Suicide is a major health concern worldwide. Nurse practitioners must possess suicide assessment skills and treatment knowledge to ensure appropriate identification of persons with suicidal ideation. The purpose of this project was to assess psychiatric nurse practitioners' knowledge of suicide prevention in rural Kentucky. The conceptual framework was Orlando's nursing process theory, which emphasizes the importance of nurse-patient interaction. A 13-item survey of suicide-related knowledge and skills was administered to 10 psychiatric nurse practitioners in rural Kentucky. Only 3 participants responded correctly to a question related to suicidality in persons with borderline personality disorder. Regarding competency and support for assessing suicide, 100% of participants reported that they were comfortable asking direct and open-ended questions regarding suicide. Nine of the 10 respondents assessed their knowledge and skills as sufficient to engage effectively with patients contemplating suicide, which indicates that psychiatric nurse practitioners may overestimate their ability to identify and treat persons with suicidal ideation. Healthcare providers in all specialties can benefit from this project by improving competencies and guiding continuing education to bridge any gaps in knowledge for adequately assessing suicide. Further education is needed for psychiatric nurse practitioners to promote positive social change for suicidal persons, their families, and their communities.

Many individuals do not seek help for a mental health problem due to stigma and fear of rejection by peers and family. Researchers have highlighted that the age group least likely to seek help is youth. Stigma acts as an important barrier to help-seeking. Evidence indicating how mental health literacy can reduce stigma and encourage help-seeking remains inconclusive. In this study, the health belief model was used to understand how college students perceived an individual's susceptibility to mental illness and the barriers associated with seeking help. A posttest-only randomized controlled trial evaluated the impact of the Is It Just Me? mental health literacy program among college students and assessed whether the program was effective in generating changes in knowledge, lessening stigma, and encouraging help-seeking intentions should students experience a mental health problem. Gender and age data were collected for background information. The results of 2-tailed t tests showed less stigma p = .047, t = -2.02 in the experimental (M= 18.30, SD (2.21) compared to the control condition (M 17.02, SD (3.78)), with no effect on knowledge. With respect to help-seeking intentions, the control condition scored significantly higher than the experimental condition. In conclusion, college students who participated in this short-term mental health literacy program reported less stigma but also less help-seeking. Thus, the program contributed to a greater understanding and acceptance of people living with mental illness. Breaking down stigma and encouraging early intervention for students to seek help if they experience mental health problems can lead to better recovery outcomes and healthier trajectories.

Experiencing financial hardship is stressful and can lead to the development of psychological symptoms, including depression and anxiety. Although researchers have examined the broad categories of coping strategies that people employ when faced with financial hardship, little is known about the experiences of single men who were able to navigate stressful times without developing anxiety or anxiety-like symptoms. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the successful coping experiences of single men with financial hardship (e.g., loss of job, home, finances). Bonanno's theory of resilience provided the framework for the study. Data were collected from interviews with 12 single men ages 18 to 65 who identified as middle or lower SES and had experienced financial hardship within the past 8 years. Data were analyzed using Van Kaam's method, producing 10 thematic categories: definitions of stressors, personal financial stressors, worries, challenges, how stressors were experienced, supports, coping strategies, definitions of resilience, experience of resilience, and added information. Sports and sharing with others were common coping skills; this contributed to an improved understanding of how single men may respond when faced with negative financial events. Findings may be helpful to those who provide counseling services for clients in this category and may be used in training programs to teach strategies for managing financial stress.

Abstract Low population density in rural areas makes it difficult to deliver services to people with mental health problems and nonmedical prescription opioid abuse remains a problem in the United States. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to determine whether a parent's socioeconomic status affected care opportunities for children 12 to 17 years of age and whether bipolar disorder increased the likelihood of substance abuse in those children. The theory of reasoned action/planned behavior provided the framework for the study. Secondary data from the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research 36361 data system, specifically the National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2014, were collected that included information about the socioeconomic status of adolescents and their parents. Cross-sectional analysis was used to analyze data. The first research examined the extent to which bipolar disorder influenced opioid abuse in those between the ages of 12 and 17. There was a nonsignificant association between the variables: chi-square probability values (p > 0.05) for mental health difficulties and ever-used pain relievers non-medically. There was a significant association between mental health and emotional difficulties at p < 0.05. The second research question examined whether a parent's socioeconomic status impacted the level of care opportunities for those 12 to 17 years' old in relation to bipolar disorder in rural communities. Using multivariate logistic regression analysis, no significance was found between level-of-care opportunities and a parent's socioeconomic status. The findings of this study have potential to bring about social change by increasing clinician skills related to intervention planning related to opioid abuse in rural communities among adolescents with bipolar disorder.

