Therapeutic virtual reality in prison: Participatory design with incarcerated women

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (8) ◽  
pp. 2210-2229
Author(s):  
Melissa Q Teng ◽  
Eric Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Mental Health Treatment ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
High Stress ◽  
The United States ◽  
Incarcerated Women ◽  
State Prison ◽  
Cultural Tensions

Upon release from prison, women face barriers in every step of their journey home, with most reentry services designed for men. With virtual reality (VR) headsets increasingly affordable and normalized as a mental health treatment modality, VR is being adopted by prisons around the United States. We argue that the risks and affordances of VR in this political context necessitate centering those with lived experience as creative agents to avoid designing media that re-traumatizes, reduces the complexities of reentry, and reproduces oppressive prisoner–guard dynamics. This article documents and analyzes the design process of a VR reentry program for a state prison to help incarcerated women practice responding to high-stress reentry situations, prior to their release. The resulting VR prototype draws on therapeutic VR work but takes a community-based participatory design approach. We conclude by discussing the institutional and cultural tensions of implementing a participatory design process in a US state prison system.

Psychiatric Disorders in Incarcerated Women: Treatment and Rehabilitation Needs for Successful Community Reentry

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan E. McPhail ◽  
Donna R. Falvo ◽  
Eileen J. Burker
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Mental Health Treatment ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Specific Treatment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Incarcerated Women ◽  
Community Treatment ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Community Reentry ◽  
Three Phases

Psychiatric disorders in women are often contributing factors to criminality and often result in incarceration. The prevalence of psychiatric disorders among incarcerated women is much higher than women in the general population, and it is higher than among incarcerated men. Prisons and jails across the United States are now responsible for mental health treatment; however, this treatment has been inconsistent and minimal. The rehabilitation process for incarcerated women occurs in three phases: in prison, during the transition period from prison to the community, and within the community. Treatment during these three phases must address issues specific to women including sexual abuse, domestic violence, parenting, and substance abuse. This paper proposes a rehabilitation model that includes comprehensive, gender-specific treatment, and services for women offenders during all three phases of rehabilitation.

Suicide-Bereaved Individuals’ Attitudes Toward Therapists

Crisis ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin F. Ward-Ciesielski ◽  
Madeline D. Wielgus ◽  
Connor B. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health Treatment ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
The United States ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Time Of Death ◽  
Loved One ◽  
Important Group ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Suicide Bereaved ◽  
Research Domain

Background: Suicide-bereaved individuals represent an important group impacted by suicide. Understanding their experiences following the suicide of a loved one is an important research domain, despite receiving limited attention. Although suicide-bereaved individuals may benefit from mental health treatment, their attitudes toward therapy and therapists are poorly understood. Aims: The present study aimed to understand the extent to which bereaved individuals’ attitudes toward therapy and therapists are impacted by whether their loved one was in therapy at the time of death. Method: Suicide-bereaved individuals (N = 243) from the United States were recruited to complete an online survey about their experience with and attitudes toward therapy and therapists following the suicide of a loved one. Results: Bereaved individuals whose loved one was in therapy at the time of death (N = 48, 19.8%) reported more negative and less positive attitudes toward the treating therapist than those whose loved one was not in therapy at the time of death (N = 81, 33.3%) or whose loved one was never in therapy/the deceased’s therapy status was unknown (N = 114, 46.9%). Conclusion: The deceased’s involvement with a therapist appears to be an important factor impacting the experience of bereaved individuals and should be considered when attempting to engage these individuals in postvention.

Restoring Damaged Relationships Through the Art of Invitation: Application with Addicted Incarcerated Women

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katti J. Sneed ◽  
Debbie Teike
Keyword(s):  
Human Services ◽  
Addiction Treatment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Incarcerated Women ◽  
Relationship Building ◽  
Health And Human Services ◽  
Guiding Principle ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
Complementary Approach

This article presents a description of Art of Invitation as a complementary approach to traditional addiction treatment through the alignment of Art of Invitation (AOI) with Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Ten Guiding Principles for Recovery.  AOI is a faith based relationship building approach that combines key Judeo/Christian teachings with relationship building tools, skills, and concepts for those seeking to build and restore relationships.  SAMHSA, as the leading agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, spearheads public health efforts to advance behavioral health within the United States.  Each Guiding Principle is presented along with a description of how AOI is shared with incarcerated women, an often neglected population, participating in an inpatient treatment program housed in a community corrections facility.

Mental, Physical, and Financial Health Concerns of Underrepresented Undergraduate Students During Initial Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Nelson ◽  
Matt Honore ◽  
Jen Lindwall ◽  
Arjun Viray ◽  
Lisa Marriott ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Health ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Research Training ◽  
High Stress ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Generation College Students ◽  
Financial Health ◽  
Demographic Groups ◽  
First Generation College ◽  
Research Training Program

In April 2020, at the onset of COVID-19 in the U.S., we implemented a weekly survey of underrepresented undergraduate students participating in a biomedical research training program. The 10-week survey collected qualitative and quantitative data on mental health, physical health, and financial health. Responses indicated high stress during the pandemic, particularly during the survey’s final weeks which occurred during a period of social unrest. Physical health declined throughout the survey, stabilizing in its final weeks. Financial health declined initially and stayed low throughout. Students from certain demographic groups, such as first generation college students and those with dependents were disproportionately impacted. Qualitative responses highlighted the intersectionality of the three constructs and illustrated the impacts of these events.

