Psychiatric and Mental Health Commons^™

Caring For Patients At Risk Of Suicide In Vermont, Lindsay R. Aldrich

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Suicide is the 9th leading cause of death in Vermont among all age groups. 34% of people who died by suicide had a primary care visit for their mental health within the last year. As a response to this statewide issue, I assisted Richmond Family Medicine’s application for this year’s Suicide-Safer Care Mini-Grant.

Adolescent Suicide Prevention Via Parental Education, Junelle Shepard, Mary Val Palumbo

College of Nursing and Health Sciences Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Project Publications

Purpose. Up to 24% of children from the ages of 12 to 17 have reported suicidal ideation, with 7-11% reporting at least one suicide attempt in the past 12 months (Hetrick, 2017). In a study by Jones et al (2019) over 50% of parents were unaware their child was exhibiting suicidal ideation. This project aims to increase community awareness of suicidal ideation and teach community members how to talk with adolescents about this sensitive topic.

Methods. Five online training sessions were offered in Fall 2021, with each session lasting 90 minutes. Using Smith et al.’s Suicide Knowledge and Skills Questionnaire, …

Nature Is The Best Medicine, Nathan Schweitzer

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

This project examined the cost of mental health diagnosis on the health care system and how interactions with green space and nature increase mental health wellbeing. A Vermont state government program to increase access to state parks through primary care providers offices is highlighted. Interviews were conducted with a community psychologist discussing interaction with nature and its effects on mental health. The second interview was with a member of the volunteer board for the Governors council on fitness discussing the origins of the state park program.

Increasing Mental Health Resource Access During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Valerie Braddick

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

No abstract provided.

Quantifying Language Changes Surrounding Mental Health On Twitter, Anne Marie Stupinski

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Mental health challenges are thought to afflict around 10% of the global population each year, with many going untreated due to stigma and limited access to services. Here, we explore trends in words and phrases related to mental health through a collection of 1- , 2-, and 3-grams parsed from a data stream of roughly 10% of all English tweets since 2012. We examine temporal dynamics of mental health language, finding that the popularity of the phrase ‘mental health’ increased by nearly two orders of magnitude between 2012 and 2018. We observe that mentions of ‘mental health’ spike annually and …

Health Screening For Individuals Diagnosed With Mental Illness Within A Housing-First Organization, Jennifer J. Chamberlin

College of Nursing and Health Sciences Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Project Publications

Background: Individuals with serious mental illness are a high-risk population that need improved access to physical health care. Many have negative experiences with the healthcare system and need support in accessing it. A housing-first organization in Vermont offers wrap-around services to these individuals but does not have a standardized way to assess for client healthcare needs or to communicate with primary care provider offices.

Purpose: The project aimed to: 1. Identify the current processes used to assess client health needs; 2. Change organizational workflow to include comprehensive and standardized health protocols. 3. Instruct staff to increase knowledge to identify and …

Improving The Therapeutic Environment In The Crisis Stabilization Unit At Glens Falls Hospital, Emma Hall

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

The Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU) at Glens Falls Hospital provides a separate, safe space within the Emergency Department for adults and children struggling with mental health crises to stabilize before discharge or admission to an inpatient psychiatric unit. An increase in mental health crises over the past 10+ years plus a shortage of nearby inpatient beds, especially for adolescents and children, has led to longer stays in the CSU. Longer stays in a place not built for therapeutic intervention but rather for crisis stabilization may lead to increased agitation, prolonged stays or prolonged time to stabilize a patient, and potentially …

Opportunities For Patient Self-Reflection During Acute Phase Of Depression Treatment, Millen Abselab

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

This project for UVMMC Family Medicine at Hinesburg investigates the acute phase of depression treatment for adult patients and introduces opportunities for patient empowerment during this 4-to-6-week window through de-identified automated text surveys for self-reflection about treatment and pattern tracking contributory to mood. Sample text survey built on Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and deployment of text surveys is based on Mosio. Future interventions can utilize mobile phone apps based on patient response to surveys.

