Virtual Delivery of Parent Coaching Interventions in Early Childhood Mental Health: A Scoping Review

Parent-coaching interventions positively impact child development. Virtual delivery of such interventions is supported by literature reviews and a practice guideline, however, none of these focused on children under age six. A scoping review of virtually-delivered parent-coaching interventions for disruptive behaviour, anxiety, and parent-child relationship concerns in children under age six was conducted between Dec. 15, 2020 and April 22, 2021. Iterative searches of the databases PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycINFO were complemented by reference list searches and clinician expert review (N = 1146). After relevance screening and duplicate removal, collaboratively-developed inclusion criteria were applied to records, followed by data extraction from eligible articles (n = 30). Most literature documented behavioural-based interventions targeting disruptive behaviour which were delivered individually, by therapists, to White, non-Hispanic parents. Evidence supports feasibility and efficacy of virtually-delivered parent-coaching interventions to improve child disruptive behaviour (strong), anxiety (moderate), and parent-child relationship (weak). There is a significant gap in the literature regarding the virtual delivery of attachment-based parent-coaching interventions. In sum, virtual parent coaching can be an efficacious approach for children under age six, particularly for behavioural challenges.

Increasing Diversity in Radiology and Molecular Imaging: Current Challenges

This paper summarizes the 2020 Diversity in Radiology and Molecular Imaging: What We Need to Know Conference, a three-day virtual conference held September 9-11, 2020. The World Molecular Imaging Society (WMIS) and Stanford University jointly organized this event to provide a forum for WMIS members and affiliates worldwide to openly discuss issues pertaining to diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The participants discussed three main conference themes, "racial diversity in STEM," "women in STEM," and "global health," which were discussed through seven plenary lectures, twelve scientific presentations, and nine roundtable discussions, respectively. Breakout sessions were designed to flip the classroom and seek input from attendees on important topics such as increasing the representation of underrepresented minority (URM) members and women in STEM, generating pipeline programs in the fields of molecular imaging, supporting existing URM and women members in their career pursuits, developing mechanisms to effectively address microaggressions, providing leadership opportunities for URM and women STEM members, improving global health research, and developing strategies to advance culturally competent healthcare.

A Multidimensional Examination of the Measurement of Treatment Engagement: Implications for Children's Mental Health Services and Research

Objective: The gap between rates of children's mental health problems and their participation in services highlights the need to address concerns related to engagement in mental health services more effectively. To identify, understand, and resolve engagement concerns appropriately requires effective measurement. In this study, we employed a multidimensional conceptual framework of engagement to examine the measurement of engagement in intervention studies focused on improving children's and/or families' engagement in services.Method: We coded 52 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of interventions designed to enhance treatment engagement published between 1974 and 2019 to examine what engagement constructs have been measured, how these constructs have been measured, who has provided information about engagement, and when and why engagement measures have been administered.Results: Attendance was measured in 94.2% of studies, and 59.6% of studies measured only attendance. Furthermore, most studies (61.5%) measured only one engagement dimension. One hundred twelve unique indicators of treatment engagement were used (61.6% measuring attendance). Infrequent measurement of youth (19.2% of studies) or caregiver (26.9%) perspectives was apparent. About half (54.7%) of measures were completed on one occasion, with 53.7% of measures completed after treatment was concluded.Conclusions: Results highlight how the field's measurement of engagement has focused narrowly on attendance and on interventions that improve attendance. We consider promising new directions for capturing the multidimensional, dynamic, and subjective aspects of engagement, and for leveraging measurement in research and practice settings to feasibly and effectively identify, monitor, and address engagement challenges.

Challenges and Initiatives in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Cancer Molecular Imaging

A diverse biomedical workforce is essential to achieve excellence in patient care, clinical translational, and basic research. Diversity, equity, and inclusion challenges in cancer molecular represent a combination of the challenges facing the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field, and challenges in Radiology and Nuclear Medicine. Although there is a growing awareness of conscious and unconscious bias that negatively affect the cancer imaging world, many challenges remain such as overcoming barriers to entry into the pipeline, avoiding program dropout, and providing long-term career prospect. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a significant setback and further highlighted problems faced by women and underrepresented minorities. In this perspective, we have identified some of the challenges faced and highlighted ongoing and future initiatives to address these challenges.

Engagement in technology-enhanced interventions for children and adolescents: Current status and recommendations for moving forward

Treatment engagement is a primary challenge to the effectiveness of evidence-based treatments for children and adolescents. One solution to this challenge is technology, which has been proposed as an enhancement to or replacement for standard clinic-based, therapist delivered services. This review summarizes the current state of the field regarding technology's promise to enhance engagement. A review of this literature suggests that although the focus of much theoretical consideration, as well as funding priorities, relatively little empirical research has been published on the role of technology as a vehicle to enhance engagement in particular. Moreover, lack of consistency in constructs, design, and measures make it difficult to draw useful comparisons across studies and, in turn, to determine if and what progress has been made toward more definitive conclusions. At this point in the literature, we can say only that we do not yet definitively know if technology does (or does not) enhance engagement in evidence-based treatments for children and adolescents. Recommendations are provided with the hope of more definitively assessing technology's capacity to improve engagement, including more studies explicitly designed to assess this research question, as well as greater consistency across studies in the measurement of and designs used to test engagement.

