions and message…”
• Resources for Online Counseling and Paperwork – Maelisa Hall – “For video conferencing…  you can check out Vsee, Counsol and WeCounsel…Contractor for app based video service…  Maven and Level Therapy…”
• Rethinking Education in a Changing World – SSIR – “Skills that allow young people to adapt to rapid change… need to foster good global citizens who actively care about their communities and the world…”

Therapy/Relationships

• 3 Great Secrets About Self-Identification – Stephen Borgman – “The Ugly Duckling, Self-Identification, and You… Autistic adults go through nine developmental stages of growth during their lifespan…”
• Six Strategies of Subtle Emotional and Psychological Abuse – SWH/Gary Direnfeld – “Stonewalling… refusal to communicate or address the issue… Gaslighting… distortion of information so that something appears other than what it is…”
• Communication 101 with teenagers – Launching Your Daughter podcast – “ask yourself if this is your problem or hers… reflect the emotions back or guess what she maybe feeling… using “I” statements is the healthy way to communication…”
• How to Handle a Treatment Professional On a Power Trip – Healthy Place/Becky Oberg – “best strategy is to go along as much as you can and find a new treatment professional as soon as possible… look for someone who practices the recovery model…”
• How to Find Prejudice Hidden in Our Words – Jenn Director Knudsen – “Regardless of our intentions, the language we use may implicitly or explicitly transmit bias in the form of stereotypes and prejudice…”
• On High Alert: Hyperarousal + ‘losing it’ over nothing – Teenage Whisperer – “my expectation of danger is constant and brutal… For those who have experienced the chaos, the conflict, the violence, the trauma… if you stay calm in my storm, and you pat my back… I am…  going to feel… calmer…”
• Parenting Summit – Mercedes Samudio hosting parenting experts for 10 days starting Oct 10. “how to raise a healthy child”
• Porn/Bullying Connection – Tina Mattsson & Amanda Grossman-Scott – “Pornography Desensitizes Users and Encourages Objectification… encourages displaying and recording everything…Help your child to see others as human beings with unique feelings and life circumstances… sexual harassment is a form of bullying…”
• Psychology of hoarding – All in the Mind podcast – “act itself around hoarding is extremely secretive… What makes hoarding a disorder is when those possessions begin to clutter the living areas of the home and prevent us from using them in the way in which they were designed…”
• Secrecy, Shame & The Shadow – Therapy Chat podcast – “how we carry beliefs about what makes us different – what disconnects us from everyone else, and how we hold shame about those things we don’t like about ourselves”
• Sexless Marriage: Is It Time for a Contract Review? – Good Therapy/Pandora Maclean-Hoover – “clarity between spouses is essential… three reflection workouts…With 7 as the highest level… how you… feel about your attractiveness, attraction for your partner, desire for sex…”
• Systemic perspective for working with same-sex parents – Counseling Today/Amanda C. DeDiego – “Structural family therapy (SFT), developed by Salvador Minuchin… offers a map for counselors to conceptualize a family system on the basis of the roles the family members play…”
• Women and the Midlife Crisis – Lourdes Viado interview w/Diann Wingert – “What is a midlife crisis?… The Gray Divorce… Mortality, health, and the perfect storm of midlife… Hormones and triggered brain changes in your 50’s…”

Self-Care/Creativity

• Five Proven Truths about Finding Happiness – Melanie Greenberg – “About half of our happiness level is controllable… Happiness seems to be a transient state whereas meaningfulness is more enduring…”
• Playing with Heart: The Beauty of Imperfection – You Are an Artist Podcast interiew with fiddler, step dancer, singer-songwriter virtuoso: April Verch… beauty of imperfection in creativity and letting your art “hold” difficult feelings…”
• Use Your Imagination to Recover from a Ready Made World – Lisa Mitchell – ““If your____________ (fill in the blank with an emotion) was a pet, what kind of animal would it be?”… imagine what it needs in that state of __________(fill in the blank with an emotion)…”

