The American psychologist
-
The American psychologist · Nov 2014
Biography Historical ArticleKevin M. McGuinness: Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Institutional Practice.
The Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Institutional Practice is intended to recognize outstanding practitioners in psychology. Nominations are considered for psychologists working in a wide variety of institutional practice settings (e.g., schools, military, state hospital, Department of Veterans Affairs). Services provided to diverse client groups or patient populations, including but not limited to children/adolescents/adults/older adults, urban/rural/frontier populations, minority populations, and persons with serious mental illness, are considered. ⋯ McGuinness, for "broadening the public conception of professional psychology through institutional practice. McGuinness has distinguished himself through service with the U. S Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and academic institutions." McGuiness's award citation, biography, and a selected bibliography are presented here.
-
Milton Schwebel was born May 11, 1914, in Troy, New York, the son of Frank Schwebel and Sarah Oxenhandler Schwebel. He died October 3, 2013, in Tucson, Arizona. His 99 years were filled with love, activism, scholarship, and leadership. ⋯ Schwebel will long be remembered as a treasured friend and mentor who cared deeply about vulnerable people, particularly children, the underprivileged, and the disadvantaged. He enjoyed listening to diverse perspectives and was a renowned teacher, clinician, and lecturer, beloved by students and colleagues. His life serves as a beacon to all who seek to promote human well-being.
-
The American psychologist · May 2014
ReviewApplying the interprofessional patient aligned care team in the Department of Veterans Affairs: Transforming primary care.
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the largest integrated health care system in the United States, serving more than 8 million veterans. VHA is currently undergoing extensive changes to its health care delivery model, moving toward the full implementation of the patient-centered medical home. ⋯ Moreover, VHA mental health staff serves critical leadership functions supporting primary care in the broad transformation that is required to implement the medical home. In this article, we review the implementation of mental health integration into this new model of care.
-
The American psychologist · May 2014
ReviewOpportunities for psychologists in palliative care: Working with patients and families across the disease continuum.
Interdisciplinary palliative care services have been rapidly expanding in health care settings over the past 10 years, particularly through the establishment of interdisciplinary palliative care teams. Relatively few of these teams formally include psychologists, although their skills of enhancing patients' and families' well-being and lessening suffering make an enormous contribution to the care provided. ⋯ Using a case-based approach, we then explore the contribution of psychologists to the patient- and family-centered approach espoused by palliative care, including the knowledge, skills, and self-awareness needed to work effectively with these very ill patients and their families. We close with a call to action to better train and integrate psychologists into the rapidly growing field of palliative care.
-
The American psychologist · Feb 2014
ReviewFamily and parent influences on pediatric chronic pain: a developmental perspective.
Pain that recurs or persists is unfortunately a common experience for children. One of the unique considerations in pediatric chronic pain management is the bidirectional influences of children's pain experiences and parental and family factors. In this review we present a developmental perspective on understanding pediatric chronic pain and disability, highlighting factors relevant from infancy to adolescence, and family and parent influences. ⋯ Also, there is a lack of longitudinal data on family relationships and individual adjustment to allow for understanding of whether changes occur in parenting over the course of the child's chronic pain experience. Although parent interventions have been successfully incorporated into many cognitive-behavioral treatments for children with chronic pain conditions, little guidance exists for adapting intervention strategies to be developmentally appropriate. Additional research is needed to examine whether parent interventions are effective at different developmental stages and the best way to incorporate developmental goals into treatment.