A Rural Youth Consumer Perspective of Technology to Enhance Face-to-Face Mental Health Services

The imbalance between need and available resources with respect to youth mental ill-health has encouraged a growing body of literature around technology to support existing face-to-face services. However, this literature has not adequately investigated the perspective of youth as consumers and no data exists on the views of rural youth. In response to this gap, in-depth qualitative study investigated the perspectives of rural youth who were currently seeking help at a mental health service. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with a clinical sample of 10 young people (5 female), aged 16–22 years. Participants were recruited from two different mental health services located in two rural South Australian regions. Data were analysed via inductive thematic analysis. Results highlighted a young person’s desire for self-determination around their health and help-seeking within a service current environment that systematically subverts it. Overall, participants had long and complex histories of help-seeking associated with a history of isolation, disadvantage and trauma. A strong need for personal connection in the context of help-seeking was evident. Preferences for, and actual use of, the internet for mental healthcare existed on a continuum from no current (or future desire) to use technologies through to active interest in, and current use of, technologies as an adjunct to face-to-face care. Limited financial and infrastructural resourcing made it more difficult to access help online. Understanding and actively seeking out these views in design and implementation of technologies is in line with the current shift toward more consumer-focused and inclusive service design and delivery.     

Putting concepts into context

At first glance, conceptual representations (e.g., our internal notion of the object “lemon”) seem static; we have the impression that there is something that the concept lemon “means” (a sour, yellow, football-shaped citrus fruit) and that this meaning does not vary. Research in semantic memory has traditionally taken this “static” perspective. Consequently, only effects demonstrated across a variety of contexts have typically been considered informative regarding the architecture of the semantic system. In this review, we take the opposite approach: We review instances of context-dependent conceptual activation at many different timescales—from long-term experience, to recent experience, to the current task goals, to the unfolding process of conceptual activation itself—and suggest that the pervasive effects of context across all of these timescales indicate that rather than being static, conceptual representations are constantly changing and are inextricably linked to their contexts.     

Are you for real? Exploring language use and unexpected process questions within the detection of identity deception

The current study was to test whether reality monitoring and language use could distinguish identity liars from truth tellers when answering outcome questions and unexpected process questions. Truth tellers (n = 30) and liars (n = 30) discussed their identity in a recruitment interview. No differences emerged between truth tellers and liars in the details they provided. In terms of language use, liars used more positive language than truth tellers, whereas truth tellers used more cognitive process words than liars. However, neither were more pronounced when asking process questions. Overall, process questions elicited more cognitive process and cause words than outcome questions. Therefore, process questions may be able to contribute to the cognitive load approach. The findings suggest that reality monitoring may not be diagnostic when applied to identity deception. We discuss the language use differences in relation to impression management theory.     

Exploring the Relationship Between Self-Isolation and Distress Among People with Gastrointestinal Disorders During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings - This study aimed to explore the association between perceived isolation and symptoms of distress in people with GI disorders at the time of the...     

A cure for worry? Kierkegaardian faith and the insecurity of human existence

In his discourses on ??the lily of the field and the bird of the air,?? Kierkegaard presents faith as the best possible response to our precarious and uncertain condition, and as the ideal way to cope with the insecurities and concerns that his readers will recognize as common features of human existence. Reading these discourses together, we are introduced to the portrait of a potential believer who, like the ??divinely appointed teachers????the lily and the bird??succeeds in leading a life that is full of care, but free of worry. Such a portrait, we claim, echoes Kierkegaard??s portrait of the knight of faith in Fear and Trembling. In this essay we suggest that faith, as characterized in the ??lily and bird?? discourses, is a kind of existential trust that would allow us to overcome worry, while remaining wholeheartedly engaged in the finite realm of our cares and concerns. We claim that Kierkegaard??s goal in these discourses is not to belittle our earthly cares, but to invite us to develop a modified attitude toward all that we are susceptible to worry about.     

