Lifetime HIV testing among three samples of adults with histories of incarceration in Southern California.

ABSTRACTJustice-impacted persons may inconsistently access HIV testing. This cross-sectional secondary analysis investigates lifetime HIV testing prevalence among adults with prior histories of incarceration in Southern California, United States, participating in health-focused programming (n = 3 studies). Self-reported demographic and lifetime HIV testing data were collected between 2017-2023; descriptive analyses were conducted. Across the three samples, at least 74% of participants were male; Latino and African American individuals accounted for nearly two-thirds of participants. Lifetime HIV testing ranged from 72.8% to 84.2%. Males were significantly more likely than females to report never being tested in two samples and accounted for >95% of those never tested. No statistically significant differences in testing were observed by race/ethnicity. Single young adults (ages 18-26) were less likely than their partnered peers to report testing. HIV testing is critical for ensuring that individuals access prevention and treatment. HIV testing among justice-impacted adults in this study was higher than in the general population, potentially due to opt-out testing in correctional settings. Nevertheless, these findings underscore the importance of implementing targeted interventions to reduce structural (e.g., health insurance, access to self-testing kits) and social barriers (e.g., HIV stigma) to increase HIV testing among justice-impacted males and single young adults.

Access to Healthcare Among Young Adult Probationers Participating in a Pilot Health-Focused Reentry Program.

Justice-involved adults experience disparities in healthcare access. This pilot study examines healthcare access among young adult probationers (n = 66) receiving 6-months of Service Navigation and Health Coaching support implemented between 2017 and 2021. Data are from baseline, 6-month follow-up and satisfaction surveys. Between baseline and follow-up, the proportion of insured young adult participants (66%-88%; p < .001) and those using healthcare services (36%-71%; p < .001) increased significantly; report of unmet physical healthcare needs decreased significantly (44%-26%; p = .003). Satisfaction data revealed increased self-efficacy, motivation, focus, and improved organizational, goal setting, and communication skills. The program improved healthcare access by increasing health insurance and recent use of healthcare services. Longitudinal studies are needed to assess maintenance of these outcomes and potential impacts on disparities in health status and access to care indicators. Integrating navigation and coaching supports to advance the well-being of justice-involved young adults is a promising mechanism to facilitate healthcare access.

Suicide prevention in Bangladesh: The role of family.

BACKGROUND: Suicide is a public health problem that gets little attention in Bangladesh especially in prevention aspects. Recent studies revealed that a significant portion of risk factors is closely related to family events. However, potential prevention strategies considering the family structure and involving family dynamics of Bangladesh have not been discussed. OBJECTIVES: We aim to highlight areas of family vulnerability and resilience when the threat of suicide is present, as well as the potential roles of family in suicide prevention in Bangladesh. METHODS: We conducted a thorough narrative and focused literature search and synthesized evidence based on available articles discussing suicidality and family dynamics in Bangladesh. RESULTS: Risk factors for suicide prevailing in the family have been organized, and several strategies for coping with family risk factors, including marital discord and family conflict have been proposed for testing empirically. CONCLUSIONS: The family has an important role to play in suicide prevention in Bangladesh. However, potential prevention strategies and their effectiveness have been untapped in the country. Studies are warranted to test the effectiveness of the proposed strategies.

Overview of a Pilot Health-focused Reentry Program for Racial/Ethnic Minority Probationers ages 18 to 26 in Southern California.

