The Home-Based Occupational Therapy Intervention in the Alzheimer's Disease Multiple Intervention Trial (ADMIT)

There is no way to prevent functional declines related to Alzheimer's Disease (AD). The use of occupational therapy (OT) has been shown to be successful in managing some aspects of AD. We added home-based OT to evidence-based best practice for AD with the aim of delaying functional decline in people with AD. OT was delivered in the home to a caregiver dyad including the person with AD and her/his caregiver. This article describes the OT intervention for the AD Multiple Intervention Trial, a parallel randomized controlled trial. We include baseline data on the 180 caregiver dyads.     

Beyond Hopelessness

Abstract

The researchers conducted a needs assessment survey of practicing school-based occupational therapists to determine the incidence of grief within existing caseloads, current awareness of the issue, related concerns, and willingness or resistance to address grief in the intervention environment. The survey was administered to a representative sample of 150 school-based therapists throughout the state of Ohio. Fifty-six therapists responded with usable data.

The results suggest that the students who are currently on occupational therapy (OT) caseloads face a large number of grief issues. Although a majority of therapists reported addressing grief issues, only a small percentage typically do so for a variety of reasons. The school therapists offered a number of explanations for the limited follow-through on this issue. These findings support the profession's recent efforts to further establish occupational therapy as a well-recognized and respected provider of interventions to address the mental health and psychosocial needs of children in school settings.     

Daily Occupations and Adaptation to Daily Life Described by Women Suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder

Clients suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder have significant impairments in relation to health. Despite this, their occupational status is rarely described. The aim of this study was to examine how women with Borderline Personality Disorder describe their daily occupations and adaptation to daily life. The study included nine participants. The data were collected using a semi-structured interview and were analyzed using content analysis.

Theme: Having few organized daily activities and poor personal causation prevent changes in adaptation to daily life. Two categories: performance and self-image, and four subcategories: competent or incompetent to perform, positive self-image, and lack of self-image were identified.     

Evaluating OVal-9, An Instrument for Detecting Experiences of Value in Daily Occupations

The drastic increase of psychosocial ill health may point to the fact that current lifestyles produce longer lives, but with increased chronic disorders rather than greater health. Focus on current lifestyles, that is, on peoples' daily environments, are thereby warranted to develop models and methods for tracing health promoting factors inherent in people's daily participation and experiences. This study tests the content validity of OVal-9, an instrument based on the new concept; Occupational Value, among a sample of experts, students and clients. The result shows a good ability to assess the value that people experience in their daily occupations. We are convinced that measuring Occupational Value might be of importance in developing future strategies for intervention and prevention needed for the increasing incidence of mental ill-health.     

How Much Distress Is Too Much on Deployed Operations? Validation of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) for Application in Military Operational Settings

The aim of this study was threefold: (a) to assess the factor structure of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) to determine whether interpreting the scale as a single dimensional measure of psychological distress is justified in military operational setting; (b) to validate the K10 for mental health surveillance in operational settings against self-reported occupational impairment; (c) to evaluate whether the K10 has better discriminatory power than de facto standards for mental health surveillance on deployment, namely the Patient Health Questionnaire and the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist, Civilian version. A convenience sample of Canadian Armed Forces personnel serving in Afghanistan (N = 1,264) completed self-report measures of psychological distress and occupational impairment. On examination of 6 competing models, the authors determined that interpreting the K10 as a measure of unspecified psychological distress is justified. Using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, they identified new cutoff values for dichotomous and polychotomous scoring methods. After comparing the area beneath the ROC curves for each of the 3 mental health surveillance questionnaires, the authors determined that all measures perform well as predictors of self-rated occupational impairment, with values ranging from .86 to .90. These results highlight the importance of cross-setting validation and demonstrate that validating psychological screening questionnaires against self-report measures of occupational impairment can be a useful strategy for understanding the manifestation of psychological distress on deployed military operations.     

Career Plateauing and Institutional/Occupational Intention for Taiwanese Career Officers

This study examines regulatory focus as a mediator between the perception of reaching a career plateau and institutional/occupational (I/O) intention in the Taiwanese military. Empirical data were collected from 632 career officers receiving full-time training at the National Defense University. For the identification of military value, we found that Taiwanese career officers’ occupational intentions were higher than their institutional intentions. Additionally, the results indicate that prevention focus completely mediated occupational intention and that promotion focus partially mediating institutional intention. Practical management and research implications are discussed and a direction for future research is suggested.     

