Madhouse and the whole thing there

This article presents an autoethnography in the form of a short story of the experiences of a mental breakdown, and subsequent involuntary detainment, alongside the experiences of conducting PhD research outside the mainstream of the discipline of psychology. In response to criticisms of narrative approaches that they are methodologically solipsistic and present a socially atomised self, this narrative combines patient medical records with narrative recollections and reflections on the research process from a contemporary perspective. In doing so, the narrative explores and interrogates themes relevant to creative practice in psychological research, including the notion of authenticity, methodological issues of researching personal experience, the problem of subjectivity and, ultimately, the nature of madness and psychological distress, including its nonlinearity and otherness.     

Changes in schemas of patients with severe borderline personality disorder: The Oulu BPD study

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a relatively common and severe psychiatric disorder that can impair quality of life in many ways. The aim of this study was to determine whether a combined treatment model for BPD patients, utilising major principles from schema‐focused therapy (SFT) and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), could be more effective in relieving early maladaptive schemas of BPD patients, compared to treatment as usual (TAU). This study is a part of the Oulu BPD study conducted at mental health care services run by Oulu city social and health care services. The study is a multisite, randomized controlled trial conducted over a one year period, involving two groups of patients with severe BPD: (1) Community Treatment By Experts (CTBE) patients (n = 18) receiving the combined treatment model, and 2) TAU patients (n = 27). The patients' schemas were assessed using the Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ‐L3a) before and after one year of treatment. The results reveal that CTBE patients who attended the combined treatment model showed a statistically significant reduction in eight out of 18 early maladaptive schemas, while patients receiving treatment as usual did not demonstrate any significant changes in schemas. The cognitive therapeutic treatment model can be applied for clinical use in public mental health settings using existing professionals, and appears to produce positive changes in patients with BPD.     

A Comparison of Homeless Male Veterans in Metropolitan and Micropolitan Areas in Nebraska: A Methodological Caveat

This study explored differences between homeless male veterans in metropolitan and micropolitan cities in Nebraska on sociodemographic, housing, clinical, and psychosocial characteristics as well as health service use. A convenience sample of 151 homeless male veterans (112 metropolitan, 39 micropolitan) were recruited from Veterans Affairs facilities and area shelters in Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, and Hastings in Nebraska. Research staff conducted structured interviews with homeless veterans. Results showed that compared to homeless veterans in metropolitans, those in micropolitans were more likely to be White, unmarried, living in transitional settings, and were far more transient but reported greater social support and housing satisfaction. Veterans in micropolitans also reported more medical problems, diagnoses of anxiety and personality disorders, and unexpectedly, were more likely to report using various health services and less travel time for services. Together, these findings suggest access to homeless and health services for veterans in micropolitan areas may be facilitated through Veterans Affairs facilities and community providers that work in close proximity to one another. Many homeless veterans in these areas are transient, making them a difficult population to study and serve. Innovative ways to provide outreach to homeless veterans in micropolitan and more rural areas are needed.     

Contributions of Community Psychology to Rural Advisory Services: An Analysis of Latin American Rural Extensionists’ Point of View

During the last decade, rural extension has received interest as being a key tool for rural development. Despite rural extension being affected by many psychosocial processes, psychology has made scarce contributions to it. An investigation was conducted with the aim of gaining knowledge of rural extensionists’ expectations of psychology, as well as to contribute to shaping community psychologists’ role in the context of rural extension . 652 extensionists from 12 Latin American countries were surveyed. The survey included closed socio‐demographic questions as well as open ones addressing extension practice and psychologists’ potential contributions. 90.6 % of surveyed extensionists considered psychology could help them improve their practice. Most mentioned areas of contribution go in line with community psychology, including managing farmers groups, facilitating participatory processes and training extensionists; while others, such as the expectation of changing farmers’ mindset and increasing the adoption of external technologies, go against its principles. Thus, in some cases, extensionists’ expectations could help generate an interesting interaction between community psychology and rural extension, while in others, they need to be put up for discussion. In brief, community psychology has the potential to contribute to rural extension, but it needs to acknowledge extension practice as an interesting area for intervention.     

