The Overdiagnosis of Bipolar Disorder Within Marginalized Communities: A Call to Action

This paper argues that the overdiagnosis of bipolar disorder (BD) is an urgent and underrecognized problem within the U.S., threatening to expose vulnerable Americans to heightened stigma and harmful drug effects while disguising the environmental and traumagenic roots of their distress. The paper traces BD overdiagnosis to biomedical assumptions about mental illness and to the decline of social welfare policies over the past twenty-five years. It calls on policymakers to address BD overdiagnosis by revising criteria in the DSM 5, developing psychosocial models of mental illness, and reintroducing protective social welfare programs. Finally, the paper urges social workers to educate themselves about the harms of BD overdiagnosis as well as to recognize their own role in medicalizing their clients’ distress.

On-farm biosecurity in livestock production: farmer behaviour, cultural identities and practices of care

Definitions of biosecurity typically include generalised statements about how biosecurity risks on farms should be managed and contained. However, in reality, on-farm biosecurity practices are uneven and transfer differently between social groups, geographical scales and agricultural commodity chains. This paper reviews social science studies that examine on-farm biosecurity for animal health. We first review behavioural and psychosocial models of individual farmer behaviour/decisions. Behavioural approaches are prominent in biosecurity policy but have limitations because of a focus on individual farmer behaviour and intentions. We then review geographical and rural sociological work that emphasises social and cultural structures, contexts and norms that guide disease behaviour. Socio-cultural approaches have the capacity to extend the more commonly applied behavioural approaches and contribute to the better formulation of biosecurity policy and on-farm practice. This includes strengthening our understanding of ‘good farming' identity, tacit knowledge, farmer influence networks, and reformulating biosecurity as localised practices of care. Recognising on-farm biosecurity as practices of biosecure farming care offers a new way of engaging, motivating and encouraging farmers to manage and contain diseases on farm. This is critical given government intentions to devolve biosecurity governance to the farming industry.

THE SOCIOCULTURAL MODEL OF CREATIVITY: HOW IT CAN EXPLAIN THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MULTIPLE FORMS OF LATE-LIFE CREATIVITY

Creativity in later life comes in many forms, ranging from everyday creativity to genius-level creativity, and including both newly learned creative activities and life-long creative hobbies. Previous psychosocial models of creativity have had limited utility in explaining the significance of late life creativity. Glaveanu’s sociocultural model has not been previously applied to older adults, but its inclusiveness makes it supremely useful for describing the range of creative activities and products in context. Creativity, according to Glaveanu, involves five interconnected components: actors, actions, artifacts, audiences, and affordances, which can be used to describe many different points along continuum of creative activities. The sociocultural model recognizes the value of different levels of creativity, including culturally-specific crafts, practice and learning new skills, the role of large and small audiences for creativity, and the connection of creativity and community. Glaveanu’s model will be discussed in the context of Erikson’s theory of late life development.

Appraising the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual against Recovery philosophies in elderly dementia

This article looks at the history of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM) classification system, its role and limitations, while making comparisons and contrasts to Recovery philosophies in relation to elderly dementia from a social work perspective. It was found that the clinician, caregiver and patient can all play a role in Recovery, and while not comparable the DSM complements psychosocial models of Recovery. It was also found that with the diversification and expansion of an increasing ageing population, gerontological social workers will need to modify and adapt practice skills and interventions as changes in evidence-based practices of Recovery and the DSM are disseminated at a faster rate.

Psychosocial Models of Gender Development

The behavioral and psychological differences between women and men have puzzled social scientists for many years. Differences between men and women are often overestimated and their behavioral, cognitive and emotional differences are often attributed to innate biological factors. Stereotyped beliefs about men and women often have serious social and clinical implications. Research in gender psychology has shown that men and women are more similar than different. Besides biological models, psychologists have given many models which helps describe and explain the various psychosocial theories of gender development. This paper will attempt to distinguish between two often confusing terms sex and gender and highlights various psychosocial models of gender development leading to possible gender differences in terms of cognitions, emotions and behaviors.

Aphasia Assessment

Theoretically grounded aphasia assessment that matches clinical practice settings is critical to planning intervention and assisting individuals with aphasia and their family members. This chapter begins with an overview of aphasia assessment in three historical periods: clinical description prior to 1935, standardized testing into the 1960s, and the postmodern era of multifaceted assessment. Topics in this section include aphasia classification; screening; assessing specific linguistic ability, functional communication, and quality of life; and assessment within cognitive neuropsychological and information-processing models. The second section describes contemporary assessment practices including the purpose and models of assessment, personal and environmental factors influencing assessment decisions, assessing conversation and connected speech, and related assessment areas such as cognition, executive function, and emotional state. Finally, emerging trends in assessment are discussed including evidence-based practice, treatment candidacy and prognosis, psychosocial models of assessment, and telehealth. Successful aphasia assessment should be a principled, systematic, and dynamic component of managing and living with aphasia.