Archive for the 'Depression' Category

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Wrap-around grants

Published on 16 January 2009 in Acting in, Acting out, Conduct disorder, Delinquency, Depression, News, Policy, Professsional development and Treatment. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

For schools and local education agencies that are doing a good job of working collaboratively with local mental health agencies or aspire to do so, here is a fine funding opportunity. Wrap-around systems of care have well-known benefits for children and youths with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders.

Grants for the Integration of Schools and Mental Health Systems (Federal Register: January 12, 2009 [CFDA# 84.215M])

Purpose of Program: Grants for the Integration of Schools and Mental Health Systems will provide funds to increase student access to high-quality mental health care by developing innovative approaches that link school systems with the local mental health system.

==> Applications Available: January 12, 2009.
==> Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: February 23, 2009.

Eligible Applicants: State educational agencies (SEAs), local educational agencies (LEAs), including charter schools that are considered LEAs under State law, and Indian tribes.

==> Estimated Range of Awards: $150,000-$400,000.
==> Estimated Average Size of Awards: $325,000.
==> Estimated Number of Awards: 15.

Link to the request for proposals. For more about wrap-around services, see the following sources.

  • Burchard, J. D. (2000). How wraparound can help overcome three common barriers to successful transition services. Reaching Today’s Youth, 2(4), 49-51.
  • Duckworth, S., Smith-Rex, S., Okey, S., Brookshire, M., Rawlinson, D., Rawlinson, R., Castillo, S., & Little, J. (2001). Wraparound services for young schoolchildren with emotional and behavioral disorders. Teaching Exceptional Children, 26, 54-60.
  • Eber, L., Nelson, C. M., & Miles, P. (1997). School-based wraparound for students with emotional and behavioral challenges. Exceptional Children, 63, 539-555.
  • Eber, L. (1996). Restructuring schools through wraparound approach: The LADSE Experience. In R. J. Illback & C. M. Nelson (Eds.), School-based services for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (pp. 139-154). Binghamton, NY: Haworth.
  • Eber, L., & Nelson, C. M. (1997). Integrating services for students with emotional and behavioral needs through school-based wraparound planning. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 67, 385-395.
  • Epstein, M. H., Kutash, K., & Duchnowski, A. (Eds.), Outcomes for children and youth with behavioral and emotional disorders and their families. Austin, TX: Pro Ed.
  • Malysiak, R. (1997). Exploring theory and paradigm base for wraparound. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 6, 399-408.
  • Malloy, J., Cheney, D., & Cormier, G. (1998). Interagency collaboration and the transition to adulthood for students with emotional or behavioral disabilities. Education and Treatment of Children, 31, 303-320.
  • VanDenBerg, J. E., & Grealish, E. M. (1997). Individualized services and supports through the wraparound process: Philosophy and procedures. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 5, 7-21.
  • Walker, J. S., & Schutte, K. (2003). Individualized Service/Support Planning and Wraparound: Research bibliography. Portland, OR: Portland State University, Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children’s Mental Health.
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UPenn newsletter June 08

Published on 10 June 2008 in Assessment, Bi-polar, Depression, Families, News, Policy, Research, Schizophrenia, The press and Treatment. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

The University of Pennsylvania Collaborative on Community Integration has published its latest newsletter. To view this newsletter in fully formated form, click here. You can also find this issue and previous ones in the newsletter archive on the UPenn Collaborative Web site.

Continue reading ‘UPenn newsletter June 08′

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New therapy

Published on 15 February 2008 in Acting in, Acting out, ADHD, Autism, Behavior management, Bi-polar, Bullying, Conduct disorder, Depression, Families, Musings, News, Policy, Research, Schizophrenia and Treatment. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

Here’s a description of a highly touted intervention.

[Method X] is recognized worldwide as a general method to reinforce the body’s protective abilities for people of all ages who suffer from various disorders and pre-illness conditions, i.e. practically healthy people.

[Method X] involves the organized interaction between [therapy agent] and person, with optimal conditions to offer benefits to the person as well as the [therapy agent].

