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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected the mental health of the entire population and poses unique challenges to the delivery of psychiatric services. To best respond, we must [...]

Problem In Latvia, the move towards community-based mental health-care services has been slow. Approach The hospital managers of the only psychiatric hospital in Riga decided to establish two community-based clinics that were financially and administratively integrated with the hospital. The clinics were established using a step-wise approach by redistributing resources, including psychiatrists, nurses and beds, from the hospital to the new clinics. In 2005, the Veldre clinic started outpatient consultations and day care admissions. In 2009, Pardaugava clinic opened as an outpatient clinic. In 2012, an open-door inpatient ward with 30 beds was transferred from the psychiatric hospital to Veldre. In 2013, Pardaugava clinic opened a day care clinic and an open-door inpatient ward, transferring 26 beds from the psychiatric hospital. Local setting Latvians have worse mental health indicators than those of the average population in Europe. Mental care has traditionally focused on inpatient care. Relevant changes The clinics are now providing most of the outpatient services and the number of inpatients treated at the hospital has declined from 5696 patients in 2004 to 4957 patients in 2018. Patients are treated in a more open and patient-centred environment. Lessons learnt The administrative and financial integration of the new community-based clinics within the existing structures of the hospital is a successful approach. Transferring resources to the clinics seems to have improved the quality of care without requiring additional funding apart from the initial investment costs. Involving the staff members during the planning phase reduced resistance to the project. [phrase omitted] [phrase omitted] Probleme En Lettonie, l'evolution vers des prestations de soins de sante mentale communautaires a progresse lentement. Approche Les dirigeants de l'unique hopital psychiatrique de Riga ont decide de fonder deux cliniques communautaires integrees financierement et administrativement a l'hopital. Leur creation a fait l'objet d'une approche graduelle de redistribution des ressources, notamment des psychiatres, infirmiers et lits, depuis l'hopital vers les nouvelles cliniques. En 2005, la clinique de Veldre a commence les consultations externes et les admissions pour des soins de jour. En 2009, la clinique externe de Pardaugava a debute ses activites. En 2012, une unite d'hospitalisation a regime ouvert comptant 30 lits a ete transferee de l'hopital psychiatrique vers Veldre. En 2013, la clinique de Pardaugava a inaugure un etablissement de jour et une unite d'hospitalisation a regime ouvert, recuperant 26 lits de l'hopital psychiatrique. Environnement local Les indicateurs de sante mentale en Lettonie sont inferieurs a la moyenne observee au sein de la population europeenne. Les soins de sante mentale etaient traditionnellement axes sur l'hospitalisation des patients. Changements significatifs Les cliniques assurent desormais la plupart des prestations externes et le nombre d'hospitalisations a diminue, passant de 5696 patients en 2004 a 4957 patients en 2018. Les patients sont pris en charge dans un environnement plus ouvert et mieux adapte a leurs besoins. Lecons tirees L'integration administrative et financiere des nouvelles cliniques communautaires au sein des structures hospitalieres existantes est une approche efficace. Le transfert des ressources vers les cliniques semble avoir ameliore la qualite des soins prodigues sans necessiter de fonds supplementaires, a l'exception de l'investissement initial. Enfin, impliquer les membres du personnel dans la phase de planification a permis de limiter la resistance au projet. [phrase omitted] Situacion El avance hacia los servicios de atencion de la salud mental comunitarios es muy lento en Letonia. Enfoque Los gerentes del unico hospital psiquiatrico de Riga decidieron establecer dos clinicas en la comunidad que se integraron financiera y administrativamente con el hospital. Las clinicas se establecieron mediante un enfoque gradual, al redistribuir los recursos, incluidos psiquiatras, enfermeros y camas, del hospital a las nuevas clinicas. En 2005, la clinica de Veldre inicio consultas a pacientes ambulatorios y admisiones para la atencion diurna. En 2009, la clinica Pardaugava se inauguro como una clinica para pacientes ambulatorios. En 2012, una sala para pacientes hospitalizados con 30 camas fue transferida del hospital psiquiatrico a Veldre. En 2013, la clinica Pardaugava abrio una clinica de atencion diurna y una sala para pacientes hospitalizados sin restricciones, en la que se transfirieron 26 camas del hospital psiquiatrico. Marco regional Los habitantes de Letonia tienen indicadores de salud mental peores que los de la poblacion media de Europa. Tradicionalmente, la atencion mental se ha centrado en la atencion a los pacientes hospitalizados. Cambios importantes En la actualidad, las clinicas prestan la mayor parte de los servicios a los pacientes ambulatorios y el numero de pacientes hospitalizados tratados en el hospital disminuyo de 5696 pacientes en 2004 a 4957 en 2018. Los pacientes son tratados en un ambiente mas accesible y centrado en el paciente. Lecciones aprendidas La integracion administrativa y financiera de las clinicas nuevas en la comunidad dentro de las estructuras que ya existen en el hospital es un enfoque exitoso. La transferencia de recursos a las clinicas parece haber mejorado la calidad de la atencion sin requerir el financiamiento adicional aparte de los costos de inversion inicial. La participacion de los miembros del personal durante la fase de planificacion redujo la complejidad del proyecto., Introduction The World Health Organization (WHO) promotes the development of community-based mental health-care services as part of a balanced care model. (1, 2) Nevertheless, policy-makers in many central and eastern [...]

In this paper, we examined the extent to which one's own religiosity, as well as that of her or his peers, has on alcohol and substance use among undergraduate students at a medium-sized public university in the southeastern United States. Findings indicate that though peer religiosity significantly affects substance use, one's own religiosity is not a significant predictor of substance use. Discussion of results, limitations of the study, and directions for future research are also discussed., In the United States, drinking and illicit substance use among college students is quite prevalent on college campuses (Giordano, Prosek, Daly, Holm, Ramsey, Abernathy, & Sender, 2013; Johnston, O'Malley, Bachman, [...]

