Psychologist leadership on inpatient rehabilitation teams: Organizational science in practice.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE: Teams are a critical part of modern health care, particularly in rehabilitation settings where multiple providers with different backgrounds and training work toward common goals. Rehabilitation psychologists have a legacy of providing leadership and influence for complex teams. Knowledge of interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary systems, leadership within those systems, and consultation across disciplines are foundational competencies for rehabilitation psychologists. Research Method/Design: This paper summarizes the different roles rehabilitation psychologists serve on health care teams and identifies opportunities for improved effectiveness. An overview of leadership theory over time is provided. RESULTS: Even when psychologists are not formal team leaders, opportunities exist to leverage team member strengths and encourage the development of leader behaviors across the team in support of good patient care. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS: Drawing from the management and organizational development literature, evidence-based suggestions are provided for rehabilitation psychologists seeking to foster healthy team dynamics within and among health care teams. The authors encourage rehabilitation psychologists to use their unique training to facilitate shared leadership on teams that foster and encourage a climate of trust, psychological safety, healthy and productive conflict, along with strong communication practices. These issues became even more salient as teams transitioned to virtual platforms during the pandemic and continue to adapt to hybrid work environments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Yoga for warriors: An intervention for veterans with comorbid chronic pain and PTSD.

OBJECTIVE: Comorbid chronic pain and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is common in veterans; this comorbidity is associated with increased severity and poorer prognosis when compared to each outcome alone. Yoga has been shown to be effective for chronic pain and promising for PTSD, but yoga for comorbid pain and PTSD has not been examined. This article offers empirical support for a yoga intervention for comorbid chronic pain and PTSD in a veteran population. METHOD: Results are presented from a 4-year pilot yoga intervention for comorbid chronic pain and PTSD at a large, urban Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Based on the fear avoidance model of pain, the intervention used a cross-sectional, open-trial design with pre- and postmeasures. T test analyses were conducted on program completers (N = 49; out of 87 initially enrolled, 44% attrition rate), who were primarily African American (69%) and male (61%) and had a mean age of 51.41 years (SD = 11.32). RESULTS: Results indicated trend-level reductions in overall PTSD symptoms, as measured by the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (p = .02, d = 0.38) and in symptom cluster scores of negative alterations of cognitions and mood (p = .03, d = 0.36) and arousal and reactivity (p = .03, d = 0.35). Veterans reported significant improvement in ability to participate in social activities (p < .001, d = 0.44) and significant reductions in kinesiophobia (fear of movement or physical activity; p < .001, d = 0.85). On a satisfaction measure with a range of 1 (quite dissatisfied) to 4 (extremely satisfied), the mean rating was 3.74 (SD = 0.33). CONCLUSION: Yoga is a feasible and effective intervention for veterans with comorbid chronic pain and PTSD. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).