Supplanting the venom of litigation with alternative dispute resolution: the role of counsellors and guidance professionals

This literature review attempts to interface counselling with alternative legal practice. The authors proceed by contrasting the adversarial nature of litigation with the conciliatory nature of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) with a view to encouraging seekers of dispute resolution to opt for ADR in lieu of litigation. The paper discusses the Ubuntu world view in conflict resolution in relation to ADR practices. While not presenting ADR as a replacement for litigation nor proscribing litigation in itself, this paper prescribes the use of ADR to arrive at settlements that are more satisfactory and longer lasting. The paper finally shows how counsellors and guidance professionals may be involved in ADR processes to effectively give succour to conflicting parties.     

Counseling in Iran: History,Current Status,and Future Trends

As a growing profession, counseling in Iran was first established within the Iranian educational system. Counselors in Iran have provided mental health services during natural disasters and war. The counseling profession in Iran currently faces challenges in addressing the needs of women; ethnic minorities; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals. In this article, the authors focus on the historical background, current trends, and future challenges of the counseling profession in Iran.     

Co-PoeTryMe: Interactive poetry generation

PoeTryMe is a poetry generation system that autonomously produces poems from a set of initial parameters. After using it, creative writers and other users of this system expressed the desire to partake in the creative process by directly interacting with PoeTryMe. This paper is motivated by the previous impressions. It illustrates some of the challenges of automatic poetry generation, highlights limitations of PoeTryMe, and reports on recent efforts to address user feedback and provide alternative ways of using this system. First, making some functionalities available via a web API enabled their exploitation by other systems. Those include the generation of single lines as well as retrieval of related words, allowing for additional constraints on the number of syllables, sentiment and rhyme. On top of this API, a co-creative interface, Co-PoeTryMe, has been developed. Co-PoeTryMe allows users to either start from scratch or from a generated draft. Extensive editing functionality has been incorporated, in particular, allowing lines and words to be switched or replaced by newly generated alternatives. Co-PoeTryMe, its interface and the co-creative process for producing poetry are described, along with a user study that provided useful feedback. Users pointed out the strengths of this new system, including its capacities in providing inspiration, and giving the user the ability to customize an existing draft and visualize the changes, but also pointed out weaknesses, primarily by identifying potential improvements in the user interface.     

城乡居民的就医选择差异研究

文章利用利用2008年中国居民医疗服务调查数据, 描述了居民的就医选择模式, 比较了城乡居民就医选择的差异。数据显示, 居民主要选择整体治疗水平高、口碑好, 方便且收费规范的医院和医德、医术兼顾的医生。在城乡差异方面, 城市居民主要选择那些有实力且环境舒适的医院, 村镇居民更希望医院有良好的服务和友好的态度。城市居民对医生的医德要求更高、更喜欢选专家看病, 但对专家有更多的质疑;而村镇居民则倾向于根据病情选医生, 也更为信任专家。     

The Holland Code of Members of the National Organization for Human Services: A Preliminary Study of Human Services Professionals

This study determined the Holland code of members of the National Organization for Human Services. The authors used the O*NET Interest Profiler–Short Form to find that a sample of 355 human services professionals had a Holland code of Social Artistic, with Investigative, Enterprising, and Conventional codes significantly lower than Artisitc. Demographic differences were not found based on gender, whether participants identified human services as their primary field, or whether they had formal education in human services. Slight differences based on age were noted. Results will be used to advocate for inclusion of “human services professional” in the Standard Occupational Classification system.     

Balance between volunteer work and family roles: Testing a theoretical model of work‐family conflict in the volunteer emergency services

Trends indicate overall declines in numbers of volunteer emergency service workers and suggest negative organisational factors impacting adversely on volunteers and organisations. Conflict between emergency service work and family is implicated in falling volunteer numbers, and there is thus a need for research on difficulties experienced in balancing volunteer work and family. The current study tested an adaptation of the work‐family conflict (WFC) model originally proposed by Frone, Russell, and Cooper, in a sample of 102 couples in which one partner was an Australian emergency service volunteer. Results supported a model in which volunteer work‐related antecedents, including time invested in on‐call emergency activities and post‐traumatic stress symptoms, had indirect links with outcomes, including volunteer burnout and their partners' support for the volunteer work role, through the effects of WFC. These results add to research using theoretical models of paid work processes to better understand the problems faced by volunteer workers, and identify specific antecedents and outcomes of WFC in the volunteer emergency services. Implications for future research and organisations reliant on volunteer workers are discussed.