Browsing by Subject "Mental Health Services"
Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
- Results Per Page
- Sort Options
Item Identifying Barriers and Solutions to Psychotherapy in Adults with Depression(2019-07-12) Small, Hunter Boone; Greer, Tracy L.; McClintock, Shawn Michael; Fischer, Noelle M.; Carmody, Thomas; Trombello, Joseph M.Research has suggested that adults with depression face a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic barriers to psychotherapy, which results in low initiation rates for psychotherapy. These barriers have been characterized in some detail, but to our knowledge, there has been no previous examination of how adults with depression initiate psychotherapy after first encountering barriers. The primary goals of this study were to assess barriers to psychotherapy endorsed by adults with depression currently receiving psychotherapy and to design and implement a new questionnaire (Overcoming Barriers to Psychotherapy) to examine what solutions adults with depression perceive as helpful in overcoming barriers to initiating psychotherapy. This study also aimed to evaluate the respective impacts of 1) demographic variables (race, ethnicity, income), 2) depression symptom severity, and 3) psychosocial functioning on endorsement of intrinsic and extrinsic barriers. An online survey was administered to examine sociodemographic information, depression symptom severity, psychosocial functioning, barriers to psychotherapy, and solutions to barriers in 132 adults with depression currently receiving psychotherapy recruited from a variety of outpatient settings across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Results revealed that a higher percentage of extrinsic relative to intrinsic solutions were endorsed for intrinsic barriers, and a higher percentage of intrinsic relative to extrinsic solutions were endorsed for extrinsic barriers. Results indicated that barriers to psychotherapy are more frequently resolved by solutions of different types (e.g., intrinsic barriers resolved by extrinsic solutions). Resolution of barriers to psychotherapy may require adults with depression to rely on solutions that enable them to work around the core difficulty posed by barriers. Both depression symptom severity and psychosocial impairment were associated with overall higher endorsement of intrinsic and extrinsic barriers. A lack of racial and ethnic diversity in the recruited sample prevented examination of the impact of race and ethnicity on endorsement of extrinsic barriers. Future research is warranted to establish psychometrics of the novel study measure to assess solutions to barriers to psychotherapy, and to administer the measure in a more racially and ethnically diverse sample. The solutions to barriers to psychotherapy discussed in this study may help adults with depression to overcome barriers and initiate psychotherapy.Item Influences on Mental Health Service Utilization for Vietnamese Young Adults(2012-08-15) Phan, Hang Tu; Stewart, Sunita M.; Lee, Simon Craddock; Chiu, Chung-YiBACKGROUND: Vietnamese-Americans underutilize mental health services. Several factors have been proposed to influence rates of service utilization within this population, including cultural identification and families' acceptance of such services. Most measures of cultural identification are lengthy and burdensome. Furthermore, studies examining the link between parental attitudes towards mental health services and their children's attitudes have only included children who were under the age of 18 - therefore unable to legally seek their own services. This study was designed to address these gaps by developing and testing brief scales of identification with Vietnamese and American culture, and obtaining information about the influence of parents' attitudes on older adolescents and young adults in this cultural group where a strong family orientation persists through the lifespan. A third aim of the study was to examine the role of the participants' acceptance of mental health services both as a predictor for utilization of such services, and as a mediator between other predictors and utilization. SUBJECTS: The participants in the study included a total of 87 Vietnamese-American young adults between the ages of 18 to 30 years old. Participants were recruited from the Texas Exes Asian Alumni Network (TEAAN) in Austin, Texas and from the Mother of Perpetual Faith Catholic Church's youth group. Recruitment also occurred through a method called the "snowball effect," where those involved in the study were asked to help recruit additional participants. METHOD: Surveys were completed on-line. Participants reported their mental health service utilization in the past 12 months. They also were administered measures of potential predictors: cultural identification scales, the participants' distress level, perceived stigma towards mental health services, perceived parental acceptance of mental health services, and their own (personal) acceptance of mental health services. RESULTS: The psychometric properties of the brief cultural identification scales were examined; the scales have good validity, but slightly low reliability. None of the proposed factors were found to be significant predictors of formal mental health service utilization, but items assessing distress level were found to correlate with service utilization at a trend level. The only factor found to