Researchers have shown a relationship between mental health disorders and alcohol dependence. However, only 5-10% of individuals with substance use problems co-occurring with mental health problems are correctly identified. The purpose of this research was to identify predictors of relapse using three different instruments of varying complexity: the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), the Modified Mini Screen (MMS), and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III). Researchers have found that using alcohol produces relief, similar to a pharmacological intervention, from troublesome mental health symptoms that individuals experience. Considering this association, the self-medication hypothesis was the conceptual lens used for the study as it provides a practical framework for analyzing the relationship between mental health disorders and relapse. At the request of this researcher, data were collected on 45 individuals who were provided detoxification services at a public treatment facility in central Wisconsin. Regression analyses were conducted and identified a statistically significant, although weak, predictive relationship between relapse and the variable of depression as measured by the PHQ-9 (R = .311a, R2 = .097, p = .037), and depression as measured by the MCMI-III (R = .364a, R2 = .133, p = .014). The implications for positive social change from this study include the potential to increase the effectiveness and efficiency in identifying co-occurring mental health disorders among individuals who are treated for alcohol detoxification, enhancing the accuracy of referrals for aftercare, and reducing readmissions for detoxification amongst the individuals served.

The study determined that twenty-three mildly to moderately retarded adults living within the community increased their sexual knowledge after attending a twelve month, data-based sex education training program. The Lane Community College-Adult Basic Education (LCC-ABE) Pre/Post Test was administered to each subject when he/she began and finished the training program. The Intermittent Probe Tests were administered to each subject after instruction in each of thirteen topic areas in the curriculum. The main conclusions were that: (a) the subjects significantly increased their sexual knowledge after training; (b) class, sex, ability level, age, type of residence, and length of time in that residence were not significantly influential in the increase of sexual knowledge; and (c) a significant correlation between the Intermittent Probe Tests and post-test scores indicated a high degree of predictability between the two tests and that long-term (over a twelve-month period) retention resulted from training.

The CMI (Chronically Mentally Ill) experience many problems in obtaining services in both rural and urban environments. Such problems include community resistance to the mentally ill, inadequate treatment services, support systems, a lack of service utilization, and a lack of follow-up studies concerning this population, especially in rural areas. While these problems are generally characteristic of all areas of the country, whether urban or rural, they tend to have extreme manifestations in rural areas. Such problems are also conjoint in rural areas with rural life poverty, isolation, transportation difficulties, and sparse populations. In order to understand the possible barriers to mental health services in rural areas, this study will concern itself with certain demographic data and possible transportation difficulties of the CMI population in the rural environments. Our geographical target area is Eastern Oregon Comprehensive Community Mental Health Center catchment area of the State of Oregon, Mental Health Division. The target population will be recent releases from Eastern Oregon State Hospital (EOSH) who reside in this region.

No description available.

People with lung cancer are at a high risk of developing anxiety and depression during cancer treatments. Previous research has shown physical activity to be effective in improving psychological symptoms in people with cancer, however, the majority of studies have focused on female breast cancer survivors. The purpose of this literature review was to determine if physical activity interventions can effectively and feasibly reduce anxiety and depression in people with lung cancer who are undergoing treatment. A database search was conducted in CINAHL Plus, MEDLINE, APA PsycInfo, and SPORTDiscus. The search resulted in 265 articles and 9 were selected for inclusion in this review. Four studies showed significant improvements in anxiety and depression, six studies showed significant improvements in only anxiety, and the remaining studies showed no effect. The studies that improved both anxiety and depression used multimodal physical activity programs that included the use of supplemental psychological and health promoting interventions. Limitations included high drop-out rates, small sample sizes, and using different physical activity programs in a portion of the studies. Multimodal physical activity programs are safe and feasible and should be recommended to reduce anxiety and depressions in people with lung cancer undergoing treatment.

The purpose of this study was to determine from a group of ending stage of treatment or post-treatment incest survivors their experience with anger before therapy, during therapy, and at present, using semi-structured interviews and the following objective measures: STAXI--State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (Spielberger, 1988), CRI--Coping Resources Inventory (Hammer and Marting, 1988), MBTI--Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Myers and McCaulley, 1985), a researcher-constructed outcome measure (a visual analog scale of awareness of feelings and symptom improvement) and a researcher-constructed Type-Related Anger questionnaire. Subjects who volunteered to participate in the study were 45 adult female (average 38 years old) survivors of childhood incest where incest was defined to include any sexual contact by a blood relative or by someone who is in a caretaking role and their 25 referring outpatient therapists, identified as experts in their communities by local rape crisis centers. Survivors had worked with an average of 3.6 therapists per person and had been in therapy for an average of 32 months with their current therapists.;STAXI results showed that these survivors had much more State and Trait Anger and had repressed much more anger before therapy than at present. They were not significantly more expressive with their anger prior to therapy than at present. When compared to the norm groups on the objective measures, these survivors at present had equal total coping resources, equal repressed anger, and more expressed anger. There were no differences between therapist assessment and client report of current repressed or expressed anger. Specific coping resources had some type-related similarities, but the small sample size in this study made all type results inconclusive. Strategies, tasks, and rituals for working through anger were suggested by both survivors and therapists and could be classified by type preference and by coping resource preference.;Implications of the study are that severely abused survivors can be successfully treated by qualified therapists and that their anger is related to empowerment and healing and is not "maladaptive.".