Screening and Assessing Adolescent Substance Abuse: A Primer for Counselors

Adolescent substance abuse is an increasing problem in US. society. This article provides an overview of adolescent substance abuse, screening, and assessment strategies; contact information related to specific assessment instruments; and information regarding ethics important to consider during the assessment process.     

Understanding Gerotranscendence in Older Adults: A New Perspective for Counselors

The author describes gerotranscendence as a process that occurs when older adults shift from a rational focus on the present‐day, material world to a more universal and transcendent perspective. Accompanying this shift is a desire to move toward the end of life with a sense of integrity and acceptance of one's choices. By gaining an understanding of gerotranscendence, counselors can better meet the needs of their aging clients. Using existing gerotranscendence literature as a guideline, suggestions are made for appropriate counseling interventions.     

Abuse and Older Persons: Issues and Implications for Counselors

Counselors can play a vital role in addressing the needs of increasing numbers of older persons subject to and at risk for abuse from their families, caretakers, and themselves.     

Ethical Guidelines for Counselors Working With Older Adults

Counselors working with older adults may encounter situations that are not directly addressed by the ethical standards of the American Counseling Association (1995). After an extensive review of the literature, the Standards Committee of the Association for Adult Development and Aging (1998) identified 3 areas of concern: older adults with cognitive impairments, older adults who are the victims of abuse, and older adults with a terminal illness. This article examines the unique needs of older adults with these concerns and proposes guidelines for counselors working with such clients.     

Managed Mental Health: A Primer for Counselors

The mental health service delivery system is experiencing a transformation attendant to rapidly developing cost containment mechanisms. This article reviews various aspects of the new managed mental health care systems and details the gains and losses the various mental health service provider professions may experience depending upon how each responds to the changing demands of alternate service delivery systems. Recommendations are presented regarding how counselors can establish a solid base in the new managed mental health care system.     

A Primer on Suicidology: Implications for Counselors

In this article, the author addresses the state of the art issues relating to suicide theory; assessment; risk factors; intervention, prevention, and postvention; and training. Specifically, a recent article published in The Counseling Psychologist (J. S. Westefeld et al., 2000) is reviewed. Implications for counselors, counselor educators, and counselor trainees are presented.     

Unresolved Childhood Sexual Abuse and Older Adults: Late-Life Vulnerabilities

Several long-term correlates of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) have been identified, including depression, fear, anxiety, guilt, anger, and poor interpersonal functioning (e.g., Browne and Finkelhor, 1986). However, little is know about how CSA survivors fare in old age. This article addresses the impact of unresolved CSA on late-life (emotional, cognitive, and behavioral) functioning. Three case studies of older adults ages 60 and older who were struggling with unresolved CSA are presented. Two observed stressors (loss of social support and declining health) and one developmental task (reminiscence or life-review) appear to be linked to exacerbated vulnerabilities in older survivors. Specifically, because CSA may arrest specific childhood developmental tasks (e.g., ability to form secure attachments, autonomy) or facilitate development of coping strategies that are maladaptive when outside of an abusive environment (e.g., generalized interpersonal distrust, avoidance, dissociation), the survivor may be at risk for developmental vulnerabilities for dysfunction in adulthood. These vulnerabilities may exacerbate unresolved CSA, particularly when the adult encounters stressors or developmental tasks that exceed his or her capacity for adaptive coping. Recommendations for mental health professionals and future research are suggested.     

Sibling Maltreatment: The Forgotten Abuse

Great advances have been made in the study of family violence in the past 30 years. However, sibling abuse and its prevalence in the family have largely been overlooked. In this article, the major issues associated with sibling maltreatment are highlighted, and strategies for helping the victims and perpetrators of sibling abuse and their families are described.     

Teen Dating Abuse: A Paradigm for Mental Health Counselors

Teen dating abuse (TDA) is a serious public health problem affecting almost half of all adolescents in the United States. Because of the developmental characteristics of adolescence such as identity confusion and rejection of adult authority figures, counseling adolescents who are experiencing TDA can be particularly challenging. This article describes the types of abuse, the early warning signs of abuse, and effective strategies that mental health counselors can use to counsel and educate teen victims of TDA and others.     

Assessment and DSM-IV Diagnosis of Personality Disorders: A Primer for Counselors

The DSM-IV categorizes 10 personality disorders, long-term patterns of personality traits that result in impairment of social and occupational functioning. The author details steps in the recognition and diagnosis of personality disorders, with emphasis on using the DSM-IV diagnostic framework.     

