Best in Mental Health (May – June 2019)

May – June 2019 Mental Health Roundup

This roundup contains some of the latest news in social work, healthcare, private practice and more! Understand self-harm, overeating triggers, schizophrenia, intersectional identities, postpartum depression, how to discuss racism with your children, address the research to practice gap, the use/impact of algorithms, living an authentic life and much more!

This wrap-up’s main themes are:

• Therapy and Relationships
• Healthcare
• Advocacy
• Self-Care/Inspiration
• Social Work, Technology & Education
• NonProfit Career & Private Practice

Therapy and Relationships

• Beyond the Myths: Understanding Self-Harm – Women-In-Depth interview w/Vena Wilson – “When everything builds up inside, managing emotions can oftentimes feel impossible…”
• CBT for a Case of Irritable Bowel Syndrome – Allen R. Miller – “Ann’s core belief of worthlessness provided a foundation for thoughts and assumptions that defined her lifestyle… Others’ wants and needs always took precedence over her own… Acknowledging positive characteristics about herself led her to reconstruct her beliefs…”
• A common but often unrecognized trigger for overeating – Michelle May – “why I was eating drove… When I ate, what I are, how I ate, how much I ate, and where I spent my energy… dieting… crave the foods we can’t have even more…”
• The Competence Motif – Teenage Whisperer – “You can’t do this… You can’t do that… Let me learn stuff new
  And I promise I’ll surprise… Both myself and you…”
• Going No Contact – Sharie Stines/Psych Central – “The hook in a toxic relationship is that the target feels compelled to “one day get it right” or fix it…”
• How to Use Systemic Therapy MicroSkills Part 2 – Ili Rivera Walter – “Client language is the using of the actual client’s words in whatever you do next… in a question, a validating, empathizing, or summarizing… nonverbal matching… when the client leads forward, you lean forward…”
• Parent Teen Activities: The Gift of Adventure – Wendy Helfenbaum/Your Teen Mag – “being brave together—with me welcoming his supportive underwater fist pumps—forged a new bond and put us on equal footing…”
• School Interventions for Teen Depression & Anxiety: 2 New Research Briefs – SSWN – “Empowering a Multimodal Pathway Towards Healthy Youth (EMPATHY) program… UTalk for adolescents at risk for SAD or depression and who also reported peer victimization…”
• Should I Get Over My Feelings About My Husband Using Porn? – Neil Brown – “if a partner is using porn as a regular form of sexual gratification, it will drain that sexual energy out of the relationship…”
• The silence around schizophrenia – All in the Mind – “social and cultural aspects of this illness play a strong part in the potential for recovery for people living with schizophrenia… in Africa, Asia and Latin America, people have a 50% better chance of recovery than those in Europe, the United States and Australia…”
• Trolls and Toxicity: Surviving Online Harassment – Crystal Raypole/Good Therapy – “friends and family can offer support and advice… Practicing good self-care can also help you cope…”
• Understanding Intersectional Identities – Joe Kort/Psychology Today – “intersectional identity theory asserts that people are often disadvantaged or privileged by multiple sources: their race, age, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and other identity markers…”
• What is Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)? – JKP Blog – “sample chapter from Appearance Anxiety… worrying about perceived flaws in appearance… things that other people cannot see or do not generally notice… BDD is not about being vain…”
• Why Are We Drawn To Unavailable Partners? – Therapy Chat interview w/Marni Feuerman – “a lot of it goes back to the family of origin you were born into… or trauma or abuse… can impact your view of self and view of others… quality of that bond, how they were responsive to you… how was emotion treated…”

