Mental Competence Research Articles

The Informational Professional and His Six Senses

This paper discuses a mental perception depicting competencies of information professional. In being a relevant and effective information professional, just like a human being is endowed with senses of touch, taste, hearing, seeing so must information professionals have a sense of collaboration, creative and critical thinking, communication, culture and credibility. Information professionals need to create a positive image by building mental competencies; these competencies are what we refer to as his six senses. Information professionals are charged with the responsibility of creating, storing, organising and disseminating information. Every information professional needs information to plan, control and make decisions but having information to perform these tasks are not enough but having the sense of collaboration , to make work quicker and easier, being creative to be innovative, critical in his thinking to indicate errors and create solutions. He should also be able to communicate effectively, embrace culture and have credibility as his six senses.

Effects of a Program to Promote High Quality Parenting by Divorced and Separated Fathers.

This paper reports on the effects on parenting and on children's mental health problems and competencies from a randomized trial of a parenting program for divorced and separated fathers. The program, New Beginnings Program-Dads (NBP-Dads), includes ten group sessions (plus two phone sessions) which promote parenting skills to increase positive interactions with children, improve father-child communication, use of effective discipline strategies, and skills to protect children from exposure to interparental conflict. The program was adapted from the New Beginnings Program, which has been tested in two randomized trials with divorced mothers and shown to strengthen mothers' parenting and improve long-term outcomes for children (Wolchik et al. 2007). Fathers were randomly assigned to receive either NBP-Dads or a 2-session active comparison program. The sample consisted of 384 fathers (201 NBP-Dads, 183 comparisons) and their children. Assessments using father, youth, and teacher reports were conducted at pretest, posttest, and 10-month follow-up. Results indicated positive effects of NBP-Dads to strengthen parenting as reported by fathers and youth at posttest and 10-month follow-up. Program effects to reduce child internalizing problems and increase social competence were found at 10months. Many of the program effects were moderated by baseline level of the variable, child age, gender, and father ethnicity. This is the first randomized trial to find significant effects to strengthen father parenting following divorce. In view of recent changes in family courts to allot fathers increasing amounts of parenting time following divorce, the results have significant implications for improving outcomes for children from divorced families.

Strengthening community mental health competence-A realist informed case study from Dehradun, North India.

Few accounts exist of programmes in low- and middle-income countries seeking to strengthen community knowledge and skills in mental health. This case study uses a realist lens to explore how a mental health project in a context with few mental health services, strengthened community mental health competence by increasing community knowledge, creating safer social spaces and engaging partnerships for action. We used predominantly qualitative methods to explore relationships between context, interventions, mechanisms and outcomes in the "natural setting" of a community-based mental health project in Dehradun district, Uttarakhand, North India. Qualitative data came from focus group discussions, participant observation and document reviews of community teams' monthly reports on changes in behaviour, attitudes and relationships among stakeholder groups. Data analysis initially involved thematic analysis of three domains: knowledge, safe social spaces and partnerships for action. By exploring patterns within the identified themes for each domain, we were able to infer the mechanisms and contextual elements contributing to observed outcomes. Community knowledge was effectively increased by allowing communities to absorb new understanding into pre-existing social and cultural constructs. Non-hierarchical informal community conversations allowed "organic" integration of unfamiliar biomedical knowledge into local explanatory frameworks. People with psycho-social disability and caregivers found increased social support and inclusion by participating in groups. Building skills in respectful communication through role plays and reflexive discussion increased the receptivity of social environments to people with psycho-social disabilities participation, thereby creating safe social spaces. Facilitating social networks through groups increases women's capacity for collective action to promote mental health. In summary, locally appropriate methods contribute most to learning, stigma reduction and help-seeking. The complex social change progress was patchy and often slow. This study demonstrates a participatory, iterative, reflexive project design which is generating evidence indicating substantial improvements in community mental health competence.

Mental health promotion competencies in the health sector in Finland: a qualitative study of the views of professionals.

