Strengths-based Framework Research Articles

Traumatic brain injury rehabilitation for warfighters with post-traumatic stress.

While there is extensive empirical support and clinical guidance for the treatment of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) individually, less is known about treating the comorbid presentation of both conditions. The purpose of this review article is to provide information on the mental health treatment needs of service members (SMs) engaged in traumatic brain injury (TBI) rehabilitation. It also aims to offer a framework for an integrated treatment approach to address the cognitive and psychological health needs of warfighters. We review the prevalence and outcomes associated with comorbid TBI and PTSD and present relevant access to care considerations. Additionally, we identify an integrated approach to TBI treatment which takes psychological trauma into consideration. We introduce a trauma-informed care (TIC) model with specified diagnostic and treatment considerations for the service member and veteran (SM/V) communities. TIC is a strengths-based framework that raises the system-wide awareness of treatment facilities to the impact of psychological trauma on behavioral health. A comprehensive diagnostic approach is recommended with considerations for symptom etiology. Clinical considerations derived from available guidelines are identified to meet critical treatment needs for SM/Vs presenting for TBI treatment with a remote history of mTBI and psychological trauma or known PTSD. Clinical practice guidelines are used to inform an integrated TBI treatment model and maximize rehabilitation efforts for warfighters. Given the prevalence of comorbid TBI and PTSD among SM/Vs and its impact on outcomes, this review presents the integration of appropriate diagnostics and treatment practices, including the incorporation of CPGs into TBI rehabilitation.

Research with and Inclusive of Children in Immigrant Families: A Narrative Review of Methods and Approaches

One in four children in the US grow up in immigrant families, and 55% of children in immigrant families have a parent who speaks and understands English less than “very well”. While the number of research studies that is focused on children in immigrant families (CIF) has increased, CIF particularly those that communicate in a language other than English (LOE) are frequently excluded from research. We reviewed studies including “children in immigrant families and the United States” in PubMed from 2017–2023, and categorized them as qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods or community engaged research. We review observations and offer recommendations for research to promote the health and well-being of children in immigrant families including: using strengths-based frameworks; prioritizing the inclusion of families who speak languages other than English; amending reporting standards for qualitative studies to include guidance on reporting methods for projects in which research teams and study participants speak different languages from one another; and incorporating methods to identify people who have experienced migration in large national surveys and cohort studies. We recommend research with and inclusive of CIF to consider additional areas for growth in cross-sector collaborations, interventions and clinical trials, and training and support for investigators.

Supporting High-Risk Families Through a Pregnancy Family Conferencing Model: Experiences of Professionals

ABSTRACT Effective child protection responses in the perinatal period can reduce the need for long-term service intervention. A Pregnancy Family Conferencing (PFC) initiative was established in one Local Health District in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, by child protection and health services to facilitate strengths-focused planning with families identified as high risk. This qualitative study explores the experiences of professionals engaged with PFC. Findings highlight the importance of hope, building trust in difficult circumstances, and ensuring transparency, with benefits for interagency partnerships and finding meaning in the work. Findings have implications for services seeking to support families engaged with statutory child protection services during the perinatal period. IMPLICATIONS PFC provides an alternative model for child protection and health systems, promoting collaborative decision making through a strengths-based framework to benefit families and children. The findings show that PFC participation also can benefit professionals through the formation of trusting interagency and interdisciplinary collegial relationships, and working effectively with families to reduce risks.

A critical need for the concept of matrescence in perinatal psychiatry.

The concept of matrescence, akin to adolescence but for mothers, has gained increasing attention in perinatal psychiatry, marking a paradigm shift towards understanding the holistic development of mothers. Matrescence encompasses the myriad psychological, social, cultural, and existential changes which occur as women transition into motherhood. Despite advances in maternal mental health, a bias towards pathologizing maternal experiences persists in research and practice. This commentary advocates for the integration of matrescence into perinatal psychiatry, drawing from the work of Dana Raphael and contemporary scholarship. Matrescence offers a strengths-based framework that acknowledges both the challenges and opportunities of motherhood, emphasizing the normative aspects of a mother's self-development. By adopting matrescence terminology and nosology, clinicians and researchers can enhance traditional psychiatric classifications. Additionally, matrescence underscores the importance of considering ecological systems and historical factors in maternal well-being, highlighting the need for comprehensive and compassionate healthcare services. Embracing matrescence as a fundamental concept in perinatal psychiatry holds promise for improving maternal mental health outcomes and promoting the flourishing of mothers worldwide.

