Treating Inner-City Families of Homicide Victims: A Contextually Oriented Approach

Violence, including youth homicide, has assumed near epidemic proportions in US inner cities, with few signs that such violence is abating. Professionals working with families after the murder of a family member, are faced with the task of helping such families achieve a meaningful restoration of functioning. At the same time, there is a need to prevent retaliatory violence by surviving siblings and other family members. A treatment model will be discussed that uses the basic, theoretical principles of Boszormenyi-Nagy's Contextual Therapy (CT) while incorporating White and Epston's technique of “therapeutic certificates” in work with young people coping with loss via homicide. Case examples, drawn from the author's work at a unique, predominantly African American agency in an urban inner city will be used to illustrate applications of CT principles, and to show how therapeutic certificates can provide tools to clinicians working with this deeply troubling problem.     

Use of Lay Home Visitors: A Primary Prevention Strategy for Families with a Newborn

This article describes a primary prevention program designed to reach every family with a newborn in a specified geographic area, providing support and linking families with community resources.     

A Method of Co-Therapy for Schizophrenic Families

This paper describes a model of treatment for families in which one child has been given the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Male and female therapists adopt structured roles that are used as a paradigm for exploring family patterns. The paradigm employs a three-generational hypothesis that defines schizophrenia as a lifelong, restricting mode of relating, involving the primary family triad, that makes the child vulnerable to repeated psychotic episodes. Therapy is directed at the difficulties of autonomous development within the family by focusing on differentiating the relationship between nuclear and extended family members, expecially defining and strengthening generational and sexual boundaries. The second focus of therapy is on the resolution of issues of separation and loss, with attention to unresolved mourning in the family of origin and the concomitant stress in giving up the infantile relationship with the index child in the nuclear family. Stages of therapy will be described including: (a) initiation of therapy, (b) breaking of fusion, (c) repair of alienation, and (d) solidifying the marital alliance and generational boundaries. Case illustrations will be included.     

Consultation: A New Strategy For CETA

Program changes inherent in the CETA concept have markedly decreased the effectiveness of previous program management and liaison strategies. Some reasons for this decrease and a new set of skills for working at the interface between prime sponsors and subcontractors and/or the regional offices are presented. These skills, formulated within a consultation model and based on solid behavioral strategies, are one way to increase CETA program effectiveness.     

A Mutual-Help Project for Families of Handicapped Children

The authors describe a program for families of handicapped children that features educational programs and parent and sibling support groups.     

A New Normalization Strategy for the Implicational Fragment of Classical Propositional Logic

The introduction and elimination rules for material implication in natural deduction are not complete with respect to the implicational fragment of classical logic. A natural way to complete the system is through the addition of a new natural deduction rule corresponding to Peirce’s formula (((A → B) → A) → A). E. Zimmermann [6] has shown how to extend Prawitz’ normalization strategy to Peirce’s rule: applications of Peirce’s rule can be restricted to atomic conclusions. The aim of the present paper is to extend Seldin’s normalization strategy to Peirce’s rule by showing that every derivation Π in the implicational fragment can be transformed into a derivation Π′ such that no application of Peirce’s rule in Π′ occurs above applications of →-introduction and →-elimination. As a corollary of Seldin’s normalization strategy we obtain a form of Glivenko’s theorem for the classical {→}-fragment.     

Family Experience of Safe: A New Intervention for Families of Children with a Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Systemic Autism-related Family Enabling (SAFE) is a new intervention for families of children with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). SAFE responds to international and national recommendations for improved care and the reported needs of families. SAFE draws from Family Therapy techniques, Attachment Narrative Therapy and known preferences of individuals with autism. Twenty two families of a child with a diagnosis of ASD severity level 1 or 2 were recruited. The families attended five 3-hour sessions. Family members completed the Helpful Aspects of Therapy Questionnaire (HAT) after each session. Analysis of the HAT data revealed that adults and children experienced SAFE to be helpful which was elaborated in terms of the following themes: therapist as helping reflection, increased understanding, feeling closer, more confident to reflect and problem solve, improved communication and feeling less alone and isolated. The findings are discussed to consider how SAFE can be improved and implemented to offer support for families. SAFE is a good candidate to fill a gap in autism related care.