In this study, we aimed to investigate what competencies are needed for mental health promotion in health sector practice in Finland. A qualitative study was carried out to seek the views of mental health professionals regarding mental health promotion-related competencies. The data were collected via two focus groups and a questionnaire survey of professionals working in the health sector in Finland. The focus groups consisted of a total of 13 professionals. Further, 20 questionnaires were received from the questionnaire survey. The data were analysed using the qualitative data analysis software ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH, Berlin. A content analysis was carried out. In total, 23 competencies were identified and clustered under the categories of theoretical knowledge, practical skills, and personal attitudes and values. In order to promote mental health, it is necessary to have a knowledge of the principles and concepts of mental health promotion, including methods and tools for effective practices. Furthermore, a variety of skills-based competencies such as communication and collaboration skills were described. Personal attitudes and values included a holistic approach and respect for human rights, among others. The study provides new information on what competencies are needed to plan, implement and evaluate mental health promotion in health sector practice, with the aim of contributing to a more effective workforce. The competencies provide aid in planning training programmes and qualifications, as well as job descriptions and roles in health sector workplaces related to mental health promotion.

Refleksyjność w wychowaniu. Proces poznawania siebie

Reflexivity is a characteristic of every human being, the mental competence and human ability to be both a subject and object of cognition. It is a kind of internal dialogue that manifests itself in the concrete actions undertaken by the person. It is prone to reflection, thinking about something, analysis. Man, when he makes the effort to think, acquires the ability to reflect. It seems that modern education puts the focus on education aside from aspects of upbringing and self-education and yet an unreflective, schematic education brings with it many risks. In the process of upbringing, which lasts throughout human life, reflection is very important and necessary. Consequently, the subject of research of this paper is reflection in the context of the process of education. Therefore, in the theoretical aspect, reflections will be presented as a pedagogical category. Then we will discuss the basic concepts of reflexivity presented by John Dewey, Jurgen Habermas, David Kolb and Donald Schon. It will also show reflexivity from the perspective of the process of self-knowledge. Such reflectivity is a crucial point for pedagogical theory and education as it deals with the key problem of the subject and the process of becoming involved in it.

Just learning

I have always been interested in learning. I chose to study psychology as an undergraduate because it was in my psychology courses that I got to study theories of learning. I learned that the psychologists couldn't agree on what the explanandum was. Some thought it was human behavior; others argued for mental competence. It was only later that I found my own focus: I became interested in understanding the learning of language (although the issue of behavior versus mental competence persisted).

The improvement of mental health competences and skills on a brazilian Federal University

BackgroundThe extension project “UNIRIO is madness: the improvement of mental health competences and skills.” work since 2015 with “Ponto de Cultura Loucura Suburbana” on the promotion of mental health and culture style in Brazil. The project work on the development of psychosocial rehabilitation for psychiatric patients, their families and the community.AimsParticipate on the production and execution on the artistic/therapeutic workshop that demystify the social stigmatizing vision about psychiatric patients.MethodsThe activities developed are: administrative actions; institutional strengthening for social inclusion initiative through work; and the Carnival Block organization.ResultsThis study work on constituting a social inclusion initiative through workshop that generate employment, e.g.: sale material production, financial management, material replacement. Although we do all the preparative to the Carnival Block–“Loucura Suburbana”.ConclusionThe relationship with the psychiatric patients shows that social inclusion through carnival workshop practice is the primary means for the identity of people suffering from mental disorders and contribute to reduce community social stigma.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Psychiatry in the Foundation Programme: An overview for supervisors

SummaryHealth Education England's 2014 reportBroadening the Foundation Programmehas led to a rapid increase in the number of psychiatry placements for foundation doctors. This will have implications for existing psychiatrists in that they will start to teach, train and supervise foundation doctors. This article outlines how to develop high-quality foundation posts and how to support doctors in meeting the foundation curriculum competencies, which include experience of working in multidisciplinary teams and developing communication skills. The knowledge and skills gained in psychiatry placements will be valuable to all doctors, no matter what their future career intentions.Learning Objectives• Describe the recent changes to the Foundation Programme in psychiatry and how they will affect supervisors• Learn how high-quality placements for foundation doctors can be developed• Recognise how foundation doctors can be supported to achieve the generic and mental health-specific competencies of the foundation curriculum in psychiatry placements

Application of Mental Skills Training in Surgery: A Review of Its Effectiveness and Proposed Next Steps.