predict personal acceptance was perceived parental acceptance of these services. Because personal acceptance was not found to be a predictor of mental health service use, it could not serve as a mediating variable between the other factors and service utilization. DISCUSSION: Before the originally developed cultural identity scales can be used for research, further development of the scales will be necessary. A limitation of this study is that there were very few participants who reported formal mental health service utilization, reducing the power to determine prediction to this variable. In this sample, only distress was found to be even a marginal predictor of mental health service use, suggesting that the low rates of mental health service utilization found in these Vietnamese young adults may in fact be due to actual low levels of psychological distress. The fact that parental acceptance significantly predicted personal acceptance of mental health services among participants supports the idea that parental attitudes towards mental health services may have been adopted by their children, even after they were independent enough to seek their own services. Future research and clinical implications are discussed.Item Promoting Resilience in Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking and Refugee Minors(2020-03-17) NiƱo, Ana Patricia; Mihalic, Angela; Loria, Hilda; Patterson, Abigail M.BACKGROUND: In 2018, the European Union received 20,000 applications from unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors (UAMs) applying for international protection, and 60,000 UAMs from Central America were apprehended at the US-Mexico border. These unaccompanied minors are vulnerable, and the traumas they face impact their mental health. As such, it is important to design mental health interventions that promote resilience and address the unique mental health needs of unaccompanied minors. OBJECTIVE: This literature review will summarize the existing literature to identify mental health interventions and other resilience factors that can promote the mental health of UAMs resettled in Europe and the United States. METHODS: Scopus was searched for articles published in Europe and the US. Titles and abstracts were screened based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, which resulted in 41 qualitative and quantitative studies of interest. RESULTS: In addition to violence, poverty and war in their countries of origin and extreme physical hardships in their migration journeys, UAMs also faced adjustment and acculturation- specific stressors in the host country. All of these factors negatively impacted UAMs' mental health. The average number of traumatic experiences for each UAM ranged from 6-9. The prevalence of mental health pathology was 24-38% for anxiety, 15-43% for depression and 16- 73% for post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition, UAMs faced unique barriers to mental health service utilization, which included low perceived need of mental health services and distrust of both mental health services and providers. Group psychotherapeutic interventions promoted social interactions and trust-building in UAMs but showed no clinically significant decrease in PTSD symptoms. Individual trauma-based psychotherapeutic interventions clinically improved PTSD symptoms in 66-83.3% of participants. Lastly, strong social bonds, high-support housing, continued spiritual-practice and access to education were protective factors that promoted UAMs' resilience. CONCLUSION: Although UAMs have faced multiple adversities, both in their countries of origin and host countries, there are potential interventions to promote resilience and treat mental health pathologies. Culturally- adjusted, individual trauma-focused therapy has shown the best mental health outcomes for UAMs with clinical PTSD. Considerations and suggestions for future research are discussed.Item Suicide Risk Assessment in Mental Health Settings(2017-05-25) Fuad, Mamuna Nasim; Roaten, Kimberly Dayle; North, Carol S.; Faith, Melissa A.Suicide is a significant public health issue in terms of both loss of life and the associated economic burden. The psychological factors associated with suicide and its related behavioral manifestations are not well understood despite decades of focused legislative initiatives and research. The approach to suicide prevention is multifaceted ranging from governmental policies, to public awareness, to clinical interventions for individuals at risk. It is understood that precise prediction and prevention of suicide may never be possible; however, it may be possible to develop an improved understanding of risk and protective factors to estimate the overall level of risk. This estimation of risk can then be directly linked to an individualized treatment plan in order to reduce suicidal behavior. This model is only possible through the use of a systematic approach consisting of the use of validated instruments and methods in combination with clinical judgment by a well-trained provider. The purpose of this document is to review the existing literature regarding suicide risk assessment in mental health settings and identify knowledge gaps and opportunities for improving both research initiatives and clinical practice. The document will conclude with a summary of recommendations for clinical care and future research directions.Item [UT News](1986-05-22) Cason, Vicki