scholarly journals Recognizing Context-Aware Human Sociability Patterns Using Pervasive Monitoring for Supporting Mental Health Professionals

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 86
Author(s):  
Ivan Rodrigues de Moura ◽  
Ariel Soares Teles ◽  
Markus Endler ◽  
Luciano Reis Coutinho ◽  
Francisco José da Silva e Silva
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Pattern Mining ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Social Behaviors ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Frequent Pattern ◽  
Abnormal Behavior ◽  
Context Aware

Traditionally, mental health specialists monitor their patients’ social behavior by applying subjective self-report questionnaires in face-to-face meetings. Usually, the application of the self-report questionnaire is limited by cognitive biases (e.g., memory bias and social desirability). As an alternative, we present a solution to detect context-aware sociability patterns and behavioral changes based on social situations inferred from ubiquitous device data. This solution does not focus on the diagnosis of mental states, but works on identifying situations of interest to specialized professionals. The proposed solution consists of an algorithm based on frequent pattern mining and complex event processing to detect periods of the day in which the individual usually socializes. Social routine recognition is performed under different context conditions to differentiate abnormal social behaviors from the variation of usual social habits. The proposed solution also can detect abnormal behavior and routine changes. This solution uses fuzzy logic to model the knowledge of the mental health specialist necessary to identify the occurrence of behavioral change. Evaluation results show that the prediction performance of the identified context-aware sociability patterns has strong positive relation (Pearson’s correlation coefficient >70%) with individuals’ social routine. Finally, the evaluation conducted recognized that the proposed solution leading to the identification of abnormal social behaviors and social routine changes consistently.

The Goldwater Rule: Perspectives From, and Implications for, Psychological Science

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
scott lilienfeld ◽  
Josh Miller ◽  
Donald Lynam
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Clinical Judgment ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Psychiatric Status ◽  
Public Figures ◽  
Duty To Inform

When, if ever, should psychological scientists be permitted to offer professional opinions concerning the mental health of public figures they have never directly examined? This contentious question, which attracted widespread public attention during the 1964 U.S. presidential election involving Barry Goldwater, received renewed scrutiny during and after the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, when many mental health professionals raised pointed questions concerning the psychiatric status of Donald Trump. Although the Goldwater Rule prohibits psychiatrists from offering diagnostic opinions on individuals they have never examined, no comparable rule exists for psychologists. We contend that, owing largely to the Goldwater Rule’s origins in psychiatry, a substantial body of psychological research on assessment and clinical judgment, including work on the questionable validity of unstructured interviews, the psychology of cognitive biases, and the validity of informant reports and of L (lifetime) data, has been overlooked in discussions of its merits. We conclude that although the Goldwater Rule may have been defensible several decades ago, it is outdated and premised on dubious scientific assumptions. We further contend that there are select cases in which psychological scientists with suitable expertise may harbor a “duty to inform,” allowing them to offer informed opinions concerning public figures’ mental health with appropriate caveats.

Leaving Lake Wobegon: firearm-related education and training for medical and mental health professionals is an essential competence

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianni Pirelli ◽  
Liza Gold
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Cultural Competence ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Education And Training ◽  
Gun Violence ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Average Effect ◽  
Content Type ◽  
And Training

