This study explores the teaching role of activists and community advocates who have become involved in the education and preparation of mental health professionals. Placed in the transcultural mental health context, the study aims to identify central features of the 'teaching role' of consumer and carer advocates as they have become employed via participatory strategies and employment scenarios within mainstream teaching programs and transcultural mental health centres. / The research approach used for this exploration is based on hermeneutics and ethnography, where I visit organisations and individual advocates on a participant- observation basis. This approach locates my researcher role as a central reflexive author in generating and interpreting data from experiences of organisational teaching practice, from conversing with advocates and clinical educators and from collecting and reading consumer and carer perspectives on reform in mental health care. Making interpretations from these social experiences means that I make selective use of relevant autobiographical details and knowledge from my employment in the mental health sector. / The central theme of the study is how consumer and carer advocates teach via the notion of lived experience, a key expression of recent workforce development policy in Australian mental health. The research outcomes from this focus indicate that the teaching work of advocates in contributing authoritative knowledge of self and others is influenced by many factors intrinsic to their performed representative role, rather than exclusively by their personal experience as a consumer or carer, as the policy of lived experience would suggest. I argue that the requirements of teaching as defined by the expectations of employing organisations and the clinical audience, and by traditions in representative advocacy and professional education all shape the way in which advocates build and express their knowledge in educational work. / From this broad interpretation, the study also argues that organisations in mental health need to carefully think about the way they construct teaching positions for community advocates and support their work. Performance expectations of representing others, being able to portray cultural understandings, effectively educating clinicians, utilising their personal stories and histories, and meeting other employment related tasks place diverse and possibly contradictory pressures on the consumer or carer wishing to express their perspective to the workers in the sector. / The study's major emphasis on the role requirements of advocate/ teachers and organisational expectations is then connected to a broader conversation about how (consumer) participation models are able to facilitate and support the involvement of community and identity groups not traditionally associated with the consumer movement. This focuses attention on how existing consumer models are bound to the language of consumerism and mental illness. The implications of these boundaries for realizing the ideals of participation in mental health are then discussed. This helps to contextualise the idea of whether the mental health sector is in a position to facilitate a democratic recognition of the service needs of different community groups. / Thesis (PhDNursing)--University of South Australia, 2005

Thesis (M.A.)--Marshall University, 2008. / Title from document title page. Includes abstract. Document formatted into pages: contains 59 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 39-42).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [120]-123).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1974. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: I. Ignacy Goldberg. Dissertation Committee: Robert Bowers. Includes tables. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-112).

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-72).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1967.

Thesis (M.A.)--Marshall University, 2002. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 38 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-38).

Perinatal depression (PND), depression that occurs during pregnancy or in the first year following delivery, is a common and debilitating mental health condition. In New York City, it is estimated that at least one in ten women suffer from PND. The clinicians who serve these women require training in acceptable, feasible, and effective treatments. Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is a time-limited, evidence-based psychotherapy that has been found to be effective in the treatment of PND in community and primary care settings. The present study investigates the nuances of an IPT training program for licensed mental health providers who treat perinatal depression within integrated care settings in NYC. Using a qualitative-focused mixed-methods design, this study aims to systematically and comprehensively evaluate the acceptability, feasibility, sustainability, and preliminary effectiveness of the training program, and of the providers’ perceptions of IPT as a treatment for the patients they serve. To achieve these aims, five of the eight providers who participated in the training program were interviewed at two timepoints and quantitative data including demographics, use of IPT, satisfaction with training experience, and effectiveness of the training program were collected. Results indicate that providers viewed their training experience as acceptable and feasible and viewed IPT as an appropriate, relevant, and helpful treatment for their perinatal patients’ depression. Quantitative results provide preliminary support for the training model’s potential effectiveness, demonstrating that provider-trainees were able to obtain and retain knowledge of IPT and achieve certification as IPT practitioners. Overall, Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) scores show that patients who were treated by the study’s provider-trainees self-reported depression symptoms improved over the course of their IPT treatment. Recommendations for future directions and implications for future provider training programs are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors associated with choosing mental health nursing as a career, and to explore the possible ways of improving recruitment and retention of mental health nurses in Kenya. Quantitative, explorative descriptive research was conducted. Data collection was done by using questionnaires and focus group discussions. Three groups participated in the study: practicing mental health nurses (n=10), post-basic mental health nursing students (n=10) and final year basic nursing students (n=184). The findings revealed that basic nursing students do not intend to pursue a career in mental health nursing, and that there is an aging population of mental health nurses. The barriers to the mental health field include stigma, a poor working environment and inadequate career guidance. Marketing, policy and regulatory reforms, as well as positive work environments have been identified as strategies for improving the recruitment and retention of mental health nurses in Kenya. / Health Studies / Thesis (M.A. (Health Studies))

Mental health professionals are continually asked to determine whether an individual is safe to reside in society without restraint. However, early research on the ability of mental health professionals to assess dangerousness has produced discouraging results. A clinician’s ability to process and recall clinical material may significantly be influenced by patient characteristics. Clinicians are not immune to gender biases, and research assessing such differences between male and female clinicians -- including how their attitudes toward women influence their clinical judgment-- have yielded mixed results. This dissertation will assess the impact of clinician attitudinal factors, specifically gender biases, on perceptions of dangerousness. Furthermore, this dissertation will also examine themes that emerge regarding gender bias, racial bias, and attitudes toward women within the assessment of dangerousness.