Mental Health Trends & Roundup 12/25/17 – 1/14/18
Do you forsee changes or mental health trends that may impact our work on the horizon? If yes, please share below to help us all be better prepared!
This contains some of the latest news in social work, healthcare, private practice and more! It may inform you about professional trends, ethics, as well as provide guidance on helping kids prevent and respond to cyberbullying, improve body image, have friendships, and so much more.
This wrap-up’s main themes with some possible mental health trends are:
- Therapy and Relationships (a focus on building children’s emotional intelligence seems to be one of our current mental health trends)
- Healthcare (8 anticipated mental health trends!)
- Advocacy (early prevention and ACEs mental health trends)
- Self-Care/Inspiration (greater self-care trends)
- Social Work, Technology & Education (importance of online connectivity in social work and mental health scholarship, changes and trends in NASW’s code of ethics)
- NonProfit Career & Private Practice (the use of AI in nonprofit and mental health trends)
Therapy and Relationships
- Six Self-Hypnosis Guidelines to Create Lasting Change in Yourself – Douglas Flemons/Psychotherapy Networker – “Find a place where you can sit comfortably and enjoy relative privacy for 5 to 20 minutes…”
- 18 Ways to Reduce Anxiety in 2018 – Tanya J. Peterson/HealthyPlace – “Create a vision board or visualize in a journal. What will your life be like when anxiety is gone?…”
- Body Image: 5 Tips for Teaching Kids – Jenny Johnson & Melody Bergman – “Be an example. Your kids hear you… Teach media literacy… how the media creates illusions to manipulate…”
- Cyberbullying Fact Sheet: Identification, Prevention, and Response – Sameer Hinduja and Justin W. Patchin – “nine-page summary… Cyberbullying is a growing problem because increasing numbers of kids… online interactivity…”
- Girl Friendships without the Drama – Family Couch interview w/Annie Fox – “define what a real friend is… friendship is a two way street… have standards… tools and courage to speak up…”
- Losses of Maturation: When Growth Means Grief – Ili Walter – “losses of maturation as the loss of “heroes” that we have created… As we grow personally, our awareness develops, and we are left with less idealism–an ability to see the truth more clearly…”
- Teach Your Teenager How to Argue – Neil Brown – “good arguing… use reasonable arguments to present different sides of an issue… When parents explain their reasoning to their children, children learn that there are reasons for things…”
- Males Can Be the Victims of Domestic Violence Too – Christine Hammond/PsychCentral – “There are seven major types of abuse: physical, verbal, emotional, mental, sexual, financial, and spiritual…”
- Marijuana in a Digital Age: A Potentially Unconscious Impairment – Ellen Belluomini – “short-term effects of marijuana… distorted perception, difficulty in thinking and problem-solving… Eliminate interactions using technology both professionally and personally during this time…”
- Promoting Secure Attachment Status in Therapy – Trauma Institute – “Greenwald… visualization of a series of imagined early-childhood experiences… being fed, being put to sleep, being comforted, etc…. contribute to a more secure attachment status…”
- Speaking to the needs of women in counseling – Bethany Bray/Counseling Today – “be mindful of the language… check… own assumptions… focus on how the mother can advocate for herself… dismantle unhealthy expectations…”
- Understanding & Healing Codependency – Women-In-Depth interview w/Sharon Martin – “nature of imbalanced relationships… causes of codependency and its traces to childhood trauma and genetics…”
- Using Art to Heal from Sexual Assault – Robert T. Muller – “Ghomeshi’s victims were essentially blamed for the assaults, and their stories were discounted as inconsistent or false…”
- What is the Experience of “Meta”? – Steve Andreas – “changing the point of view to some other point in space than seeing out of the eyes… second kind… changing the categorization of an experience…”
Healthcare
- 8 behavioral health trends for 2018 – Julie Miller – “Consolidation… Emphasis on quality… Compliance with multiple regulations… Compliance with multiple regulations…”
- Appraising the appraisal – Dennis Neuen – “rise of FOAMed (Free Open Access Medical Education) means that learning about critical appraisal is easier than ever…”
- Can gamified cCBT prevent depression in secondary school students? – Mental Elf – “SPARX game was effective at reducing depressive symptomatology among the trial population…”
- Ketamine as a Treatment for Suicidal Ideation – Amanda Itzkoff – “effects are encouraging. Patients are less likely to self-harm, tend to be less depressed, and are more socially active…”
- RAND Predicts Greater Investment in Prevention and Kinship Care Would Make Child Welfare Better — and Save Money – Sara Tiano – “out-of-home placements into foster care decreased by more than 11 percent, and episodes of child maltreatment… went down, too…”
- Why Marijuana Edibles are a Health and Safety Threat For Kids – Your Teen Mag -“effect of edibles… can take one to four hours to feel it…. tweens and teenagers who may be starting to experiment… may think, “I don’t feel anything” and eat more…”
- Without warning, the government just ended a registry of mental illness and drug abuse programs -“Without NREPP… there is no other federally-operated database of suicide prevention programs that also conducts review processes for those programs…”
Advocacy
- American Collective Consciousness– Practice of Being Seen interview w/Molly Merson – “living in today’s social and political climate… proverbial rally cry, “The personal is political.”
