Students Responding to Natural Disasters and Terrorism

Author(s):  
Ryan P. Kilmer ◽  
Virginia Gil-Rivas ◽  
Steven J. Hardy

This chapter seeks to help teachers and school mental health professionals understand the needs of students who have faced a disaster or terrorism and identify strategies for school-based responses. The chapter provides an overview of the effects of these events on school children and youths, including relevant developmental and cultural considerations, and the impact on the school setting. Then, the discussion emphasizes recommendations for, and possible responses by, teachers, school-based mental health professionals, and administrators. Indeed, just as these traumas can affect multiple levels of school children’s lives, the needed response of school-based professionals can be framed as multi-level, ranging from curricular modification to interventions specifically targeting youngsters’ socio-emotional needs. The sections that follow seek to inform and guide responses for school personnel and provide clear, “actionable” recommendations.

Author(s):  
Elizabeth K. Rhoades

This chapter provides an overview of the difficulties facing LGBTQ+ youth in schools and their barriers to healthy psychosocial development. The risk and resiliency model is applied to these challenges, and specific risk factors and resiliency factors are explored. The focus is on means to foster healthy growth and development in sexual minority students through developing school-based programs and practices that have been proven to increase resiliency. The chapter provides specific strategies for school-based mental health professionals to use to increase resiliency in sexual minority youth through the application of school-wide policies and practices. Strategies for making such systemic changes and garnering support are also presented.


Author(s):  
Cortney T. Zimmerman ◽  
Nicole M. Schneider ◽  
Ryan M. Hill ◽  
Julie B. Kaplow

School-based clinicians are likely to encounter the death of a student or a student’s family member in their work. Providing a supportive school environment is crucial for those coping with the death of a loved one or peer. The role of school mental health professionals in assisting children, families, faculty, and staff in the aftermath of a death is complex and multifaceted. This chapter serves as a guide for school-based clinicians who work with students who are possibly facing their own death or coping with the death of a peer or family member. The chapter provides an overview of developmental stages of understanding the concept of death and strategies for professionals and families to talk about death and dying with children. Specific strategies for facilitating a supportive school environment, working with bereaved students and peers, identifying struggling students, and supporting school personnel are discussed.


Author(s):  
Elizabeth K. Rhoades

This chapter provides an overview of the difficulties facing LGBTQ+ youth in schools and their barriers to healthy psychosocial development. The risk and resiliency model is applied to these challenges, and specific risk factors and resiliency factors are explored. The focus is on means to foster healthy growth and development in sexual minority students through developing school-based programs and practices that have been proven to increase resiliency. The chapter provides specific strategies for school-based mental health professionals to use to increase resiliency in sexual minority youth through the application of school-wide policies and practices. Strategies for making such systemic changes and garnering support are also presented.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Babak Hemmatian ◽  
Sze Yu Yu Chan ◽  
Steven A. Sloman

A label’s entrenchment, its degree of use by members of a community, affects its perceived explanatory value even if the label provides no substantive information (Hemmatian & Sloman, 2018). In three experiments, we show that laypersons and mental health professionals see entrenched psychiatric and non-psychiatric diagnostic labels as better explanations than non-entrenched labels even if they are circular. Using scenarios involving experts who discuss unfamiliar diagnostic categories, we show that this preference is not due to violations of conversational norms, lack of reflectiveness or attentiveness, and the characters’ familiarity or unfamiliarity with the label. In Experiment 1, whether a label provided novel symptom information or not had no impact on lay responses, while its entrenchment enhanced ratings of explanation quality. The effect persisted in Experiment 2 for causally incoherent categories and regardless of direct provision of mechanistic information. The effect of entrenchment was partly related to induced causal beliefs about the category, even when participants were informed there is no causal relation. Most participants in both experiments did not report any effect of entrenchment and the effect was present for those who did not. In Experiment 3, mental health professionals showed the effect using diagnoses that were mere shorthands for symptoms, despite a tendency to rate all explanations as unsatisfactory. The data suggest that bringing experts’ attention to the manipulation eliminates the effect. We discuss practical implications for mental health disciplines and potential ways to mitigate the impact of entrenchment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mairead Foody ◽  
Muthanna Samara

