This review aimed to collate information regarding the psychological and sociological factors that contribute to recovery from heroin dependence. Systematic searches (manual and electronic) using the databases PsychInfo, PsychArticles, Medline, CINAHL, Scopus and Web of Science were undertaken. Six themes were identified: the role of social factors in the engagement of heroin users with services, psycho-social factors associated with motivation to stop heroin use, the role of motivation in achieving abstinence from heroin, the role of confidence/self-efficacy in reduction of heroin consumption, coping strategies and heroin abstinence and the theme of how social factors aid the transition from addict to non-addict identity. The development of non-drug using relationships and coping strategies was associated with abstinence from heroin, identifying points for intervention by drug treatment services. Self-confidence for remaining abstinent from heroin at admission to treatment was found to be un-related to heroin use following treatment. Confidence surrounding cessation of heroin use was dependent on receiving substitution medication. Drug services may play an important role in increasing past heroin users‟ self-efficacy with regard to living without heroin and substitution treatment. Throughout the literature, „recovery‟ was viewed as engagement with services and abstinence from heroin use. It seemed that this conceptualization of recovery was inconsistent with that provided by the latest government policy and that more research is required to discover how people receiving MMT and people working in drug services view recovery from heroin dependence.

<p> This mixed method study examined the relative impact of virtual and classroom-based mindfulness training on the psychological capital (PsyCap) of leaders. The control group (n = 9) and the experimental group (n = 15) participated in an 8-week program and completed pre and post-assessments PsyCap levels. A virtual program was delivered to the control group. A classroom based program was delivered to the experimental group. The experimental group exhibited significant improvement in all four psychological traits which make up the PsyCap construct: efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism. The control group exhibited significant improvement only in self-reported hope scores. The qualitative results from the experimental group were encouraging, emphasizing key learnings from the classroom experience which made an impact at the personal and professional levels. Continued research in this area is anticipated to understand more antecedents to increasing PsyCap levels, leadership effectiveness and benefits of mindfulness based interventions, and enable organizations to better support leaders with mindfulness resources in the workplace. Keywords: Leadership Effectiveness, Mindfulness Based Interventions, PsyCap, Wellness in the Workplace</p><p>

<p> Clinicians working in community mental health clinics are at high risk for burnout. Burnout is a problem involving emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. Reiki is a holistic biofield energy therapy beneficial for reducing stress. The purpose of this study was to determine if 30-minutes of healing touch could reduce burnout in community mental health clinicians. This quantitative study utilized a cross-over design to explore the efficacy of Reiki versus sham-Reiki, a pseudo treatment designed to mimic true Reiki, as a means to reduce symptoms of burnout in community mental health clinicians. The Maslach Burnout Inventory - Human Services Survey and several other measures were administered before and after the intervention phases throughout the study. The results suggest that hands-on interventions are beneficial in reducing stress for community mental health clinicians and that Reiki has a positive effect greater than relaxing touch alone. The findings show that Reiki reduces burnout in community mental health clinicians. </p>

No description available.

<p> Chronic over-activity of the body's endocrine stress response system is detrimental to overall health and, over time, may have a negative impact on the structure and function of the hippocampus, a key brain area involved in episodic memory consolidation. Yoga is becoming an increasingly popular mind-body therapy used to reduce and prevent the harmful effects of stress on the body. This review presents a summary of the research investigating yoga as a therapeutic intervention to reduce both perceived and physiological stress in healthy adults. Studies looking at the effects of yoga on hippocampal-dependent memory function in children, adults, and elderly populations were also reviewed. Research investigating the stress-reducing effects of yoga has indicated that yoga may hold therapeutic value in reducing both perceived and physiological stress in healthy populations. In children, yoga has been shown to improve spatial, but not verbal, memory. In adults and elderly individuals, studies indicate improvements in both short and long-term verbal recall following yoga intervention. Elderly individuals also showed increased hippocampal volume following long-term yoga practice. Due to the shortage of empirical evidence, along with several shared methodological limitations, further investigation is still needed to fully determine the efficacy of yoga as a beneficial mind-body therapy for decreasing both perceived and physiological stress-response, improving memory, and preventing stress and age-related hippocampal volume loss.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Catholic University of America, 1937. / Bibliography: p. 175-178.

<p> This study examined the effects of a mindfulness-based coaching intervention on perception and emotional regulation shifts related to workplace stressors (internal and external), quality of worklife, interpersonal relationships, and general sense of well-being of high-level executives (HLE) who indicated a desire to improve these areas of their worklife. </p><p> Participants in this study were six HLEs, responsible for managing the direction and change strategies of the organization or department under their charge, who supervise, manage others, and work in dynamic environments. Participants identified negative stress response and emotional regulation as well as being focused on the past and the future to be a challenge in their daily work lives. </p><p> Kabat-Zinn (2012) posited that mindfulness practice can provide the practitioner with a true embracing of a deeper sense of self and others, which can permeate life and transform the relationship to how one thinks, feels and works. Marlatt and Kristeller (1999) described mindfulness as "bringing one's complete attention to the present experience on a moment to moment basis" (p. 9). </p><p> The study included an 8-week mindfulness coaching intervention, pre and post questionnaires, semi-structured interviews. Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), HeartMath Mindful-Hearth Intelligence workbook, tools, exercises and practice were used within a coaching frame work. </p><p> A multiple case study design was used and a thematic analysis of the coaching intervention was conducted. The analysis detailed themes and patterns in shifts and changes in perception, emotional regulation around stress response, relationships, and general sense of well-being. </p><p> The study elucidated the impact of these interventions on HLEs. Several themes emerged as assets for participants during the intervention, specifically, work stress management, heightened awareness, and acceptance. Suggestion for further research would be to explore the hardiness of the process of acceptance in deepening the impact of the other central themes. An unanticipated result which was explored was the extent to which participants came to understand with kindness and curiosity the negative aspects of nondisclosure within their work culture. </p>

Introduction: Medical errors are major hazards, and lapses in non-technical skills such as situational awareness contribute to most incidents. Risks are concentrated in acute care, and in crisis situations clinicians can apparently ignore vital information. Poor workplace ergonomics contributes to risk. Existing work into perceptual errors offers insights, but these phenomena have been little researched in medicine. This thesis considers medical non-technical skills and how they are taught, and explores vulnerability to inattentional and change blindness. Methods: Medical human factors and the psychology of perceptual error were reviewed, and a mixed-methods assessment of postgraduate medical curricula completed. Experiments assessed clinicians' interaction with clinical monitoring devices using eye-tracking, and studies were conducted exposing clinicians to various perceptual error stimuli using non-clinical and clinical videos, and simulation. A survey was also conducted to assess clinicians' insight into the phenomena of perceptual error. Results: Non-technical skills feature poorly in medical curricula, and equipment is poorly standardised in critical care areas. Unfamiliar devices slow response times and increase error rate. Clinical training confers no generalisable advantage in perceptual reliability. Even expert clinicians miss important events. Two out of every three life-support instructors for example missed a critical failure in the patient's oxygen supply when watching a recorded emergency simulation. The insight and understanding healthcare staff have of perceptual errors is poor, leading to significant overestimates of perceptual reliability that could have consequences for clinical practice. Conclusions: Perceptual errors represent a latent risk factor contributing to loss of situational awareness. High rates of perceptual error were observed in the video-based experiment. Although lower rates were observed in simulation, important events were still missed by participants that could have serious consequences. The incidence of perceptual error appears sensitive to the method used to test for it, and this has important implications for the design of future experiments testing for these phenomena. Mitigating perceptual error is likely to be challenging, but relatively simple adjustments to team practices in emergency situations may be fruitful.