New content added to Elsevier Mental Health

			Dear cep, New content has been added to the Elsevier Mental Health website. Click the titles of the articles below to read them in full: Top Cited Articles Sixteen-Month Evaluation of Depressive Symptomatology in Older Adults The Influence of Psychosomatic Symptoms, Physical and Sexual Abuse, and Coping Strategies on Delinquent Behavior Among Korean Adolescents Depressive Symptoms After a Myocardial Infarction and Self-care Emotional eating in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa Disordered eating attitudes in Egyptian antipsychotic naive patients with schizophrenia Predictors of Eating Attitudes and Behaviors Among Gay Hispanic Men Childhood trauma, impulsivity, and executive functioning in crack cocaine users Temperaments mediate suicide risk and psychopathology among patients with bipolar disorders You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive email alerts using our online registration form. If you do not wish to continue receiving these emails, please login here and change your preferences. We hope you enjoy the new articles! Many thanks, Elsevier Psychology and Psychiatry publishing team Registered office: Elsevier Ltd, The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford,OX5 1GB.

A longitudinal evaluation of religiosity and psychosocial determinants of suicidal behaviors among a population-based sample in the United States

Background: Relationships among religiosity and other psychosocial factors in determining suicidal behaviors in adolescence and in emerging adulthood have been inconclusive. We sought to investigate prospective relationships among religiosity, psychosocial factors and suicidal behaviors using a nationally representative sample of adolescents emerging into adulthood. Method: Analysis was based on 9412 respondents from four waves of National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. A Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) procedure was used to fit a series of models on the response variable (suicidal behaviors) and a set of psychosocial and religiosity predictors taking into account the correlated structure of the datasets. Results: Analyses showed that adolescent suicidality and religious activity participation showed significant declines over time. Using multinomial logistic regression we found that females showed statistically significant risks of suicidal behaviors, but this effect declined in adulthood. In adjusted models, baseline attendance of a church weekly was associated with 42% reduction (95% Confidence Interval: 0.35-0.98) of suicide ideation in Wave III. Across all waves, low support from fathers (compared with mothers) consistently explained variability in suicidal behaviors among genders emerging into adulthood. Limitations: Accurate measurement of religiosity is psychometrically challenging. Conclusions: The findings of the study indicate that religious activity participation is associated with reduced suicidal behaviors among adolescents but this effect declines during emerging adulthood. Psychosocial supports particularly from fathers' have an enduring impact on reduced suicidal behaviors among adolescents and emerging adults. Prevention, identification and evaluation of disorders of suicidality need a careful assessment of underlying mental pain (psyache) to reduce the likelihood of aggravated suicide.

Metabolic syndrome in obese men and women with binge eating disorder: developmental trajectories of eating and weight-related behaviors

Abstract

Metabolic syndrome (MetSyn), characterized by vascular symptoms, is strongly correlated with obesity, weight-related medical diseases, and mortality and has increased commensurately with secular increases in obesity in the United States. Little is known about the distribution of MetSyn in obese patients with binge eating disorder (BED) or its associations with different developmental trajectories of dieting, binge eating, and obesity problems. Furthermore, inconsistencies in the limited data necessitate elucidation. This study examined the frequency and correlates of MetSyn in a consecutive series of 148 treatment-seeking obese men and women with BED assessed with structured clinical interviews. Almost half of the participants met the criteria for MetSyn. Participants with MetSyn did not differ from those without MetSyn on demographic variables or disordered eating psychopathology. However, our findings suggest that MetSyn is associated with a distinct developmental trajectory, specifically a later age at BED onset and shorter BED duration. Although the findings from this study shed some light on MetSyn and its associations with developmental trajectories of eating and weight-related behaviors, notable inconsistencies characterize the limited literature. Prospective studies are needed to examine causal connections in the development of the MetSyn in relation to disordered eating in addition to excess weight. © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

