The system of mental health care and psychoeducation as a form of counteracting the psychological stress related to the profession of a police officer

2021 ◽  
Vol 143 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-307
Author(s):  
Ferdynand Skiba
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Education System ◽  
Psychological Support ◽  
Mental Condition ◽  
Psychological Care ◽  
Diffi Cult ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Psychological Education

The main task of this publication is to present the psychological care and psycho-education system in the Polish Police. The aim of the mental health care system is to provide help and psychological support to police officers and police employees, and to relieve their tensions caused by negative external factors, called stressors. This help and support is necessary due to the fact that the profession of a police offi cer is considered a ‘high-risk’ job, one of the most stressful in the world and resulting in many diffi cult experiences, burdens and problems in the psychological sphere. Persistent mental disorders are often the cause of somatic diseases. Police offi cers on duty are confronted with many diffi cult situations, stressful events and they are exposed to numerous challenging and risky situations, which in consequence are the cause of the professional stress in offi cers. This, in turn, leads to psychological tensions and various ailments, somatic and mental illnesses. The article presents a number of factors that occur in the external service that are sources of work stress. Reference has also been made to the fact that a very common source of this stress is an inappropriate management process within the Police. The reason for numerous tensions are often confl icts between superiors and subordinates. However, the key to the publication is the description of the functioning of the mentioned system. The history of its creation is the fi rst step in its presentation here. The organisational structure of the system, the relatively full range of tasks assigned to offi cers, the organisation of their work, as well as the catalogue of events requiring their intervention and the forms of psychological assistance have all been presented. The paper also focuses on the psycho-education system — the one carried out directly by police psychologists, and this performed in a broader sense, called the psychological education which is carried out by the lecturers and management of the Police. As part of this psychological education process, future and current managers are equipped with a wide range of psychological knowledge. It is necessary for managers at various levels to be the fi rst to provide the necessary psychological support and ‘fi rst aid’ to their subordinates in cases of occupational stress and psychological load caused by service conditions. The conclusion shows that a well-functioning system of psychological care and psycho-education has a positive impact on the mental condition of police offi cers and employees, on their level of satisfaction with police service, and indirectly on the quality and effectiveness of the police work.

The helps toolkit - a tool to promote the physical health of residents in psychiatric facilities across Europe

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 587-587
Author(s):  
P. Weiser ◽  
T. Becker ◽  
R. Kilian
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Health Care Facilities ◽  
Medical Care System ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Co Morbidity ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Care Facilities

IntroductionPeople with a mental disorder are at increased risk for physical illness and therefore their risk of premature death is raised. An unhealthy lifestyle, living conditions, medication side-effects and a lack of physical health monitoring are regarded as the main causes of high somatic morbidity. But up to now only little research has addressed the physical co-morbidity in mentally ill. At present, there are no specific policies to improve the health status of residents in mental health care facilities.Objectives / methodsAgainst this background a multi-disciplinary network of experts from 15 European countries was set up. Working together with researchers, stakeholders, professionals, networks, practitioners, and relevant organizations, the HELPS network developed a “physical health promotion toolkit” for routine application in a wide range of mental health care facilities across Europe. The HELPS toolkit intends to empower patients and staff to identify the most relevant risk factors in their specific context and subsequently select the most appropriate action out of a range of defined health promoting interventions. In doing so, the toolkit takes into account the heterogeneity of mental disorders, the high number of somatic problems, aspects of lifestyle, environment, medical care system, personal goals of patients and their motivation for health behavior.Results / conclusionsThe poster presents the HELPS toolkit. It illustrates the individual components of the tool and the processes of its implementation and evaluation. First results of the pilot study concerning the feasibility of the toolkit will be presented and discussed.

scholarly journals Young voices in mental health care: Exploring children’s and adolescents’ service experiences and preferences

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 140-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Persson ◽  
Curt Hagquist ◽  
Daniel Michelson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Developmental Needs ◽  
Mental Health Clinics ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Community Mental Health Clinics ◽  
A Priority