Refugee and Immigrant Youth Leaders: Strengths, Futurity, and Commitment to Community

This study explored the Youth Leadership/Peer Tutoring program at Refugee and Immigrant Transitions (RIT), a community-based non-profit organization in Northern California. It includes 12 semi-structured interviews with refugee and immigrant youth leaders. Bringing together works on Community Cultural Wealth (with the addition of Migration Capital) and Critical Refugee Studies collectively as a conceptual framework, this study highlights three themes: (a) commitment to community, family, and giving back; (b) encouraging communication and cultivating a pan-newcomer community; and (c) leadership as commitment to community and positive, collective futurities. Data support a strengths-based framework when working with refugee and immigrant youth as they transition and adjust to their new school environments and communities. All 12 participants were refugee and immigrant newcomer youth who participated as youth leaders/peer tutors in RIT’s Youth Leaders/Peer Tutoring program. Countries of origin included Burma (Karen), Bhutan, Nepal, China, and El Salvador. As scholars and practitioners in the field, we are seeing an increased need and demand for more scholarship in this area through a strengths-based lens, as evidenced by calls from educators and school/district administrators requesting support and resources. We submit this article at a time of growing numbers of immigrant and refugee youth in schools in the United States, including non-diverse school environments that are unprepared (and sometimes unwilling) to receive newcomer youth. Our hope is for this study to reveal possibilities for extending welcome and mutual support through a strengths-based lens within diverse newcomer peer learning environments.

Subverting Trauma: Evidencing a need for trauma-informed principles in editing practice

Trauma-informed practice is a strengths-based framework that guides the service provisions of the Australian healthcare and education sectors. Based on Mental Health Australia’s (Kezelman, 2014) definition of trauma-informed care, the principles underpinning a trauma-informed approach to practice include safety, trustworthiness, opportunity for choice, collaboration, empowerment and respect for diversity. While there is significant research on trauma-informed care and trauma-informed pedagogy in both national and international contexts, there is a dearth of literature on trauma-informed editing practice. Given that writing itself is a vehicle for processing and sharing traumatic experience, the lack of directives around editing potentially traumatic content and working with authors who have histories of trauma is concerning, with risks of harm to both the author and editor if adequate provisions are not in place. This qualitative study reviews existing trauma-informed frameworks and conducts a field survey of practising editors who self-identify as working, or having worked, with traumatic material or trauma survivors. The use of trauma-informed tools in a creative industry necessitates a cultural and philosophical shift and the findings from this research corroborate the need for both formalised guidelines, and for future editors to be explicitly educated in these practices.

Cultural Identity as a Determinant of Health among South Sudanese in Sydney, Australia

Background. The issue of identity has been widely explored among migrant populations in western countries in the context of cultural integrations and acculturations. However, there is less evidence on identity as a determinant of health and social wellbeing. This study reports on identity as a determinant of health among the South Sudanese community who arrived as refugees through an Australian humanitarian program in the early 2000s. Methods. A qualitative study was undertaken, underpinned by a phenomenological framework that characterised the lived experiences of adult South Sudanese in Sydney, Australia. Semistructured in-depth interviews explored how 26 participants identified themselves in Australia, including changes in their experiences over time, their social and general life situation in Australia, and how they felt perceived in Australia. Data were audio-recorded using a digital voice recorder, transcribed verbatim, coded, and categorised into themes using interpretive thematic analysis. Results. Participants described a multiplicity of interconnected domains that governed the negotiating and making sense of identity, in turn mediated by other interwoven personal and structural factors that shaped experience and perception. Expressions of hope, pride, and achievement were threaded through several of the interviews, particularly in relation to their children. There were also frustrations related to employment challenges and discrimination that limited identity ownership. Conclusions. The evolving and often conflicting factors identified by participants can shape their sense of belonging, integration, and social and mental wellbeing. A deeper, more nuanced understanding of bicultural identity within a strengths-based framework is needed, with improved partnerships and services to support and strengthen South Sudanese community integration, belonging, and acculturation in Australia.

