Psychosocial Interventions For Health And Well Being

This volume provides multifaceted and multidisciplinary insights into the growing field of health studies. Providing inputs from the behavioural sciences as well as social sciences, it discusses the issues of recovery from illness, and growth and wellbeing, as situated in social and eco-cultural contexts, and addresses the modalities of health-related interventions in diverse contexts. The specific themes taken up by the contributors are post-trauma growth, resilience, gender and health, distress and wellness, indigenous healing, counselling and psychotherapy, disability-related interventions, self-healing, as well as health issues of special groups like adolescents and the elderly, cancer patients and those suffering from other chronic illnesses. Till recently, the medical model has prevailed as the chief form of understanding health and illness. This has led to marginalization of the context, localization of all health and wellness components within the individual, and to biological reductionism. The contributions to this volume propose corrective measures and provide diverse approaches in a balanced manner. This volume is useful for researchers and practitioners interested in health studies, including the behavioural sciences, social work, medical anthropology, and public health.

Mental health and substance use disorders affect approximately 20 percent of Americans and are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Although a wide range of evidence-based psychosocial interventions are currently in use, most consumers of mental health care find it difficult to know whether they are receiving high-quality care. Although the current evidence base for the effects of psychosocial interventions is sizable, subsequent steps in the process of bringing a psychosocial intervention into routine clinical care are less well defined. Psychosocial Interventions for Mental and Substance Use Disorders details the reasons for the gap between what is known to be effective and current practice and offers recommendations for how best to address this gap by applying a framework that can be used to establish standards for psychosocial interventions. The framework described in Psychosocial Interventions for Mental and Substance Use Disorders can be used to chart a path toward the ultimate goal of improving the outcomes. The framework highlights the need to (1) support research to strengthen the evidence base on the efficacy and effectiveness of psychosocial interventions; (2) based on this evidence, identify the key elements that drive an intervention's effect; (3) conduct systematic reviews to inform clinical guidelines that incorporate these key elements; (4) using the findings of these systematic reviews, develop quality measures - measures of the structure, process, and outcomes of interventions; and (5) establish methods for successfully implementing and sustaining these interventions in regular practice including the training of providers of these interventions. The recommendations offered in this report are intended to assist policy makers, health care organizations, and payers that are organizing and overseeing the provision of care for mental health and substance use disorders while navigating a new health care landscape. The recommendations also target providers, professional societies, funding agencies, consumers, and researchers, all of whom have a stake in ensuring that evidence-based, high-quality care is provided to individuals receiving mental health and substance use services.

The psychological health of competitive athletes is of paramount importance to performance, retention, and well-being in sport, and national governing bodies are increasingly concerned with its promotion. Psychosocial Health and Well-being in High-Level Athletes offers students, researchers, and practicing sport psychologists an accessible and rigorous grounding in the manifestations of psychosocial health in athletes, the threats athletes face to their psychosocial health, and the interventions which can be designed to enhance it. Seeking to guide future research and expand professional understanding of psychosocial issues in sport, the book is based on a model of cognitive, emotional, social, and spiritual health. It clearly defines these dimensions in a sporting context before discussing pertinent threats—such as career transitions, injuries and abuse—and interventions, including adversarial growth, life-skill interventions, prevention and organization policy, and mindfulness-based interventions. Providing an innovative and integrated perspective on psychosocial health and well-being in competitive sport, this book is essential reading for upper-level students taking any clincial sport psychology modules, and for sport psychologists, coaches, and administrators working with competitive athletes.

