The Primary Care Prescribing Psychologist Model: Medical Provider Ratings of the Safety, Impact and Utility of Prescribing Psychology in a Primary Care Setting

Family medicine providers at a large family medicine clinic were surveyed regarding their impression of the impact, utility and safety of the Primary Care Prescribing Psychologist (PCPP) model in which a prescribing psychologist is embedded in a primary care clinic. This article describes the model and provides indications of its strengths and weaknesses as reported by medical providers who have utilized the model for the past 2 years. A brief history of prescribing psychology and the challenges surrounding granting psychologists the authority to prescribe psychotropic medication is summarized. Results indicate family medicine providers agree that having a prescribing psychologist embedded in the family medicine clinic is helpful to their practice, safe for patients, convenient for providers and for patients, and improves patient care. Potential benefits of integrating prescribing psychology into primary care are considered and directions for future research are discussed.     

Cut elimination for a logic with induction and co-induction

Proof search has been used to specify a wide range of computation systems. In order to build a framework for reasoning about such specifications, we make use of a sequent calculus involving induction and co-induction. These proof principles are based on a proof-theoretic (rather than set-theoretic) notion of definition (Hallnäs, 1991 [18], Eriksson, 1991 [11], Schroeder-Heister, 1993 [38], McDowell and Miller, 2000 [22]). Definitions are akin to logic programs, where the left and right rules for defined atoms allow one to view theories as “closed” or defining fixed points. The use of definitions and free equality makes it possible to reason intensionally about syntax. We add in a consistent way rules for pre- and post-fixed points, thus allowing the user to reason inductively and co-inductively about properties of computational system making full use of higher-order abstract syntax. Consistency is guaranteed via cut-elimination, where we give a direct cut-elimination procedure in the presence of general inductive and co-inductive definitions via the parametric reducibility technique.     

Recycling Identities: A Narrative Inquiry on Consumer Decision Making Among Urban Poor Families in the Philippines

The purpose of this article is to explore consumption-related decisions of urban poor families. Using a combination of in-depth interviews and visual narrative exercise, stories of six urban poor families living in Payatas, Quezon City, were analyzed. Key findings show that consumption-related decisions of participants follow a double cyclic narrative of just right spending. Community shared practices enable participants to survive by managing tensions between making ends meet and sustaining a public ideal of living a simple life. The researchers provide reflections on the socio-economic reproduction of a public ideal and rethinking the role of psychology in poverty reduction policies.