Schools have a duty of care to all students and to directly prevent and intervene with bullying amongst children and adolescents. The emergence of cyberbullying escalates this responsibility as the strategies that have become appropriate at national levels for bullying do not always parallel over to online environments. The impact on mental health is the most obvious concern for those responsible for reducing bullying, however, input from psychologists and mental health professionals is scant and often limited on this topic. This paper outlines what bullying is and the devastating impact it can have on the mental health of those involved. It will outline the most common anti-bullying initiatives as well as the current psychological and educational techniques, which could also be used to alleviate distress associated with bullying involvement. We will focus specifically on the role of mindfulness techniques and argue for more of such exercises to be included in whole-school bullying programmes. We conclude by arguing the need to investigate components relevant to both mindfulness and anti-bullying programmes (e.g., empathy, perspective-taking) as active ingredients for reducing the impact of bullying on mental health.


Author(s):  
Philip J. Lazarus ◽  
Shannon M. Suldo ◽  
Beth Doll

In this introduction, the authors discuss the purpose of this book, which is (a) to provide school-based mental health professionals with the knowledge and tools to help promote students’ emotional well-being and mental health, (b) to describe how to implement new models of mental health service delivery in schools, and (c) to prescribe practical strategies that bolster the likelihood that our youth will thrive in school and in life. The authors recommend conceptualizing student mental health through a dual-factor model that encompasses both promoting wellness and reducing pathology. They advocate for a change in educational priorities—one that supports the whole child, in mind, body, and spirit. They then discuss the prevalence of psychological distress in youth, risk and resilience research, the dual-factor model of mental health, happiness studies, new frameworks for the delivery of services, and the organization and structure of the text.


Author(s):  
Jami F. Young ◽  
Laura Mufson ◽  
Christie M. Schueler

This chapter discusses the delivery of Interpersonal Psychotherapy–Adolescent Skills Training (IPT-AST) in school settings. The literature on school-based mental health programs is reviewed. Advantages of delivering preventive interventions in schools and challenges to implementation are outlined. These challenges include obtaining agreement from school personnel and boards of education; identifying personnel who will take the lead in implementing IPT-AST; identifying adolescents who will be appropriate for these services; explaining IPT-AST to adolescents and parents to engage them in the program; and managing logistical and scheduling issues within the schools. The authors discuss strategies to address the challenges of implementing this depression prevention program in a school setting.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 2011-2029 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Ivanova ◽  
Adela Grando ◽  
Anita Murcko ◽  
Michael Saks ◽  
Mary Jo Whitfield ◽  
...  

Integrated mental and physical care environments require data sharing, but little is known about health professionals’ perceptions of patient-controlled health data sharing. We describe mental health professionals’ views on patient-controlled data sharing using semi-structured interviews and a mixed-method analysis with thematic coding. Health information rights, specifically those of patients and health care professionals, emerged as a key theme. Behavioral health professionals identified patient motivations for non-sharing sensitive mental health records relating to substance use, emergency treatment, and serious mental illness (94%). We explore conflicts between professional need for timely access to health information and patient desire to withhold some data categories. Health professionals’ views on data sharing are integral to the redesign of health data sharing and informed consent. As well, they seek clarity about the impact of patient-controlled sharing on health professionals’ roles and scope of practice.


2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 616-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bonnet ◽  
Nicola Moran

Abstract The number of people detained under the 1983 Mental Health Act has risen significantly in recent years and has recently been the subject of an independent review. Most existing research into the rise in detentions has tended to prioritise the perspectives of psychiatrists and failed to consider the views of Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs), usually social workers, who ultimately determine whether detention is appropriate. This mixed-methods study focused on AMHPs’ views on the reasons behind the rise in detentions and potential solutions. It included a national online survey of AMHPs (n = 160) and semi-structured interviews with six AMHPs within a Community Mental Health Team in England. AMHPs reported that demand for mental health services vastly exceeded supply and, due to inadequate resources, more people were being detained in hospital. AMHPs argued that greater investment in preventative mental health services and ‘low intensity’ support would help to mitigate the impact of social risk factors on mental health; and greater investment in crisis services, including non-medical alternatives to hospital, was required. Such investment at either end of the spectrum was expected to be more effective than changes to the law and lead to better outcomes for mental health service users.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document