<p> The purpose of this project is to identify a potential funding source and write a grant to provide art classes and art exhibits in Orange County, California to decrease mental health issues among older adults and to reduce mental health stigma. A comprehensive literature review found that art related activities are an effective way to reduce mental health issues among older adults. The search conducted identified a potential funding source to support the need for culturally competent art based mental health services. Mental health stigma results in numerous challenges for those with mental illness, their families, and the community. Art activities are low-cost, help decrease levels of stress, build self-esteem, and promote community involvement. If funded, this program could help older adults engage in the art related activities to improve their mental and physical health.</p>

The number of forensic psychiatric commitments has drastically increased over the last decade, now surpassing civil commitments in Texas. This uptick is a result in part of two main policy shifts during the middle of the 20th century: deinstitutionalization and over incarceration fueled primarily by the War on Drugs. Although the Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963 was meant to replace inpatient services, few centers are adequately funded. As highlighted in the news, the combined effect is illustrated in the numbers: 1 million individuals with serious mental health disorders are booked into local jails each year and half of all incarcerated individuals are experiencing a mental health problem of some kind. To address this growing population and to prevent individuals who are criminally court-ordered to receive mental health treatment from lingering in jail for unconstitutional lengths of time, many states including Texas have been forced to find or create new forensic beds, sometimes even building new facilities. This demand for forensic beds has created opportunities for private prison companies to expand into mental health. GEO Group, one of the largest prison corporations in the world, already owns or operates five psychiatric facilities in the U.S., including one in Montgomery County, Texas, before it was acquired by Correct Care Solutions. Much like in the private prison industry, for-profit private corporations have an incentive to continue to grow the forensic psychiatric population, which contradicts best practices regarding treatment for individuals with mental illness taking place in the least restrictive environment. In order to prevent opportunities where states rely on private prison corporations because of cost savings promises, research and advocacy regarding alternatives for states attempting to curb a growing forensic psychiatric population are needed. / text

<p> Depression is a prevalent problem within the elderly population and the problem is expected to increase with the projected growth of this population. Depression is often caused by inevitable losses related to aging including retirement, moving out of the family home, loss of a spouse or other loved one, and loss of mobility. Depression that is left untreated can put an older adult at risk for suicide and a higher mortality risk due to physical illness. Social support and social contact are important factors in quality of life and mental health outcomes for older adults. Lack of reliable transportation and loss of driving privileges can lead to social isolation and can be a barrier to attending social events and maintaining contact with friends and family members. The purpose of this project was to create a transportation program intended to decrease depression in older adults by reducing social isolation and connecting them to community activities. A search of funding agencies was conducted using the Internet and personal contacts. Archstone Foundation was chosen as the most suitable funding source based on the project goals. Actual submission and/or funding of this grant were not required for successful completion of this project.</p>

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<p> The purpose of this research was to further elucidate two related factors about recovery from addiction to alcohol and/or other drugs. The lived experiences of participants gave texture to this qualitative phenomenological study and focused on gaining an appreciation of the characteristics of long-term sobriety. There has been a gap in the literature regarding what transpires over time for those who remain sober/clean for five years or more. One particular aspect was the role that spirituality played in long-term recovery. While spirituality has been studied, it has not often been addressed from a different perspective than that offered through the prevalent 12-Step model. For this study, members of the Bah&aacute;'&iacute; Faith from across the United States were recruited through a Bah&aacute;'&iacute; listserve to obtain the broadest possible demographics within this target group. The significance of spirituality and/or aspects of their faith were an integral part of the participants' lives and provided a framework that encouraged them to be of service to others and help others in community-building initiatives. Key themes were identified as education, self-determination, spirituality, and transformation. The length of sobriety of the participants ranged from five to 40 years and participants were between 25 and 73 years of age. A shift has gradually taken place in substance abuse treatment from a paradigm of relapse prevention into a process of community recovery and "wellbriety." This most recent approach is in keeping with the Bah&aacute;'&iacute; principles leading to the acquisition and practice of virtues or strengths of character. Character strengths in turn helped the participants effectively navigate the challenges of "living life on life's terms." Living by these principles led participants to develop a new sense of self brought about through self-determination and self-efficacy. Together, self-determination and self-efficacy also formed the research's theoretical framework. Insights shared by the participants can inform and help those with less time in recovery, in addition to those who may still struggle with active addiction, early recovery, and new understanding of "spirituality" in this context. As such, implications from this research address recommended improvements in education, research, and practice, as well as potential policy changes.</p>

Mental health has a long history of proving to be a tough concept to define. Multiple forms of knowledge and representation seek to inform as to the nature of mental health, all contributing to the production of immense complexity as to the experience of living with mental health difficulties. This thesis sets out to explore this, by getting as close as possible to mental health service users' actual experiences. A range of forms of knowledge that pertain to inform as to service users' experiences are explored, prior to analysing a corpus of interviews with service users. These are analysed through the development of a Deleuzian Discourse Analysis. Service users' experiences are analysed in terms of the relation between discursive and non-discursive factors, which include forms of mainstream psychiatric discursive practice, such as the application of diagnostic criteria and administration of treatments, along with how such practices are experienced in non-discursive dimensions of service user embodiment and space. The challenges facing service users are seen to operate around identity and control in relation to forms of psychiatric knowledge, along with presenting particular problems with regard to how user embodiment is felt, primarily in relation to psychiatric medication, and how these are driven into the production of service user spaces, i.e. day centres. Finally, a politics of affectivity is offered, as a way to unfold the complexity of service user experience, and to emphasise the existence and potential for change that can be gained through deterritorialising mental health.

<p> There are many variables that influence how successfully someone can move through the aging process while maintaining high levels of health, physical and psychological. In the present study, we examined how self-perceptions of aging&mdash;or the way in which someone might view their own aging process in a more positive or negative manner&mdash;influenced such healthy aging outcomes. More specifically, it was hypothesized that if we could get people to hold a more positive view of the aging process, it would make them more likely to work towards maintaining or improving their own levels of psychological well-being. In order to test this idea, older adult participants were recruited and placed into treatment or control groups. The treatment groups received a brief, psychoeducational intervention in the form of a presentation, discussing healthy aging, the importance of holding a positive view of aging, and ways to improve mental health in old age. The findings of this study indicated that the intervention did not significantly help to improve positive perceptions of aging compared to the control group, nor to increase their levels of engagement in psychologically healthy behaviors. However, there were many limitations to this study that may have been confounding, many of which would be easily changeable if the study were to be replicated in the future. Therefore, further research is merited on these topics, as they may provide much needed information about how to help senior citizens stay psychologically healthy.</p>