Combating Seasonal Affective Disorder In Vermont, Prasanna Kumar

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a cyclical pattern of depression-like symptoms that occur during the winter months. In Vermont, SAD is estimated to affect up to 10% of individuals. An informational flyer was developed that explained the symptoms of SAD, what the treatment options are, and then linked individuals with local resources for wellness activities in Chittenden County using QR codes in order to prevent SAD. The flyer was distributed at the Community Health Care Centers of Burlington South End office. The flyer was met with enthusiasm and will be given out to patients at the end of this season …

Assessment And Awareness Of Mental Health Conditions Among Refugees In Vermont, Sandi Caus

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Refugees experience profound hardship in their home-country, displaced country and throughout the period of re-settlement. Experiences like direct or indirect exposure to traumatic events, torture, sexual abuse and stigmatized refugee identity post-resttlement are major risk factors for the development of mental health coniditions inlcuding PTSD, depression and psychosis. Despite major risk factors for the development of mental health conditions, culturally-specific mental health stigma persists as a major barrier to addressing mental health among refugees. This project emphasizes techniques and self-education that can be utilized to improve mentah health screening and identification among refugee patients in Vermont.

Understanding The Profiles Of Adolescents Engaged In Intentional Self-Poisoning With Suicidal Intent And The Role Of Primary Care In Early Intervention In Vermont, Rachael Comeau

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Suicide prevention is a top public health priority in Vermont. It is a complex issue, requiring a multi-faceted response from many different public and private stakeholders. Because intentional self-poisoning with suicidal intent is rarely lethal, it presents a particularly good opportunity for secondary interventions in the primary care setting. Extensive research has been done on intentional self-poisoning with suicidal intent and its relationship to subsequent risk of death by suicide, but gaps exist in research utilizing poison center data in the primary care setting. This dissertation employs an explanatory sequential mixed method research design to (a) develop a profile of …

Development And Validation Of The Smoker Self-Stigma Questionnaire (Sssq), Thomas Geist

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Though rates of smoking have declined for decades, the tobacco epidemic persists. During this time, denormalization of smoking and the tobacco industry emerged as viable strategies to decrease smoking rates. However, researchers have become increasingly concerned with denormalization strategies’ impact on the stigmatization of smokers, and have questioned their ethics and continued utility. Unfortunately, current research lacks a theoretically and psychometrically sound measure to represent smokers’ experience of stigma and help explore these issues. This study sought to develop and validate such a measure, the Smoker Self-Stigma Questionnaire (SSSQ). Initial items for the SSSQ were developed to cover three domains …

Applications Of Wearable Sensors In Delivering Biologically Relevant Signals, Jordyn Scism

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

With continued advancements in wearable technologies, the applications for their use are growing. Wearable sensors can be found in smart watches, fitness trackers, and even our cellphones. The common applications in everyday life are usually step counting, activity tracking, and heart rate monitoring. However, researchers have developed ways to use these similar sensors for clinically relevant diagnostic measures, as well as, improved athletic training and performance. Two areas of interest for the use of wearable sensors are mental health diagnostics in children and heart rate monitoring during intense physical activity from new locations, which are discussed further in this thesis. …

Narrative Medicine: Perspectives On Opioid Maintenance, Noorin Damji

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

People who experience opioid addiction often feel marginalized by healthcare workers, or stigmatized by the medical system. Additionally, there are not enough medical providers to meet the needs of people who struggle with opioid addiction. These factors create barriers that prevent the medical establishment from effectively meeting the needs of people who experience addiction. This project compiles rich perspectives of patients on opioid maintenance treatment to share with medical students and providers to foster greater empathy for these patients, and positive attitudes toward managing substance use disorder among future medical providers.

Addressing Adolescent And Young Adult Mental Health During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Megan Boyer

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

This quality improvement project at South Burlington Family Medicine aimed to investigate the mental health of individuals ages 13-25 in our practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eligible patients received a PHQ-9 questionnaire with two additional questions related to COVID-19. Recommendations for future interventions to serve this population were made based on these preliminary findings, with the goal of doing a full PDSA cycle in the near future.

