Adolescents have a high rate of untreated mental health issues, specifically related to depression. Current literature does not indicate the impact of teachers' attitudes toward mental health on their decisions to refer students for services. This study provides understanding specifically, how teachers' beliefs about mental health, as well as their age, gender, ethnicity, years of education, and years of teaching, were analyzed to determine the impact each these characteristics had on the decision to refer a student for services. 92 high school teachers participated in this quantitative study by completing a survey measuring their attitudes of mental health, and then responding to scenarios on which they answered 'yes' or 'no' to indicate whether they would refer students for services in certain situations. This information was analyzed through multiple regression and descriptive analysis to determine the relationship these characteristics had with the decision to refer. The data suggested that teacher characteristics related to age (β = 1.516, t = 2.075, p < .05), gender (β = -3.336, t = -2.220, p < .05), psychological openness (F(5, 86) = 2.488, R2 = .126, p < .05), and indifference to stigma (F(1, 90) = 5.395, p =0.022) all impacted participants' decision to refer a student for services in the scenarios presented. This study has implications for social change in how teachers are trained concerning mental health awareness and the impact of their personal beliefs on their efforts to help adolescents' access mental health services. Increasing teacher awareness related to the issue of helping adolescents' access mental health services is the desired outcome of this study. Such change could result in adolescents gaining access to services for greater opportunity to reduce depressive symptomology.

By the year 2050 it is expected that the number of older adults living with dementia will triple. With 42% of persons with dementia living in residential care, it is vital that we better understand how to maintain high psychosocial well-being for this population, in this setting. The objective of this study was to better understand psychosocial well-being in persons with dementia. The research team observed affect in clients with dementia (n = 22), as well as staff interactions with clients in a residential memory care unit for a total of 6999 minutes. The first purpose was to examine overall proportions of client affect and staff interaction types, both for the whole sample, and in more detail (assessing inter/intraindividual differences) for the five most observed clients. The second purpose was to identify whether proportions of positive affect in clients differed based on staff interaction type. The third purpose was to examine themes emerging from a review of field notes when staff interactions and/or client affect were noted. Analyses identified that the most observed affect type was neutral affect (53.1% of all minutes observed). The most common interaction type was neutral or no interaction (81.1% of all minutes observed). Positive affect accounted for 44.5% of observations, and positive staff interactions for 18.1% of the observations. There was very little negative affect (2.4%) and negative interactions (.8%) observed. When staff had neutral/no/negative interactions, clients were positive 36% of the time, whereas when staff had positive interactions, clients were positive 81% of the time (z = 28.84, p < .001). The review of the field notes identified themes and subthemes related to behavioral problems and other client problems, and the staff either responding to or ignoring these problems. The review also identified occasions when staff engaged clients beyond what was required of them. While quantitative analyses suggested low rates of negative staff interaction, the field notes highlight that sometimes no interaction (ignoring a client) is also problematic. This study suggests that positive social interactions between staff and clients may be important in maintaining positive affect and overall wellbeing in persons with dementia.

Broadly speaking, the purpose of this study is to: 1. Assess the functioning of the psychiatric hospital aftercare service delivery system by examining community service utilization patterns of Dammasch Hospital releases. 2. Obtain descriptive information relating to Washington County's chronic aftercare population. 3. Provide an objective data base that can be used to further develop the Aftercare Service Delivery System in Washington County.

The purpose of this study is to provide a descriptive analysis of the problems presented by a specific group of women seeking out-patient mental health treatment and to relate these problems to the ontogenetic (age-related) developmental issues presented in a study of the literature. The researcher’s involvement in this area developed from interest in current literature on adult development, and a personal commitment to life-long growth and acceptance of the inherent changes. In order to investigate whether developmental issues exist for this group of women, and if so to describe them, two distinct age groups--the decades of the 20's and the 40's--were chosen as the focus of this study.

