The Acceptability of a Recovery Group Intervention in Acute Inpatient Mental Health Wards.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the feasibility and explore the service user experience of a recovery-focused group intervention delivered in acute inpatient wards in a National Health Service (NHS) Trust in England, United Kingdom. Feedback from the Recovery Group Questionnaire given to patients who had attended the Recovery Group whilst admitted to acute inpatient wards was collated and analysed. The results suggest that patients found the group useful and supportive, as well as easy to follow. Themes which emerged from the content analysis included, value, challenges, support and understanding. The feedback also showed that patients found having an Expert by Experience co-facilitating was beneficial. The Recovery Group is an acceptable and feasible group intervention for those who are admitted to acute inpatient wards. Further research examining the clinical effectiveness of the intervention may be considered, however there are some barriers to doing so given the open-access format of the group.

Improving emotion regulation in breast cancer patients in the early survivorship period: Efficacy of a brief ecologically boosted group intervention.

PURPOSE: This study reports the short- and mid-term benefits of an eight-session emotion and self-regulation group intervention ecologically boosted through daily app-based prompts. The intervention was designed for breast cancer patients in the early survivorship period meeting criteria for clinical levels of psychological symptoms. METHODS: Patients were randomly assigned to the immediate intervention arm (n = 61; intervention received immediately) or to the delayed intervention arm (n = 59; intervention received 5 months later). Psychological symptoms, including anxiety, depressive symptoms, emotional distress, fear of cancer recurrence (FCR), worry, and intrusive thoughts were assessed through questionnaires. Emotion regulation was assessed in a dynamic emotion regulation task and in everyday life. Assessments were completed at baseline (T1), 5 months (T2) and 10 months (T3) later. RESULTS: Treated patients reported lower levels of worry and intrusive thoughts. They improved their ability to down-regulate the intensity of their negative emotions when exposed to cancer-related triggers in the dynamic emotion regulation task. They reported fewer and less intense negative emotions and more positive emotions in their everyday life. Benefits were maintained 5 months later, except for positive emotions in everyday life. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that focusing on emotion regulation is a relevant approach in the treatment of psychological symptoms for breast cancer patients in the early survivorship period meeting criteria for clinical levels of psychological symptoms. The intervention led to changes in patients' dynamic and everyday life emotion regulation. Consolidation sessions may be needed to sustain benefits in positive emotions and to increase the effect sizes.

Online Supportive Group as social intervention to face COVID lockdown. A qualitative study on psychotherapists, psychology trainees and students, and community people.

Several psychological interventions have been activated to help people during the coronavirus pandemic, and research highlights the crucial role of group interventions as a space for sharing and processing the psychological experiences linked to this emergency and the consequent changes in people's lifestyles. In this context, psychologists are mostly providers of this kind of service more than users. This study aimed at investigating and comparing post-hoc the subjective experience of psychotherapists, psychology trainees & students, and individuals of the general population who participated in a psychodynamically-oriented supportive group intervention. Fifty-two subjects were enrolled to participate to focus groups aimed at exploring participants' decision to participate, their perceptions on how the support group influenced their elaboration of the psychological effects of pandemic/lockdown, and their feedback on its utility. Transcripts of the focus groups were analyzed with the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC). Differences in the use of words/linguistic categories between groups were tested through chi-square tests. Content analysis was conducted by independent judges who extracted the most relevant comments. Preliminary results showed the main features related to the crisis response, and how belonging to different social roles was associated with different ways of experiencing and sharing emotions. People react in different ways to traumatic events, and how people react may say a lot about how they cope with the event and the extent to which the event plays a role in the future. Clinical implications on the use of this data for future treatment planning are also discussed.

The effect of psychological group on improving the learning attitude of interns in the pediatric clinical practice / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Objective To assess the effect of psychological group on improving the learning attitude of interns in the pediatric clinical practice.Methods This study included 67 medical students who enrolled during 2012 to 2013 and had done the clinical pediatrics in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College.The students carried out pediatric clinical practice as requested.Based on the practice of pediatric practice,the psychological group counseling was conducted by voluntary participation.Each psychological group consisted of 5 or 6 students and performed once a week.Each time of psychological group lasted for 1.5 hours and 6 times in total.The students were divided into intervention group and non-intervention group according to whether they participated in psychological group.Each student filled in the Pediatric Clinical Internship Attitude Assessment Form and the College Student Personality Questionnaire at the first week and the last week of pediatric clinical practice.SPSS 17.0 was applied to conduct Chi square test and t test.Results There were 33 students in the intervention group and 40 students in the non-intervention group.The effective rate of questionnaires for intervention group and non-intervention group were 100％ and 85％,respectively.The mental state of pediatric interns between two groups was not different before and after the pediatric clinical practice (P＞0.05).Before pediatric clinical practice,the learning attitude score between two groups was not different [(83.82 ± 8.39) vs.(84.39 ± 8.29),t=-0.28,P=0.781].After pediatric clinical practice,the learning attitude score of pediatric interns who used psychological group teaching model was better than that of pediatric interns who used traditional teaching model [(88.91 ± 7.40) vs.(75.03 ± 11.19),t=-5.969,P=0.000].Conclusion Psychological group can help medical students to develop empathy toward sick children and their parents,and then improve their learning attitude in pediatric practice.The results of this study can provide a preliminary basis for the popularization of psychological group in the whole process of medical internship.

