Psychiatric and Mental Health Commons^™

Exploring Attachment Through Clay-Based Therapy: A Parent-Child Community Engagement Project, Hilari Stahler

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This research project explores the therapeutic potential of clay, particularly as a creative, sensory-rich process that facilitates access to pre-verbal memories. Grounded in attachment theory and the innovative approach to trauma healing by Cornelia Elbrecht, known as Trauma Healing at the Clay Field®, the study investigates clay's regressive and healing qualities. It examines how its smooth, skin-like texture can activate our implicit memories through sensory experiences. Utilizing a community engagement format, this study aimed to assess the effectiveness of parent-child clay field sessions in addressing intergenerational attachment trauma and unmet attachment needs. The research revealed that the unique properties of …

A Trauma-Informed Socially Just Approach To Working With Juvenile Justice-Involved Youth Utilizing Expressive Arts Therapy, Ciara Carr

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Youth involved with the juvenile justice system often have a history of trauma and oppression resulting from their positionality and circumstances. Most juvenile justice-involved youth are boys, youth of color, low-income, LGBTQIA2S+, disabled, and traumatized. This literature review explores the history of the juvenile justice system, issues with the present-day model, and trauma-informed and transformative justice approaches to practice. The implementation of socially just, trauma-informed expressive arts therapy programs is proposed as a more equitable practice to replace commonly used punitive practices across the United States. More research is needed to understand the impact of such programs on this population …

Utilizing Flow Arts Movement As An Expressive Arts Therapy Tool To Treat Trauma: A Literature Review And Autoethnography, Shannon Mcgrail

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This expressive arts-based autoethnography research explores the effectiveness of using flow arts movement as a tool of expressive arts therapy to treat symptoms of trauma for individuals who experienced a traumatic event in their lifetime. While research on the use of flow arts movement to treat mental illness is in its early stage, much can be drawn from the literature on expressive arts therapy and dance/movement therapy research with a range of populations addressing trauma. Through exploration of trauma through neuroscience, mind, body, and integrated mindfulness through flow, this work aims to bring an understanding of using intermodal expressive arts …

Fostering Interprofessional Collaboration In Community College Mental Health Centers: A Quality Improvement Project, Sara Jane Hamilton

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Background The worsening mental health rates among college students in the United States highlight the critical need for campuses to have high-quality comprehensive mental health centers (MHC). This necessity is particularly urgent in community college MHCs, which often lack these attributes. Local Problem An MHC within a large California community college recently introduced telepsychiatry services and is considering integrating a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) into their team. However, knowledge gaps and limited interprofessional education (IPE) may hinder effective collaboration within the team. Methods A comprehensive literature review was conducted to assess current research on IPE, community college mental …

Development Of An International Standard Set Of Outcomes And Measurement Methods For Routine Practice For Infants, Children, And Adolescents With Epilepsy: The International Consortium For Health Outcomes Measurement Consensus Recommendations, Martha Sajatovic

Faculty Scholarship

At present, there is no internationally accepted set of core outcomes or measurement methods for epilepsy clinical practice. The International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) convened an international working group of experts in epilepsy, people with epilepsy, and their representatives to develop minimum sets of standardized outcomes and outcome measurement methods for clinical practice. Using modified Delphi consensus methods with consecutive rounds of online voting over 12 months, a core set of outcomes and corresponding measurement tool packages to capture the outcomes were identified for infants, children, and adolescents with epilepsy. Consensus methods identified 20 core outcomes. In addition …

Le Coût Des Lésions Psychologiques Liées Au Travail Au Québec, Martin Lebeau, Jaunathan Bilodeau, Marc-Antoine Busque

Portraits statistiques

Cette étude présente une analyse statistique des coûts des lésions psychologiques liées au travail au Québec. Les coûts financiers et humains engendrés par les lésions psychologiques acceptées à la Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST), survenues entre 2014 et 2019, ont été évalués à 1,01 milliard de dollars. Cela correspond à un coût annuel moyen de 169 millions de dollars et un coût moyen par lésion de 121 590 $. En dollars constants, les coûts annuels de ces lésions ont augmenté de 195 % sur les six années à l’étude.