Purpose Firearm-involved violence and suicide in the USA, often collectively referred to as “gun violence,” has been labeled a public health problem and an epidemic, and even an endemic by some. Many lawmakers, community groups, mainstream media outlets and professional organizations regularly address gun-related issues and frequently associate firearm violence with mental health. As a result, these groups often set forth positions, engage in discussions and promote policies that are at least partially based on the widely held but incorrect assumption that medical and mental health professionals are either inherently equipped or professionally trained to intervene with their patients and reduce gun deaths. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach Furthermore, notable proportions of medical and mental health professionals self-report a level of comfort engaging in firearm-specific interventions that is often disproportionate to their actual education and training in the area. This type of overconfidence bias has been referred to as the Lake Wobegon Effect, illusory superiority, the above average effect, the better-than average effect or the false uniqueness bias. While medical and mental health professionals need to serve on the front line of firearm-involved violence and suicide prevention initiatives, the vast majority have not actually received systematic, formal training on firearm-specific issues. Findings Therefore, many lack the professional and cultural competence to meet current and potential future in regard to addressing gun violence. In this paper, the authors discuss empirical studies that illustrate this reality and a novel model (i.e. the Know, Ask, Do framework) that medical and mental health professionals can use when firearm-related issues arise. In addition, the authors set forth considerations for clinicians to develop and maintain their professional and cultural competence related to firearms and firearm-related subcultures. Originality/value This paper provides empirical and conceptual support for medical and mental health programs to develop formal education and training related to guns, gun safety and gun culture. A framework is provided that can also assist medical and mental health professionals to develop and maintain their own professional and cultural competence.

scholarly journals Automated Screening for Social Anxiety, Generalized Anxiety, and Depression From Objective Smartphone-Collected Data: Cross-sectional Study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Di Matteo ◽  
Kathryn Fotinos ◽  
Sachinthya Lokuge ◽  
Geneva Mason ◽  
Tia Sternat ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Generalized Anxiety ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Automated Screening

BACKGROUND The lack of access to mental health care could be addressed, in part, through the development of automated screening technologies for detecting the most common mental health disorders without the direct involvement of clinicians. Objective smartphone-collected data may contain sufficient information about individuals’ behaviors to infer their mental states and therefore screen for anxiety disorders and depression. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to compare how a single set of recognized and novel features, extracted from smartphone-collected data, can be used for predicting generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), and depression. METHODS An Android app was designed, together with a centralized server system, to collect periodic measurements of objective smartphone data. The types of data included samples of ambient audio, GPS location, screen state, and light sensor data. Subjects were recruited into a 2-week observational study in which the app was run on their personal smartphones. The subjects also completed self-report severity measures of SAD, GAD, and depression. The participants were 112 Canadian adults from a nonclinical population. High-level features were extracted from the data of 84 participants, and predictive models of SAD, GAD, and depression were built and evaluated. RESULTS Models of SAD and depression achieved a significantly greater screening accuracy than uninformative models (area under the receiver operating characteristic means of 0.64, SD 0.13 and 0.72, SD 0.12, respectively), whereas models of GAD failed to be predictive. Investigation of the model coefficients revealed key features that were predictive of SAD and depression. CONCLUSIONS We demonstrate the ability of a common set of features to act as predictors in the models of both SAD and depression. This suggests that the types of behaviors that can be inferred from smartphone-collected data are broad indicators of mental health, which can be used to study, assess, and track psychopathology simultaneously across multiple disorders and diagnostic boundaries.

Mental health of unaccompanied asylum-seeking adolescents previously held in British detention centres

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 238-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly A Ehntholt ◽  
David Trickey ◽  
Jean Harris Hendriks ◽  
Hannah Chambers ◽  
Mark Scott ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Additional Stress ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Impact

Aim: To investigate whether the mental health of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) was negatively affected by having their ages disputed and being detained. Method: Participants within this cross-sectional study were 35 UASC, aged between 13 and 17 when they were detained. Some years later, a team of child mental health professionals interviewed them to assess their current mental health and to determine, as far as possible, the impact that having their age disputed and being detained may have had on their mental health. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-IV), Reactions of Adolescents to Traumatic Stress (RATS), Stressful Life Events (SLE) and Detention Experiences Checklist–UK version (DEC-UK) were administered. Results: The vast majority of UASC reported being negatively affected. Based on diagnostic interviews using the SCID-IV, self-report measures and contemporaneous records, the professionals reported a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) developing in 29% ( n = 10), PTSD exacerbated in 51% ( n = 18), major depressive disorder (MDD) developing in 23% ( n = 8) and MDD exacerbated in 40% ( n = 14). A total of 3 years post-detention, 89% ( n = 31) met diagnostic criteria for psychiatric disorders and reported high PTSD symptoms. Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of psychiatric disorder. The additional stress of age dispute procedures and detention was judged to have been harmful.

