Mental Health Prevention Programs Research Articles

Characteristics of women working as child aides in a school-based preventive mental health program.

Characteristics of women working as child aides in a school-based preventive mental health program.

Principles of preventive mental health programs for ethnic minority populations: the acculturation of Puerto Ricans to the United States.

Differences in value orientation cause serious adaptation problems in both the Puerto Rican migrant and in the human and social institutions responsible for his education, employment, health, and recreation. The author discusses methods and techniques by which a mental health professional can intervene in this adaptation process and design mental health services in harmony with the value orientation of the population.

Problem‐solving thinking: A preventive mental health program for preschool children

Problem‐solving thinking: A preventive mental health program for preschool children

Contingency management and human relations workshops: A school intervention program

Because there will never be enough school psychological personnel to handle adequately the number of currently existing school adjustment problems, the Broward Country, Florida, school psychological service is developing preventive and positive mental health programs. This paper describes one such program, an in-service training workshop offered to school personnel. The workshop is based on the rationale that classroom management techniques and interpersonal relationships are two key variables in promoting optimal academic progress and personal-social development. Two psychologists conducted three-week workshops in one school at a time, spending about 50% of their working time in the given school during the three-week period. Evaluation of the program is discussed in terms of tangible evidence of implementation of ideas and techniques presented in the workshop, and in terms of demand for the workshop.

A practical approach to school psychology

Exclusive use of the clinical model in school psychology is impractical. This is discussed in terms of incidence of adjustment problems, psychologist-student ratios, and undesirable side effects that have resulted from sole use of the clinical model. Reasons for implementing developmental and preventive mental health programs in the schools are discussed, and examples of such programs are presented. Some alternatives to the usual ways of handling the remediation of currently existing adjustment problems are suggested.

PROBLEM-SOLVING THINKING AND ADJUSTMENT AMONG DISADVANTAGED PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

SHURE, MYRNA B.; SPIVACK, GEORGE; and JAEGER, MARIANNE. Problemsolving Thinking and Adjustment among Disadvantaged Preschool Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1971, 42, 1791-1803. The relationship between school behavior adjustment of 4-year-old disadvantaged children and real-life problem-solving thinking was studied. The latter includes 3 parameters of thought-conceptualization of solutions to typical peer and authority problems, consequential thinking, and causal thinking. Resulting data show that the ability to conceptualize alternative solutions to problems was the only parameter directly related to teacher-rated judgments of classroom behavior but that all 3 parameters were significantly interrelated. Implications are that increasing a child's ability to think in terms of alternative solutions to real-life problems could supplement a primary preventive mental health program.

A Student Couples Program

In this paper the authors describe a relationship enrichment workshop they have developed and conducted for married and engaged college students. The workshop is for healthy couples and not primarily rehabilitative in nature. Rather the goal of the workshop is to teach participants some concepts and exercises for improving their mnutual communication, including expression of affection and constructive fighting. It is the authors' hope that this paper will encourage more preventive mental health programs for married adults and those contemplating matrimony.

The meaning of community in a preventive mental health program.

THE community, even in today's world Tof rapid mobility and urban sprawl, is a highly important habitat of man. For it is through the community that man is fed and housed, seeks work, educates his children, and in a myriad of wvays maintains his safety and security. It is also through the community that man discovers problems and their solutions, finds spiritual sustenance, exercises his desire for significant participation in life, and occasionally achieves the highest levels of self-actualization and fulfillment.

A PREVENTIVE MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAM IN THE SCHOOL SETTING: DESCRIPTION AND EVALUATION.

A PREVENTIVE MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAM IN THE SCHOOL SETTING: DESCRIPTION AND EVALUATION.

