When veterans need effective mental health treatment, many are reluctant to engage in traditional treatment modalities because of stigma. Therapeutic adventure shows promise as a way to engage veterans and enact positive changes in functioning, but little is known about how therapeutic adventure impacts mental health symptoms among veterans. This study examined changes in mental health symptoms and related psychological processes over the course of a 6-day Outward Bound for Veterans (OB4V) program and at a 1-month follow-up. This study examined data from 77 U.S. military veterans with psychiatric diagnoses. The authors hypothesized that participants would report significant reductions in mental health symptoms over the course of the program and following its completion, as well as significant improvements in psychological processes that included initiative for psychological growth, psychological attitudes, attitudes toward help-seeking, psychological mindedness, and emotional suppression. A repeated-measures analysis of variance was performed on each of the dependent variables. Results showed that, from pre- to postprogram, participants reported significant improvement in life purpose satisfaction and self-confidence during stressful situations. Further, from preprogram to 1-month postprogram, veterans reported increased psychological mindedness, increased engagement to promote personal growth, decreased mental health symptomology, decreased emotional suppression, and an increase in positive attitude toward seeking professional psychological help. These improvements were significant during the OB4V program and even continued to improve after the program ended, showing the promise of therapeutic adventure as a modality to address veterans' mental health issues. (PsycINFO Database Record

Case processing times throughout the United States exceed national standards created by multiple agencies. To combat this, multiple expedited case processing courts have been developed across the nation; however, research regarding these courts has failed to consider recidivism outcomes among participants. We examined the outcomes of a specialized court in the Salt Lake City Third District Court called the Early Case Resolution (ECR) Court, a program aimed at reducing both case processing times and recidivism. Using a propensity score-matched sample, we utilized survival analysis to look at participants’ time to recidivism. While case processing times were lower for the ECR Court participants than non-ECR participants, recidivism among ECR Court participants was significantly higher. Results from this study show that using recidivism as an outcome measure for expedited case processing courts is necessary in evaluations of these programs.

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Objectives Duration, frequency, and intensity of nature exposure link to different physical and psychological benefits. The present study aimed to determine how time outdoors affected military veterans’ posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomology during PTSD treatment. Method Hypotheses regarding time outdoors and the effect of program duration on PTSD symptoms were examined using multilevel models. The authors hypothesized that hours outdoors, both within‐ and between‐persons, would predict reduced PTSD symptomology, program duration would predict reduced PTSD symptomology, and that hours outdoors and program duration would be significant when accounting for the other. Results The present study found that time outdoors correlated with participants’ decreased PTSD symptomology: the more time participants spent outdoors, the greater the reduction in their PTSD symptoms. Conclusion The effect of time outdoors was significant within‐person, not between persons, suggesting that nature exposure may be used as an adjunct to traditional mental health treatment where exposure or dosage should be person‐specific.

This study aimed to identify young adult Korean cancer survivors' individual- (psychological distress, stigma, sociodemographic variables, and cancer-related variables) and network-level factors (relationship type, social support type) that influence discussion of their cancer experiences. Sixty-eight survivors of childhood cancer who were recruited using snowball sampling nominated 245 individuals from their networks, including family and intimate partners (40%) and friends and acquaintances (60%), as people with whom they most frequently interacted. Results of multilevel modeling analysis indicated that higher levels of internalized shame were a prominent individual-level factor associated with a lack of discussion of cancer experiences. Relationship type and support type at the network-level were also significant correlates of discussion of cancer experiences. Programs for reducing the survivors' shame, improving illness identity, and providing professional training for building social relationships that are intimate and in which they could exchange reciprocal support may help Korean childhood cancer survivors to openly share their cancer experiences with others in their social network and to be successful in the journey of cancer survivorship.