scholarly journals Characterizing Emotional State Transitions During Prolonged Use of a Mindfulness and Meditation App: An Observational Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Argus Athanas ◽  
Jamison McCorrison ◽  
Julie Campiston ◽  
Nick Bender ◽  
Jamie Price ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Emotional State ◽  
Favorable Effect ◽  
State Transitions ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Digital Device ◽  
Mixed Effect

BACKGROUND The increasing demand for mental health care, shortages in mental healthcare providers, and unequal access to health care generally has created a need for innovative approaches to mental health care. Digital device apps – including ‘digital therapeutics’ – that provide recommendations and feedback for dealing with stress, depression, and other mental health issues, can be used to adjust mood and show promise for helping meet this demand. In addition, the recommendations delivered through such apps can also be tailored to an individual’s needs (i.e., personalized) and thereby potentially provide greater benefits than traditional ‘one-size-fits-all’ recommendations. OBJECTIVE We sought to characterize individual transitions from one emotional state to another during the prolonged use of a digital app designed to provide a user with guided meditations based on their initial, potentially negative, emotional state. Understanding the factors that mediate such transitions can lead to improved recommendations for specific mindfulness and meditation interventions or activities (MMAs) provided in a mental health app. METHODS We analyzed data collected during the use of the Stop, Breathe and Think (SBT) mindfulness app. The SBT app prompts users to input their emotional state prior to, and immediately after, engaging with MMAs recommended by the app. Data were collected on more than 650,000 SBT users engaging in nearly 5 million MMAs. We limited the scope of our analysis to users with 10 or more MMA sessions that included at least 6 basal emotional state evaluations. Using clustering techniques, we grouped emotions recorded by individual users and then applied longitudinal mixed effect models to assess the effects that individual recommended MMAs had on transitions from one group of emotions to another. RESULTS We found that basal emotional states have a strong influence on transitions from one emotional state to another after MMA engagements. We also found that different MMAs impact these transitions, and many were effective in eliciting a healthy transition but only under certain conditions. In addition, we also observed gender and age effects on these transitions. CONCLUSIONS We find that the initial emotional state of an SBT app user has an impact on which SBT MMAs will have a favorable effect on their transition from one emotional state to another. Our results have implications for the design and use of guided mental health recommendations for digital device apps. CLINICALTRIAL

scholarly journals Association Between Improvement in Baseline Mood and Long-Term Use of a Mindfulness and Meditation App: Observational Study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
UCSD Athanas
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Emotional State ◽  
Favorable Effect ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Digital Device ◽  
Mixed Effect

UNSTRUCTURED Background: The increasing demand for mental health care, a lack of mental health care providers, and unequal access to mental health care has created a need for innovative approaches to mental health care. Digital device apps, including digital therapeutics, that provide recommendations and feedback for dealing with stress, depression, and other mental health issues can be used to adjust mood and ultimately show promise for helping meet this demand. In addition, the recommendations delivered through such apps can also be tailored to an individual’s needs (ie, personalized) and thereby potentially provide greater benefits than traditional “one-size-fits-all” recommendations. Objective: This study aims to characterize individual transitions from one emotional state to another during the prolonged use of a digital app designed to provide a user with guided meditations based on their initial, potentially negative, emotional state. Understanding the factors that mediate such transitions can lead to improved recommendations for specific mindfulness and meditation interventions or activities (MMAs) provided in mental health apps. Methods: We analyzed data collected during the use of the Stop, Breathe, and Think (SBT) mindfulness app. The SBT app prompts users to input their emotional state before, and immediately after, engaging with MMAs recommended by the app. Data were collected from more than 650,000 SBT users engaging in nearly 5 million MMAs. We limited the scope of our analysis to users with 10 or more MMA sessions that included at least 6 basal emotional state evaluations. Using clustering techniques, we grouped emotions recorded by individual users and then applied longitudinal mixed effect models to assess the associations between individual recommended MMAs and transitions from one group of emotions to another. Results: We found that basal emotional states have a strong influence on transitions from one emotional state to another after MMA engagement. We also found that different MMAs impact these transitions and many were effective in eliciting a healthy transition but only under certain conditions. In addition, we observed gender and age effects on these transitions. Conclusions: We found that the initial emotional state of an SBT app user determines the type of SBT MMAs that will have a favorable effect on their transition from one emotional state to another. Our results have implications for the design and use of guided mental health recommendations for digital device apps. Keywords mental health; mobile apps; smartphone; emotional distress; mindfulness

scholarly journals Reform of psychiatric services in Germany: hospital staffing directive and commissioning of community care