Brutally Revealing: Voices Rising Out of San Quentin State Prison

Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
Diane Ketelle
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Personal Growth ◽  
Writing Workshop ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
State Prison ◽  
Prison Life

This manuscript recounts the writing of inmates in a writing workshop project taught by the author at San Quentin State Prison. Through the process of writing personal narratives the inmates came to render new meaning from their lived experience. The process of writing bypassed rigid defenses developed in prison, and inmates were able to write and share without being left vulnerable. Writing, in this way, helped inmates who participated to escape the monotony and boredom of prison life and provided opportunity for reflection and personal growth.

People and Climate Change

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Community Inclusion ◽  
Global Issue ◽  
Political Challenge

Climate change is a profoundly social and political challenge with many social justice concerns around every corner. A global issue, climate change threatens the well-being, livelihood, and survival of people in communities worldwide. Often, those who have contributed least to climate change are the most likely to suffer from its negative consequences and are often excluded from the policy discussions and decisions that affect their lives. This book pays particular attention to the social dimensions of climate change. It examines closely people’s lived experience, climate-related injustice and inequity, why some groups are more vulnerable than others, and what can be done about it—especially through greater community inclusion in policy change. A highlight of the book is its diversity of rich, community-based examples from throughout the Global South and North. Sacrificial flood zones in urban Argentina, forced relocation of United Houma tribal members in the United States, and gendered water insecurities in Bangladesh and Australia are just some of the in-depth cases included in the book. Throughout, the book asks social and political questions about climate change. Of key importance, it asks what can be done about the unequal consequences of climate change by questioning and transforming social institutions and arrangements—guided by values that prioritize the experience of affected groups and the inclusion of diverse voices and communities in the policy process.

come_NET

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantin Aal ◽  
Anne Weibert ◽  
Kai Schubert ◽  
Mary-Ann Sprenger ◽  
Thomas Von Rekowski
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
Controlled Environment ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Neighborhood Contexts ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Computer Club ◽  
Close Cooperation

The case study presented in this chapter discusses the design and implementation of an online platform, “come_NET,” in the context of intercultural computer clubs in Germany. This tool was built in close cooperation with the children and adult computer club participants. It was designed to foster the sharing of ideas and experiences across distances, support collaboration, and make skills and expertise accessible to others in the local neighborhood contexts. In particular, the participatory-design process involving the children in the computer clubs fostered a profound understanding of the platform structure and functionalities. The study results show how younger children in particular were able to benefit, as the closed nature of the platform enabled them to gather experience as users of social media, but in a safe and controlled environment.

Minor Feelings in the Wake of the Atlanta Attack: How a Mom of Asian Descent Spent the First 100 hours in the Aftermath

2021 ◽  
pp. 153270862110199
Author(s):  
Pengfei Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Asian American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Korean American ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Traumatic Experience ◽  
American Poet ◽  
Asian Descent ◽  
Chinese Descent ◽  
Mass Shooting

This autoethnographic writing documents how a family of Chinese descent spent their first 100 hours after the Atlanta Shooting on March 16, 2021, in which a White gunman killed eight people, including six Asian women. It bears witness to the rise of the anti-Asian racism in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic and offers a snapshot of the private life of a family of Asian descent in the dawn of the Stop Asian Hate Movement. Drawing on Korean American poet Cathy Park Hong’s term minor feelings, this essay explores how emotions, rooted in racialized lived experience and triggered by the mass shooting, evolved, shifted, and fueled the sentiments that gave rise to the Stop Asian Hate Movement. Compared with the more visible violence against Asians and Asian Americans displayed on social media, it interrogates the less visible traumatic experience that haunts Asian and Asian American communities.

scholarly journals The Cardiometabolic Health Benefits of Sauna Exposure in Individuals with High-Stress Occupations. A Mechanistic Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 1105
Author(s):  
Kaemmer N. Henderson ◽  
Lauren G. Killen ◽  
Eric K. O’Neal ◽  
Hunter S. Waldman
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Stressors ◽  
Heat Exposure ◽  
High Stress ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cellular Level ◽  
Cardiometabolic Health ◽  
Low Grade ◽  
Current Standard ◽  
The Metabolic Syndrome ◽  
Sauna Bathing

Components of the metabolic syndrome (i.e., hypertension, insulin resistance, obesity, atherosclerosis) are a leading cause of death in the United States and result in low-grade chronic inflammation, excessive oxidative stress, and the eventual development of cardiometabolic diseases (CMD). High-stress occupations (HSO: firefighters, police, military personnel, first responders, etc.) increase the risk of developing CMD because they expose individuals to chronic and multiple stressors (i.e., sleep deprivation, poor nutrition habits, lack of physical activity, psychological stress). Interestingly, heat exposure and, more specifically, sauna bathing have been shown to improve multiple markers of CMD, potentially acting as hormetic stressors, at the cellular level and in the whole organism. Therefore, sauna bathing might be a practical and alternative intervention for disease prevention for individuals with HSO. The purpose of this review is to detail the mechanisms and pathways involved in the response to both acute and chronic sauna bathing and collectively present sauna bathing as a potential treatment, in addition to current standard of care, for mitigating CMD to both clinicians and individuals serving in HSO.

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