TED Talk – Redefining Disability

Update

As you probably have noticed, I have not been blogging as much lately.  I started grad school about two weeks ago and my time is pretty solidly split between working, being in class, doing homework or spending time with my husband.  Due to time constraints, I will not be updating as regularly as normally.  Every now and then I will try to post an interesting article or link.  For instance, I suggest that you check out this link.  It’s a comic a man wrote about dealing with schizophrenia.  Again, check it out.  Peace,

Anna B

New Job Update

I started my new job at Childrens’ Residential Treatment Center through Volunteers of America about three weeks ago.  Although I was expecting it to be very similiar to Holcomb House, I am finding that they serve a pretty different population and therefore use a different approach.  CRTC works primarily with adolescents dealing with mood disorders as opposed to Reactive Attachment Disorder.  As a direct result of this difference in population, the clients at CRTC are typically closer developmentally to their chronological age and as counselors, we use a lot more insight with our treatment methodology.  I am finding myself making the switch from being skills based to insight based in my approach as well.  Although I wasn’t really expecting the differences that I found, I am looking forward to learning a new approach to use with kids.  Expect to stay updated!

Rewards More Effective than Punishments

An apple a day...

In line with behavioral theory, a researcher from Harvard University found that when individuals are given rewards for group cooperation, they respond more effectively than when they are punished for ineffective behaviors.  This study has many implications for any time that groups of humans interact for a common goal.  One of the implications I thought of was for America’s current insurance model.  Doctors get paid when people are sick.  What would happen if physicians were paid on the basis of their client’s wellness?  Although many Americans seem to have a laissez faire approach to wellness and that would certainly provide an extenuating circumstance for doctors paid under my purposed model, I think that the systemic change brought about by rewarding wellness instead of sickness would make the change worthwhile.  Preventative care would be at the forefront of our health model.  In addition to promising care in the case of emergency situations, hospitals would guarantee a yearly medical exam and biannual teeth cleanings.  How would our healthcare system change if we rewarded healthy behaviors as opposed to heaping additional punishment on unhealthy ones?

Harvard University (2009, September 4). Carrots Are Better Than Sticks For Building Human Cooperation, Study Finds. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 7, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/09/090903163550.htm

Better Than Baseline

The psychological health model since it’s inception has largely focused on dealing with deficits and needs within an individuals life. This paradigm is shifting, however, largely due to an increasing emphasis on strengths-based interventions and approaches. One of the pioneering researchers in positive psychology right now is Dr. Martin Seligman. He’s the head of Penn University’s Positive Psychology Center. I recommend checking out his webpage and looking at some of the quizzes and surveys he has posted. They all illuminate various strengths the individual taking the quiz possesses.  As a mental health worker, I am in support of moving from being deficit based to strengths based.  I don’t think that it is reasonable to expect an individual or family to grow by not recognizing the metaphorical fertile soil within and without.  As a mental health worker, I hope that I continue to recognize the strengths and talents the individuals and families I work with possess.  As a field, together we can move from bringing people to the baseline to pointing people to happiness.

Irreverence and the KKK – Defeating Hate with Humor

From BoingBoing.com:

The repentant former KKK leader Johnny Lee Clary explains how Reverend Wade Watts, an NAACP leader, disarmed him by being cool, funny and brave, engaging in some first-rate psy-ops. Be sure to listen through to the end for the chicken story.

An Interaction of Culture and Biology

A recent study put out by Emory University looked at brain development for adolescents who engaged in risky behaviors.  In spite of previously assumed theories issuing that risky behaviors were associated with the underdeveloped adolescent brain, researchers found that from a structural standpoint, adolescents who engaged in risky behaviors actually showed more highly developed white matter.  Researchers suppose that this may be due to the increasing complexity of performing adult like behaviors and the extended adolescence American culture employs throughout the college years.  Erik Erikson believed the primary conflict of adolescence was Identity vs. Role Confusion.  As opposed to 100 years ago, when adolescents were expected to be married and raising families by their 20th birthday, 20 year olds are typically college sophmores, just deciding a major and generally figuring out what it is that they want to do with their lives.  That task of sophmore year, and the college years in general, fits in well with Erikson’s postulate on adolescence.  Because of extended adolescence, teens’ brains may mature before they have the wisdom and life experience to make healthy decisions or engage in safer risk taking (as opposed to anti-social or delinquent behaviors).

Good Luck Stephanie and Andy!

Two of my good friends, Stephanie and Andy Jones left today for Ankara, Turkey to be English Teachers!  I feel quite sad to see them go, but am also excited for that awesome opportunity.  If you want to keep up to date on their transition and experience, I recommend checking out their blog, Turkish Crossroads.

Stephanie and Andy

Sleep: What’s the Point?

One of the things that I am working on right now is trying to adjust my sleep schedule for grad school.  I am going to be going to school all day on Mondays and Tuesdays which wouldn’t be an issue requiring sleep adjustment on it’s own.  However, I am also going to work full time at VoA’s Children’s Residential Treatment Center which requires working rotating shifts.  I may work from 7AM-5PM or 1PM-11PM depending on the day.  In order to accommodate that work schedule and time to do my homework, I am setting up a sleep schedule for myself where I go to sleep around 11PM and wake around 6AM.  Seven hours of sleep is not an unreasonable amount of sleep.  However, I love sleeping.  Sometimes if I am feeling particularly indulgent, I will go to sleep at 8PM and sleep until I wake up.  That is often around 9AM.  In spite of my affinity for sleep, I am finding it to be a bit easier now to get my sleep schedule together.  Waking up at 6AM is no longer difficult with an alarm.

My experiments with sleep has got me thinking about the purpose of sleep.  A multitude of different ideas are out there, most of them beginning and ending with brain function.  The general idea is that the nervous system needs a “shut-down” time to function appropriately when totally awake.  However, if that is the case, shutting down would be unwise from an evolutionary standpoint.  However, mammals are uniquely evolved in that although they (we) are unconscious when sleeping, they and we wake instantly in response to certain sensory stimuli.  Parents will sleep through storms and sirens but awake instantly at the sound of their child’s whimper in the next room.  Additionally, even living things without nervous systems like plants experience a cyclic “dormant” period.  Sleep appears to make our brains more prepared to use and respond to unique data.  Prolonged sleep or dormacy deprivation can kill rats, gnats, humans, and plants.  It’s essential even if its purpose remains to be discovered.

Public Library of Science (2008, August 27). Exploring The Function Of Sleep. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 23, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2008/08/080825203918.htm

University of California – Los Angeles (2009, August 23). Why Sleep? Snoozing May Be Strategy To Increase Efficiency, Minimize Risk. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 23, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/08/090820161333.htm

Parents Support Homework

Popular culture would have me believe that parents hate the amount of homework their children are given, believe that the homework they are given takes away from family time, and the amount of time children spend doing their homework takes away from recreation and family time.  However, a recent study put out by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln found that parents generally support the amount of homework their middle school aged kids are given and know how to help them complete it.  One area that could use improvement, according to the study, is communication between parents and school staff about homework and any issues that come up.  Another area of concern is the trend in which some parents will complete their children’s work for them, as opposed to helping them check it or teaching them to figure the answers out from the textbook or other examples.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2009, August 20). Contrary To Popular Belief, Parents OK With Kids’ Homework Loads. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 23, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/08/090820124048.htm