"Big Boys Don’t Cry!" Or Do They? : Can Forensic Patients Change?

Inauguratie prof. dr. Bernstein, benoemd in de Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience tot bijzonder hoogleraar Forensische Psychotherapi

A Schema Therapy Based Milieu in Secure Residential Youth Care:Effects on Aggression, Group Climate, Repressive Staff Interventions, and Team Functioning

Group care workers of residential youth care settings face the challenge of creating a warm and involved treatment climate against the demands and restrictions of the treatment setting. We tested the effects of SafePath, a milieu-based intervention based on Schema Therapy principles, during the first year of implementation on two secure residential treatment units compared to two control units. Staff’s daily reports on 139 individual patients were coded on use of schema mode language (implementation check), occurrences of aggression (primary outcome) and repressive staff interventions. In addition, repeated questionnaires were filled out by patients (n = 87) on group climate and by staff (n = 50) on team functioning. Compared to the control units, SafePath units showed higher improvements in group climate and repressive interventions. Both SafePath and control units showed decreased aggression over time. Team functioning was consistently better in the SafePath units compared to the care-as-usual units from baseline through 12 months. In conclusion, a Schema Therapy based milieu as implemented with SafePath may contribute to a warm and supportive group climate with less repressive interventions in secure residential youth care

Future Prospects: Deep Imaging of Galaxy Outskirts using Telescopes Large and Small

The Universe is almost totally unexplored at low surface brightness levels. In spite of great progress in the construction of large telescopes and improvements in the sensitivity of detectors, the limiting surface brightness of imaging observations has remained static for about forty years. Recent technical advances have at last begun to erode the barriers preventing progress. In this Chapter we describe the technical challenges to low surface brightness imaging, describe some solutions, and highlight some relevant observations that have been undertaken recently with both large and small telescopes. Our main focus will be on discoveries made with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array (Dragonfly), which is a new telescope concept designed to probe the Universe down to hitherto unprecedented low surface brightness levels. We conclude by arguing that these discoveries are probably only scratching the surface of interesting phenomena that are observable when the Universe is explored at low surface brightness levels.Comment: 27 pages, 10 figures, Invited review, Book chapter in "Outskirts of Galaxies", Eds. J. H. Knapen, J. C. Lee and A. Gil de Paz, Astrophysics and Space Science Library, Springer, in pres