Monitor on Psychology - January 2012 - (Page 47)

I f psychologist David C. Mohr, PhD, has his way, smartphone users may soon be able to turn to their devices for help. He has already developed a prototype that relies on sensors in the phones to track where users are and what they’re doing. If the phone realizes that its owner has been sitting at home alone on a Saturday night, for example, it can take action, pinging the individual with a suggestion to call a friend or get out of the house. If the person follows through on his or her behavioral goals, the phone sends a congratulatory note. The information is then provided back to patients so they can see the patterns in their lives and how certain actions or inactions can lead to their mood being better or worse, says Mohr, who directs the Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies and is a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University. “Although this is very preliminary work, the mobile phone offers tremendous opportunities to engage patients in their environments when they are encountering difficulties,” says Mohr. “Behavioral intervention technologies begin to change the way we think about behavioral interventions.” Mohr is not the only one who is exploring innovative ways to get psychological help to everyone who needs it. He and other psychologists are promoting greater use of telephone- and Internet-based interventions, peers and other nonprofessionals and self-help approaches, plus more emphasis on prevention efforts that could stop problems even before they begin. The reason? There’s just not enough psychotherapy to go around. “At any given point, approximately 25 percent of individuals in the U.S. — children, adolescents and adults — meet criteria for a psychiatric disorder,” says Alan E. Kazdin, PhD, a psychology professor at Yale University. “And approximately 70 percent of individuals in need of psychological services do not receive them.” Simply training more psychologists will not solve the problem, Kazdin emphasizes. For one thing, psychologists are typically concentrated in wealthy, urban areas, leaving large swaths of the country unserved. And many people do not have the time, transportation or financial means to take advantage of traditional psychotherapy. “This is not a person power problem,” says Kazdin. “Even doubling the workforce would not do very much.” Psychology for the masses What is needed instead, Kazdin and co-author Stacey L. Blase of Yale argue in a 2011 paper in Perspectives in Psychological Science, is a “rebooting” of psychotherapy. While one-onone psychotherapy will always have a valued place, they say, the discipline needs to supplement it with an entire portfolio of new models for delivering interventions. Focused on both prevention and treatment of mental and substance abuse disorders, this portfolio could change how care gets delivered, who delivers it and where it takes place. Possibilities include the use of media, self-help approaches, technology, laypeople and new settings for interventions. “We are walking around with one tool,” says Kazdin of psychotherapy. “We love this hammer, whether it is a Freudian hammer or a cognitive-behavioral hammer. The trouble is you do not build a house with just a hammer.” Trends in the health-care system are only going to increase the challenges of providing care to all who need it, says Katherine C. Nordal, PhD, executive director of APA’s Practice Directorate. Health-care reform will give 32 million more Americans health-care coverage, she points out. “This will increase the burden on the caregiving system within the mental health arena,” she says. “We’re going to have to think in new ways and deliver treatment in new ways.” Part of the answer will be in finding new ways of using technology, she says. That’s one of the reasons APA, the APA Insurance Trust and the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards launched a task force in 2011 that will develop guidelines for telepsychology practice. Marc S. Atkins, PhD, a professor of psychology in psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago, agrees. He argues that psychologists should attack the nation’s unmet mental health needs the same way epidemiologists and others attack disease outbreaks like the H1N1 virus. In a 2011 commentary on Kazdin and Blase’s paper in Perspectives in Psychological Science, Atkins and co-author Stacy L. Frazier, PhD, of the Florida International University propose a comprehensive three-tiered public health approach. It begins with health promotion efforts aimed at the general public; offers outreach, screening and interventions for those at high risk of mental health problems; and then provides intensive treatment for those who need it. “We need a paradigm shift,” says Atkins. Instead of overfocusing on the most intensive type of service, he says, psychologists should focus more on prevention. “If we do a good job at health promotion, we reduce the need for treatment,” he says. Atkins and Frazier’s own work in schools and beyond exemplifies this prevention-minded approach. In a collaboration with the Chicago park system described in a 2007 paper in Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, for example, they consulted with park staff on how to engage kids in activities, support good behavior, coach and build skills. The goal? To ensure that after-school and 47 J a n u a ry 2 0 1 2 • M o n i t o r o n p s y c h o l o g y

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Monitor on Psychology - January 2012

Monitor on Psychology - January 2012
Letters
President’s Column
Contents
Contents
From the CEO
Apa’s Statement on the Dsm-5 Development Process
Girl Scouts Badge Promotes Positive Psychology
Early Investments Pay Off for Poor Children, Study Finds
Apa Meets With Chinese Psychological Society to Further Interaction and Exchange
Unique Opportunity for Psychologists to Travel to Cuba
In Brief
Government Relations Update
On Your Behalf
Psychology’s Growing Library of Podcasts
Standing Up for Psychology
Judicial Notebook
Random Sample
Time Capsule
Questionnaire
Science Watch
Beyond Psychotherapy
Perspective on Practice
Yes, Recovery Is Possible
Inequity to Equity
Making E-Learning Work
New Standards for High School Psychology
A Trailblazer Moves On
Psychologist Profile
Plan Now for Psychology’s Regional Meetings
New Journal Editors
Apa News
Division Spotlight
American Psychological Foundation
Personalities

Monitor on Psychology - January 2012