scholarly journals Decision (not) to disclose mental health conditions or substance abuse in the work environment: a multiperspective focus group study within the military

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. e049370
Author(s):  
Rebecca Bogaers ◽  
Elbert Geuze ◽  
Jaap van Weeghel ◽  
Fenna Leijten ◽  
Nicolas Rüsch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Substance Abuse ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Military Mental Health ◽  
Leadership Support ◽  
Sustainable Employment ◽  
The Military

ObjectivesMany workers in high-risk occupations, such as soldiers, are exposed to stressors at work, increasing their risk of developing mental health conditions and substance abuse (MHC/SA). Disclosure can lead to both positive (eg, support) and negative (eg, discrimination) work outcomes, and therefore, both disclosure and non-disclosure can affect health, well-being and sustainable employment, making it a complex dilemma. The objective is to study barriers to and facilitators for disclosure in the military from multiple perspectives.DesignQualitative focus groups with soldiers with and without MHC/SA and military mental health professionals. Sessions were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Content analysis was done using a general inductive approach.SettingThe study took place within the Dutch military.ParticipantsIn total, 46 people participated in 8 homogeneous focus groups, including 3 perspectives: soldiers with MHC/SA (N=20), soldiers without MHC/SA (N=10) and military mental health professionals (N=16).ResultsFive barriers for disclosure were identified (fear of career consequences, fear of social rejection, lack of leadership support, lack of skills to talk about MHC/SA, masculine workplace culture) and three facilitators (anticipated positive consequences of disclosure, leadership support, work-related MHC/SA). Views of the stakeholder groups were highly congruent.ConclusionsAlmost all barriers (and facilitators) were related to fear for stigma and discrimination. This was acknowledged by all three perspectives, suggesting that stigma and discrimination are considerable barriers to sustainable employment and well-being. Supervisor knowledge, attitudes and behaviour were critical for disclosure, and supervisors thus have a key role in improving health, well-being and sustainable employment for soldiers with MHC/SA. Furthermore, adjustments could be made by the military on a policy level, to take away some of the fears that soldiers have when disclosing MHC/SA.

Hope and Adolescent Mental Health

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Jiang ◽  
Kristin L. Otis ◽  
Marco Weber ◽  
E. Scott Huebner
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Adolescent Mental Health ◽  
Developmental Perspective ◽  
Hope Theory ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Children’S Hope Scale

This chapter begins with a description of the tenets of hope theory and then addresses the importance of hope during adolescence from a developmental perspective. Next, two accompanying instruments for measuring hope in adults and adolescents, the Adult Hope Scale and the Children’s Hope Scale, are described. Then the chapter summarizes the research findings on the relations between hope and adolescent mental health, focusing on the findings related to emotional, psychological, and social well-being, respectively. In addition, the Making Hope Happen intervention is introduced. Finally, the chapter explores future directions in adolescent hope research, along with implications for use by mental health professionals.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Philip J. Lazarus ◽  
Shannon M. Suldo ◽  
Beth Doll
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Service Delivery ◽  
Risk And Resilience ◽  
Whole Child ◽  
Mental Health Service Delivery ◽  
School Based

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.

scholarly journals Intimate Partner Violence

2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. E1-E15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna E Stewart ◽  
Harriet MacMillan ◽  
Nadine Wathen
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Substance Abuse ◽  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Personality Disorders ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Pain Syndromes ◽  
Chronic Pain Syndromes

• IPV is an underrecognized problem that occurs in all countries, cultures, and socioeconomic groups. • IPV has an enormous impact on personal health, and economic and social well-being. • IPV may occur in heterosexual and LGBTQ relationships and may be perpetrated by either sex. • Canadian data from 1999 show about equal proportions of men and women had been victims of physical (seven and eight per cent, respectively) and psychological (18 and 19 per cent, respectively) IPV in the previous five years. • Exposure to IPV has deleterious effects on children and other family members. • Some populations are at greater risk or have special needs for IPV. These include immigrant women, Aboriginal women, LGBTQ communities, people with ALs, pregnant women, dating adolescents, older people, alcohol and other substance abusing people, low-income people, and those without a current partner (that is, IPV perpetrated by a former partner). • Mental health problems associated with IPV include depression, anxiety disorders, chronic pain syndromes, eating disorders, sleep disorders, psychosomatic disorders, alcohol and other substance abuse, suicidal and self-harm behaviours, nonaffective psychosis, some personality disorders, and harmful health behaviours, such as risk taking and smoking. As IPV is a major determinant of mental health, it is of vital importance to mental health professionals. • Physical health problems associated with IPV include death, a broad range of injuries, reproductive disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, chronic pain syndromes, fibromyalgia, poor physical functioning, and lower health-related quality of life. Sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies and physical inactivity are also increased. • Children's exposure to IPV may have short- and long-term health impacts on the child, especially mental health effects. • Perpetrators of IPV most frequently have personality disorders, but substance abuse and other types of mental illness or brain dysfunction may also occur.

