The Mental Health Social Worker

Arlington, Va. – A large observational study that tracked women from nine months prior to pregnancy through nine months after delivery has revealed that the number of women diagnosed with depression actually decreases slightly during pregnancy, then rises after delivery. The study also confirmed that many women who experience depression during pregnancy or the postpartum period have a history of earlier depression.
Rates of depression among 4,398 pregnant women enrolled in a large health maintenance organization are reported in the October 2007 issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry (AJP), the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). The pregnancies occurred between 1998 and 2001.
The percentage of women with depression fell from 9 percent during the 39 weeks before pregnancy to 7 percent during pregnancy. It then rose to 10 percent during the 39 weeks after delivery. Patricia Dietz, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., Selvi Williams, M.D., M.P.H., Evelyn Whitlock, M.D., M.P.H., and colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and at Kaiser Permanente Northwest Center for Health Research reported these findings in the AJP article, “Clinically Identified Maternal Depression Before, During, and After Pregnancies Ending in Live Births.”
Dietz and her colleagues found that postpartum depression was preceded by depression during pregnancy or the pre-pregnancy period in more than half of the women. Also, more than half of those who were depressed before pregnancy also experienced depression during pregnancy. Other characteristics associated with depression were Caucasian, being unmarried, already having three or more children, receiving Medicaid, and smoking. However, none of these was a strong risk factor. (more…)

Arlington, Va. – Inadequate insurance payments for services provided by psychiatric units in general hospitals have led to widespread closing, downsizing, or off-campus transfer of inpatient psychiatric units. Yet, these units are essential for treatment of coexisting medical and psychiatric conditions, appropriate care of psychiatric disorders in the emergency room, and education of medical trainees. These arguments are made in the commentary, “The Future of Psychiatric Services in General Hospitals” by Benjamin Liptzin, M.D., and colleagues at Baystate Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School. The commentary appears in the October 2007 issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry (AJP), the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association (APA).

AJP editor-in-chief Robert Freedman, M.D., stated, “The authors alert us that the partnership between general hospitals and psychiatry that has supported both patient care and psychiatric training is now under severe financial strain. A new functional structure to fund these two activities is urgently needed.”

The American Psychiatric Association is a national medical specialty society whose more than 38,000 physician members specialize in diagnosis, treatment, prevention and research of mental illnesses including substance use disorders. Visit the APA at www.psych.org and www.HealthyMinds.org.

NASW signs on to Amicus Brief with other human rights organizations

Washington – Upholding the profession of social work’s commitment to human rights and social justice, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) supports the ability of Guantanamo detainees to challenge their detention through our Constitutional system of  government checks and balances.

The cases, Boumediene v. Bush and Al Odah v. U.S., represent a clear violation of the rights of these detainees to gain access to the courts and to question the legality of their detention.  The cases do not directly address the innocence or guilt of the detainees, but rather the circumstances in which they are being held and their access to independent judicial review.

”Social workers uphold the key tenents of the profession – social justice and human rights — by taking a stand  against the unchecked use of power by the executive branch,” said Dr. Elvira Craig de Silva, NASW president.  “We serve as advocates so that everyone may have access to justice and basic legal rights under our Constitutional system of government.”

The NASW Code of Ethics notes that one of the core values of the profession is social justice.  To achieve social justice, governments must be able to guarantee  access to due process of law.

Habeas corpus is one of the fundamental elements of the U.S. legal system.  To strip courts of jurisdiction to review the legality of the detention overrides the detainees’ human rights.  Social workers’ abiding concern for social justice and human rights underlies our vision of equal access to justice for all people, regardless of where they are detained and for what reason.

The Amicus Brief was filed by The Constitution Project, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch and The Rutherford Institute through the efforts of a pro bono legal team from Fulbright & Jaworski in Washington, DC.  NASW, along with a coalition of other non-governmental organizations, signed on to the brief, which was filed August 24, 2007.

For more information about this and other briefs that NASW files on behalf of the social work profession, please visit the NASW Legal Defense Fund.

About the National Association of Social Workers
The National Association of Social Workers (NASW), in Washington, D.C., is the largest membership organization of professional social workers with 150,000 members.  It promotes, develops, and protects the practice of social work and social workers.  NASW also seeks to enhance the well-being of individuals, families, and communities through its advocacy.

The Kansas City Star, Mo. – September 18, 2007Sep. 18–Just saying no may be easier said than done when it comes to drinking, smoking, drug use and overeating.

But can a regimen of brain training, stretching and martial arts strengthen resolve and lead to healthier decision-making?

Two Avila University psychology professors want to find out whether mindfulness training, used for decades to help people deal with stress, can be tailored to the decision-making process.