Culturally competent healthcare - A scoping review of strategies implemented in healthcare organizations and a model of culturally competent healthcare provision

BACKGROUND

Culturally and linguistically diverse patients access healthcare services less than the host populations and are confronted with different barriers such as language barriers, legal restrictions or differences in health beliefs. In order to reduce these disparities, the promotion of cultural competence in healthcare organizations has been a political goal. This scoping review aims to collect components and strategies from evaluated interventions that provide culturally competent healthcare for culturally and linguistically diverse patients within healthcare organizations and to examine their effects on selected outcome measures. Thereafter, we aim to organize identified components into a model of culturally competent healthcare provisions.

METHODS AND FINDINGS

A systematic literature search was carried out using three databases (Pubmed, PsycINFO and Web of Science) to identify studies which have implemented and evaluated cultural competence interventions in healthcare facilities. PICO criteria were adapted to formulate the research question and to systematically choose relevant search terms. Sixty-seven studies implementing culturally competent healthcare interventions were included in the final synthesis. Identified strategies and components of culturally competent healthcare extracted from these studies were clustered into twenty categories, which were organized in four groups: Components of culturally competent healthcare-Individual level; Components of culturally competent healthcare-Organizational level; Strategies to implement culturally competent healthcare and Strategies to provide access to culturally competent healthcare. A model integrating the results is proposed. The overall effects on patient outcomes and utilization rates of identified components or strategies were positive but often small or not significant. Qualitative data suggest that components and strategies of culturally competent healthcare were appreciated by patients and providers.

CONCLUSION

This scoping review used a bottom-up approach to identify components and strategies of culturally competent healthcare interventions and synthesized the results in a model of culturally competent healthcare provision. Reported effects of single components or strategies are limited because most studies implemented a combination of different components and strategies simultaneously.

Testing the influence of cultural determinants on help-seeking theory

Despite increased risks for mental health problems, East Asian immigrant women have the lowest overall service-utilization rates of any cultural group in the United States. Although the influence of cultural processes as the cause of low service use is widely speculated, no empirical study has tested cultural determinants (including culturally specific idioms of distress, culture-based illness interpretations, or concerns about social consequences), social contextual factors, perceived need (PN), and help-seeking (HS) behaviors. In the present study, we examined how cultural determinants, such as symptom experience, beliefs and interpretations, and perceptions about the social environment, affect PN and HS type for Japanese women living in the United States. Increasing physical symptom severity increased the predicted probability of endorsing PN. For those participants with PN, 48.6% of them used medical HS (χ2 = 11.27, p = .00), and 12.5% of them used the psychological HS (χ2 = 7.43, p = .01). Multivariate logistic regression revealed that, when PN is considered with the other cultural variables while controlling for structural variables, PN increases the odds of medical HS (OR = 2.78, 95% CI [1.0-5.8], p < .01). The odds of medical HS are also increased with higher social support (OR = 1.07, 95% CI [1.0-1.1], p < .01). Finally, the presence of interpersonal stigma beliefs decreased the odds of medical HS (OR = 2.4, 95% CI [1.1-5.3], p < .03). Clinical and research implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Factors Influencing on Mental Health Help-seeking Behavior Among Korean Women: A Path Analysis

PURPOSE

The purpose of the study was to identify factors influencing mental health help-seeking behavior among women in the community.

METHODS

A cross-sectional design was used. Participants were 402 women in South Korea. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and a path analysis by IBM SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0.

RESULTS

There was a significant, but weak positive correlation between perceived need and help-seeking intentions for formal mental health help (r=0.09, p<0.05). In the path analysis, significant the factors influencing help-seeking intentions were perceived need, attitude, and belief toward mental illness, and the attitude of them had the greatest effect. These factors accounted for 12.2% of the total variance, and the model fit was acceptable.

CONCLUSION

The findings of the study reveal that positive mental illness interpretation and consequence can predict mental health help-seeking behavior of women as well as the perceived need for mental health help.

Conceptualizing Culturally Infused Engagement and Its Measurement for Ethnic Minority and Immigrant Children and Families

Despite the central role culture plays in racial and ethnic disparities in mental health among ethnic minority and immigrant children and families, existing measures of engagement in mental health services have failed to integrate culturally specific factors that shape these families' engagement with mental health services. To illustrate this gap, the authors systematically review 119 existing instruments that measure the multi-dimensional and developmental process of engagement for ethnic minority and immigrant children and families. The review is anchored in a new integrated conceptualization of engagement, the culturally infused engagement model. The review assesses culturally relevant cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral mechanisms of engagement from the stages of problem recognition and help seeking to treatment participation that can help illuminate the gaps. Existing measures examined four central domains pertinent to the process of engagement for ethnic minority and immigrant children and families: (a) expressions of mental distress and illness, (b) causal explanations of mental distress and illness, (c) beliefs about mental distress and illness, and (d) beliefs and experiences of seeking help. The findings highlight the variety of tools that are used to measure behavioral and attitudinal dimensions of engagement, showing the limitations of their application for ethnic minority and immigrant children and families. The review proposes directions for promising research methodologies to help intervention scientists and clinicians improve engagement and service delivery and reduce disparities among ethnic minority and immigrant children and families at large, and recommends practical applications for training, program planning, and policymaking.

The Cultural Ecogram: A Tool for Enhancing Culturally Anchored Shared Understanding in the Treatment of Ethnic Minority Families

Ethnic and racial disparities in mental health care continue to exist, highlighting the increasing concern within the realm of clinical practice as to how clinicians are to effectively integrate the central role of culture and context into the treatment delivery process for culturally diverse children and families. The current paper presents the Cultural Ecogram, - a clinical engagement tool designed to facilitate the development of a culturally anchored shared understanding - as one method that may facilitate clinician-client shared understanding on the client's cultural, ethnic and racial context central to the effective implementation of treatments with ethnic minority children and families.