Traumatic loss and major disasters: strengthening family and community resilience

This article presents the core principles and value of a family and community resilience-oriented approach to recovery from traumatic loss when catastrophic events occur. In contrast to individually based, symptom-focused approaches to trauma recovery, this multisystemic practice approach contextualizes the distress in the traumatic experience and taps strengths and resources in relational networks to foster healing and posttraumatic growth. The intertwining of trauma and traumatic losses is discussed. Key family and social processes in risk and resilience in traumatic loss situations are outlined. Case illustrations, model programs, and intervention guidelines are described in situations of community violence and major disasters to suggest ways to foster family and community resilience.     

Length of Time to Resolve Criminal Charges of Child Sexual Abuse: A Three-County Case Study

The present study sought to examine the court culture of three Oregon counties and their timelines for resolving felony child sexual abuse cases. Specifically, we examined (a) case outcomes, churning (i.e., the extent to which four court events were rescheduled), the length of time to reach a criminal case resolution, and how this length of time compared to that for felonies generally; (b) whether mandatory minimum sentences affected resolution timeliness; and (c) key stakeholders’ perceptions about their local court culture. Data included retrospective case-file abstraction (N = 532) on all felony child sex crimes for a 2-year period and interviews with legal professionals (N = 23). Across all three counties, a minority of child sexual abuse cases (18% to 47%) were resolved within the target timeframe of 4 months. In contrast, most felonies (65% to 77%) were resolved within this timeframe. The rescheduling of trials and the requirement of mandatory minimum sentences for some felony child sexual abuse crimes increased the time until case resolution. Results suggest that court cultures that are hierarchical and cooperative may lead to longer case resolution times than court cultures that are self-managing or autonomous. Implications of these results and other results are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Aboriginal Practitioners Offer Culturally Safe and Responsive CBT: Response to Commentaries

We appreciate the valuable commentaries that have been provided for our paper “Can CBT be effective for Aboriginal Australians? Perspectives of Aboriginal practitioners trained in CBT.” The international authors identify how CBT, with adaptations by culturally responsive practitioners can be of value for non‐Western and Indigenous peoples. The commentary by Australian psychologists Dudgeon and Kelly questions the value of CBT for Indigenous Australians, terming it a “Western therapy” that is “culturally unresponsive” and “culturally blind.” They also critique the methodology of the study. We argue that CBT can be adapted by culturally competent practitioners to be culturally safe in Australia, as elsewhere. Cultural safety is mostly a function of the therapist, not the therapy. In the Bennett‐Levy et al. (2014) study, CBT was delivered in a culturally responsive way by Aboriginal counsellors within their own communities. CBT is a particularly adaptable and versatile therapy, and embodies principles of empowerment and self‐determination that are central to Indigenous social and emotional well‐being. We are concerned that CBT, which has strong empirical support and has been adapted elsewhere for a range of cultures, including Indigenous cultures, may be being denied to Indigenous Australian clients. There is considerable opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness and versatility of CBT, and variations of its mode of delivery, for all Australians.     

The effects of healthy aging on the mnemonic benefit of survival processing

A number of studies have shown that information is remembered better when it is processed for its survival relevance than when it is processed for relevance to other, non-survival-related contexts. Here we conducted three experiments to investigate whether the survival advantage also occurs for healthy older adults. In Experiment 1, older and younger adults rated words for their relevance to a grassland survival or moving scenario and then completed an unexpected free recall test on the words. We replicated the survival advantage in two separate groups of younger adults, one of which was placed under divided-attention conditions, but we did not find a survival advantage in the older adults. We then tested two additional samples of older adults using a between- (Exp. 2) or within- (Exp. 3) subjects design, but still found no evidence of the survival advantage in this age group. These results suggest that, although survival processing is an effective encoding strategy for younger adults, it does not provide the same mnemonic benefit to healthy elders.     

Newborn Screening: Education,Consent, and the Residual Blood Spot. The Position of the National Society of Genetic Counselors

Newborn screening (NBS) is a minimally invasive lifesaving test. There is currently no federal mandate for NBS, thus states determine their own screening panel based on the recommendations of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborn and Children (SACHDNC), which was recently re-chartered as the Discretionary Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children (DACHDNC). After NBS is completed, a couple of residual blood spots remain. While some states allow these spots to be used for public health and scientific research purposes, parents are not always informed about these additional uses. This paper addresses the National Society of Genetic Counselors’ (NSGC’s) position about NBS and blood spot storage/use and the rationale for these positions. The National Society of Genetic Counselors strongly supports newborn screening for the uniform screening panel of conditions recommended by the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children. NSGC also supports storage and use of blood spot samples by newborn screening laboratories and transparent policies that govern these activities.     

Attenuating depletion using goal priming

This research examines how goal priming can attenuate the depletion effect. Using different self-control goals (i.e., savings and healthy eating) and different measures of self-control ability (i.e., willingness to buy and actual consumption), this study reveals that when people were primed with cues related to a self-control goal and then depleted, the effect of depletion on a subsequent self-control task (related to the primed goal) became attenuated. Also, depleted people, relative to nondepleted people, reported a lower level of commitment to a self-control goal; however, when cues related to a self-control goal were primed, their level of goal commitment increased, weakening the depletion effect. This research clarifies questions related to the process underlying depletion, while highlighting the importance of goal commitment (a measure of motivation) in understanding depletion.     

“Putting One Foot in Front of the Other”: A Qualitative Study of Emotional Experiences and Help-Seeking in Women with Multiple Sclerosis

Treatments for depression and anxiety in multiple sclerosis (MS) are effective but evidence suggests that individuals do not always seek help for emotional difficulties. This study explored how ten women with MS (aged 30–64), recruited via a hospital based MS clinic, coped with and understood their emotions. The semi-structured interviews were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Eight participants discussed the analytic process and themes. Four overarching themes emerged: Disclosure stress, Uncomfortable dependence, Facing deterioration and One step at a time. The women struggled emotionally with many aspects of living with MS yet coping alone provided a way of defying MS and maintaining independence and control. The women needed emotional support but reported thinking others either did not notice or understand; their emotions often felt invisible. More holistic care from services was desired. Non help-seeking for distress was partially influenced by a desire to keep things “normal” and a lack of knowledge regarding service provision.