Coping Skills For Daily Life: Cost-Effective Strategies To Prevent And Address Mental Health Disorders, Shae Ian Rowlandson

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Mental health disorders, along with their associated cost and negative outcomes, have continued to persist in Vermont and have become one of the largest, growing challenges to public health in the United States. Unfortunately, Vermont does not appear to have enough resources or providers to optimally address it. Concurrently, coping strategies of minimal cost that have the potential to prevent or address mental health disorders may often be underutilized or misconstrued by the population. A pamphlet providing information on evidenced, cost-effective coping strategies was designed and distributed to providers and patients to enable patients with the skills to help themselves …

College Coaches’ Experiences, Knowledge And Attitudes To Support Student-Athlete Mental Health, Cathy Rahill

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to develop a better understanding of college coaches’ experiences with student-athlete mental health concerns, knowledge to address these concerns, and dispositions and attitudes toward student-athlete mental health. Although student-athlete mental health has been the subject of previous research, this is the first study to ask college coaches their perspectives on the topic. Data for the study were collected using a Web-based survey with a sample of college athletic coaches who coach male and female student athletes at Division I athletic programs in the Northeastern United States. The study’s findings confirm coaches’ concern and care …

Using Word Embeddings To Explore The Language Of Depression On Twitter, Sandhya Gopchandani

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

How do people discuss mental health on social media? Can we train a computer program to recognize differences between discussions of depression and other topics? Can an algorithm predict that someone is depressed from their tweets alone? In this project, we collect tweets referencing “depression” and “depressed” over a seven year period, and train word embeddings to characterize linguistic structures within the corpus. We find that neural word embeddings capture the contextual differences between “depressed” and “healthy” language. We also looked at how context around words may have changed over time to get deeper understanding of contextual shifts in the …

The Association Of Hormonal Contraception With Depression, Pamela Derickson

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Hormonal contraceptives are widely used by women during their reproductive years. Currently, over 100 million women worldwide use the pill, and 82% of sexually active women in the USA will use oral contraceptive pills at some time during their reproductive years (Carrol, 2017). Oral contraceptive use, especially among adolescents, is associated with subsequent use of antidepressants and a first diagnosis of depression, suggesting depression may be a potential adverse effect of hormonal contraceptive use (Skovlund, 2016). This project focused on educating health care providers at the Community Health Center of Burlington, VT (CHCB) about the association of depression and oral …

Perinatal Depression: Breaking Barriers To Treatment, Florence Lambert-Fliszar

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Depression in the perinatal period is a common medical issue in Vermont, affecting about 10% of women. Multiple and severe consequences of depression during this time are seen for both mothers and babies, including lower breastfeeding rates, fewer healthcare visits for the child, and psychopathology in the child later on. The goal of this project is to identify and address some of the barriers we currently face in identifying and treating women for depression. Major barriers women encounter in seeking help involve poor recognition of symptoms facing increasing stress of motherhood, stigma, as well as neglecting to attend to mental …

Magnesium Intake And Depression In U.S. Adults, Emily Tarleton

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Research has focused extensively on the negative health effects of inadequate Mg intake, but the extent of the problem of deficiency deserves further exploration. The notion that U.S. adults consume an inadequate amount of magnesium, leading to increased risk for chronic diseases such as depression, is plausible. National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), which are large, cross-sectional, population-based data sets that assess the health and nutritional status of U.S. adults and children, indicate over half the adult population does not consume adequate amounts of magnesium based on the estimated average requirement (EAR) established by the Institute of Medicine. Using …

Everyone Is Anxious: A Narrative For Admissions Professionals, Students, And Parents, On College Admissions And Anxiety, Sarah Hecklau

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Written in the Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) style of writing, this thesis explores my personal experience as a college admissions counselor. It offers a reflection of my own college search and application experience, my perspective on the experience of today's high school students, and my professional experience working within an admissions office. The juxtaposition of these three perspectives alongside scholarly references on higher education, philosophy, and anxiety, provides a full-spectrum view of the college admissions process.

The core topic of this reflection is anxiety, and showing how each party experiences anxiety in the college search, application, and selection process. Other …

Exploring The Effects Of Concussion On College Students Returning To Academic Demands, Kathryn Vreeland

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

While the media frenzy focuses on the physical risks of concussion, there is also growing concern about the academic repercussions for students who sustain the injury. We do not currently have a uniform evidence-based approach for optimally returning a student back to learning activities after a concussion. We also do not understand how the diverse consequences of a concussion may affect academic self-efficacy and performance. The purpose of this study is to explore the effects a concussion may have on college students who are navigating the return to learn (RTL) process. This research aims to inform whether there are measureable …