Resisting Legacies of Racialized Adversities: Counterstories of South Asians Navigating Transition Planning

Strengthening parent support is critical to improving the transition to adulthood outcomes of racially minoritized youth. However, in literature, the transition experiences of racially minoritized parents are often characterized using deficit-based language. Strengths-based counternarratives of racially minoritized parents could offer a broader account of parent experiences. We conducted a pilot sequential explanatory transformative mixed methods design with equal priority to capture the adversities experienced and the strengths leveraged by South Asian parents in the United States. When navigating the transition planning process. We used the strengths-based frameworks of community cultural wealth and counterstories to reframe and re(present) the transition experiences of South Asian parents. Specifically, we blended quantitative ( N = 46) and qualitative findings ( N = 8) to develop a preliminary meta-inference of the transition experiences of South Asian parents. We discuss the implications of our findings for research and practice.

Let the Program Evaluation Committee SOAR: Applying the Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results (SOAR) Framework for Program Evaluation.

Annual program evaluations are important activities of all graduate medical education programs. Although the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education provides general guidelines, there is substantial scope for educational innovation. Strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results (SOAR) is a strengths-based framework for strategic planning. Because SOAR emphasizes positivity and engagement, it is an appealing framework for evaluating graduate medical education programs. Our objective was to demonstrate the feasibility and acceptability of SOAR in a program evaluation committee of a fellowship program to generate strategic initiatives. The authors used the four steps of SOAR within the program evaluation committee in 2022. Interviewers collected positive stories to understand program strengths. Then, rapid ideation was used to translate strengths into opportunities. These opportunities were condensed and refined for fellows to assess how well they align with aspirations. The ones that aligned best with aspirations were prioritized for implementation. Results were monitored through a scorecard based on specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals every month. Of 15 divisional members, 11 participated (73.3%). Five major strengths were identified: supportive environment, variety of cases, scheduling flexibility, integration with larger networks, and multidisciplinary collaboration. These 5 yielded 15 opportunities, which were refined and condensed to 9. Four were selected for implementation: scholarly works accountability group, hybrid-flex curriculum, fellowship weekly huddles, and structured electives. Scorecards have shown successful implementation during a 4-month period. SOAR is an innovative and feasible approach to program evaluation that uses trainee engagement to translate and synergize existing program strengths into actionable program improvement.

Impact of Trauma-Informed Care Training on Attitudes Among Emergency Department Personnel, Staff Advocates, and Nursing Students.

Health care providers may risk retraumatizing patients and intensifying patient distress unless they practice trauma-informed care. As the first line of defense in assisting trauma survivors' physical and emotional recovery, health care providers must use a strengths-based framework that promotes resilience and expands on the trauma survivor's existing resources. This study aimed to compare the effect of trauma-informed care training on the attitudes of emergency department personnel, staff advocates, and nursing students toward trauma-informed care. This study used a pretest-posttest design. Assessment of attitudes toward trauma-informed care was done before and after trauma-informed care training. Data collection occurred from February 2021 through August 2021. Participants included three cohorts of emergency department staff, advocates for trauma survivors, and nursing students. Attitudes toward trauma-informed care were measured using the Attitudes Related to Trauma-Informed Care (ARTIC) Scale. A total of 433 participants were studied, including 88 emergency department staff, 123 staff advocates, and 222 nursing students. All three cohorts significantly increased ARTIC Scale scores posttraining (p < .001). At preintervention, all three cohorts significantly differed from each other on ARTIC Scale scores (p < .01). In contrast, postintervention, ARTIC Scale scores did not significantly differ between nursing students and advocates (p = .99). Nursing students showed a significant increase in scores from pre- to postintervention compared with either advocates or emergency department staff. The results strongly suggest that health care providers can improve attitudes toward trauma-informed care after completing training on the principles and application of trauma-informed care.

