Telepsychiatry with rural American Indians: issues in civil commitments

The use of live interactive videoconferencing to provide psychiatric care, telepsychiatry, has particular relevance for improving mental health treatment to rural American Indian reservations. There is little literature on civil commitments in telepsychiatry and none specifically addressing this topic among American Indians. This article reviews telepsychiatry in the mental health care of American Indians, civil commitments and telepsychiatry in general, and the current state of civil commitments in American Indian communities. We conclude by considering commitment through telepsychiatry in rural reservations and offering guidelines to assist practitioners in navigating this challenging landscape. Civil commitments of American Indian patients residing in rural reservations can be successfully accomplished through videoconferencing by thoughtful and informed clinicians. However, much more work is needed in this area, including research into the cultural attitudes and perspectives towards commitments and further inquiry regarding potential legal precedents, as well as case reports and examples of this work.     

X—Knowledge of Action Without Observation

This paper argues that perception of one's body 'from the inside' provides one with an awareness of acting, and that this awareness explains a previously overlooked feature of one's knowledge of one's own actions. Actions are events: they occur during periods of time. Knowledge of such events must be sensitive to their course through time. Perception of one's body 'from the inside' allows one to monitor one's actions as they unfold, thereby sustaining one's knowledge of what one is doing over the period of time in which one is doing it.     

Using Web-Based Instruction,Brief Workshops,and Remote Consultation to Teach Community-Based Providers a Parent-Mediated Intervention

Parent-mediated interventions for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are highly under-utilized in community settings. A challenge to the dissemination of these programs is that provider training protocols must teach both the intervention techniques, and the parent coaching strategies. The current study assesses the feasibility an innovative multimodal training protocol to teach community-based intervention providers Project ImPACT (Improving Parents as Communication Teachers). A total of 30 providers (90% female; 76% Caucasian, 13.3% Multiracial/Other, 3.3% Hispanic/Latino, and 3.3% Asian/Pacific Islander) participated in Phase 1, and 15 of these participants (80% female; 60% Caucasian, 33.3% multiracial, and 6.6% Hispanic/Latino) participated in Phase 2. In Phase 1, providers completed questionnaires and videotaped interactions before and after a web-based tutorial and interactive workshop focused on intervention techniques. In Phase 2, providers completed questionnaires and videotaped interactions before and after a second interactive workshop focused on parent coaching. Results from Phase 1 indicate that the addition of the workshop resulted in higher ratings of training satisfaction (p?<?.01), training adequacy (p?<?.01), and self-efficacy (p?<?.01) of the intervention techniques. Results from Phase 2 indicate the addition of the second workshop resulted in greater training adequacy of the parent coaching strategies, p?<?.01. These results suggest that use of this training protocol is a feasible way to increase access to high quality training in evidence-based intervention for providers working with children with ASD in the community; however, larger scale community-based trials of the training protocol are an important next step.     

Classroom application of a trial-based functional analysis

We evaluated a trial-based approach to conducting functional analyses in classroom settings. Ten students referred for problem behavior were exposed to a series of assessment trials, which were interspersed among classroom activities throughout the day. Results of these trial-based functional analyses were compared to those of more traditional functional analyses. Outcomes of both assessments showed correspondence in 6 of the 10 cases and partial correspondence in a 7th case. Results of the standard functional analysis suggested reasons for obtained differences in 2 cases of noncorrespondence, which were verified when portions of the trial-based functional analyses were modified and repeated. These results indicate that a trial-based functional analysis may be a viable assessment method when resources needed to conduct a standard functional analysis are unavailable. Implications for classroom-based assessment methodologies and future directions for research are discussed.     

More than a body: mind perception and the nature of objectification

According to models of objectification, viewing someone as a body induces de-mentalization, stripping away their psychological traits. Here evidence is presented for an alternative account, where a body focus does not diminish the attribution of all mental capacities but, instead, leads perceivers to infer a different kind of mind. Drawing on the distinction in mind perception between agency and experience, it is found that focusing on someone's body reduces perceptions of agency (self-control and action) but increases perceptions of experience (emotion and sensation). These effects were found when comparing targets represented by both revealing versus nonrevealing pictures (Experiments 1, 3, and 4) or by simply directing attention toward physical characteristics (Experiment 2). The effect of a body focus on mind perception also influenced moral intuitions, with those represented as a body seen to be less morally responsible (i.e., lesser moral agents) but more sensitive to harm (i.e., greater moral patients; Experiments 5 and 6). These effects suggest that a body focus does not cause objectification per se but, instead, leads to a redistribution of perceived mind.     

How does a vacation from work affect employee health and well-being?

Health and well-being (H&W) improve during vacation. However, it is unclear whether this general development applies to all employees, while also little is known about the underlying processes causing such an improvement. Our research questions were: (1) Does every worker experience a positive effect of vacation on H&W? and (2) Can vacation activities and experiences explain changes in H&W during vacation? In a 7-week longitudinal field study, 96 workers reported their H&W 2 weeks before, during, 1 week, 2 and 4 weeks after a winter sports vacation on 6 indicators (health status, mood, fatigue, tension, energy level and satisfaction). Sixty percent of the sample experienced substantial improvement of H&W during and after vacation. Yet, a small group experienced no (23%) or a negative effect of vacation (17%). Spending limited time on passive activities, pleasure derived from vacation activities, and the absence of negative incidents during vacation explained 38% of the variance in the vacation effect. Although vacation has a positive, longer lasting effect for many, it is not invariably positive for all employees. Choosing especially pleasant vacation activities and avoiding negative incidents as well as passive activities during active vacations apparently contributes to the positive effect of vacation on H&W.     

Creative Approaches to Address Online Dating in Counseling

Within the last decade, online dating has become an increasingly popular method for meeting potential partners. Online dating comes with a unique set of opportunities and challenges that may affect the overall mental health of our clients. Hence, it is essential for counselors to be prepared and able to discuss online dating in counseling. The authors of this article introduce three potential creative interventions to assist in addressing online dating within counseling.     

Two reasons to abandon the false belief task as a test of theory of mind

The false belief task has often been used as a test of theory of mind. We present two reasons to abandon this practice. First, passing the false belief task requires abilities other than theory of mind. Second, theory of mind need not entail the ability to reason about false beliefs. We conclude with an alternative conception of the role of the false belief task.     

Do 5-month-old infants see humans as material objects?

Infants expect objects to be solid and cohesive, and to move on continuous paths through space. In this study, we examine whether infants understand that human beings are material objects, subject to these same principles. We report that 5-month-old infants apply the constraint of continuous motion to inanimate blocks, but not to people. This suggests that young infants have two separate modes of construal: one for inanimate objects and another for humans.