The evocative power of words: activation of concepts by verbal and nonverbal means

A major part of learning a language is learning to map spoken words onto objects in the environment. An open question is what are the consequences of this learning for cognition and perception? Here, we present a series of experiments that examine effects of verbal labels on the activation of conceptual information as measured through picture verification tasks. We find that verbal cues, such as the word "cat," lead to faster and more accurate verification of congruent objects and rejection of incongruent objects than do either nonverbal cues, such as the sound of a cat meowing, or words that do not directly refer to the object, such as the word "meowing." This label advantage does not arise from verbal labels being more familiar or easier to process than other cues, and it does extends to newly learned labels and sounds. Despite having equivalent facility in learning associations between novel objects and labels or sounds, conceptual information is activated more effectively through verbal means than through nonverbal means. Thus, rather than simply accessing nonverbal concepts, language activates aspects of a conceptual representation in a particularly effective way. We offer preliminary support that representations activated via verbal means are more categorical and show greater consistency between subjects. These results inform the understanding of how human cognition is shaped by language and hint at effects that different patterns of naming can have on conceptual structure.     

Disability research in counseling psychology journals: a 20-year content analysis

We conducted an exploratory content analysis of disability research in 5 major counseling psychology journals between 1990 and 2010. The goal was to review the counseling psychology literature to better understand the prevalence of disability research, identify research methods most often conducted, and elucidate the types of concerns most studied. We searched 5 journals (Journal of Counseling & Development, Journal of Counseling Psychology, The Counseling Psychologist, Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, and Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology) using keywords derived from disability terms defined by the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA). Articles were categorized by methodology and disability category examined. We found that disability research continues to comprise an extremely small amount (from less than 1% to 2.7%) of the counseling psychology literature, with the frequency of articles plateauing in recent years. The research design of articles published has changed, with an increased number of empirical articles and a decrease in literature reviews. We conclude by calling for increased empirical investigation of disability among journals specific to counseling psychology to recognize disability as an important aspect of diversity within the field.     

“If We’re Going to Change Things, It Has to Be Systemic:” Systems Change in Children’s Mental Health

Communities that undertake systems change in accordance with the system of care philosophy commit to creating new systems entities for children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbance. These new entities are values-based, voluntary, and cross-agency alliances that include formal child-serving entities, youth, and families. Describing the scope and intent of one such implementation of systems of care, a mental health administrator commented, "If we're going to change things, it has to be systemic" (B. Baxter, personal communication, December 2, 2005). This paper explores the concept of "systemic" in the context of systems of care. Systems theory is used to understand strategies of purposeful systems change undertaken by stakeholders in established system of care communities. The paper presents a conceptual model of systems change for systems of care that is grounded in data from a national study of system of care implementation (Research and Training Center for Children's Mental Health in Case Studies of system implementation: Holistic approaches to studying community-based systems of care: Study 2, University of South Florida, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, Research and Training Center for Children's Mental Health, Tampa, FL, 2004). The model is based on Soft Systems Methodology, an application of systems theory developed to facilitate practical action around systems change in human systems (Checkland in Systems thinking, systems practice, Wiley, Chichester, 1999). The implications of these findings to real world actions associated with systems change in systems of care are discussed.     

Testing the myth of the encoding–retrieval match

The view that successful memory performance depends importantly on the extent to which there is a match between the encoding and retrieval conditions is commonplace in memory research. However, Nairne (Memory, 10, 389–395, 2002) proposed that this idea about trace–cue compatibility being the driving force behind memory retention is a myth, because one cannot make unequivocal predictions about performance by appealing to the encoding–retrieval match. What matters instead is the relative diagnostic value of the match, and not the absolute match. Three experiments were carried out in which participants memorised word pairs and tried to recall target words when given retrieval cues. The diagnostic value of the cue was varied by manipulating the extent to which the cues subsumed other memorised words and the level of the encoding–retrieval match. The results supported Nairne’s (Memory, 10, 389–395, 2002) assertion that the diagnostic value of retrieval cues is a better predictor of memory performance than the absolute encoding–retrieval match.