Implementing Strengths-Based Dialogue to Reframe Clinical Education and Community Engagement

Purpose: Health care professionals want to solve problems. When health disparities are observed, the solution often rests on expanding access to clinical services. However, what are the varied paths that persons with communication disorders might take to access speech, language, and hearing care? Where are these paths successful and where does a well-intended initiative have an absent or limited effect in altering disparities? Multiple, complex factors affect access to health care in underserved communities. However, current practice tends to frame the goals and metrics of outreach programs in terms of access to health care services, which risks privileging the perspective of the providers who want to increase the volume of services accessed over the voices of the community members for whom access to health care is only part of the larger course of their lives. Solutions that do not reflect those community strengths outside the service provision framework likely yield minimal impact on quality of life, since the community members are less likely to fully embrace the solution. Method: In this clinical focus, we describe a community-informed strengths-based framework for clinicians and clinical researchers whose work is designed to reach underserved communities by employing mutual trust, empathy, active listening, and patient-centered care planning. Through case scenarios, we exemplify key tenets of the framework. Conclusions: The community-informed strengths-based framework detailed in this clinical focus supports a paradigm shift from a biomedically-informed strengths-based framework to a model of health care service provision that focuses on individual or community strengths. Eliciting guidance from those receiving care and framing the totality of encounters in terms of the process of responding to community strengths can build a collaborative and sustainable path forward toward achieving health goals.

From Kaimahi to Enrolled Nurse: A Successful Workforce Initiative to Increase Māori Nurses in Primary Health Care

A culturally competent health workforce is critical to achieving equitable health outcomes for Māori people in Aotearoa New Zealand. Fundamental to this goal is the urgent need to not only increase numbers of Māori nurses but to enable them to deliver innovative models of care that are responsive to the unmet need of whānau (family) and hapori (community). This article describes a national initiative to increase the capacity and capability of the Indigenous workforce by supporting kaimahi (unregulated health workers) to become enrolled nurses delivering holistic care within their own communities. A process of co-design was actively led by, with, and for Māori, and included health providers, kaimahi, nurse leaders and programme coordinators. By using Kaupapa Māori principles, historically negative experiences and discourse for Māori nursing were shifted into a strengths-based framework, focusing on self-determination and validating mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge). The key components of the Earn As You Learn model are outlined and align with the narrative of haerenga (journey) in implementing this workforce strategy. This article provides timely knowledge of a promising approach to grow the local Māori nursing workforce by investing in kaimahi to work as enrolled nurses in the communities in which they live, work and play. Te reo Māori translation Mai i te kaimahi ki te tapuhi ā-rārangi: He kōkiri kāhui kaimahi whai painga hei whakapiki i te tokomaha o ngā tapuhi Māori i ngā taurimatanga hauora taketake Ngā Ariā Matua He mea tino nui tētāhi kāhui kaimahi matatau ā-ahurea hei whakatutuki i ētahi putanga hauora ōrite mō ngā tāngata Māori o Aotearoa. Tētahi āhua taketake o tēnei whāinga, kia kaua e aro anake ki te whakapikinga i te tokomaha o ngā tapuhi Māori engari kia whakamanaia rātou ki te hora tauira taurimatanga auaha, e urupare nei ki ngā hiahia, kāore anō kia tutuki, o ngā whānau me te hapori. Ka whakamārama tēnei tuhinga i tētahi kōkiri ā-motu hei whakarahi i te raukaha me ngā pūmanawa o tētahi kāhui kaimahi iwi taketake, mā te tautoko i ngā kaimahi (ngā kaimahi hauora kāore anō kia herea e te ture) kia urutomo hei tapuhi ā-rārangi e hora nei i ngā taurimatanga arowhānui i roto i uru ki roto ko ngā kaiwhakarato hauora, ngā kaimahi, ngā kaihautū tapuhi me ngā whakaruruku hōtaka. Nā tēnei aronga whakamahi mātāpono Kaupapa Māori i kawe kē ngā wheako kino o mua, me ngā kōrero e pā ana ki ngā mahi tapuhi Māori ki tētahi anga i takea mai i ngā kahanga, e arotahi nei ki te rangatiratanga, i whakamana hoki i te mātauranga Māori. E tākina ana ētahi o ngā wae taketake o te tauira Earn As You Learn, ā, e rite ana ki tēnei mea te haerenga o te tangata ki tētahi wāhi hou, i roto i ngā mahi whakatinana i tēnei rautaki rāngai kaimahi. Kei tēnei tuhinga ētahi mōhiotanga tino hāngai ki ngā ara whai pitomata mō te whakawhanake i te kāhui kaimahi tapuhi ā-takiwā Māori mā te anga nui ki ngā kaimahi, me te tuku i a rātou kia mahi he tapuhi ā-rārangi i roto i ngā hapori e noho nei, e mahi nei, e tākaro nei rātou. Ngā kupu matua: hoahoa-tahi, tapuhi ā-rārangi, kaupapa Māori, akoranga tapuhi; taurimatanga hauora taketake; whakapakari kāhui kaimahi

