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Traditionally, mental health workers (psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers) provide diagnostic evaluations and individual or group psychotherapeutic or casework treatment. With the advent of the community mental health movement, a new role model, that of "mental health consultant," has emerged. This paper outlines the functions of the "mental health consultant" in the Job Corps program as a way of highlighting the functions of the mental health Professional working in this new way. Educational, training, and work programs may be enriched by mental health consultation, and the new directions for interaction between education and mental health are described in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since attempts by adherents to various psychotherapeutic orientations have failed to demonstrate the efficacy of any one of them, this paper tries to explicate the single variable--humanness--that seems to underlie all therapeutic approaches, and may account for the positive results obtained by all approaches. Many investigators have emphasized the importance of a positive relationship as a factor in counseling; but an influential force, behavior modification therapy, has attempted to once again place the role of technique in the spotlight. Their results have not been striking. A second aim, therefore, of this paper is to offer a critique of this position in the light of humanistic and research considerations. The implications of a technique-oriented therapeutic approach are also discussed. A plea is entered for emphasis being placed on, and an investigation of, the role of humanness as the most important variable in the counseling process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports the issue of position paper, "The Community and the Community Mental Health Center." The position paper was recently issued by the American Psychological Association (APA). The report, written by APA president Nicholas Hobbs and M. Brewster Smith, Director of the Institute of Human Development, University of California at Berkeley, analyzes the program of Community Mental Health Centers now being planned or started. This is the first position paper APA has addressed to the general public and community planners.

Counselors may be in need of a new model of practice. Current approaches based on the intrapersonal models of psychotherapy are not congruent with institutional realities. More important, they assume, often falsely, a "disturbed" person who must be adjusted to a "normal" environment. This article suggests that emotional disturbance be viewed as an ecological phenomenon that exists in the transactions among people. The task of the counselor is to alter disturbed transactions in ways that promote individual competence. The implications for practice of viewing the counselor as a psychoecolo gist are discussed and illustrated through a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of underachievement, though widely used and voluminously researched, is still ill-defined. The reason seems to be that underachievers are defined merely in terms of the discrepancy between their predicted and earned grades. So classified, the groups are too heterogeneous to be psychologically meaningful. There are different types of achievers and under- achievers who need to be identified and different educational climates that need to be studied, if the concept of underachievement is to become productive in our thinking about high school and college students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we describe an attempt to meet a university community's needs for emergency menial health services through the establishment of a student-operated telephone emergency service. The service provides an interesting model for use of nonprofessionals in mental health services, in which the professional functions primarily as a trainer and consultant rather than offering direct services. We describe the structure of the center and then discuss further innovations and projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical evidence supports the commonly held belief that empathy facilitates psychotherapy outcomes. Complete analysis of the literature identified only six studies of empathy and counseling outcomes. Contrary to expectations, empathy does not appear important in counseling. This article discusses reasons for this finding as well as implications for counseling practice, theory, and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The findings from programs of guidance, counseling, and psychotherapy suggest an answer to Eysenck's challenge to the efficacy of the "helping" professions. While no average differences are found in the outcomes of treatment and control groups, there is a pronounced trend toward significantly greater variability in the post-counseling change indices of the treatment groups when compared to the control groups. The direct suggestion is that students, clients, and patients may be hurt as well as helped in the interpersonal encounter. Some attempts toward explicating the facilitating and the retarding interpersonal processes are elaborated in counselor-counselee, teacher-student and parent-child relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]