News from Coast Mental Health

Coast Mental Health Weekly Update Thank you for registering to receive Coast Mental Health's weekly update. Courage To Come Back Awards After 6 hours of deliberations, the final selection panellists gather for a photo.  Lorne Segal - far left - hosted the event facilitated by Coast's Program Directors,  Cathy Taylor and Beata Zaleksa (2nd & 3rd in front row left of Lorne)  Last Thursday, a diverse group of 18 panellists arrived at the Coast offices to review the finalists for the 2012 Courage To Come Back Awards.   Beginning at 7:30 a.m. and finishing just after 1:00, the panellists arrived at the six recipients for the 2012 Awards.   This culminates an extensive process including: The Nominations launch in early January at Scotiabank.  A publicity campaign to advertise the process throughout BC Receiving 130 nominations from every corner of the Province Six selection panels in early March to arrive at the category finalists for the awards.                   -              Beginning April 9th, our Media partners - The Province, News 1130, Fairchild Media, will be profiling one recipient a week until the week of the 17th of May - when we are hoping to have more than 1,000 people join us in celebrating the achievements of these remarkable people. Tickets to the May 17th Courage to Come Back awards are available on line at http://coastmentalhealth.com/Tickets.html     Peer Diabetes Program Even though the 3 year pilot funding through the Vancouver Foundation for the Coast Peer Worker Program is coming to an end, the program will be continuing.  Partly "as is" with training and placement of PSW's in programs which have dedicated funding and also with a new component this spring. As you may or may not know, folks with Mental Illness are diagnosed with Diabetes at twice that of the average population. So it seemed only natural that trained peer workers could also be given extra training to provide Diabetes support to their peers. The Peer Diabetes Program will initially be set up on a pilot project basis and the program will be looking at 4 sites to host a 6 - 7 month PSW Diabetes information and support program that will be co-facilitated by 2 trained peer workers who will not only have diabetes themselves but will also have diabetes training. The program will be asking program coordinators / managers to contact the coordinator, John Massam if they are interested in being part of the pilot. 604-762-7925 or email johnm@coastmentalhealth.com. Program Closures - Employee Displacements  The sad Odyssey of closing two important programs continues this week.  By Saturday, the last clients from the Dreamweaver and Reason's Way Concurrent Disorder Transitions Program on Riverview grounds will be moved to their next settings.  Most will receive continued support through Coast, initially through the current staff and then through the new Super Sil/ICM program that is being funded through Vancouver Coastal Health. PACT Employment Services last day is April 30th.  Clients who would otherwise use PACT will be referred to one of the several WorkBC Employment Service Centres which will be opening April 2nd at over 70 locations around the Province http://www.workbc.ca . As a result of these closures over 30 staff were displaced.   As part of this process, the first round of "bumped" employees will be receiving an email that they are being displaced and will be invited to the March 29th session..   Someone with more seniority has "bumped" the person from their current job at Coast and they will then receive information on what are their options. Human Resources has set a session at the Administrative Office at 1:00 o'clock on Thursday, March 29th to give the affected employees their official displacement notice present the options and the process for these employees.   As you can imagine, this is an unsettling and uncertain time at Coast and I know you will be understanding and patient as we work through this process.  Ethics Committee Friday The Ethics committee is meeting this Friday at 10:00 a.m. at the Coast administrative offices.  Here are the minutes of the last meeting in February.   Note that the Peer Worker program is invited to Friday's meeting Coast Mental Health  Ethics Committee Meeting Notes February 2012 Case #1 Coast Supported Housing VPD liaison has asked staff to share information about a resident that they suspect is engaging in property crime in the neighborhood. They've asked for access to our video footage and access to our keep fob monitoring system so they can track his comings and goings. They've also asked for access to a common space so they can situate a plain clothes police officer to monitor the resident. What is practice around protecting client confidentiality in our dealings with the VPD? What is the balance between sharing information with the VPD to support the safety of residents and the community while also protecting the confidentiality of clients who are the focus of VPD investigations? Values involved: confidentiality, duty to protect, benevolence / nonmaleficence, fidelity, veracity EC Response: VDP requests to permit an undercover officer to monitor activities in the building, have access to video footage and obtain specific information regarding selected tenants are intrusive and excessively interfering with tenants privacy rights. Therefore, Coast should exercise caution to avoid violation of its tenants / clients' rights. At the same time however, Coast must demonstrate willingness for a reasonable cooperation to maintain good relationship with the VPD. EC Recommendations: Be honest with clients and ask for permission to share information with VPD. Cooperate with VPD when permission from a client to release information has been obtained /  confirmed Cooperate with VPD when required by law, i.e. search permit, charges pending, etc. Meet with VPD liaison to obtain more information from VPD re policies they follow, rationale for their requests, etc. Ask other organizations in the area about their practices in cooperating with VPD. Confront others' practices and decide which ones can be reasonably adopted by Coast. Case #2 Follow up on the previous discussion regarding boundaries of relationships between staff and clients. EC recommendations: Preference is given to a case by case approach that allows for thoughtful consideration of individual situations. This approach is the most flexible yet the least obvious for interpretation. Review Coast Code of Conduct to ensure accuracy and consistency of the rules and acceptable / permissible variances to the rules. Case #3 Follow up on the previous discussion regarding potential improvements / changes: EC recommends forwarding the question how EC recommendations are incorporated into decision making at Coast to the executive committee for further consideration. It is EC's stance that committee's recommendations should be treated seriously in order to safeguard ethical standards in Coast-wide practices. EC recommends recruiting peer support / client and housing division representatives to the committee. EC established the following schedule for inviting representatives of different divisions to monthly meetings: o       March: Peer Support Program o       April: Housing o       May: Human Resource o       June: Accounting  4.  To generate ethics-related discussion, each month EC will post a question involving ethical dilemma relevant to Coast practices. Staff at all program areas are encouraged to initiate discussion on the subject and forward case studies or questions to Ethics Corner for further consideration. Question of the Month schedule: March: Is accepting gifts from our clients always forbidden? Under what circumstance a gift can be accepted?  April:  What do you do when your friend, ex-lover, or a relative becomes a client of Coast / your assigned client? Next meeting: March 30, 2012; 10 am - 1 pm (NOTE TIME CHANGE). We are inviting peer support workers to the meeting in March.

