scholarly journals Developmentally appropriate social and mental health support could improve quality of life for children receiving cancer treatment

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 78-78
Author(s):  
Susan Neilson
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslav Světlák ◽  
Pavla Linhartová ◽  
Terezia Knejzlíková ◽  
Jakub Knejzlík ◽  
Barbora Kóša ◽  
...  

University study can be a life period of heightened psychological distress for many students. The development of new preventive and intervention programs to support well-being in university students is a fundamental challenge for mental health professionals. We designed an 8-week online mindfulness-based program (eMBP) combining a face-to-face approach, text, audio, video components, and support psychotherapy principles with a unique intensive reminder system using the Facebook Messenger and Slack applications in two separate runs (N = 692). We assessed the program’s effect on mindful experiencing, perceived stress, emotion regulation strategies, self-compassion, negative affect, and quality of life. The results of the presented pilot study confirmed that eMBP is a feasible and effective tool in university students’ mental health support. The students who completed the eMBP reported a reduction of perceived stress with a large effect size (pη2 = 0.42) as well as a decrease of negative affect experience frequency and intensity (pη2 = 0.31), an increase of being mindful in their life (Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire subscales:pη2 = 0.21, 0.27, 0.25, 0.28, 0.28), and a higher rate of self-compassion (pη2 = 0.28) with a medium effect size. A small effect size was found in the frequency of using a cognitive reappraisal strategy (pη2 = 0.073). One new result is the observation of an eMBP effect (pη2 = 0.27) on the decrease in attributed importance to the quality-of-life components replicated in two consecutive runs of the program. The study affirms that mindfulness-based interventions can be effectively delivered in an eHealth form to university students.


Author(s):  
Joanna Smolarczyk-Kosowska ◽  
Anna Szczegielniak ◽  
Mateusz Legutko ◽  
Adam Zaczek ◽  
Łukasz Kunert ◽  
...  

Community psychiatry is a modern and effective form of care for patients with mental disorders. The aim of the study was to assess the impact of a rehabilitation program at the Mental Health Support Centre in Tarnowskie Góry (Poland) on reducing severity of anxiety and depression symptoms, as well as improving overall quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study involved 35 patients, examined with an authors’ questionnaire on sociodemographic data, the Hospital Scale of Anxiety and Depression (HADS) and the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). Data was obtained during the first national lockdown and compared to data gathered before the pandemic on the same study group. Imposed restrictions, negative emotional state during lockdown, subjectively assessed higher health risk and a low level of knowledge about the COVID-19 pandemic did not significantly correlate with a severity of depression and anxiety, as well as general quality of life. However, the comparison of the results obtained in HADS and SF-36 scales show a significant improvement in both categories. Rehabilitation activities, including physical training, cognitive exercise and social therapy, reduce the severity of the symptoms and have a positive effect on the overall quality of life in patients suffering from schizophrenia and affective disorders. Therefore, holistic mental health support services may positively affect building an individual resilience. The severity of anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic shows a negative correlation with the patient’s age.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sareth Khann ◽  
Dang Hoang Minh ◽  
Bahr Weiss

Mental health problems are a major global burden. Understanding what motivates people to seek help for mental health problems thus is important so society can best support people in help-seeking. The present study investigated predictors of mental health help-seeking among Cambodian adolescents. Participants were 391 Cambodian high-school students, assessed on (a) culturally-specific mental health syndromes (Culturally-Specific Syndrome Inventory); (b) depression (PHQ-9); (c) anxiety (GAD-7); (d) functional impairment (Brief Impairment Scale); (e) quality of life (Q-LES-Q-SF); and (f) help-seeking from different sources (e.g., friends, psychologists) (General Help-Seeking Questionnaire).  Help seeking from mental health professionals was predicted by mental health symptoms but not by life impairment or quality of life, suggesting that these constructs are not understood as part of adolescent mental health in Cambodia. However, informal support was predicted by impairment and quality of life, suggesting that Cambodian adolescents are aware of life impairment and quality of life, desire to improve their lives, but are unaware of these constructs’ connection to mental health. Results suggest areas for public health campaigns in Cambodia to target to increase adolescent mental health support seeking. Results also suggest it may be useful to develop informal online mental health support resources for Cambodian adolescents.


