Mind, body and heart: Psychotherapy and the relationship between mental and physical health

A mounting body of research confirms the clinical wisdom that mental health affects physical health. Recent psychophysiological research has unraveled some of the mechanisms by which mental health problems and general life stress may cause physical diseases such as coronary heart disease, cancer, diabetes and autoimmune disorders. Encouraging news for the mental health practitioner is that the sum of research findings suggests that psychological treatment not only improves psychological symptoms, but can have an independent effect on physical health and disease. The mind-body connection appears so significant that the use of psychological techniques can even reduce the risk of most major diseases. Matthew Bambling draws on recent research and behavioural medicine to illustrate how depression and anxiety influence physiological processes with particular reference to coronary heart disease. An evaluation is undertaken of how psychotherapy and psychological interventions can influence not only mental health, but also physical health through reduction of the stress response and associated endocrine function. The implications of these findings for clinical practice are explored

Revaudasi Motoris dan Bimbingan Anak-anak yang Mempunyai "Minimal Brain-disfunction Syndrome"

Konsep MBD ("Minimal Brain Disfunction") baik isi maupun terminoioginya banyak mengaiami Perubahan. Untuk penggarapan MBD kegunaannya atau manfaatnya untuk diagnostic motoris dan program-program latihan fungsi motoris akan dibicarakan secara terarah. Revalidasi motoris pada anak-anak MBD dengan kesukaran-kesukaran atau hambatan-hambatan belajar harus ditujukan pada aspek-aspek perkembangannya. Bimbingan ini harus selalu direalisir setelah dimusyawarahkan dengan kelompok-kelompok lainnya. Dan akhirnya penerapan therapi motori

Implementing successful controlled mating programs on extensive beef herds

This report is for a scoping study examining issues with on property adoption and implementation of controlled mating programs on extensive beef herds in northern Australia. Controlled mating can have many benefits for a beef business, however the level of benefit depends largely on the individual business. The use of controlled mating is a highly recommended best management practice for beef producers across northern Australia. Significant effort has evolved around research to quantify the benefits of controlled mating. These include the ability to time calving to coincide with peak pasture availability and quality to maximise survival of cow and calf, to avoid lactation during the dry season, to allow for a more efficient supplementation program, and to maintain cow body condition so that she can re-conceive the following year. The practice also enables labour to be condensed into two main rounds for net reproduction rate to be more accurately measured. This study reviewed current guidelines and implementation processes for controlled mating at a whole property level. The review concludes that insufficient processes are described in detail to facilitate successful beef enterprise adoption of this highly recommended management practice. The complexity of the practice is also described and the need for it to be designed around individual businesses. We conclude that continuing to follow a broad message approach may lead to increased issues with adoption. The review also highlights gaps in research and extension materials available for beef producers, including enterprise case studies that include a full business economic analysis that describe sound and successful, proven adoption strategies

Exploring young people’s perceptions of the effectiveness of text-based online counseling: mixed methods pilot study

