Vicarious trauma: Strategies for legal practice and law schools

2021 ◽  
pp. 1037969X2199985
Author(s):  
Kelley Burton ◽  
Amanda Paton
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Vicarious Trauma ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Mental Health Workers ◽  
Future Research ◽  
First Year ◽  
Helping Professionals ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Individual Level

We examine the effect of vicarious trauma on various stakeholders in the legal profession. Criminal lawyers are likely to experience higher levels of vicarious trauma than other lawyers. Additionally, lawyers are at a heightened risk of vicarious trauma compared to other helping professionals such as mental health workers. We identify a range of strategies that can be implemented at an organisational or individual level to address vicarious trauma. Future research should evaluate the effectiveness of vicarious trauma strategies and initiatives. Importantly, we argue that vicarious trauma initiatives should begin in first-year law courses and continue over a career.

College Grieving: Normalizing the Pain of Leaving and of Staying Behind

2020 ◽  
pp. 106648072094382
Author(s):  
Joshua M. Gold ◽  
Elizabeth Beasley
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Transition To College ◽  
College Campuses ◽  
Mental Health Workers ◽  
First Year ◽  
The Family ◽  
Family Home

The transition to college, however enacted, is viewed as a time of joyous discovery and self-exploration for the launched young adult. For the family, this transition may allow for pride in parental accomplishment and perhaps relief as the young adult departs the family home. However, in both circumstances, there is an undercurrent of loss and perhaps unexpressed grieving. If unacknowledged and unresolved, these feelings may cause the student to question readiness for college and personal maturity, perhaps spiraling into depression or substance abuse and culminating in withdrawal or dismissal. At home, the challenge of reimaging family daily life and parental connection may lead to either overinvolvement or distancing, deflecting but not resolving the accompanying family pain. This article will explain the normative process of “freshman grief,” integrate the concepts of this loss through the lens of narrative counseling, and offer suggestions for mental health workers in secondary schools and on college campuses to help students and families anticipate, process, and resolve this time of bereavement in the midst of the excitement of the first year ( n = 175).

Therapists' Attitudes as Explanation of Underservice of Elderly in Mental Health: Testing an Old Hypothesis

1986 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 261-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bob Knight
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Mental Health Workers ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Major Barrier ◽  
Student Sample ◽  
College Student Sample

The literature in mental health and aging has long argued that the presumably negative attitudes of therapists toward the aged are a major barrier to the aged receiving psychotherapy services. This investigation compared two measures of attitudes in a college student sample in order to test the reliability and validity of two commonly used measures of attitude in the general population. The same scales were then used in a sample of sixty-six mental health workers. The results suggest that Likert ratings and semantic differentials, although tapping a common dimension, differ in sensitivity to personal experience with the aged, that therapists had more positive beliefs about the elderly than did college students, and that therapist attitudes were not correlated with either proportion of elderly clients seen or desire to work with elderly. Work site emerged as an important predictor of numbers of elderly seen by therapists. It is argued that future research ought to focus on systems level variables in seeking to overcome barriers to therapy.

Employability With Mental Illness: The Perspectives of Employers and Mental Health Workers

2020 ◽  
pp. 003435522092260
Author(s):  
Andrea Lettieri ◽  
Felipe Soto-Pérez ◽  
Manuel A. Franco-Martín ◽  
Francisco de Borja Jordán de Urríes ◽  
Kate R. Shiells ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Mental Health Workers ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Attitudinal Differences ◽  
People With Mental Illness ◽  
Scale Scores ◽  
Future Research Directions ◽  
Initial Scale

Having prior contact with people with mental illness in the workplace can lead to an improvement in employers’ attitudes toward this group. However, there is currently a lack of instruments to measure attitudes toward the employability of people with mental illness. The overall aim of this study was to develop a Spanish scale of attitudes toward the employability of people with mental illness (CEPEM) and obtain preliminary data regarding its psychometric properties. Ninety-four items from three content domains were selected (attitudes, employability, and impact) and revised in an inter-rater agreement procedure in order to produce an initial scale. The scale was tested by employers and workers from the field of mental health. A reduced set of items was selected according to variability and homogeneity indexes. Additional analyses were conducted to explore the validity of the scale. Internal consistency was estimated for the full 33-item scale. Scale scores partially captured attitudinal differences between employers and workers. Finally, linear multiple regression analysis showed that the scale score, in combination with educational level, can help to predict employers’ intentions to hire people with mental illness. Limitations and future research directions are also addressed.