It's not enough to be busy. The question is: what are we busy about?' --Henry David Thoreau Twenty years ago, I (Jodi Polaha) had a freshly minted PhD in Child [...]

Community-based rehabilitation services in Malaysia have been established with the introduction of the National Mental health Act 2001. The Health Ministry's aims of providing a comprehensive community care encountered difficulties due to the lack of support for the primary and secondary health care services. Given the lack of study into the challenges faced by individuals with mental illnesses, an apparent need has arisen to conduct a qualitative study to better understand the experiences and the psychological well-being of these individuals. The aim of this research is to investigate the psychological distress faced and experienced by these residents with mental illnesses in one of the community-based rehabilitation centres and to explore the problems they encounter. A total of eight residents were interviewed using a semi-structured interview approach. The findings revealed an obvious neglect of the residents' psychological and social well-being. They felt the need for family support and social acceptance, to preserve their integrity and to get the understanding of the caregivers and the stigmatization that comes with mental illnesses. Mental health services should incorporate an integrative approach of public acceptance of these people living with mental illnesses by providing appropriate psychological services and facilities., Author(s): Sew Kim Low [sup.1] , Wan Ying Lee [sup.1] , Christoper Selvaraj Jacob [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0004 1798 283X, grid.412261.2, Department of Psychology and Counselling, Faculty of [...]

The characteristics of cooperation between head teachers and school counsellors are presented theoretically and empirically. Distributed leadership means that head teachers do not lead schools through school-based educators but rather together with them, with school counsellors playing an important role. Numerous research studies demonstrate that a strong head teacher--school counsellor relationship is a crucial component of meeting the vision, goals and well-being of the school. The findings of our research study, conducted among head teachers and school counsellors, show positive attitudes of both groups towards mutual cooperation. Both considered the cooperation to be good or very good, the head teachers rated it even better. It is interesting to observe that the head teachers found more support in school counsellors than vice versa. Also, more of the head teachers said they saw school counsellors as partners than did the school counsellors. It thus remains to be seen how school counsellors' perception of the school leadership's support in their work could be strengthened and how head teachers could be encouraged to support the work of the school counselling service even more, so that this relationship becomes reciprocal and that each party's ability to perform their work will be enhanced by the strong relationship. Keywords: distributed leadership, head teacher, school counsellor, pedagogues, cooperation, 1. INTRODUCTION In many countries decentralisation in education means that schools have become more autonomous and they are held more accountable for their students' and the school's outcomes (2007; Pont [...]

School counselors must demonstrate effectiveness of counseling services in a cost-effective manner. This article reviews and applies commonly used, free-access assessment instruments for use with school-aged youth to provide evidence of effective individual, small-group, and large-group interventions. We present instruments assessing depression, anxiety, disruptive behavior, and trauma, so that school counselors can learn basic administration, scoring, interpretation procedures, and psychometric utility to allow immediate use with diverse students. Keywords assessment, counseling instruments, outcome measures, Every year in the United States, about 20% of youth experience significant emotional or behavioral challenges (Brown, Green, Desai, Weitzman, & Rosenthal, 2014; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). [...]

This article addresses the general ethical issues of accessing online personal data for research purposes. The authors discuss the practical aspects of online research with a specific case study that illustrates the ethical challenges encountered when accessing data from Kooth, an online youth web-counselling service. This paper firstly highlights the relevance of a process-based approach to ethics (Markham and Buchanan 2012 (See CR46)) when accessing highly sensitive data and then discusses the ethical considerations and potential challenges regarding the accessing of public data from Digital Mental Health (DMH) services. It presents solutions that aim to protect young DMH service users as well as the DMH providers and researchers mining such data. Special consideration is given to service users' expectations of what their data might be used for, as well as their perceptions of whether the data they post is public, private or open. We provide recommendations for planning and designing online research that includes vulnerable young people as research participants in an ethical manner. We emphasise the distinction between public, private and open data, which is crucial to comprehend the ethical challenges in accessing DMH data. Among our key recommendations, we foreground the need to consider a collaborative approach with the DMH providers while respecting service users' control over personal data, and we propose the implementation of digital solutions embedded within the platform for explicit opt-out/opt-in recruitment strategies and 'read more' options (Bergin and Harding 2016 (See CR9))., Author(s): Elvira Perez Vallejos [sup.1] , Ansgar Koene [sup.2] , Christopher James Carter [sup.3] , Daniel Hunt [sup.4] , Christopher Woodard [sup.5] , Lachlan Urquhart [sup.6] , Aislinn Bergin [sup.7] [...]

This study examined the association between self-rated health (SRH). health and academics among a random sample of 558 undergraduate students. Students who reported they were depressed had 2.14 (95% CI = 1.25. 3.64) times the odds of reporting their SRH as good versus excellent/very good than students who did not report they were depressed. Participants who felt overwhelming anger (OR = 1.95; 95% CI = 1.05, 3.60) or used mental health services (OR = 1.97; 95% CI = 1.04, 3.76) were more likely to report their SRH as fair/poor versus excellent/very good compared to their counterparts. These findings suggest a need for interventions to improve the mental health of undergraduate students.Keywords: Self-rated health; undergraduate students; National College Health Assessment, Self-rated health (SRH) is a powerful predictor of morbidity and mortality among adults (Barger & Muldoon, 2006; DeSalvo, Bloser, Reynolds, He, & Muntner,; Emmelin et al., 2003; Fernandez-Esquer, Espinoza, Torres, [...]