- Big findings on opportunity and mobility we should all know – Richard V. Reeves, Eleanor Krause – “Chetty’s research… chances of making it… from a childhood in poverty to an adulthood in affluence… lower in the U.S. than in other nations… Inequality… strongly inherited…”
- Experts say prevention key for healthy development – Alison Laurio/NASW – “For the greatest reach and the greatest effect, we have to collaborate with other professionals…”
- A Strategy for Systems Thinking: Targeted Universalism – Relando Thompkins-Jones – “targeted universal strategy is one that is inclusive of the needs of both the dominant and the marginal groups, but pays particular attention to the situation of the marginal group…”
- We can’t stop sex harassment by firing or incarcerating our way out; we can stop it by using ACEs science – Jane Ellen Stevens/SJS – “moving… to a culture of understanding, nurturing and helping people heal themselves… We all have ACEs or know or are affected by those who do… Hurt people hurt people, whether it’s others or ourselves…”
Self-Care/Inspiration
- 3 Work and Life Balance Secrets You Will Want To Know – Stephen Borgman – “Understand Your Unique Neurology… What’s Your Career Personality?…”
- The A-to-Z Self-Care Handbook: 26 Self-Care Tips – own – we must see self-care as not only critical for our mental health but as a necessity for ethical practice… creative ideas to making self-care a part of our daily life…”
- Does this Give Me Joy? -Kellen – “Marie Kondo… to clear your home of clutter… hold every item… and ask, does this bring me joy?…I am expanding it to everything in my life…”
- How your childhood affects your self-care – “What messages, direct and indirect, did you receive from your parents or other adults growing up regarding self-care?… How has your cultural upbringing influenced your philosophy around self-care? “
- Making Each Day More Art-Ful – Amy Johnson Maricle – “spend more time in the studio, and waste less… precious time and creative energy on screens…”
- More fun, less drama – Dima Dupéré – “It is easy, when you start working for yourself, to focus on getting more clients rather than self care… losing one day… made me more efficient… a gift”
Social Work, Technology and Education
- 2018 NASW Code of Ethics – Social Work podcast interview w/Allan Barsky – “historical overview of the NASW Code of Ethics… why the NASW Code of Ethics was revised… Part 2… Part 3…”
- Digital Literacy in Social Work Education – Karen Zgoda – “To remain competitive and culturally competent, social work education must incorporate digital literacy and technological instruction to prepare students for work with clients and colleagues throughout their professional lives…”
- How to make your school an LGBTQ friendly place for students and staff – “ensure books featuring trans parents or celebrating gender identity and difference are included in the curriculum…”
- Predicting Coalition Success and Failure – InSocialWork podcast interview w/Dr. Jessica Greenawalt – “25-Year History of Leader Experience… implications for current social change efforts, and what constitutes effective leadership of alliances for combined action…”
- Social Worker Email Etiquette – Social Work Tech – “email is not a secure venue. Systems get hacked… start your email with a greeting… State your intent, clearly: Why are you sending this email?…”
- Social work scrutiny – Helpful Social Work podcast – “impact of scrutiny on social work… how social workers can influence public understanding, including through social media…”
- Social Work Tech Notes – Remember Hand-Written Progress Notes? – Stephen Cummings/New Social Worker – “Recognize the concerns of the social work team… One of the strengths of social work practice is our ability to be leaders in technology use…”
NonProfit Career and Private Practice
- The Blueprint For Achieving (Almost) Every Goal – Joe Sanok – “There are three phases: Slow down. Spark. Innovation… Look at what is working… Define what you know, need to know, and what you could do…”
- A Few Thoughts About Nonprofits and Digital Transformation in 2018 – Beth Kanter – “online connectivity can… amplify the good work of charities and contribute to civil society…. leave room to experiment and innovate with newer technologies like bots, blockchain, and AI…”
