scholarly journals Effectiveness of a Psychosocial Therapy with SMS in Immigrant Women with Different Degrees of Depression

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Yolanda García ◽  
Carlos Ferrás ◽  
María José Ginzo
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Immigrant Women ◽  
Text Messages ◽  
Depression Symptoms ◽  
Psychosocial Characteristics ◽  
Psychosocial Therapy ◽  
Healthy Habits

Immigrant women who are forced to adapt to a new cultural context often live in low income situations, have informal jobs, and experience social inclusion difficulties; these women frequently have mental health and social relationship problems. We conducted an experimental investigation with a group of vulnerable immigrant women who were receiving support from public social services. Our goal was to analyze the effectiveness of a bio-psychosocial therapy system with text messages to personal mobile phones. We grouped women by different degrees of depression. We studied psychosocial characteristics from personalized interviews and developed message banks to advise healthy habits and accompany moods. We programmed a remote delivery system, and for 26 days, each woman (n = 44) received four of our messages. We analyzed changes in mood and depression at the beginning and at the end of therapy and observed positive changes. The analysis of the initial and final (Personal Health Questionnaire) PHQ−9 quartile intervals shows that text messages significantly improve the mood and depression symptoms of immigrant women when the initial PHQ−9 value is greater than 5 (moderate depression).

scholarly journals Combining User Centered Design And Crowdsourcing To Develop Messaging Content for a Physical Activity Smartphone Application Tailored to Low-income Patients (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Gómez-Pathak ◽  
Adrian Aguilera ◽  
Joseph Jay Williams ◽  
Courtney Rees Lyles ◽  
Rosa Hernandez-Ramos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Text Messaging ◽  
Text Messages ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Amazon Mechanical Turk ◽  
Sorting Task ◽  
Depression Symptoms ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
User Centered

BACKGROUND Text-messaging interventions can be effective and efficient ways to improve health behavioral change. However, most texting interventions are not tested and designed in real-word settings with diverse end users, which could reduce their impact. OBJECTIVE We combined participant feedback, crowdsourced data, and researcher expertise to develop motivational text-messages in English and Spanish to encourage physical activity in low-income minority patients with diabetes diagnoses and depression symptoms. METHODS First, we designed messages to increase physical activity based on behavior change theory and knowledge from the available evidence. Second, we refined these messages after a card sorting task and semi-structured interviews (n=10) and tested their likeability during a test phase of an app prototype (n=8). Third, the messages were tested by English and Spanish speaking participants in the Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) crowdsourcing platform (n=134). Participants on MTurk were asked to categorize the messages into our overarching theoretical categories, which are based on the COM-B (capability, opportunity, motivation - behavior) framework. Finally, each coauthor also rated messages for their overall quality from 1 to 5. RESULTS 200 messages were iteratively refined according to feedback from target users gathered through User Centered Design methods, crowdsourced results of a categorization test, and an expert review. User feedback was leveraged for discarding unappealing messages and for editing thematic aspects of messages that did not resonate well with target users. 54 messages out of 200 were sorted into the correct theoretical categories at least 50% of the time and rated at least 3.5 or higher. These were included in the final text message bank, resulting in 18 messages per motivational category. CONCLUSIONS Using an iterative process of expert opinion, feedback from participants reflective of our target study population, crowdsourcing, and feedback from the research team, we were able to acquire valuable input for the design of motivational text-messages to increase physical activity developed in English and Spanish with a low literacy level. We describe design considerations and lessons learned for the text-messaging development process and provide a novel framework for future developers of health text-messaging interventions. CLINICALTRIAL Registry: clinicaltrials.gov Registration Number: NCT 03490253 URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/record/NCT03490253?view=record

THE SCIENCE OF JUDICIAL PSYCHOLOGY

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-87
Author(s):  
Petru TĂRCHILĂ
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Behavior ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Scientific Explanation ◽  
Preventive Measures ◽  
Psychosocial Characteristics ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Behavioral Profile ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Determining Factor ◽  
Determinant Factor