Hidden Adolescent Risks: Provider Education On Non-Suicidal Self-Injury, Bailey Fay

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has been shown to be a strong risk factor for suicidal ideation and suicide attempt. One study has shown over 50% of people engaging in NSSI have at least one suicide attempt in their lifetime. The 2015 Vermont Youth Risk Behavior Survey found 17% of high school students reported non-suicidal self-injury at least once in the past year. This reflects roughly one in four females and one in ten males. Furthermore, these numbers have increased significantly since 2013. In an effort to promote awareness of NSSI in the primary care setting, a handout was created for providers …

Provider Education: Managing Depression In Cancer Patients, Nicole Leonard

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Depression is more prevalent and less often treated in cancer patients compared to the general population. Cancer can increase the risk of depression in multiple different ways, but depression can also increase the risk of cancer. Untreated depression in cancer patients can increase the risk of metastasis and worsen prognosis. The purpose of this project is to educate providers on the connection between mental health and cancer as well as provide them resources on how to approach and manage patients with cancer and depression.

Walk A Mile In My Shoes: The Social Construction Of Mental Illness Among State Administrators And Consumer-Advocates, Paul Arthur Dragon

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

From 19th century insane asylums to state sponsored eugenic programs in the 20th century, the state has been an incongruous leader and provider of mental health policy and practice. Current practices that include such treatments as confinement, restraints, forced medication and electro-convulsive therapy continue to raise issues of social justice and humane treatment.

Since the 1970s a diverse group of consumers of mental health services from political and radical emancipatory movements to consumer and family initiatives have emerged to question, inform and influence federal and state policies and services. Today state administrators and consumer-advocates meet in formal settings in which …

Care Team Education On The Use Of Sensory Resources In Inpatient Psychiatry, Salsabil Hoque

College of Nursing and Health Sciences Nursing Master Project Publications

Sensory processing is the way the nervous system receives, organizes, and understands sensory information gained through our body’s senses and physical environment. The deprivation of sensory processing, or the inability of one’s nervous system to use meaningful sensations, can lead to negative outcomes such as anxiety, stress, depression, withdrawal and reduced motivation, or agitation and disturbed behavior. Dr. Ayres' Sensory Integration Theory was used as the guiding framework for this project. Research literature indicates that sensory modulated approaches are an effective treatment approach for patients who are distressed, anxious, agitated, or potentially aggressive, and can be used as an alternative …

How One Life Coach Attempts To Inspire Mindful Music: The Morality Of The Soul, Jared M. Ford

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this thesis will be to examine one student's personal struggle in life and how those events have helped him to find his purpose and reason for being. This examination will be done by using a Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) approach to explain how music has been at the forefront of all moral and ethical decisions ever made in his life in order to find his true calling or vocation. This thesis will be broken down into 3 main chapters with several sub chapters taking the reader though the life of Jared M. Ford. This thesis will then …

Multi-Sensory Stimulation Environments For Use With Dementia Patients: Staff Perspectives On Reduction Of Agitation And Negative Behaviors, Megan Houston

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Background: Dementia is a degenerative neurological disorder that afflicts a growing proportion of the global population. Complementary alternative medicine (CAM) modalities are under investigation for their therapeutic value in the management of dementia.

Purpose: Nursing care of dementia sufferers can include managing agitation and negative behaviors; this study investigates staff appraisal of the Multi-Sensory Stimulation Environment (MSSE) as an intervention for these nursing challenges.

Methods: A purposive sample of nursing staff employed in residential care for dementia patients were recruited 10 weeks after the initiation of an open-access MSSE at the facility to complete a confidential self-administered questionnaire.

Results: 79% …

A Prelimary Study Of Differences Between Voluntary And Involuntary Retirement From Driving: Quality Of Life And Depression In A Rural Population, Elizabeth Ann Pruitt Saxton

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Research has revealed a variety of negative health consequences for older adults who stop driving, and with the "graying of America," this will be a frequently encountered issue for healthcare providers. The purpose of this study was to determine if there are differences in quality of life and depressive symptoms between former drivers who made the decision to stop driving voluntarily and former drivers who made the decision involuntarily (either in a resistant or in a reluctant manner). In this cross-sectional cohort comparison study, community dwelling older adults were asked to complete questionnaires of depression (using the Geriatric Depression Scale), …