Mental Health America Urges Congress to Reject House Budget Plan

Mental Health America today urged the House Budget Committee to reject a Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Resolution proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), calling the deep cuts to Medicaid included in the plan a radical approach that would likely lead to an increase in the number of Americans unable to receive essential care.

The budget plan unveiled this week would cut Medicaid, the largest source of funding for mental health services nationally, by $810 billion over the next 10 years and convert it into a block grant.

The plan would also gut discretionary health funding by cutting below the levels agreed to last year under the deficit spending plan (the Budget Control Act).

“The cuts to Medicaid and public health programs are dangerous and would place millions of Americans at risk of not being able to afford the behavioral health care they need,” said David Shern, Ph.D., president and CEO of Mental Health America. “For 14.7 million seniors and people with disabilities (nearly 25 percent of all Medicaid beneficiaries are seniors and individuals with disabilities, including mental health conditions), Medicaid is a vital safety net that provides access to care in the community.

“Such deep cuts would imperil our public health system and further exacerbate the problems mental health systems are experiencing, given that states have cut mental health agency budgets by a combined total of nearly $4 billion over the last three fiscal years, the largest reduction in mental health spending since the 1960s.”

Dr. Shern said public health programs have already borne more than their fair share of the responsibility for deficit reduction—with two straight years of funding cuts and a looming sequester that will cut even deeper.

"This budget ignores the balanced approaches called for by every credible, bipartisan deficit reduction plan and further damage an already fragile safety net," he said.

Noting that half of Medicaid recipients are children, Dr. Shern said the plan threatens their well-being.

"Access to cost-effective screening and treatment programs now funded by Medicaid often make a major difference for children with disabilities and allow them to live full and productive lives," he said.

He said the cuts to discretionary spending would also severely jeopardize funding for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Prevention and Public Health Fund and other agencies, which all play a critical role in allowing individuals with, or at risk, of a mental health condition achieve recovery and live a productive life in their communitiess.

Dr. Shern said the budget plan's proposal to repeal the health reform law would limit access to care and undermine the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, which bans insurers from placing discriminatory limits on mental health and addiction services.

Mental Health America (www.mentalhealthamerica.net) is the nation’s largest and oldest community-based network dedicated to helping all Americans achieve wellness by living mentally healthier lives. With our more than 300 affiliates across the country, we touch the lives of millions—Advocating for changes in mental health and wellness policy; Educating the public & providing critical information; and delivering urgently needed mental health and wellness Programs and Services.