Judicial psychology is the science that analyzes and tries to understand the criminal phenomenon in general and its determinant factor in particular, by the complexity of factors that generate it and by the diversity of its forms of manifestation. Although the determining factor of criminal behavior is always subjective being generated by the psychic of the offender, this aspect must be correlated with the context in which it manifests itself: social, economic, cultural context etc. Judicial psychology investigates the behavior of the individual in all its aspects, seeking a scientific explanation of the mechanisms and factors enhancing criminal favors, thus enabling the identification of the preventive measures to be taken to reduce the categories of offenses. It studies the psycho-behavioral profile of the offender, identifying the causes that determined its behavior in order to take preventive measures.The domain of judicial psychology is mainly deviance, conduct that departs from the moral or legal norms that are dominant in a given culture. The object of judicial psychology is the criminal act, correlated with the psychosocial characteristics of the participants in the judicial action (offender, victim, witness, investigator, magistrate, lawyer, civil party, educator, etc.). The science of judicial psychology also analyzes how these characteristics appear and manifest themselves in concrete and special conditions of their interaction in three phases of the criminal act: the pre-criminal phase, the actual criminal phase and the post-criminal phase.

The Complex Support and Assistance to Children with Disability and their Families in the Czech Republic and the Presentation of Case Final Reports on Early Care of Client as an Example of Good Practice

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-84
Author(s):  
Zdenka Šándorová
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Practical Case ◽  
Early Care ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Children With Disability ◽  
Global Comparison ◽  
The Social

Abstract The theme of the paper is very topical in global and European context. It brings theoretical information on the concept of asocial model of early care in the Czech Republic and practical case studies and final reports related to the early care provision which demonstrate tangible activities within the system of the complex support and assistance to children with disability and their families. The author applies the theoretical-practical approach as she is of the opinion that „the practice without theory is as a blind person on the road and the theory without practice is as a cart without an axle”. The aim of the paper is to extend theoretical information on the topic in the Czech Republic by individual examples of final reports related to the provision of social prevention of the early care in the Czech Republic. The overall aim of the paper is to justify topicality and eligibility of early care in its broad reference framework, including its practical impact. The theoretical basis of the paper is elaborated with respect to the analysis and comparison of Czech and foreign literature, legislation, methodology document and other relevant written resources. The practical level is elaborated with respect to 3 cases and final reports of the provider of an early care of the social prevention. The early care in the Czech Republic represents a professional, modern and recognized system in European and global comparison and is legally anchored in the Act 108/2006 Coll. on social services. It aims on the minimization of child´s disability impact upon child´s development, especially the social inclusion of a child and a family and their capability to cope with limitating disability in natural environ, i.e. by the preservation of standard way of life. It represents a multi-dimensional model, overcoming limitation of sectoral division of the early care and facilitating complex assistance from a series of subject fields at the same time. Services for families with an endangered child in early age are the background for social, educational and pedagogical inclusion of a child and the re-socialisation and re-inclusion of a family. Early care is considered preventive, from the point of the prevention of the second disability (i.e. is effective), in the prevention of institutionalized and asylum care (i.e. is economical), in the prevention of segregation (i.e. is ethical).

Social Capital and Sustainable Health Care: An Analysis of Community Based Palliative Care Model of Kerala

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Azeez. E.P
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Palliative Care ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Voluntary Organizations ◽  
Community Based ◽  
The Social ◽  
Palliative Care Units

