Perceived Occupational Concerns and Sensory Processing Patterns of Mothers in a Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)-to-Work Program

In this study, the authors examine the perceived occupational concerns, typical daily routines, and sensory processing of mothers in a mandatory Temporary Assistance for Needy Families return to work program. Participants were five female members of a transitional work program for single parents with mental illness. The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure and the Adult Sensory Profile were administered. The study found that the most frequently identified occupational problems were leisure and self-care. All participants scored as having at least one atypical sensory processing pattern. Future research should investigate the efficacy of an occupational therapy intervention on this population's return to employment.     

Reengagement With Education: A Multidisciplinary Home-School-Clinic Approach Developed in Australia for School-Refusing Youth

School refusal (SR) can result in decreased academic achievement, impaired social connections, and family stress. Current interventions for SR include behavioral and cognitive-behavioral treatments that are not always effective. Incorporating multidisciplinary work that includes therapeutic and educational interventions may enhance outcomes for youth displaying SR. The In2School program fosters a working partnership between mental health clinicians and teachers. It was designed to meet the needs of young people missing more than 50% of school in the previous 6 weeks due to mental health disorders, including anxiety or depression. This paper reports on an action research study in which the In2School program was piloted. Over a 14-week period, therapeutic and educational interventions were integrated into the learning environment via a transitional classroom to support youths’ return to school. Outcomes of this program are reported for the first cohort of 7 youth. Of these youth, 6 returned to mainstream schooling with attendance levels being maintained for 6 months after completing the intervention. Progress was observed in mental health recovery, quality of life reports, increased social interactions with peers, and positive experiences at school. The preliminary results presented in this paper suggest that a multidisciplinary, home-school-clinic intervention holds promise for helping school-refusing youth to return to school.     

The Impact of the United States Air Force Deployment Transition Center on Postdeployment Mental Health Outcomes

The United States Air Force Deployment Transition Center (DTC) operates a 2-day third-location decompression program that commenced operations during the summer of 2010 in Ramstein, Germany, with the aim to assist Air Force service members (AFSMs) who are returning from deployment as they prepare to reintegrate back into their home lives and work stations. The present study evaluated the impact of DTC attendance on later mental health outcomes. Because participants are not randomly assigned to attend the DTC, propensity score weighting was used to compare DTC participants (N = 1,573) to a weighted control group of AFSMs (N = 1,570) in the same job specialties who returned from deployment during the same time period. Rates of endorsement to items on the Postdeployment Health Reassessment were examined and compared, as were rates of mental health diagnoses from AFSMs’ official medical records. Key findings indicate that DTC participants reported lower levels of depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms and lower levels of relationship conflict following return from deployment, as compared to weighted control participants. Mental health diagnostic rates were comparable for the 2 groups during the first 6 months following return from deployment. These findings suggest that participation in the DTC program had notable benefits for redeploying AFSMs and support the continued use of the program.     

La photo-expression : un outil pour accompagner le patient en éducation thérapeutique et pour évaluer son évolution

IntroductionIn therapeutic patient education (TPE), photoexpression is often used by psychologists in order to work on patients’ perceptions and experiences, especially in group workshops.AimThe aim of this study was to explore diabetic patients’ discourse during two photoexpression group workshops at the beginning and the end of a TPE program.MethodSeventeen patients took part in this study. A lexicometric analysis was performed on their discourse during the two group workshops (Alceste® software).ResultsFor the first workshop, the analysis yielded two classes: the place of diabete in daily life as well as psychic and social functioning. For the second workshop, the analysis also yielded two classes: self-management and adjustement, as well as program experience and return back home.ConclusionThe results show an increase in adaptation skills and particularly in self-efficacy, motivation, positive emotions, perhaps illness acceptance. Photoexpression shows to be a very interesting tool in TPE to accompagny patients but also evaluate their discourse evolution during a TPE program.     

