Psychological Services

Microaggressions are intentional or unintentional slights, insults, invalidations, and offensive behaviors that communicate hostile or derogatory messages to minoritized populations. When microaggressions cross over to social media, they can be considered a form of cyberbullying, which occurs over digital devices and harms, threatens, undermines, or socially excludes others. Microaggressions and cyberbullying have adverse mental health outcomes for racial and cultural minority youth, and there is an urgent need for practical strategies youth can use online to interrupt and disarm negative and harmful social media content...

Dropout or treatment discontinuation from evidence-based psychotherapies (EBPs) has been a concern for clinicians as it is thought that such discontinuation prevents patients from achieving a full course of therapy and obtaining maximum benefit. Recent studies, however, suggest that treatment discontinuation may sometimes be due to symptom improvement. The purpose of the current evaluation was to examine change in self-reported symptoms in participants who completed versus did not complete treatment in a Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic offering EBPs for both depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)...

With increasing concerns around student mental health, student counseling services (SCSs) in higher education are being challenged to show evidence of their contribution to the personal and academic development of students through evidence-based approaches including systematic data collection and standardized outcome measurement. This study aims to document data collection and measurement processes in SCSs in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ireland and to explore the opinions of staff in SCSs on the feasibility and functionality of a standardized national database for SCSs to enhance robust data collection and measurement across the sector...

Clinical supervision is an essential component of psychotherapeutic practice. However, the literature suggests that the provision of supervision in the public sector has been declining significantly over the past two decades, suggesting that many health care professionals are receiving neither the guidance nor support needed to deliver safe and effective care. Identifying the distinct challenges of supervision in the public sector and proposing prospective solutions is, therefore, a burning issue. In this article, we introduce a novel analytical framework for clinical supervision-the MATRIX-striving to address the unique demands of psychotherapy in the public sector...

In this article, I discuss the personal and professional experiences and influences that led me to the study of active bystandership. Research, my own and that of many others, has investigated the roots of active bystandership, why people intervene to prevent harm, and why they do not. Most importantly, we have demonstrated that active bystandership can be learned. When people receive training in the skills of active bystandership, they are more likely to overcome inhibitors and barriers to intervention. When organizations create and maintain a culture in which bystanders are valued and protected, the people who live and work there are more likely to intervene to prevent harm...

Internalized or self-stigma can be damaging to psychological and social functioning and recovery, especially for people with serious mental illness. Most studies have focused on the effects of high self-stigma, which has included both moderate and high self-stigma, versus low levels of self-stigma which has included no, minimal, or mild self-stigma. Therefore, little is known about the variation within these categories (e.g., minimal versus mild self-stigma) and its impact on recovery. This article examines differences in the demographic, clinical, and psychosocial variables associated with different levels of self-stigma severity...

Psychology trainees are increasingly diverse in terms of gender identity and gender expression (Lund & Thomas, 2022), yet clinical supervision models often overlook the unique needs, strengths, and experiences of transgender, nonbinary, and gender expansive (TNBGE) trainees and supervisors. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) remains the largest training network for psychology trainees and many American Psychological Association-accredited VA sites advertise focused training opportunities in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer health at both the internship and postdoctoral levels...

Experiencing meaning in life may be particularly relevant following traumatic experiences as individuals who report meaning post trauma report less psychological distress. Engaging in avoidant coping, however, may be a sign of underlying psychological distress in the aftermath of traumatic experiences. We sought to examine associations among meaning in life, avoidant coping, and psychological distress in a sample of trauma-exposed veterans. Secondary cross-sectional analyses were conducted on data from veterans exposed to a traumatic event(s) who experienced clinically meaningful guilt ( N = 145)...

Although clinical supervision is widely seen as critical for professional training and for safeguarding and promoting client well-being in mental health care, it is understudied, particularly in publicly funded services. In surveys of two large samples of youth mental health service providers (a state sample of providers billing Medicaid [ N = 1,057] and a national sample of professional guild members [ N = 1,720]), we examined the amount of time providers reported spending in supervision and consultation in a typical workweek and its covariation with characteristics of providers' caseloads and work settings...

Reports an error in "An intensive outpatient program with prolonged exposure for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder: Retention, predictors, and patterns of change" by Sheila A. M. Rauch, Carly W. Yasinski, Loren M. Post, Tanja Jovanovic, Seth Norrholm, Andrew M. Sherrill, Vasiliki Michopoulos, Jessica L. Maples-Keller, Kathryn Black, Liza Zwiebach, Boadie W. Dunlop, Laura Loucks, Brittany Lannert, Monika Stojek, Laura Watkins, Mark Burton, Kelsey Sprang, Lauren McSweeney, Katie Ragsdale and Barbara O...