Social Capital is the most crucial asset which significantly influence the efficacy and resilience of any community. Social capital is a dependent variable that depends upon the competence and coherence of the individuals in the community and mode of social relationships, trust and networks they maintain. It is one of the most sustainable social resources that originate from human relations and results on the mutual support of people. Utilization of Social capital has a wide applicability in the process of social inclusion, especially in dealing with the vulnerable and disadvantaged sections in the community itself. Voluntary organizations are very keen to utilize the social capital for community/social services and community development in a sustainable manner. Community based de-institutionalized Palliative Care is one of the foremost among such organizations that made social capital in a strategic way for social inclusion and community well being. This paper analyses the extent to which different elements of social capital helps in initiating the sustainable community based palliative care movement by assessing the unique intervention strategies carried out by the palliative care. This paper explores conceptual questions of how social capital and voluntary community based services are correlated. A case study method was adopted for the study in which ten palliative care units were analyzed. The results show that a number of social capital elements are playing a vital role in the sustainability of community palliative care movement in Kerala.

scholarly journals Empirical Evidence for Professional Practice and Public Policies: An Exploratory Study on Social Exclusion in Users of Primary Care Social Services in Spain

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (23) ◽  
pp. 4600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giménez‐Bertomeu ◽  
Domenech‐López ◽  
Mateo‐Pérez ◽  
de‐Alfonseti‐Hartmann
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Acceptance ◽  
Life Trajectories ◽  
The Social ◽  
Study Population ◽  
The University

This study examines the social exclusion characteristics of a sample of users of primary care social services in two local entities in Spain. The objective of this study was to identify the intensity and scope of social exclusion in an exploratory way and to look at the typology of existing exclusionary situations to inform policy making and professional practice. Data from 1009 users were collected by primary care social services professionals, completing the Social Exclusion Scale of the University of Alicante (SES-UA). The dimensions with the greatest levels of social exclusion in the study population were those related to work/employment, income and education and training. The dimensions with an intermediate level of exclusion were those related to housing and social isolation. Social acceptance, family and social conflict and health were the dimensions with the lowest levels of exclusion. The analysis also showed the existence of five significantly different groups, that showed five different life trajectories along the continuum between social exclusion and social inclusion. The results show the importance and utility of developing professional and policy intervention protocols based on research evidence, with the objective of improving the quality of life of the users.

Enhancing Reach Out and Read With a Video and Text Messages: A Randomized Trial in a Low-Income Predominantly Latino Sample

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel E. Jimenez ◽  
Benjamin F. Crabtree ◽  
Shawna V. Hudson ◽  
Alan L. Mendelsohn ◽  
Daniel Lima ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Randomized Trial ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Text Messages ◽  
Reach Out And Read

Social stigma in severe mental illness in Tunisia: Clinical and socio-demographic correlates

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S577-S577 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. Ouali ◽  
R. Jomli ◽  
R. Nefzi ◽  
H. Ouertani ◽  
F. Nacef
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Severe Mental Illness ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Competing Interest

IntroductionMental patients generally internalize some of the negative conceptions about how most people view them: they might be considered incompetent or untrustworthy or believe that people would not want to hire, or marry someone with mental illness. A lot of research on stigma has been conducted in western countries; however, little is still known on the situation in Arab-Muslim societies.ObjectivesTo evaluate social stigma as viewed by patients suffering from severe mental illness (SMI)MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study on clinically stabilized patients with schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder (BD) according to DSM IV, who were interviewed in our out-patients clinic with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire, containing 8 opinions on the social inclusion and stigmatization of psychiatric patients, with special reference to the local cultural context (e.g.: “It is better to hide mental illness in order to preserve the reputation of my family”)ResultsWe included 104 patients, 51% with schizophrenia and 49% with BD. Mean age was 38.4 years (18–74 years); 59.6% were males. Overall social stigma scores were high. Social stigma in patients was correlated with gender, age, place of residence and diagnosis. Patients with BD showed significantly less social stigma than patients with schizophrenia.ConclusionOur results show the need for a better understanding of this phenomenon in patients with SMI, but also within Tunisian society, in order to elaborate anti stigma strategies adapted to the local context.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Cripping the Welfare Queen

