The feasibility of providing remote functional family therapy with adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, mental health care has largely transferred its services to online platforms, using videoconferencing (VC) or teletherapy. Within the field of family therapy, however, there is little evidence on the feasibility of using VC, especially when working with whole families at the edge of care. Objective: This study investigated the feasibility of remote Functional Family Therapy (FFT), using a mixed-method approach. Methods: Study 1 consisted of semi- structured interviews with 23 FFT professionals (18 female) about their experience of providing remote FFT during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study 2 included monitoring data of 209 FFT clients (46% female, M age = 14.00) who participated in FFT during the pandemic. We compared families who received mainly in-person, mainly remote or a mix of remote and in-person on client-reported alliance, drop-out, therapist-rated outcomes, and treatment intensity using MANCOVA’s and chi-square tests. Results: In Study 1 two themes emerged around experienced challenges, namely ‘Feeling in control’ and ‘Engagement and alliance’. Two other themes emerged around adaptations, namely ‘Being more on top’ and ‘Connecting in different ways’. In Study 2, we found that the therapeutic alliance was not related to using VC. Also, families had less between-session contact during the Engagement and Motivation Phase when receiving mainly VC, but had more sessions and longer therapy when receiving a mix of in-person and remote therapy. Conclusions. The current study suggests that providing systemic family teletherapy to families on the edge of care is feasible. Further development of systemic family teletherapy is warranted

It’s not just the Therapist: Therapist and Country-Wide Experience Predict Therapist Adherence and Adolescent Outcome

Contains fulltext : 173905.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Objective: Therapist adherence is a quality indicator in routine clinical care when evaluating the success of the implementation of an intervention. The current study investigated whether therapist adherence mediates the association between therapist, team, and country-wide experience (i.e. number of years since implementation in the country) on the one hand, and treatment outcome on the other hand. We replicated and extended a study by Löfholm et al. (2014). Method: Data over a 10-year period were obtained from 4290 adolescents (12-17 years) with antisocial or delinquent problem behavior, who were treated with Multisystemic Therapy (MST) by 222 therapists, working in 27 different teams in the Netherlands. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to assess the associations between experience, therapist adherence, and post-treatment outcomes. Results: Treatment outcomes were directly predicted by therapist experience, countrywide experience, and therapist adherence, but not by team experience. Moreover, therapist adherence mediated the association between therapist and country-wide experience, and treatment outcomes. The association between therapist experience and therapist adherence was not affected by the number of years of team experience or country-wide experience. Conclusion: The effect of country-wide experience on outcome may reflect increasing experience of training and supporting the therapists. It suggests that nation-wide quality control may relate to better therapist adherence and treatment outcome for adolescents treated with systemic therapy.17 p

Discutindo a educação ambiental no cotidiano escolar: desenvolvimento de projetos na escola formação inicial e continuada de professores

A presente pesquisa buscou discutir como a Educação Ambiental (EA) vem sendo trabalhada, no Ensino Fundamental e como os docentes desta escola compreendem e vem inserindo a EA no cotidiano escolar., em uma escola estadual do município de Tangará da Serra/MT, Brasil. Para tanto, realizou-se entrevistas com os professores que fazem parte de um projeto interdisciplinar de EA na escola pesquisada. Verificou-se que o projeto da escola não vem conseguindo alcançar os objetivos propostos por: desconhecimento do mesmo, pelos professores; formação deficiente dos professores, não entendimento da EA como processo de ensino-aprendizagem, falta de recursos didáticos, planejamento inadequado das atividades. A partir dessa constatação, procurou-se debater a impossibilidade de tratar do tema fora do trabalho interdisciplinar, bem como, e principalmente, a importância de um estudo mais aprofundado de EA, vinculando teoria e prática, tanto na formação docente, como em projetos escolares, a fim de fugir do tradicional vínculo “EA e ecologia, lixo e horta”.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

The Development and Validation of a Subscale for the School-Age Child Behavior CheckList to Screen for Autism Spectrum Disorder

The first aim of this study was to construct/validate a subscale—with cut-offs considering gender/age differences—for the school-age Child Behavior CheckList (CBCL) to screen for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) applying both data-driven (N = 1666) and clinician-expert (N = 15) approaches. Further, we compared these to previously established CBCL ASD profiles/subscales and DSM-oriented subscales. The second aim was to cross-validate results in two truly independent samples (N = 2445 and 886). Despite relatively low discriminative power of all subscales in the cross-validation samples, results indicated that the data-driven subscale had the best potential to screen for ASD and a similar screening potential as the DSM-oriented subscales. Given beneficial implications for pediatric/clinical practice, we encourage colleagues to continue the validation of this CBCL ASD subscale

The Development and Validation of a Subscale for the School-Age Child Behavior CheckList to Screen for Autism Spectrum Disorder

The first aim of this study was to construct/validate a subscale—with cut-offs considering gender/age differences—for the school-age Child Behavior CheckList (CBCL) to screen for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) applying both data-driven (N = 1666) and clinician-expert (N = 15) approaches. Further, we compared these to previously established CBCL ASD profiles/subscales and DSM-oriented subscales. The second aim was to cross-validate results in two truly independent samples (N = 2445 and 886). Despite relatively low discriminative power of all subscales in the cross-validation samples, results indicated that the data-driven subscale had the best potential to screen for ASD and a similar screening potential as the DSM-oriented subscales. Given beneficial implications for pediatric/clinical practice, we encourage colleagues to continue the validation of this CBCL ASD subscale

MASCOT - a Mobile Lander on-board Hayabusa2 Spacecraft - Status and Operational Concept for the Asteroid Ryugu

MASCOT (‘Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout’) is a 10 kg mobile surface science package on board JAXA’s Hayabusa2 sample return mission, currently on its way to the near-Earth asteroid (162173) Ryugu. The mission was launched in December 2014 from Tanegashima Space Center, Japan. The Hayabusa2 spacecraft will reach the target asteroid in summer 2018. Hayabusa2 will return its samples to Earth in December 2020. After arrival at the target asteroid ‘Ryugu’ a detailed mapping phase will be performed and the landing site of MASCOT will be selected. The deployment of MASCOT to the asteroids surface is planned for the beginning of October 2018. MASCOT has been developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in cooperation with the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES). The main objective of MASCOT is to perform in-situ investigations of the asteroid surface and to support the sampling site selection for the mother spacecraft. Mascot is equipped with four scientific instruments a wide angle camera, a hyperspectral infrared microscope, a radiometer and a magnetometer. The camera (MasCam) provides ground truth for the orbital measurements of the Hayabusa2 orbiter instruments and the in-situ MASCOT sensor suite as well as geological context of the samples. The radiometer (MARA) determines the surface brightness temperature, the thermal inertia of the surface material and the spectral slope in infrared. The radiometer field of view is correlated with the wide angle camera field of view. The magnetometer (MasMAG) observes the magnetic field profile during descent and bouncing and determines any global and local magnetization of the asteroid