Conducting Wellness Groups for Veterans and Older Adults
Conducting Wellness Groups for Veterans and Older Adults

Author: Victoria L. Bacon

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-09-20

Total Pages: 106

ISBN-13: 1000684210

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Conducting Wellness Groups for Veterans and Older Adults: The Legacy Model offers an innovative wellness group model for mental health practitioners. Two curricula developed by the authors are explored, the Process-Focused Legacy Group curriculum for members who are high functioning and motivated adults, and the Activity-Based Legacy Group curriculum tailored for persons with disabilities and/or cognitive impairments. Detailed steps, prompts, and legacy activities are provided for each stage for both curriculum formats. This book provides clinical examples from the facilitator’s group experiences using the Legacy Model. The appendices provide further detailed resource materials that include descriptions of potential legacy projects and a vast assortment of legacy activities. This book is essential for mental health practitioners: mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, social workers, and psychologists interested in conducting Legacy Groups with veterans and older adults.

Evaluation of the Department of Veterans Affairs Mental Health Services
Evaluation of the Department of Veterans Affairs Mental Health Services

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2018-03-29

Total Pages: 467

ISBN-13: 0309466601

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Approximately 4 million U.S. service members took part in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Shortly after troops started returning from their deployments, some active-duty service members and veterans began experiencing mental health problems. Given the stressors associated with war, it is not surprising that some service members developed such mental health conditions as posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and substance use disorder. Subsequent epidemiologic studies conducted on military and veteran populations that served in the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq provided scientific evidence that those who fought were in fact being diagnosed with mental illnesses and experiencing mental healthâ€"related outcomesâ€"in particular, suicideâ€"at a higher rate than the general population. This report provides a comprehensive assessment of the quality, capacity, and access to mental health care services for veterans who served in the Armed Forces in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn. It includes an analysis of not only the quality and capacity of mental health care services within the Department of Veterans Affairs, but also barriers faced by patients in utilizing those services.

How Change Happens in Equine-Assisted Interventions
How Change Happens in Equine-Assisted Interventions

Author: Noreen W. Esposito

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-02-24

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1000842150

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

How Change Happens in Equine-Assisted Interventions gives clinicians and researchers an intervention theory on the mechanisms of change during psychotherapy and other interventions that incorporate horses. Chapters introduce the concept of intervention theory, present a theory of the problem (what the client comes with), theories explaining the intervention (what is done during a session), and theories of change (what happens in the mind of a client), with each theory’s function described. Using an autoethnographic approach, the authors describe, deconstruct, and analyze personal experiences as clients during an equine-assisted intervention. Then the authors present and apply a unique intervention theory by linking it to the thoughts and experiences of clients in and after a session. Practitioners will come away from this book with a unique perspective on the field and with an increased understanding of what their clients are thinking both in and out of session. Researchers will have an explanatory theory from which to draw testable hypotheses when studying interventions incorporating horses.

The Mental Health and Substance Use Workforce for Older Adults
The Mental Health and Substance Use Workforce for Older Adults

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2012-10-26

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 0309256658

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

At least 5.6 million to 8 million-nearly one in five-older adults in America have one or more mental health and substance use conditions, which present unique challenges for their care. With the number of adults age 65 and older projected to soar from 40.3 million in 2010 to 72.1 million by 2030, the aging of America holds profound consequences for the nation. For decades, policymakers have been warned that the nation's health care workforce is ill-equipped to care for a rapidly growing and increasingly diverse population. In the specific disciplines of mental health and substance use, there have been similar warnings about serious workforce shortages, insufficient workforce diversity, and lack of basic competence and core knowledge in key areas. Following its 2008 report highlighting the urgency of expanding and strengthening the geriatric health care workforce, the IOM was asked by the Department of Health and Human Services to undertake a complementary study on the geriatric mental health and substance use workforce. The Mental Health and Substance Use Workforce for Older Adults: In Whose Hands? assesses the needs of this population and the workforce that serves it. The breadth and magnitude of inadequate workforce training and personnel shortages have grown to such proportions, says the committee, that no single approach, nor a few isolated changes in disparate federal agencies or programs, can adequately address the issue. Overcoming these challenges will require focused and coordinated action by all.

Families Caring for an Aging America
Families Caring for an Aging America

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2016-11-08

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 0309448093

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Family caregiving affects millions of Americans every day, in all walks of life. At least 17.7 million individuals in the United States are caregivers of an older adult with a health or functional limitation. The nation's family caregivers provide the lion's share of long-term care for our older adult population. They are also central to older adults' access to and receipt of health care and community-based social services. Yet the need to recognize and support caregivers is among the least appreciated challenges facing the aging U.S. population. Families Caring for an Aging America examines the prevalence and nature of family caregiving of older adults and the available evidence on the effectiveness of programs, supports, and other interventions designed to support family caregivers. This report also assesses and recommends policies to address the needs of family caregivers and to minimize the barriers that they encounter in trying to meet the needs of older adults.

The Praeger Handbook of Veterans' Health
The Praeger Handbook of Veterans' Health

Author: Thomas W. Miller

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2012-09-20

Total Pages: 1361

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This four-volume set provides a history of veterans' healthcare that examines programs of care and veterans' special needs, and offers insight into future directions for veteran's healthcare in the 21st century. This comprehensive contribution to understanding veterans' healthcare uniquely draws on a national and international cadre of scientists and practitioners, both within the Department of Veterans Affairs and specialists beyond the institution, providing a matrix view of veterans' healthcare, past, present, and future, both nationally and internationally. This work will prove an essential reference set that examines and identifies veterans' healthcare through the first decade of the 21st century, invaluable to health and psychology researchers and students, policymakers, social workers, and veterans. The Praeger Handbook of Veterans' Health: History, Challenges, Issues, and Developments is organized to cover four key elements. Volume I presents a history of veterans' healthcare, the various veteran's eras, and the global healthcare provided to our veterans. Volume II examines several of the programs of care and veterans' special needs. Volume III is devoted to the several aspects of mental health care, treatment, and rehabilitation services offered to veterans through the healthcare system. The last volume offers insights into future directions for veterans' healthcare.

Handbook of Mental Health and Aging
Handbook of Mental Health and Aging

Author: Nathan Hantke

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2020-04-11

Total Pages: 513

ISBN-13: 0128004932

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Handbook of Mental Health and Aging, Third Edition provides a foundational background for practitioners and researchers to understand mental health care in older adults as presented by leading experts in the field. Wherever possible, chapters integrate research into clinical practice. The book opens with conceptual factors, such as the epidemiology of mental health disorders in aging and cultural factors that impact mental health. The book transitions into neurobiological-based topics such as biomarkers, age-related structural changes in the brain, and current models of accelerated aging in mental health. Clinical topics include dementia, neuropsychology, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, mood disorders, anxiety, schizophrenia, sleep disorders, and substance abuse. The book closes with current and future trends in geriatric mental health, including the brain functional connectome, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), technology-based interventions, and treatment innovations. - Identifies factors influencing mental health in older adults - Includes biological, sociological, and psychological factors - Reviews epidemiology of different mental health disorders - Supplies separate chapters on grief, schizophrenia, mood, anxiety, and sleep disorders - Discusses biomarkers and genetics of mental health and aging - Provides assessment and treatment approaches