Background: Young people aged 10-24 years are at the highest risk for mental health problems and are the least likely to seek professional treatment. Owing to this population’s high consumption of internet content, electronic mental (e-mental) health services have increased globally, with an aim to address barriers to treatment. Many of these services use text-based online counseling (TBOC), which shows promising results in supporting young people but also greater variance in outcomes compared with adult comparators. Objective: This pilot study qualitatively explored the characteristics of users aged 15-25 years accessing TBOC services, their motivations for access, and their perceptions about factors believed to influence the effectiveness of these modalities. Methods: E-surveys were administered naturalistically to 100 young service users aged 15-25 years who accessed webchat and email counseling services via an Australian e-mental health service. Thematic analysis of qualitative themes and quantitative descriptive and proportional data presented in electronic surveys were examined across the areas of user characteristics, motivations for selecting TBOC modalities, and their perceptions of TBOC effectiveness. Results: Participants were predominately female high school students of Caucasian or European descent from middle socioeconomic status, living with their parents in major cities. Four domains and various themes and subthemes were related to participants’ reasons for accessing TBOC and perceptions of its effectiveness: user characteristics (ie, physical and mental health syndrome and perceived social difficulties), selection factors (ie, safety, avoidance motivation, accessibility, and expectation), factors perceived to increase effectiveness (ie, general therapeutic benefits, positive modality and service factors, and persisting with counseling to increase benefit), and factors perceived to decrease effectiveness (ie, negative modality and service factors, and persisting with counseling despite benefit). Conclusions: Participants were motivated to use TBOC to increase their sense of safety in response to negative perceptions of their social skills and the response of the online counsellor to their presenting problem. By using TBOC services, they also sought to improve their access to mental health services that better met their expectations. Factors that increased effectiveness of TBOC were the counsellor’s interpersonal skills, use of text-based communication, and persisting with beneficial counseling sessions. Factors that reduced TBOC effectiveness were poor timeliness in response to service requests, experiencing no change in their presenting problem, not knowing what postcounseling action to take, and persisting with ineffective counseling sessions

Effectiveness of universal school-based social-emotional learning programs in promoting social-emotional skills, attitudes towards self and others, positive social behaviors, and improving emotional and conduct problems among Japanese children: a meta-analytic review

The implementation of universal school based Social–Emotional Learning (SEL) programs is increasing in Japanese schools with the aim of enhancing children’s social–emotional skills and reducing mental health problems. However, there is a lack of meta-analyses evaluating the effectiveness of these programs in Japan that specifically include studies with control groups and examine program moderators. Conducting such a meta-analysis would be valuable for improving future implementations of SEL programs in Japan. The present meta-analysis analyzed 85 intervention studies with control groups to examine the effectiveness and moderators of universal school based SEL programs for Japanese children aged 5–18 years. The analysis indicates that these programs have a small overall effect (ES = 0.26), as well as small effects in improving social–emotional skills (ES = 0.24), attitude toward the self and others (ES = 0.30), positive social behavior (ES = 0.31), conduct problem (ES = 0.20), and emotional problem (ES = 0.22) at post-intervention among Japanese children. The analysis further revealed that publication type, number of participants, and school level of children moderated the overall effects of universal school based SEL programs, suggesting potential biases in effect sizes reported in peer-reviewed journals published by scientific societies, lower effectiveness for older children, and decreased effectiveness when programs are delivered to larger numbers of children. Future research should explore more effective delivery methods for SEL programs, particularly for older children and larger groups, such as integrating community components and information and communication technology into the programs

Necessary but not sufficient? Engaging young people in the development of an avatar-based online intervention designed to provide psychosocial support to young people affected by their own or a family member's cancer diagnosis

Objective: This paper discusses the challenges and successes of engaging young people in a project aimed at developing an online counselling intervention for young people affected by cancer. Context: For younger people with a diagnosis of cancer or who are caring for someone with cancer the psychosocial consequences can create significant challenges for their social and educational development. Whilst young people have been shown to be reluctant to make use of traditional face-to-face counselling, research is beginning to suggest that effective therapeutic relationships can be formed with young people online. Design: The first phase of the study involved working with a “Young Persons Panel” of healthy school pupils and university students to develop and pilot an online counselling intervention and study materials in preparation for a pilot evaluation of the intervention. Intervention: An avatar-based virtual reality counselling world was created where young people can create their own avatar and receive counselling over the internet from a qualified counsellor via an avatar in a virtual reality world. Findings: The process of engaging young people in the C:EVOLVE project enabled a unique intervention to be developed and demonstrated positive developmental opportunities. However, despite the rigorous approach to the development of the intervention, initial attempts within the pilot evaluation phase of the study showed difficulties recruiting to the study and this phase of the study has currently ceased whilst further exploratory work takes place Conclusion: This study has demonstrated the complexities of intervention development and evaluation research targeted at young people and the challenges created when attempting to bring clinical practice and research evaluation together. Keywords: online counselling, cancer, young people, intervention development, avatar counselling