Mental skills training, which refers to the teaching of performance enhancement and stress management psychological strategies, may benefit surgeons. Our objective was to review the application of mental skills training in surgery and contrast it to other domains, examine the effectiveness of this approach in enhancing surgical performance and reducing stress, and provide future directions for mental skills training in surgery. A systematic literature search of MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycINFO, and ClinicalKey was performed between 1996 and 2016. Keywords included were mental readiness, mental competency, mental skill, mental practice, imagery, mental imagery, mental rehearsal, stress management training, stress coping, mental training, performance enhancement, and surgery. Reviews of mental skills interventions in sport and well-regarded sport psychology textbooks were also reviewed. Primary outcome of interest was the effect of mental skills on surgical performance in the simulated or clinical environment. Of 490 identified abstracts, 28 articles met inclusion criteria and were reviewed. The majority of the literature provides evidence that mental imagery and stress management training programs are effective at enhancing surgical performance and reducing stress. Studies from other disciplines suggest that comprehensive mental skills programs may be more effective than imagery and stress management techniques alone. Given the demonstrated efficacy of mental imagery and stress management training in surgery and the incremental value of comprehensive mental skills curricula used in other domains, a concerted effort should be made to apply comprehensive mental skills curricula during surgical training.

A Journey into Legal Semiotics

Introduction What follows is an exercise in excessive self-indulgence1. How does it come about ? I must answer, in semio-narrative terms, a “contrat” (in the semiotic, not legal sense) with Eric Landowski. I would never have contemplated it otherwise. From this derive the necessary “modalities”, of vouloir, savoir, pouvoir, devoir. But vouloir, savoir, pouvoir, devoir quoi ? Ecrire ? Not sufficient. To publish in Actes Sémiotiques (and thus to acquire the badge of a “real” semiotician, however undeserved) ?2 What hutspah !3 And if Landowski is the sender of these modalities, and if I, as receiver, accept the role of Subject, can we be sure that both of us have invested these modalities in the same way ? To do so, would surely entail adoption of far too mechanical a model of communication. Landowski has made quite clear what he wishes to achieve by this exercise, and what he thinks I can do : Very roughly speaking, it would consist in showing why and how semiotics has been relevant and profitable for the development of your approach to “law” in the broadest sense. And the other way round, it would also show how the diversity of legal (and connected) objects and problems you have had to deal with led you to enrich the standard Greimasian model in various respects. I may have doubts about some of this, and indeed, as a septuagenarian with a daunting list of (self-contracted) research projects which I would like to complete while I still have any mental competence left at all, m

Conceptualizing and measuring occupational social well-being: a validation study

PurposeThe current conceptualizations and measurements of well-being are inadequate in the context of work. Specifically, well-being research has neglected the social aspects of well-being. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the validity of a multi-dimensional view of occupational social well-being.Design/methodology/approachData were collected in an educational setting, i.e. six different schools in a Swedish municipality. A total of 314 teachers and other categories of school staff (239 females and 75 males) participated in a survey study.FindingsResults provided empirical support for a multi-dimensional view of occupational social well-being. The dimensions were integration, acceptance, contribution, actualization and coherence, and they were differentially correlated with previous measures of well-being. Furthermore, occupational social well-being accounted for additional variance in work tension, overall job satisfaction and organizational commitment over and above the variance accounted for by positive and negative affect and satisfaction with life, indicating the value of taking domain-specific social indicators of well-being into account in explaining various employee outcomes.Practical implicationsOccupational social well-being is an umbrella term for describing the well-lived social life in the context of work. As such, this is a crucial part of a holistic view of well-being at work. Thus, effective employee well-being enhancement programs should not only focus on physical and mental health promotion or competence development but must also include measures of relational experience and functioning as discussed in the present study.Originality/valueThis is the first study to measure and validate occupational social well-being as an attempt to complement existing measures of subjective and psychological well-being. Measures of social aspects of well-being are crucial to assess as it has been argued in previous research that context-free measures of well-being might render misleading results.

Evaluating the Incredible Years Toddler Parenting Programme with parents of toddlers in disadvantaged (Flying Start) areas of Wales.

Early risk factors for poor child outcomes are well established, and some group parenting programmes have demonstrated good outcomes for children under 3 years of age. This randomized controlled trial evaluated the effectiveness of the Incredible Years® Toddler Parenting Programme with parents of 1-year-old and 2-year-old children recruited by staff in disadvantaged Flying Start areas across Wales. Eighty-nine families with a child aged between 12 and 36 months at baseline participated in a pragmatic community-based trial of the programme in eight Flying Start areas. Outcomes were measured at baseline, 6 months and 12 months using measures of parental mental health, competence, child behaviour, child development, home environment and blinded-observation of parent-child interactions. Significant intervention group improvements were found in parental mental well-being and observed praise at 6 months. Significant improvements for the intervention group at 12 months included child development, home environment and parental depression. The study provides preliminary evidence for programme attendance.

