Limitations of Trainings in Cross-Cultural Competence - The Practitioner Perspective.

INTRODUCTION: Objective: Trainings in cross-cultural competence1 are of increasing importance for psychotherapists in order to provide adequate mental health care for patients with a migration background. Yet, little is known about practitioners´ perspectives on working with migrants. Method: Problem-centered interviews with 30 practitioners offering psychotherapy within the German mental health care system have been analyzed using Grounded Theory Methodology to get an insight into practitioners´ experiences with cross-cultural work. Results: Practitioners have to deal with strong feelings of insecurity in their cross-cultural work. Feelings of insecurity were influenced by practitioners' underlying cultural concepts, how specific they perceived the cross-cultural contact to be and how they saw themselves in their professional role as psychotherapists. Interestingly, the analysis shows that trainings in cross-cultural competence which mainly convey "culture specific" knowledge on a rather theoretical level might even increase practitioners' feelings of insecurity. Conclusions: Conventional teaching formats in cross-cultural competence might not provide psychotherapists with sufficient space to reflect on their insecurities, their "cultural concepts", and their expectations of themselves in their professional role. Therefore, other settings are required. Dealing with practitioners' perceived lack of knowledge in the context of culture could be an effective starting point to deal with cross-cultural insecurities.

'Genetic loading' or 'evil mind': current conceptions of depression in Myanmar from the perspective of healthcare professionals.

In Myanmar, a country that has just recently opened up to the international community, Buddhist and traditional healing methods are still widely applied to various diseases and conditions. The aim of this study was to ascertain how professionals from the biomedical healthcare system in Myanmar experience interactions with patients with depression, based on the professionals' conceptualisation of this disorder. Six problem-centred interviews were conducted and analysed with grounded theory methodology. The interviewed professionals conceptualised three ways of understanding depression, including different treatment strategies: a biomedical, a contextual and a Buddhist concept of depression. Concerning the patients' perspective, the professionals mentioned somatic, religious and supernatural explanatory models, as well as corresponding help-seeking behaviour. Our results suggest that by taking a biomedical approach, professionals risk neglecting both the needs and resources of Myanmar patients with depressive symptoms.

[Lifelong Learning and Tolerance of Uncertainty - About the Professional Self-Conception of Practitioners in Transcultural Mental Health Care]. / Lebenslanges Lernen und Unsicherheitstoleranz in der transkulturellen Behandlung.

OBJECTIVE: Investigating the relationship between the challenges perceived by practitioners in the transcultural field of mental health and their professional self-conception. METHODS: Problem-centered interviews with 30 practitioners working in mental health care professions. RESULTS: A professional self-conception which is based upon lifelong learning processes seems to facilitate the dealing with perceived challenges in the transcultural work. CONCLUSION: Promotion of transcultural competence requires learning environments that allow for reflexion and long-term mentoring (e. g. supervision).

[Conceptions of "transcultural competence" and their relevance for the psychiatric-psychotherapeutic care. Results of an interdisciplinary literature review]. / Konzeptionen von "transkultureller Kompetenz" und ihre Relevanz für die psychiatrisch-psychotherapeutische Versorgung. Ergebnisse eines disziplinübergreifenden Literaturreviews.

The concept of transcultural competence is increasingly discussed in Germany as a requirement for providing adequate psychiatric-psychotherapeutic care for persons with a migration background. To this day, understanding of this concept is heterogeneous. This overview aims at systemizing existing definitions of transcultural competence in psychology, medicine and related fields to improve understanding of the term in practice. 130 German and English language scientific papers were analyzed and were evaluated qualitatively with grounded theory method. The analysis produced 3 approaches: a technological approach, a component approach and a positioning-and-attitude approach. The suggested categorization of the understandings of the term transcultural competence allows for a detailed overview of the current definitions of this term and thus provides criteria for a better evaluation of implemented transcultural competence in fields of psychiatric-psychotherapeutic care.

Development and psychometric characteristics of the Dissociation Tension Scale.

The newly developed Dissoziations-Spannungs-Skala (Dissociation Tension Scale; DSS) is a self-rating instrument for the assessment of psychological and somatoform dissociative features (ranging from normal up to pathological) as well as aversive inner tension occurring within the past 7 days. The DSS contains 21 items assessing dissociative symptoms and 1 additional item assessing aversive inner tension. Ratings are made on a time-oriented scale ranging from 0% (never) to 100% (constantly). We measured the psychometric qualities of the DSS in a total of 294 patients and healthy controls. Internal consistency of the DSS was high (Cronbach's alpha = .92; Gutmann's split-half r = .92). We found good support for convergent, discriminant, and differential validity. There was clear evidence for the DSS being a sensitive instrument for the assessment of changing symptomatology. Assessment of dissociation and other psychopathological features over the same period of time are now possible.

Emotion identification and tension in female patients with borderline personality disorder.

OBJECTIVES: This study investigates the identification of emotions in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), when compared with mentally healthy control subjects. The inability to identify different emotions is considered as an essential component of affect dysregulation in BPD that has rarely been empirically investigated. METHODS: In this study, 30 female borderline patients and 28 healthy control participants received a handheld-PC for a 24-hour period that reminded them hourly to enter data. RESULTS: When compared with the control group, patients showed pronounced difficulties in emotion identification. Moreover, the data revealed a significant relationship between difficulties in identifying emotions and levels of aversive inner tension for BPD patients, but not for control subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that the inability to identify different emotions is a problem that characterizes borderline patients in real-life situations. Treatment programs should, therefore, focus on the improvement of emotion identification and regulation.

[Importance of the therapeutic alliance experience for the differential psychotherapeutic indication]. / Die Bedeutung des Beziehungserlebens für die differenzielle Psychotherapieindikation.

The influence of the therapeutic alliance experience on the recommendation for psychotherapy and prognosis was examined in a retrospective study. Three hundred seventy-four of 3270 patients who presented at the psychosomatic-psychotherapeutic outpatient service at the Benjamin Franklin Hospital of the Free University of Berlin between July 1994 and December 1999 were selected based on the fact that they had been examined only by a psychoanalyst and recommended for individual psychoanalytical outpatient therapy, nondirective therapy (according to Rogers) or behavioral therapy. Results of the unifactorial variance analysis: The better the alliance is assessed, the sooner procedures for psychoanalytical therapy are recommended (F = 35.85; p < 0.000) and the better the assessment of the prognosis (r = 0.68; p < 0.000). The results confirm the importance of the therapeutic working relationship and correct the assumption that the indication and prognosis are exclusively diagnosis or patient-related, clearly showing that they are the result of an interactive process.