The Future of Psychology in Academic Health Care Centers

A promising opportunity exists to continue psychology's move beyond its traditional mental health emphasis into a general health care discipline. Abundant empirical evidence supports that psychologists treat a wide array of physical disorders as well as psychological components of medical problems. The immediate issues confronting psychology's full emergence into the health care world are discussed and recommendations are offered to assure the success of this initiative. Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost     

Relative Value Units: Using the New “Currency” for Measuring Clinical Productivity in a Productivity/Incentive Plan

This paper presents an overview of a productivity/incentive plan for faculty in an academic medicine center's department of behavioral medicine and psychiatry. The model utilizes the Resource-Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS) for its measurement of clinical productivity. The paper provides an introduction to RBRVS terminology and how the RBRVS system was developed. The productivity/incentive plan developed for the Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, is described. The advantages and limitations of utilizing Relative Value Units (RVUs) in a productivity model are discussed. The paper may provide helpful insights to those charged with developing productivity/incentive plans at other academic health science centers.     

“Nothing About Me, Without Me”: Participatory Action Research with Self-Help/Mutual Aid Organizations for Psychiatric Consumer/Survivors

Participatory action research with self-help/mutual aid organizations for psychiatric consumer/survivors is reviewed. We begin by tracing the origins of and defining both participatory action research and self-help/mutual aid. In so doing, the degree of correspondence between the assumptions/values of participatory action research and those of self-help/mutual aid for psychiatric consumer/survivors is examined. We argue that participatory action research and self-help/mutual aid share four values in common: (a) empowerment, (b) supportive relationships, (c) social change, and (d) learning as an ongoing process. Next, selected examples of participatory action research with psychiatric consumer/survivor-controlled self-help/mutual aid organizations which illustrate these shared values are provided. We conclude with recommendations of how the key values can be promoted in both the methodological and substantive aspects of future participatory action research with self-help/mutual aid organizations for psychiatric consumer/survivors.     

Parent Satisfaction with Case Managed Systems of Care for Children and Youth with Severe Emotional Disturbance

Case management has emerged as an integral component of current efforts to reform the delivery of mental health services to children and youth with Severe Emotional Disturbance (SED). We examined parental satisfaction with one program's case management system for SED children. In order to validly address parental satisfaction, the program first turned to a group of its parents to develop a satisfaction measure, the Family Satisfaction Survey (FSS). Of the 51 parents who returned an FSS, 74% of the parents were generally satisfied while 26% indicated that they were dissatisfied with their families' case management services. Multivariate regression analyses were employed to examine the role played by client, service, and outcome variables in predicting parental satisfaction. After controlling for child diagnoses, severity of impairment, and levels of psychosocial stress, parent satisfaction with case management services was best predicted by the frequency of monthly contact and fewer days is a psychiatric hospital proportional to length of service. Our results suggest that parent satisfaction is based not only on what case managers do but on how this service impacts SED children's ability to remain at home and in their communities.     

The Client Cultural Competence Inventory: An Instrument for Assessing Cultural Competence in Behavioral Managed Care Organizations

The rapid growth in Behavioral Managed Care Organizations has led to increasing concern about the future availability of culturally competent mental health services for ethnic minorities. Prior efforts to assess cultural competence of mental health services have focused exclusively on agency providers and individual mental health professionals rather than on clients' perceptions of care. We introduce the Client Cultural Competence Inventory, which has several advantages over other cultural competence measures including its (a) lower susceptibility to social desirability bias, (b) ability to assess attitudes concerning a broader range of therapists, providers and plans, and (c) focus on clients rather than the psychiatric community as the central force in determining cultural competence. Preliminary psychometric analyses of the inventory are presented from data gathered in a group of parents with children who are severely emotionally disturbed.     

Predictors of Family Functioning Among Clergy and Spouses: Influences of Social Context and Perceptions of Work-Related Stressors

We wished to identify predictors of family functioning from models including perceptions of stresses associated with mobility, financial compensation, intrusiveness to family boundaries, expectations on time demands, and the lack of social support. Data were collected from 136 randomly selected couples from six denominations in which husbands were clergy. Participants completed a survey that included the Clergy Family Life Inventory which assessed perceptions of five work-related stressors and the Self Report Measure of Family Functioning scale which measured 12 dimensions of family functioning. Separate regression models were tested for husbands and wives and these analyses indicated that no single stressor seemed influential for all 12 dimensions of family functioning. However, for both husbands and wives, family boundary intrusiveness, lack of social support, and mobility stresses influenced their competence in numerous areas of family functioning. In addition, husbands and wives experienced similar effects of stress among several dimensions of family functioning (e.g. enmeshment, family organization, democratic family atmosphere expressiveness).     

The Influence of Perceived Versus Aerobic Fitness on Psychological Health and Physiological Stress Responsivity

This study sought to evaluate the association between perceived and aerobic physical fitness and both psychological functioning and physiological stress responsivity. Sixty nonsymptomatic participants (30 males, 30 females) participated in the experiment. Participants completed a series of personality and mood questionnaires as well as a laboratory procedure measuring cardiovascular responses (i.e., heart rate and blood pressure) while performing stressful laboratory tasks (i.e., the Stroop Color Naming Test and a sham IQ test). Aerobic fitness (i.e., VO ₂ max using the Bruce protocol) as well as perceived fitness were also determined. Results suggest that perceived fitness was generally associated with positive personality and mood variables while aerobic fitness was not. Overall results support the view that perception of fitness may be as important or perhaps even more important than aerobic fitness in its association with psychological but perhaps not physical functioning.     

中学生心理健康量表编制研究

本文阐述了正常人心理健康的内涵,提出以认知正常、情感协调、意志健全、个性完整和适应良好等五个心理健康维度来衡量中学生的心理健康水平。采用自陈量表编制原理和问卷调查分析法,编制了具有较高效度和信度的中学生心理健康量表,并随机抽取有代表性的中学生样本（ｎ＝１２４８）,制定了上海常模。对开展中学生心理健康与素质教育具有理论和实践上的指导意义。