- Finding new niches and creating new services based on your clients’ needs – Selling the Couch interview w/Ilona Naroditskiy – “Advantages and disadvantages in focusing on a niche that is “so close to home”… Creating new services based on her clients’ needs…”
- How to Translate Raw Emotion into Fuel for Social Impact – Idealist – “journal or blog about your experience… Life Design Interview asks people to recount their personal stories…”
- Marketing to People of Color – Allison Puryear – “Understanding the mistrust and barriers your niche community may have and tailoring your language… the socio-political climate… affecting your ideal client…”
- Private Practice Challenge: Fees – Miranda Palmer – “how fee setting will make or break your practice… how to select a fee that feels right to you…”
What mental health trends are you noticing? Please share below!
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You’ve done a good job identifying trends! In January 6 states enacted new laws related to online therapy. I hope we will see more of that, with an eye toward improved licenses portability. We are also heading in directions related to greater interprofessional work- not just with nurses, but with engineers, corporate sector, etc, and I hope this will move us to more diverse settings. Also hoping we see emergence of tech tools for mental health that are peer reviewed, evidence based, and transparent about their data use.
Hi Melanie,
Thanks so much for your kind feedback. I love the trends you’ve observed: online therapy laws, improved interstate licenses portability, greater collaboration with other fields, and evidence-based tech tools!
I think that the biggest mental health trends that we’re going to be seeing in 2018:
An interdisciplinary fight into the ethics around President Trump’s mental health. There is a debate already starting around the need to evaluate the President of the United States to determine if he is in cognitive decline or if there is presence of a mental disorder. As the most powerful man in the world, with an army at his control that can rain down hell, wrath, and fury to start World War III, it’s a serious thing. Do we break ethically established rules (e.g. don’t diagnose a person that isn’t your client) because existence literally hangs in the balance?
Gun Control. There are people that should not own guns. The majority of mass shooters have been White, perpetrators of domestic violence, or have had easy access to the weapons of mass murder. Social Workers and other mental health professionals should speak up around policy that can prevent more murder, not just around limiting access, but discussing the mental health impact on survivors and communities resulting from the current state of gun control.
#metoo (sexual assault). 2017 brough to the forefront the movement to out and rid Hollywood of serial sexual predators, however, others have come out to discuss their own sexual assault survival. I am curious to see if and how this will manifest in mainstream culture… will more people take action to eliminate this in our culture? Mental health professionals, especially social workers, have the skills to empower survivors to tell their stories and it is up to us to again, advocate around policy to protect the most vulnerable.
Addressing mainstream marginalization, oppression, and racism. As the President of the United States runs his mouth, calling impoverished countries “shit-holes”, blaming “both sides” in a White Supremacist versus Common Decency battle, and calls Mexicans rapists and murderers (apparently, I’m one of the good ones), we mental health professionals need to organize and shame our government representatives (federal, state, and local) to make, enforce, or change policy so that it does not further perpetuate these horrible actions. It is January 14, 2018, the government is about to run out of money, and I have been calling my Senators to let them know that if DACA is not passed (same with funding for the Child Health Insurance Program), they should not vote to fund the government.
Hi Iggy,
Thanks so much for sharing your views about needed changes and/or trends you’ve observed!
The mental health of our president, the need for greater gun control, and the necessity for increased awareness of how prevalent sexual abuse/assault, as well as creative preventative solutions for this problem, and the cry for addressing oppression, racism and all the “isms” are all key for the well-being and safety of us and all residents of our country.