Les …

Addressing Mental Health In Young Adults: A Modern Approach Compared To Previous Generations, Breeha A. Shah

DePaul Journal of Health Care Law

The escalating prevalence of mental health issues among today's young adults underscores the vital importance of addressing mental health in the pursuit of public health objectives. In response to this, The House Education and Labor Committee issued a report on the Mental Health Services for Students Act of 2020 (the Act), to amend the Public Health Service Act relating to school children. This revision seeks to bolster the support for students and young people by ensuring their access to comprehensive mental health programs within the school environment. The Act recognizes that safeguarding mental health is an immediate concern for public …

Propensity-Score Matching Beginning And Experienced Farmers On Stress And Coping Mechanisms To Predict Suicidal Ideation, Anne Montgomery, Stephanie M. Basey, Chris T. Scoggins, Lily Baucom

Georgia Public Health Association Annual Meeting & Conference

This presentation is an extension of a roundtable from last year; we added propensity-score matching thanks to suggestions from the roundtable:

The suicide rate among farmers is much higher than that of the overall working population. Literature on farmer mental health in Georgia has been scarce and mostly focused on farmer suicide. This study looks at the influence of being a beginning farmer (less than 10 years of experience) on farm-related stressors and coping mechanisms.

This cross-sectional study inventories mental well-being, stressors, and coping mechanisms for different types of farmers. Participants (N=1,328) were asked demographics, household composition, work descriptors, healthcare …

Implementing Animal-Assisted Therapy During Psychiatric Intakes, Rebecca Dorne

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Manuscripts

Introduction: The purpose of this evidence-based project is to determine if Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) causes improvements in veterans’ feelings of anger, anxiety, depression, and suicidality in the acute psychiatric setting during psychiatric evaluations. The project aims to provide veterans with an additional way to experience short-term relief from symptoms while discussing their symptomology with mental health providers.

Background: The prevalence of depression is 20% higher in veterans than in that of the general population. Similarly, it has been shown that 23% of all veterans using VA care have had PTSD at some point in their lives. In the Psychiatric Emergency …

Psilocybin Utilization In Alcohol Use Disorder, Hannah Hall, Sarah Turske, Hannah Blake, Abigail Carter, Connor Dains, Haylee Whyde, Brianna Lu, Joshua Honaker, Lindsey Peters

Pharmacy and Wellness Review

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a medical condition that arises from the inability to control alcohol consumption regardless of negative consequences. Over 10% of the US population met the diagnostic criteria for having AUD in 2022.1 Each individual presents with symptoms of AUD differently and may therefore need more personalized treatment. Research has shown that using a combination of currently available pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment options provides the best results for patients with AUD. However, there still remains a pressing need for the development of newer treatment options. Psilocybin, a naturally occurring psychedelic compound, is currently under investigation due to …

Development Of An International Standard Set Of Outcomes And Measurement Methods For Routine Practice For Adults With Epilepsy: The International Consortium For Health Outcomes Measurement Consensus Recommendations, Martha Sajatovic

Faculty Scholarship

At present, there is no internationally accepted set of core outcomes or measurement methods for epilepsy clinical practice. Therefore, the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) convened an international working group of experts in epilepsy, people with epilepsy and their representatives to develop minimum sets of standardized outcomes and outcomes measurement methods for clinical practice that support patient–clinician decision-making and quality improvement. Consensus methods identified 20 core outcomes. Measurement tools were recommended based on their evidence of strong clinical measurement properties, feasibility, and cross-cultural applicability. The essential outcomes included many non-seizure outcomes: anxiety, depression, suicidality, memory and attention, sleep …

Co-Designing Situated Displays For Family Co-Regulation With Adhd Children, Lucas M. Silva, Franceli L. Cibrian, Clarisse Bonang, Arpita Bhattacharya, Aehong Min, Elissa M. Monteiro, Jesus A. Beltran, Sabrina E. B. Schuck, Kimberley D. Lakes, Gillian R. Hayes, Daniel A. Epstein

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Family informatics often uses shared data dashboards to promote awareness of each other’s health-related behaviors. However, these interfaces often stop short of providing families with needed guidance around how to improve family functioning and health behaviors. We consider the needs of family co-regulation with ADHD children to understand how in-home displays can support family well-being. We conducted three co-design sessions with each of eight families with ADHD children who had used a smartwatch for self-tracking. Results indicate that situated displays could nudge families to jointly use their data for learning and skill-building. Accommodating individual needs and preferences when family members …

The Dry Bloodletting: A History Of The Diagnosis And Treatment Of Posttraumatic Stress Disorders In Military Service Members, Kevin Johnson

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This work is a close look at how veterans of war have been treated medically for ailents of the mind. This work looks closely at the many therapies and pharmaceutical remedies that have been perscribed to veterans with the advent of the field of psycology at the trun of the century. Sources included the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), multiple clinical trials and white papers, records from the VA, etc. The reader should walk away with a better understanding of how the path towards healing invisble wounds has been mired with revictimization and controversy.

