Chatter : The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It by
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * An award-winning psychologist reveals the hidden power of our inner voice and shows how to harness it to combat anxiety, improve physical and mental health, and deepen our relationships with others. LONGLISTED FOR THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD * "A masterpiece."--Angela Duckworth, bestselling author of Grit * Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant, and Daniel H. Pink's Next Big Idea Club Winter 2021 Winning Selection One of the best new books of the year--The Washington Post, BBC, USA Today, CNN Underscored, Shape, Behavioral Scientist, PopSugar * Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and Shelf Awareness starred reviews Tell a stranger that you talk to yourself, and you're likely to get written off as eccentric. But the truth is that we all have a voice in our head. When we talk to ourselves, we often hope to tap into our inner coach but find our inner critic instead. When we're facing a tough task, our inner coach can buoy us up: Focus--you can do this. But, just as often, our inner critic sinks us entirely: I'm going to fail. They'll all laugh at me. What's the use? In Chatter, acclaimed psychologist Ethan Kross explores the silent conversations we have with ourselves. Interweaving groundbreaking behavioral and brain research from his own lab with real-world case studies--from a pitcher who forgets how to pitch, to a Harvard undergrad negotiating her double life as a spy--Kross explains how these conversations shape our lives, work, and relationships. He warns that giving in to negative and disorienting self-talk--what he calls "chatter"--can tank our health, sink our moods, strain our social connections, and cause us to fold under pressure. But the good news is that we're already equipped with the tools we need to make our inner voice work in our favor. These tools are often hidden in plain sight--in the words we use to think about ourselves, the technologies we embrace, the diaries we keep in our drawers, the conversations we have with our loved ones, and the cultures we create in our schools and workplaces. Brilliantly argued, expertly researched, and filled with compelling stories, Chatter gives us the power to change the most important conversation we have each day: the one we have with ourselves.
Culture, Heritage, and Diversity in Older Adult Mental Health Care by
Health care organizations are beginning to recognize the importance of cultural competence as it relates to efficiency, quality, and equity in the delivery of care within a competitive health care market, and Culture, Heritage, and Diversity in Older Adult Mental Health Care is designed to train mental health clinicians to deliver culturally sensitive care to an increasingly diverse patient population. Projections indicate that 35% of patients older than age 65 will be from a racial or ethnic minority group by 2050, compared with 11% in 1970. Today's mental health practitioners require knowledge, sensitivity, and an understanding of institutionalized practices and systems that undermine their patients' health and well-being. The term culture is multifaceted and may refer to one's belief system, values, religion, race, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, geographic location, educational level, age, occupational risks and exposures, and gender. The authors of the book examine mental health care through these lenses, teaching the reader about implicit biases and potential miscommunication and offering strategies for overcoming these difficulties. The editor, who has worked in leadership positions overseeing veterans' mental health services, has assembled an impressive and diverse roster of contributors, each with specific expertise in his or her assigned subject. * The ways in which cultural competency interacts with the six Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education core competencies are explored in detail. For example, in terms of patient care, cultural competency plays an important role in gathering subjective data about a patient that may ultimately impact outcomes. Teaching methods to increase cultural sensitivity and build skills in this area are highlighted, as are training modalities and clinician evaluation.* The effects of migration and acculturation on mental health are examined, providing clinicians with several theoretical frameworks for understanding the migratory experience in older adults and exploring psychosocial factors associated with psychological risk in aging immigrants.* Linguistic competence, defined broadly as effective communication with individuals speaking a nondominant language, is an essential component of culturally competent health care and is of particular importance in mental health care. Accordingly, the authors analyze linguistic competency in both administrative and clinical encounters and present strategies for achieving mastery in this critically important area.* The text provides an abundance of tables and pedagogical features designed to enhance comprehension, including learning objectives, key points, and study questions. Cultural competence in health care systems is defined as the ability to understand and integrate the features listed above into the provision of health care services. Culture, Heritage, and Diversity in Older Adult Mental Health Care prepares clinicians to provide sensitive, high-quality, culturally competent care to geriatric patients from diverse backgrounds and will prove indispensable as patient demographics continue to change.