The development of ‘youth-friendly’ services has become a priority across a wide range of health-care contexts. However, relatively few studies have specifically examined users’ experiences of, and preferences for, child and adolescent mental health care. The current study investigated young service users’ views of outpatient and community mental health clinics in Sweden, based on two data sources. First, focus group interviews were conducted with seven children and adolescents (aged 10–18 years) to explore both positive and negative experiences of mental health care. Second, written suggestions about specific service improvements were obtained from 106 children and adolescents. Qualitative content analysis revealed three overarching themes: ‘Accessibility’, ‘Being heard and seen’ and ‘Usefulness of sessions’. Young people’s recommendations for improving practice included more convenient appointment times, offered in welcoming settings; opportunities to communicate more openly with clinical staff, enabling sensitive discussion of mental health and wider personal issues; and more structured treatments that offer greater credibility and relevance to young people’s mental health and developmental needs. Young people also discussed being compelled by parents and school professionals to engage in treatment. Attending to young people’s preferences must be a priority in order to overcome ambivalence about session attendance, and enhance treatment participation and outcomes.

Utilisation of findings from the evaluation of a major primary mental health care initiative in Australia

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 12-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fay Kohn ◽  
Jane Pirkis ◽  
Belinda Morley ◽  
Lucio Naccarella ◽  
Grant Blashki
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Psychological Services ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Primary Mental Health Care ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Ongoing Evaluation

Much has been written about evaluation utilisation from a theoretical perspective, but relatively less emphasis has been given to empirical studies that examine how the findings from given evaluations are utilised. The current study examined the nature and extent of utilisation of the findings from an ongoing evaluation of a key component of a major national primary mental health care initiative in Australia. The initiative is known as the Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care (BOiMHC) program, and the component involves 111 Access to Allied Psychological Services (ATAPS) projects, which provide mental health care to people who might otherwise have difficulty accessing such services. Nine reports have been produced during the evaluation of the ATAPS projects, and the current study explored how various stakeholders have used the first eight of these reports, via semi-structured interviews with 10 purposefully sampled respondents. The study revealed that the findings in the reports have been put to instrumental use (e.g. influencing decisions about program modification), conceptual use (e.g. furthering the knowledge base regarding the delivery of primary mental health care in general) and symbolic or legitimative use (e.g. confirming the original philosophy behind the BOiMHC program). Various reasons may account for this wide range of uses, including the fact that every effort has been made to identify all relevant stakeholders, garner their support for the evaluation from the outset, and communicate the evaluation findings to them in a relevant manner. The study provides empirical evidence that evaluation findings can be widely utilised, providing they are geared to the needs of the relevant stakeholders.

scholarly journals Significance of the chaplain within the mental health care team

2002 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 190-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorna H. Rattray
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Spiritual Care ◽  
Psychiatric Care ◽  
Health Care Team ◽  
Care Team ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Whole Person ◽  
Patients Experience

In psychiatric care, where patients experience a wide range of difficulties – emotional, physical, mental, social and spiritual – care must be given to the patient as a whole person. This article is about the significance of the presence of the chaplain within the mental health care team as it seeks to offer this holistic care.

scholarly journals The multiplier role of psychiatrists in low income settings

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Kigozi ◽  
J. Ssebunnya
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Wide Range

Mental health care is receiving increased attention in low-income countries with the availability of a wide range of effective evidence-based treatments for acute and chronic mental disorders amidst scarce resources. Availability of these treatments and competent human resources enables the use of a variety of interventions at several levels of care for persons with mental illness and makes it feasible to ensure observance of quality in the treatment approaches that go beyond institutionalisation. However, unlike developed countries which are endowed with many and relatively well-paid mental health specialists, low-income countries face a dire shortage of highly trained mental health professionals in addition to several other challenges. In light of this, there is need to re-assess the role of the few available psychiatrists, with a shift to new core tasks such as designing mental health care programmes that can be delivered by non-specialists, building their health system's capacity for delivering care, including supporting front-line health workers through support supervision, raising awareness on mental health and patients’ rights in addition to promoting essential research. This requires a fundamental paradigm shift from the current training for mental health specialists to a public health oriented approach and providing incentives for community engagement.

scholarly journals Designing Mobile Applications to Support Mental Health Interventions

2008 ◽  
pp. 635-656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Matthews ◽  
Gavin Doherty ◽  
David Coyle ◽  
John Sharry
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
End User ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Technological Interventions ◽  
Mental Health Interventions