There is a significant gap in reentry programming that is tailored to the needs of young adults ages 18 to 26 who are in a unique developmental life stage that involves ongoing maturity in their neurobiology, cognitive development, and social and financial transitions to adulthood and independence. This article describes the structure and approach of a 6-month health-focused reentry program designed for racial/ethnic minority young adult (YA) probationers in Southern California. The UCSD RELINK program includes service navigation and an optional psychoeducation health coaching program to build health literacy, problem-solving, and executive functioning skills relevant across multiple life domains. We describe participant characteristics and service needs at intake. Between 2017 and 2019, 122 YA probationers ages 18 to 26 responded to interviewer-administered baseline surveys. Participants needed basic services including housing, nutrition assistance, employment, and educational/vocational training. Depression and anxiety symptoms, Adverse Childhood Events, trauma, and unmet physical and mental health care needs were pervasive. Given the dearth of research on reentry programming for YA, this article documents the approaches taken in this multi-pronged health-focused reentry program to ensure that the program was tailored to YA reentrants' comprehensive needs. These data serve to concretely illustrate the range of needs and how YA reentrants view their own health and social needs in the context of multiple competing demands; such data may be useful for program planners and policymakers seeking to advance service delivery for YA minority reentrants.

Three-Month Psychiatric Outcome of Pediatric Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A Controlled Study.

The objective was to clarify occurrence, phenomenology, and risk factors for novel psychiatric disorder (NPD) in the first 3 months after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and orthopedic injury (OI). Children aged 8-15 years with mTBI (n = 220) and with OI but no TBI (n = 110) from consecutive admissions to an emergency department were followed prospectively at baseline and 3 months post-injury with semi-structured psychiatric interviews to document the number of NPDs that developed in each participant. Pre-injury child variables (adaptive, cognitive, and academic function, and psychiatric disorder), pre-injury family variables (socioeconomic status, family psychiatric history, and family function), and injury severity were assessed and analyzed as potential confounders and predictors of NPD. NPD occurred at a significantly higher frequency in children with mTBI versus OI in analyses unadjusted (mean ratio [MR] 3.647, 95% confidence interval [CI95] (1.264, 15.405), p = 0.014) and adjusted (MR = 3.724, CI95 (1.264, 15.945), p = 0.015) for potential confounders. In multi-predictor analyses, the factors besides mTBI that were significantly associated with higher NPD frequency after adjustment for each other were pre-injury lifetime psychiatric disorder [MR = 2.284, CI95 (1.026, 5.305), p = 0.043]; high versus low family psychiatric history [MR = 2.748, CI95 (1.201, 6.839), p = 0.016], and worse socio-economic status [MR = 0.618 per additional unit, CI95 (0.383, 0.973), p = 0.037]. These findings demonstrate that mild injury to the brain compared with an OI had a significantly greater deleterious effect on psychiatric outcome in the first 3 months post-injury. This effect was present even after accounting for specific child and family variables, which were themselves independently related to the adverse psychiatric outcome.

Moral distress of medical family therapists and their physician colleagues during the transition to COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed healthcare for both clinicians and patients. This conceptual article uses ideas from the moral distress literature to understand the challenges MedFTs and physicians face during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors highlight earlier themes from the moral distress literature and share current reflections to illustrate similar challenges. Some clinicians who were already experiencing a rise in burnout due to the mass digitization of healthcare are now facing increased moral distress due to ethical dilemmas, pervasive uncertainty, boundary ambiguity, isolation, and burnout brought about by emerging COVID-19 policies. Fears about personal safety, exposing loved ones, financial concerns, self-doubt, and frustrations with telehealth have contributed to increased moral distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Building resilience by setting one's personal moral compass can help clinicians avoid the pitfalls of moral distress. Five steps for developing resilience and implications for guiding trainees in developing resilience are discussed.

Suicide prevention: The role of families and carers.

Families and carers can play an important role in helping prevent suicide. Unfortunately, silence and secrecy within the family environment have sometimes prevented family members from intervening to potentially change the course of suicide intent. This article describes a family-oriented assessment process that can facilitate family-involvement in care. Suicide risk assessment requires a skilled interview with the individual patient to determine accurately suicidal intent. However, family members provide a vital source of collateral information for assessing risk and the relational support needed to diminish risk. Strength-based strategies for intervening with patients and family members to help prevent suicide are described.

An introduction to global mental health.