2022 ◽  
pp. 204-221
Author(s):  
Sheelu Sagar ◽  
Vikas Garg ◽  
Rohit Rastogi

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic situation, the human race has entered the era of hope and transformation, and there is growing pressure and focus to raise awareness to adopt alternative interventions and sustainable practices to ensure gaining sound functioning of physiological organs. Can yoga and meditation promote clarity in thoughts and enhance alertness at work? Does practice of mudras help in improving concentration level of individuals? Do yoga and meditation help to improve the improve quality of life in general? The aim of this chapter is to help new practitioners, scholars, and employees to understand fitness mantra without stress and strain through Indian style of yoga and meditation. This chapter presents an overview of collection of research papers and articles written by yoga experts, saints, and researchers that have emphasized psychology, spirituality, and mentioned evidence for better mental health or effectiveness of yoga, meditation, and mudra interventions as tools for improving the overall personality and mental health of individuals.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 32-33
Author(s):  
Kathy Kellett ◽  
Kaleigh Ligus ◽  
Kristin Baker ◽  
Julie Robison

Abstract Approximately 10 million, or 6 percent, of the U.S. population experience serious mental illness (SMI) (NAMI, 2019). Social determinants of health (SDOH) associated with this population can provide important information for targeted innovations with the potential to reduce disease burden and improve quality of life. Using secondary data from Connecticut’s Money Follows the Person Rebalancing Demonstration, this research compares people age 50+ who transitioned out of an institution onto the Medicaid HCBS Mental Health Waiver (MHW) (n= 271) to those receiving Mental Health services through the Medicaid State Plan (MHSP) (n=278). Analyses examine SDOH in both groups and are organized around five broad domains: Finances; education; social/community context, health/health care, and neighborhood/built environment. MHSP participants were significantly more likely to report not having enough money at the end of the month at 6 (42% vs. 21%), 12 (37% vs. 20%), and 24 (37% vs. 17%) months. Significantly more MHSP than MHW participants did not like where they lived at 6 (12% vs. 1%) and 24 (24% vs. 5%) months. Significantly more MHSP than MHW participants were unhappy with the help they received in the community at 6 (22% vs. 8%), 12 (23% vs. 7%), and 24 (19% vs. 5%) months. Groups did not differ by education, social/community context, health/health care, feelings of safety where they live, or on post-transition hospitalizations, ED use or reinstitutionalization. To improve quality of life in the community, MHSP participants could benefit from greater assistance with finances, housing, and community services.


Author(s):  
Rachel Dale ◽  
Sanja Budimir ◽  
Thomas Probst ◽  
Peter Stippl ◽  
Christoph Pieh

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic a decline in mental health has been reported. This online study investigated mental health and well-being in Austria during a strict lockdown. In total, N = 1505 participants were recruited between 23 December 2020 and 4 January 2021 and levels of depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), sleep quality (ISI), well-being (WHO-5), quality of life (WHO-QOL) and stress (PSS-10) were measured. 26% scored above the cut-off for moderate depressive symptoms (PHQ-9 ≥ 10; ♀ = 32%; ♂ = 21%), 23% above the cut-off for moderate anxiety (GAF-7 ≥ 10; ♀ = 29%; ♂ = 17%) and 18% above the cut-off for moderate insomnia (ISI ≥ 15; ♀ = 21%; ♂ = 16%). Mean-scores for quality of life (psychological WHO-QOL) were 68.89, for well-being (WHO-5) 14.34, and for stress (PSS-10) 16.42. The youngest age group (18–24) was most burdened and showed significantly more mental health symptoms compared with the oldest age group (65+) in depressive symptoms (50% vs. 12%), anxiety symptoms (35% vs. 10%), and insomnia (25% vs. 11%, all p-values < 0.05). Mental health decreased compared to both the first lockdown earlier in 2020 and pre-pandemic data. Further analyses indicate these findings were especially apparent for the under 24-year-olds, women, single/separated people, low incomes and those who do not partake in any physical activity (all p-values < 0.05). We highlight the need for ongoing mental health support, particularly to the most burdened groups.


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