Screening in Schools for Behavior Disorders: Use of Mothers’ Reports of Symptoms

SCREENING HAS long been a basic component of school health services. School mental health ser vices, however, have not yet found a simple and reliable method for screening school-age children for behavior disorders. evaluation of preventive mental health pro grams requires a measure of adjustment which can be used with economy with large groups of sub jects. As a part of a larger study designed to eval uate a community mental health program (2), sever al sub-studies have been undertaken to test the screening efficiency of a symptom invento r y de signed for use with mothers. A small-s amp le study has been reported previously (3). This is a report of the first large-sample study of the screen ing method. Whether knowledge about symptoms alone can be used as a screening tool depends on whether they can be used successfully to predict the presence and degree of clinical sickness in children. This subject has been discussed among child psychia trists for many years. Some feel it is dangerous to use presence or absence of symptoms as an indi cation of whether the child is sick or well. Gard ner (4) is a representative of this group. He d i vides children's problems into two categories, i. e., those requiring short-term therapy, and those requiring long-term treatment. Of the short-term group he says that therapy aimed at relieving the symptom will probably allow the child an extreme ly good chance of .continuing thereafter a normal and orderly personality development, (4, pp. 131 33). Of the long-term group he warns against using absence or disappearance of symptoms as an indication either for stopping treatment or of the recovery of the child. He says, (4, p. 133), Re moval of the presenting symptom may delay but not prevent the child from developing a more ser ious disability later in childhood or in adult life. In summary, Gardner, appears to doubt that symp toms themselves can be used to discriminate be tween si?k or well children, or those with differ ent degrees of emotional adjustment. On the other hand, Levy believes that symptoms can be used to determine sickness or health in children. He says, (11, p. 227), One of the find ings that resulted from a series of follow-up stud ies starting at the Institute of Child Guidance in New York and utilizing material from about a doz en child guidance clinics . . . was that the highest correlation with general personality growth was the disappearance of the presenting symptoms. Witmer (16) also finds that disappearance of symp toms in children treated in a child guidance clinic correlates higher with clinical improvement than any other factor. Support for the use of symptoms in determining adjustment in adults is found in recent work by Hunt, Wittson, and Hunt (8,9) where there was dem onstrated to be a positive relationship between the number of presenting symptoms in adults, the sev erity of the neuropsychiatrie disorder, and suita bility for military service. Kanner (10) lays much emphasis on the com plaint, i.e. , the mother's statement of symptoms, as a critical factor in determining treatment. He says, The clearing up, or persistence, of the dif ficulties complained of may frequently, though not always, be used as a measure of the reasonable ness and adequacy of the handling of the maladjust ment. In 1954, Eitzman (7) found, in an inte ns ive follow-up study of twelve children treated in the St. Louis County Child Guidance Clinic, that moth ers reported markedly fewer symptoms after treat ment than they reported at the time the child was referred. Specifically, at the time of referral, the twelve mothers reported a total of 86 current symptoms (mean, 7.2). After treatment, these same mothers reported a total of only 40 symp toms (mean, 3. 3). I In a study of 91 public school children and 35

Community Programs for Mental Health

This book should be of general interest to all pediatricians and of specific interest to those physicians who, as part of their community responsibilities, are interested in supporting preventive mental health programs for children and parents. This book provides an excellent over-all view of mental health promotion. Perhaps the most interesting is the discussion of the problems in evaluation. Saul W. Ginsburg, M. D., presents a clear and provocative picture of the mental health movement and its theoretical assumptions. Certainly today with so much emphasis on preventive and educational movements toward the goal of a "positive mental health approach," the attempt of certain agencies and bodies to apply an epidemiological approach to mental disease requires real thought and consideration for those of us active or interested in the emotional problems of our citizens. In addition to theoretical considerations, there are sections of this book dealing with the setting up and

Child rearing and the character structure of the mother.

specific rearing practices and techniques.8 A methodology was developed using interdisciplinary concepts of social role and social interaction to explore the relative effect of these two sets of influences. The child's response is studied first in terms of his interaction with the total mother person and, second, as he reacts to the mother's rearing techniques. Although the child is subject to other influences, only the mother is considered here since she is the focal parent in relation to rearing the young child. The study indicates that evaluations of child rearing practices are of little value unless understood as aspects of a dynamic process of socialization dependent on the social interaction of those individuals concerned. This is of importance for a more accurate assessment of acculturation and for preventive mental health and research programs. The hypothesis also offers some explanation of the wide variations in child rearing and child adjustment within a cultural subgroup, as revealed in previous studies (3, 6).