The advent of mobile technology has brought computing to a wide range of new contexts, some of which are highly sensitive and place new constraints on the designer. In this chapter we discuss issues related to the design and evaluation of mobile software for sensitive situations, where access to the end user is extremely restricted. We focus on the specific example of technological interventions that support adolescents in mental health care settings. We examine the practical and ethical constraints placed on access to end users and contexts of use, and how this may affect approaches to design and evaluation. General design recommendations for this area are described. We consider approaches to iterative design with mental health care professionals, and how research on technological and therapeutic aspects may proceed in tandem. We identify methods that can be used when conducting evaluation in these limited situations and describe a methodology for maximising the value of such evaluation. By way of illustration, we present the design and evaluation of a mobile phone-based “mood diary” application designed for use in clinical situations by adolescents undergoing mental health interventions.

scholarly journals Spatial accessibility to mental health care in the City of Toronto

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Ariwi
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Services ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Spatial Accessibility ◽  
Service Utilisation ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The City

Mental illness refers to a wide range of disorders that affect mood, thinking and behaviour. One in five Canadians has mental health care needs, many of which are unmet (Smetanin et al., 2015). Within the City of Toronto, the provision of mental health care is delivered by over 100 public and private community service organisations and over 700 physicians with a psychiatric specialization - each providing community-based general or specialised care to residents in need. Research has shown that travel distance is an enabling factor of health service utilisation, thus equitable spatial access to services remains a key priority (Fleury et al., 2012). Using spatial quantitative methods, this study examines potential spatial accessibility to mental health services and specialist physicians within the City of Toronto, and levels of statistical association between access to care and prevalence of mental health crisis events. A wide range of datasets is analyzed including occurrence data for apprehensions under the Mental Health Act undertaken by the Toronto Police Service and the Canadian Marginalization Index. The enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method is used to compute spatial accessibility to mental health services based four modes of transportation: driving, walking, cycling and public transit. Areas that are underserved by mental health specialists and mental health community services are identified and shown to have different income levels. This study provides spatial explicit patterns of accessibility to mental health services in Toronto, providing detailed data to inform planning and policy of mental health care delivery.

scholarly journals January 2021 – The Bridge

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Young People ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Adolescent Mental Health ◽  
Child And Adolescent ◽  
Mental Health Research ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Excellent Work

This issue of The Bridge features summaries of recent child and adolescent mental health research. I hope you enjoy reading about this excellent work which improves our understanding of a wide range of conditions and informs mental health care for young people.

scholarly journals Enhancing the Capacity of the Australian Health Care Workforce to Support Veterans’ Mental Health: A Collaborative Interdisciplinary Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 185 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 499-505
Author(s):  
Chris Gibbs ◽  
Barbara Murphy ◽  
Kate Hoppe ◽  
Patricia Clarke ◽  
Deepika Ratnaike ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Military Personnel ◽  
Health Workforce ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Mental Health Workforce ◽  
Veteran Mental Health

Abstract Introduction Military personnel and veterans can have higher rates of mental health problems than the general population, but are no more likely to receive appropriate mental health care. A lack of experience among Australia’s mental health workforce in treating veteran-specific issues has been identified, pointing to a need for strategies to strengthen the workforce capacity. To this end, the Department of Veteran’s Affairs joined with the Mental Health Professionals Network (MHPN) to produce and deliver a series of veteran-specific webinars for health professionals working with military personnel, veterans and their families. Materials and Method Five webinars were produced and delivered between August 2016 and July 2017. Each involved a panel of health professionals with content expertise and was facilitated by a nationally recognized expert in veteran mental health. Each webinar was evaluated using an online survey to address whether learning needs were achieved, likely improvements to work practice, and improvements in knowledge of and confidence in treating veteran mental health issues. Results Of the 5,127 attendees across the five webinars, registration data was collected for 4,809 (94%) and post-webinar data for 3,334 (70%) of registrants. Of these, over 90% indicated that their learning objectives were achieved, that the content was relevant to their practice, and that their work practices would be improved as a result of their participation. Further, almost three quarters reported increased knowledge and skills, and two-thirds increased confidence in treating veterans’ mental health needs. Conclusions The Veterans’ webinar series was effective in engaging a large number and a wide range of professionals working in mental health care in Australia, underscoring the strength of MHPN’s initiatives in terms of scale and reach. With its emphasis on interdisciplinary practice and collaborative care, MHPN is well-placed to continue to support Australia’s mental health workforce.

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