Mental Health Staff: to Promote Resilience, to Reduce The Risk of Burnout

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S486-S486
Author(s):  
N. Semenova ◽  
A. Palin ◽  
I. Gurovich
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Intervention Strategy ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Health Staff ◽  
Staff Retention ◽  
Mental Health Staff ◽  
Stressful Environment ◽  
Management Interventions

IntroductionStress and burnout are clearly problems for mental health workers. In this paper, we present data from research study on moderators of burnout in mental health staff.Objectives/aimsThe purpose of this study was to explore the phenomenon of resilience as experienced by Russian mental health clinicians working in a highly demanding, specialized and stressful environment (e.g., staff shortages, health service shortages, not being notified of changes before they occurred).MethodsThe study used a range of self report questionnaires. Measures included a demographic checklist, the Hardiness Survey (Maddi 1984), and the GCOS – The General Causality Orientation Scale (Deci & Ryan 1985). The participants for this study were drawn from Medico-rehabilitation Unit, Psychiatric hospital, – the disciplines of psychiatry, clinical psychology and nursing. In all, 10 ward based mental health professionals were surveyed.ResultsThis paper outlines the results of these measures. This in turn allows us to develop intervention strategy to ensure an effective provision, which depends on satisfied professionals, who have a sense of ownership over what they do and an ability to shape the direction of their endeavours.ConclusionsThe study's findings have the potential to inform organizations in mental health to promote resilience in clinicians, to deliver stress management interventions for staff with the potential to reduce the risk of burnout and hence staff attrition, staff retention and mental health.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

scholarly journals Automated Screening for Social Anxiety, Generalized Anxiety, and Depression From Objective Smartphone-Collected Data: Cross-sectional Study

10.2196/28918 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (8) ◽  
pp. e28918
Author(s):  
Daniel Di Matteo ◽  
Kathryn Fotinos ◽  
Sachinthya Lokuge ◽  
Geneva Mason ◽  
Tia Sternat ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Generalized Anxiety ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Automated Screening

Background The lack of access to mental health care could be addressed, in part, through the development of automated screening technologies for detecting the most common mental health disorders without the direct involvement of clinicians. Objective smartphone-collected data may contain sufficient information about individuals’ behaviors to infer their mental states and therefore screen for anxiety disorders and depression. Objective The objective of this study is to compare how a single set of recognized and novel features, extracted from smartphone-collected data, can be used for predicting generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), and depression. Methods An Android app was designed, together with a centralized server system, to collect periodic measurements of objective smartphone data. The types of data included samples of ambient audio, GPS location, screen state, and light sensor data. Subjects were recruited into a 2-week observational study in which the app was run on their personal smartphones. The subjects also completed self-report severity measures of SAD, GAD, and depression. The participants were 112 Canadian adults from a nonclinical population. High-level features were extracted from the data of 84 participants, and predictive models of SAD, GAD, and depression were built and evaluated. Results Models of SAD and depression achieved a significantly greater screening accuracy than uninformative models (area under the receiver operating characteristic means of 0.64, SD 0.13 and 0.72, SD 0.12, respectively), whereas models of GAD failed to be predictive. Investigation of the model coefficients revealed key features that were predictive of SAD and depression. Conclusions We demonstrate the ability of a common set of features to act as predictors in the models of both SAD and depression. This suggests that the types of behaviors that can be inferred from smartphone-collected data are broad indicators of mental health, which can be used to study, assess, and track psychopathology simultaneously across multiple disorders and diagnostic boundaries.

