Women–Focused Treatment Agencies and Process Improvement: Strategies to Increase Client Engagement

Behavioral health treatment agencies often struggle to keep clients engaged in treatment. Women clients often have additional factors such as family responsibilities, financial difficulties, or abuse histories that provide extra challenges to remaining in care. As part of a national initiative, four women-focused drug treatment agencies used process improvement to address treatment engagement. Interviews and focus groups with staff assessed the nature and extent of interventions. Women-focused drug treatment agencies selected relational-based interventions to engage clients in treatment and improved four-week treatment retention from 66% to 76%. Process improvement interventions in women-focused treatment may be useful to improve engagement.     

Stress Management for Police Special Forces

This article reports on the implementation of a stress management program for French police Special Forces units. A stressor analysis was conducted to identify stress sources and understand how mental skills could help the Special Forces to cope and function more effectively. An initial difficulty had to be overcome to allow this population to talk about stress and emotions without being afraid of losing their "virility." The program was then organized around three levels (organizational, group, and individual) and around three periods of time (an initial four-day meeting, a two-day follow-up meeting one month later, and a final one-day meeting held after six months). One hundred and fifty male police officers were involved in the program. Results revealed that the psychological training was very well received and led the police management to consider factors and manifestations of stress in a more extensive way. Stress management training soon will be initiated for all the police forces working on the street. Moreover, other groups asked for the training to be adapted to their specific work characteristics, such as the intelligence service and bodyguard detachments.     

Training in group-analytic psychotherapy in Europe

Group-analytic psychotherapy focuses on the making and maintaining of close, emotionally fulfilling relationships. Its practitioners attempt to fuse an individual and a whole-group perspective, and seek to provide the enabling conditions for freer communication between group members. The group-analytic approach is widely used in the United Kingdom, and many experiential groups on psychotherapy training courses are conducted on group-analytic lines. The Institute of Group Psychotherapy in London recognizes eight one-year courses in England and Scotland specifically oriented to group-analytic theory and methods. These courses provide an introduction to group psychotherapy to over 300 professionals of varied backgrounds every year. There are also two courses in the United Kingdom that provide a full training in group-analysis and group-analytic psychotherapy, and 11 courses on the continent of Europe. The number of courses is growing and there is now a European Group-Analytic Training Network providing formal links between them. Results of a postal survey indicate that few (10%) attenders at a one-year course have a negative response and that many (85%) recommend the course to colleagues. The efficiency and therefore reduced cost of group teaching and the incorporation of a group experience may be contributing factors to the increasing demand for this type of training.This paper is based on a presentation at an Open Session on Training in Group Psychotherapy: The Quest for a Viable Model at the American Group Psychotherapy Association Annual Meeting, Boston, February 1990. This paper represents the author's own views and is not an official statement of the Institute of Group Analysis [London]. However, members and staff of the Institute have made helpful contributions to the author in preparing it. He is especially grateful for the assistance of Mrs. Liesel Hearst (Chairperson, Overseas Training Sub-Committee, Institute of Group Analysis, London), Dr. Keith Hyde (Convenor, Manchester Course in Group Psychotherapy), Fr. Jim Christie (Convenor, Glasgow Course in Group Psychotherapy), and Dr. Vivienne Cohen (Chairperson, Training Committee, Institute of Group Analysis, London, in preparing this paper. The questionnaire study was conducted with the assistance of the Training Section of the North-Western Regional Health Authority.     

Community engagement,greening, and violent crime: A test of the greening hypothesis and Busy Streets

Researchers have documented that vacant lot greening can reduce community-level crime and violence. Busy Streets Theory (BST) suggests that residents who are involved in the greening process can help to improve physical environments and build social connections that deter crime and violence. Yet few researchers have explored how community engagement in the greening process may affect crime and violence outcomes. We applied BST to test the effects of community-engaged vacant lot greening compared to vacant lots that received either professional mowing or no treatment, on the density of violent crime around study lots. Using mixed effects regression models, we analyzed trends in violent crime density over the summer months from 2016 to 2018 at 2102 street segments in Youngstown, OH. These street segments fell within 150 meters of an intervention parcel that was classified as one of three conditions: community-engaged maintenance, professional mowing, or no treatment (control). We found that street segments in areas receiving community-engaged maintenance or professional mowing experienced greater declines in violent crime density than street segments in areas receiving no treatment, and more decline occurred in the community-engaged condition compared to the professional mow condition. Our findings support BST and suggest that community-engaged greening of vacant lots in postindustrial cities with a concentrated vacancy can reduce crime and violence.     

Suicide Risk Documented During Veterans' Last Veterans Affairs Health Care Contacts Prior to Suicide

A total of 295 veterans who died by suicide in 2009 across 11 states and received Veterans Affairs (VA) health care in the 6 months prior to death were identified. The suicide risk factors documented and the care received at these veterans' last VA contacts are described, and the study explores whether veterans present differently to VA care (i.e., different risk factors documented or different care settings accessed) based on the proximity of their last contact to suicide. Many veterans were seen in primary care (n = 136; 46%) for routine follow‐up (n = 168; 57%). Fifty‐three (18%) were assessed for suicidal thoughts; 20 (38%) of whom endorsed such thoughts. Although higher frequencies of some risk factors at last contacts more proximal to suicide compared to those more distal were observed, findings overall highlight the challenges clinicians face detecting enhanced risk prior to suicide.     

To What Extent Does the Reporting Behavior of the Media Regarding a Celebrity Suicide Influence Subsequent Suicides in South Korea?

This study investigated the nature of media coverage of a national entertainer's suicide and its impact on subsequent suicides. After the celebrity suicide, the number of suicide‐related articles reported surged around 80 times in the week after the suicide compared with the week prior. Many articles (37.1%) violated several critical items on the World Health Organization suicide reporting guidelines, like containing a detailed suicide method. Most gender and age subgroups were at significantly higher risk of suicide during the 4 weeks after the celebrity suicide. Results imply that massive and noncompliant media coverage of a celebrity suicide can cause a large‐scale copycat effect.     

The Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Suicide Prevention Program

In response to calls for greater efforts to reduce youth suicide, the Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) Memorial Act has provided funding for 68 state, territory, and tribal community grants, and 74 college campus grants for suicide prevention efforts. Suicide prevention activities supported by GLS grantees have included education, training programs (including gatekeeper training), screening activities, infrastructure for improved linkages to services, crisis hotlines, and community partnerships. Through participation in both local‐ and cross‐site evaluations, GLS grantees are generating data regarding the local context, proximal outcomes, and implementation of programs, as well as opportunities for improvement of suicide prevention efforts.     

Interaction of Combat Exposure and Unit Cohesion in Predicting Suicide‐Related Ideation Among Post‐Deployment Soldiers

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among U.S. Army soldiers. Suicide‐related ideation, which is associated with suicide attempts and suicide, can cause considerable distress. In a sample of 1,663 recently redeployed soldiers, we used factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test the associations between combat exposure, unit cohesion, and their interaction in predicting suicide‐related ideation. We found that combat exposure was a significant risk factor for suicide‐related ideation, while unit cohesion was a significant protective factor. The significant interaction between the two factors indicated that soldiers who experienced greater combat exposure but also had higher levels of unit cohesion had relatively lower levels of suicide‐related ideation. In addition, those who had higher levels of combat exposure and lower unit cohesion were most at risk for suicide‐related ideation. Our findings indicate the importance of unit cohesion in protecting soldiers from suicide‐related ideation and suggest a higher risk group of soldiers who should be targeted for interventions.