A FIVE-YEAR STUDY OF A POSITIVE INCENTIVE ABSENCE CONTROL PROGRAM

This study reports the results of a positive incentive program designed to reduce absenteeism at a hospital. Absence data for a treatment group ( N = 164) and a comparison group ( N = 136) were collected for one year prior to the incentive program, the three years the plan was operational, and the year after the program was discontinued. In the treatment program, absence from the treatment group decreased significantly during the first and third years of the program; effects during the second year of the program were marginally significant. No changes occurred in the comparison group's absence level. A utility analysis revealed that the incentive program produced an 11.7% return on investment.     

Reports from the Front: The Effects of Hurricane Katrina on Mental Health Professionals in New Orleans

Hurricane Katrina created an unprecedented mental health crisis in New Orleans. Once they could return to work, local mental health professionals attempted to treat survivors of the storm while dealing with the storm's impact on themselves. Those working in public settings were offered in-service training and supervision. But clinicians in private practice often found themselves bearing the brunt of posttraumatic uncertainty alone. The current paper includes four experiential reports from area clinicians describing their early struggles to maintain a sense of continuity in their ongoing clinical work, only to realize how much of the personal is also professional in the aftermath of a disaster of this magnitude, and how personal and professional inevitably inform one another when clinicians and patients survived similar dangers and losses. The introduction locates these four papers in the larger context of post-Katrina New Orleans and a program that was specifically tailored to meet the needs of local clinicians. This program demonstrated the ways in which psychoanalytic ideas can be used to give meaning to a traumatized mental health community's profound disorientation.     

Psychoanalytic training experience and postgraduate professional development – Part II

This exploratory study looks at the training and postgraduate experience of the 2008–2014 graduates of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. It follows our former study of all living graduates through the year 2007 (Schneider et al., 2014). The survey developed and used in the first study, with a few additional questions added to increase our understanding of the training experience, was sent to 38 graduates with a return rate of 58%. As with the first survey, graduates were invited to assess, among other training experiences, their training analysis, classroom work, and supervision, and to tell of their post‐graduation involvement in teaching, supervising, study groups and other professional endeavors. They were also asked to rate their satisfaction with themselves as psychoanalysts and with their analytic career. The questions added to the previous survey related to the graduates’ theoretical orientation, the influence on their training experiences of the change in gender distribution, and of the diversity of professions now represented in the analytic training program. They were also encouraged to provide spontaneous narrative data. The data from our second survey showed important differences when compared with our first. In the first survey male respondents were in the majority; in the second, women held the majority. Of the professions represented in the training program, psychiatry was the majority in the first survey, psychology and social work held the majority in the second. Most respondents claimed an object‐relation theoretical orientation. Analytic immersion continues to decrease, with most respondents having two patients at the time of graduation and one at the time of the survey.     

Factors Influencing Clinical Follow-Up for Individuals with a Personal History of Breast and/or Ovarian Cancer and Previous Uninformative <Emphasis Type="Italic">BRCA1</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">BRCA2</Emphasis> Testing

Genetic testing for inherited cancer risk has recently improved through the advent of multi-gene panels and the addition of deletion and duplication analysis of the BRCA genes. The primary aim of this study was to determine which factors influence the intent of individuals with a personal history of breast and/or ovarian cancer and negative or uncertain BRCA1 and BRCA2 testing to return to a hereditary cancer program for additional genetic risk assessment, counseling, and testing. Surveys were sent to 1197 individuals and 257 were returned. Of those participants who were planning to return to clinic, most cited having family members who could benefit from the test result as the primary motivation to return. Many participants who were not planning to return to clinic cited the cost of testing as a barrier to return. Cost of testing and concerns about insurance coverage were the most commonly cited barriers for the group of participants who were undecided about returning to clinic. Results from this study may be used to guide re-contact efforts by clinicians to increase patient uptake to return to clinic for up-to-date genetic risk assessment, counseling, and testing.     