Linguagem teatral, reflexão filosófica e grupo psicológico no cobate à violência em escolas: uma experiência em Belém (PA) / Theatrical language, philosophical reflection and psychological group in combating violence in schools: an experience in Belém (PA) / Lenguaje teatral, reflexión filosófica y grupo psicológico en el combate a la violencia en escuelas: una experiencia en Belém (PA)

A escola é um espaço físico e social, no qual nos colocamos em constante inter-relação e se constitui em um território do qual nos apropriamos, ou não. Os conceitos de territorialidade e de apropriação de espaço, advindos da Psicologia ambiental, podem auxiliar na compreensão de possíveis conflitos e situações de violência que ocorrem no ambiente escolar. Este artigo apresenta a experiência do projeto "Lumiee: arte para a vida" e a transformação do espaço escolar pelos responsáveis pelo projeto e pelos alunos que dele participaram. Realizado em uma escola de Belém do Pará, teve como objetivo utilizar a linguagem teatral para promover a reflexão filosófica de temas do cotidiano e oferecer suporte emocional num grupo psicológico a alunos para combate à violência. Relata-se a experiência do projeto que une três áreas do conhecimento: Filosofia, Psicologia e Arte. A proposta do projeto baseou-se nas noções do Teatro Épico de Bertold Brecht e do Teatro do Oprimido de Augusto Boal, utilizando suas propostas juntamente com as noções de grupo psicológico e os instrumentos de reflexão oriundos da filosofia. São sintetizados os resultados positivos para os alunos participantes nas esferas educacionais, sociais, familiares, espirituais e pessoais.(AU)

The school is a physical and social space that we put ourselves into constant inter-relation and consists in a territory that we approppriate of, or not. The concepts of territoriality and appropriation of space, originated in the Environmental Psychology, can help in understanding possible conflicts and situations of violence that occur in the school environment. This article presents the experience report of the project "Lumiee: art for life" and the transformation of the school environment by the project leaders and the students involved. Held in a Belém of Pará school, the purpose was to use theatrical language to promote the philosophical reflection of everyday themes and to offer emotional support to students in a psychological group focused into the theme of violence. The experience of the project is described, uniting three areas of knowledge: Philosophy, Psychology and Art. The project proposal was based on the notions of Bertold Brecht's Epic Theater and Augusto Boal's Theater of the Oppressed, using his proposals along with the notions of psychological group and the instruments of reflection derived from philosophy. The positive results for students participating in the educational, social, family, spiritual and personal spheres are summarized.(AU)

La escuela es un espacio físico y social, en el cual nos ponemos en constante inter-relación y se constituye en un territorio de lo cual nos apropiamos, o no. Los conceptos de territorialidad y de apropiación de espacio, propios de la Psicología ambiental, pueden facilitar la comprensión de posibles conflictos y situaciones de violencia que ocurren en el ambiente escolar. Este artículo presenta la experiencia del proyecto "Lumiee: arte para a vida" y la transformación del espacio escolar por los responsables por el proyecto y por los alumnos que participaron. Realizado en una escuela en Belém de Pará, tuvo como objetivo utilizar el lenguaje teatral para promover la reflexión filosófica de temas del cotidiano y ofrecer soporte emocional en un grupo psicológico a alumnos para el combate a la violencia. Se relata la experiencia del proyecto que une tres áreas del conocimiento: Filosofía, Psicología y Arte. La propuesta del proyecto se inspira en las nociones de Teatro Épico de Bertold Brecht y de Teatro del Oprimido de Augusto Boal, utilizando sus propuestas juntamente con las nociones de grupo psicológico y los instrumentos de reflexión de la filosofía. Son sintetizados los resultados positivos para los alumnos participantes en las dimensiones educacionales, sociales, familiares, espirituales y personales.(AU)