Best in Mental Health: Optimal Health

Mental Health Roundup 7/23/18 – 8/26/18

This roundup contains some of the latest news in social work, healthcare, private practice and more! It may assist you in understanding new perspectives on PTSD, progressive counting, the importance of mindfulness when entering client notes, gender identity, overcoming parenting stress, improving resilience, building a private practice and more.

This wrap-up’s main themes are:

Therapy and Relationships
Healthcare
Advocacy
Self-Care/Inspiration
Social Work, Technology & Education
NonProfit Career & Private Practice

Therapy and Relationships

Approaches to “Acting Out” Behavior in Individuals with Schizophrenia – Aaron T. Beck & Ellen Inverso – “determine whether the primary affective reaction occurs in response to a negative interpretation (usually a misinterpretation)… deal… with the distressing feelings… have a rehearsal (roleplay)… “
Getting to Know Your 3 Brains: Part 5 Challenges to Becoming Aware – Hilary Jacobs Hendel – “Self-awareness is good for the brain, mind, and body… gives us power over our reactions… On the flip side, self-awareness challenges us to deal with what we find in our inner world…”
How do I manage food sensitivity issues w/o triggering restrictive eating? – Michelle May – “Assuming that your intention is to feel great, think of your dietary changes as choices that you are making in order to feel your best (rather than some externally applied diet)…”
Memory loss and identity – All in the Mind – “Our memories form the basis of our sense of self… not only are we more than our memories, but we are more than coherent sentences…”
New Perspectives on Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) & Its Treatment – InSocialWork interview w/Julian Ford – ” post-traumatic stress symptoms…more common… women… more likely than men to meet the criteria for diagnosis often in response to childhood sexual abuse or interpersonal violence exposures…”
Progressive Counting, the Fairy Tale Model, and Intensive Trauma-Focused Therapy – InSocialWork interview w/Ricky Greenwald – “treatment of trauma… what needs to happen… how to achieve positive outcomes…”
Skills for Healthy Romantic Relationships – Robert T. Muller – “TEDx Talk, psychologist Dr. Joanne Davila discusses how to have healthy romantic relationships…”
Teach Your Kids To Set Goals – Healthy Family Connections – “Kids who don’t have goals and simply go through the motions every day are far more likely to have mental health problems, behavior problems, and substance abuse problems…”
- Not Going to College: Don’t Freak Out If Your Teen Says “No” to College – Jennifer Arnold/YourTeenMag – “Take a deep breath, and then listen to your kid; I mean, really listen. Find out why they don’t want to go… help them explore some non-college options…”
Writing out lives – Ermintrude – “progress notes… our tone does come through… think about the person over your shoulder reading…Think about yourself when you are older and how you would like information recorded about you…”

Healthcare

Core thinking error underlies belief in creationism, conspiracy theories – “perception of final causes and overriding purpose in naturally occurring events and entities…”
Digital health practices among teens and young adults in the U.S. – Susannah Fox – “87% of all teens and young adults (TYAs) say they have gone online for health information…64% of all TYAs say they have used mobile apps related to health…”
Effects Of Childhood Traumatic Stress On Physical & Mental Health – Therapy Chat w/Dr. Gabor Maté – “Beyond a discussion of ACES, he describes the causes of illness and how trauma fits in…”
How our health care system traumatizes patients – KevinMD – “patients now are forced to pay premiums for insurance plans that don’t cover much of their medical needs…”
Largest brain study of 62,454 scans identifies drivers of brain aging – “cannabis abuse finding was especially important, as our culture is starting to see marijuana as an innocuous substance…”
A new digital divide is keeping older adults from accessing digital health – KevinMD – “digital divide no longer just refers to access, but to the level of understanding and ability to comfortably use digital health technology…”
Professional Treatment makes all the Difference: Postpartum Depression & its Long Term Impact on Children – Amanda Itzkoff – “for children between the ages of three-four with mothers who experienced more severe postpartum depression, there was a four-fold level of increased risk for behavioral health problems…”
Relationship Between Pain and Mental Health – Tanya J Peterson/HealthyPlace “Mental health disorders frequently have not just emotional and behavioral symptoms but physical ones… Further, it’s not uncommon for physical illnesses, especially chronic ones, to lead to mental health disorders…”