In general, readers of Families, Systems, and Health (FSH) practice in high income countries and in settings that have adequate resources. Providers can usually count on being able to offer the material resources and skills that patients need to heal. This bounty of resources is in contrast to many clinics in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The need for mental health services in LMICs is significant and growing because of upheaval caused by war and other disasters. The topics in this issue talk about the obstacles to obtaining mental health services, trends in global mental health, and FSH in the global mental health movement. (PsycINFO Database Record

Global Mental Health: A Call for Increased Awareness and Action for Family Therapists.

Global mental health (GMH) is an emerging field that focuses on the need for culturally sensitive mental health services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). While many new initiatives have been established worldwide to understand GMH needs and to provide care in LMICs, family therapists have primarily worked with families in high-income countries. The few existing family-based initiatives in GMH focus on psychoeducation and are typically not based on general systems theory. However, emerging trends in family therapy may enable family therapists to impact mental health issues in LMICs. These trends, which are shared interests of both family therapy and GMH, include collaborative care, a growing emphasis on the importance of culture in understanding and treating mental health issues, recognition of the ability of families to support or impede recovery from mental illness, and the use of strength-based and evidence-based treatments. This paper describes ways for family therapists to become active in the GMH community.

The daily events and emotions of master's-level family therapy trainees in off-campus practicum settings.

The Day Reconstruction Method (DRM) was used to assess the daily events and emotions of one program's master's-level family therapy trainees in off-campus practicum settings. This study examines the DRM reports of 35 family therapy trainees in the second year of their master's program in marriage and family therapy. Four themes emerged from the results: (i) Personal contact with peers-in-training engenders the most positive emotions during practicum; (ii) Trainees experience more positive emotions during therapy with families and couples in comparison with therapy with individuals; (iii) Positive affect increases over the course of a student's practicum year; and (iv) Trainees experience less positive affect in individual supervision in comparison with most other training activities. Flow theory offers guidance for supervisors helping trainees face developmental challenges of clinical training.

Establishing the Collaborative Care Research Network (CCRN): a description of initial participating sites.

Collaborative care has increased dramatically in the past decade, yet the variability in collaborative strategies and the diversity of settings in which collaboration is being implemented make it difficult to assess quality and outcomes. Therefore, three aims were addressed in the current study: (a) describe and characterize the sites in the Collaborative Care Research Network (CCRN), (b) identify factors associated with practices' self-identified collaborative care model (e.g., coordinated, integrated, care management), and (c) identify limitations of available survey data elements so as to propose additional elements for future surveys. Initial (CCRN) sites completed surveys regarding several organizational factors (e.g., setting type, size of patient population, number of behavioral health providers). Results from 39 sites showed significant heterogeneity in self-identified type of collaborative care model practiced (e.g., integrated care, coordinated care), type of practice setting (e.g., academic, federally qualified health center, military), size of clinic, and ratio of behavioral health providers to medical providers. This diversity in network site characteristics can provide a rich platform to address a number of questions regarding the current practice of collaborative care. Recommendations are made to improve future surveys to better understand elements of the patient-centered medical home and the role it may play in outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).

The treatment of patients with medically unexplained symptoms in primary care: a review of the literature.

Medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) are among the most common and frustrating in primary care. Our goal was to review published evidence to guide busy general practitioners working with a culturally diverse, challenging patient population coping with MUS. A search of PubMed and PsycINFO from 1985 to the present was conducted using MUS and related terms.The literature was then organised into subcategories based on its relevance to primary care. We conclude with a description of gaps in the literature based on the literature review and the clinical experience of the authors.

Supervising family therapy trainees in primary care medical settings: context matters.

The purpose of this article is to identify and describe four essential skills for effective supervision of family therapy trainees in primary care medical settings. The supervision skills described include: (1) Understand medical culture; (2) Locate the trainee in the treatment system; (3) Investigate the biological/health issues; and (4) Be attentive to the self-of-the-therapist. Recommendations are also made to help supervisors become better prepared for the questions medical family therapy trainees bring to supervision.