How we think about our past experiences affects how we can help others

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Criminal rehabilitation : the impact of religious programming

This is the published version: Gerace, Adam and Day, Andrew 2010, Criminal rehabilitation: the impact of religiou

Criminal rehabilitation : the impact of religious programming

Copyright, Christian Association for Psychological Studies, Inc. Reprinted with permission.In spite of their prevalence in correctional institutions, religious programs have been the subject of limited independent assessment. The purpose of the current study was to examine the outcomes of the Kairos Short Course, a Christian religious course offered to prison inmates that aims to engage participants in examination and meditation on their experiences, as well as the fostering of skills such as forgiveness and empathic responsiveness. A sample of 38 inmates (20 assigned to attend the Kairos Short Course and 18 serving as a waiting-list comparison) at a medium security prison participated in the evaluation and were assessed prior to and following completion of the Course on measures of criminal thinking, empathy, self reflection, treatment readiness, and forgiveness of self and others. No clear evidence of change on any of these measures was found. These results are of interest in the context of the growing need for service providers to demonstrate that their programs are evidence-based and contribute to the community safety goals of most correctional agencies. It is concluded that such results should temper some of the more enthusiastic claims of some providers of religious programs to prisoners that such programs are successful in rehabilitating large numbers of offenders

People hospitalised on acute psychiatric wards report mixed feelings of safety and vulnerability

Author accepted manuscript (Post Print) made available in accordance with publisher copyright policy.Commentary on: Stenhouse RC. ‘Safe enough in here?’: patients’ expectations and experiences of feeling safe in an acute psychiatric inpatient ward. J Clin Nurs 2013;22:3109–18. Implications for practice and research - Patients expect to be cared for and kept safe by nurses. They feel physically safer when male nurses are present and feel vulnerable among fellow patients. - Nurses need to be sensitive to the experience of hospitalisation and need to provide physical and emotional safety for all inpatients through close engagement with them. - Further research is needed to explore the factors that promote feelings of being safe and recovery in acute inpatient units

Does Past Experience Increase Empathy? Similar past experiences can both help and hinder our understanding of others.

Have you ever told a friend experiencing a troubling situation, “I know exactly how you feel”? This response is usually driven by a connection we’ve made with our own similar experiences. Having “been there,” we believe we know what it’s like to be them. But do we really

The Children of 9/11: 16 Years On

Perhaps like many people, I find it hard to believe that 16 years have passed since the terrible events that took place in New York City, Arlington County, and Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 2001. Most of us can remember where we were when we heard or watched it all unfold—I was up late studying for a Developmental Psychology exam in Adelaide, South Australia—and the shock, disbelief, and heightened alert we all felt months after that tragic day; even, in my case, in as far away a place as Australia. Psychological studies have shown that memories about 9/11 and other publically-experienced events can be distorted and altered over time. However, few of us would argue against the idea that 9/11 is an indelible part of our collective history, and those ramifications for individuals, families, communities, and the wider world are felt to this day. In this way, I think it must be more than a decade-and-a-half on because the world seems to be a very different place, and so much has happened in that time

Is It Last Call for the Gay Bar? Why gay nightclubs and bars still matter for same-sex attracted people

I was saddened when I heard some months ago that The Mars Bar, the only dedicated gay and lesbian nightclub in Adelaide, South Australia, would be closing after 40 years in business. The announcement followed several years of difficulties for the club due to declining patronage. The problems faced by The Mars Bar are not specific to this one nightclub or the city/state in which it was run. In a 2015 paper (link is external), Toby Lea, John de Wit, and Robert Reynolds outlined previous research regarding reasons for changes in socialization and, drawing on previous work (link is external), the “structural decline” of lesbian and gay scenes, such as that of Oxford Street in Sydney. Increased use of online dating, changes in neighborhood composition and property values, and costs in attending such venues have been identified as being related to declines in physical spaces and attendance at the venues that remain. The researchers outlined theoretical debate as to whether the gay liberation movement has given way to a post-gay era, where sexual orientation is not central to identity, there is decreased stigmatization, and less isolation is felt by same-sex attracted persons; all of which translates to different methods of socialization and relationship formation

The Use of Restrictive Measures in an Acute Inpatient Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service

© . This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/There are significant issues associated with the use of restrictive measures, such as seclusion and restraint, in child and adolescent mental health care. Greater understanding of how restrictive measures are used is important for informing strategies to reduce their use. In this brief report we present a 12-month audit (1/1/2010-31/12/2011) of the use of restrictive measures (seclusion, physical restraint) in one child and adolescent acute inpatient mental health unit in Australia. The study highlights the need for continued efforts to reduce the use of restrictive measures in child and adolescent mental health services

Multidisciplinary health professionals' assessments of risk: how are tools used to reach consensus about risk assessment and management?

Author accepted manuscript (Post-Print) made available in accordance with publisher copyright policy.Risk assessment and management are among the most important and complex tasks health professionals undertake in their practice to prevent harm to patients and ensure safe and effective treatment. The aim of this study was to examine how multidisciplinary team members use tools to assess and manage risk, through examination of how tools are used to gather, record and “score” risk information; and how this process impacts on the formulation of risk assessment and management plans, interaction with patients, and consensus with colleagues regarding patient care. Fourteen professionals completed an assessment for a hypothetical client using a risk assessment and management tool, and then discussed their assessment in semi-structured interviews. Professionals were in moderate agreement in their assessments of the client on the tool, and highlighted the complexity of their decision making. Clinical management decisions, such as the amelioration of particular risks, followed assessment of the patient in a consistent way. The tool was an important way to for clinicians to communicate their judgments to others and set plans to direct patient care. Implications for the use of clinical decision making tools and instruments in mental health care, and the need for a focus on multidisciplinary decision making, are highlighted