Advocacy

3 Vital Reasons to Talk About Gender Identity in Schools – A Anderson/SJS – “almost 90 percent of trans students face verbal harassment in school environments… gender-expansive children may find themselves with unsupportive parents…”
Black disability, disabled women of color, empowerment, advocacy – Doin’ The Work interview w/Vilissa Thompson – “intersection of racism and ableism negatively impact… steps that people can take to educate themselves to be allies and advocates for change…”
“The Cost of Being Uninsured in America” – Relando Thompkins-Jones – “Heidi Allen…2017 TEDMED Talk to learn the facts… case for Medicaid expansion.”
Increase of Suicide Rates during Climate Crisis Underlines Need for Social Work Action – Ellen Belluomini – “most threat to marginalized and vulnerable populations… Collaborations across disciplines… strategies… to decrease anxiety, depression, stress on relationships, health issues… aggressive behaviors…”
Raising an intersex child – Eric and Stephani Lohman/JKP – “We have to challenge the well-meaning people who demonstrate homophobic, transphobic, biphobic, or queerphobic behavior…”
Sick Momo Challenge: What Parents Need to Know – Mary Bassett – “kids most at risk are those who suffer from depression, anxiety and low self esteem… Talk to your kids about the Momo Challenge… Have a social media contract…”

Self-Care/Inspiration

5 Key Strategies for Overcoming Parenting Stress – Christina Hibbert – “Check in with yourself weekly, if not daily… Assess your stress level, from 1-10 (10 being highest… Ask yourself, “What emotions am I experiencing related to these stressors I’ve identified?”…. feel the emotions…”
The hurting counselor – Gregory K. Moffatt – “My heart was in shreds… humiliated that I was failing in my marriage… Find a counselor before you need one… eat right, sleep right and get reasonable exercise…”
Let’s Make Some Inchies! – Amy Johnson Maricle – “free Inchie Workbook… You can use whatever supplies you have on hand – even a post it note and pen…”
Protecting Our Emotional Energy: Tips – Nicole Perry/Social Work Coaching – “Emotional boundaries help us to protect our emotional energy by allowing us to connect with others without feeling drowned in their pain…”
Resilience: How Are We Doing? – Amy Quinn/Good Therapy.org – “resilience, the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, can be learned… choose a few resilience traits and diligently practice them…”
Self-Care A-Z: Now, Let’s Address the Myth of “I’ll do self-care when…” – Erlene Grise-Owens/New Social Worker – “NOW is the best time for self-care… self-care is a process…”
Values: The Necessary Building Blocks of the “Optimal You” – Laura K. Chang – “core building blocks… ‘optimal you’ … diverse set of skills, attitudes, and lifestyle choices… take time to pause, reflect, and become mindfully attuned to what is truly most important to you…”

Social Work, Technology & Education

The 2018-19 Practical Ed Tech Handbook – Richard Byrne – “free… new sections about augmented reality, virtual reality, and programming…”
Digital Devices and Social Media: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – Alison Laurio/NASW Social Work Advocates – “debate over whether youths’ use of technology and social media… harmful or helpful… it is up to parents to be aware of what their children use, how often they use it and what they are doing on it…”
Get Connected: A Social Media Guide for Campus Leaders – Josie Ahlquist – “free resource called Get Connected: A Social Media Guide for Campus Leaders… in-depth resource… help higher education leaders to… connect with their campus communities on social media”
How Social Media Has Changed the Lives of Millenials – Family Couch w/Autumn Collier – “many… share that they feel anxiety just from scrolling… often still caused by comparison and feeling like you should be doing certain things as a result of what you see in others’ posts…”
Social Media & Mental Health – Therapy For Black Girls w/Audrey Townsel – “tips for helping you to have a healthier relationship with social media…”
Paying Parents to Read to Their Children Boosts Literacy Skills – SWH – “study tested four techniques to get parents or other caregivers to complete a 15-week literacy intervention for their children with language impairment…”
Publication bias: The answer to your research question may be sitting in somebody’s file drawer – Andrés Viteri-García – “Studies reporting results that are perceived as positive, statistically significant, or favouring the study hypothesis are more likely to be published…”
Transform your conference paper into a prize-winning journal article – Charlie Berry – “Getting feedback… from other scholars… explain the importance of your research for your field in much more depth…”

NonProfit Career/Private Practice

Counseling or Coaching? – Abundance Practice w/Lee Chaix McDonough – “Coaches aren’t in competition with therapists because coaching isn’t therapy… Maintaining boundaries… How to switch from coaching to counseling…”
How To Catch Up On Notes – Maelisa Hall – “Create a sustainable strategy for staying on top of current notes… realistic plan for catching up on older notes…”
Marketing Strategies: Types of Marketing in Private Practice – Practice of the Practice – “Two Ways People Decide To Work With You… blessing approach…blind approach… people move through a very clear process of know, like and trust…”
Public Trust Reboot: Unleashing the Millennial Civic Spirit – Yordanos Eyoel – “Despite the stakes millennials hold in shaping our country, they are systematically excluded from the civic dialogue…”
Systems, Processes and Growing a Million Dollar Private Practice – Gordon Brewer w/Kasey Compton – “Kasey’s phenomenal growth (80 staff members and a million dollar practice in just 3 years) came primarily out of her ability to create processes and systems to make the growth as seamless as possible… “
Telemental Health Documentation: 5 Things to Write Down – Roy Huggins – “client’s location… Confirmation that the scene is safe…”