From the medical model to the recovery model: Psychologists engaging in advocacy and social justice action agendas in public mental health.

There is increasing recognition of the need for civil rights advocacy for people with mental illness, as basic human rights continue to be violated in mental health systems. Relatedly, an elevated call for recovery-oriented care creates new opportunities for psychologists to act as social change agents and advocates for patients in state hospital and community settings. Despite lack of specific preparation and training to take on this role, psychologists' overall training places them in a unique position to advocate in many ways. This can be for individuals in the system (patients or staff), for the discipline of psychology, as well as acting as advocates for the continued growth of recovery-oriented approaches, more socially just practices in systems of care, and by engaging in public policy transformation. Psychologists, through creating cultural change, can work to advocate for a transformation from a medical model to a recovery-oriented care model, which focuses on building meaningful lives, autonomy, and rights of the individual. We discuss the many ways in which psychologists can act as advocates in state hospitals and community settings via diverse mechanisms, including at a policy level, the challenges that they encounter, and ways to overcome these. Future directions and ways to increase the effectiveness of advocacy efforts are also discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Beck Self-Esteem Scale-Short Form: Development and psychometric evaluation of a scale for the assessment of self-concept in schizophrenia.

A requisite step for testing cognitive theories regarding the role of self-concept in schizophrenia is the development of measures that follow a cognitive conceptualization and better capture the multifaceted nature of this construct. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties a new self-concept measure, the Beck Self-Esteem Scale-Short Form (BSES-SF), based on a sample of 204 individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. We evaluated the BSES-SF's dimensionality, internal consistency reliability, and construct and divergent validity using confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, Pearson correlations, independent samples t-tests, and one-way analysis of variance. Findings indicate that the 10-item BSES-SF is a reliable and valid measure of self-concept that is appropriate for a broad group of individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Following cognitive theory, the scale demonstrated significant relationships with delusion severity, motivation, and depression, further signifying its utility for research and practice efforts that are designed to address psychopathology in schizophrenia.