scholarly journals Optimal Well-Being After Major Depression

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 621-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Rottenberg ◽  
Andrew R. Devendorf ◽  
Vanessa Panaite ◽  
David J. Disabato ◽  
Todd B. Kashdan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Major Depression ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Burden ◽  
Leverage Points ◽  
Midlife Development

Can people achieve optimal well-being and thrive after major depression? Contemporary epidemiology dismisses this possibility, viewing depression as a recurrent, burdensome condition with a bleak prognosis. To estimate the prevalence of thriving after depression in United States adults, we used data from the Midlife Development in the United States study. To count as thriving after depression, a person had to exhibit no evidence of major depression and had to exceed cutoffs across nine facets of psychological well-being that characterize the top 25% of U.S. nondepressed adults. Overall, nearly 10% of adults with study-documented depression were thriving 10 years later. The phenomenon of thriving after depression has implications for how the prognosis of depression is conceptualized and for how mental health professionals communicate with patients. Knowing what makes thriving outcomes possible offers new leverage points to help reduce the global burden of depression.

The science of well-being: evidence of Eastern therapies enhancing the character traits associated with well-being- well-being psychiatry

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1711-1711
Author(s):  
R.F. D'Souza
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Interpersonal Neurobiology ◽  
Happy Life ◽  
Self Transcendence

Northern Psychiatry Research Centre, Melbourne University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Mental health professionals and their patients are increasingly aware of the basic need of all human beings for a source of meaning that is greater than one's self. This growth in awareness is driven by the professional's practical goal of reducing disability from mental disorders and by the heart felt wishes of the suffering for their therapists to recognize of the need for self transcendence. This has resulted in mental health professionals and the general public's growing awareness of the need to foster spirituality and well-being in clinical practice. We now see a groundswell of professional work to focus on the development of health and happiness, rather than merely to fight disease and distress.This presentation will consider the practical necessity to reduce disability, and understanding the science of well-being including the stages of self-awareness on the path to well-being. Considering the interpersonal neurobiology view of well-being. Ultimately discussing the developing of well-being through therapies such as Cloninger's “The happy life- Voyages to well-being” and D'Souza's Evidence based East-West Spiritually Augmented Well-being therapy. seven catalylectic exercises for each day of the week. This allows attention to spirituality based on principles of psychobiology with roots in compassion and tolerance, rather than on the basis of dogmatic judgments that are rooted in fear and intolerance. Thus only by addressing spirituality in a scientific and non judgmental manner can we make psychology and psychiatry into a science of well-being that is able to reduce stigma and disability of psychological disorders

Influence of an educational program on mental health professionals' knowledge and perceptions of problematic alcohol and other drug use

2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Bill Carta ◽  
Brenda Happell ◽  
Jaya Pinikahana
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Substance Abuse ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Educational Program ◽  
Response Rate ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Problematic Alcohol ◽  
Problematic Drug ◽  
Drug And Alcohol

The issue of co-morbid substance abuse and mental illness is clearly identified in the literature. The adequacy of the knowledge and skills of mental health professionals to deal with the complex problems associated with this co-morbidity has received considerable attention. The effect of an educational program on mental health professionals? knowledge and perceptions of problematic alcohol and substance abuse was measured in a questionnaire survey in Victoria, Australia. The aim was to determine if an educational program could facilitate knowledge and attitudinal change among mental health professionals. In the pre-survey, a questionnaire on knowledge, skills, attitudes and practices was administered to 378 clinicians in Victoria (133 were returned, representing a 46% response rate). In the post-survey, 131 questionnaires were returned (response rate 35%). Significant changes in knowledge were reported following the educational program in the areas of overall knowledge of drug and alcohol, diagnosis of drug and alcohol abuse, and management of drug and alcohol abusers. While positive attitudes towards problematic drug and alcohol issues were expressed, specific educational programs to enhance their knowledge and skills in assessment and management of problematic drug and alcohol users are recommended.

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