Prospective and concurrent correlates of emotion perception in psychotic disorders: A naturalistic,longitudinal study of neurocognition,affective blunting and avolition

This naturalistic study investigated longitudinal and cross‐sectional symptomatic and neurocognitive correlates of social cognition indexed by emotion perception. Participants were 31 persons admitted to a psychiatric emergency ward due to acute psychosis. Positive and negative (i.e., affective blunting and avolition) symptoms were assessed at baseline and 12‐month follow‐up using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Participants completed neuropsychological assessments with alternative versions of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status at baseline and at 12‐month follow‐up. Emotion perception was measured using the Face/Voice Emotion Test at 12‐month follow‐up. Correlational analyses (Spearman's rho) revealed strong and statistically significant associations between neurocognition and emotion perception (baseline r = 0.58, follow‐up r = 0.43). Associations between positive symptoms and emotion perception were weak or non‐existent (baseline r = 0.13, follow‐up r  =  –0.01). Emotion perception was moderately, but not significantly, associated with affective blunting at follow‐up (r = 0.33), but not at baseline (r = 0.21). The association with avolition was non‐existent (baseline r  =  –0.05, follow‐up r = 0.01). This study supports the notion that emotion perception has neurocognitive correlates. The cross‐sectional trend level association with affective blunting suggests that the ability to perceive emotions might be related to, but dissociable from the ability to express emotions.     

早中期青少年未来规划的发展及其与父母教养行为的关系：行为自主的中介效应*

采用追踪设计,以948名初中和高中学生为被试,在考察早中期青少年对教育和职业领域的未来规划发展特点的基础上,探讨了父母教养行为对青少年未来规划的预测作用以及青少年行为自主在其中的中介效应。结果表明：(1)在两次测量中,中期青少年的教育探索水平增长,早期青少年的教育探索变化不显著;早期青少年的职业探索和投入水平均高于中期青少年。(2)父母的接纳/参与能正向预测青少年当时及以后对教育和职业的探索和投入;父母的严厉/监督仅能正向预测青少年当时的教育探索和投入。(3)行为自主在父母的接纳/参与对青少年未来规划的预测中起部分中介效应。     

An Exploratory Assessment of Sales Culture Variables: Strategic Implications Within the Banking Industry

Growing, or even simply sustaining, profitability in today's rapidly changing environment is a daunting task. Today's firm must contend with increasing competition, changing customer requirements, and unprecedented technological change. Further, changing government regulations, such as the recent wave of deregulation, have dramatically changed the way business has traditionally been done in certain industries. In such a turbulent environment many firms have discovered that a total organizational sales effort is necessary. For many firms, this means a paradigm shift that involves strengthening their sales culture.

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the sales culture (SC) concept and discuss its importance in contemporary business strategy. First, we will discuss market orientation from a corporate culture perspective. Second, the sales culture component of a market orientation will be defined and examined. Third, an exploratory investigation of constructs associated with sales culture will be investigated using an example taken from an industry that is experiencing rapid change, the banking industry. Finally, strategic implications, limitations and suggestions for future research will be shared.     

Examining direct and indirect pathways to health behaviour: The influence of cognitive and affective probability beliefs

This study aimed to extricate the influence of rational (e.g. ‘I think …’) and intuitive (e.g. ‘I feel …’) probability beliefs in the behavioural decision-making process regarding skin cancer prevention practices. Structural equation modelling was used in two longitudinal surveys (sun protection during winter sports [N?=?491]; sun protection during summer [N?=?277]) to examine direct and indirect behavioural effects of affective and cognitive likelihood (i.e. unmediated or mediated by intention), controlled for attitude, social influence and self-efficacy. Affective likelihood was directly related to sun protection in both studies, whereas no direct effects were found for cognitive likelihood. After accounting for past sun protective behaviour, affective likelihood was only directly related to sun protection in Study 1. No support was found for the indirect effects of affective and cognitive likelihood through intention. The findings underscore the importance of feelings of (cancer) risk in the decision-making process and should be acknowledged by health behaviour theories and risk communication practices. Suggestions for future research are discussed.