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The book covers a topic that is often overlooked in the literature: How people with serious mental illnesses (i.e., schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe depression) come to recognize and deal with the symptoms of a mental illness in order to promote recovery. Per the recovery movement in mental health, recovery is understood as not simply symptom elimination, but the process of living a meaningful and satisfying life in the face of mental illness. Acceptance of Mental Illness draws from research to provide educators, clinicians, researchers, and consumers with an understanding of the multidimensional process of acceptance of mental illness in order to support people across culturally diverse groups to experience empowerment, mental wellness, and growth. Chapters focus on providing a historical overview of the treatment of people with mental illness, examining the acceptance process, and exploring the experience of acceptance among women, men, racial–ethnic minorities, and LGBT individuals with serious mental illnesses. The book is a useful tool for mental health educators and providers, with each chapter containing case studies, clinical strategies lists, discussion questions, experiential activities, diagrams, and worksheets that can be completed with clients, students, and peers.Less

This book is for youth workers, social workers, mental health staff, specialist teachers, family support workers, and so on, whose clients present with comorbidity, risk, and difficulty accessing mainstream services. It describes inevitably stressful, unsettling work, providing effective help in complex helping systems. An innovative response emerges, building on adaptive (evidence-based) mentalization-based theory and practice. Uniquely, AMBIT applies mentalizing not only directly, in work with clients, but also in work: (a) with the team, (b) with wider (often “dis-integrated”) networks, and (c) creating cultures of learning and radical transparency. AMBIT is as much an improvement system for teams as a “therapy”—strengthening team identity and coherence, and supporting a wider community of practice. Linking evidence-based practice to practice-based evidence, the book concludes with impact descriptions from some of the nearly 200 AMBIT-trained teams, a client’s perspective, and a challenging analysis of systems of care pointing toward the need to create more mentalizing systems.Less

Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Clinical Handbook is an edited volume that summarizes the current state of the research concerning adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This is important, as the research indicates that young adults have low rates of attendance in post-secondary education, of being competitively employed, and of living independently. Traditionally, the field of autism has focused on early screening, diagnosis, and intervention. The poor outcomes indicate that individuals with ASD experience lifelong struggles, and few other books have focused on adolescents and young adults with ASD. Experts from a multitude of disciplines serving this population have written chapters that summarize the research in their area of expertise and offer practical suggestions for clinicians, teachers, and parents. Each chapter provides a bullet-point abstract, a list of additional resources, and study questions. These features are designed to make it useful for college-level instructors. In addition, each chapter provides suggestions for future research, which are designed to move the field forward.Less

The demand for results-driven accountability is pervasive in all aspects of education today. The shift in emphasis from compliance to accountability for closing achievement gaps and improving student outcomes creates challenges and opportunities for school-based professionals. School-based professionals have a significant role to play in supporting school improvement efforts and improving outcomes for students in their role as program evaluators. Despite the need for advanced knowledge and skills in program evaluation, resources dedicated to developing the competencies of school-based professionals in evaluation approaches, methods, and tools are scarce. This book addresses this need by serving as a practical resource for school-based professionals seeking to use program evaluation to enhance data-based decision making and accountability as informed by implementation research and within the context of a multi-tier system of supports framework. Throughout this book, school-based professionals are positioned as change agents guiding their school or school districts in the adoption, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based interventions and systems of support to meet students’ academic and behavioral needs.Less

This edited volume is the first book to provide an overview of animal maltreatment as a legal, clinical, and forensic mental health issue. It offers guidance for mental health professionals and lawyers in cases involving the adjudication of animal maltreatment offenses, with a special focus on forensic mental health assessments in such cases. Animal maltreatment includes physical or sexual abuse, neglect, or hoarding of animals. Almost one-half of all U.S. states have statutory provisions mandating or allowing courts to order forensic mental health assessments of individuals convicted of animal maltreatment offenses. However, there are few resources on this topic for mental health and legal professionals, and none that offer guidance for evaluations in animal maltreatment cases. This book introduces what the authors believe will become the newest subfield of forensic mental health assessment, Forensic Animal Maltreatment Evaluations (FAME). It begins with an examination of the legal and social contexts for the problem, followed by a review of clinical knowledge within the area. Subsequent chapters offer perspectives for social and clinical responses in animal maltreatment cases. Finally, several chapters describe prospects for an area of forensic mental health assessment focused specifically on the forensic evaluation in cases of animal maltreatment.Less

In this title, the authors review psychosocial treatments for anxiety disorders, focusing on the scientific basis and demonstrated outcomes of the treatments. Cognitive-behavioral therapies are highlighted, as they have been the most frequently investigated approaches to treating anxiety disorders. Individual chapters feature specific phobias: social phobia, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. The book is rich in clinical material and integrates science and clinical practice in an effort to help practitioners to improve the effectiveness of their work with anxious clients. Recently developed psychosocial treatments for anxiety disorders reflect the systematic influence of scientifically generated knowledge, and these new treatments yield strong results. Research in such areas as information processing, cognition, behavioral avoidance, and the physiological components of anxious arousal has increased our knowledge of mediators that cause and maintain anxiety disorders.Less

Autism continues to fascinate researchers because it is both debilitating in its effects and complex in its nature and origins. The prevalent theory is that autism is primarily characterised by difficulties in understanding mental concepts, but the contributors to this resource present new and compelling arguments for an alternative theory. Their research points strongly to the idea that autism is primarily a disorder of executive functions, those involved in the control of action and thought. As such, this online title provides a new and controversial perspective on this important question.Less

This title provides a comprehensive description and hands-on, practical guide for individuals seeking certification from any one of the 13 specialty boards of the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP). It contains answers to frequent areas of inquiry and questions posed by potential candidates. In addition to providing a brief description of the history and mission of ABPP, the book offers step-by-step information concerning the “where, what, and how” of the board certification process. Finally, never-before offered information is provided, such as what pitfalls to avoid, and how to get further involved in the profession as a board certified psychologist.Less

In this collection of articles, psychology instructors involved in the improvement of teaching and learning review the research and share their own successes and challenges in the classroom. Discussions include effective practices for helping students become acclimated to and engaged in the psychology major, application of developmental knowledge and learning communities to course design, and use of quality benchmarks to improve introductory and capstone courses. Other chapters describe innovations in the design of stand-alone courses and offer concrete advice on counseling psychology graduates about how to use what they have learned beyond their higher education experiences. Introductory and capstone experiences in the undergraduate psychology program are crucial ways to engage students in their major and psychology department, impart realistic expectations, and prepare them for life beyond college. Providing the right orientation and capstone courses in psychology education is increasingly a concern of instructors, department chairs, program directors, and deans, and both types of courses have become important sources for gathering pre- and post-coursework assessment data for degree learning outcomes.Less

There are many challenges to be faced in contemporary society including the stresses of everyday living in the technological age and changes in patterns of employment and family life. Depression is being experienced in ‘epidemic’ proportions in many Western communities, and in particular amongst young people. The search for effective ways to reverse this trend has resulted in a significant shift in psychological approach from a focus on helplessness and pathology to a more positive orientation that emphasises health and well-being. This volume brings together leading researchers in the field of stress and coping to consider ways in which coping research contributes to our understanding of how people in different sectors of life meet goals and challenges. It provides a synthesis of different but compatible theoretical models that have been developed in the field of stress and coping and provides a way forward beyond the traditional stress and coping paradigms. The emergent model is able to be used to assess a wide range of issues in the stress and coping domain.Less