2004 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 218-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinrich Kunze ◽  
Thomas Becker ◽  
Stefan Priebe
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Free Access ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk

The German mental health care system differs significantly from the system in the UK. There is no central organisation with overall responsibility as in the National Health Service (NHS), and the government is not entitled to prescribe details of policy or set specific targets. It can only determine the legal framework, define general goals and, with difficulties, influence the spending level. Responsibilities for mental health care, as for other fields of health care, are shared between federal authorities, the 16 states (Lander), local authorities, and semi-statutory organisations, which govern out-patient health care provided by psychiatrists in office-based practices. Virtually every citizen is health-insured and there is free access to health care for those who have no insurance coverage, in which case social services usually cover the costs. Social services also directly fund various services in the community. The fragmented system can be difficult to comprehend. However, many of the challenges are similar to those in other countries, and policy makers and practitioners elsewhere might be interested to know some of the lessons learnt in the German system.

Migration and mental health care in the European Union

2021 ◽  
pp. 343-350
Author(s):  
Guglielmo Schininá ◽  
Geertrui Lanneau
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
European Union ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Eu Policies ◽  
The Eu

This chapter analyses legal and factual aspects of the provision of mental health care for migrants in the European Union (EU), framing migrants’ access to mental health care within the wider contexts of migration in the EU, the EU’s policies for migrants’ integration and access to health care, and EU policies on mental health care for all. The rates of various psychiatric disorders may vary across migrant groups and host populations. The issue of how services can be made more accessible for migrants is to be considered within the context of the provision of mental health care for all in the EU, where mental disorders are a serious public health concern. Various gaps are identified, and various options are suggested that policymakers and healthcare professionals can take into account, bearing in mind facts and figures of migration in Europe—with a particular focus on migration from non-EU countries—and the consideration of mental health care as a right for all migrants.

A Tribute to the Late William J. Curran

1996 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-275
Author(s):  
O. Lawrence ◽  
J.D. Gostin
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Harvard University ◽  
Legal Medicine ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
International Institute ◽  
University Professor

In the summer of 1979, a group of experts on law, medicine, and ethics assembled in Siracusa, Sicily, under the auspices of the International Commission of Jurists and the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Science, to draft guidelines on the rights of persons with mental illness. Sitting across the table from me was a quiet, proud man of distinctive intelligence, William J. Curran, Frances Glessner Lee Professor of Legal Medicine at Harvard University. Professor Curran was one of the principal drafters of those guidelines. Many years later in 1991, after several subsequent re-drafts by United Nations (U.N.) Rapporteur Erica-Irene Daes, the text was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly as the Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness and for the Improvement of Mental Health Care. This was the kind of remarkable achievement in the field of law and medicine that Professor Curran repeated throughout his distinguished career.

Handbook of Person-Centered Mental Health Care

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nosheen Akhtar ◽  
Cheryl Forchuk ◽  
Katherine McKay ◽  
Sandra Fisman ◽  
Abraham Rudnick
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care

Psychometric Properties of the German Version of the Scale to Assess the Therapeutic Relationship in Community Mental Health Care (D-STAR)

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 255-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Loos ◽  
Reinhold Kilian ◽  
Thomas Becker ◽  
Birgit Janssen ◽  
Harald Freyberger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Community Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Psychometric Properties ◽  
Therapeutic Relationship ◽  
Internal Consistency ◽  
Convergent Validity ◽  
Community Mental Health Care ◽  
German Version

Objective: There are presently no instruments available in German language to assess the therapeutic relationship in psychiatric care. This study validates the German version of the Scale to Assess the Therapeutic Relationship in Community Mental Health Care (D-STAR). Method: 460 persons with severe mental illness and 154 clinicians who had participated in a multicenter RCT testing a discharge planning intervention completed the D-STAR. Psychometric properties were established via item analysis, analyses of missing values, internal consistency, and confirmatory factor analysis. Furthermore, convergent validity was scrutinized via calculating correlations of the D-STAR scales with two measures of treatment satisfaction. Results: As in the original English version, fit indices of a 3-factor model of the therapeutic relationship were only moderate. However, the feasibility and internal consistency of the D-STAR was good, and correlations with other measures suggested reasonable convergent validity. Conclusions: The psychometric properties of the D-STAR are acceptable. Its use can be recommended in German-speaking countries to assess the therapeutic relationship in both routine care and research.

Transforming Mental Health Care for Children and Their Families.

2005 ◽  
Vol 60 (6) ◽  
pp. 615-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larke Huang ◽  
Beth Stroul ◽  
Robert Friedman ◽  
Patricia Mrazek ◽  
Barbara Friesen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care
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