     

社会关系模型（SRM）——个体差异研究的新策略

在文化、社会和人际互动情境下研究行为已经成为人格研究的趋势之一。社会关系模型（SocialRelationModel）源自人际知觉研究领域,它能够分析成对数据,在人际互动关系中分离出行为者效应、目标效应和关系效应。这种研究理念和研究策略不仅契合在社会关系背景下研究人格的理论取向,而且能为实现这一取向提供更为精当的分析方法和研究工具。文章通过介绍社会关系模型的含义、方法和应用,以期为研究人格差异的稳定性与变化性问题提供新的视野和思路     

结核病的再燃和控制新策略

由于忽视结核病控制工作、耐药菌株的出现、流动人口的增加以及艾滋病的流行导致了结核病在全球范围内再燃,中国是全球22个结核病高负担国家之一.世界卫生组织提出了控制结核病流行的有效新策略-DOTS.政府承诺、综合医院积极配合、归口管理、健康教育、加强培训等是确保DOTS实施的有效措施.     

A Psychological Support for Peacekeeping Soldiers and their Families: A Preliminary Model

Being a military family can be challenging, and the demands placed on soldiers and their families can become very complex. Military deployments are part of a soldier's military career that cannot be avoided and have the potential to influence military families directly. Separation within a military family is an inherent consequence of military deployments. Military deployments consist of various phases. Each phase has unique emotional and psychological challenges attached to it. These challenges can significantly influence every member in the military family. It is therefore imperative that the military, soldier and military families be sensitized around these phases and their unique challenges. A model is proposed to empower military families in the face of deployment.     

Surveying Families Accused of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Comparison of British and New Zealand Results

Two independent surveys from opposite ends of the globe, the UK and New Zealand, completed by families which include a family member accused of sexually abusing a child, have produced remarkably similar results. The majority of accusations were made by well-educated white women about their biological fathers and/or their mothers, based upon memories often recovered within a therapeutic context, many years after the incidents were supposed to have taken place. Accusations included disproportionately high rates of rape, bizarre sexual behaviours and satanic ritual abuse in both surveys. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Psychosocial Impact of Predictive Testing for Illness on Children and Families: Challenges for a New Millennium

Predictive testing for adult- and child-onset diseases is becoming widely available. The identification of individuals prone to develop certain illnesses is often medically advantageous in that it may afford opportunities to engage in risk reduction behaviors to detect or delay disease onset. However, sometimes the knowledge gained from these tests can be ambiguous, generate distress, and potentially affect several generations of family members. Overall, these factors create a challenging set of circumstances for persons considering genetic and other forms of predictive testing, particularly parents and children. In this article, we (1) address conceptual issues involved in determining the impact of predictive testing on child and family well-being, (2) review empirical data on this topic, and (3) provide a case example to illustrate these findings. Recommendations are made for additional psychological research on child- and family-focused outcomes associated with participation in testing, highlighting their clinical implications.     

Externalism and Authoritative Knowledge of Content: A New Incompatibilist Strategy

Philosophical Studies -     

Evaluating a Comprehensive Strategy to Improve Engagement to Group-based Behavioral Parent Training for High-risk Families of Children with ADHD

Behavioral parent training (BPT) is an evidence-based intervention for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and related disruptive behavioral disorders of childhood. Despite convincing data on effectiveness, engagement to BPT, particularly for high-risk families, has been a long standing, yet understudied, issue. Data from a clinical trial of a comprehensive BPT approach to enhance engagement and outcomes (the Strategies to Enhance Positive Parenting [STEPP] program) are presented herein. The STEPP program was compared to a traditional group-based BPT program on propensity to attend treatment, propensity to complete homework over the course of treatment, and dropout from BPT. Additionally, factors empirically related to engagement to treatment and targeted by the STEPP program were analyzed to determine whether these factors were enhanced by participation in the STEPP program. In a randomized cohort of 80 single-mothers of school-age children with ADHD, analyses demonstrated that the STEPP program lead to greater propensity to attend treatment over time and a greater propensity to complete homework over the course of treatment. Furthermore, participation in the STEPP Program was associated with a lower rate of dropout. Finally, data suggested that parents assigned to the STEPP program reported significant improvements in factors empirically related to engagement that were targeted within the STEPP program (i.e., amount and quality of social support from their group members, expectations for treatment, and perceived barriers to treatment participation). Results of the study have implications for targeting engagement throughout the process of BPT, particularly for high-risk families.