A brief 4-item screening tool can be used by nonmental health clinicians to accurately detect suicidality in children and adolescents who visit an ED. Early and accurate identification of suicidality is a critical first step that could lead to better treatment and improved health outcomes for children and adolescents with mental health concerns.
The authors report on a survey of 110 psychotherapists who treat children. The data include reports on the relative usefulness of various theoretical and practical techniques now in use. One striking finding is that psychologists and psychiatrists in the sample differed little in their theoretical orientations and practices. Those interdisciplinary differences that were significant seem predictable on the basis of training patterns. On the whole, it seems that the variety of approaches used in psychotherapy with children is probably narrower than that used with adult clients.The field of psychotherapy has grown dramatically in scope and emphasis since the concept of the "child guidance" model was developed in America (Healy & Bronner, 1948). In the past 10 years a specialized subfield of clinical child psychology has developed with a significant body of theoretical, clinical, and empirical literature. Substantial new volumes, with scores of experienced contributors, describe theoretical models, develop therapeutic strategies, and elaborate on new techniques (
Much has been written about death and children's conceptions of it, but virtually no careful empirical research has been done in this area. Using Piaget's framework for conceptualizing cognitive development, children's attitudes toward death were explored and analyzed. Subjects were 75 children ranging in age from 6 to 15, and with at least average intellectual ability. Each child was tested to determine his primary level of cognitive functioning and asked the following four questions about death: "What makes things die? How can you make dead things come back to life? When will you die? What will happen then?" Replies to these questions were shown to be related to the child's level of cognitive development. Changes in the direction of more realistic appraisals by children were noted as levels of cognitive development advanced from preoperational, to concrete-operational, to formal-operational stages. Levels of significance for the various relationships discussed ranged from p < .05 to p < .001.Many volumes have been written about man's concept of death and its psychological concomitants. Many authors have attempted to explain how man learns about death and comes to grips with this universal phenomenon. For all of the writing that has been done in this area, however, there is embarassingly little in the way of empirical research, and what little exists is on the survey or opinion poll variety (Mitchell, 1967). Early research in this area, as illustrated by the now classic works of Nagy (1948) and Anthony (1940), was fraught with method-1 This report is based in part on a doctoral dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty of the University of Missouri, Columbia. The author wishes to express special thanks to Fred Mc-Kinney and June Chance for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. The author also gratefully acknowledges the generous assistance of the following people, who served without compensation as examiners and judges:
Foreseeable social and technological changes will force us to reevaluate our thinking about ethically appropriate ways to fulfill our mission of using psychology to advance human health and welfare in the twenty-first century. Three categories of challenge related to societal and technological changes have become particularly evident. First, increasing patterns of delivering services over substantial distances by electronic means (i.e., telepsychology) demand consideration. Second, we must parse our ethical obligations to individuals, to groups, and to society at large as our influence working behind the scenes as "invisible" psychologists grows. Finally, as we witness the accelerating demise of psychiatry, we must take care not to follow a similar path. As we face new ethical challenges, we must continually ask ourselves where our responsibilities lie as individuals and as a profession. We must learn not to repeat the mistakes of the past and focus instead on optimizing the future for a science and practice of psychology focused on human health and welfare.
The provision of mental health services over the Internet is becoming increasingly commonplace as new technologies continue to develop. Evidence in support of the efficacy of many such interventions is accumulating. Given the potential global reach of Internet-based psychological services, the authors examine ethical issues relating to this growing area of practice through the lens of the Universal Declaration of Ethical Principles for Psychologists (International Union of Psychological Science, 2008). They also raise issues relating to potential liability risks and offer recommendations intended to guide mental health practitioners who are considering involvement in the provision of Internet-based services.
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