Applying our medicine to the psychopharmacology debate

Reasonable arguments can and should be made in favor of and in opposition to psychologists seeking prescription privileges. The debate presents psychology with the opportunity to converge rather than fractionate. An APA Task Force established in 1991 recognized that a number of preliminary issues would have to be addressed before the question of prescription privileges could be answered, and made recommendations for the types of training various psychologists would need. This article describes that training and discusses how psychologists in training may be affected by the current debate.

Counting the stitches that count: preventive intervention promises and public health

Continued public support for the design, implementation, and dissemination of preventive interventions depends on achievement of four major criteria: (a) Reductions in the incidence or prevalence rates of diagnosable emotional and behavioral disorders, (b) reductions in the need for mental health services through effective primary and secondary interventions, (c) enhancement of the effectiveness of obtained services as screening and early detection efforts are implemented, and (d) reductions in the nation's health care costs associated with emotional and behavioral dysfunctions. Strategies including risk reduction, risk avoidance, health promotion, empowerment, and resource development are preventive insofar as they contribute to achievement of the aforementioned outcomes.

Children's exposure to community violence: following a path from concern to research to action

This paper discusses the antecedents and current progress of an ongoing program of research on the nature, extent, and consequences of children's direct and indirect exposure to violent events and settings. Involvement in such research has sensitized the authors to difficult ethical and methodological challenges that, we believe, merit consideration by mental health scientists and policy markers. Resolution of those challenges has substantive implications for both subsequent research and the application of resultant findings.

Prevention and public health. Psychology's response to the nation's health care crisis

Psychology as a scientific and applied discipline has a unique responsibility to participate in the pursuit of strategies that reduce the nation's health care needs. As a social and behavioral science, psychology can contribute to unraveling the processes underlying conditions of health and disorder. As an applied discipline, psychology can work to design effective interventions to promote human health and to avoid disease and dysfunction. Insofar as these endeavors are unsuccessful, psychology can help reduce significant contributors to the nation's morbidity and mortality. Achieving such success, however, challenges psychologists to collaborate effectively, to combine science with practice and policy, and to address complex philosophical and ethical issues concerned with individual freedom and public responsibility.

Prevention and public health: Psychology's response to the nation's health care crisis

Psychology as a scientific and applied discipline has a unique responsibility to participate in the pursuit of strategies that reduce the nation's health care needs. As a social and behavioral science, psychology can contribute to unraveling the processes underlying conditions of health and disorder. As an applied discipline, psychology can work to design effective interventions to promote human health and to avoid disease and dysfunction. Insofar as these endeavors are unsuccessful, psychology can help reduce significant contributors to the nation's morbidity and mortality. Achieving such success, however, challenges psychologists to collaborate effectively, to combine science with practice and policy, and to address complex philosophical and ethical issues concerned with individual freedom and public responsibility.

Correlates of death anxiety in elderly persons

Studied the variables related to death anxiety in the elderly. The population consisted of 122 elderly persons who resided in the community and in institutions. Questionnaires that measured demographics, support systems, health, personality, and death anxiety were administered. Multiple regression analyses with death anxiety as the criterion were performed on five subsamples of the population. The results showed very little consistency in predictors of death anxiety among the subsamples. It was concluded that death anxiety response patterns are a function of the population examined, rather than existing as general characteristics of the elderly, which explains the inconsistency of previous literature on death anxiety in elderly persons.

Multiple views of a school mental health project: a needed focus in community programs

A school-based community mental health program, emphasizing early detection and prevention of school maladaptation, was analyzed from the perspectives of participants with different roles and stakes. Program founders tended to value it more than those who carried out its "line" functions. Some differences are identified between what was valued theoretically about the program and how participants actually allocated their time. Differences in perspectives among program participants at various levels and differences between de jure and de facto aspects of program operation are viewed as sources of potential friction. Such difficulties tend to increase as initially simple program models are extended to diverse settings with different needs, problems, resources, and personnel.