[Method X] can assist in the following tasks:

- Correction of psychological development for people with nervous system disorders
- Development of cognitive activity for people with psycho-neurological disorders
- Development of children’s speech
- Removal of chronic pain
- Reduction of neurological and vegetative-vascular reactions
- Relief from psychosomatic conditions
- Reduction of unintentional movements, tics and spasms
- Rehabilitation of people, victims of violence or other stressful situations
- Psycho-emotional training for specialists whose work is connected with extremely stressful situations
- Leisure and relaxation for healthy people–children and adults

The main component of [Method X] is the psychological effect from the interaction between [the client] and [the therapy assistant] in an unaccustomed environment and the physical therapy effect from [Y and Z] made by these [therapists].

Would you want to use this therapy for yourself or your child?

I would! But, that’s because I know what the therapy is.

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PDX RTC

Published on 22 January 2008 in Acting in, Acting out, Assessment, Autism, Behavior management, Bi-polar, Causes, Conduct disorder, Depression, Families, News, Policy, Research, Schizophrenia, The press and Treatment. 1 Comment Tags: , , .
RTC at PDX banner

The paper mail included a copy of Focal Point, the periodical from the Research and Training Center (RTC) on Family Support and Children’s Mental Health at Portland (OR, US) State University. As usual, it includes many worthwhile articles. It reminded me that I should reminder readers of EBD Blog about the RTC.

Continue reading ‘PDX RTC’

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Pop questions

Published on 4 November 2007 in Assessment, Behavior management, Bi-polar, Depression, Families, Musings, News, Research, The press and Treatment. 4 Comments Tags: .

“Are we too quick to medicate children?” Melissa Healy asks this question in the headline of an article in the Los Angeles Times. She also weaves the related question—”Are we able to discriminate between normal and atypical behavior?”—into her article.

These are generally sensible questions. They reflect issues of real concern in the scientific community. But, when the headline asks whether we presrcibe medications too quickly, one can guess the answer pretty readily. Unless I’m way off base, would many readers expect the answer to be “no?”

Indeed, the article is nearly chockfull of critical concern about diagnoses, labeling, and treatment. Ms. Healy cites research results (without revealing some of the sources) and quotes at least a half dozen experts. Some of these experts would probably be consider advocates by some of the other experts.

As is de rigeur in contemporary journalism, Ms. Healy leads (and closes) with a case example. She tells the story of a 38-year-old mother who takes her 11-year-old daughter to a psychiatrist, because the girl’s “behavior and performance in school were exemplary, but an ill-tempered outburst had gotten the preteen kicked out of a Girl Scout troop she had joined at age 5. The girl was confused and heartbroken over her ejection.”

Katie’s maternal instincts tell her she must protect her child. But from what, she asks — a disease that threatens health, happiness and future? A bogus label applied to an admittedly challenging kid? Or drugs with potentially harmful and little-studied side effects?

And protect her exactly how — by resisting or by medicating?

In general, this is not a dispassionate examination of the question under which Ms. Healy’s article appears. I say this not because I disagree with her slant, but because the treatment is sensational and poorly informed. Had she gone more deeply into the topic, she would have learned about effective behavioral treatments that provide viable alternatives to medicaiton for many child behavior problems. Instead, she stuck with the hidden-mysteries view of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders of children.

Link to Ms. Healy’s article.

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MH screening again

Published on 18 September 2007 in Acting in, Assessment, Bi-polar, Depression, Families and Policy. 1 Comment

Under the headline “Schools hope mental health screenings will help end stigma,” Heather Parker reported that Carlsbad (NM, US) High School will conduct screenings for mental illness among students. The school will use grant funds to help identify students who might be at risk for depression, suicide, or other problems and, therefore, in need of further evaluation.

With parent permission, 475 ninth grade students will be screened for signs of depression and suicidal tendencies.

“This effort is part of the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Suicide Prevention Grant the school district received,” said Janey Lynn, wellness and prevention coordinator at CHS.