This is a great round up of the trends in Social Work. I would add more diversity is a trend that I think the current administration in the US is creating a space for. I believe that social work expands when it looks at social justice and it’s effects on micro and macro level issues. I also think a new look at technology and how it enhances our relationships with individuals and communities will be more of a focus – there’s a lot of info on how damaging it can be. But with the advancement of tele-mental health options I think I’d be short-sighted of our field to not acknowledge the benefits and flexibility of technology and serving communities.
Hi Mercedes,
Thanks so much for your kind feedback and thoughtful comment.
Yes, increasing diversity across all fields/sectors/positions is critical! I agree that social work and society benefit when we focus on social justice and macro level issues and their impact on individuals. And thank you for also pointing out the importance of technology and how it may enhance our work!
Love your round-up of the trends for 2018. I think a trend of more people taking action in overcoming their fears through compassion and connection and embracing differences in our world. As we are more self-compassionate with ourselves, we feel more confident and self-acceptance. This can translate into having more empathy towards others in seeking to understand vs dehumanizing others. Each of us has our own biases and filters we see the world through. When you have healthy self-confidence and self-acceptance, I think, you have more capacity to see/hear someone who is different than you and can hold space for them. It doesn’t mean you agree with everything they stand for or do, but you hold them as a human being just like yourself. As an MFT (marriage and family therapist) I look through the lens of relationship and systems. How we treat ourselves impacts our relationships both locally and globally.
Hi Nicole,
Thanks so much for sharing your kind feedback and thoughts!
It’s so true that we each have our own biases and filters through which we see others and the world. I love the idea of more people embracing self compassion, leading to more compassion and understanding of others and our differences!
Dorlee!
Thank you for pulling together so much in this post focused on the trends and movements in mental health!
This is such a valuable roundup. I so appreciate your commitment to continue bringing so much great info into one place!
I, too, have been thinking about the trends that are impacting us and several additional ones are coming up for me.
The incivility and aggression ushered in with the elections of 2016 have quickly become the norm; and, this has leaked into the everyday lives of my clients.
I am afraid that as we move into 2018, we will see increased impulsivity not just online on social media and on the roads to and from our work, but also in our clients’ homes, in our own homes, and even in our offices.
Now more than ever, therapists working in isolation as well as those working in agencies, organizations, hospitals, and educational institutions need to prepare themselves for the rise of agitation and aggression; I’m concerned that the safety of therapists may increasingly be at risk.
On the positive side – and I’m not sure if this is more a trend that I am hoping for or one that is truly surfacing but – I see the albeit slow but increasingly visible rise of white therapists speaking up (online and off) in an attempt to acknowledge both the history and the ongoing presence of systemic racism in this country.
And, I fear if we (white people) do not rise up, own, and clean up our active and passive actions in support of racist practices, that this country will indeed implode on itself.
I say this because I see the rise of this subject matter in my own practice with my clients (who are primarily white mental health professionals in counseling) and also among my colleagues out in the community as I am networking.
It is a troubling time for many therapists and as white therapists increasingly recognize our own culpability and denial around these issues, there is also an increase in anger, disorientation, and sadness.
As we attempt to unlearn the lies that we have been taught about the role of race and whiteness in the United States, it is my hope that we can, in turn, influence others to have a deeper, more compassionate, and reality-based understanding of the same . . . and begin to make different choices.
Hi Tamara,
You are most kind. I’m so happy to hear that you value my mental health round-ups. It has become more challenging for me to continue putting these together. Hence, I’m tending to do so now on a bi or tri-weekly basis!
You raise important points! Increased agitation and aggression are indeed valid concerns. Perhaps we need heed Felix Nater and John Byrnes’ guidance in Workplace Violence Prevention for Social Workers to be on the proactive side… Yes, I agree – mental health professionals and social workers are speaking up more and taking more action regarding the presence of systemic racism – may this continue to the point where this is finally reduced in a meaningful way! In my psychoanalytic institute, we have begun talking about this as well – trying to make changes internally.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful additions to this conversation about upcoming trends in the field, Tamara!