Decision Making about Dangerousness in Releasing Patients from Long-term Psychiatric Hospitalization

1992 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul D. Werner ◽  
J. Reid Meloy
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Psychiatric Hospitalization ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Mental Health Workers ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Outpatient Program ◽  
Psychiatric Rating ◽  
Psychiatric Rating Scale

This study examined mental health practitioners’ approaches to judging psychiatric inpatients’ dangerousness at the time of decision making about hospital discharge. Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) descriptions of 50 inpatients were studied in relation to four assessors’ evaluations of patients’ dangerousness and their recommendations regarding conditional release to an outpatient program. Judged dangerousness was well modeled by a multiple linear regression equation (R = .91) and was found positively correlated with 13 BPRS variables. Five BPRS scales associated with the recommendation to discharge patients were also identified. On two-year followup none of the patients released to the outpatient program was found to have committed a violent act. Results were compared with prior findings on mental health workers’ decision making about violence, and recommendations for future research were discussed.

Reducing Burnout Among Mental Health Workers

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Geurts ◽  
W. Schaufeli ◽  
J De Jonge
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Mental Health Workers

Fostering Resilience in Response to Terrorism Among Mental Health Workers

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen W. Saakvitne ◽  
◽  
B. Hudnall Stamm ◽  
Laura Barbanel
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Mental Health Workers

scholarly journals Tired, Worried and Burned Out, but Still Resilient: A Cross-Sectional Study of Mental Health Workers in the UK during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 4457
Author(s):  
Sofia Pappa ◽  
Joshua Barnett ◽  
Ines Berges ◽  
Nikolaos Sakkas
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Emotional Exhaustion ◽  
Organizational Support ◽  
Sleep Problems ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Maslach Burnout Inventory ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Mental Health Workers ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional

The burden of the COVID-19 pandemic on health systems and the physical and mental health of healthcare workers (HCWs) has been substantial. This cross-sectional study aims to assess the effects of COVID-19 on the psychological wellbeing of mental health workers who provide care to a vulnerable patient population that have been particularly affected during this crisis. A total of 387 HCWs from across a large urban mental health service completed a self-administered questionnaire consisting of socio-demographic, lifestyle and work-based information and validated psychometric scales. Depression and anxiety were measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), respectively; sleep problems with the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS); burnout with the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI); and resilience with the Resilience Scale-14 (RS-14). Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to determine potential mediating factors. Prevalence of burnout was notable, with 52% recording moderate/severe in Emotional Exhaustion, 19.5% moderate/severe in Depersonalisation, and 55.5% low/moderate Personal Accomplishment. Over half of all respondents (52%) experienced sleep problems; the presence of depressive symptoms was a significant predictor of insomnia. An increase in potentially harmful lifestyle changes, such as smoking, alcohol consumption and overeating was also observed. However, high Resilience was reported by 70% of the samples and the importance of this is highlighted. Female gender was associated with increased levels of depression and emotional exhaustion while those with a history of mental health conditions were most at risk of affective symptoms, insomnia, and burnout. Overall, our study revealed considerable levels of psychological distress and maladaptive coping strategies but also resilience and satisfaction with organizational support provided. Findings can inform tailored interventions in order to mitigate vulnerability and prevent long-term psychological sequelae.

scholarly journals Clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness of individual mental health workers colocated within primary care practices: a systematic literature review

BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. e042052
Author(s):  
Jean-Baptiste Woods ◽  
Geva Greenfield ◽  
Azeem Majeed ◽  
Benedict Hayhoe
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Health Worker ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Risk Of Bias ◽  
Mental Health Workers ◽  
Mental Health Worker ◽  
Care Practices ◽  
Primary Care Practices

ObjectivesMental health disorders contribute significantly to the global burden of disease and lead to extensive strain on health systems. The integration of mental health workers into primary care has been proposed as one possible solution, but evidence of clinical and cost effectiveness of this approach is unclear. We reviewed the clinical and cost effectiveness of mental health workers colocated within primary care practices.DesignSystematic literature review.Data sourcesWe searched the Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, Healthcare Management Information Consortium (HMIC) and Global Health databases.Eligibility criteriaAll quantitative studies published before July 2019 were eligible for the review; participants of any age and gender were included. Studies did not need to report a certain outcome measure or comparator in order to be eligible.Data extraction and synthesisData were extracted using a standardised table; however, pooled analysis proved unfeasible. Studies were assessed for risk of bias using the Risk Of Bias In Non-randomised Studies - of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool and the Cochrane collaboration’s tool for assessing risk of bias in randomised trials.ResultsFifteen studies from four countries were included. Mental health worker integration was associated with mental health benefits to varied populations, including minority groups and those with comorbid chronic diseases. Furthermore, the interventions were correlated with high patient satisfaction and increases in specialist mental health referrals among minority populations. However, there was insufficient evidence to suggest clinical outcomes were significantly different from usual general practitioner care.ConclusionsWhile there appear to be some benefits associated with mental health worker integration in primary care practices, we found insufficient evidence to conclude that an onsite primary care mental health worker is significantly more clinically or cost effective when compared with usual general practitioner care. There should therefore be an increased emphasis on generating new evidence from clinical trials to better understand the benefits and effectiveness of mental health workers colocated within primary care practices.

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