Boundaries Of Autonomy: Exploring Parallels Between Mental Hospitals And Prisons In The United States, Benjamin J. Boldt

The Agora

Within the United States, a prevailing perception emerges that mental health facilities and prisons are unfavorably similar. This societal sentiment is quite concerning if true, as the prison system is known for its many societal failures within the U.S. Furthermore, mental hospitals aim to help individuals; thus, a comparison to a faulty system highlights a possible issue worthy of exploration. Unfortunately, little analysis exists, within academic research, comparing both institutions. The following comparative analysis looks at available research between mental hospitals and prisons to validate this issue and explore implications. Findings indicate a shared pattern between mental hospitals and prisons …

Expressive Therapies And Resiliency – Resistance In Mental Health: A Literature Review, Gabrielle Lopez

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This review evaluates the current literature on psychological resistance amongst human service professionals experiencing burnout and the effect of Expressive Arts interventions on resiliency. Concepts include identifying the main symptoms, risk factors, causes, and treatments for burnout in education faculty, medical staff, and clinicians. Qualitative, quantitative, and meta-analysis studies are included to identify the most prevalent intervention frameworks for reducing stress including Arts-Based and Mindfulness-compassion based techniques. The effectiveness of Arts-based tools on strengthening identity, self-esteem, emotional regulation, and meaning-making in combating burnout is presented. Based on analysis of the literature, the author proposes a three-step intervention framework for utilizing …

Method Acting As A Therapeutic Intervention For Trauma Recovery, Remi Moses

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

While considered controversial by some, Method acting as popularized by Lee Strasberg is a technique that elicits powerful and authentic results on stage and screen. The foundational Method acting techniques, the Relaxation Exercise (RE) and the Sense Memory Exercise (SME), share similarities to bottom-up therapeutic processes like Somatic Experiencing and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. By implementing a trauma-informed drama therapy framework with these two exercises, the RE and SME were restructured as a therapeutic intervention for people in trauma recovery. The author implemented a study of three consecutive group therapy sessions for people healing from trauma where clients participated …

Mortality In Medicine, Maren Dougherty

Honors Projects

Practitioners in the medical field attend to health issues across one’s lifespan from birth to death and everything in between. A common conflict in today’s practice of medicine is establishing the true function of medicine. The complete reliance on medicine to ward off death proliferates the biomedicalization of natural life processes, like death. Biomedicalization is the process in which medical authority and its accompanying technology begin to control other aspects of daily life. With medicine’s ultimate goal being to cure disease and fight death, it interferes with the inevitability of human mortality. End-of-life treatment can be taken too far without …

Cognitive Control In Health And Disease: A Dynamic Approach To Mapping Oscillatory Activity Across The Lifespan, Mikki Schantell

Theses & Dissertations

Cognitive control is critical for flexibly adapting goal-directed behaviors to meet the demands of dynamically changing environments. The neural oscillatory dynamics serving cognitive control undergo changes across the lifespan, both in health and disease, with impairments in cognitive control functions being broadly implicated across a multitude of psychiatric disorders. Despite this, the trajectory of the population-level neural oscillatory dynamics supporting cognitive control across the lifespan remain poorly characterized, presenting challenges in fully understanding perturbations to these systems relative to one’s stage in neuronal maturation. Herein, we used the Eriksen flanker task during magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recording to map the neural oscillatory …

Viral Hepatitis And Hiv Screening Amongst Inpatients With Substance Use Disorder, Christine Papastamelos, Md, Elizabeth Novick, Md, Carolyn Kramer, Md, John Zurlo,Md, Nikhil Seval, Md, Daniel Taupin, Md

Health Equity and Quality Improvement (HEQI) Summit

Background

• ~67,000 individuals in Philadelphia county are estimated to be living with opioid use disorder (OUD).¹
• Persons who inject drugs (PWID) are at disproportionately greater risk of acquiring HIV and viral hepatitis compared to the general public.²
• PWID are less likely to receive timely HIV and viral hepatitis screening in the outpatient setting given complex biopsychosocial barriers, including homelessness, mental illness, lack of insurance, incarceration, and stigma.^3,4

Implementation Of A Validated Suicide Screening Tool In A University Student Health Center, Tessa Welniak, Bailey Coslor, Cathrin Carithers

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects: College of Nursing

Purpose. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among adults in the United States and Nebraska. Death by suicide impacts millions of adults every year in the United States but warning signs are often missed during visits with primary care providers. The University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK) Student Health Center (SHC), like many other primary care clinics, did not routinely screen patients for suicide risk. According to the Joint Commission, all patients over 12 years of age should be screened for suicide using a validated screening tool if the visit is for any behavioral health concern. The project’s …