Healthcare

• Does a Digital Lifestyle Affect our Mental Health? – Paolo del Vecchio – “In many ways, the latest technology makes our lives better… Smartphone overuse may be associated with depression, anxiety, and sleep quality…”
• Does meditation keep emotional brain in check? – Science Daily – “findings not only demonstrate that meditation improves emotional health, but that people can acquire these benefits regardless of their ‘natural’ ability to be mindful”
• Does recession = poorer health? – Claire Niedzwiedz – “most consistent evidence was found for an increase in suicides and a decline in mental health, particularly among men…”
• @DrMikeSevilla, and @ChrsMxwll join #SPSM panel – spsmchat – Oct 2 archive/video of “What trends… where is livestreaming going next? Why should folks in suicide prevention care?…”
• Exercise in severe mental illness: barriers and motivating factors – Joanne Wallace – “primary incentive to participate in exercise was to improve physical health, and to achieve weight loss… Lack of support was a major barrier…”
• An invisible unicorn has been grazing in my office for a month… – Martin Burton – “the “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”… the evidence from… study of 40 patients can’t be taken as proving that unicornal does not work…  All we can say is that there is no evidence… that it does work…”
• Top Five Recommendations For Improving the Patient Experience – Kathleen Merkley and Anne Marie-Berkmore – “patient experience measures are indicators of care quality… Use Patient Satisfaction as a Balance Measure—Not a Driver for Outcomes…”

NonProfit Career/Private Practice

• 7 Tips to Make You A Stronger Facilitator – Beth Kanter – “understand adult learning… Bring your genuine personality… Practice inclusive language in life, and bring it into the training room… Get to know your participants…”
• 10 Great Social Innovation Reads: Sept 2016 – Nell Edgington – “to reinvent philanthropy then we are going to have to look at the underlying historic and structural causes of poverty and work to dismantle them…key to addressing wealth inequality is to return to the old model of worker ownership…”
• Assertiveness for Entrepreneurs – Julie Hanks & Nicole Liloia – “for the vast majority of recorded history, women have had their voices silenced… by practicing assertiveness, we can not only become closer in our relationships to others but also inspire other women to be more assertive for themselves…”
• Career Planning Vs. Happenstance – SJS/Kelly Mitchell – “What positions within the organization can you identify that might be of interest to you personally?… What can and should you do… to position yourself….”
• How Do I Get Off Of a Bad Insurance Panel and Bill “Out of Network?” – Alison Pidgeon – “If I could go back in time, I would have only paneled myself with the three highest paying insurances in my area. Ones that also fortunately pay quickly and make few mistakes…”
• How to Increase Income in Private Practice – Miranda Palmer – “create a business plan asap… hourly fee you charge has to take into account business expenses, taxes, no-shows, vacations, holidays, sick time, license renewals…”
• Fellowships, Scholarships, and Grants: 10 Tips To Help – New Social Worker/Lenore E. Matthew & Megan S. Paceley – “Get familiar… Find your niche and position yourself… get on email lists… upcoming funding opportunities…”
• Leverage Your Value as a Volunteer – Jhia Jackson – “Nonprofit organizations and volunteering go hand in hand… Volunteering can be a low-stakes way to practice the skills you need…”
• Prevent Burnout with Continuing Education – Fordham GSS – “Learning how to become better social workers is an ongoing process. It is crucial that we continue to learn how to best serve our profession…”
• Risk Taking, Reflection and Rewards: 3 years at the NSWM – Lakeya Cherry – “social workers are equipped with the essential skills to lead… although it may be scary… most times it’s better to take the risk…”
• Robin Shapiro – Businesses in Bloom – “how she became a therapist and why specializing in trauma…  how she does the business side of her career, from a private practitioner to a business woman…”
• Use Pinterest to Increase Website Traffic to Build Your Private Practice – Sharon Martin – “Pinterest can be an effective way for therapists to gain visibility and increase visitors to their websites…”

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