Recently we meet new movement away from traditional treatment procedures and toward the creation of a variety of innovation service approaches in the field of mental hygiene.
These approaches deal with areas such as improving methods of service deli...
Recently we meet new movement away from traditional treatment procedures and toward the creation of a variety of innovation service approaches in the field of mental hygiene.
These approaches deal with areas such as improving methods of service delivery, using new treatment modalities and settings, and training nontraditional service provides.
The goals of such innovations are to extend the reach and effectiveness of our
psychotherapeutic techniques and increase the influence of the service recipient in determining the nature of treatment. Researchers attempt to improve the interpersonal functioning of elementary school children by constructing a three-tired intervention within a school system.
On the first level, children were taught social problem-solving skill. There are two general strategies in current primary prevention research designed to achieve this goal.
The first concentrates on modifying the environmental factors that influence
psychological development.
The second focuses on enhancing a person's skill to deal with effectively with the environment.
In secondary prevention we try to identify children who are only beginning to manifest adjustment difficulties but who are a high risk to develop greater problems as they grow older. We assume that if such youngsters can be identified early enough, the opportunity exists to help them in the most efficient and economical fashion. One type of secondary preventive intervention that has been growing rapidly is the use of nonprofessionals as companions to maladjusted children. Perhaps most importantly, the use of nonprofessionals taps into a large, enthusiastic, and potentially talented pool of human resources.
The third preventive approach have made to treat at least problem children having less sever problems within the school system itself in stead of referring them to an outpatient child guidance center clinic.
Treatment is ordinarily provided by specialized counselor and consultants hired by the system. The two basic modes of delivering consultant services that have developed are workshop consultation and individual consultation, with the difference between the two being the number of consultees who are trained at a given time.
In individually oriented delivery modes, the consultant advices teachers on a ona-one bases about general reinforcement theory and principles and how to set up specific behavior change projects
The second mode of consultation is potentially a more efficient and practical model for school systems to employ. Here the consultant trains a number of teachers at one time using a multisession workshop format.
It is our impression that the number of prevention - oriented health - enhancing projects is going to increase considerably in the future.