The Praeger Handbook of Community Mental Health Practice


Book Description

This expansive, three-volume set addresses the complexities of interconnectivity, therapeutic capacity, and the competencies needed in order to provide sophisticated and integrated community mental health care—both in the United States and within a global community. The Praeger Handbook of Community Mental Health Practice provides an essential framework that will serve university educators, students, new practitioners, and experienced therapists alike as they adapt to new approaches to community mental health and respond to changing laws governing mental health provision across state, national, and global levels. Volume one considers the structures, challenges, and expectations of community mental health, familiarizing readers with key issues such as service delivery, funding, and key models of intervention and care. Volume two provides an in-depth exploration of the specific issues of working with populations that participate in and benefit from community mental health services, including addiction, school-based services, juvenile and adult justice, and veteran's services. In Volume three, the contributors address specific needs, considerations, and concerns relevant to working in the global community, including disaster services, trauma, working with children, and providing training in international settings.




Lifespan Perspectives on Natural Disasters


Book Description

Some of our most disturbing images of Hurricane Katrina involve the very old, trapped in flooded nursing homes, and the very young, sick in toxic trailers. Using the Katrina-Rita nexus as its reference point, Lifespan Perspectives on Natural Disasters takes the developmental long view on human strengths and vulnerabilities during large-scale devastation and crisis. An expert panel of behavioral scientists and first responders analyzes the psychological impact of natural disasters on—and coping faculties associated with—children, adolescents, and young, middle-aged, older, young-old and late-life oldest-old adults. This timely information is invaluable both to mental health service providers and to those tasked with developing age-appropriate disaster preparedness, intervention, and recovery programs. In addition, the book references other deadly storms as well as other major catastrophic events (e.g., the September 11 attacks, the Indian Ocean Tsunami), and includes such topics as: Young children’s understanding of hurricanes. Positive adjustment in youth after Katrina. How families make meaning out of disaster. Disaster recovery in the workplace. Recovery services for the frail elderly. Coping and health in late life. Preparation and training mental health personnel for disasters. Unique in the disaster literature, Lifespan Perspectives on Natural Disasters serves as a research reference and idea book for professionals and graduate-level students in psychology, social work, and disaster preparedness and services.




Faith from a Positive Psychology Perspective


Book Description

This book highlights religious faith from a positive psychology perspective, examining the relationship between religious faith and optimal psychological functioning. It takes a perspective of religious diversity that incorporates international and cross-cultural work. The empirical literature on the role of faith and cognition, faith and emotion, and faith and behaviour is addressed including how these topics relate to individuals’ mental health, well-being, strength, and resilience. Information on how these faith concepts are relevant to the broader context of relational functioning in families, friendships, and communities is also incorporated. Psychologists have traditionally focused on the treatment of mental illness from a perspective of repairing damaged habits, damaged drives, damaged childhoods, and damaged brains. In recent years, however, many psychological researchers and practitioners have attempted to re-focus the field away from the study of human weakness and damage toward the promotion of a positive psychology of well-being among individuals, families, and communities. One domain within the field of positive psychology is the study of religious faith as a human strength that has the potential to enhance individuals’ optimal existence and well-being.




Creating The World We Want To Live In


Book Description

This book is about hope and a call to action to make the world the kind of place we want to live in. Our hope is to provoke conversation, and gently challenge possibly long-held views, beliefs, and ideologies about the way the world works and the people in that world. Written by eminent researchers and experienced practitioners, the book explores the principles that underpin living well, and gives examples of how this can be achieved not just in our own lives, but across communities and the planet we share. Chapters cover the stages of life from childhood to ageing, the foundations of everyday flourishing, including health and relationships, and finally wellbeing in the wider world, addressing issues such as economics, politics and the environment. Based in the scientific evidence of what works and supported by illustrations of good practice, this book is both ambitious and aspirational. The book is designed for a wide audience – anyone seeking to create positive change in the world, their institutions or communities. www.creatingtheworldwewanttolivein.org