In order to give high quality care it is essential that mental health nurses have a solid grasp of the most common therapies and interventions used in mental healthcare. If nurses understand what the various interventions involve then they will be much better equipped to support patients through their recovery. This is a practical, engaging introduction to the major psychosocial interventions that demonstrates to students what the interventions are, why they are important and how they can be used. Key features - Interactive approach through realistic case studies that show how interventions can work to promote recovery - A patient centred approach considers the social as well as psychological aspects of mental healthcare - Each chapter is mapped to the relevant NMC standards and Essential Skills Clusters so that readers can see how they are meeting their professional requirements - Activities throughout challenge the reader to think critically and develop graduate skills

Annotation Overviews research, theory, and intervention for cancer prevention and treatment, and explores conceptual and applied currents in health psychology, public health, and behavioral medicine, reviewing major research programs on patient interventions. Describes current thought on the mechanisms through which psychosocial interventions change behaviors or enhance adjustment. Of interest to health psychologists, public health practitioners, and medical doctors. Baum is deputy director of Cancer Control and Population Sciences of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. Andersen teaches psychology at the Ohio State University. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Cancer care today often provides state-of-the-science biomedical treatment, but fails to address the psychological and social (psychosocial) problems associated with the illness. This failure can compromise the effectiveness of health care and thereby adversely affect the health of cancer patients. Psychological and social problems created or exacerbated by cancer-including depression and other emotional problems; lack of information or skills needed to manage the illness; lack of transportation or other resources; and disruptions in work, school, and family life-cause additional suffering, weaken adherence to prescribed treatments, and threaten patients' return to health. Today, it is not possible to deliver high-quality cancer care without using existing approaches, tools, and resources to address patients' psychosocial health needs. All patients with cancer and their families should expect and receive cancer care that ensures the provision of appropriate psychosocial health services. Cancer Care for the Whole Patient recommends actions that oncology providers, health policy makers, educators, health insurers, health planners, researchers and research sponsors, and consumer advocates should undertake to ensure that this standard is met.

This book provides an in-depth examination of psychosocial marital well-being and mental health in traditional communities in Rwanda. It presents rich qualitative research conducted with men, women and elders, highlighting both the issues impacting on marital conflict and domestic violence, and also how potential solutions might be drawn from traditional practices. In doing, so it provides a unique resource for researchers and policymakers seeking to develop evidence-based and culturally-informed mental health and psychosocial support interventions in low and middle income countries. It will appeal in particular to those working the fields of public health, family psychology, social work, cross-cultural psychology and qualitative methodology.

Across diverse academic fields, scholars and practitioners are engaged in developing interventions to promote outcomes like health and quality of life. Indeed, such is the apparent efficacy of such interventions, that there are many policy-led initiatives to implement these at national and international scales. However, few scholars or practitioners have thought in any systematic and critical way about the importance of contextualizing these interventions, i.e., considering how the impact of such interventions may be affected and mediated by specific sociocultural factors (from gender, to ethnicity and socio-economics). The aim of the Research Topic “The Sociocultural Context of Psychosocial Interventions” was to address this lacuna. As such, we tried to help bringing a more ‘contextual’ mindset to the implementation of health and wellbeing interventions. This may help to shift the way such interventions are designed and implemented, both at a granular local level (i.e., influencing individual practitioners) and at a large-scale macro level (e.g., influencing policy makers). Themes within this Research Topic have concerned both macro-sociocultural as well as meso-and micro-layers, and the peculiarities of implementing real world research based on these levels. There has been room for physical and mental health, for family relationships, for educational contexts and even for the effects of crime. Some works have included interesting methodological discussions on the integration of different ecological layers or the modal distribution of our interests. For us it has been very important to work giving a greater diffusion to these issues since, considering psychosocial interventions in the context in which they occur, goes beyond an epistemological or methodological discussion. Rather, these considerations seriously affect the ability of practitioners to really reach the people who need their interventions, listening to their needs and respecting their preferences. For the editors of this book, then, the contextualization of interventions means considering the people who receive them as full citizens immersed in complex societies where factors such as social justice and health or well-being do not float apart in space but affect each other dialectically. We therefore think that the duty of both academics and practitioners is not to forget that it is as important to evaluate the direct effect of our interventions as the influence we have in the society as a whole when we carry them out. We hope you enjoy reading these works and that their dissemination stimulates new lines of research committed to both good practise and social transformation.