Psychosocial Adaptation to Chronic Illness and Disability: A Primer for Counselors

In this article, the authors discuss 3 broad domains of psychosocial adaptation to chronic illness and disability. These include the dynamics (basic concepts, psychosocial responses, and coping strategies) typically associated with the process of adaptation to disabling conditions, assessment of adaptation as evidenced by 6 commonly used measures, and intervention strategies applied to facilitating coping with and adaptation to chronic illness and disability.     

A Latent Class Analysis of Childhood Maltreatment: Identifying Abuse Typologies

Multiple forms of abuse may co-occur, resulting in specific abuse typologies. A stratified random probability survey was conducted in Denmark with 4,718 participants, aged 24, from the 1984 birth cohort. A total of 2,980 interviews were successfully conducted. Latent class analysis was implemented using 20 categorical abuse experience items across four domains of childhood maltreatment. Logistic regression was conducted to ascertain whether abuse typologies could be differentiated by child protection status and gender. Four distinct abuse typologies were revealed: a non-abused group, a psychologically maltreated group, a sexually abused group, and a group experiencing multiple abuse types. Child protection status and female gender were predictive of group membership in certain abused groups compared to a non-abused group.     

Emotional Abuse Questionnaire (EAQ): A New Scale for Measuring Emotional Abuse and Psychological Maltreatment1

Emotional abuse is the core of all other kinds of child abuses and maltreatments. The significant and serious outcomes of other kinds of abuses are often due to the emotional aspects. Moreover, emotional abuse has several forms, and each form may lead to different adverse outcomes for children and adolescents. Unfortunately, there is not a comprehensive instrument to assess all categories of emotional abuse. A 30-item self-report questionnaire was developed for ages 12 years and older. The sample included 328 students aged 12 to 19 years selected randomly from students referred to different student counseling centers. Exploratory factor analysis categorized the scale into six subscales. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that all items were fitted with the subscales significantly. Content and concurrent validity demonstrated good validity and reliability for each subscale. Overall reliability was also significantly acceptable.     

Best Practices in the Multidisciplinary Assessment of Emotional Disturbances: A Primer for Counselors

Emotional and behavioral difficulties often interfere with children's acquisition of academic, career, and social skills. Counselors assume an important role in the mandated multidisciplinary evaluation of children with emotional disturbance (ED), but the field lacks a standard battery of assessment procedures for working with children who have ED. The authors review the current issues related to students with ED, describe instruments and procedures used to assess ED, and discuss the counselor's role in the assessment process.     

Guided Autobiography: A Counseling Tool for Older Adults

The author describes Guided Autobiography, a course based on the life review concept, and evaluates its impact on self-concept, time competence, and purpose in life. Despite a lack of significant results on the dependent measures, informal evaluations and a follow-up study indicated that the course had resulted in some positive changes.     

Day Centers for Older Adults:

As a relatively new service concept which addresses the care of the frail older adult, Day Centers offer a rare opportunity for the partnership of local parishes and service agencies. In typical local parishes, there is a vast increase in the number of frail older adults as- well as the number of their care-giving families. Day Centers offer an opportunity for wholistic care for the older adults. By careful programing the needs of the whole person are addressed: social, physical, emotional, and spiritual. Care-giving families appreciate sharing their responsibility. Parishes have vast resources to offer Day Centers. Agencies have the expertise for program development and operations. With the partnership of parish and agency, resources are enhanced. Benefited are the older adults served, the parish, the agency and the community.     

Intimacy in Adults: A Developmental Model for Counselors and Helpers

Intimacy is described as a developmental task of adults, and a model developed by Marvin Rytting is presented as a tool for use in working with adult clients and for self-understanding.     

A Spiritual Screening Tool for Older Adults

Objective The purpose of this non-experimental study was to investigate the reliability and validity of a self-administered screening tool for spiritual distress in older adults. The tool was unique in that items were consistent with a conceptual definition of spirituality presented in the professional literature and supported by theories of behavioral development for older adults. Methods Questionnaires were distributed to residents of a continuing care retirement community participating in a class on spirituality. Results The split-half reliability coefficient was found to be 0.776. Construct validity was established and a cutoff value for spiritual distress was determined. Discussion Tests for reliability and validity demonstrated confidence in use of the tool to screen for spiritual distress in older adults.