The Health and Social Service Needs of Transgender People in Philadelphia

SUMMARY

Two Philadelphia-based HIV service organizations and a local university collaborated on a study of health and social service needs of transgender people. Transgender people were the primary resource for the development of the needs assessment survey. In this article, the survey development process, including two discussion groups and two focus groups, are described. Findings on barriers to care, violence, perception of public safety and comfort, suicide and health and social service needs are presented. Total sample size was 81, with 49 male-to-female and 32 female-to-male transgender individuals. Most (68%) were African American. About half of the respondents had thought about attempting suicide. High levels of violence were reported, especially among male-to-females. Health and social service needs included job training/work, dental care, health care, legal services, transportation, education and housing.     

Identification and Follow-Up by Primary Care Doctors of Children with PTSD After Terrorist Attacks

Abstract

Many children and adolescents were among the victims of the suicide bomb attacks in Israel since March, 2000. While the number with emotional and behavioral symptoms was expected to be high, very few children who developed terrorism-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were actually referred to mental health professionals for assessment or treatment. Prolonged exposure to terrorism lowers even further the number of children who remain in treatment. This article discusses reasons and presents a training program for primary care providers (pediatricians, family doctors) in identifying PTSD in child victims, and for mobilizing them to carry out long-term follow-up of these children.     

Faith in welfare: the origins of the Open Home Foundation

This article analyses the origins of the Open Home Foundation (OHF), a Christian social service provider that commenced in New Zealand in 1977. It interprets the Foundation’s appeal, paying particular attention to the role of religious values and spirituality within the organisation. The article argues that OHF emerged and flourished from the late 1970s due to a confluence of personal, social, political and religious factors. Specifically, it reflected and benefited from post-war concerns about family life, renewed emphasis on policies of deinstitutionalisation, and a mobilisation of disparate conservative Christian interests. The latter factor concerning the religious context is particularly significant. On the one hand, it helps to explain the values and ethos of the organisation, and the social implications of a particular set of spiritual commitments. On the other, it complicates commonly held interpretations of conservative Christian engagement with social issues during this period.     

Service users’ perceptions of shared agency in mental health services

Objective: The concept of shared agency is used in examining the collaboration between the service user and the professionals. The study aims to find out what kind of experiences on shared agency mental health service users have.

Method: The study was based on interviews of 19 service users. The data set was formed of those parts of the interviews that dealt with shared aims, being heard, collaboration and joint planning and decision-making. Typical methods of inductive content analysis were applied.

Results: Three domains of shared agency were found: emotional, communicative and supportive ones. The emotional domain included elements of becoming heard and building confidence. In the communicative one, the main features were mutual information sharing, finding words to describe the chaos and reconstructing harmony. The supportive domain included encouragement and giving support. Experiences on non-shared agency were also found.

Conclusion: Many experiences on shared agency were found. Joint planning and working with life goals were, however, seldom reported. This result, together with experiences of non-shared agency, sets a challenge for mental health services.     

Forging partnerships for mental health: The case of a prefecture in crisis ravaged Greece

Public health and in particular mental health have been severely affected by the multitude of socioeconomic crises experienced by people in Greece. The severe austerity programmes, have reduced access to health services and increased demand for publically funded health care. This paper presents a case study focusing on the impact of these measures on the lives of mental health providers in one prefecture in Crete. Focus group methodology was applied and the data were analysed using thematic analysis. Analyses revealed three superordinate themes that converge at many levels and appear to be going counter to the circumstances: firstly, ‘forging partnerships for mental health’; secondly, ‘extending our reach’; and thirdly ‘transformations in professional identity through praxis’. These themes are discussed using the words of the participants and the relevant literature.     

You don't have to go to church to be a good Christian: the implicit religion of the cathedral carol service congregation

The notion that you don't have to go to church to be a good Christian is accepted as an indicator of the form of implicit religiosity espoused by those who (in Bailey's analysis) say that they “believe in Christianity.” The present paper builds on the findings of a recently published survey of rural Anglican churchgoers celebrating harvest which suggested that de-institutionalised implicit religion may be superseding commitment to conventional explicit religious attendance. The responses of 1081 people who attended Christmas carol services in two English cathedrals in 2009 and 2010 are analysed. The findings of the previous paper that implicit religiosity is more prevalent among younger people and among those who attend church less frequently are replicated. Evidence is also found that women are more inclined to this view than men and that those who have a loose historical connection through baptism are more likely to endorse it than those with either no historical connections or stronger ones. Suggestions are made for further research.     

Predicting Resource Utilization by Children with Serious Emotional Disturbance and Their Families

Our study represents a rural case management agency's use of its data to aid in its transition from being funded by federal grant funds to self-sustainment. We wanted to learn if some characteristics of those children served could predict the resources needed to serve them. We analyzed data on 90 children and adolescents living in a rural community. Using multiple regression analysis we found that CAFAS total and CBCL total problem scores predicted Medicaid reimbursements but not flexible funds spending or case management hours. History of psychiatric hospitalization, however, predicted flexible funds spending and case management hours. Using one-way ANOVA and post hoc analysis we found that the staff members' assessments of each child and family's level of service needs were reflected in differences in mean CAFAS total scores, Medicaid reimbursements and case management hours, but not CBCL total problem scores or flexible funds spending.     

Helping Children Access and Use Services: A Review

High rates of dropping out from mental health services are documented for children and their families. These high rates exist at different treatment stages, in different service settings, and for different populations of children and families. Some researchers have developed and tested engagement interventions to address barriers to service access and use and increase participation in services by children and their families. Studies of engagement interventions for children and their families are critically reviewed in this paper. Overall, the engagement interventions were effective in increasing attendance at first appointments. Only those with an ecological and total service delivery approach reduced the drop-out rate. However, even then, the drop-out rate was 26% to 29%. Suggestions for future research are made, including ascertaining from children and families their reasons for quitting or staying in treatment, comparing the outcomes of drop-outs with the outcomes of those who remain in treatment, developing and testing conceptual models of engagement for subgroups of at-risk children and their families, and examining the cost-effectiveness of engagement interventions.     

心理学在社会服务体系中作用的思考——以复原力建设为例

在社会心理服务体系建设中, 心理学到底起着什么样的作用?怎样才能更好地构建全面系统的多主体社会心理服务体系?在社会心理服务体系建设中如何推动心理学自身的发展?这些问题一直受到广大心理学者的关注。以复原力为例, 通过对个体、团队以及社区心理复原力建设路径的理论总结, 加上实践案例, 以期为社会心理服务体系建设提供知识借鉴与参考, 并反思心理学在此过程中的作用与角色。心理学专业研究团队可以通过整合其在社会支持体系中的应用, 推动心理学在社会服务体系中的应用。