Brief report: Compliance in the classroom: Using the „thumbs up”︁ procedure to increase student compliance to teacher requests

This study assessed the effectiveness of a program designed to increase compliance with teacher commands in a regular 5th grade math class. A reversal design (A-B-B'-A-B') was employed. The teacher used a discriminative stimulus to signal the students as to the availability of an opportunity to earn a point towards a reinforcer. To receive the point the students were required to return the signal and initiate compliance. The entire class was involved in the program; however, data were recorded on two students, one identified by the teacher as noncompliant; the other served as a control. The results indicated that the program was effective in increasing initiation of compliance to teacher commands. However, serious questions were raised about the generalizability of such a program.     

Common and specific process factors in cardiac rehabilitation: independent and interactive effects of the working alliance and self-efficacy.

OBJECTIVE: Therapeutic processes in cardiac rehabilitation programs are virtually unexamined. Models were tested by which changes in the working alliance between patient and staff (agreement on goals/tasks; emotional bond) may affect outcomes in conjunction with changes in patient self-efficacy to change their diets and increase exercise. DESIGN: Cardiac patients (n = 79) participated in a 12-week program, and completed assessments at early, mid, and late treatment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Changes in cardiac depression, physical health, perceived exertion during exercise, rate/pressure product at submaximal exercise tolerance, weight loss, return to work, total fat intake. RESULTS: Early-treatment changes in agreement on goals/tasks were related to changes in psychosocial factors and perceived exertion during exercise independent of effects of changes in self-efficacy. Early-treatment changes in goals/tasks and self-efficacy interacted to predict changes in cardiorespiratory fitness, weight loss, and return to work such that patients high on both goals/tasks and self-efficacy showed the most gains. CONCLUSION: Sound therapeutic relationships between patients and staff may play an important role in facilitating the achievement of a wide-range of salutary outcomes during cardiac rehabilitation.     

The transition to motherhood in an organizational context: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

Most of the extant literature on maternity issues is survey based, primarily concerned with identifying the predictors of return to work. The current study aims instead to understand experiences of maternity leave per se. Of the 10 women interviewed during pregnancy, 8 women were followed through to their return to work. Their interviews were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis to identify transitional themes. Findings are discussed in terms of two master themes: changes of identity (involving feelings of gradual invisibility as a valued employee, acquisition of a ‘mother’ identity creating return dilemmas and efforts to revalidate oneself upon re‐entry as both a valued employee and a mother); and changed psychological contracts (pertaining to the fulfilment of mutual expectations). Overall, women appeared to struggle subjectively with prevailing their rights, needs and concerns as mothers while simultaneously also maintaining their identity as valued and functional members of the organization. The findings can be conceptualized within existing theoretical frameworks (e.g. Psychological Contract Theory) and to this extent it is possible to draw out implications for a more effective management of the transition process from pregnancy to return to work.     

Transforming Dissatisfaction With Services Into Self‐Determination: A Social Psychological Perspective on Community Program Effectiveness1

A field study of supported employment for adults with mental illness provided an experimental test of cognitive dissonance theory. We predicted that most work‐interested individuals randomly assigned to a non‐preferred program would reject services and lower their work aspirations. However, individuals who chose to pursue employment through a non‐preferred program were expected to resolve this dissonance through favorable service evaluations and strong efforts to succeed at work. Significant Work Interest × Service Preference interactions supported these predictions. Over 2 years, participants interested in employment who obtained work through a non‐preferred program stayed employed a median of 362 days vs. 108 days for those assigned to a preferred program; participants who obtained work through a non‐preferred program also had higher service satisfaction.     

Demographic Profiles on AFDC Mothers Successfully Placed in Competitive Employment

The purposes of this study were to research demographic characteristics of participants in a government work incentive program for AFDC recipients and to identify those characteristics that lead to successful employment through the program. Implications of the results for clients and staff members of work incentive programs are discussed, and limitations of the study are identified.     