The professors, Maria Hunt and Delany Dean, say that much like a weightlifter repeatedly pressing a dumbbell to strengthen a bicep, repeating certain mind-control exercises along with meditation and goal setting might help students, faculty and staff resist cravings and impulsive behavior. And help students focus better on academics. (more…)

Experts suggest link between warnings, startling new trend

By Judith Graham | Tribune staff reporter

September 7, 2007

Suicide rates for preteens and teenagers increased sharply when the Food and Drug Administration slapped a “black box” warning on anti-depressants and doctors started writing fewer prescriptions for young people, according to federal data released Thursday.The FDA’s warning, publicly debated in 2003 and enacted in 2004, highlighted a link between anti-depressant use by young people and suicidal thoughts and behavior. But now some experts are asking whether the message backfired.

(more…)

Same Research Finds No Direct Effect on ‘Bad’ Cholesterol

SAN FRANCISCO—Older white men who are better able to cope with stress experience higher levels of so-called “good cholesterol” than men who are more hostile or socially isolated, according to a study released at the 115th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association.

But that same coping ability had no effect on the subjects’ “bad cholesterol” levels, the research found.

(more…)

Arlington, Va. – As the country recognizes the sixth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the continuing mental health consequences of the trauma still linger today. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) joins with the many Americans who will participate in ceremonies remembering those who were lost and commemorating those who became heroes in the rescue and recovery efforts. (more…)

Association labels specific techniques as torture; bans such acts as water boarding, use of dogs to intimidate, and sexual humiliation

SAN FRANCISCO—The Council of Representatives of the American Psychological Association (APA) has approved a resolution prohibiting specific techniques sometimes used in interrogations and calling on the U.S. government to ban their use.

The resolution, passed at the APA’s annual convention in San Francisco, unequivocally condemns and strictly prohibits psychologists from direct or indirect participation in a list of 19 unethical interrogation techniques including: mock execution; water-boarding or any other form of simulated drowning or suffocation; sexual humiliation; rape; cultural or religious humiliation; exploitation of phobias or psychopathology; induced hypothermia; and the use of psychotropic drugs or mind-altering substances for the purpose of eliciting information. In addition, the following acts were banned for the purpose of eliciting information in an interrogations process: hooding; forced nakedness; stress positions; the use of dogs to threaten or intimidate; physical assault including slapping or shaking; exposure to extreme heat or cold; threats of harm or death; and isolation and/or sleep deprivation used in a manner that represents significant pain or suffering or in a manner that a reasonable person would judge to cause lasting harm; or the threatened use of any of the above techniques to the individual or to members of the individual’s family. (more…)

As the use of Internet and telecommunications services continues to grow, researchers have questioned the practice of telephone counseling for general mental health. But according to a study reported in the April Journal of Counseling Psychology (Vol. 49, No. 2), telephone counseling appears to be an effective psychological practice. Based on the 1995 Consumer Reports finding that patients benefit greatly from face-to-face counseling, this study examined free telephone counseling offered to the employees of three large Fortune 500 companies as well as other smaller, regional companies across the United States, Canada and parts of Mexico. Both employees and their immediate family members had access to a telephone counseling agency’s toll-free number. Over a three-week period, the authors surveyed a nonrandom sample of adults who called the counseling agency about mental health, relationship or job problems. Master’s-level mental health professionals provided the phone counseling, using a solution-focused model of therapy. Most callers received four telephone counseling sessions.After at least one 30-minute phone session, the counseling agency mailed a packet of questionnaires, including the Consumer Reports Annual Questionnaire (CRAQ), which asks clients to rate their specific improvement, satisfaction and global improvement as a result of telephone counseling. By using CRAQ, the researchers could compare the effectiveness of face-to-face counseling, as measured by Consumer Reports, with the effectiveness of telephone counseling. The researchers–Robert J. Reese, PhD, of Abilene Christian University, and Collie W. Conoley, PhD, and Daniel F. Brossart, PhD, both of Texas A&M University–found that telephone counseling was beneficial and satisfactory, marked by specific improvement on the issue that lead to counseling and global improvement in emotional state. Of the 186 respondents, 68 percent reported feeling very or completely satisfied with the telephone counseling and 53 percent said they felt somewhat better as a result of counseling. The data also indicate that telephone counseling did not appear to work as well as face-to-face counseling for people who reported feeling very poorly: 31 percent of respondents who initially described that they felt very poorly reported improvement in functioning, compared with 54 percent in the Consumer Reports study of face-to-face counseling. In contrast to face-to-face counseling, telephone counseling is convenient and less expensive–if provided in a format similar to this study’s–and the anonymity of the service may provide clients with a greater sense of control, the authors note. For people who do not have access to affordable mental health care, telephone counseling may be a viable option, they add. The authors also point out that without an office, clothes and physical appearance to potentially distract them, clients being counseled via phone may be inclined to focus better on what the therapist says. –J. RICKER

Source: APA http://www.apa.org/monitor/apr02/studyshows.html