Graham R. Davidson

Review of Refugee Mental Health Interventions Following Resettlement: Best Practices and Recommendations

There are increasing numbers of refugees worldwide, with approximately 16 million refugees in 2007 and over 2.5 million refugees resettled in the United States since the start of its humanitarian program. Psychologists and other health professionals who deliver mental health services for individuals from refugee backgrounds need to have confidence that the therapeutic interventions they employ are appropriate and effective for the clients with whom they work. The current review briefly surveys refugee research, examines empirical evaluations of therapeutic interventions in resettlement contexts, and provides recommendations for best practices and future directions in resettlement countries. The resettlement interventions found to be most effective typically target culturally homogeneous client samples and demonstrate moderate to large outcome effects on aspects of traumatic stress and anxiety reduction. Further evaluations of the array of psychotherapeutic, psychosocial, pharmacological, and other therapeutic approaches, including psychoeducational and community-based interventions that facilitate personal and community growth and change, are encouraged. There is a need for increased awareness, training and funding to implement longitudinal interventions that work collaboratively with clients from refugee backgrounds through the stages of resettlement.

Teaching ideas for generating critical and constructive insights into well‐functioning multidisciplinary mental health teams

Purpose – It is now common place for mental health services to operate using multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) where several health professionals simultaneously maintain their disciplinary distinctiveness and assume complementary professional roles. This requires awareness of other team members disciplines and good team‐work skills. Yet in Australia, the preparation of health professionals continues to occur primarily in single‐discipline programs, where interaction with other disciplines often only occurs in an ad hoc, time‐limited way during clinical placement. This paper seeks to provide serious reflection on preparing students for the multidisciplinary practice within the mental health system.Design/methodology/approach – The authors introduce a student placement preparation learning package that was developed and trialled with a range of health professional students at two Australian universities. Transformative learning principles underpinned the development of the education materials and related acti...

Intentions to Consume Omega-3 Fatty Acids: A Comparison of Protection Motivation Theory and Ordered Protection Motivation Theory

ABSTRACT There has been limited research to date into methods for increasing peoples intentions to use omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA), which have been linked with decreased risk of suffering from numerous major diseases. The present study employed a cross-sectional design with 380 university students, employees, and visitors to investigate the efficacy of the protection motivation (PM) theory and the ordered protection motivation (OPM) theory, to predict behavioral intention to consume omega-3 rich foods and dietary supplements. Analysis of model fit indicated that both the PM model and the OPM model adequately represented the structural relationships between the cognitive variables and intention to consume n-3 PUFA. Further evaluation of relative fit of the two competing models suggested that the PM model might provide a better representation of decision-making following evaluation of the health threat of n-3 PUFA deficiency. Path analysis indicated that the component of coping appraisal was significantly associated with the behavioral intention to consume n-3 PUFA. Threat appraisal was found to be significantly associated with behavioral intention to consume n-3 PUFA only for the OPM model. Overall, the findings contribute to a better understanding of the roles that cognitive appraisal processes play in young and healthy individuals’ protective health decision-making regarding consumption of n-3 PUFA. Implications of the findings and recommendations, which include (a) encouraging the consumption of n-3 PUFA as an effective barrier against the incidence of disease, and (b) effective health messaging that focuses on beliefs about the effectiveness of n-3 PUFA in reducing health risks, are discussed.

Ethical Psychological Practice with Geographically Mobile Individuals and Groups

The chapter offers a detailed analysis of the competing interests evident in contexts of new settlement and other forms of geographical mobility, including conflicts that occur between the welfare interests of direct recipients of research and professional services, the interests of the communities to which they belong, employers’ expectations, and the welfare of the wider community. It also analyses dilemmas confronting researchers and professionals who work with mobile populations, which relate specifically to the conflicting ethical responsibilities of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice they hold toward direct recipients of these services. Contrasting models of cultural competence as a relevant, related ethical precept are also considered. The chapter then suggests a model of ethical reasoning and decision making in the form of prima facie duty theory, as well as some training models that might assist researchers and other service providers in learning to make responsible ethical decisions when ethical dilemmas such as those described above are present. Finally, the chapter identifies and analyses various types of distress, such as burnout, ethical distress and vicarious traumatization, which workers may experience when working with vulnerable, mobile individuals and groups, and it briefly describes some ways in which researchers and other service providers may inoculate themselves against, and deal with, such distress.

Developing leadership capacity for enhancing the professional education of multidisciplinary mental health practitioners

Perspective taking, the main cognitive component of empathy, has a particularly important and complex role to play in the clinician-client relationship, particularly in mental health nursing. However, despite extensive investigation into the outcomes of this construct (e.g. sympathy, altruism), the process by which people take anothers psychological point of view has received comparatively little attention. The purpose of this study was to investigate what the individual does when attempting to take the perspective of another person. The aims were to identify the specific strategies people used to accomplish this task, to consider how and why these strategies were chosen, and the relationship between the strategies and subsequent outcomes. Participants described an example of their own perspective-taking experience. Adopting an interpretive phenomenological approach, analysis resulted in the generation of several themes of direct relevance to both the perspective taking process and the wider empathic experience. Of particular importance were two superordinate themes, use of other-information and use of self-information. One significant subordinate theme (within use of selfinformation) to emerge was that of past experience, where the participant had experienced either (a) a similar role to that which they occupied in the present situation, or (b) a similar situation to that of the target person. Both of these experiences were determinants of how easy participants perceived the task of apprehending the target’s perspective. Within the wider empathic experience, themes included emotional manifestations (e.g. sympathy), as well as judgements of appropriate behaviours. Implications of findings when working in clinical and mental health settings are discussed.There have been a number of studies overseas investigating collaborative inter-professional educational models for preparing mental health professionals who work in integrated or multidisciplinary mental health services. Recent implementations include the Canadian Collaborative Mental Health Initiative Tool kit, and the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland Standards for Integrated Care Pathways for Mental Health. Integrated and multi-disciplinary models of primary health service delivery have been shown to be effective and suitable for delivery of services in regional and remote rural areas and for Indigenous clients in Australia. The key strengths of multidisciplinary mental health service models may be attributed to their client focus and adaptation to complexity. The overarching aim of this Australian Learning and Teaching funded project is to develop effective, collaborative, cross-disciplinary leadership frameworks for university learning and teaching which enhance the professional preparation of the multidisciplinary mental health workforce. We are developing strategies that will prepare students in professional health training programs to be better equipped to work in multidisciplinary settings. This paper presents an overview of the project and the results of the first sets of interdisciplinary workshops.