Science and Life-World: Husserl, Schutz, Garfinkel

In this article I intend to explore the conception of science as it emerges from the work of Husserl, Schutz, and Garfinkel. By concentrating specifically on the issue of science, I attempt to show that Garfinkel’s views on the relationship between science and the everyday world are much closer to Husserl’s stance than to the Schutzian perspective. To this end, I explore Husserl’s notion of science especially as it emerges in the Crisis of European Sciences, where he describes the failure of European science and again preaches for a return to the “things themselves”. In this respect I interpret ethnomethodology’s most recent program as an answer to that call originating from a sociological domain. I then argue that the Husserlian turn within ethnomethodology marks the split between Garfinkel and Schutz. In fact I try to show that Schutz’s epistemological work is only partially inspired by phenomenology and that his conception of science retains a rationalist stance that ethnomethodology opposes. In the final section I briefly discuss Garfinkel’s most recent program as a way of closing the gap between theory and experience by linking the topics of science to the radical experiential phenomena.     

TEACHING SELECTED MICROCOMPUTER SKILLS TO RETARDED STUDENTS VIA PICTURE PROMPTS

Five retarded students were taught to use picture prompts to help them access and terminate a microcomputer program. Training was provided within a multiple baseline format. Posttesting (picture prompts without feedback), and a return to baseline were later conducted for boththe training program and an untrained (generalization) program. The results indicate thatthe program was successful in teachingthe microcomputer skills tothe students. In addition, all students were able to maintain their skills over a 7-day interval in which they did not have access tothe microcomputer.     

Social Comparison,Inequity, and Absenteeism among Bus Drivers

Abstract

In this study, absenteeism among bus drivers is predicted on the basis of equity theory and social comparison theory. The number of objectively recorded absence spells (up to a maximum of 14 calendar days) is assessed in a sample of 116 bus drivers from a transport company in the Netherlands. Using the program LISREL, a social psychological model is developed (i.e. tested and revised). The study demonstrates the impact upon absenteeism of two social factors: (1) conflicts with superiors, which are associated with drivers' perception of investing more in the exchange relationship with the company than they receive in return; and (2) the perceived norms of colleagues regarding being absent from work. In addition to their impact upon absence behaviour, both social factors also seem to influence the personal norm regarding being absent. Unexpectedly, the personal absence norm is not significantly associated with absence behaviour. It is concluded that equity theory and social comparison theory enhance our understanding of absenteeism among bus drivers.     

Timing matters: Length of leave and working mothers' daily reentry regrets

Dealing with developmental tasks in work and family domains is an important challenge for young and middle-aged adults. We investigated a transition that has evolved into a normative task for women, namely, the retransition back to paid work following maternity leave. In a diary study with 149 mothers who had just returned to work, we examined the daily experienced regrets concerning this return. In addition to personal resources (i.e., emotional stability, feeling prepared for the transition) and financial requirements needed to return to work, daily experienced family stress predicted decisional regrets. Moreover, our results suggest that leave length is related to psychological resilience in the face of day-to-day stress experiences: Late returners reported fewer regrets in general and were unaffected by daily family stress. Return-to-work regrets, in turn, were predictive of withdrawal intentions. This underlines the relevancy of the timing of the transition back to work in terms of successful development during this life phase. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Does motor programming necessitate response execution?

The complexity of a movement is known to affect the time it takes to initiate the movement. This effect is thought to reflect changes in the duration of processes that operate on a motor program. This question addressed here is whether programming a movement compels the start of its overt execution. If it does, then the programming processes may be said to occur after the "point of no return." We report results from an empirical procedure and a theoretical analysis designed to study processes before and after this point separately. According to our results, changes in the complexity of a movement affect only the prior set of processes. From this we argue that motor programming does not necessitate response execution and that the point of no return occurs very late in the information-processing system.     

The Impact of a Pre-Vocational Program on Cognition,Symptoms, and Work Re-Integration in Schizophrenia

This study measured the effects of a pre-vocational program on cognition, symptoms, and integration to work in schizophrenia. Twelve participants, receiving pharmacological treatment only, were compared to 14 participants, who were part of a pre-vocational program and who received pharmacological treatment on pre and post measures. The work skills training group was offered by an occupational therapist. Results showed statistically significant differences in negative and general symptoms, visual attention, learning, and integration to work when comparing the two groups in favor of the program. These results provide evidence of the positive effects of occupational therapy interventions in mental health.