Social Text ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 79-101
Author(s):  
Jina B. Kim
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Low Income ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Black Mothers ◽  
Disability Theory ◽  
Queer Of Color Critique ◽  
Public Resource ◽  
Welfare Queen

Abstract Drawing together feminist- and queer-of-color critique with disability theory, this essay offers a literary-cultural reframing of the welfare queen in light of critical discourses of disability. It does so by taking up the discourse of dependency that casts racialized, low-income, and disabled populations as drains on the state, reframing this discourse as a potential site of coalition among antiracist, anticapitalist, and feminist disability politics. Whereas antiwelfare policy cast independence as a national ideal, this analysis of the welfare mother elaborates a version of disability and women-of-color feminism that not only takes dependency as a given but also mines the figure of the welfare mother for its transformative potential. To imagine the welfare mother as a site for reenvisioning dependency, this essay draws on the “ruptural possibilities” of minority literary texts, to use Roderick A. Ferguson’s coinage, and places Sapphire's 1996 novel Push in conversation with Jesmyn Ward's 2011 novel Salvage the Bones. Both novels depict young Black mothers grappling with the disabling context of public infrastructural abandonment, in which the basic support systems for maintaining life—schools, hospitals, social services—have become increasingly compromised. As such, these novels enable an elaboration of a critical disability politic centered on welfare queen mythology and its attendant structures of state neglect, one that overwrites the punitive logics of public resource distribution. This disability politic, which the author terms crip-of-color critique, foregrounds the utility of disability studies for feminist-of-color theories of gendered and sexual state regulation and ushers racialized reproduction and state violence to the forefront of disability analysis.

Designing for social inclusion of immigrant women: the case of TeaTime

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-124
Author(s):  
Anette Bengs ◽  
Susanne Hägglund ◽  
Annika Wiklund-Engblom ◽  
Joachim Majors ◽  
Anas Ashfaq
Keyword(s):  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Immigrant Women

scholarly journals Contact With Nature as a Mental Health Buffer for Lower Income Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amber L. Pearson ◽  
Teresa Horton ◽  
Karin A. Pfeiffer ◽  
Rachel Buxton ◽  
Joseph Gardiner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Perceived Stress ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Longitudinal Research ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Depression Symptoms ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
As Stress ◽  
Perceived Access

Despite a growing number of research outputs on the importance of nature contact during the COVID-19 pandemic, we know of no longitudinal research conducted prior to and during the pandemic among low-income and minority ethnicity populations, i.e., those that might be most affected. Furthermore, we have scant information about how and to what degree contact with nature might protect mental health or mitigate worsening of mental health during the pandemic. We filled these gaps using a subset of a longitudinal study of n = 86 individuals in low-income, predominantly African American, neighborhoods in Detroit, MI, USA. The study addressed the following research questions: (1) did self-reported use and perceived value of nature change during, vs. prior to, the pandemic; (2) did perceived access to outdoor spaces buffer people against mental health issues such as stress, anxiety and depression symptoms; or (3) did objectively measured quality of nature views from home buffer people against mental health issues, taking into account relevant covariates and pandemic experiences (e.g., loss of employment, death of a friend/relative)? While attitudes to nature improved slightly from pre- to during the pandemic, we also observed significant decreases in most types of outdoor physical activity and passive enjoyment of nature (e.g., smelling plants/rain). We found a positive association between visibility of greenspace and perceived stress and anxiety, which not only contradicts previous research findings, but was especially surprising given that overall there was a decrease in perceived stress from 2019–2020. We did not detect associations between perceived access/use of nature and mental health. However, higher depressive symptoms were associated with exposure to more COVID-19-related stressors (lost employment, death of friends from COVID-19, etc.). Taken together, our results indicate that COVID-19 may serve to prolong or exacerbate mental health issues, rather than create them, in this population and that low quality greenspace may perhaps limit the ability for nature view to buffer mental health during the pandemic.

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