Helping Soldiers Heal : How the US Army Created a Learning Mental Health Care System by
Helping Soldiers Heal tells the story of the US Army's transformation from a disparate collection of poorly standardized, largely disconnected clinics into one of the nation's leading mental health care systems. It is a step-by-step guidebook for military and civilian health care systems alike. Jayakanth Srinivasan and Christopher Ivany provide a unique insider-outsider perspective as key participants in the process, sharing how they confronted the challenges firsthand and helped craft and guide the unfolding change. The Army's system was being overwhelmed with mental health problems among soldiers and their family members, impeding combat readiness. The key to the transformation was to apply the tenets of "learning" health care systems. Building a learning health care system is hard; building a learning mental health care system is even harder. As Helping Soldiers Heal recounts, the Army overcame the barriers to success, and its experience is full of lessons for any health care system seeking to transform.
Mental Health, Substance Use, and Wellbeing in Higher Education : Supporting the Whole Student by
Student wellbeing is foundational to academic success. One recent survey of postsecondary educators found that nearly 80 percent believed emotional wellbeing is a very or extremely important factor in student success. Studies have found the dropout rates for students with a diagnosed mental health problem range from 43 percent to as high as 86 percent. While dealing with stress is a normal part of life, for some students, stress can adversely affect their physical, emotional, and psychological health, particularly given that adolescence and early adulthood are when most mental illnesses are first manifested. In addition to students who may develop mental health challenges during their time in postsecondary education, many students arrive on campus with a mental health problem or having experienced significant trauma in their lives, which can also negatively affect physical, emotional, and psychological wellbeing. The nation's institutions of higher education are seeing increasing levels of mental illness, substance use and other forms of emotional distress among their students. Some of the problematic trends have been ongoing for decades. Some have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic consequences. Some are the result of long-festering systemic racism in almost every sphere of American life that are becoming more widely acknowledged throughout society and must, at last, be addressed. Mental Health, Substance Use, and Wellbeing in Higher Education lays out a variety of possible strategies and approaches to meet increasing demand for mental health and substance use services, based on the available evidence on the nature of the issues and what works in various situations. The recommendations of this report will support the delivery of mental health and wellness services by the nation's institutions of higher education.
Mental Health and Mental Disorders: an Encyclopedia of Conditions, Treatments, and Well-Being [3 Volumes] by
A three-volume ready-reference encyclopedia, this up-to-date work supplies a holistic introduction to the fields of mental health and mental disorders that is written specifically for high school students and college students. Covering the full continuum of mental health, the set describes typical functioning, including biology and neurology of the brain, emotions, and the traits and characteristics of mental well-being. It also addresses mental disorders and conditions, from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to phobias and schizophrenia. Mental Health and Mental Disorders: An Encyclopedia of Conditions, Treatments, and Well-Being highlights important concepts and phenomena, key individuals, treatment techniques, organizations, and diagnostic tools to give readers a complete view of this broad field of study. It also investigates all sides of wellness, exploring what it means to be "normal" and consistently identifying the links between lifestyle and mental health. The encyclopedia is consistent with the goals of AP psychology curricula and addresses the various disorders classified in the new edition of the APA Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V-TR).
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction : Protocol, Practice, and Teaching Skills by
Learn the comprehensive skills and practices necessary to deliver the MBSR program confidently! Developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn and first introduced in a hospital setting, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an evidence-based modality that has been shown to help alleviate a wide range of physical and mental health issues--such as anxiety, depression, trauma, chronic pain, stress, and more. This comprehensive learning manual for professionals provides everything you need to practice and teach MBSR. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is a timely book that focuses on structure and flexibility when delivering this seminal program. Whether you work in health care, the mental health field, social work, or education, this manual offers clear direction and a sound framework for practicing MBSR in any setting. You'll gain an understanding of the underlying principles of mindfulness, learn to establish your own personal practice, and discover how you can embody that practice. You'll also find tips to help you guide meditations, engage in inquiry, and to convey the content of the program to others. If you're looking for a clear protocol and curriculum for delivering MBSR, this book has everything you need to get started today.