Mental Health Professionals' Suicide Risk Assessment and Management Practices

Crisis ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jared F. Roush ◽  
Sarah L. Brown ◽  
Danielle R. Jahn ◽  
Sean M. Mitchell ◽  
Nathanael J. Taylor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Suicide Risk ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Suicide Risk Assessment ◽  
Risk Assessment And Management

Abstract. Background: Approximately 20% of suicide decedents have had contact with a mental health professional within 1 month prior to their death, and the majority of mental health professionals have treated suicidal individuals. Despite limited evidence-based training, mental health professionals make important clinical decisions related to suicide risk assessment and management. Aims: The current study aimed to determine the frequency of suicide risk assessment and management practices and the association between fear of suicide-related outcomes or comfort working with suicidal individuals and adequacy of suicide risk management decisions among mental health professionals. Method: Mental health professionals completed self-report assessments of fear, comfort, and suicide risk assessment and management practices. Results: Approximately one third of mental health professionals did not ask every patient about current or previous suicidal thoughts or behaviors. Further, comfort, but not fear, was positively associated with greater odds of conducting evidence-based suicide risk assessments at first appointments and adequacy of suicide risk management practices with patients reporting suicide ideation and a recent suicide attempt. Limitations: The study utilized a cross-sectional design and self-report questionnaires. Conclusion: Although the majority of mental health professionals report using evidenced-based practices, there appears to be variability in utilization of evidence-based practices.

Clinical characteristics and functions of non-suicide self-injury in youth

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 503-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Rodav ◽  
S. Levy ◽  
S. Hamdan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Clinical Characteristics ◽  
Social Influences ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Community Settings ◽  
The Past ◽  
Self Injury

AbstractPurposeLittle is known about the clinical characteristics and motivations for engaging in non-suicide self-injury (NSSI) behaviors in adolescence. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence, characteristics and functions of NSSI among adolescents in community settings, and to explore risk factors related to this behavior.Subjects and methodsTwo hundred and seventy-five adolescents aged 12 to 17 were recruited randomly from different High Schools in Israel. They completed self-report questionnaires assessing NSSI (Ottawa Self-Injury Inventory), depression (Children's Depression Inventory – CDI) and impulsivity (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale – BIS-II).ResultsIn the past year, 20.7% of the participants reported engaging NSSI at least once. Among them, 42.1% declared they are still engaging in NSSI at the present. Motives for NSSI were internal emotion regulation reasons, external emotion regulation reasons for social influences. In addition, the NSSI group reported significantly higher levels of depressive, impulsivity and suicidal ideations. Depressive symptoms were found as significant predictors of NSSI in the future.Discussion and conclusionsHigh rates of NSSI among community adolescents were found. Depression, impulsivity and suicidal ideation were found significantly related to NSSI. Mental health professionals in schools and in primary care should routinely assess NSSI among adolescents.

The Goldwater Rule: Perspectives From, and Implications for, Psychological Science

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott O. Lilienfeld ◽  
Joshua D. Miller ◽  
Donald R. Lynam
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Clinical Judgment ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Psychiatric Status ◽  
Public Figures ◽  
Duty To Inform

When, if ever, should psychological scientists be permitted to offer professional opinions concerning the mental health of public figures they have never directly examined? This contentious question, which attracted widespread public attention during the 1964 U.S. presidential election involving Barry Goldwater, received renewed scrutiny during and after the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, when many mental health professionals raised pointed questions concerning the psychiatric status of Donald Trump. Although the Goldwater Rule prohibits psychiatrists from offering diagnostic opinions on individuals they have never examined, no comparable rule exists for psychologists. We contend that, owing largely to the Goldwater Rule’s origins in psychiatry, a substantial body of psychological research on assessment and clinical judgment, including work on the questionable validity of unstructured interviews, the psychology of cognitive biases, and the validity of informant reports and of L (lifetime) data, has been overlooked in discussions of its merits. We conclude that although the Goldwater Rule may have been defensible several decades ago, it is outdated and premised on dubious scientific assumptions. We further contend that there are select cases in which psychological scientists with suitable expertise may harbor a “duty to inform,” allowing them to offer informed opinions concerning public figures’ mental health with appropriate caveats.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document