Comparison of BaFPE-TOA Scores for Inpatients and Outpatients

This study was designed to determine if differences existed between inpatient and outpatient scores on the Bay Area Functional Performance Evaluation-Task Oriented Assessment (BaFPE-TOA). The resaerch entailed administering the BaFPE-TOA to 31 psychiatric outpatients comparing their scores to BaFPE-TOA data previously collected on 29 inpatients matched on age and years of education. Significant differences were found on 9 of the 12 parameters and one of the five tasks of the TOA, although no significant difference was found between the two samples on the total TOA score.     

A Study of Pastoral Care,Referral, and Consultation Practices Among Clergy in Four Settings in the New York City Area

Clergy (N = 179) in the catchment areas of four hospitals in New York and Connecticut were surveyed about their pastoral care activities. Factor analysis revealed two separate sets of problems presented in pastoral counseling, with respect to clergys ratings of their competence to address them. The first factor included grief, death and dying, anxiety, and marital problems, in descending order of frequency. The second factor consisted of depression, alcohol/drugs, domestic violence, severe mental illness, HIV/AIDS, and suicide. Clergy were significantly less confident of their ability to deal with Factor 2 problems, yet clergy rarely consulted with mental-health professionals about either type of problem. Less than half of the clergy had training in Clinical Pastoral Education, but those who did tended to feel they were more competent to deal with both types of problems. On average, clergy devoted 3.7 hours per week to visiting patients and nearly 55% said they were definitely more likely to refer a patient to a hospital with a pastoral care department.     

When Personal and Professional Values Conflict: Trainee Perspectives on Tensions Between Religious Beliefs and Affirming Treatment of LGBT Clients

At times the personal beliefs or values of graduate students in training programs for professional psychology can create complications in their providing therapy for certain patient populations. This issue has been brought to national attention recently through several prominent legal cases in which students have contested their expulsion from graduate programs due to their assertions that they were unable to treat clients in same-sex relationships because of their own religious beliefs. The goals of the current article are to (a) review the literature on values conflicts, (b) provide an analysis of how portions of our professional Ethics Code directly relate to this issue, (c) describe a developmentally sensitive theoretical framework that is designed to foster the growth of ethical reasoning over time, and (d) provide a forum for trainee perspectives on this issue based on trainees’ responses to an ethical vignette describing an intern struggling with a values conflict. The trainee quotations are used to structure a discussion of practical recommendations for how to handle values conflicts within the context of training and clinical supervision in professional psychology.     

Complexity of referrals to a specialist psychotherapy service

Consecutive referrals to a specialist psychotherapy service were analysed for complexity. Some 71% had a severe enduring mental illness or personality disorder. Two-thirds of the rest had added psychosocial or behavioural complexity. Only 9% had no severe enduring mental illness, personality disorder, or added complexity; nearly half of these had somatoform disorder. Only 2% of the patients had uncomplicated depression or anxiety disorders.

Patients treated in this psychotherapy service are substantially different from those on whom NICE bases its guidance for the treatment of depression and anxiety, and for whom IAPT was conceived, it functions as a de facto complex case service.     

Enhancing School Engagement in At-Risk,Urban Minority Adolescents Through a School-Based,Adult Mentoring Intervention

ABSTRACT

The current study investigated whether a 5-month, adult mentoring intervention delivered by school personnel could enhance the school engagement of ninth grade urban minority adolescents. Compared to 20 at-risk students who did not receive an intervention, 20 at-risk students who were randomly assigned to mentoring exhibited significantly less decline during the first year of high school in perceived teacher support and decision making and were less likely to enter the discipline system. The effects were stronger and included sense of school belonging for participants who were “mentored as intended.” Moreover, mentee and mentor reports of relationship quality were associated with changes in mentored participants' school-related cognitions and behaviors. The findings indicate that adult mentoring may help to prevent normative declines in urban minority youths' school engagement.