From chat rooms to classrooms and TikToks too: Dr. Brendesha Tynes' contributions to the study of race and development in digital contexts.

For more than a decade, Dr. Brendesha Tynes has been at the forefront of empirical research examining the role of race in youth experiences with technology. Tynes' expansive corpus of research highlights the psychological, academic, and socioemotional implications and impact of online racial discrimination on child and adolescent development, with a particular focus on Black youth. Using explicitly strengths-based frameworks in both her research and mentoring, Tynes' contributions to the fields of psychology and education are vast. Given the American Psychological Association's recent shift to intentionally and urgently address racism, Tynes' scholarship is more timely than ever. Using a narrative review approach, we trace the intellectual contributions that Tynes has made to psychology, specifically, and the study of race and racism more broadly throughout her career. Particularly, we highlight key conceptual, methodological, and empirical work that have influenced the study of race in psychology. We conclude by sharing implications and possibilities for Tynes' research to influence race-conscious practices in psychological research, clinical, and pedagogical spheres. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Developing Highly Effective Student Leaders: A Strengths-Based Framework for High-Achieving Economically Challenged Urban Undergraduates

Developing Highly Effective Student Leaders: A Strengths-Based Framework for High-Achieving Economically Challenged Urban Undergraduates

Learning from healthcare workers’ experiences with personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic in Aotearoa/New Zealand: a thematic analysis and framework for future practice

ObjectivesSafety and welfare are critical as pandemic-related demands on the healthcare workforce continue. Access to personal protective equipment (PPE) has been a central concern of healthcare workers throughout the COVID-19...

Measuring Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results: Psychometric Properties of the 12-Item SOAR Scale.

Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results (SOAR) is a strengths-based framework for strategic thinking, planning, conversations, and leading that focuses on strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results. The SOAR framework leverages and integrates Appreciative Inquiry (AI) to create a transformation process through generative questions and positive framing. While SOAR has been used by practitioners since 2000 as a framework for generating positive organizational change, its use in empirical research has been limited by the absence of reliable and valid measures. We report on the reliability, construct validity, and measurement invariance of the SOAR Scale, a 12-item self-report survey organized into four first-order factors (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results). Data from a sample of 285 U.S. professionals were analyzed in Mplus using confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory structural equation modeling. The Four-Factor first-order exploratory structure equation modeling (ESEM) had the best model fit. Measurement invariance tests found the scalar invariance of the SOAR Scale across gender and education groups. Implications are discussed for using the SOAR Scale to build resilience at the individual, the team, and the organizational levels.

Using Appreciative Inquiry to Optimize a Person-Centered Care Training Program for Clinical Champions in Rural Critical Access Hospitals.