The prevalence and consequences of the insanity plea, titled "guilty except for insanity" in the State of Oregon, are fraught with misconceptions. The use of the plea requires a complex set of interactions between the mental health and criminal justice systems, and comes with severe costs for people who use it. Most of the research on the psychological aspects of the insanity plea emphasizes empirical validity in the form of risk assessment instruments and/or the biomedical model with its focus on disease and illness. This thesis analyzes from community psychology and critical theory perspectives the decision process of hearings held by the Psychiatric Security Review Board. The critical analysis draws specifically on Michel Foucault's (1977) theory of knowledge and power to address three questions: 1. Are there identifiable prototypical narratives of risk that are constructed around evidence admitted to a hearing? 2a. Are these risk narratives deployed differently in public PSRB hearing as opposed to an individual interview? 2b. Do the District Attorney, Defense Attorney, and clinician deploy risk narratives differently? 3. As professionals that create, administer, and interpret risk assessment instruments, how do clinicians use these risk narratives to support or refute the arguments of each side? Transcripts and audio recordings of hearings were thematically content analyzed and compared to address these questions. One overarching theme and four subsidiary themes emerged from the data that describe how risk is indirectly discussed in the formal procedures of the hearings and in individual interviews. The overarching theme is Insight and the four subsidiary themes are Elopement, Compliance, Drug-use, and Treatment. Compared across settings, the hearings were highly structured whereas the individual interviews allowed for a more complex analysis and explication of positions. In the context of the PSRB hearings, the testimony of the clinician was of primary importance in determination of insight and the source of information on the patient along the subsidiary themes.

The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRS), a 17-item observer-rated scale, was first developed in 1960 to assess the severity of depressive symptomatology in patients diagnosed as suffering from depression. The HRS has since demonstrated high inter-rater reliability (with coefficients ranging from .87 to .94), and has proven useful in measuring changes of severity following treatment.

In recent years attention has been given to the problems of the chronically mentally ill in regard to the effects of deinstitutionalization and a need for community supports. In this study, 77 service providers to the chronically mentally ill of Multnomah County (Portland), Oregon were interviewed to assess the components of the existing community support system for this population, as well as to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the system. Ten chronically mentally ill clients were interviewed in a similar manner.

The major part of this study was a treatment program designed to motivate mentally retarded adults to lose weight within a small group setting. Subjects were tested pre- and posttreatment on the Tennessee Self Concept Scale to ascertain any improvement in self-esteem. A 50-question diet quiz was constructed by the experimenters and administered pre- and posttreatment to find out if the subjects would improve their knowledge of health and nutrition through the study.

This study is exploratory in nature. The material was highly individualistic and subjective, so I have deviated from the traditional empirical research approach. My purpose is to grasp what kind of person was attracted to attending a dance workshop. How does Halprin’s use of dance assist people in learning about themselves? What kinds of information do people learn about themselves through her dance process? What techniques does Halprin combine with the medium of dance to get results? Are people enhanced, or better integrated by the Halprin process? Finally, my intention was to be stimulated by the Halprin process to explore possible uses of dance in combination with my traditional psychodynamic, verbal approach to social casework.

The purpose of this survey was to obtain information from hospital emergency room staff on each mental health admission during the period of December 15, 1977 to January 15, 1978. Mental health admissions were broadly defined to include those people who were experiencing an observable mental health difficulty, but who may have initially presented primary medical problems. At the request of Multnomah County Mental Health Division's Management Team, and with the approval of the Emergency Department Nurses Association (EDNA), questionnaires were distributed among 16 general hospitals in the Portland, Oregon, Tri-County area. These hospitals are located in Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington Counties. This survey represents the first attempt (1) to obtain information on an area-wide basis, on emergency room (ER) treatment of mental health admissions; and (2) to ascertain the availability and use of community mental health resources. The collection of such information is important to planning for comprehensive mental health services and in improving the existing service delivery system.