Healthcare

• California Tests a Digital ‘Fire Alarm’ for Mental Distress – Benedict Carey/NYT – “using them means sharing personal data with private companies, and any “fire alarm” has the potential to trigger anxiety, as well as blunt it…”
• The End of the Age of Paternity Secrets – Ashley Fetters/The Atlantic – “until the 20th century… claims to fatherhood (and denials of fatherhood) were only as strong as the implicated parties’ insistence, and circumstantial evidence… paternity testing… available to everyone, for uses both benign and less so…”
• Mapping the health data landscape – Susannah Fox – “clinical data is just one small part of the puzzle of someone’s life… hours… on self-care vs. the one hour with… neurologist is another wonderful “map” of health data”
• Mental health and suicide risk in LGBTQ students: What are the associated factors? – Mental Elf – “significant associations… with all the hypothesised general, individual and interpersonal LGBTQ risk factors and discrimination. The risk factors of sexual abuse, other abuse or violence and being transgender had the largest odds-ratio…”
• Trauma-Informed Care in Residential Long-Term Care for Older Adults – InSocialWork podcast w/Dr. Nancy Kusmaul – “regulations that will soon require skilled nursing facilities receiving federal funding to incorporate trauma-informed principles into person-centered care… why trauma-informed care is critical when working with older adults…”
• Using ‘Centering Pregnancy’ to Address Postpartum Depression – InSocialWork interview w/Dr. Lorinda Parks and Dr. Robert Keefe – “social work profession’s role in establishing and maintaining interventions and supports within low-income communities, particularly with new mothers of color…”

Advocacy

• The Future of Universal Basic Income from a Social Work Perspective – Ellen Belluomini – “Automation and technology will make millions of careers obsolete… Those who survive… will be specialists or innovators… our societal definitions of worth need to adjust if we don’t want to experience an increase in mental illness…”
• Domestic Sex Trafficking Hidden in Plain Sight – Robert T. Muller – “relationship begins as positive but becomes abusive, with the person being forced into, and forced to stay in, the sex trade to work for the trafficker….”
• Is Practicing Civility Enough During Times of Strife: Reminder of Social Work’s Central Calling – Llewellyn J. Cornelius/ New Social Worker – “NASW Code of Ethics encourages social workers to combat isms, discrimination, oppression, and violence…”
• A Parent’s Guide to Discussing Racism – SJS – “many kids want to talk about this topic… acknowledge what your child already knows: People are different, and the world is not colorblind… asking yourself what biases, privileges and experiences you have that could affect how you think about racism…”
• Poverty – Helpful Social Work Podcast – “causes and impacts of poverty… social work’s role in overcoming poverty, through direct work and social action…”
• Refugee resettlement, social media and the social organization of difference – Jay Marlowe – “Social media platforms allow refugees separated by distance to… exchange resources across borders… refugees are 50 per cent less likely to have an internet-enabled phone relative to the general population…”
• School Bullying Rates Increase by 35% from 2016 to 2019 – Justin W. Patchin – “It could be that students are more aware of school bullying as a problem…”

Self-Care/Inspiration

• 12 Indications You are Living an Authentic Life – Lisa Brookes Kift – “You know yourself deeply; your wounds, strengths, vulnerabilities and successes… You are accountable to yourself and others for your mistakes…”
• Top 10 Relatable Songs that Highlight Mental Health – Leia Charnin/Shrink Tank – “songs… promote love, inclusion, and acceptance… White Privilege by Macklemore… Born This Way by Lady Gaga… Love Wins by Carrie Underwood…”
  
• Are High Expectations for Yourself Causing Your Anxiety? – Tanya J Peterson/HealthyPlace – “How much are you led by “shoulds,” perfectionism, or a need to perform better than everyone else?…”
• Be More Curious, Make More Art – Amy Johnson Maricle – “Taking the time to know a thing makes it familiar to you, and therefore easier, and more fun to render…”
• Make Self-care A Regular & Nec Part Of Lifestyle – Selling the Couch w/Lanie Smith – “self-care… foundation for sustainability… self-care isn’t just about external things like sleep and exercise but what’s on the inside that’s not in alignment…”
• Summertime Anxiety is a Thing – Lynn Lyons – “instead of offering your children reassurance and certainty in the face of all these emotions, help them understand and normalize the challenges of saying goodbye and starting new relationships… the universality of disappointment and uncertainty…”
• Self-Care During the Summer Season –  archive of May 30, 2019 #MacroSW chat w/Vilissa Thompson – “best practices” for having a less-stressed summer…”
• Why You Need a Self-Love Practice (and How to Get Started) – Sharon Martin – “Self-love means that you accept yourself fully, treat yourself with kindness and respect, and nurture your growth and wellbeing…”

