Staff Voices: Confidentiality Limits in a Military Setting
Most discussions regarding limits to confidentiality tend to lead to further questioning and investigation for answers to an ethical practice.
Blog posts with the tag "Clinical Skills"
Staff Voices: Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) Measure
Taking a Closer Look at One’s Helping Hands
As mental health providers how often do we ask ourselves, “How am I doing?” I imagine not often enough. However, compassion fatigue or burnout can be experienced even by the most dedicated and insightful clinicians. Our occupational responsibility is to offer a helping hand, but it's also our ethical responsibility to look at our hands for a quick assessment of their health. Are they cracked? Are they dry? Are there any scrapes or cuts? What needs to be done to better take care of them.
Staff Voices: The Importance of Self-Care
“Do as I say, not as I do.”
How often have we given advice…wonderful, wise advice…to our patients and never once considered its relevance to ourselves? The answer to this is, of course, often, very, very often.
Clinicians routinely talk to patients about the need for balance between work and personal life, the importance of good sleep hygiene, exercise, socialization and eating well. What prevents many of us from acting on this advice?
Staff Voices - Hope and PTSD Treatment
Some time ago I was in a family’s living room talking to a group who had come to the US as war refugees. Many had been tortured before fleeing their homeland, before finding safe haven in the US. I had been invited there to talk about PTSD and effective treatment. Many in the room likely suffered with the disorder, but if so, called it “nervousness” and referred to themselves or those with the problem as, “he’s crazy now…too bad.”
The horrors of war, the deaths, imprisonment and torture leave an indelible mark on the human psyche. PTSD, however, a psychiatric diagnosis, does not have to be part of the lingering legacy of war. That was the main point of my talk…and to share resources for help.
Staff Voices: To PE or CPT…that is the question
As I work with clinicians who are trained in evidence-based treatments for PTSD, one query is raised repeatedly…Should I use Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) or Prolonged Exposure (PE) to treat patient X?
PTSD is one of the signature disorders of the OIF/OEF conflict. PTSD is characterized by symptoms of re-experiencing, avoidance/numbing and hyperarousal. As many as 20% of the US service members returning from Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001 may have PTSD (www.iom.edu/militaryptsd). We may safely assume that a significant number of veterans from the current conflict and other eras will need effective treatment to alleviate PTSD symptoms. Let’s review…