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Buddha lived 2600 years ago in Northern India, and his teachings were established in Sri Lanka in the third-century BC. In the nineteenth century, the British established the modern mental health services in Sri Lanka. This article aimed to highlight the association between Western psychotherapeutic techniques with Buddhist teachings and the relevance of this confluence to the mental health care in the country. Many schools of Western psychotherapy employ principles which are also described in Buddhist philosophy. Understanding this connection helps to deliver a culturally acceptable and relevant mental health care to the Sri Lankan population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Several measures of Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) have been used to evaluate Pharmaceutical Care (PC) interventions in the past decades. However, their suitability for evaluation of PC services has not been comprehensively evaluated. Aim of the review The aim of this review was to perform content analysis of HRQoL measures used in PC studies to gain an insight into their suitability for evaluation of PC services. Method PC studies evaluating HRQoL as a primary or secondary outcomes were retrieved based on a literature search of articles published from 1990 to 2015, on Medline, Embase, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Global Health, PsycInfo, Web of Science, Cinahl, HealthStar, Cochrane Library, AUSThealth, Australian Medical Index, and Current content. Measures of HRQoL used in the studies were identified and relevant information was extracted. A conceptual model of a patient reported Medication-Related Burden Quality of Life was used to guide the analysis. Results 117 studies were retrieved. Thirty-seven: 10 generic, 27 condition-specific HRQoL measures with a total of 1019 items about physical functioning (n = 430), psychological wellbeing (n = 288), social wellbeing (n = 119), physical burden (n = 69) and others (n = 113) were used in the studies. Only 34 of 1019 items were specifically related to medicines. Of these, the majority of items focused on other aspects of medicine such as adherence, rather than the burden imposed by medicine on quality of life. Conclusion A holistic analysis of HRQoL measures used in PC studies published over two and half decades provided a better insight into sensitivity and specificity of the measures to PC services. This review found that HRQoL measures used in PC studies provide a very limited coverage of themes related to the burden of medicine on quality of life. Therefore, may have limited potential for use as a sole humanistic measure when evaluating PC interventions. There is a scope for future research in the development of an alternative measure suitable for evaluation of the burden of medicine and the impact of PC interventions on quality of life outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies show that supervisors' autonomy-supportive style predicts greater psychological health (Baard et al. in J Appl Soc Psychol 34:2045-2068, ; Blais and Brière ; Lynch et al. in Prof Psychol Res Pract 36:415-425, ) and lower psychological distress (Deci et al. in Personal Soc Psychol Bull 27:930-942, ). The goal of the present study is to extend these results and investigate the contribution of colleagues' perceived autonomy support in the prediction of health professionals' work satisfaction and psychological health. The combined impact of supervisors' and colleagues' perceived autonomy support is also examined. A sample of 597 health professionals from the province of Quebec (Canada) completed a questionnaire, which included measures of perceived supervisors' and colleagues' autonomy support and outcome variables. Results confirm that supervisors' and colleagues' perceived autonomy support predict health professionals' work satisfaction and psychological health. Results also show that colleagues' perceived autonomy support adds to the prediction of health professionals' work satisfaction, subjective well-being, and suicidal ideation above and beyond supervisors' perceived autonomy support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Values-based practice is a new skills-based approach to working with complex and conflicting values in health care. In this paper we outline the point of values-based practice (to support balanced decision making), its premise (in respect for differences of values) and the ten elements of the process by which it supports balanced decision making in practice. We give examples of how values-based approaches have been applied in the development of policy and practice in mental health in the UK and outline its potential applications for contemporary psychotherapy. In a brief concluding section we show how the development of values-based practice in mental health is leading the way towards linking science more effectively with people across medicine as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advance directives are legal documents that formalize consumer psychiatric care preferences. This article examines the statutes and goals of US psychiatric advance directives within the framework of consumer self-determination, a priority in national mental health reform. It seeks to distinguish between state models based on the degree that consumer rights are integrated into advance directive statutes and goals. The data set contains information from legislative statutes and goals from the 24 US states that enacted explicit psychiatric advance directive regulations prior to 2006. Researchers grouped the data into categories based on the similarities in consumer self-determination. The findings include an examination of the spectrum of consumer self-determination in US advance directive statutes along with a comparison of the gaps between intent and policy in state statutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the course of welfare reform, behavioral health problems have emerged as significant issues. Welfare time limits have added urgency to recipients' efforts to obtain economic self-sufficiency and have raised new concerns about mental health and substance abuse problems as barriers to work. However, there is limited research on how behavioral health problems operate to impede the employability of welfare recipients. This analysis draws on data from a 6-year panel study of welfare recipients (n = 341) to examine how a broad spectrum of mental health and substance abuse problems impact efforts to obtain work while on aid and subsequent transitions from welfare to work. Recipients who reported symptoms of depression at baseline were less likely to actively search for work while on aid compared to others. However, they were no less likely to leave welfare for work within a 2-year time frame. In contrast, other problems - including hostility, interpersonal sensitivity, psychoticism, and heavy drug use - had significant effects on work exits from welfare but little association with job search activities. Overall, these results suggest that behavioral health problems do not operate in the same manner to inhibit transitions from welfare to work. Welfare-to-work programs should direct interventions towards the unique constellations of problems that recipients face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the discussion of sociologist Frank Ferudi regarding medicalization. The author reflects that the term was used to describe the process of medical label application and phenomena. He said that the term was confusingly used for it sometimes referred to misapplication of medical terms in moral, social or political phenomena and biological or mental health. Although Furedi had provided examples of medicalization in present day situation, it was not enough and could have gone further by citing changes on genetics and reproductive technology.

This paper presents a case for careful consideration of theory in planning to implement evidence-based practices into clinical care. As described, theory should be tightly linked to strategic planning through careful choice or creation of an implementation framework. Strategies should be linked to specific interventions and/or intervention components to be implemented, and the choice of tools should match the interventions and overall strategy, linking back to the original theory and framework. The thesis advanced is that in most studies where there is an attempt to implement planned change in clinical processes, theory is used loosely. An example of linking theory to intervention design is presented from a Mental Health Quality Enhancement Research Initiative effort to increase appropriate use of antipsychotic medication among patients with schizophrenia in the Veterans Health Administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]