I have to guess this effort will raise some of the same concerns as educators have see with Teen Screen (see here for an EBD Blog post and related comments).

Link to Ms. Parker’s article.

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TECBD 2007

Published on 28 August 2007 in Acting in, Acting out, ADHD, Assessment, Autism, Behavior management, Bi-polar, Bullying, Causes, Conduct disorder, Depression, Families, News, Policy, Research, Schizophrenia and Treatment. 0 Comments

The annual meeting of Teacher Educators for Children with Behavioral Disorders (TECBD), now named after Rob Rutherford who founded it, will be held 15-17 November 2007 in Tempe (AZ, US). Steve Forness, Cheryl George, and John Maag are among the people who’ll be speaking this year.

Every year, EBDBlog has announced the call for papers, so this is nothing new. There is still time to propose a presentation for this year’s meeting. Potential presenters may submit proposals for sessions using the TECBD site.

Link to the Web site for TECBD. Link for proposing presentations.

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Cog-mod for adolescent depression

Published on 6 July 2007 in Acting in, Depression, Research and Treatment. 2 Comments

The Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy released a report endorsing the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy for preventing depression in youths at risk for this problem. The report covers the results of two well-conducted studies of the intervention.
Continue reading ‘Cog-mod for adolescent depression’

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NARSAD 2007

Published on 24 May 2007 in Acting in, Acting out, Assessment, Autism, Behavior management, Bi-polar, Causes, Conduct disorder, Depression, Families, News, Policy, Research, Schizophrenia and Treatment. 0 Comments

NARSAD: The Mental Health Research Association announced its grants for 2007, including 23 Distinguished Investigators and 222 Young Investigators. The awards represent more than $15 million in grants, and many of them are relevant to Emotional and Behavioral Disorders among children and youths.
Continue reading ‘NARSAD 2007′

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EBD goes to college

Published on 8 December 2006 in Acting in, Bi-polar, Depression, Families and News. 0 Comments

For students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders who make the transition to post-secondary education and for their families, the challenges are substantial, according to a story entitled “Off to College on Their Own, Shadowed by Mental Illness” by Lynette Clemetson of the New York Times. Ms. Clemetson uses two separate cases to illustrate her observations.

Her mother called it a negotiable proposition. But to Jean Lynch-Thomason, a 17-year-old with bipolar disorder who started college this fall, her mom’s notion to fly from their home in Nashville to her campus in Olympia, Wash., every few weeks to monitor Jean’s illness felt needlessly intrusive.

“I am so totally aware of the control you have over me right now,” Jean said, sitting in her parents’ living room one evening last June, before coolly reminding her mother of her upcoming 18th birthday. “In a few months the power dynamic is going to be different.”

For Chris Ference, 19, who is also bipolar, the fast-approaching autonomy of his freshman year held somewhat less appeal. His parents had always directed every aspect of his mental health care. Last summer, over Friday night pizza at his home in Cranberry Township, Pa., he told them that assuming control felt more daunting than liberating.

“If it was up to me, I would just have it so you could make those decisions for me up until I was like, 22,” he said. “I mean, you’ve raised me well up to now. You know me better than anyone.”

This is an important topic, so I’m glad that Ms. Clemetson brought it to the fore. Follow this link (free subscription required) to read Ms. Clemetson’s story. Fortunately, there are resources on which college students with EBD can depend; learn more about some of them at these sites:

  • Active Minds on Campus is a national (US) organization that Ms. Clemetson mentioned; Active Minds encourages student-managed groups on college and university campuses to promote awareness of mental health issues, advocate for mental health and mental illness resources, encourage fellow students to seek help when it is needed, and establish relationships with the mental health community. (I’m glad to note that there’s a chapter at U.Va., the institution where I am employed.)
  • The American Psychological Association provides a special section of its outreach Web site devoted to college mental health.
  • APA’s college mental health section.
  • Cope.Care.Deal, which is funded by the Annenberg Foundation Trust a Sunnylands, provides resources for adolescents.
  • Colleges and universities that receive US federal funds are required to provide services for individuals with disabilities, and this requirement goes beyond ensuring that campuses have wheelchair-accessible facilities; search for “disability” at any school’s Web site.

