ABSTRACT
The literature pertaining to community-based hospice wellness centres, especially concerning program evaluation, is sparse. This article describes the development and implementation of a mixed-method, rapid needs assessment for a nonprofit community-based hospice wellness centre in Ontario, Canada. As part of the needs assessment, a survey and focus groups were performed to elicit responses from service users. Individuals registered for services and wellness centre attendees were asked about their needs, opinions, and preferences to help guide future program and service options. Findings and recommendations are presented for programming and service options, and implications for future program evaluation projects are discussed. The methodology of this time and cost-efficient evaluation provides insights that can be utilized by other hospice wellness centres facing similar challenges of time, money, and program evaluation expertise constraints. The findings and recommendations may inform program and service offerings at other Canadian hospice wellness centres.
Subject(s)
Fitness Centers , Hospice Care , Hospices , Humans , Ontario , Canada , Needs AssessmentABSTRACT
Global rates of depression have increased significantly since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unclear how the recent shift of many mental health services to virtual platforms has impacted service users, especially for the male population which are significantly more likely to complete suicide than women. This paper presents the findings of a rapid meta-analytic research synthesis of 17 randomized controlled trials on the relative efficacy of virtual versus traditional face-to-face cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in mitigating symptoms of depression. Participants' aggregated depression scores were compared upon completion of the therapy (posttest) and longest follow-up measurement. The results supported the noninferiority hypothesis indicating that the two modes of CBT delivery are equally efficacious, but the results proved to be significantly heterogeneous indicating the presence of moderating effects. Indirect suggestive evidence was found to support moderation by gender; that is, depressed males may benefit more from virtual CBT. Perhaps, this field's most telling descriptive finding was that boys/men have been grossly underrepresented in its trials. Future trials ought to oversample those who have been at this field's margins to advance the next generation of knowledge, allowing us to best serve people of all genders, those who live in poverty, Indigenous, Black, and other Peoples of Colour, as well as any others at risk of being marginalized or oppressed in contemporary mental health care systems.
ABSTRACT
This study was designed to examine the potential of the Delis-Kaplan Executive System (D-KEFS) version of the Trail Making Test (TMT) as a performance validity test (PVT). Data were collected from a mixed clinical sample of 157 consecutively referred outpatients (49% male, MAge = 47.1, MEducation = 13.6) undergoing neuropsychological assessment at an academic medical center in the northeastern United States. Sensitivity and specificity of the D-KEFS Trails to psychometrically defined invalid responding was calculated across various cutoffs and criterion PVTs. The D-KEFS Trails produced classification accuracy comparable to the original version of the TMT, hovering around the "Larrabee limit" (.50 sensitivity at .90 specificity). Different cutoffs (age-corrected scaled score ≤5 on Trails 1-3, ≤4 on Trails 4 and ≤8 on Trails 5) were needed to achieve the same classification accuracy across the five trials. Combining multiple cutoffs improved the signal detection performance. The study provides preliminary evidence of the utility of D-KEFS Trails as a PVT. Embedded PVTs are valuable, because they make a multivariate approach to validity assessment feasible. Combining validity indicators is superior to relying on single cutoffs. (PsycINFO Database Record
