Reducing the Risk for Preschool Expulsion: Mental Health Consultation for Young Children with Challenging Behaviors

Increasing numbers of young children are being expelled from child care settings because of their problem behavior. Access to mental health consultation is related to lower rates of expulsion, but additional data are needed to document the pathways through which mental health consultation reduces the risk of expulsion. We report on outcomes from a 4-year project designed to reduce the number of children expelled for problem behavior in a large suburban county in Maryland. Two master’s-level professionals provided behavioral consultation to child care providers who identified nearly 200 children at imminent risk for expulsion. Child care providers rated children’s social skills and problem behaviors at referral and discharge using the Preschool Kindergarten Behavior Scales and the Brief Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment. Statistically significant increases in social skills and reductions in problem behaviors were seen for children who received individualized consultation. More than three-quarters of the children who were at risk for expulsion were able to be maintained in their current child care placement; of those that changed placements, only half (n = 13) were removed involuntarily. These findings provide additional support for mental health consultation as a promising strategy to reduce the risk for expulsion for young children with problem behaviors.     

Consultation with the Z Family's Technology Business: A Weekend Retreat

Family business consultation is an expanding enterprise and constitutes an interesting area of practice for psychologists drawn from industrial/organizational psychology, clinical psychology, and family psychology. This paper provides a clinical case example of a weekend retreat established as the forum for consultation to a family owned business that was experiencing a good deal of dissension between family and non-family management team members.     

State of mind assessments

This paper describes state of mind assessments as undertaken by child psychotherapists. It considers the similarities and differences with an assessment for an ongoing child psychotherapy treatment intervention and is described here as a ‘package’ that is offered to the family, child and young person and also the referring colleague. It is suggested that the consultative aspect has more weight in a state of mind assessment. The stages of the assessment are outlined and include the initial consultation with the referring colleague, a meeting with parents, three sessions with a child or young person and feeding back to parents with further consultation to the referring colleague. The meaning of the request at any particular time is explored and influences the stance and the approach to the assessment by the therapist. A summary of a case example illustrates the different stages outlined here. The thinking and approach described may be particularly useful to trainees and those starting out as child psychotherapists in child and adolescent mental health services.     

Feminism Across Borders: A Hungarian Adaptation of Western Feminism

A grounded theory model of feminist-activist identity development was constructed from semistructured interviews with volunteers of the first Women’s Rights Association (NANE) in Hungary. This article focuses on NANE volunteers’ feminist identity development, which emerged through interpersonal solidarity with Western women; the development of self-confidence and an assertive “voice” in their relationships; and an increased awareness of the violence and oppression against women. A grounded theory approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) was used to analyze the interviews. The core category, “Internalizing Western Feminist-Activism: Importing an External Culture to Revolutionize One’s Own,” describes volunteers’ conceptualization that their feminist-activist beliefs emerged from imported ideologies gained through exposure to Western ideas and the international women’s movement, which were then adapted to make changes in Hungary.     

大学生心理咨询中价值干预的处理原则

依据大学生的心理特点,提出大学生心理咨询中价值干预的处理原则.即两种价值干预并重的原则、心理咨询的原则、接纳和共情的原则、沟通和澄清的原则、修正和艺术的原则.重点阐述在接纳和共情的基础上,咨询者既能保持对自身价值观的高度自觉,又能帮助来访者澄清自身的价值观.     

浅析专家会诊中心在门诊医疗中的作用

随着物质生活水平的日益提高,人们对医疗、保健的需求越来越高。为缓解看专家门诊难和在门诊能及时解决疑难杂症会诊问题,江苏省人民医院于1997年成立了高级专家会诊中心。中心成立十余年来,会诊、就诊的患者逐年增多,中心以优质的服务,得到患者的好评,作为门诊医疗的“特殊”窗口发挥了越来越大的作用。     

进修人员在双向转诊中作用的研究

我国人口分布范围广,医疗资源主要集中在大、中城市,合理利用有限的医疗资源,解决看病难,看病贵,实现有效转诊,是我们当前面临的一个难题。研究显示：通过进修医生转诊率高,迅速,患者及家属满意率高;对符合转诊要求,需要下转的患儿100例通过进修人员下转患者率96％,直接下转率65％。由此可见通过进修医生对患者进行双向转诊效果...     

心理咨询与治疗中的领悟

不管哪种心理咨询和治疗流派,其最终目的都是促进来访者领悟,而领悟能不能出现,是治疗成功与否的关键。心理咨询师应该为了领悟的出现,作好充分的准备,促进领悟的出现,巩固领悟的成果,取得心理治疗的圆满成功。     

Stress and coping among early childhood intervention professionals receiving reflective supervision: A qualitative analysis

Reflective supervision/consultation (RS/C) is an important component of infant mental health training and practice. Given high levels of job stress reported by a variety of early childhood professionals, the present study offers a qualitative examination of early childhood intervention professionals’ perceptions of stress and coping before and after receiving regular RS/C. Thirty-one professionals received 9 months of RS/C and completed semistructured interview questionnaires at the pre-/postassessments. Questionnaires focused on job-related experiences, including what participants found stressful and how they coped with job-related stress. Inductive analysis techniques were used to identify themes that arose from the data. Relationships between themes were discovered through axial coding. Three key themes of individual, relational, and organizational stress were identified across the pre-/postassessments. Similar themes were evident in reports of coping. Following 9 months of RS/C, analysis revealed greater detail and reflection among the majority of participants. These results contribute to the literature through identification of multiple levels of stress and coping as well as areas of continuity and change among participants receiving RS/C. Future research should consider how professionals’ reports of stress and coping relate to reported self-efficacy and observed competence with young children and families.