Suchergebnisse

With the current emphasis on early diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment or dementia such as Alzheimer's disease, it is increasingly common to receive the diagnosis of impairment before functioning is seriously compromised. People in the early stages of cognitive loss experience distress related to their current and future functioning and yet are capable of participating in psychosocial treatment or support. Although most published studies deal with services for caregivers rather than direct practice with the cognitively impaired person, there is a growing body of clinical and research reports on psychosocial interventions offered directly to people with early cognitive loss. These interventions are aimed at alleviating the stress, depression, and anxiety while promoting a positive outlook. Gerontological social work practitioners and researchers are well positioned to further develop, implement, and evaluate these promising intervention approaches with early-stage cognitive loss.

The objective of this study was to research grief and depression in oldest-old people living in urban congregate housing by examining the various types of grief that they experience by using a stress process model for depression among the oldest old. This study used a convenience sample of the 128 participants aged 80 and older living in congregate housing. We found that the two types of grief most significantly associated with depressive symptoms were grieving about relocating, and loss of health. Our findings demonstrate the need to explore a variety of grief which influences mental health among oldest-old.

This article reports on a study of convergent and discriminant validity of the Traumatic Stress Institute Belief Scale (TSI)–Revision L (Traumatic Stress Institute, 1994) as a measure of vicarious trauma in a random sample of master's level clinical social workers. Forty-nine items from six subscales of the TSI were used. The scale purports to measure disturbed beliefs that may be caused by direct traumatic experience or repeated exposure to details of clients' traumatic stories. Results of correlational analyses of the TSI score with study variables and exploratory multiple regression analysis on the TSI score indicate its association with younger age, more reported somatic symptoms, lower annual salaries, lower scores on the Perceived Social Support (PSS)–Friends subscale (Procidano & Heller, 1983) and greater burnout as measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson, 1986). TSI scores were not associated with social workers' personal trauma history, their reported weekly amount of face-to-face client contact, or a self-report of the level of intrusiveness of client material into the social workers' lives. TSI scores appear to be measuring perceptions about self and work that, like burnout, may relate to social workers' general outlook, not necessarily to the effects of traumatic stress, vicarious or otherwise. Significant overlap of the TSI with burnout scores in this social work sample suggests a lack of clear distinction between burnout and vicarious trauma.

Purpose: The aim of this research was to implement and evaluate unilateral family therapy (UFT) for alcohol abuse, an approach that assists the nonalcoholic spouse to induce their alcohol-abusing partner to enter treatment and/or reduce drinking. Method: Forty-two nonalcohol-abusing spouses participated in this randomized control trial, and 13 no-treatment spouses served as an additional comparison group. Repeated measures analysis over four time periods evaluated change in abuser alcohol use and spouse psychological, marital, and role induction (e.g., enabling) variables, whereas χ2 analyses evaluated alcohol abuser treatment entry. Results: The findings suggest that UFT is successful in facilitating abuser treatment entry, drink reduction as well as long-term improvement in the spouse's psychological health, and marital functioning. Conclusions: Given the high numbers of treatment-resistant alcohol abusers in need of treatment and the related distress of their spouses, UFT represents an important approach for practitioners.