Design and evaluation of a positive intervention to cultivate mental health: preliminary findings

The past two decades have witnessed a proliferation of positive psychological interventions for clinical and non-clinical populations, and recent research, including meta-analyses, is providing evidence of its effectiveness. Most interventions have focused on increasing life satisfaction, positive affect, and psychological well-being. Manualized, multi-component interventions based on a comprehensive theory are scarce. Keyes’ concept of mental health and flourishing (subjective, psychological, and social well-being) is an overarching theoretical framework to guide the design of a multi-component psychological intervention to cultivate well-being and personal development. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to design a theory-driven positive intervention and to pilot test the intervention. The manual presents an 8-week group program that includes homework activities. A sample of 56 young adults completed the intervention. Participants were assessed at base line, after termination, and at a 6-month follow-up session. Standardized instruments were used to assess the dimensions of mental health proposed by Keyes. Pre- and post-test measures of subjective, psychological, and social well-being showed significant differences, as did the total mental health scores. At 6-month follow-up, differences remained in subjective and psychological well-being and in positive mental health, with smaller effect sizes. Limitations of these preliminary findings as well as future lines of research and improvements in this manualized intervention are proposed in the light of current research on positive interventions.

Positive Psychology and Aging

The present chapter will help in understanding the role of positive psychology and intervention in approaching towards a healthy aging. Aging is inevitable. The clock cannot be turned backwards. At first glance, it seems that generally the growing population enjoy what they face which is true to a certain extent but at the same time it is important not to overlook or discount the stresses they face when they start to age. How they age depends how they look at their life. Positive intervention has its effect in all ages. Taking the help of positive psychology as a primary prevention can help eliminating various effects of aging. In the same way, it can also help in reducing the exiting trouble occurring in elderly. By taking preventive steps, one can take care of the body and the mind, and that can help stave off some of the devastating illnesses associated with age and live a full, meaningful and energetic life. Elderly person must acknowledge that their roles in life will change as their former lifestyles are replaced by new schedules, approaches and relationships.

Real-Time Remote Tele-Mentored Echocardiography: A Systematic Review

Background and Objectives: Real-time remote tele-mentored echocardiography (RTMUS echo) involves the transmission of clinical ultrasound (CU) cardiac images with direct feedback from a CU expert at a different location. In this review, we summarize the current uses of RTMUS to diagnose and manage cardiovascular dysfunction and discuss expanded and future uses. Materials and Methods: We performed a literature search (PubMed and EMBase) to access articles related to RTMUS echo. We reviewed articles for selection using Covidence, a web-based tool for managing systematic reviews and data were extracted using a separate standardized collection form. Results: Our search yielded 15 articles. Twelve of these articles demonstrated the feasibility of having a novice sonographer mentored by a tele-expert in obtaining a variety of cardiac ultrasound views. The articles discussed different technological specifications for the RTMUS system, but all showed that adequate images were able to be obtained. Overall, RTMUS echo was found to be a positive intervention that contributed to patient care. Conclusion: RTMUS echo allows for rapid access to diagnostic imaging in various clinical settings. RTMUS echo can help in assessing patients that may require a higher level of isolation precautions or in other resource-constrained environments. In the future, identifying the least expensive way to utilize RTMUS echo will be important.

Need for Nutritious Convenience Foods for the Elderly Population: A Review

: Worldwide, the population of elderly persons is rising at a very fast rate. Elderly people have difficulties in performing day to day activities as the aging process deteriorates the normal functioning of their body. There is risk of inadequate nutrition because of difficulties in shopping for food, cooking a meal, chewing and putting food in mouth. Vision loss makes cooking, and even eating, more difficult. Some elderly people live alone or with their spouses. Cooking for one or two persons/s is not very stimulating. These changes have a great role to play in changing the eating habits of the elderly which may affect their nutrient intake. All these factors may cause nutritional deficiencies, malnutrition and other health problems among them. There are major opportunities to develop convenience food products in order to meet the changing needs of aging population. In order to get maximum product acceptance, it is important to combine the elements of convenience and affordability. While designing products for elderly, it is desirable to modify the food consistency to assist in swallowing, make it nutrient dense and design it in a way that it can be easily handled and eaten. The packaging can be easy to open, information written in large fonts and contrasting colours to help in easy reading. The availability of nutritious ‘ready‐meals’ can serve as an opportunity for the elderly people who don’t want to cook or have low interest in cooking. This can provide a variety of healthier food choices to them and help to reduce malnutrition. Access to nutritious convenience food products can facilitate a positive intervention to the aging consumers.

Critical Posthumanism in Education

Critical posthumanism in education proposes a response to the looming ecological disaster by developing an ethical subjectivity of relatedness. It points to the devastating and unsustainable effects of human-centered domination of “lesser” humans, the nonhuman living, and the environment resulting in the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene is a posthumanist boundary condition that exploits powers from multiple heterogenous entities and that approaches the limit of sustainable living. Critical posthumanism is a timely and positive intervention that criticizes the forms of domination originating from humanism and from other posthumanisms. These dominating powers result in the dehumanizing and environmentally devastating effects of techno- and bio-capitalism. Posthumanist critique is an affirmative ethical process that asserts the vibrancy of matter and life. It is based on an ethics of assembling, the principle of becoming sustainable of the more-than-human world. While critical posthumanism acknowledges that the analysis of the effects of power is important, it realizes that a difference can only be made when the entanglement of humans with all the living and nonliving others is fully recognized. Critical posthumanist education consists of experiments that explore how subjectivities could be opened to the affects of multiple others in the joyful processes of mutual becoming. The enhancement of affective relations “queery” humanity as such, identities, divisions such as “gender” and “race”, binaries such as human-animal, human-nature and human-technology. To promote mutual becoming, education produces subjectivities that are vigilant to the new ways the Capitalocene (“society of control”) both appropriates and suppresses the vitality of assemblages and the creativity of becomings.

Perspectives of GCSE students attending a psychiatry summer school in south London

Aims and Method This study evaluated a pilot psychiatry summer school for GCSE students in terms of participant experience, effects on attitudes to mental illness and perception of psychiatry as a career option. This was done using the Community Attitudes towards the Mentally Ill scale, career choice questionnaires and a discussion group following the week-long programme attended by 26 students. Results Students were significantly more likely to choose psychiatry after the summer school (P = 0.01). There were statistically significant changes in scores for social restrictiveness (P = 0.04) and community mental health ideology (P = 0.02). Qualitative analysis generated four themes: variation in expectations, limited prior knowledge, perception of the summer school itself and uniformly positive attitudes to psychiatry after the summer school. Clinical implications Targeting students at this early stage appears to be an underexplored positive intervention for improving both attitudes towards mental illness and recruitment to psychiatry.