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10 December 2006 Update: On Psych Central, John Grohol covered this story, too. Here’s a link to his entry.

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Preventing depression

Published on 8 July 2006 in Acting in, Depression, News and Research. 0 Comments

Some methods of addressing depression in children are more effective than others, according to an analysis of the research literature reported by Jason L. Horowitz and Judy Garber of Vanderbilt University in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Although the overall effect sizes Professors Horowitz and Garber report are small, there are worthwhile findings. Effects were generally larger when interventions targeted particular groups than when provided to all children (often in hopes of avoiding stigma) and when the samples studied included more girls and adolescents. Here’s the abstract:

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
2006, Vol. 74, No. 3, 401– 415

The Prevention of Depressive Symptoms in Children and Adolescents: A Meta-Analytic Review
Jason L. Horowitz and Judy Garber
Vanderbilt University

Research on the prevention of depressive symptoms in children and adolescents was reviewed and synthesized with meta-analysis. When all 30 studies were included, selective prevention programs were found to be more effective than universal programs immediately following intervention. Both selective and indicated prevention programs were more effective than universal programs at follow-up, even when the 2 studies with college students were excluded. Effect sizes for selective and indicated prevention programs tended to be small to moderate, both immediately postintervention and at an average follow-up of 6 months. Most effective interventions are more accurately described as treatment rather than prevention. Suggestions for future research include testing potential moderators (e.g., age, gender, anxiety, parental depression) and mechanisms, designing programs that are developmentally appropriate and gender and culturally sensitive, including longer follow-ups, and using multiple measures and methods to assess both symptoms and diagnoses.

Link to download a PDF of the article.

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Bullying study

Published on 5 July 2006 in Acting in, Acting out, Bullying, Conduct disorder, Depression, News and Research. 0 Comments

Just in case someone forgot or didn’t understand in the first place, bullying has nasty consequences.

PEDIATRICS Vol. 118 No. 1 July 2006, pp. 130-138 (doi:10.1542/peds.2005-2388)

Bullying Victimization Uniquely Contributes to Adjustment Problems in Young Children: A Nationally Representative Cohort Study

Louise Arseneault, PhDa, Elizabeth Walsh, MDb, Kali Trzesniewski, PhDa, Rhiannon Newcombe, PhDa, Avshalom Caspi, PhDa,c and Terrie E. Moffitt, PhDa,c

a Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre
b Division of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London, United Kingdom
c Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

OBJECTIVE. It has been shown that bullying victimization is associated with behavior and school adjustment problems, but it remains unclear whether the experience of bullying uniquely contributes to those problems after taking into account preexisting adjustment problems.

METHODS. We examined bullying in the Environmental Risk Study, a nationally representative 1994–1995 birth cohort of 2232 children. We identified children who experienced bullying between the ages of 5 and 7 years either as pure victims or bully/victims. We collected reports from mothers and teachers about children’s behavior problems and school adjustment when they were 5 years old and again when they were age 7.

RESULTS. Compared with control children, pure victims showed more internalizing problems and unhappiness at school when they were 5 and 7 years. Girls who were pure victims also showed more externalizing problems than controls. Compared with controls and pure victims, bully/victims showed more internalizing problems, more externalizing problems, and fewer prosocial behaviors when they were 5 and 7 years. They also were less happy at school compared with control children at 7 years of age. Pure victims and bully/victims showed more behavior and school adjustment problems at 7 years of age, even after controlling for preexisting adjustment problems at 5 years of age.

CONCLUSIONS. Being the victim of a bully during the first years of schooling contributes to maladjustment in young children. Prevention and intervention programs aimed at reducing mental health problems during childhood should target bullying as an important risk factor.

Link to the Pediatrics abstract.

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