Person-centered care (PCC) involves shared decision-making between the individual and provider and is widely recognized as the gold standard of care. However, not all organizations have successfully implemented PCC, especially those in rural settings with limited resources. Implementation strategies, such as clinical champions, are key to PCC uptake. The purpose of the current article is to illustrate how Appreciative Inquiry, a strengths-based framework for transformational change, can be used to optimize a successful PCC champion training program. Appreciative Inquiry employs the quality improvement processes of (a) define, (b) discover, (c) dream, (d) design, and (e) deliver/destiny. Using Appreciative Inquiry, we were able to identify three new long-term goals and add supporting features to an existing champion training program. The methods developed herein could be implemented by researchers and evidence-based practice councils to improve the care of older adults in any care setting to make it more person-centered. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 47(8), 7-12.].

Advancing Workplace Diversity Through the Culturally Responsive Teamwork Framework.

Purpose Diversification of the profession is an important element of combating racism, bias, and prejudice in the speech-language pathology workforce at national and systemic levels. However, national and systemic change needs to be combined with equipping individual speech-language pathologists to adapt to the challenges that they face to engaging in culturally responsive practice. This paper presents four interacting levels of practice within the Culturally Responsive Teamwork Framework (CRTF): (a) intrapersonal practices, (b) interpersonal practices, (c) intraprofessional practices, and (d) the interprofessional practices. Conclusion CRTF is a practical, strengths-based framework that draws on international research and expertise to expand personal and professional practice and describe critical behaviors within the workplace that can be used to promote principles of evidence-based practice and social justice, especially when working with people from nondominant cultural or linguistic groups.

Our journey, our story: a study protocol for the evaluation of a co-design framework to improve services for Aboriginal youth mental health and well-being.

IntroductionMainstream Australian mental health services are failing Aboriginal young people. Despite investing resources, improvements in well-being have not materialised. Culturally and age appropriate ways of working are needed to improve service access and responsiveness. This Aboriginal-led study brings Aboriginal Elders, young people and youth mental health service staff together to build relationships to co-design service models and evaluation tools. Currently, three Western Australian youth mental health services in the Perth metropolitan area and two regional services are working with local Elders and young people to improve their capacity for culturally and age appropriate services. Further Western Australian sites will be engaged as part of research translation.Methods and analysisRelationships ground the study, which utilises Indigenous methodologies and participatory action research. This involves Elders, young people and service staff as co-researchers and the application of a decolonising, strengths-based framework to create the conditions for engagement. It foregrounds experiential learning and Aboriginal ways of working to establish relationships and deepen non-Aboriginal co-researchers’ knowledge and understanding of local, place-based cultural practices. Once relationships are developed, co-design workshops occur at each site directed by local Elders and young people. Co-designed evaluation tools will assess any changes to community perceptions of youth mental health services and the enablers and barriers to service engagement.Ethics and disseminationThe study has approval from the Kimberley Aboriginal Health Planning Forum Kimberley Research Subcommittee, the Western Australian Aboriginal Health Ethics Committee, and the Curtin University Human Research Ethics Committee. Transferability of the outcomes across the youth mental health sector will be directed by the co-researchers and is supported through Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal organisations including youth mental health services, peak mental health bodies and consumer groups. Community reports and events, peer-reviewed journal articles, conference presentations and social and mainstream media will aid dissemination.

Vulnerability and resiliency implications of human capital and linked inequality presence denial perspectives: Acknowledging Zigler's contributions to child well-being.

Edward Zigler's groundbreaking research on child development resulted in the historic Head Start program. It is useful to examine the theoretical implications of his work by applying a human development theoretical perspective. Phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST) is a strengths-based theoretical framework that engages the variability of resource access and coping strategies that promote positive identity development for diverse children. While skill acquisition is a key focus of human capital theory's engagement of early childhood needs, this article highlights the on-going status of human vulnerability that undergirds identity development over the life course. The authors note that "inequality presence denial" combines with high-risk contexts, framed by geography and psychohistoric moments (e.g., The Great Recession, COVID-19), to alter diverse children's developmental pathways. The acknowledgement of "morbid risk" motivates the urgency for research that builds upon Zigler's innovations and privileges human development imperatives. The case study explores these concepts by examining the challenges and assets available to mothers in a low-income community. The article's closing notes developments in the field of economics that ameliorate human capital theory's conceptual limitations, underscoring human development's theoretical strength in motivating research and policies that are maximally responsive to children's positive identity development.