MENTAL HEALTH AS A PREDICTOR OF EMOTIONAL COMPETENCE OF PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS OF SCIENCE IN HIMACHAL PRADESH

This paper reports on mental health as a predictor of emotional competence of prospective teachers of science. The present investigation is descriptive in nature. The study was carried on 120 prospective teachers of science from four districts of Himachal Pradesh. The investigator used Scale of Emotional Competence (SEC) developed by Sharma and Bhardwaj (1998) to measure emotional competence while Mental Health Inventory developed by Jagdish and Srivastava (1996) was used to study the mental health of prospective teachers of science. The findings of the study revealed that prospective teachers of science belonging to general and reserved categories were significantly different in their emotional competence. No significant difference was found in the emotional competence of high and low mentally healthy prospective teachers of science. The study also reported that no significant interactional effects were found between the variables. The researchers have suggested the means to improve the mental health and emotional competence of the prospective teachers of science.

Epidemiology of positive mental health in a national census of children at school entry

BackgroundUntil now, child mental health promotion efforts have focused primarily on reducing the prevalence and severity of problems; yet the absence of mental health problems does not necessarily imply the...

Adolescent Empowerment through Life Skills Education

In the age of rapid globalization, industrialization, economic liberalization, expansion of information technology and rise in consumerism, the children and especially adolescents are exposed to lot of psycho social issues. Adolescents aged 10–19 years constitute about one-fourth of India’s population and young people aged 10–24 years about one-third of the population. This large cohort of young people represents a great demographic dividend with the potential to contribute to India’s economic growth and development. Violence and hostility are the hall marks of day today living and women and children are the worst affected section of the society. Changes in social, moral, cultural and religious values have made life stressful for children especially for adolescents. This can be observed in the rise of crime and suicide rates etc. Stress faced by children and adolescents are enormous and life skills are essentially those abilities that help to promote mental well-being and competence in young people for to challenge the diversities and ensure their empowerment. In order to realize this potential to the fullest, young people must be healthy, educated and equipped with information skills and confidence that would enable them to contribute to their communities and the country’s socio-economic growth. In the present paper the investigator goes through the importance of life skills, various life skills and adolescent’s empowerment through the life skills based education.

Juvenile Probation Officer Self-Assessed Mental Health Competency as a Predictor of Case Management Practices.

Justice-involved youth endorse high rates of mental health problems. Juvenile probation is the most common disposition in the justice system and juvenile probation officers (JPOs) are crucial for connecting justice-involved youth with appropriate care. We examined the role of mental health competency on the use of self-report case management strategy types (deterrence, restorative justice, and treatment) by JPOs and whether jurisdiction-level differences were relevant. Results suggest that mental health competency predicted use of restorative justice and treatment strategies and all three strategy types varied at the county level. The role of mental health competency in use of treatment strategies is relevant to connecting justice-involved youth to mental health care. Furthermore, a substantial amount of the variance predicting the use of all three strategies was accounted for at the county level.

Utility of a Modified Online Delphi Method to Define Workforce Competencies: Lessons from the Intellectual Disability Mental Health Core Competencies Project

AbstractThe Delphi method has been previously used to define and reach consensus on core workforce attributes. However, limitations of the traditional Delphi method have been identified. A modified online Delphi method, which aims to address these limitations, was used as one part of the intellectual disability mental health core competencies project. The authors assess the utility of a modified online Delphi method to define and reach consensus on the core intellectual disability mental health workforce attributes and the lessons learned from using this approach. Thirty‐six intellectual disability mental health experts from across Australia participated in a modified online Delphi. At the end of each Delphi round the research team completed descriptive analyses for the quantitative data, and content and thematic analyses for the qualitative data. The research team subsequently critiqued the method in terms of its utility in defining workforce attributes. Authors identified several lessons from using this method to define core workforce attributes. In particular, it has highlighted the potential benefit of initiating the Delphi process with a developed framework that is familiar to the workforce; the benefit of using quantitative and qualitative methods; and the need to reconsider how to define participant consensus. This study confirmed the utility of a modified online Delphi method to identify and describe core workforce attributes, provided insights into the benefits and challenges of this method, and identified strategies for overcoming some of the commonly documented limitations of the Delphi method. However, it has also highlighted some additional challenges of the Delphi method that researchers have not commonly described within the published literature. The lessons provide useful insights for others planning to use the Delphi method.