Social Work, Technology and Education

• 7 Strategies to Promote Community in Online Courses – Brian Udermann – “serve as the role model… use introduction or icebreaker activities… Create a safe course environment…”
• 10 Reasons Mental Health Professionals Should Have a Social Media Platform – David Susman – “your content is instantly available to your audience… you can quickly reach thousands… educate the public and policy makers…”
• An Agenda to Address the Research-to-Practice Gap – NASW – “social work research can link human service organizational and management research to practice more robustly… fostering of closer connections between researchers and practitioners…”
• ‘App’- lying the digital in social work… – Denise Turner/Teaching & Learning in Social Work – “students found it easier to critique the model interviews on the app, because they were videos which removed the power relationship issue experienced in the live classroom…”
• The Difference Between Micro, Macro and Mezzo Social Work – SWH – “Micro social work is one-on-one counseling with clients… Macro social work involves working with whole communities…”
• Exploring the Integration of Social Workers into the Library Setting  – InSocialWork interview w/Carrie Draper and Dr. Kirk Foster – “leveraging the library’s familiarity and resources by placing social work interns and professionals… how services and roles change…”
• The Future of Higher Education: An open and evolving sector scan in 2019 – Laura Burney Nissen/Social Work Futures – “If our goal is to thrive in the social work education practice environment of the future – we will need unprecidented levels of creativity, agility, collective intelligence and FORESIGHTFULNESS…”
• How to Give a Social Work Clinical Case Presentation – Social Work Coaching – “provide all of the relevant information… be concise and mindful of time constraints… case presentation outline…”
• How the VA uses algorithms to predict suicide – Mohana Ravindranath – “suicide prediction algorithm, called REACH VET… culls patient records when they arrive at a VA facility…”
• Interview about Data Selves – Deborah Lupton – “People live with and co-evolve with their personal data – they learn from data and data learn from them in a continually changing relationship…”
• Learning to love (or at least leverage) technology – Lindsey Phillips/Counseling Today – “augmented reality along with telepsychiatry as a method of exposure therapy for clients with phobias…Encouraging clients to follow up on txs… skills… through… mental health apps…”
• Research metrics: get your guide – “What’s a journal Impact Factor? How’s a researcher’s h-index calculated?…”
• Sharing power with students by seeking their input on a grading rubric – Matthea Marquart & Elise Verdooner/Teaching & Learning in Social Work – “concrete example of how students could contribute to their own learning experience…”
• Software Aimed at Automating Aspects of Social Media-Based Health Promotion – Katja Reuter – “Trial Promoter… generated, distributed, and assessed 1275 social media health messages over 85 days (April 19 to July 12, 2017)…”
• Stuck On Algorithms – Sean Erreger – “For social work practice the question is not IF algorithms will impact our practice but WHEN and HOW…”
• The #UWinToolParade: Open Pedagogy as #OER – “building critical literacies around edtech platforms and tools. Among educators…in K-12 AND in higher ed…real purpose of the project… professional learning and open pedagogy…”

NonProfit Career & Private Practice

• Accounting and Bookkeeping Strategies – Julie Herres/Practice of Therapy – “every owner should know are how much you are bringing in, your overhead, variable costs, and how much you need to take home each month…”
• Ask Allison: First Year in Practice – Allison Puryear – “imposter syndrome… pretty common… boom and bust… flood of calls and then it’s crickets… optimism pessimism roller coaster…”
• Creating Your Ideal Client Avatar – Practice of the Practice – “What clients bring you life? Which clients fuel you and make you feel like you can work with them all the time?… If you are (pain) and you want (outcome) then we’ll help you through (method)…”
• How social change happens, and why it’s so often abrupt & unpredictable – Robert Wiblin – “Cass Sunstein… preference falsification, variable thresholds for action, and group polarisation… together these are a cocktail for social shifts that are chaotic and fundamentally unpredictable…”
• Outsource THIS: 10 things every therapist can let someone else handle – Christina Kaake/QA Prep – “Cleaning your house…Billing Services… scheduling your time with clients, even ongoing, can be outsourced or even automated…”
• Performing Therapy On-the-Go: How To Prep for Quality Telemental Health Sessions While Traveling – Roy Huggins – “Avoid: Hotel or airport WiFi. These will make for inconsistent and choppy sessions… Use: A personal cellular hotspot…”
• The Real Value Of Peer Consultation In Private Practice – Catherine Wilson/Private Practice from the Inside Out – “Education and Skill Building… Networking… Relief from Isolation…”
• Social Innovation Alone Can’t Solve Racial Inequity – SSIR – “underlying causes of racial inequality: people’s hidden biases and the institutional culture that normalizes whiteness… cultivate a collective awareness of these problems and build accountability structures to ensure more inclusive organizational practices…”

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