Reports an error in " Collect, Share, Act : A transtheoretical clinical model for doing measurement-based care in mental health treatment" by Jessica Barber and Sandra G. Resnick ( Psychological Services , Advanced Online Publication, Feb 24, 2022, np). In the original article, changes were needed to correct the unintentional omission of noteworthy work in this area and to improve clarity. In the fifth paragraph of the introductory section, the first two sentences have been edited. In addition, a full reference for Duncan and Reese (2015) was added to the reference list and text citations were added as needed throughout...

Depression is highly prevalent in primary care (PC) settings. While extensive efforts are directed at optimization of depression screening practices, rates remain suboptimal, and barriers continue to be poorly understood. The present study investigated screening-related practices and beliefs. A concurrent mixed-methods approach was utilized to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data. Participants ( N = 36) completed a self-report survey and a brief semistructured interview to assess attitudes toward depression screening, knowledge/beliefs about screening, as well as administration practices and screening-related training...

Urban Indian Health Programs (UIHPs) are one of the primary sources of government-funded health care for the millions of American Indian and Alaskan Native (AI/AN) people living in urban areas. The goal of this study is to better understand what services are available at UIHPs and how resources are being used to support these services. Semistructured interviews with behavioral health directors at 10 UIHPs were reported, transcribed, and thematically analyzed to address this knowledge gap. Our analysis indicates that UIHP behavioral health services were broad, encompassing numerous commitments that extend far beyond purely psychotherapeutic interactions and interventions to the periphery of behavioral health...

In 2016, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) launched the Measurement-Based Care (MBC) in Mental Health Initiative to support the use of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) across mental health services to increase veteran engagement and promote collaborative treatment planning. The present study reported on the administrations of PROMs across all residential stays within the VHA's Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Programs between October 1, 2018, and September 30, 2019 ( N = 29,111)...

Social support is important for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) recovery and emerging literature indicate that social support could increase engagement in PTSD therapy. However, there is a need to understand how and why family involvement can increase treatment engagement to inform strategies used in clinical practice. This study explores how individuals with PTSD and family members of individuals with PTSD experience therapy and how social interactions help or hinder therapy engagement. We interviewed 18 U...

Nonprofit organizations, providing psychotherapy services in community-based settings, are often faced with the tensions inherent in both ensuring quality services while limiting program costs. The same is true in private and public health care settings, where services regularly navigate cost reductions and budget cuts. At the Ububele Educational and Psychotherapy Trust, an nonprofit organization in South Africa, reflective supervision is seen as a critical component for effective, ethically sound, and culturally sensitive intervention despite competition for financial resources...

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations face heightened risk of suicide compared to their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts, and a previous suicide attempt is among the strongest predictors of suicide mortality. Despite this increased risk, limited research has explored mental health help-seeking behavior and previous mental health care experiences of SGM individuals among the highest risk for suicide-individuals with a recent, near-fatal suicide attempt. This study presents thematic analysis results of interviews with 22 SGM individuals who reported at least one near-fatal suicide attempt in the past 18 months...

Later in life Veterans may report increased thoughts and memories of traumatic military experience in the context of age-related changes, a process called Later-Adulthood Trauma Reengagement (LATR); this process may lead to resilience or distress. We describe the development of a 10-session group intervention with goals of providing psychoeducation about LATR, enhancing stress management and coping skills, and fostering meaning making. We characterize implementation and outcome characteristics for seven group cohorts over 5 years; groups were completed in-person or virtually...

Due to the recognition of the high prevalence and widespread effects of trauma, trauma-informed care (TIC) framework has emerged to address its impact and prevent retraumatization in the systems of care. Since organizational support has been identified as crucial in TIC implementation and sustainability, this systematic review assessed the status quo of TIC interventions which explicitly incorporate an organizational component. Our search yielded 880 articles, and 15 met the inclusion criteria. All the studies were carried out in the United States, more than half in mental health and Child Welfare Services, through longitudinal designs with no randomization or control group...

A standard component of service delivery in alcohol treatment clinics is evidence-based assessment (EBA). Although EBA is essential for selecting appropriate treatment modalities for alcohol use and associated problems, there are limitations in existing EBAs concerning evidence of cultural equivalence and utility among individuals seeking alcohol treatment. However, training in EBA, addictions, and clinical applications with diverse populations all are gaps in clinical training in doctoral programs in clinical psychology...