Mindfulness training with adolescents enhances metacognition and the inhibition of irrelevant stimuli: Evidence from event-related brain potentials

With the increased interest in school-based mindfulness interventions, there have been repeated calls to investigate neurodevelopmental markers of change. This non-randomised study of 16–18 year olds with wait-list control group examined possible enhancements to brain indexes of attention processing after school-based mindfulness training using event-related potentials (ERPs) (N=47 for self-report; N=40 for ERPs). Results showed significantly more negative N2 amplitudes after training, in response to irrelevant frequent stimuli and colour-deviant non-target oddball stimuli in a visual oddball paradigm. Improvements in negative thought controllability were associated with more negative N2 amplitudes post-training across groups, and mindfulness training was associated with reductions in students' hypercritical self-beliefs. There were no group differences on task performance, but regression analysis indicated that programme satisfaction explained 16% of the variance in improved target accuracy. Together these results suggest that a school-based mindfulness curriculum can enhance older adolescents' task-relevant inhibitory control of attention and perceived mental competency.

Criminal sanctions for legal enties: An instrument of crime control

Although contemporary criminal law accepts the system of subjective criminal liability for a committed crime, numerous European legal documents as well as criminal laws, especially those that have been adopted lately, envisage exceptions from this system. Thus, a new form of criminal liability is being introduced: objective liability based on the causation. One of the forms of objective liability is the criminal liability of legal entities, which has been considered disputable for a long time. Obviously, legal entities cannot be held accountable for all types of criminal offences. They cannot be held liable on the grounds of legal provisions regarding mental competence and culpability (as the elements of subjective criminal liability), nor can they be imposed all types of criminal sanctions recognized in criminal legislation in general. In their new or revised criminal legislation, many countries have recognized and inagurated the objective criminal liability of legal persons for committed criminal offences alongside with the predominant system of subjective liability (based on the perpetrator's mental competence and culpability). It is indisputable that some legal entities (such as state authorities) cannot be prosecuted and held liable in criminal proceedings; consequently, there are some exemptions from criminal liability (particularly when it comes to the state and state bodies), but it does not exclude criminal liability of responsible officials (natural persons) for causing the consequences of a criminal offence. Due to the specific character of legal and contractual capacity of legal entities, law in general and criminal legislations in particular prescribe special legal grounds for establishing criminal liability of legal entities, which differ from the subjective liability of a natural person (perceived as a conscious and reasonable human being acting on his/her own free will) where the consequence of a criminal offence is a result of one's own conduct embodied either in the commission of a criminal offence or in the omission to act. Therefore, contemporary criminal laws have determined special types of criminal sanctions, such as: punishment, security measures, conditional (suspended) sentence and confiscation of material gain obtained by comitting the criminal offence, as well as the instruments, proceedings and conditions under which they may be imposed. Within the framework of the forthcoming reform of the entire penal legislation in the Republic of Serbia, the Serbian legislator may use the legal solutions envisaged in the analyzed documents and criminal legislations as a solid model for implementing the international standards in the field of criminal liability of legal entities. Hence, this paper discusses the particularities governing the application of criminal sanctions for legal entities in the Republic of Serbia, particularly as an instrument of crime control.

Artificial Intelligence Creates a Wicked Problem for the Enterprise

James Watt invented the steam engine in the 17th century. It outperformed human muscle power by orders of magnitude. Nobody imagined that this single invention would evocate massive consequences: The steam engine increased industrial production, led to societal upheaval, and changed the political landscape for the next 100 years. There had been no historical parallel on the effect of a dedicated technical invention on humankind in such a short timeframe. At the beginning of the 21st century, we might experience a similar dynamic. This time, artificial intelligence spread the word of a new era that makes cognitive capabilities available on a large scale. Machines with highly sophisticated mental competencies will turn upside down the knowledge work in every company department, be it marketing, human resources, research and development, customer service, or the even the board of directors. Moreover, this time, intelligent machines will outperform human brain power. This paper argues that the arrival of artificial intelligence at the enterprise pave the way to a wicked problem: It cannot be resolved by tested methodologies, given procedures, and best practices. Instead, it requires a more sophisticated approach: First, companies must involve all relevant stakeholders at the initial stage of deployment because the impact of artificial intelligence is far-reaching. Second, companies must question their given value system because it closely resonates with the capabilities of artificial intelligence machines. Third, companies must conduct controlled experiments, because “divide and rule” do not work anymore to handle machines that mimic human thinking.