Social (in)Justice and Mental Health by
Social justice entails equal access to liberties, rights, and opportunities, as well as care for the least advantaged members of society. The paradigm-shifting new book Social (In)Justice and Mental Health addresses the ways in which society's failure to deliver on that humane ideal harms people with mental illness. The editors, at the forefront of the effort to make psychiatry responsive to critiques of institutional racism, argue that in the United States, a perfect storm of unfair and unjust policies and practices, bolstered by deep-seated beliefs about the inferiority of some groups, has led to a small number of people having tremendous advantages, freedoms, and opportunities, while a growing number are denied those liberties and rights. Mental health clinicians bear a special responsibility to be aware of these structural inequities, to question their own biases, to intervene on behalf of patients and their families, and to advocate for mental health equity. To that end, the book provides a framework for thinking about why these inequities exist and persist and provides clinicians with a road map to address these inequalities as they relate to racism, the criminal justice system, and other systems and diagnoses. The book is hands-on, with topics mental health clinicians will find timely and relevant: * The role of social injustice and specific diagnoses and conditions, including substance use disorders, schizophrenia, personality disorders, and child trauma, is covered. For example, research has shown that white psychiatrists are more likely to over diagnose schizophrenia in Black patients, and this diagnostic bias may partly account for Black men being involuntarily committed to mental institutions in higher numbers.* The authors advocate for research that prioritizes the needs of participants and communities, rather than the needs of institutions, and focuses on structural, not individual-level, differences.* Accompaniment, an important strategy for infusing social justice into clinical practice, is described and modeled. This process of radical empathy--of trying to minimize power dynamics in clinical relationships by listening, witnessing, and advocating with patients--is critically important in confronting mental health inequities. * The inadequacy of current medical and mental health education and training in countering the powerful forces of social injustice in mental health is discussed in detail. The authors emphasize that change requires adopting an active practice of self-study and self-reflection, and accordingly, a list of self-study resources, consisting of books, documentaries, podcasts, and TED talks, is provided to further the reader's knowledge and awareness. * Of further assistance are the chapter-ending "Questions for Self-Reflection," which challenge mental health clinicians to examine their own attitudes and preconceived ideas about race, poverty, disabilities, and privilege. Social (In)Justice and Mental Health addresses the context in which mental health care is delivered, strategies for raising consciousness in the mental health profession, and ways to improve treatment while redressing injustice. Clinicians owe it to themselves, their patients, and their profession to read--and heed--this important work.
Stress Management Through Mind Engineering by
Experiencing stress in our everyday life is only human. Be it altercations with peers, upcoming deadlines or unnerving life events which can't be controlled. There's good stress that motivates us, and there's stress that's unhealthy; it controls our thoughts and feelings, leading to insomnia, heart diseases and even mental health issues. So how do we stop sweating over small things and start living blissfully? Through mind engineering, we can! Stress Management through Mind Engineering takes the readers through the process of mind engineering to help them create a stressless mind. A mind that can bear the force of the external environment by tapping the power within. Read this book to not only win over stress but also eliminate the risk of burnouts, understand the cause of high stress, reflect on one's actions and behaviour and ultimately live a happier, healthier life.
Ties That Enable : Community Solidarity for People Living with Serious Mental Health Problems by
Ties that Enable is written for students, providers, and advocates seeking to understand how best to improve mental health care - be it for themselves, their loved ones, their clients, or for the wider community. The authors integrate their knowledge of mental health care as researchers, teachers, and advocates and rely on the experiences of people living with severe mental health problems to help understand the sources of community solidarity. Communities are the primary source of social solidarity, and given the diversity of communities, solutions to the problems faced by individuals living with severe mental health problems must start with community level initiatives. "Ties that Enable" examines the role of a faith-based community group in providing a sense of place and belonging as well as reinforcing a valued social identity. The authors argue that mental health reform efforts need to move beyond a focus on individual recovery to more complex understandings of the meaning of community care. In addition, mental health care needs to move from a medical model to a social model which sees the roots of mental illness and recovery as lying in society, not the individual. It is our society's inability to provide inclusive supportive environments which restrict the ability of individuals to recover. This book provides insights into how communities and system level reforms can promote justice and the higher ideals we aspire to as a society.
"The month of May has been recognized as Mental Health Awareness Month in the United States since 1949. It was founded by the Mental Health America organization (then known as the National Association for Mental Health) in order to raise awareness and educate the public about mental illness, including conditions like depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder, and reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness.
Mental Health Month aims to raise awareness regarding the trauma and societal impact that mental illness can have on the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of children, families, and communities as a whole."--Lehigh Center for Clinical Research.
Image from Vecteezy.com
National Institute of Mental Health. (2020). I’m So Stressed Out! Infographic (NIMH Identifier No. OM 20-4319). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. Retrieved March 2, 2023, from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/sites/default/files/documents/health/publications/so-stressed-out-infographic/so-stressed-out-infographic.pdf
National Institute of Mental Health. (2020). I’m So Stressed Out! Infographic (NIMH Identifier No. OM 20-4319). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. Retrieved March 2, 2023, from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/sites/default/files/documents/health/publications/so-stressed-out-infographic/so-stressed-out-infographic.pdf
Infographics and fact sheets. (2020). National Alliance on Mental Illness. https://nami.org/About-Mental-Illness/Mental-Health-by-the-Numbers/Infographics-Fact-Sheets