Mental Health Care Services in Community Settings


Book Description

This book discusses approaches used by NGOs in formulating and implementing mental health care in the community in the context of high treatment gap, insufficient public expenditure on health, human resource shortages, heterogeneity of communities as well as cultural beliefs in India. It uses a qualitative case study approach to document and analyse the work of some major NGO-run community mental health programmes in India, all of which cater to vulnerable populations and are in different and diverse regional settings. It casts the spotlight on envisioning community mental health in policy and law, implementation by the government, how it is practised by select NGOs and the challenges involved in programme implementation. In doing so, it hopes to understand the trigger factors that have led to NGOs embarking on community mental health programmes: how needs of the community are understood, the funding mechanisms, how the human resource gap was addressed, type of networks formed in the community, therapeutic and social interventions, accountability mechanisms, achievements and limitations of the programmes. This book is for students and researchers in the fields of social work and psychology, and NGOs, government and funding agencies, and for those interested in understanding and working with community mental health programmes.




Faith and Mental Health


Book Description

Dr. Harold Koenig opens a window on mental health, providing an unprecedented source of practical information about the relationship between religion and mental health. He examines how Christianity and other world religions deliver mental health services today, and he makes recommendations, based on research, expertise, and experience, for new programs to meet local needs. Meticulously researched and documented, Faith and Mental Health includes Research on the relationship between religion and positive emotions, psychiatric illnesses, and severe and persistent mental disorders Ways in which religion has influenced mental health historically, and how now and in the future it can be involved with mental health A comprehensive description and categorization of Christian and non-Christian faith-based organizations that provide mental health resources Resources for religious professionals and faith communities on how to design effective programs Presenting a combination of the history and current research of mental health and religion along with a thorough examination of faith-based organizations operating in the field, this book is a one-of-a-kind resource for the healthcare community; its valuable research and insights will benefit medical and religious professionals, and anyone concerned with the future of mental health care.







Haldol and Hyacinths


Book Description

With candor and humor, a manic-depressive Iranian-American Muslim woman chronicles her experiences with both clinical and cultural bipolarity. Born to Persian parents at the height of the Islamic Revolution and raised amid a vibrant, loving, and gossipy Iranian diaspora in the American heartland, Melody Moezzi was bound for a bipolar life. At 18, she began battling a severe physical illness, and her community stepped up, filling her hospital rooms with roses, lilies and hyacinths. But when she attempted suicide and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, there were no flowers. Despite several stays in psychiatric hospitals, bombarded with tranquilizers, mood-stabilizers, and anti-psychotics, she was encouraged to keep her illness a secret—by both her family and an increasingly callous and indifferent medical establishment. Refusing to be ashamed or silenced, Moezzi became an outspoken advocate, determined to fight the stigma surrounding mental illness and reclaim her life along the way. Both an irreverent memoir and a rousing call to action, Haldol and Hyacinths is the moving story of a woman who refused to become a victim. Moezzi reports from the frontlines of an invisible world, as seen through a unique and fascinating cultural lens. A powerful, funny, and moving narrative, Haldol and Hyacinths is a tribute to the healing power of hope and humor.




Handbook of Religion and Health


Book Description

"The 2001 edition (1st) was a comprehensive review of history, research, and discussions on religion and health through the year 2000. The Appendix listed 1,200 separate quantitative studies on religion and health each rated in quality on 0-10 scale, followed by about 2,000 references and an extensive index for rapid topic identification. The 2012 edition (2nd) of the Handbook systematically updated the research from 2000 to 2010, with the number of quantitative studies then reaching the thousands. This 2022 edition (3rd) is the most scientifically rigorous addition to date, covering the best research published through 2021 with an emphasis on prospective studies and randomized controlled trials. Beginning with a Foreword by Dr. Howard K. Koh, former US Assistant Secretary for Health for the Department of Health and Human Services, this nearly 600,000-word volume examines almost every aspect of health, reviewing past and more recent research on the relationship between religion and health outcomes. Furthermore, nearly all of its 34 chapters conclude with clinical and community applications making this text relevant to both health care professionals (physicians, nurses, social workers, rehabilitation therapists, counsellors, psychologists, sociologists, etc.) and clergy (community clergy, chaplains, pastoral counsellors, etc.). The book's extensive Appendix focuses on the best studies, describing each study in a single line, allowing researchers to quickly locate the existing research. It should not be surprising that for Handbook for the past two decades has been the most cited of all references on religion and health"--